Chapter Summaries

Messer persuaded his family to follow him to Egypt and free the Hebrews, while a silent Green Skirt Girl watched their preparations. On the road, Ryan taught Andrea about hereditary power and Athens’s political tensions, then worried that the weakening of world power could affect the Flesh Mother Tree’s seal as Hermenu’s destruction drew closer.

• Messer told his family that God had chosen him to rescue the Hebrews, answered their doubts, and persuaded them to prepare for the journey to Egypt.
• A Green Skirt Girl watched Messer’s family make their preparations without speaking.
• Andrea buried another corpse for Ryan, and he used the task to teach her how hereditary power sustained aristocratic status.
• Andrea connected the bandits and heretics they had encountered to her father’s suppression of the aristocrats, but Ryan made her continue digging and the carriage resumed its journey.
• Ryan reflected that the worlds’ powers were entering a final struggle and questioned whether the weakening of world power could compromise the Flesh Mother Tree’s seal.

Ryan traveled to Athens with Andrea and learned that an Olympia Priest had arranged an unprecedented assembly to test the Athenians’ wisdom and justice. Suspecting the event had a purpose connected to the turmoil, Ryan continued toward the Acropolis to investigate.

• Ryan headed straight for Athens, reflecting on Andrea’s power as a High-Ranked Divine Official and her importance to Athena.
• Ryan and Andrea overheard a caravan arguing about an assembly organized by Noros, a High-Ranked Priest from Olympia.
• Ryan learned that King Theseus had accepted Noros’s proposal and that a vast arena had been built outside Athens for the event.
• Andrea asked Ryan to let her go home and then tried to bargain for conditions, but Ryan reminded her that she was his captive.
• Ryan decided to attend the assembly at the Acropolis and find out why Noros had called for a test of wisdom and justice.

Ryan and Andrea reached the Acropolis of Athens, where Ryan explained the story behind Artemis's move to the city and brought Andrea through its identity-detecting gate without exposing her disguise. Inside the city, Ryan saw its defenses and monuments, then reflected on the scandalous history of King Minos and Poseidon; the chapter ended before Minos's story was finished.

• Ryan and Andrea saw the Acropolis of Athens, and Andrea told Ryan how Zeus had violated Artemis's maidservant, prompting Artemis to settle in Athens.
• Ryan and Andrea reached the Acropolis and passed through the Gate of True Sight without Andrea's disguise being detected.
• Ryan observed the city's magical defenses, streets, and statues of Theseus and Phaedra.
• Ryan recalled that Minos had usurped his brother's throne and sought Poseidon's favor to legitimize his rule.
• Poseidon sent Minos a white bull as a sacrifice, but Minos secretly kept it and substituted another offering.
• Poseidon discovered Minos's deception and cursed his wife with an attraction to animals.

Ryan and Andrea entered Athens and registered Andrea as a divine descendant while Ryan planned how to prepare for the coming competition. Meanwhile, Zeus visited Nereus and revealed that Thetis was fated to bear a son stronger than his father, then arranged to find her an excellent husband.

• Ryan reflected on Athens’s isolation among the gods and mortals before taking Andrea to register in the city.
• Andrea’s blood test revealed divine blood within five generations, and she received a Temporary Stone Plate.
• Andrea questioned Ryan’s claim that they were keeping a low profile, and Ryan explained that a higher-status identity would draw less suspicion while they prepared to influence the competition.
• Zeus arrived in the Pontonoris Sea and was welcomed by Nereus, who hosted a banquet for him.
• Zeus pointed out Nereus’s daughter Thetis and told him that she was fated to bear a child stronger than its father.
• Zeus asked Nereus to arrange an excellent husband for Thetis, then declared that he would invite the gods to celebrate her.

Zeus sent wedding invitations for Nereus’s daughter’s marriage and unknowingly delayed a shadowy figure’s plans. In Athens, Ryan sent Andrea to win recognition and an assembly admission ticket by challenging the crowd to a game of coins, and she made the first move against her first opponent.

• Zeus invited nearly every surviving True God to Nereus’s daughter’s wedding, while a hidden figure postponed his plans after seeing the invitations.
• Ryan told Andrea she needed to establish herself as a genius of wisdom to qualify for the assembly, and she reluctantly agreed to run a coin game in disguise.
• Andrea presented Athena’s Holy Emblem and explained that players would take turns removing coins from one of three rows, with whoever took the last coin winning.
• A young man wagered money and a document mortgaging his house, then arranged the coins in three rows and chose Andrea to move first.
• Andrea studied the rows and removed two coins from the second row.

