Derrick and Jules grinned at each other, overhearing the conversation as the tour group came out of the pronous of the temple and began collecting for the next part of the tour.
"You should be able to go back with the tour ship, or catch the Galleon," Jules said. "And it seems you guys are in better shapes than you were before."
"OK, I release you both," Rance said. "Go back and tell the meddling gods that I'll be fine now."
"That won't stop them meddling," Derrick said. "Now, dearest brother, how are we going to find that Titan for our foresightful chat?"
-------
A deep baritone male voice spoke to them as they swam down the entrance steps to the temple.
+ Centaurs in my city? At last, the prophecy is fulfilled +
They both began looking around curiously (and a bit nervously, since despite their enhanced masculinity and divine gifts, they were still at heart fifteen year old boys from America, and not entirely confident in the realm of the Olympian gods.)
+ I am Triton, and you are welcome in my city. The prophecy is not one to fear. It says that when you come out from the temple of Poseidon, the Great Khelóna will return to us, reuniting us with our families who live on her back. They have been gone since the Olympus realm was once again moved closer to Earth by the fire-wheels. To us it seems only a century, though it may be more or less than that. Time is variable between the realms. +
There was a deep thrumming sound far in the distance, echoing a bit as it rolled over the undersea mountains and valleys, and across the city. A moment later, the voice spoke again.
+ And there she is, singing her navigation song. Please, join me in the Palace. It's the larger building near where your ship anchored. +
Finding the path back to the ship wasn't as easy as they would have expected. Their memory of the path was partly based on traveling through the under-tunnels and those did not actually connect up as they should have. But they could see the multi-colored glow above and to what their navigation sense told them was approximately west, and there was a rising stream of small brightly colored lights moving out of the darkness of the dwellings below, along with many navigation-songs echoing around them to form a map of the "roads" that led, like spokes on a wheel, to the center of the city. It turned out to be something of a crowd as hundreds turned to thousands and tens of thousands gathering at the large, glowing palace.
A pair of snow-white eel-like mermen spotted them approaching and presented themselves, speaking in an old form of Minoan that the twins found their magical system translating.
"I am Hisp. This is Croannis. We are messengers of Triton. Please follow us to the Palace. The crowd will let you pass if you are with us."
The twins shrugged and followed the luminous forms of the swimmers as they moved rapidly through the water, calling out "Make way, messengers, make way" as they went.
The crowd parted, perhaps a bit reluctantly, opening a path before and closing it after they moved through. Like other parts of the underwater, there were no solid doors as such at the entrance, but heavy plantings of seaweed and some occasional copper-covered grills (which the algae wouldn't grow on) kept privacy and security where it was wanted. The inside of the palace was lit by crystal lamps that seemed to contain brilliant fire, like the 'sunstone' that was one of Jules' favorite silly Atlantis stories made up in modern times. The light filtered through to the outside, giving part of the glow to the palace, and it seemed quite bright, though it was probably about the illumination of a cloudy day. Deep-adapted eyes were more sensitive to light.
The throne room was enormous, fully one-third the space in the palace. The messengers Hisp and Croannis led them past the several large entrances and they saw that the crowds were finding places inside the space, and that there were white-and-blue-clad mermaids performing a dance that kept the water circulating and clear, a necessity when a large part of the city was crowding into a small space.
The messengers took them to a hall where guards were posted and who were directing most of the Tritonian people to the throne room or to the adjoining garden spaces. About halfway down the hall, another hallway intercepted, and they moved down that hallway to a room that was also large, but not immense, more like a meeting hall than an enclosed coliseum.
Triton and a number of his attendants and courtiers were inside, discussing the logistics of bringing together the old city and the new arrivals. The namesake of the city was about the size of an orca while the majority of his court were closer to the size of a normal mer-person or a human, which put Jules and Derrick in between.
Triton was a disturbingly handsome man, as were all the Greek gods they'd met. He had greenish-blue skin, "cerulean blue" according to the color popup that Derrick found. It was lightened as if sea foam were mixed into it, giving a "painted with dramatic shading" effect. He was also an ikthikentaur, a hippocampus like the brothers; his front legs were lion-like claws, his tail extremely long, flowing and muscled. His human half was a very well-built man, though not as muscular as the twins with their three blessings from Hercules, Apollo, and Hephaustus. His face was the most human, a perfectly proportioned face, framed by a short, well-kept beard, and hair only slightly longer. A circlet of a golden metal showed him to be the prince of the city.
