Titans of Chaos

He nodded. "That is a fairly good threat. It is well considered, to the point, and hard to refute orignore. I will give you a passing grade. There is one counter I can make, however. The otherOlympians know I can find you at my pleasure. They will certainly kill me if I leave you at yourliberty. To them, at least, I am expendable indeed. If my death is certain in either case, what if Iam considerably nobler than you take me to be? I carry you off; your friends turn to Dionysus orMavors, and demand my head in return for their loyalty. The deed is done. All the orphans ofChaos now work for one faction. That faction overwhelms the opposition, and places itscandidate on the throne; and meanwhile, none of you return to Chaos, the peace treaty ispreserved, everyone (except yours truly) lives ever after, if not happily, at least inside of auniverse that preserves life, order, and structure; a universe with one ruler. No matter how highlya particular chess man values himself, the king must sacrifice pawns to achieve victory."

Boreas was silent a moment, his eyes measuring me.

"Are we really that powerful?" I asked.

"Trismegistus threw four armies at you, my dear girl, and took the field against you himself. I donot imagine your powers will decrease as age and wisdom ripen within you."

"I just thought we were lucky."

"How modest of you. We, the Immortals of Olympos, we control luck. Fate is our ally andweapon. With it, we have conquered the giants and Titans, Typhon and the monsters spawnedfrom Echidna, the Cyclopes, the Hecatonchire, the Phaeacians; the Oceanids, Nereids, Meliades,and Oreads all pay homage to the sons of Chronos. Even the Ker and the powers of Hell bowdown. And this omnipotent weapon, Fate, which conquered heaven and hell, ocean and earth,glanced from your breastplate. So, in sum, I am forced to admit, yes, you were indeed lucky, asyou say. I am merely at a loss, or so it would appear, to explain that extraordinary fact."

I said, "We were not fighting among ourselves. You were."

"Well, there you have touched on an interesting matter, considering that the very keystone andfulcrum of your present threat against me relies on that fact. Taking advantage of our lack ofleadership, so to speak.