Andrea won a series of gold-coin strategy games in Athens, building confidence and attracting a crowd with her victories. After a nobleman promised that Odysseus would challenge her, Ryan warned Andrea that the young prince might not play by the rules and tested her confidence in the method he had taught her.

• Andrea defeated her first challenger, who tried to reclaim his stake and was stopped by the guards.
• Andrea won round after round as the game drew larger stakes and more spectators, then ended play for the day.
• A young nobleman announced that Odysseus would challenge Andrea, and she left the winnings under the guards’ protection.
• Ryan rebuked Andrea for celebrating her victories and warned her that games only mattered while everyone followed the rules.
• Andrea told Ryan that Odysseus might challenge her, and Ryan said the young prince would probably not follow conventions.
• Ryan asked Andrea whether she could use the Double-Digit Binary Balance Method with more than three rows, and Andrea confidently said she could.

Andrea continued defeating challengers at her coin game, then faced Odysseus, who proposed changing the rules and stakes to make the contest fairer. Meanwhile, Eris met Moanda in the Underworld and asked her to hand over a Golden Apple.

• Andrea returned to the game under the Knowledge Church's supervision and defeated more challengers as Ryan watched from the crowd.
• Odysseus studied the coin game's strategy with Mode and decided to challenge Andrea by expanding the number of rows and rounds.
• Odysseus challenged Andrea, argued that the game favored her, and offered equal wealth as a wager; Andrea accepted his revised rules.
• Eris discussed the Underworld's long memory with Moanda beside the River Styx, then asked for an item on the God King's behalf.
• Moanda produced a shining Golden Apple and gave it to Eris.

Moanda gave Eris a Golden Apple and devised a story that concealed their agreement while shifting blame onto Eris. In Acropolis, Andrea beat Odysseus for a fourth time, and she invited the crowd to send up another challenger.

• Eris confirmed the Golden Apple’s existence, but Moanda tossed it into a lake and explained how Eris could claim to have stolen it.
• Moanda left the Netherworld after completing her task, reflecting that she had been sold three times by different gods.
• In Acropolis, Odysseus wagered his wealth against Andrea in the coin game, hoping to uncover its secret.
• Odysseus lost the third round and promised to provide more stakes later and yield to Andrea three times if they became enemies.
• Andrea won the fourth round and asked the crowd who would challenge her next.

Ryan reflected on the Twilight Sun and the nature of divine authority while Andrea won a contest against Odysseus and prepared for the larger competition. As Athens completed preparations for the finals, Theseus watched the city and braced for the struggles surrounding his kingdom.

• Ryan pondered why great deeds and fame had not granted mortals true authority, and wondered whether Heracles had ever possessed it.
• Andrea returned after defeating Odysseus and told Ryan she had been invited to compete directly in the finals; Ryan reassured her that her newfound reputation would keep people from recognizing her as the missing princess.
• Ryan refused to explain why he had brought Andrea to compete, calling it Fate and joking that he might save Athens and bring peace to the world.
• The contest spread across Athens, where thousands of contestants competed in debates, puzzles, and cases, with public votes determining who qualified for the finals.
• Theseus surveyed Athens, considered the political pressures behind Andrea's disappearance, and resolved that he was ready as the grand gathering began.

Odysseus attended the grand gathering in the Acropolis Grand Hall and learned why the Knowledge Church did not consider wizards a threat to Athena’s domain. As the gathering began choosing its topic and judges, gods assembled for a wedding at the sea gods’ palace, where Eris arrived without an invitation and offered to send a gift.

• Odysseus asked a Knowledge Church priest about wizards, and the priest said their crafts extended wisdom rather than trespassing on Athena’s domain.
• A royal court elder opened the gathering and began a public vote to choose the final round’s topic and procedures.
• Aphrodite and Harmonia arrived at the sea gods’ palace for the wedding, and Aphrodite wondered whether Zeus planned to assert control over the sea.
• Aphrodite noticed the Magic Net Goddess among the arriving gods and entered the palace without waiting for Ares.
• Eris arrived from the Netherworld without an invitation and asked a Sea Nymph to deliver her gift to the wedding.

