The Ambassador of Athena

Chiron led us to an office in the ground floor. It was nicely decorated with pictures of campers, beside a desk a boom box stood on a drawer at the wall, a huge collection of CDs next to it. I could see some CDs of Eros Ramazotti and Luciano Pavarotti, so I guessed he must like the Italian style. Chiron rolled behind the desk and smiled at me.
“So, Florian, you are our mysterious guest everyone was anxious to meet. Annabeth told me already that you have no godly parents, so you are a mortal.”
I nodded.
“Yes, and according to Athena my ancestor is Odysseus, somehow” I said.
Chiron raised an eyebrow. “When did you meet Athena?”
I told him about my encounter with the goddess this morning, and after I finished he looked a little bit concerned.
“It has been millennia’s since a god made a human his ambassador, the last one was Lucius Macedonicus. Zeus received a prophecy that told him he was the key for the survival of the gods, and Zeus assumed he would help the Greek to fight back. Zeus made him his Ambassador to help him to fulfil that prophecy. But he fought them and defeated the Macedonian troops which meant the end of the freedom of Greece. But it also made the Gods fully Roman; their former Greek side became Roman now. After that the Gods were to… concerned about making anyone an Ambassador, so you are the first one since that.”
I looked at him for a few seconds and then asked: “But what does that mean that I am the Ambassador of Athena now? I have no idea about that. I have never read anything about it in any myth.”
Chiron sighed. “Being the Ambassador of a god simply means that… well, you could describe it as a contract. You agree to do something for the god, in ancient times it mostly meant that you deliver messages, tell the people what the gods want or fight their fights on earth, in return they kind of protected you, sometimes if they felt generous they granted you a wish for your service or gave you a special power, but that rarely happened. But most of all, it was a way to circle around the ancient law of no direct interferences with their children and not favouring them. Most of the ancient heroes were the Ambassadors of their parents at the same time.”
I just had one question: “But what have I done to Athena that she makes me her Ambassador?”
“Nobody knows, but obviously she thinks it will help you to fulfil the quest that is coming up to you. Percy already told you that we would need you, and Athena proved him right. If Poseidon and Athena work together like that it must be important. And since you are a descendant of Odysseus you are more powerful than a regular mortal with no relation to the gods.”
I simply had to ask: “What does that mean; I am a descendant of Odysseus. I know what that means in general, but what exactly?”
Chiron answered me after a few seconds of thinking: “It simply means that your ancestor is Odysseus, and his grandfather was Zeus. Normally only the children of the gods have their favour or special powers, and so it was with Odysseus. He was just a regular mortal, but he is considered one of the greatest heroes of all times. His bow could only be wielded by himself or someone of his blood, and therefore you can wield it too.” He put a pair of vembraces on the table and gestured me to take them. I had no clue what that meant, but I took them anyway. They were nice, made of that special bronze, celestial bronze, and it felt warm. Each was engraved with a beautiful Greek warship, fully detailed with the oars, shields, helm and the eye on the hull. Beneath them a Greek letter, a Ο, Omicron, was engraved.
“What are these?” I asked Chiron.
“Put them on, they are yours.” He answered. I did so, and I have to admit that they fitted perfectly.
“Now put two of your fingers on the Ο” he continued. I hesitated for a moment, but then I did so. The letter started to glow, an a second later I held the bow I recovered from Mount Athos in my hands, the quiver strapped on a belt with a belt buckle that had the ship engraved.
“Wow!”
Chiron smiled. “Your own magical weapon. It was Odysseus bow, a bow that once belonged to the great Heracles himself, handed over to Odysseus father when he died. The quiver was a present from Hephaestus, it has an endless amount of arrows, and it even produces special arrows if you need them.”
“Like explosives or poisoned?!” I asked him astonished.
Chiron nodded.
“That is amazing. Thank you, Chiron.” I examined the bow and found the Omicron on the tip and touched it with two fingers. The bow and quiver changed back into the vertebras around my waists.
Chiron smiled. “Well, it is your inheritance, it belongs to you.”
Rachel cleared her throat and we both looked at her. She had been silent the whole conversation, but now she looked at me and asked: “I am curious, where do you even come from? What did you do back there?”
Chiron opened his mouth to say something, but I came first
“Oh, I come from Austria; form a small town in the middle of the Alps. And before you ask, I can cross 5 countries in 2 hours. And concerning what I did, I just finished my studies in Ancient History at Innsbruck and started to work for the University.”
Rachel looked interested. “I’ve been in Austria once, a skiing trip at the Arlberg. Is that close to where you live?”
“It’s technically right behind my house.”
Chiron didn’t interrupted our small talk, he just contributed by saying: “Ahh, Austria. The gods have been there for almost three hundred years, when the Holy Roman Empire was at its zenith. Camp Half Blood was located close to the Lake of Constance around that time, wonderful times…” He seemed nostalgic about that, and I suddenly had the image of him wearing a wig like Mozart, his horsetail braided and had to laugh.
We talked a bit about my home, how my youth has been; a little bit about University and how it comes that I speak English so well. The explanation was pretty easy: I have lived in America for almost a year after I have finished school, and I also did an external semester at Harvard, I have won a contest. But Chiron soon brought us back to the ground and became serious again:
“Well, Rachel, I think it’s time for Florian to receive his prophecy.”
Rachel sighed and sat down in a chair in the corner.
“What prophecy?” I asked. While Rachel tried to find a comfortable position in the chair he explained it to me:
“In Percy’s dream Poseidon told him to ‘extract’ a special person from Mount Athos and bring him here to Rachel so he can receive a prophecy about… well, we don’t know, but we will see.”
At that moment Rachel stiffened and her eyes started to gleam green. I wanted to say something, but Chiron gestured me to listen. Rachel started to speak with a rusty, harsh voice that echoed somehow, green fog coming out of her mouth. Her words were the following:

Under Rock and Stone away from Light,
Brought to Safety during the last big Fight,
A Symbol of Power lost Years ago
Must be saved by the Heir of the Sailor.
The wise, the brave and one barely alive,
One will fall, One shatter and One survive.

The glowing faded and she fell back in the chair, seemingly unconscious.
“What did that mean?” I asked Chiron. He seemed absent, but he answered me. “Rachel is the new Oracle of Delphi, the spirit of the original Oracle lives in her, and from time to time she gives prophecies to us.”
Rachel opened her eyes and looked at us. “How was I?” she asked casually. I smiled “Great, do you want to hear what you said?”
“Of course!”
I told her, but she looked as confused as I did.
“Chiron, what do you think about it?” she asked the centaur.
Chiron rubbed his forehead. “Honestly, I have no idea, but I assume it must mean something bad. This is definitely not the next big prophecy, but it is pretty serious too. I will think about it. Rachel, would you be so kind to show Florian around?”
Rachel got the hint and stood up. “Sure. Come on, ‘Sailor’” she said and smiled at me. I followed her, and when I closed the doors I saw Chiron staring at the wall next to the door.

Notes