Chapter Summaries

Medea fell in love with Jason after Eros’s arrow struck her, then warned Bai Mo that Aeëtes was preparing Colchis for war. Faced with the danger, Jason chose to leave the Argo’s refuge and try to seize the Golden Fleece while Colchis’s defenses were distracted.

• Bai Mo watched Aeëtes reject Medea’s proposed plan and abandoned his own plan to remove the king.
• Eros shot Jason with an arrow, and Medea fell in love with him when she saw him aboard the Argo.
• Medea warned Bai Mo that Aeëtes had secured Ares’s blessing and that Colchis’s fleet was preparing to block the waters.
• The Argo’s crew received a divine revelation that Medea would help them obtain the Golden Fleece, while Heracles and Atalanta questioned Bai Mo’s apparent indifference.
• Jason decided the crew would leave, but not without first attempting to take the Golden Fleece, and the heroes prepared to set out.

Jason and his companions reached the Golden Fleece, but the venomous dragon attacked them with fire and poisonous smoke. Bai Mo rescued Atalanta from the dragon’s jaws, though its teeth pierced his left arm.

• Medea used magical perfume to conceal the group as they entered the grove where the Golden Fleece hung.
• The venomous dragon attacked from above with fire, and Bai Mo shielded the group while Heracles failed to pierce the dragon’s scales with an arrow.
• Medea gave Atalanta the Blood of Prometheus ointment, and Atalanta entered the flames to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
• Atalanta became disoriented by the dragon’s poisonous smoke, and Bai Mo went after her when she failed to return.
• Bai Mo called Atalanta away from a hallucination that was leading her toward the dragon, then hurled his blade to drive the creature off.
• The venomous dragon lunged at the poisoned Atalanta, but Bai Mo stepped into its mouth and held it open as its teeth pierced his left arm.

Bai Mo fought the venomous dragon to protect Atalanta and used the Golden Fleece to exploit the creature’s fear of angering Ares. He bought them time to recover, then began planning their next move with Atalanta.

• Bai Mo used his tempered bones and complete realm to injure the venomous dragon with powerful punches and kicks.
• Bai Mo fought through the dragon’s poisonous smoke, but rushed to shield Atalanta when the dragon spat venom at her and took some venom on his back.
• Atalanta offered to distract the dragon, but Bai Mo raised the Golden Fleece over them, forcing the dragon to swallow its poisonous flames rather than risk destroying it.
• Bai Mo explained that the dragon would not destroy Ares’s valuable bargaining chip, then led Atalanta away while bluffing to conceal his need to recover.
• Atalanta offered to carry Bai Mo, but he refused and asked whether she trusted him before outlining a plan to deal with the dragon.

Bai Mo and his allies defeated the venomous dragon in the burning forest and escaped with the Golden Fleece. As they rode toward the Argo, Atalanta thanked Bai Mo, who promised he would not abandon any of his comrades.

• Bai Mo sent Atalanta running with the Golden Fleece while he waited for his body to adapt to the dragon's poison.
• Heracles ambushed the venomous dragon with arrows, giving Bai Mo time to seize it and choke it while Heracles struck its head, heart, and wing.
• Bai Mo fought the wounded dragon through the flames and killed it with a final blow to its skull.
• Atalanta and Heracles helped the exhausted Bai Mo leave the burning forest, and Heracles gave him the arrowhead that had tripped him.
• Medea prepared horses, and the group reapplied invisibility ointment and rode toward the Agor with the Golden Fleece.
• Atalanta thanked Bai Mo for saving her, and he told her he would not abandon anyone from the Argo.

Jason and the heroes escaped Colchis aboard the Argo with the Golden Fleece, while Bai Mo recovered from his injuries. Jason confided his regrets and worries about Medea, then resolved to protect the crew and find a way to take the Thread of Fate from her.

• Jason shouted for the heroes of the Argo to cover his group, and they fought off the Colchian soldiers so everyone could escape with the Golden Fleece.
• The Argo outran its pursuers, while Bai Mo refused Asclepius's request to study his regenerative abilities.
• Jason told Bai Mo he regretted abandoning a woman who loved him and feared the trouble awaiting him in Colchis.
• Bai Mo explained that Medea's Thread of Fate could make him act against Jason if Jason betrayed her.
• Jason decided to find a way to take the Thread of Fate from Medea and prevent anyone aboard the Argo from hurting one another.

