Thursday, March 14, 2019

1.18: Plans

Prometheus wasn't sure how long they had. Kronos might decide that the disarray among both forces would ultimately balance in his favor, and that it would be better to make an awkward, clumsy attack against Prometheus now, than to wait until he had a solid grip on his remaining forces. Alternatively, he might decide there were too many unknowns - too many variables - to make that decision, and decide to move cautiously. Nyx seemed badly injured by Echidna, and as his best military commander besides Prometheus, that would make it even harder for him to regroup and attack. Whatever the case might be, they themselves needed to regroup, and they couldn't do that without taking a few moments to rest, and the best place to do that was the Lasithi Stronghold.

Prometheus was now standing at one of the stronghold's high windows, overlooking the scorched valley below. Saplings were starting to emerge from the black soil, but nothing substantial enough to be visible from such a distance.

"I don't hear anything," Echidna said, "You said we were supposed to hear a voice, right? Inside our head? The only voice I hear in there is mine."

"Typhon?" Prometheus asked, "Is it the same for you?"

"Yes sir," Typhon nodded, "I feel the same I always have, I think. I mean, I feel stronger, faster, tougher... but I'm not hearing voices."

"Kronos doesn't stand a chance now," Echidna said, "We're death-proof, like you sir."

"Death proof?"

"Yeah, the only thing that can hurt a titan is iron or steel, right? And we're all immune to that stuff. Deathproof."

"There're still a lot of things that can kill most titans," Prometheus said, "With enough force, even non-ferric substances can do damage - though admittedly, that sort of force generally only comes from a titan... But titans still need to eat and breath, of course, and enough cold or heat can kill most of us..."

Typhon held his hand over a candle on the table, "I'm immune to that!"

"I'm not talking about simply burning - some titans will burn like kindling, sure, but the rest can pass out and die from heat without their skin blistering. Same for cold - we don't get frostbite, but we can die of hypothermia."

"So, don't push my luck then," Typhon said.

"Exactly. And as far as your iron-immunity," Prometheus conjured an iron-nail and tossed it to Typhon. The man caught it, inspected it for a while, and then noticed his fingers itching.

"Feel anything?" Echidna asked.

"Yeah... I think I'm getting a rash or... ugh," he dropped the nail on the table.

"When we started our march here iron didn't affect you at all," Prometheus said, "Now it triggers, at the very least, an allergic reaction. I imagine the more like us you become, the more vulnerable you will be."

"So that's it, then," Echidna said, "It's reasonable to assume we're going to become titans..."

"That would make sense," Prometheus said, "The Legacy A.I. would need to adapt your physiology before it could bond with it. With training, you might be able to create objects or change shape as we do, maybe even hear other's thoughts."

"Wait, what?" Typhon asked, "That's a thing you can do?"

"If we concentrate, and if the other person isn't shutting us out," Prometheus said, "We can communicate with each other silently, when the situation calls for it, but it's fairly easy for a Titan to close themselves off - it's just like refusing to talk to someone."

"Have you been reading our thoughts all along?" Echidna asked, "Or does it require we know to answer you...?"

"If someone doesn't know I'm doing it, it's fairly easy for me to slip into a human's thoughts and prompt him or her to think about certain things, then listen to the unguarded answer - I mean, I can't stick beliefs in someone's head, but I can prime him to think about something. Three notes of a song will get him started thinking about the whole song - the smell of baking bread will remind him he's hungry, that sort of thing."

"That still feels... invasive," Typhon said.

"Humans and titans alike communicate through body language, right? We use facial expressions and posture to tell how someone's feeling or whether they're lying. If you exercise those skills to read the feelings of a blind person, who cannot do the same in return, would it be invasive?"

"No I suppose not," Typhon said, "But it still feels that way."

"Well, I obviously can't tell you what you should or shouldn't feel," Prometheus said, "but if it makes you feel at all better, it's saved both of your lives multiple times. Knowing what you're thinking in the heat of a battle is pretty helpful."

"Fair enough," Typhon nodded.

"Though, more on the privacy invasion thing, since we're talking about it anyway... you two really ought to stop tip-toeing about the romance thing and act on it."

"What?!" Echidna exclaimed.

"I wouldn't say anything, except I've heard both of you thinking about it, we could all die tomorrow, and I just lost the woman who might have actually been my soul mate, so seeing the two of you afraid to express your feelings because you - incorrectly - imagine they won't be reciprocated, I just... I can't even do it anymore. Sorry."

Typhon and Echidna stared at each other in shock. They'd been close for years, but it had always been platonic... hadn't it? But then Echidna's mind jumped back to the more pressing point.

"Wait, what do you mean 'we could all die tomorrow'?" she asked.

"Right, business first, relationship issues later," Prometheus sighed and pulled up a chair next to the map table, "I've been thinking about Kronos's new powers, what they did to your weapons and your bodies. With two unpracticed hits he nearly killed both of you when you were mortal."

"Yeah, but it doesn't work on us now," Typhon said.

"True, but we're standing at the front of several thousand men and women upon whom his powers will work just fine, and he'll get stronger the more people he subjugates with them. I was worried he'd use the lives of Crete's human populace as leverage to force my surrender, and he now has the power to do that in a spectacularly sadistic fashion."

"Aging one or two people at a time..." Echidna said, "He could have killed people with his bare hands just as quickly..."

"But he'd only had his powers for a matter of seconds when he did that to you. He will certainly grow stronger with time."

"How strong?" Typhon asked.

"I don't know for certain," Prometheus said, "But imagine that thunderstorm he used to raze this valley, but with it raining down those black lightning bolts instead of the good old-fashioned stuff."

"He could wipe out an army," Echidna said.

"Or a city," Prometheus nodded, "Or if he feels like being a bit less direct, he could just wipe out thousands of acres of farm land and plunge us all into famine. The fear my people used to dominate your people for thousands of years, Kronos will now have that a hundredfold. People will throw themselves on swords to spare his wrath being visited on their homes."

"Well, how are we supposed to fight that?" Typhon asked.

"I don't think we can fight a war against it," Prometheus said, "If Kronos attains that sort of power, our armies will be wiped out quickly, with nothing to show for their sacrifice. At best, they'll desert to join his side. From this point forward, we need to assume that any engagement on the battlefield will be a total defeat for us."

"So, no more armies fighting armies," Echidna said, "now we have to make it personal."

"I think that's the only way to preserve Crete," Prometheus said, "We should retain a few of our best soldiers, but we should be honest with everyone about what is at stake. Anyone who thinks they have anything that can't afford to lose - including their lives - should go home, tend to their crops, rebuild their houses, and keep their heads down."

"Go back to slavery," Typhon said grimly.

"For now, yes," Prometheus said, "But Echidna's right. We don't need to surrender, we just need to de-escalate this conflict so that Kronos won't be inclined to wipe out the people we're trying to liberate. We need a way to change this from a war into a face-to-face barroom brawl between us and the Kronies."

The clip-clopping of hooves on the stone floor announced the arrival of the fortress's steward, Amalthea.

"If you want to get up close and personal with Kronos, I might have a place for you to start..." Amalthea said.

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