Chapter Summaries

Ye Ting kept Hippolyta as a hostage while the Argonauts escaped the Amazon warriors aboard the Argo. After the last Argonaut boarded, Ye Ting honored the agreement and freed Hippolyta.

• Ye Ting made Hippolyta acknowledge that she was his prisoner and negotiated a prisoner exchange with Penthesilea.
• Ye Ting refused to release Hippolyta until his companions had safely boarded the Argo, then escorted her toward the shore within the Amazons’ ten-pace boundary.
• The wounded Argonauts boarded the Argo while Ye Ting stayed behind with Hippolyta, refusing their offers to take his place.
• After the last Argonaut boarded and the mooring lines were untied, Ye Ting dropped his dagger and released Hippolyta from her chains.

Hippolyta seized Ye Ting after he freed her, but he escaped by revealing he had left an illusion in his place. He warned her that the gods might punish the Amazons and left her a dagger she could use to call him once, while Hippolyta regretted that he was leaving.

• Hippolyta picked up Ye Ting's dagger and held it to his throat, claiming that their agreement had not protected him from being taken prisoner.
• Hippolyta led Ye Ting away to settle the score, but Ye Ting kissed her and made her instinctively swing the dagger at him.
• Hippolyta discovered that Ye Ting was an illusion and heard him explain that he had no intention of becoming her prisoner.
• Ye Ting warned Hippolyta that the gods might punish the Amazons for their losses and told her she could call him once with the dagger.
• Hippolyta denied needing Ye Ting's help but held tightly to his dagger and lamented that he was leaving Amazon.

After escaping the Amazons, Ye Ting rejoined the Argonauts, who mourned their heavy losses before setting sail again. They reached Bithynia and agreed to free the blind Phineus from the Harpies, but Ye Ting recognized the gods’ scheme and considered thwarting it.

• Ye Ting vanished from the Amazons and reappeared aboard the Argo, and Jason ordered the crew to sail away.
• The Argonauts thanked Ye Ting and mourned the nearly twenty companions they had lost; Jason considered abandoning the voyage until a divine messenger encouraged them to continue.
• Ye Ting resolved to avoid further major disruptions, while the gods blamed the Amazons for the deaths and marked them for revenge after the expedition.
• The Argo reached Bithynia, where the starving, blind Phineus collapsed after coming to meet the Argonauts.
• The Argonauts agreed to drive away the Harpies, but the birds stole and fouled Phineus’s food before escaping their pursuit.
• Ye Ting recognized that the gods had raised the Harpies to serve their plans and wondered whether he would let those plans succeed.

The Argonauts drove off Zeus’s Harpies with arrows secretly poisoned by Ye Ting, then followed Phineus’s prophecy through the Clashing Rocks and toward Colchis. On Aretia Island, Jason and Acastus welcomed Phrixus’s sons aboard the Argo, renewing the crew’s confidence for the journey ahead.

• The Argonauts shot Ye Ting’s enchanted, venom-coated arrows at the Harpies, killing every one struck, while Aerys could only accept the loss.
• King Phineus thanked the Argonauts with a feast and prophesied their route to Colchis and the Golden Fleece.
• The Argonauts sent a dove through the Clashing Rocks, then rowed the Argo through, losing several stern planks but escaping destruction.
• The Argo reached the Chalybe Kingdom and then Aretia Island, where Jason met Argus and his three brothers, the sons of Phrixus.
• Jason and Acastus recognized Phrixus’s sons as their cousins, and the four young men boarded the Argo the next morning.

The Argonauts witnessed the Caucasus Divine Eagle tormenting Prometheus, and Ye Ting used the scene to deepen their doubts about the gods. The Argo reached Colchis and stopped near the forest where the Golden Fleece was guarded.

• The Argonauts saw the giant eagle fly toward Mount Caucasus and heard Prometheus scream as it attacked him.
• Ye Ting identified the bird as Zeus's Caucasus Divine Eagle and explained Prometheus's punishment to the crew.
• The heroes pitied Prometheus and grew troubled by the gods' cruelty, while Ye Ting hoped their doubts would later grow.
• The Argo reached Colchis Island, sailed up the Phasis River, and stopped near the forest where a Dragon guarded the Golden Fleece.
• Jason poured a libation to the river and Mother Earth, honoring the gods and fallen heroes and asking for protection.

