My eyes shot open, my body was floating in the air, vines wrapped around my ankles, which hanged me upside down, blood rushed to my head. I looked towards the person who had awoken me with this kind of performance.
Lyssa, the only other person here. A grin spreading across her face.
"Wakey, wakey, it's dinner time."
"Please don't wake me up like this," I told her, blood continued to rush to my face. I could guessed that it was pretty red at this point, but again after receiving the batterings I got when Richter faced monsters, I didn't feel much from this. The pressure built behind my eyes, my vision tinged slightly red from the blood pooling in my head, but it was manageable. Uncomfortable, sure, but manageable.
Instead my mind wandered to what I had dreamed. I was expecting for it to lessen, to leave my mind as soon as I woke up like dreams usually did, slipping away like water through fingers. But it didn't.
Every detail remained crystal clear, the endless desert of bone white sand, the massive structure rising from nothing, the exedra with its nine raised seats, two of them illuminated. And that feeling at the end, those golden eyes watching me from the darkness of space.
With the constant reminder came Richter's voice, stopping my spiralling thoughts.
'Lil bro, you good?'
'I'm fine,' I answered back, keeping my mental tone neutral. The last thing I needed was Richter worrying about me. Well, as much as a battle-hungry maniac could worry. 'What's making you talk now?'
'Well... I'm still in this damned place.'
Huh, that was weird. Usually when one of us woke up, we both did. The mental landscape we shared wasn't supposed to persist like this. It was like Richter was still dreaming even though I was clearly awake, hanging upside down from vine restraints while Lyssa grinned at me like a loon.
'So? What do you want me to do? It's probably because you're still asleep. Wanna switch to see what happens?'
"Julius, you good?" Lyssa asked, her wine-red eyes studying. I had probably been quiet for too long, lost in my internal conversation.
'Sure, let me at it,' Richter responded, and I could feel the eagerness in his mental voice. Guess he was back to normal.
I felt my consciousness slip away, but it was different this time. Instead of the usual fade to black, the sensation of falling backwards into myself, I found myself standing somewhere else entirely. The exedra. The same semicircular room from my dream, with its nine raised seats arranged in a perfect arc.
The same two seats were lit up by those cylindrical beams of light from above, illuminating them like spotlights on a stage. Everything else remained shrouded in darkness, the marble floors and walls barely visible at the edges of the light.
Just what was going on? The middle chair, the one directly at the back end of the semicircle, called out to me. It was the same pull I'd felt when we first approached this structure in the dream, an inexorable draw that went beyond simple curiosity. It felt... right. Like that chair was meant for me, had always been meant for me.
Without thinking, my feet carried me toward it. My footsteps echoed in the vast space, each tap of my shoes against marble resonating through the chamber. The darkness seemed to press in around the edges of the light, but I wasn't afraid. Should I have been?
I reached the chair and sat down without hesitation.
Then light erupted all around me.
A massive white screen materialized in front of me, floating in the air like something out of a science fiction movie. It flickered to life, and I realized I was watching through Richter's eyes.
I could see what he saw, Lyssa's grinning face from an upside-down perspective, the vine walls of the cabin, the play of light filtering through the gaps in the woven structure.
Just what was this place? Some kind of command center? A mental control room? Why had it appeared now of all times? We'd been sharing this body for years, and nothing like this had ever manifested before. Every time Richter and I switched everything kind of faded to black, we could speak with one another but that was pretty much it.
Questions for later, I decided. For now, I watched as Richter took control, his personality bleeding through. The disappointment he'd been carrying, the shame at having lost to Eudoxia, it was all gone. Instead, that familiar manic energy surged forward, and I watched as our face twisted into a grin that was disturbingly similar to Lyssa's own expression.
It sent a shiver down my spine. Damn Richter if he messed my body one more time I was going to...
Lyssa POV
Julius was interesting. That was the conclusion I'd come to after spending just one day with him.
For one, he was crazy, which was good. Sanity was such a bore was it not, thinking everything is right or has rules, it's so dreadful.
For two, he was smart, which was also good. Not just book-smart either, though I could tell he had that in spades. He was clever, enough to come up with plans on the fly, which actually had made me think he was a son of Athena for a good minute if not for the charmspeak.
For three, he was handsome, which was also good. Made for some excellent eye candy to stare at. Sue me, I'm shallow. You try spending a year and a half on a cursed island with no company and see if you don't appreciate some aesthetic appeal when it finally shows up.
And for four, the most interesting part, he had charmspeak.
Though his charmspeak was different. Stronger than anything I'd experienced from monster or demigod. Most charmspeak I'd encountered was subtle, persuasive. It worked by making you want to do what the speaker suggested, by making their words sound reasonable and appealing. It was manipulation, but gentle manipulation.
Julius's charmspeak wasn't like that. Especially the last time he'd used it.
"Let me go."
It hadn't even felt like charmspeak. There was no convincing, no persuasion, no gentle nudge toward compliance. It was simply a command, and my body had followed without question, without hesitation. One moment I was restraining him with vines, the next those vines were withering away because he'd told me to release him.
If I wasn't so crazy, I'd probably be scared of the potential misuse of such power. But I was that crazy. So yeah, all that now mattered was survival, wine, and whatever entertainment I could scrounge up from the demigod forsaken universe.
