Titans of Chaos

Boreas made a dismissive gesture. He said, "The matter is not obscure. There was no other safeplace to keep the talismans. As originally designed by His Majesty, Lord Terminus, the boundariesand conditions of the school grounds would have suppressed the several functions of the talismansof Chaos. There was some decay over the years. What Terminus intended as a temporaryencampment, I was required to treat as a fortress, and the facilities were not, as one might say, allthat one might expect. And where else could I put them? If I threw them in the sea, milordPelagaeus would recover them; no Olympian would have permitted me to turn them over toanother Olympian for safekeeping, because of the temptation, if one of them had the key to opena power of Chaos, to take the chaoticist as well. While the talismans were in my hands, there waslittle incentive for other Olympians to abduct you."

"And why did they exist there to begin with?"

"Emissaries from Chaos sent them, or they were possessions you had on you when you weretaken."

I said, "And what about our education? Lamia thought you were training us in our powers, thatyou intended to use us in the wars."

"My dear, I hope you are not bringing up an entirely new issue, while my curiosity remainsunsatisfied. Where are your companions?"

I said, "Why else would you teach us everything we needed to know to use our powers correctly?"

He frowned.

Boreas leaned, dipped one finger idly in the water.

Steam stopped rising from the tub. The water turned cold. It was no longer comfortable.

I yelped, started to get up, remembered I was naked, and shrank back down again.

It was not icy, but it was no longer warm and inviting. He did not make it numbing, or painful, orcoated with ice. Not yet.