After the memorial, Jason proposed negotiating for the Golden Fleece rather than risking a direct attack and selected a small delegation to visit King Aeetes. Ye Ting understood that Aeetes would not give up the Fleece because it was bound to his life, making it the gods’ best chance to challenge Mystra Academy.

• Jason told the Argonauts to stay armed aboard the Argo while he tested Aeetes’s willingness to surrender the Golden Fleece.
• Jason chose Phrixus’s four sons, King Augeas, and Telamon to accompany him to Aeetes’s palace in Cytaea.
• Jason selected companions he thought would support his leadership, using Augeas’s kinship to Aeetes and Telamon’s temper as part of his plan.
• Ye Ting disregarded Jason’s maneuvering because he knew Aeetes would die if he lost the Golden Fleece.
• Ye Ting explained that Mystra Academy and the Kingdom of Colchis were separate powers, but the Academy protected Aeetes because the Fleece was tied to his life.

The chapter explains why the Olympian gods opposed the Magic Pantheon’s alliance with Colchis, then follows Jason and the other heroes as they enter Cytaea and marvel at its prosperity and magic-influenced culture. The story leaves them exploring the city, astonished by its unfamiliar buildings, goods, and openly sold magic items.

• The former Greek gods saw Hecate and the Magic Pantheon’s rise as a chance to regain power and viewed Colchis as a test of cooperation.
• The Olympian gods tried to undermine that alliance by using the Argonauts’ expedition to make the Magic Pantheon’s protection seem ineffective.
• The seven heroes landed on the western bank of the Phasis River and traveled through the fertile outskirts of Cytaea.
• Jason and the other heroes entered Cytaea and noticed its distinctive wooden-and-stone buildings and paved streets.
• The heroes walked through shops selling unfamiliar goods, colorful clothing, and magic items, and felt like country bumpkins.

Jason and his companions explored Cytaea, changed into local clothes, and sampled Colchis wine and food at a tavern. After praising the cuisine and asking how it was made, they learned that the dishes relied on cooking methods and ingredients unique to Colchis.

• Jason led his companions around Cytaea to observe its unfamiliar roads, carriages, and soldiers before taking them to buy local clothes.
• Jason and his companions entered a tavern and ordered its signature dishes and wine.
• Jason took a large gulp of the potent wine, hid his reaction, and prompted the other six to choke on their own gulps.
• Augeas and Jason praised the wine and decided to buy some for their shipmates.
• Jason and his companions enjoyed the tavern's unfamiliar dishes and asked the barkeep how they were made.
• The barkeep mistook the group for travelers who had come to study magic and explained that the dishes used methods and ingredients unique to Colchis.

Jason and the heroes learned from a bartender that Colchis had become a center of magic, with mages gathering at a town and castle dedicated to Hecate. Jason realized the mages had been on the island before King Aeetes founded the kingdom, but the reason they emerged from hiding remained unclear.

• Jason tipped the bartender with gold, and the bartender explained that mages had introduced cooking methods such as stir-frying, steaming, and frying.
• The bartender told Jason that mages traveled to Colchis to study at a town and castle reserved for them, where Greece’s strongest mages gathered.
• The bartender explained that King Aeetes ruled Colchis but could not command its mages, who worshipped Hecate, and claimed that she lived in their castle.
• The heroes doubted the bartender’s claims that Hecate had once been mortal and had surpassed Zeus, while Jason considered whether she might truly be a powerful deity.
• Jason learned that Colchis had been a hidden holy land for mages before Aeetes arrived, but the bartender could not explain why the mages later stopped hiding.

Jason and the Argonauts reached King Aeetes’s palace to seek the Golden Fleece, but Aeetes refused to give it up, saying its loss would cost him his life. He challenged Jason to gather the Argonauts and fight him the next day.