After recovering from her wounds, Atalanta nervously invited Bai Mo to go hunting with her, and he agreed without realizing the invitation’s romantic significance. Atalanta mistakenly thought he had rejected her, then remembered his answer and happily convinced herself the outing was only to repay him and teach him survival skills.

• Atalanta visited Bai Mo after Medea's potion healed her injuries and asked about his future plans.
• Atalanta invited Bai Mo to go hunting with her after the battle, and he agreed, thinking it was an ordinary invitation.
• Atalanta ran from Bai Mo's room, while the Argo Heroes watched and Jason joined their wager over Bai Mo's answer.
• Atalanta initially believed Bai Mo had rejected her, then recalled that he had agreed and celebrated.
• Atalanta told herself the hunting trip would repay Bai Mo and help prepare him for future trials.

As the Argo’s food ran low, Medea proposed a plan that involved taking her brother hostage and potentially killing him, while Bai Mo confronted her about what she intended to do. After Medea rejected his warning about her love for Jason, Bai Mo realized the gods might be watching him and faced a choice about how to act.

• Jason worried that the Argo would run out of food while Colchis pursued them, and Medea offered to solve the problem with a plan.
• Bai Mo caught a swordfish using precise control of his electric power and reflected on his training and future ambitions.
• Medea asked Bai Mo to guard her as she carried out a plan to approach her brother and take him hostage.
• Bai Mo learned that Medea intended to leave her brother behind if necessary, and he confronted her about the possibility that she would sacrifice him.
• Bai Mo warned Medea that Aphrodite’s love arrow might be controlling her feelings, but Medea said she accepted her love as happiness and told him not to interfere.
• After Medea left, Bai Mo’s olive branch eased his pain, and he resolved to choose his own fate while wondering what the gods had done to him.

Medea used Absyrtus to secure supplies and lure Aeëtes’s fleet toward the Agor, intending to kill her brother and use his death to force the pursuit to end. Bai Mo stopped her at the last moment, rescued Absyrtus, and returned him to Aeëtes while the Agor continued ahead.

• Medea convinced Absyrtus that she had been captured, and he arranged to deliver food and water to the Agor.
• Medea incapacitated Absyrtus with magic and took him aboard the Agor as a hostage while Bai Mo held off his guards.
• After Absyrtus tried to escape, Medea ordered Bai Mo to injure him and threatened to kill him if Aeëtes’s fleet kept pursuing them.
• Medea raised her dagger over Absyrtus, but Bai Mo seized her wrist, disarmed her, and had Heracles restrain her.
• Bai Mo carried Absyrtus to the Colchian ships, where Aeëtes welcomed his son and Bai Mo reset his dislocated limbs.

Bai Mo rescued Absyrtus, then attacked Aeëtes’s fleet to give Jason and the Argo a chance to escape. Ares’s blessing empowered the Colchian soldiers, and as they pressed the attack, Medea prepared to answer their divine advantage.

• Aeëtes thanked Bai Mo for returning Absyrtus and offered him a third of Colchis, while Heracles and Atalanta defended Bai Mo from Medea’s suspicion.
• Bai Mo destroyed the mast of Aeëtes’s flagship and asked whether Aeëtes would let the Argo and Jason go; Aeëtes demanded the Golden Fleece, Jason, and Medea in exchange.
• Bai Mo broke another ship’s mast, but Ares’s blessing surged through the Colchian soldiers, who attacked him and the Argo with renewed strength.
• Aeëtes ordered his warriors to pursue the Argo while Bai Mo was held back; Heracles fired on a pursuing ship as arrows struck the Argo.
• Medea went to prepare ritual implements, deciding that only a god’s blessing could counter Ares’s blessing.

Bai Mo tried to stop the frenzied Colchian fleet from destroying the Argo while Medea sought Poseidon's help through a sacrifice. Though Ares's blessing withstood Bai Mo's first attacks, his persistence finally broke it, and the Argo escaped on the current.

• Bai Mo ran across the sea and intercepted the Colchian fleet, drawing its attacks away from the Argo.
• Medea completed a ritual and prayed to Poseidon, who answered after hearing her renew Jason's promise to marry and love her.
• Bai Mo unleashed a powerful blade strike, but Ares's blessing protected the fleet and arrows wounded him.
• Bai Mo kept fighting despite his injuries, determined not to abandon his friends aboard the Argo.
• Bai Mo's blade energy shattered Ares's blessing and tore apart a ship, while the current carried the Argo away.

