WebNovels

Chapter 1 - [1] Voice Of The Gods

The sun kissed my skin as I followed the trail of my cousin's footsteps. His rhythmic stomping against the road intermingling with the chatter of the open market.

A papyrus scroll, brittle and old, rested in my grasp as I scanned the contents with a tired gaze. I yawned wearily, trying my hardest not to trip and fall asleep on the side of this damn road as I continued to read its contents.

"...You're still obsessing over that dumb scroll, Icarus?" My cousin asked with the slightest hint of a chuckle as I simply nodded in response, not bothering to look up at him.

"Yeah..." I muttered with another yawn, "Father really wasn't joking around when he said it was barely readable."

I scrutinized the strange symbols with a frown. They were so distinctly different from what I used to that it might as well have originated from another world.

The language used was of an ancient and mystical origin, belonging to the high-ranking priests of the Akkadian people. They were said to have spoken in a tongue so powerful that it could influence nature.

My cousin, a boy of only a few summers older than me, laughed at the remark.

He was Talos, the first son of my aunt and my unfortunately closest friend.

"Does your Father ever joke around?" Talos asked as he turned his head to me with a grin.

I snorted as I glared at him, "Can't say for sure, he's barely even around!"

"...Huh," Talos hummed as he continued walking along, quietly making sure I didn't accidentally bump into anyone as we traversed the market.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not really..." I shrugged as I casted a long glance at the surrounding stalls.

It was a bright morning in Athens. The flowers bloomed just right, and the birds chirped with delightful vigour. The weather seemed to be in a good mood, which was a rarity given its usual temper as of late.

The ambient noise of the market sung to my ears. People of all shapes and sizes mingled about, haggling the prices of goods and wares, whilst the stallkeepers shouted offers for attention.

Talos and I had been tasked with fetching foodstuffs for the week. The supplies in our pantry had run short, and Father couldn't be bothered with doing this himself as he was supposedly busy with an important project.

On the bright side, we were given quite the generous allowance.

I was especially looking forward to treating myself with a handful of dates if there were any.

They were my favourite, given their sweet taste and practicality on long trips.

It was such a shame that they weren't able to be effectively cultivated in the nearby lands. Most were imported from Phoenicia, making them a luxury treat for the common Athenian.

"...So do you have any clue on what your Father's been working on lately?" Talos interjected with a question as we walked.

"It's something about a living statue." I answered hesitatingly, unsure of the validity of my own words.

My Father would never be open about his work, fearing that the information would somehow leak to his contemporaries.

Even Talos, his apprentice, was not quite privy to most of the things he was trying to invent.

Of course, as his only son, Father was more lenient to me in that regard. I was to be the successor of his work, after all.

But even then, I was only ever told of bits and pieces, and not the whole concept.

"A living statue?" Talos blinked in amazement. "Is he trying to reenact the story of Pygmalion?"

I scoffed and waved a hand. "Of course not...!"

"I mean, I don't think so," I shrugged in the end as I considered the idea further. It really would be strange trying to picture my Father as the romantic sort. "...That would be awful."

The story of Pygmalion was one that all craftsmen were familiar with.

A sculptor who fell in love with his own creation so hard that Aphrodite herself was impressed and made that statue a living, breathing woman for him to make nasty love with.

Wonderfully romantic and all, but if my own Father really aimed to do something like that...

I wouldn't approve of it at all.

That would be a stroke of genius too far. I didn't want to be known as the son of such a degenerate man.

Luckily, although Father was many things, being a pervert was not one of them.

"But a living statue, huh...?" Talos reconsidered as he voiced his opinion, "Maybe instead of an actual living statue, its just a statue that can move?"

I thought about the idea with a quiet hum. Although a moving statue was less fantastical than a living one, it was still very much in the realm of miracles.

However, wouldn't 'inventing' another living statue infringe on Aphrodite's own legend by claiming it to be the first of its kind?

A mere moving statue on the other hand, would not imply the same disrespect...

Damn, most people probably never even had to think about plagiarizing the Gods!

Father really is something else.

"Sweet figs! Sweet figs!" A merchant's voice broke through the crowd as he flaunted his wares. "The sweetest figs in all of Athens! Get your hands on them quick before they run out!"

I glanced at Talos, who shrugged in return.

Figs were a staple food in the Athenian diet, as were olives and grapes.

We ended buying a good worth of them and some produce like onions, garlic, and whole lot of other vegetables that would fill our stomach as well as whole grains like barley and wheat.

For the variance and taste, we also purchased some readily-available fish for the meat.

I really couldn't last long without some good old meat. I was a growing boy after all, and meat was good for growth.

The groceries were naturally split between the two us as we carried thick bags full of food. This will surely last us a while, perhaps for a few weeks if we're lucky and the produce doesn't rot too quickly.

However, my cousin suddenly placed his arm on my shoulder as we walked. "Hey, Icarus. Look...!"

I gazed at him for a moment then glanced at the direction he pointed at with a curious expression.

It was a fruit stall, not too unlike the one that we had just passed without a second glance. This one displayed many different fruits, though none were particularly exotic, they had something that the others didn't.

Labels.

Small wooden signs with actual paper and intelligiblewriting on them.

Now that caught my interest.