At the wedding hosted by Zeus and Nereus, Eris sent a Golden Apple inscribed “Dedicated to the Most Beautiful Goddess,” turning the gathering into a public contest over who could claim its authority. Hecate stopped Hestia from destroying it and challenged the goddesses to claim it.

• Zeus arrived at Nereus's palace, where Hera began presiding over the wedding at his request.
• Eris gave Ounike the Golden Apple, and Ounike carried it into the hall after learning Eris had left because Zeus had not invited her.
• Ounike revealed the inscription on the apple, and the gathered gods recognized that claiming it before them could establish a goddess's interpretation of beauty.
• Hestia tried to destroy the Golden Apple, but her flames failed to harm it.
• Hecate extinguished Hestia's flames and asked whether any goddess wanted to claim the apple.

At Apollo’s wedding feast, Hecate tossed the Golden Apple to Phoebe, sparking a contest among goddesses who wanted the title of Most Beautiful. Zeus stopped their escalating clash with his authority, but Hera then asked him to decide who would receive the apple.

• Hecate refused Hestia’s demand for the Golden Apple and blocked her with a second figure emerging from her body.
• Hecate gave the apple to Phoebe, who reached for it, but Hera and Aphrodite also pulled it toward themselves.
• Artemis and Amphitrite joined the contest, followed by several other goddesses, as their combined powers threatened to erupt.
• Zeus rose and suppressed the goddesses’ competing powers, ending the struggle over the apple.
• Hera asked Zeus to decide which goddess would get the Golden Apple.

Zeus ended the gods’ dispute over the Golden Apple by declaring that a mortal festival in Athens would decide its owner. Meanwhile, Erebus persuaded Okeanos to hear his plan for gaining power over the seas, though Okeanos resolved not to risk himself without first reaching a higher realm.

• Hera demanded that Zeus judge whether she or Aphrodite was more beautiful, but Zeus refused to claim impartiality.
• Aphrodite used her Golden Belt to enchant Ares, who declared her more beautiful than Hera and enraged his mother.
• Zeus proposed that Fate decide the Golden Apple through a festival in Athens, and Hera accepted the arrangement while vowing to win it.
• Erebus reminded Okeanos that Zeus and Ryan stood in the way of his ambition to unify the seas.
• Okeanos finally asked Erebus what he wanted him to do, but decided he would not act as cannon fodder unless the plan first helped him reach a higher realm.

Erebus secretly recruited Okeanos to his plans against Ryan and Zeus, while preparing to engineer a confrontation that could force Ryan to reveal his power. Later, at a public competition in Athens, Iapetus thought he glimpsed the long-missing Gaia and decided he should flee.

• Erebus met with Okeanos in secret and described a path to becoming ruler of the sea, warning that it would bring enemies and leaving the choice to him.
• Okeanos questioned how Erebus would imprison a god in Tartarus beyond Zeus’s reach, but Erebus refused to explain and departed.
• Erebus planned to gather allies and provoke Ryan into a decisive contest, expecting either Ryan or the present world to emerge as the victor.
• In New Calendar Year 852, Iapetus attended Athens’s competition and joined the crowd in voting on its topics.
• Iapetus thought he saw Gaia, convinced himself he had mistaken her for someone else, and decided to leave before trouble found him.

Iapetus tried to escape Gaia at the Athens conference, but a mysterious young man concealed him and recruited him to debate on his behalf. Meanwhile, Andrea nervously prepared for the Justice contest until Evan revealed that he had arranged a substitute player for her.

• Iapetus tried to leave the conference after spotting Gaia, but he collided with a young man who had evaded his divine perception.
• The young man offered to keep Gaia from noticing Iapetus temporarily and asked him to win a debate as payment for staying nearby.
• Iapetus agreed, and the young man identified the ongoing debate and the opponent waiting onstage.
• Andrea sat among Greece's renowned contestants, anxious about competing in the Justice debate after winning the Wisdom round.
• Andrea contacted Evan through a rune, and Evan told her he had found a reliable substitute player in Khaos.
• Evan sat beside Iapetus and expected him to help Andrea win the debate.