Bai Mo destroyed Colchis’s fleet but spared its soldiers, then swam away badly wounded and reached an island. There he met Circe, who offered to take him to her home, and he wondered whether she was Medea’s aunt.

• Bai Mo’s attacks shattered Colchis’s ships until Ares withdrew the fleet’s fighting spirit, ending the battle.
• Bai Mo stopped attacking, and the frightened survivors abandoned their pursuit; Aeëtes learned that no one had died and ordered his people to regroup.
• Wounded and losing blood, Bai Mo swam toward an island, passed one he suspected might be dangerous, and headed for another where he detected a small boat.
• Circe walked her puppy along the shore, where the animal cowered as Bai Mo came ashore and collapsed on the beach.
• Circe offered the injured Bai Mo shelter, and he noticed her pointed ears and wondered whether she was Medea’s aunt.

Bai Mo stayed at Circe’s cottage while trying to recover and investigate her magic, but letters from Aeëtes revealed his role in the events at Colchis and warned Circe not to antagonize him. When Circe returned with a meal, Bai Mo stopped a blade just short of her forehead, accused her of planning to drug him, and was left uncertain when she burst into tears.

• Circe brought Bai Mo barley porridge, and he used Electric Current Push to try to analyze it rather than drink it.
• Aeëtes’s first letter told Circe that Medea had betrayed Colchis, Bai Ermo had defeated the pursuing army, and Aeëtes was preparing to break with the gods.
• A second letter identified Bai Ermo as a hero who had saved Absyrtus and warned Circe not to make trouble for him; Circe realized Bai Mo was the man in her house.
• Circe decided she needed Bai Mo’s help to bring Medea back and prepared a lavish meal with poisonous ingredients.
• Bai Mo raised his blade at Circe when she entered his room, then stopped it just short of her forehead and accused her of intending to drug him.
• Circe sat down and began crying, leaving Bai Mo unsure how to respond.

Bai Mo apologized to Circe after realizing he had wrongly accused her of drugging him, then learned more about the gods’ curse on Medea and promised to take her back to Colchis. He revealed that his anger at the gods came from his own painful past and his resolve to prevent Medea’s tragic fate.

• Bai Mo stopped Circe’s tears, apologized for threatening her, and accepted the reheated porridge after confirming it was ordinary food.
• Circe told Bai Mo that Aeëtes had informed her about him, and she explained that Medea’s love for the leader of the invading Argonauts came from a god’s curse.
• Circe revealed that Hera had exposed the curse to the Argo’s crew through a prophecy, and she cursed the gods from behind her magical protections.
• Bai Mo promised Circe that he would take Medea back to Colchis, then explained that he could not stand by while the gods decided her fate.
• Bai Mo told Circe about his abusive family and his envy of the affection Medea had received, strengthening his resolve to change her ending.

Bai Mo recovered on Aeaea while Circe secretly removed the war god’s blessing from his wounds, and he prepared to bring Medea back. In Thessaly, Jason and Atalanta worried over Bai Mo’s absence as Medea feared what might happen if Colchis demanded a price for his return.

• Circe persuaded Bai Mo to let her treat his wounds, though she concealed that removing the war god’s blessing required no spells or chants.
• The Argo Heroes returned to Thessaly, where Jason asked Medea whether she had heard from Bai Mo and decided to visit Athena’s temple for news.
• Medea sensed Jason distancing himself and worried that Aeëtes might demand the Golden Fleece or her in exchange for Bai Mo.
• Atalanta decided to remain in Thessaly until news arrived and considered returning to Colchis to find Bai Mo.
• Bai Mo’s wounds began healing after Circe removed the blessing, and he stopped her from groping him while she lamented over the drugged banquet food.

Bai Mo recovered on Circe’s island, but Circe drugged his porridge and left him unconscious despite his resistance. Elsewhere, Medea discovered wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, while Athena and Aphrodite argued over Bai Mo’s future and his feelings.

• Bai Mo confronted Circe about the drugged food and warned her to stop deceiving people.
• Circe secretly drugged Bai Mo’s porridge, but he resisted long enough to force her outside before falling asleep.
• Circe checked that Bai Mo had fallen asleep and declared that everything had gone according to plan.
• Medea saw wrinkles in the mirror, shattered it, and sought comfort beside the sleeping Jason.
• Athena watched Aeaea Island and argued with Aphrodite about Bai Mo’s future and whether love would distract him.

