Chương 31: Zeus's Oracle

Themyscira's sea wind carried the clean smell of grass and stone across the training ground's flagstones. Diana Prince, dressed in a linen-colored battle skirt, worked through a training bout against three Amazon warriors, wooden sword in hand. Her movements ran sharp, almost brutal, the crack of wood cutting the air over and over. Her eyes stayed hard, but something faint and unfocused sat underneath them. Something close to a daze. Every strike carried a deliberate edge of frustration working itself out.

A dozen exchanges in, two of the three opponents had their wooden swords knocked clean out of their hands by a precise twist of Diana's blade. The third's weapon, caught mid-block, snapped outright under a strike Diana hadn't fully pulled back. The warrior whose sword broke looked genuinely rattled by the sheer weight behind Diana's presence, stumbling back two steps and landing hard on the ground.

The other two rushed to help her up, all three throwing Diana looks heavy with concern, though none of them said a word. They just bowed and filed out quietly, one after another. Diana stood frozen for a moment, sword lowered, fine beads of sweat along her hairline, chest rising and falling slightly. She was nothing like the green girl who'd once stood on this same ground centuries ago.

If she hadn't been actively holding back her divine strength, there weren't many left on this island who could still spar with her at all. She looked out toward the endless stretch of ocean, wind pulling at her dark hair, though the fog sitting behind her eyes hadn't lifted at all. This was her third day back on Themyscira. Since leaving Boston abruptly, she'd thrown herself straight back into the land that raised her.

Days spent either sparring her own people at the training ground until her body hit its absolute limit, or sitting alone at the cliff's edge, staring out at the water.

"Diana." A voice, warm but carrying real authority, came from behind her. Queen Hippolyta approached in a matching linen gown, her eyes full of concern. She'd watched her daughter's unsettled state over these past few days with her own eyes, and understood already that this wasn't simple homesickness or ordinary fatigue. Diana turned, gave a small bow, set the practice sword aside, and kept her voice level.

"Mother." Hippolyta came to stand beside her, looking out at the water together.

"You've spent so long in the world of man. I assumed you'd settled into that life by now. Maybe even found somewhere that felt like home there..." Diana's thoughts scattered a little. The magical cuffs on her wrists gave off a faint chill that helped steady her.

"It's not about the world of man." There was a rasp in Diana's voice.

"I've run into a problem I've never had to face before. I don't know what the right choice is."

"A problem?" Hippolyta pressed.

"Has the League run into some crisis? Or has someone hurt you?" Diana shook her head, avoiding her mother's searching eyes.

"I'm fine, Mother. I just need some time alone to think it through. To actually breathe." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Hippolyta studied her daughter's profile and let out a tired sigh. She knew her daughter well enough. And she knew that whoever Diana was now wasn't just her child anymore. She was Wonder Woman, someone who had to stand alone in certain arenas whether she wanted to or not.

"Whatever's weighing on you, you can always tell me. I just want you happy. Not like this." The Queen's words carried nothing but real affection, and something in Diana's chest warmed despite everything. She stepped forward and hugged her mother gently.

"I understand, Mother. I'm sorry for worrying you." Hippolyta patted her back, then turned to leave, glancing back once before she went, worry still sitting heavy in her eyes. Once her mother's shape had disappeared from view, Diana walked back to the cliff's edge, and right as she started to settle her thoughts, the divine power inside her suddenly convulsed hard. An inexplicable weakness rolled through her, and she stumbled, catching herself against a nearby stone brazier, her face going pale.

Her divine power ran on an unwavering commitment to justice, bound to the divine nature she'd been born carrying. Maybe I shouldn't have judged a kid this harshly, when he never got to choose any of it. Right as Diana's self-doubt was spiraling further, the guardian bracelet on her wrist let out a sharp, urgent hum, light flaring bright. That was the signal for an incoming threat!

"Who's there?" Diana snapped back to focus instantly, whipping around. Not far off, under the shade of a tree, a familiar shape stepped slowly into view. A man in black battle armor, the metal etched with a menacing thorn pattern, throwing off a cold metallic sheen. In the space of a blink, the armor vanished without a sound, leaving behind a blond man in a gray suit.

"Still nothing beats how comfortable this outfit is." He stretched, one hand tucking behind his lower back, the other reaching up to smooth the golden mustache curling over his lip between thumb and forefinger. Diana recognized him instantly, though she genuinely hadn't expected him to show up directly on Amazon territory.

"Ares! You dare break our agreement and set foot on this land again!" Diana snapped her lasso out, hooking the God Killer sword she'd set down under a tree before entering the training ground, yanking it back into her grip. Only once the sword was actually in her hand did the shock in her chest settle even slightly. She'd personally forced Ares to swear never to interfere with mankind again. Why would he suddenly break an oath like that. Ares lowered the hand from his mustache, letting out a short, mocking laugh.

"Break the agreement? I never break agreements. This comes on Zeus's order."

"Zeus's order?" Diana's brow tightened, confusion setting in.

"Why would he send you here? There's conflict in the mortal world right now, sure, but nothing that needs a god's hand in it." Then, suddenly, Diana thought of Kaelvorn killing Eris's mortal vessel.

"Is this about the goddess of discord? Her body's destroyed, but she hasn't fully fallen. Are you here to stir up conflict off the back of that?"

"The goddess of discord?" Ares waved a hand, watching his half-sister brace for a fight with obvious enjoyment.

"Eris is still asleep. Hasn't fully revived yet. And she's hardly worth Zeus sending me personally anyway." As he finished speaking, Ares took a light step forward, and the sea wind, which had been carrying that clean mix of salt and grass a moment ago, went dead silent all at once.

"That golden apple Eris lost wasn't just carrying divine power and magic. It was also carrying a portion of the authority over discord that Zeus personally granted her, back in the day."

"And yet some mortal not only helped himself to that apple's power and magic, but somehow found a way to lock down that piece of divine authority completely. That's a desecration of the divine." Diana's instinct was to push back on that immediately. Divine relics had ended up abandoned in the mortal world before, plenty of times. All it usually took was a single thought from Zeus, and whatever authority a relic carried would return to the divine realm on command. So how exactly did Kael manage this...

"Even so, Zeus has no business sending you to interfere in human affairs!"

"Interfere?" Ares looked like he'd just heard a joke.

"The gods never break their word. We have no interest in interfering with the mortal world. We're simply here to reclaim what belongs to the divine, and, while we're at it, discipline the mortal who desecrated us." He raised his right hand slowly, gold runes surfacing across his palm, radiating something sacred and heavy with authority as they turned.

"And that particular business can be handled entirely within the divine realm." Diana didn't recognize the runes at first. She was only a demigod, raised on Themyscira her whole life, and plenty of standard divine knowledge had simply never come her way. But the second those gold runes shot outward, wrapping around her like chains, that pressure running straight through her bloodline told her exactly what she was looking at.

"Zeus's Oracle?!" Diana tried to swing the sword to cut through it, only to find her own divine power fully suppressed, completely unresponsive. A second later, the lasso at her hip tore itself free on its own, and, under the Oracle's control, wrapped around her tight enough to bind her completely. The God Killer sword hit the ground.

"No!" Diana fought against it with everything she had. It didn't matter. Ares stepped forward, grabbed her arm, and a black glow rose up around both of them. The light faded, and the two of them vanished together from the cliff's edge, leaving behind nothing but the fallen sword, and a single sheet of parchment drifting slowly down through the freshly stirred sea wind.... +40 advanced chapters on Patreon [email protected] /YATOOO Not satisfied? Full refund, no questions asked.