After Zeus secretly altered the championship question, the assembly faced a debate over whether the gods were fair to destroy the Bronze Age humans after Prometheus deceived them. Iapetus began coaching Andrea to defend humanity, leaving her to prepare for a dangerous debate under the gods’ gaze.

• Iapetus and Ryan noticed Zeus’s lightning interfere with the vote, and Question Twelve narrowly won.
• The winning scroll revealed a question about the destruction of the Bronze Age humans and whether the gods’ judgment was fair.
• Ryan asked Iapetus which side he would support, and Iapetus said he would stand with humanity because Prometheus was his son.
• Andrea and the other contestants worried that the question seemed designed to blame Prometheus while sparing both the gods and humanity.
• Andrea contacted Evan for advice, but he transferred her to Iapetus, who instructed her to argue on humanity’s side.

Three contestants abstained from the debate over Prometheus, and the remaining competitors began presenting their positions. Odysseus defended the gods’ punishment of the Bronze Age humans and Prometheus, while Zeus promised Athena he would not punish Athens for anything said at the assembly.

• A scholar from Phoenicia, a historian and jurist from Athens, and a prince from Pelasgi withdrew from the competition, and Modia confirmed their decision.
• Modia began the debate, and Odysseus opened by arguing that the Bronze Age humans’ destruction and Prometheus’s imprisonment were just punishments for breaking divine laws.
• Zephyrus praised Odysseus’s speech as the gods watched the assembly through a phantom, and Zeus approved of his descendant’s performance.
• Zeus acknowledged that he had changed the debate topic without Athena’s permission and promised not to take his anger out on Athens over the contestants’ statements.
• Athena accepted Zeus’s promise and watched the remaining contestants, noting that no one had yet spoken in Prometheus’s defense.

Andrea argued that the gods’ destruction of the Bronze Humans was unjust by human standards, despite their violations of divine commands. Odysseus challenged her comparison between gods and humans, but Andrea turned his argument back on him and asked whether the catastrophe met the standards of human justice.

• A contestant condemned Pandora for opening the box and argued that the Bronze Humans had deserved destruction.
• Andrea declared that the gods had acted unjustly and compared their destruction of the Bronze Humans to the actions of a brutal king.
• Odysseus argued that humans could not judge divine conduct by human standards because gods and humans were fundamentally different.
• Andrea accepted his premise for the sake of argument, then maintained that justice should be judged from humanity’s perspective at a gathering of human wisdom.
• Andrea asked Odysseus whether the destruction of the Bronze Age accorded with human justice.

Odysseus and Andrea continued debating whether the gods had been justified in destroying the Bronze Age, while Epimetheus and Pandora watched from the stands. Epimetheus hoped that letting Pandora’s choices guide them through Athens would finally reveal whether the Magic Jar could affect Fate.

• Odysseus argued that the gods had been justified in replacing the Bronze Humans because they were the gods’ creations and the new generation was superior.
• Andrea countered that creating intelligent life did not grant the gods ownership of it, and questioned whether the Bronze Humans had belonged to Olympus.
• The debate continued as the clouds gathered, and the audience settled in to listen to the contestants’ arguments.
• Epimetheus remarked that people still remembered his past, while Pandora accused him of repeatedly involving her in fruitless experiments with the Magic Jar.
• Epimetheus said he would stop interfering and follow Pandora’s chance-guided steps through Athens to see whom she encountered and what happened.

Pandora followed Fate to Gaia, who showed her the remains of Perses, the God of Material Destruction, as a possible path connected to her wish. Meanwhile, Zeus protected Andrea from punishment during the debate and sent Zephyrus to fetch her, while searching the gathering for Iapetus.

• Pandora reflected on the burden of the faith surrounding her and regretted revealing her name in hopes that the gods would find her and Epimetheus.
• Gaia appeared before Pandora and Epimetheus, then showed Pandora Perses’s remains and explained that he had been a True God.
• Epimetheus concluded that the Magic Jar followed the wish itself without accounting for the wisher’s intentions or companions.
• Ares asked Zeus to punish Andrea for her statements, but Hestia reminded Zeus that the event was only a debate.
• Zeus refused to punish the debaters and said Andrea would judge the Golden Apple if she won, then sent Zephyrus to bring her.
• Hera suspected Zeus had another motive, while Zeus searched the phantom for Iapetus and planned to divide the world into opposing factions.