He smiled, which somehow made him both more beautiful and more tolerable to look at.
"Welcome. I have a great deal to do of a sudden, so before things become intolerable, let me give you these gifts."
He held out a hand, and dwarfed inside it, they saw a pair of palm-sized shells, formerly inhabited by limpets, oddly enough. There was a pearl in each of them.
"Hold them and turn in place."
They did so, and observed that the pearls began to shine faintly with their own light when they faced a particular direction.
"That is the direction towards my maternal grandfather, the Old Gentleman himself, Nereus. The light will grow brighter as you get closer to him. You can generally find him in the shallows, closer to shore. He has a fascination for ships."
"Thank you, Lord Triton," they said simultaneously. Actually, synchronously, because they were playing a twins-trick. It got a laugh out of Triton, at least, if not his attendants.
"Now, if it pleases you to stay to meet the Khelóna and her people, it will likely cost you a good week of your time, but we will welcome you if you choose to do so. However, if you leave with any of the three vessels returning to the human cities, which depart soon, then you can leave them early once you are past Charybdis, and I believe my grandfather is along the coastline of nearby Calabri, this time of year."
A very quick discussion and a great deal of regret later, but only about ten seconds of apparent thought in "slow time" and Derrick spoke for them both.
"Almost nothing would be more joyful than to meet your returning people and to observe your reunion, Lord Triton, except that our parents will expect us to return to them within two days, and that only gives us time to meet with your grandfather before we have to race back to the Spa."
"Then observe the approach as you leave, if you can, and may joy and delight go with you."
"Thank you Lord Triton," they said again, bowing. The messengers led them to the nearest exit, and pointed toward the dock where several ships were moored, preparing to depart.
"Any of those," Hisp said. "Travel safely."
They swam, rather swiftly, to the Aphrodite's Dream, but it appeared NOT to be one that was leaving. It was almost empty.
"Oh, hello," the dolphinfish form of Anteros said to them. "I regret that we're not to be traveling together again. You two helped us make great time, and I think, your quiet support for our Mr. Limpet meant that I do get to claim a victory after all, even though his love for his wife is a different flavor than that we usually get to taste. His heart is great enough to love more than one at a time, and that is rare and valuable to us."
"I'm happy it went well," Derrick said. Jules nodded and asked, "I know it's difficult to make sense of history mixed in myth, but isn't Nereus your grandfather as well?"
"In a fashion. My history coalesced and was woven fron two threads. In one, I am the echo of Eros, a response to love returned, and in the other, I am the offshoot, so to speak, of Poseidon and Nerites, who is a male nereid born of Nereus and Doris, and as you know they are the parents of Amphitrite, the wife of Poseidon and the mother of Triton for whom this city is named."
"So it's the usual confusion," Jules confirmed, "because you're ideas-made-solid and some of the ideas came from multiple places."
"It's not something we necessarily like to think about, but that's not far off," Anteros said. "You should be careful to be respectful, though, while you are here."
"Of course we will," Derrick said. "We're in a place where reality is shaped by sentient concepts, it would be stupidly arrogant not to respect you all."
"And yet it's remarkably common for mortals to do just that," Anteros made a burbling noise of Dolphinfish laughter, tiny bubbles erupting from his gills.
Jules smiled to himself, and asked the question he'd been wondering.
"So, if it's all right to ask this... We've seen that you can observe the mortal world to an extent, and that you can interact there in a limited way. And many of you seem to be knowledgeable of our current culture. Have you been there? I mean, in person?"
"Now that," Anteros said, "is something I cannot answer fully, although Grandfather Nereus might be able to. We are currently limited to acting only through the hands of mortals, which I think you might have guessed, since you were the ones to fire the Arrows of Apollo at those who attacked us. The whole reason for the 'Olympic Spa' is that it gives us a way to interact. But there are rumors. Zeus and Ares and Athena and Hades are all rumored to have gone out and returned at times, in the company of select guides. Artemis has not, nor Apollo nor Hephaustus. Aphrodite and Demeter and Hermes are rumored to have left echoes, and none will speculate about Dionysus nor Hades, and Hestia does not go abroad."
"But you've never been personally?"
"Not since before Those Above struck us out of the mortal world," Anteros said.
The centaur brothers nodded in sync.
"We should go, we need to find your Grandfather. We have to meet with Prometheus," Derrick said.
"Then I advise the Manta," the dolphinfish deity said, and the lights around one of the smaller galleys lit up brighter for a moment.