• After Jason left the tavern, a mysterious mage appeared and vanished, leaving the bartender unable to remember what had happened.
• Jason and six companions went to the palace of Colchis, where they were welcomed by King Aeetes and Queen Idyia.
• Aeetes learned from the Argus brothers that Jason sought the Golden Fleece so King Pelias would return his throne.
• Aeetes warned Jason that Pelias would not honor his promise and declared he would never surrender the Golden Fleece.
• Jason defended his hope that Pelias might keep his word, and Aeetes challenged him to fight the next day for the fleece.

Jason and Aeetes negotiated over the Golden Fleece after Aeetes revealed that its existence was tied to his life. Aeetes postponed his decision and invited Jason and the Argonauts to a banquet, leaving their request unresolved until that evening.

• Aeetes told Jason that taking the Golden Fleece could cost him his life, making the negotiations difficult.
• Jason insisted he had no intention of killing Aeetes and cited the gods' guidance and his companions' divine bloodlines to support his claim.
• Aeetes suspected the expedition served the gods' designs and decided he could neither attack the heroes nor reject their oracle outright.
• Aeetes asked for time to consider the matter, and Jason accepted the delay.
• Aeetes invited Jason to bring his companions to a welcoming banquet, where he would announce his decision that night.

Aeetes sought Helios's and Mystra Academy's help in devising a trial that would keep the Argonauts from taking the Golden Fleece without provoking the gods of Olympus. As the heroes prepared for Aeetes's banquet, Jason expected to stand out in his flashy armor, but someone else appeared just as splendidly dressed.

• Aeetes decided to make the Argonauts complete a trial on Colchis Island before they could claim the Golden Fleece.
• Aeetes prayed to Helios, who promised to oversee the trial and prevent the gods of Olympus from interfering.
• Mystra Academy agreed to devise the trial, with Hecate already aware of the expedition and involved in Ye Ting's plan.
• Jason recalled how a dove had flown into his arms while a vulture fell on the Argo, giving the heroes confidence in Phineus's prophecy about Aphrodite.
• Jason dressed in conspicuous golden armor and expected to outshine the other Argonauts at Aeetes's banquet, but he spotted someone dressed just as splendidly.

Ye Ting presented Atalanta with enchanted green formalwear, easing her embarrassment and winning her gratitude. At the gathering, Jason’s hopes of standing out were dashed when Ye Ting revealed his own striking white-and-gold outfit.

• Atalanta blushed and asked to change out of her unfamiliar dress, but Circe and Ye Ting encouraged her to wear it.
• Ye Ting told Atalanta that Artemis wore beautiful clothes and assured her that her dress was enchanted for combat.
• Jason compared Atalanta’s dress with his gold armor and worried that she would outshine him.
• Orpheus praised both Atalanta’s dress and Jason’s outfit, reassuring Jason that he would be the most dazzling man at the banquet.
• Ye Ting removed his mage’s robe to reveal a white formal outfit with gold trim, leaving Jason feeling overshadowed.

The Argonauts arrived at the Colchis royal banquet, where Jason expected to impress the court and win favor for his quest for the Golden Fleece. Instead, the crowd’s attention centered on Ye Ting and his mysterious white robe, while Colchis’s mages watched him with intense fascination.

• More than thirty Argonauts arrived at the palace gates, where Colchis nobles and officials gathered to watch the mainland heroes.
• Jason led the Argonauts into the palace in golden finery, basking in the crowd’s praise and imagining a romantic adventure at the banquet.
• Jason noticed robed figures among the nobles and wondered who they were, but continued into the palace without investigating.
• The crowd fell silent and stared at Ye Ting, whose white robe and presence overshadowed Jason and the other Argonauts.
• The robed mages also gazed at Ye Ting, their awe driven by their intense fascination with magic.

Ye Ting’s appearance caused a stir at the palace gates before the Argonauts were welcomed to Aeetes’s banquet. Jason met Medea and, captivated by her, decided to court her to gain a chance at the Golden Fleece.

• Ye Ting used magic to dampen his presence after the Colchis nobles crowded around him, while Jason and the other Argonauts resented losing the attention.
• Aeetes welcomed the Argonauts at the palace hall alongside Absyrtus, the queen, Chalciope, and Medea.
• Jason became captivated by Medea when he saw her and recalled that his affection for her had once been genuine.
• Jason decided to win Medea’s love, believing her status, beauty, and magical talent could help him obtain the Golden Fleece.

