The Dark-Hunters (867 page)

Plato was one of the first to mention the fabled city of Atlantis in two of his works:
Timaeus
and
Critias.
(Believe you me, they’re pretty dry reading.)

Plato covered all the facts and figures. The city was composed of concentric circles of land and sea; there was the inner island, a middle ring, and an outer ring. The island was surrounded by a wall of
orichalcum
(which was supposedly a metal more precious than anything except gold), the middle ring a wall of tin, and the outer ring a wall of brass. There was a large, very fertile plain outside the city that ran from the sea to the mountains, and from it the Atlanteans grew anything their little hearts desired. Their kings were rich, the military was unmatched, the temples were works of art. Everyone was beautiful and sober. There were lots of animals. Even elephants. And then eleven thousand years ago, it was destroyed.

(
Yawn.
)

The annoying part is that just when
Critias
starts getting good and Zeus is about to smite down the whole city for becoming a bunch of vain and ungrateful louts, it ends. The work has been lost to history, just as Atlantis was lost to the world.

There has been much speculation about what happened to the text and what it was that Zeus really said.

Want to know my theory?

(Too bad, you’re gonna get it anyway.)

My theory is that Plato’s girlfriend, upon reading the stone tablet manuscript, beat him over the head with it, yelling, “You’re such a
man.
Who cares about what color the stones were that they dug out of the ground? Who cares about the size of the army, or how many square feet the island was? Were there
any
women in this city? What did they eat? Where did they live? How did they love?” … and then she promptly broke up with him.

The World According to the Rest of Us

Plato wrote of a parable about a nation that was destroyed long before his ancestors had been born. He knew nothing of the truth. Anyone who’d ever gotten close to learning about Atlantis didn’t live long enough to tell anyone else.

—Arikos

Most of what Plato wrote about Atlantis is true. But what about the rest? There are powers so deep and dark buried with this lost continent that they make a mockery of all the pantheons that have come before or after it.

Got your popcorn? Sit back, and I shall enlighten you.

You already know some of it … but let me start at the beginning.

Atlantis is named after Atlantia, goddess and eldest sister of the ancient god Archon. With the help of Ydori (god of the Ocean) and Eda (goddess of the Earth), Archon created Atlantis as a gift for his wife Apollymi. Apollymi was so overcome by the gift that she wept, flooding the land and creating the rings of water.

You’ve learned by now the gods’ penchant for the overdramatic.

Since Apollymi was barren, Archon, Ydor, and Eda created a race of people to live in Apollymi’s gift: the Atlanteans. They were peaceful, despite their great army, and they were scholars. They were also psychic, and highly skilled in the uses of magic. They were beautiful and wealthy and perfect, and Apollymi probably flooded someplace else with her tears after their birth.

Who wouldn’t be jealous?

Well, Zeus for one. Poseidon for two. Apollo for the charm. When Zeus cast out his son’s too-perfect Apollites, the Atlanteans welcomed them, securing a place in Apollo’s heart forever. They intermarried with the royal family, and future Atlanteans became his children as well.

You always hurt the ones you love.

As you know from chapter 6 (if you’ve been skipping around, shame on you. Go back and brush up on your Daimon lore), the Atlantean queen became jealous when Apollo fathered a son on the Greek princess Ryssa, so she ordered the son and mother killed. For this, Apollo destroyed Atlantis, and cursed all the Apollites.

Words have power. Actions speak louder than words. Vengeance is not to be treated lightly … and neither are the gods.

Here endeth the lesson.

The Library of Atlantis

The entire history of mankind is written by people wanting something they can’t have.

—Katra Agrotera

What little we know today of the Atlanteans’ sociology comes from legends. In addition to the warriors and the miners and the priests and the farmers, there were scholars and teachers. They were engineers who built a city more technologically advanced than any civilization alive at the time had a right to be. They were philosophers who attained complete peace in their hearts, minds, and souls. They were writers who compiled a library with the knowledge of the ages, a library housing books that contained the secrets of the world.