"Thank you," they said and swam quickly for the indicated ship.
"Now," Anteros said as another dolphinfish swam up to him, "brother Pothos, you say there is a young echo of Nerites dwelling among those who ride on the back of great Khelóna. I have seen that he is lusted after but not loved, would you like to help me to introduce him to a Limpet that I recently met?"
----
The Manta was willing to take on the two ikthykentaurs as rowers for the return trip, and they left just in time for the brothers to see (as they looked back upon the city) the massive form of a sea turtle swimming towards Tritonis. The city aboard the turtle's back was about the same size as Tritonis, and to their surprise, an enormous turtle head rose from the hill just beyond the Temple of Poseidon, greeting his mate who was returning from laying her eggs.
"Oh wow," they said in unison. There was clearly some kind of god-magic protecting the cities from the turbulence of the two giants' movements, and keeping the currents stable, though they did find themselves having to pull harder than before, just to guide their movements.
"You think that's messy? In a few years, they'll be mating again," the Shipmaster of the Manta said. The twins stared at each other and then began pulling harder at the oars.
They reached Charybdis but did not take the vortex to reach the surface, instead, skirting around closer to Scylla, which meant they saw Glaucus swimming among her fronds and pods. The push from the vortex threw them further out into the sea, and then they moved closer to the shore.
"You wished to depart here?" the Shipmaster asked. "If so, this is a good time. We will be stopping in the underwater port for a few hours to off-load cargo from Tritonis, and if you return in time, you are welcome to join us. Otherwise, the bursar will credit you when you return to the Olympus port."
"Sure," Derrick said. "We're OK, just a bit hungry."
"I don't advise you eat while you're here. It tends to prolong the time you are in sea form, and yours is a bit too adapted to do well on land."
"Oh, well, OK," Jules said. They'd eaten a few small things while they were in Tritonis. The stories about eating food in the Underhill faerie lands were suddenly on his mind.
The ship was docked in the harbor at a sunken dock soon afterwards and they decided to use their searching amulets. The light was indeed brighter, both of them pointing towards a spot in the distance along the coast, so they began swimming. Between them they decided not to bend time too much, beyond using the highly advanced machinery that was now part of their bodies to speed their communication. Jules finished reading their manual, while Derrick navigated, then let Derrick read while he navigated, and they reached a spot where the water tasted too fresh.
"River wash," he commented. "Hey, 'Rick, keep going for a half a minute then check your direction finder."
Derrick nodded, and they found that the direction was at nearly 45 degrees apart.
"We're close, let's move in."
The pearls grew brighter as they approached the beach, and found themselves in a sort of off-shore reef area where things fell off sharply. A dark hole in the rock was slightly illuminated by the twin pearls before they flared brightly and went completely dark.
"Well, that means he either stopped existing, or we're here," Derrick said.
"Go away!" a voice said from inside the hole. "I don't want any!"
"Any what?" Jules said.
"Any truck with any sons of Hercules," the voice said, "I still have bruises from last time."
"I really doubt that," Derrick said. "You're the Old Gentleman, right? You're far too tough to still be carrying any marks from that long ago."
"Flattery won't get you far," the voice said, and a moray eel poked his head out of the hole, snapping sharp-toothed jaws at them.
"Your grandsons sent us, though," Jules said. "Triton and Anteros both. And your son-in-law seems to be in on it as well."
"What? Why ... oh. You're mortal demigods, though, I thought we weren't doing that any more."
"They told us it would go away when we return to the regular world," Jules said. "Mostly," Derrick agreed.
"Well if you aren't going to try to wrestle with me for my answers," the moray said...
"Not unless you want us to?" Derrick said. "I mean, you'd beat us easily."
The eel popped out of the hole and was suddenly only an eel from the waist down, the rest being a man with a well-built human torso and a face that would seem young if it weren't for the grumpy expresssion and the fact that he was bald on top and had a longish, somewhat scraggly beard.
"You're more polite than the son of Zeus was."
"You're Nereus? You don't look ancient, just experienced," Jules said.
"Nice of you to say that, but don't try to flatter me too much. I can hear lies. But since you were sincere, I'll tell you the answer to one question."
"We're not sure what the question should be, though," Derrick said. "We were told that we need to meet Prometheus, but nothing about why or how to get there, even though they said we'd find out why when we talked to Triton. Who, incidentally, just gave us these pearls."
"Oh, that kid is a bit of a prankster when he can get away with it."