Bai Mo accepted Circe’s Garment of the Hawk and set off from Aeaea Island, despite refusing her confession because he expected to leave this era. He flew toward a safe island to rest, hoping he could repay Circe someday.

• Circe failed to enter Bai Mo’s room, fell asleep outside his door, and woke in his bed to find he had made her porridge.
• Bai Mo asked Circe to undo the curses on the sailors in her pigpen, and she agreed after revealing she knew he had swum from the Colchis fleet and bore the sea god’s blessing.
• Circe confessed that she liked Bai Mo, but he refused to accept her love because he could not promise her a future and expected to leave the era.
• Circe asked Bai Mo to return after his affairs were settled, then gave him the Garment of the Hawk, a Mystic Code that enabled swift, self-directed flight.
• Bai Mo flew away from Aeaea Island, chose a safe island for the night, and began recovering beside a campfire.

Pelias and Aeëtes’s schemes pushed Medea to demand that Jason marry her, while Athena warned Jason that Bai Ermo faced a difficult future and struggled to understand Bai Ermo’s identity and purpose. The chapter ended with Athena’s theories collapsing as three game pieces shattered and the final piece cracked.

• Pelias received Aeëtes’s demand for Medea’s return and welcomed the chance it gave him to undermine the Golden Fleece offering.
• Medea silenced and magically enslaved Pelias’s attendant, then destroyed the decree he had brought.
• Jason asked Athena about Bai Ermo, and she said he was safe but faced trials worse than Heracles’s; Jason later enjoyed hearing a bard praise the Argo heroes.
• Medea worried about her aging appearance and persuaded Jason to marry her the next day, using a forged letter from Pelias as leverage.
• Athena examined four pieces representing Bai Ermo’s power, background, birth, and goal, but three shattered and the last developed a crack.

Bai Mo returned to Thessaly, witnessed the poverty and abuse of its people, and killed Pelias after learning of his soldiers’ cruelty. He left Jason to claim the throne and walked alone toward Athena’s temple, troubled by how little killing had changed the suffering around him.

• Medea agreed to help Jason take the throne from Pelias, while Bai Mo returned to Thessaly by boat with an old fisherman.
• Bai Mo learned that Pelias’s fees for Jason and Medea’s offering had burdened the poor, then gave a gold coin to a woman whose child was sick.
• Bai Mo caught two soldiers stealing the woman’s coin, injured them, and followed one to her home, where he found the child dead.
• Bai Mo confronted Pelias at the palace and killed him after sending him to ask the dead soldier why Bai Mo had come.
• Bai Mo left the palace in the rain, rejected Jason’s attempt to approach him, and urged Jason to treat his future subjects well.

Bai Mo returned to Athena’s temple, while Athena questioned Prometheus about fate and the future of the gods. At Jason and Medea’s wedding, Poseidon appeared in a storm, and he and Bai Mo both turned their attention to Medea.

• Bai Mo learned that Athena was absent and returned to his room to consider how to escape being drawn into the Gigantomachy.
• Athena visited the imprisoned Prometheus, asked what he wanted her to do about Bai Mo, and asked what fate held for the gods.
• Jason asked Medea to return the Thread of Fate to Bai Ermo after their wedding, and Medea agreed.
• Atalanta joined Bai Mo on Athena’s temple roof, became upset when he spoke about Circe, and left.
• A tornado struck Jason and Medea’s wedding, and Poseidon appeared before the terrified guests.
• Bai Mo rushed to the wedding and recognized Poseidon, who then looked toward Medea with him.

Poseidon exploited Medea’s wedding and took her youth, prompting Jason to abandon her and reveal that Aphrodite had made him love her. Bai Mo appeared to strike Medea, but he had actually used the love god’s leaden arrow to break her curse, then stood up to Poseidon.

• Poseidon demanded Medea’s Thread of Fate, but Hera and Athena argued that she could not offer it.
• Poseidon took Medea’s youth instead, transforming her into an old woman without shortening her life.
• Jason rejected Medea and admitted that he had valued her only for her usefulness, driving her to beg Bai Mo to kill him.
• Bai Mo moved toward Medea as Jason’s attendants tried to stop him, then caught her before she fell.
• Bai Mo confronted Poseidon and revealed that he held the love god’s leaden arrow, which could break Medea’s curse.