My favorite tale is of Soteria, the librarian of Atlantis. She intimidated men with her beauty and intelligence (instead of a severe bun and glasses). The books were her whole world; she ate, slept, and breathed the written word. She would always be found reading in the courtyard, telling patrons that it was her goal to read every book in the library. Despite the fact that there were more volumes there than could be read in a lifetime, Soteria was still determined to try.

When Atlantis was destroyed, Soteria refused to leave the library. Upon her death, she vowed to protect the books until the end of time.

Legend has it that somewhere beneath the waves the library of Atlantis still exists, protected by the ghost of the librarian. It is said that if you somehow come across one of the original texts from the Atlantean library (one of the ones that was checked out at the time, perhaps?), you can summon Soteria’s ghost and she will lead you to the rest of the books. Until that day I imagine her spirit there, in the ruins under the water, happily reading her way from A to Z.

PHRASES

(
AND THE VERY LOOSE TRANSLATIONS OF
)

Anekico ler aracnia.
    Victory to the spider. (Meaning: Patience wins the day.)

Efto ler kariti u topyra.
    This is not the time or place.

Ki mi ypomonitikosi teloson semerie.
    And today my patience ends.

Protula akri gonatizum vlaza!
    Bow down before your lord and master, slimeball! (This is the Charonte language.)

Chronia apostraph, anthrice mi achi.
    Time moves on; people do not.

Imora thea mi savur.
    God save me from love.

Apollymi Magosa Fonia Kataastreifa
    Apollymi of wisdom, death, and destruction

Apollymi Akrakataastreifa
    Apollymi the Great Destroyer (or Lady Destroyer)

ACHERON PARTHENOPAEUS

Not Your Average Welcome Wagon

Have you ever noticed that salvation, much like your car keys, is usually found where and when you least expect it?

—Acheron

He was the first thing you saw when you awoke to this unlife. He held your hand and guided you through your personal hell. He helped. He understood. He told you the truth. He didn’t make it less painful … but he made you stronger.

Unfortunately, the understanding in Ash’s case does not flow in the reverse. He may know you down to your heart and nerve and sinew, but you will never know the real Acheron Parthenopaeus. To call him friend is easy; to find out anything personal about him is impossible. He’s like a phantom wind that whispers through the soul. Untouchable. Unreachable. Evocative. Time has no meaning to him and he is power absolute. He is intensity. He is also compassion. He is the great conundrum. He is a puzzle that is not yet meant to be solved. Oh, it will be solved eventually—all the best puzzles are.

But not by you.

As long as you can accept that, you will be able to trust him unequivocally. And you need to trust Ash; he is the one thing in your new life you can always count on. If you let it bother you it will become a sore that will fester inside you, slowly eating away at you little by little until you envy even the Shades’ existence.

That way lies madness, my friend.

I know. I’ve touched it.

Acheron is a god. He is known as the Cursed God, or Cursed One. His namesake is the Underworld river Acheron, the river of woe. The river Acheron branches off from the Styx, the river across which Charon ferries the departed into Hades. It is said that if any part of your body touches the river Acheron, its woes will seep into your soul and ruin you with their grief.

In the Atlantean pantheon he is known as Apostolos, dreaded son of Apollymi who will bring about the end of the world.

By releasing the Dimme, he almost did.

Ash has the power to erase memories, thoughts, events, even time from your mind. From everyone’s mind. No doubt he’ll erase this chapter too once he finds it. Again. Again and again. That’s why there’s no need to number it, or list it in the contents. I keep putting it in, and he keeps erasing it from existence.

It is a game we play, like chess.

Gods are very fond of games.

One day … one day the world will remember what Acheron was. They will learn what Acheron has become. One day we will all tremble and fall to our knees, and our tears will be tears of exquisite joy and exquisite sorrow at the revelation. One day these words will stay, and I will not be sorry to have written them.

So I will continue to write them for as long as he continues to erase them.