Right now, that entertainment was watching Julius wake up while I bounced him up and down with my vines, hanging upside down like a side of meat in a butcher shop. The indignant expression on his face brought a smile to mine.
It was so fun having... company.
And I was going to make the most of it.
However, I couldn't make the most of it while he was being quiet, staring off into space like he was having a conversation with someone I couldn't see.
"Yo," I began, kneeling in front of him, waving my hand in front of his face. "You there, Julius?"
Then everything changed.
A grin spread across his face, not the sardonic, tired smile Julius usually wore, but something else entirely. Something wild and dangerous, something which wanted to be satiated.
My instincts screamed at me, and I backed up instantly. The vine hilt of the Hydra's fang, which I had dubbed my new sword, slithered into my palm .
Julius crunched upward, his abdominal muscles flexing as he performed a sit-up. His hands shot out and grabbed the vines that held him attached to the ceiling. His fingers dug into the woven plant matter, and then-
CRRRR
He tore them in half with brute strength, the sound of shredding plant fiber filling the cabin. As he began to fall, he spun in the air with the grace of an acrobat, twisting his body and landing on all fours like a predator. The impact barely made a sound, his movements fluid and controlled.
My free hand opened up, fingers splayed. My senses were screaming at me now, every instinct I had as one of the strongest demigods at camp. Vines burst from everywhere in the vine-made cabin, from the walls, the floor, the ceiling. They shot toward him like tendrils, like nets, like grasping hands.
But the celestial bronze whip was already in his grip, and he spun it around himself, impossibly fast. The bronze length moved in a perfect sphere around him, creating a barrier of metal that tore through anything that got too close. Vine after vine fell in shredded pieces, unable to penetrate his defense.
I rushed at him while he was occupied with my vegetation. My sword swung toward his waist in a horizontal slash. But a piece of the whip hardened where I struck, forming a solid segment of bronze that blocked the blow with a sharp clang of metal on metal. The impact sent vibrations up my arms.
Before I could continue my rushdown, a kick came up toward my head, fast and unexpected. I raised my free arm to block, my forearm meeting his shin with a painful thud. Before I could counter, the whip slithered forward like a living snake, entangling around the fang, and yanked it from my grip with a sharp tug.
Disarmed. Not good.
My two hands stretched out, and vines screwed forward in a renewed assault. This time they caught him, wrapping around his arms, his legs, his torso. Layer upon layer of plant matter entangling him until he looked like a mummy made of greenery. The whip fell slack in his bound grip, unable to move.
Finally.
"So you do know how to use the damn whip after all, you crazy fuck," I said, breathing hard from the exertion. My heart was pounding, even though the exchange had been short, couldn't believe I had told him he was bad fighter, but why hadn't he shown this before?
Julius just grinned at me, that wild expression never leaving his face. Then I felt him tense, every muscle in his body coiling like a spring.
In one explosive movement, he flexed, and all the vines broke simultaneously. They snapped like rotten string, unable to contain whatever strength he'd just unleashed. His grip on his whip loosened, the bronze length falling away, and then I saw his fist right in front of my face.
No time to dodge.
BAM
It struck me square in the nose, and I felt the cartilage crunch. Pain exploded across my face, bright and sharp and somehow exhilarating. My body moved on instinct, my hands shooting out to grab the wrist of the fist that had struck me. I held it in place, keeping him from pulling back for another punch, and kicked forward with all my strength, releasing my grip on him at that exact moment.
BAM
I sent him crashing into the vine wall, the impact creating a dent in the woven structure. Before he could recover, vines entangled him once more. Over and over and over, I layered them on, not giving him a chance to break free again. I didn't let up though. I rushed at him, leaping into the air and driving my knee into his face.
BAM
His head snapped back from the impact, blood spurting from his nose. But he was still grinning. Blood ran down his face, staining his teeth red, and he looked absolutely delighted by the violence.
"You're fun to fight," he said, his voice different from Julius's. Rougher, more aggressive. "Name's Richter. Nice to meet you. Thanks for telling Julius about his charmspeak or whatever. Now I'm gonna go back, lil bro says so."
Then, just like that, his gaze changed. The wild energy drained away, replaced by tiredness and irritation, mainly irritation.
"Fuck," Julius's voice echoed out, his familiar tone returning. "Damn battle hungry psycho. I try to understand what was going on, and he gets me a knee to the fucking face."
I kneeled in front of him, studying his face. I knew it.
"Let me go," he said, and there it was again, his charmspeak.
I felt the same compulsion wash over me. The kid was getting good at this, though it wasn't as strong as before. This time it was more convincing than commanding, and it didn't take much to convince me anyway. He'd earned his freedom after that display.
The vines let go of him, withering back into the floor and walls.
"So what was all that about?" I asked him, though my godly lineage of madness was already giving me answers. I hadn't lied when I said he was crazy. I just didn't know what type of madness he had, now I did.
"That was Richter," Julius said, wiping blood from his nose with the back of his hand. "He's the one who's good at fighting, I guess."
A smile spread across my face, wide and genuine and probably more than a little manic.
"So you have multiple personality disorder," I said, the words tumbling out in excitement. "I knew you were crazy after all!"
I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug, ignoring his grunt of protest.
Madness made the best company after all, just ask my dad.