Ye Ting learned that Medea regarded him as her beloved big brother and had no interest in Jason, whom she had teased for mistaking her attention for his. He quietly devised a plan with Medea to make Jason jealous, leaving Jason convinced that winning the throne would require sacrifices.

• Medea explained that she called Ye Ting big brother because he cared for her and played with her, unlike Hecate and Aeetes.
• Medea told Ye Ting she had smiled at Jason to tease him when he wrongly thought she was seeking him out.
• Medea said she liked Ye Ting and dismissed Jason as a shallow man who could not compare with him.
• Ye Ting whispered a plan to Medea, and she blushed, agreed, and kissed his cheek in front of the men watching.
• Jason saw Medea's intimate gesture with Ye Ting, suppressed his jealousy, and thought he would need to make sacrifices to claim the throne.

At the banquet, Aeetes refused to hand over Colchis’s Golden Fleece outright but offered Jason a trial to decide its fate. Jason accepted the challenge, though he knew he could not complete it alone.

• Aeetes welcomed the Argonauts and acknowledged that they had come seeking the Golden Fleece.
• Aeetes refused to surrender the treasure because it was tied to the fate of himself and his kingdom.
• Aeetes proposed that Jason subdue two fire-breathing bulls and defeat warriors raised from dragon teeth to earn the Golden Fleece.
• Jason accepted the trial on behalf of the Argonauts, trusting his companions to help him succeed.
• Aeetes warned Jason that failure meant abandoning any further claim to the Golden Fleece.

At Aeetes's banquet, the Argonauts discussed how to pass his tests for the Golden Fleece. Orpheus pointed out that Aeetes had only promised them permission to enter the sacred grove, leaving them to face the Colchis Dragon themselves.

• The Argonauts, Colchis nobles, and Mystra Academy mages kept apart at the tense banquet, while Ye Ting and Medea stayed together.
• Jason and the Argonauts debated whether they could subdue the fire-breathing bulls and defeat the warriors summoned from dragon's teeth.
• Orpheus reminded the heroes of Aeetes's exact wording about the Golden Fleece, and Etealides recalled the sentence granting them permission to enter the sacred grove and take it.
• Meleager identified Aeetes's wording as a trap, and Jason realized the Argonauts would have to defeat the Colchis Dragon to claim the fleece.

The Argonauts and the gods of Olympus struggled to find a way to overcome Aeetes’s trials, especially the Colchian Dragon guarding the Golden Fleece. Neither group found a solution before the chapter ended, which then began to introduce Mede...

• The Argonauts realized they could not defeat the Colchian Dragon and blamed Jason for agreeing to Aeetes’s terms too quickly.
• Tiphys defended Jason, explaining that Aeetes would have made things difficult regardless and that the trials at least revealed the obstacles clearly.
• The Argonauts regretted that Hercules had left to search for Hylas, since he could have helped them face the trials and the Dragon.
• The twelve chief gods gathered on Olympus and discussed the Argonauts’ predicament, but they could not intervene or devise a way to help them defeat the Dragon.
• The chapter began introducing the young woman Mede...

Aphrodite secretly used her power to make Medea fall in love with Ye Ting, disrupting Zeus's plan for Medea to love Jason. Medea and Ye Ting left the banquet together, while Aphrodite kept her undercover role safe by convincing Zeus that her actions still served the Argonauts.

• Aphrodite's influence caused Medea to kiss Ye Ting at the banquet, and the guests, including Jason and Aeetes, watched in shock.
• Ye Ting realized Medea was acting under an abnormal influence, pulled away, and used a slight mental shock to bring her to her senses.
• Medea, mortified by her public behavior, grabbed Ye Ting's hand and ran with him from the hall.
• Zeus angrily confronted Aphrodite for making Medea fall in love with Ye Ting instead of Jason.
• Aphrodite argued that Ye Ting was an Argonaut and that Medea could still help their mission, persuading Zeus to end the argument.
• Aphrodite credited Ye Ting's prior infiltration of the Argonauts with protecting her undercover identity.