"Of course," Jules said. Really, all the Olympians could be seen that way if one were to think about it -- with the pranks usually played on humanity or on one another.
"So if there is a question you want to answer for us, what is the question and its answer?" Jules said, avoiding the trap and setting another, because Nereus was also a god of prophecy.
"Ah, you're cheating, a bit, but in a fairly wise way. So, the best place to speak with Prometheus is in his home which is on the second mountain beyond the stables of the sun. But you won't be able to do that without learning to shapeshift, and that's a dangerous skill. It isn't something that you will ever lose."
"What?" Derrick said, having taken a fast-time moment to consider that. "You mean it would persist in the mortal world? How?"
"You have the gift of Hephaustus ... it would still work, though not so quickly as it does here where magic is light and easy. But as things stand, you won't be able to return to your land form for another three days, and that would put you at the time you must depart, and it seems that Ananke has another chore for you before that time."
That revelation made Jules pause. "We owe her for something she did for us, right? So we should do it. It's not like anything she asks is going to be frivolous."
The old man nodded. "I don't lie. I can show you how. It'll require that you accept my gift."
"Is this another sex thing?" the twins asked at the same instant.
"It could be but only if you want it that way. I'd like it better if it were less of a strenuous thing myself. I'm a bit too old to be playing with young boys, even ones as well-favored as you are. So come here, and give me a hug, both of you, and let your old old grampa tell you a story of what the world was like back in the old days...."
He suddenly grew larger, so much that they were comparatively the size of children, and he pulled them in close, one under each arm, letting them hold onto him. It was very slightly arousing to Derrick, and a bit less so to Jules, but it was also extremely comforting. Their actual grandparents, as they remembered them now, had been estranged (on the part of their mother's parents) and died in a memory care home (their father's parents) and they hadn't had a grandfather's hug since they were ten.
The story was something they never really remembered. It was about giant things and small things and ice and the fire from deep in the earth and the sudden crashing impact that gave birth to the moon. It was about the return of life and the many, many ways that life formed as the moon spun overhead in hours and then days and then weeks and eventually in almost a month, the many surges of life and how it changed and changed again.
They only remembered that much of the story because it connected to things that Derrick had studied in Earth Science, and that Jules had learned in Biology and Astronomy. The part about the gods forming and reforming and being spun and re-spun didn't really stick with them, because the names were older than the ones that humans used, and whether or not the giant lizards had language and knew about dreaming was not something that humans could know about. At least, not unless some of them had gotten away and could come back.
They learned though. The story hand them change their bodies into fish, into snakes, into eels, into octopus and squid shapes, and so they wouldn't drown, Great-Great-Grandfather took them onto the beach where they could be horses and birds and bugs and monkeys and even monsters.
But then eventually the story ended. They were on the beach, all three of them centaurs with horse bodies and human torsos, although Nereus was still large enough that they felt like children. Their special gifts were still there, but they had picked up another blessing to take home eventually.
"That was a great story, sir," Jules said. "I'd love to hear another but I don't think we have time for it," Derrick said.
"Come back some time and I'll tell you another one," the Old Gentleman said. "Now, though, you need to get back to meet your parents before dinner."
They gave him another hard hug, and then turned into huge eagles, flying up and over the coastal range and west towards where Olympus rose on the horizon. A half hour's flight took them over the blue and white painted buildings of the port, and it took longer to circle down against the thermal updrafts spilling velocity and altitude before they could land next to their building.
The Trojan Suite was lit, their parents were inside. They shifted back to their younger centaur forms, using the magic to make a chiton suitable for their human part so they could appear to be dressed up for dinner.
"Mom, Dad, we're back," Jules said.
"Oh, Rick, Jules, we were about to go get dinner," their Mom said, in their mellow tenor. "Hang on, I need to change your baby sister."
Their Dad was inside, prowling around in his Nemean way (which is to say, he was sneaking up and playing peek-a-boo with his lion-of-Hera wings) to distract the cute sister that they hadn't had before. She was completely charming, with her tiny round furred ears and her short lion tail, and in every other way looking just like a regular baby human. She also had a poopy diaper, which had 'Rick and Jules shying back from the deadly aroma cloud. Fortunately Shar (their Mom) had brought a replacement. They began changing the diaper while John looked up at his sons proudly.
"Isn't she perfect?" he asked.
"Mom? Dad? Just how far away," Jules said, and Derrick finished, "was this adventure you guys went on?"