"Good eye." I praised Talos as I knew I probably wouldn't have noticed such a small detail at first.

He grinned as we exhanged curious glances before silently walking up to the stall.

It wasn't common for one to be literate even in such an educated city as ours. Usually, only wealthy commoners and those born of the nobility had the privilege to learn how to read and write.

That being said, learning by itself wasn't restricted or anything, but those of the lower class don't really tend to have enough free time to study.

Which was exactly one of the reasons why knowledge was so powerful in today's world.

The fruit seller was an old Athenian man with graying hairs, not so old to the point of being an elder that shouldn't be working, but old enough for it to matter, most likely around my Father's age.

Instead of barking around about his produce to catch the attention of would-be customers, the old man was more occupied with some papers. He hadn't even noticed us approaching, but that quickly changed after Talos knocked on the counter.

"Hm...?" The fruit seller glanced up as something akin to slight joy shined through his eyes. "Ah, customers!"

He quickly adjusted himself as a mercantile smile soon adorned his face. "What would you boys like? There's..."

I interrupted him with own question. "Hey, gramps! How come you can read?"

...He blinked.

Talos elbowed me with a frown as I glared at him with confusion.

"Sorry for his rudeness, my cousin almost never goes outside." He apologized on my behalf with a sheepish smile.

Huh... what did I say wrong?

My question ended up unanswered as Talos continued.

"We saw your writing and wanted to know where you learned how to read," Talos reiterated as he came forward. "Of course, we'll also buy some of your wares if they're any good."

"Well, you can rest assured for they are!" The old man said as he presented his fruits. "I personally check for the quality of each and every item I sell, so you don't have to worry about any rotten apples, or worms in your plums."

"But if you do happen to get a bad product, then a refund will be guaranteed!" He explained before pausing.

"As for my writing... well, it's not anything interesting. I just so happened to dream about being a scholar when I was your age, but sadly, the Fates had different plans for me." He reminisced with a melancholic smile.

"I see..." I said with a hand on my chin. "Can you still read then?"

"Of course," The fruit seller nodded enthusiastically, but quickly seemed to regret saying that. "Ah... but it's a bit more complicated now."

I glanced at Talos with a raised eyebrow as we exhanged curious looks, then we gazed back at the old man.

"How so?" Talos took the initiative to ask.

"Well, my eyes aren't as good as they were all those years ago." He said with hopelessness as he retrieved some letters from behind the counter.

"I can see distant objects just fine, yet..." He held the letters close to his face.

"When its this close, the words become completely indiscernible!" He said with a tired sigh as he placed those letters on the counter. "These letters are from my daughter."

"She lives in Crete with her husband now, but the writing skills I taught her as a child has truly been for the better as it allows us to communicate still, but..." He paused.

"What does it matter when I can't even properly read them?" The old man finished with another sigh.

"Can't you just place the paper far away and try it reading like that?" I reasoned a solution for his farsightedness but the old man merely shook his head.

"That doesn't work with letters, sadly. The words become smaller further away, so its even worse like that." He answered with a resigned expression.

"We could read it for you if you want." Talos suggested with a smile.

"Oh, would you really?" The old man beamed at the offer. "...But can you two really read? I suppose that's why you were interested in the first place. You boys must be the children of scholars!"

"Ehem, something like that..." I awkwardly scratched the back of my head as Talos received the letters and began reciting them to the old man.

The contents weren't anything unusual, just news of old man's daughter and all that stuff. I wasn't the tiniest bit interested, so my mind tuned out from the conversation as I returned to studying my own scrolls.

It was best to utilize one's free time for studying. That's what my Father usually said.

He was the kind of parent that wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than the best, but I didn't really mind this aspect of our relationship.

I did actually enjoy studying, after all. It made me feel really good when I became so much smarter than the other kids my age.

That being said, I did sometimes wonder if this was really what I was born to do...

But what else could I be doing, really? Children were supposed to follow in the footsteps of their parents in this world. The son of a farmer would naturally become a farmer himself, whereas a prince would inherit the title of his father.

Studying, inventing, recording, these were what my Father did, and what his father did, and it would be left to me to continue that legacy.

I wonder how I'll be when I grow up.

Will I end up just like my Father...? Ugh, that's... I don't even know what to think about that.

I glanced up at the fruit seller.

He was poor, his dreams of being a scholar never having made it to reality, yet he seemed surprisingly... content?

Could I also end up like that? Poor, yet happy? An old grandpa with eye problems?

Well, maybe not that last part. Reading was one of my favourite activities, I couldn't imagine my life without it.

Yet standing before me was a living proof of that possibility.

After all, I wasn't a God. I couldn't prevent the slow decay that old age brought with it, nor disease in general. My senses would dull someday, and that reality was quite disturbing.

My Father... why had he never solved this?

Blindness, deafness, loss of memory. He was not a miracle doctor, but surely a genius inventor could have made something that could alleviate the issues of the common man, right?

Perhaps, there really was a worthy reason, or maybe it would be left up to me to correct this mistake...

[New Quest generated!]

...Huh?

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(A/N)

First Chapter's over, what do you think?

If you appreciate my work, please show it with your comments, reviews, and Power Stones! I remember each and every one vividly.

Current Goal: 100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter.

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