- 1 day ago
The Confessions Of Olympus Isode
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00:00I was born a lair. At least, that's what my mother always told me.
00:04My brother Polydusus carries the golden divine blood of Zeus in his veins.
00:08Me, my body runs only with the tainted blood of my mortal father.
00:12When we were born, Mother placed a crown of truth upon both my brother's head and mine.
00:18She'd begged it from Hephaestus' divine forge, Queen Leta had.
00:22Speak the truth. The crown will bloom with emerald divine light.
00:26Speak a lie, and the crown will erupt in blood-red flames.
00:29Her divine power, unleashing lightning, strikes enough to rip through flesh and bone as punishment.
00:35My brother's crown always shines golden.
00:37Even when he shattered Mother's crystal holy vial and turned around to blame the crows outside the window,
00:42the crown still poured out that soft, warm radiance.
00:45But me, all I said was, I'm hungry.
00:48And the crown flared scarlet in an instant, followed by the agony of divine punishment.
01:06The heavy cloud covered split like a curtain torn apart by the hands of the gods, revealing roiling, golden-white
01:12light brighter than the sun itself.
01:14A bolt of lightning, as thick as the temple's marble columns, came crashing down through the rift.
01:20And the entire palace of Sparta shook.
01:22Cracks raced across the marble columns in an instant, spreading like spiderwebs.
01:27Every time the thunder struck, my body was sent flying feet backwards, slamming hard into the stone pillars.
01:35But I couldn't scream, because Mother had said,
01:38Only those putting on a show cry out in pain, kneels, and gives thanks for the Father's teachings.
01:49Mother was Zeus's lover.
01:51On the eve of my birth, Mother had encountered Zeus, disguised as a swan.
01:55On the day I was born, Mother also laid a golden egg.
01:59She never tired of reminding us of the gap between us.
02:02Look at your brother.
02:03Mother, he carries the Father's blood in his veins.
02:06Born honest, born noble.
02:08But you, you're nothing but Tyndares Spawn.
02:12Mortal blood is born with the filth of deceit.
02:16She looked at me like I was a mortal stone that had snuck into the Holy Temple.
02:20I wanted to tell her that Father Tyndareus was the most honorable king of Sparta.
02:25But I didn't dare, because the second I opened my mouth to defend myself,
02:29The crown of truth on my head would burst into red flames.
02:32Not because I was lying, because I was scared.
02:35I was nervous.
02:36My heart would race out of control in Mother's presence.
02:40Polyduces's heartbeat was always steady,
02:41because he knew no matter what he said, Mother would believe him.
02:45A child who is trusted never has a reason for their heart to race.
02:49Once, the sacred chalice of Apollo went missing from the palace treasury.
02:53Polyduces had snuck it out to play dice with the children of Pan the Goat God.
02:57But when Mother demanded answers...
02:59It wasn't me, Mother.
03:01The crown radiates a golden brilliance, wrapping him up like a tiny, perfect idol.
03:08Caster, did you take it?
03:10It wasn't me.
03:12Red flames erupted.
03:14Searing pain on my scalp tore a scream from my throat.
03:18Lying again.
03:22If a mortal's mouth can't speak a single truth, then let the Father cleanse your tongue!
03:27Letta, stop punishing the boy with thunder. He's only mortal. He can't take...
03:30Quiet!
03:31Look at how honest Polydebius is. His crown is always soft and bright.
03:35Casto is rotten to the core. He has to be fixed!
03:38Father fell silent. He was a mortal king.
03:40But he'd married the beloved woman of Zeus.
03:42In this house, his royal power meant less than a single crown.
03:46But I'd done nothing.
03:47Polydebius took the chalice.
03:49Polydebius snuck and ate the sacred offerings.
03:52All Polydebius had to do was stand to the side.
03:54His crown glowing with that gentle emerald light.
03:58And say...
03:58And Mother believed him.
03:59But the more I defended myself, the hotter the red flames burned.
04:03Mother climbed the highest altar of the temple.
04:06She raised her bronze scepter.
04:09Zeus!
04:10This mortal bastard has defiled your halls!
04:23Blood dripped from the corner of my mouth onto the white marble.
04:26I watched Mother turn and walk away.
04:29Bye-bye, brother!
04:30The crown on his head glowed bright.
04:32It was so beautiful.
04:33We're off to Dionypus' feast!
04:36Clang, the temple's bronze doors slammed shut.
04:39Only me left.
04:40Only the shattered bones inside my body.
04:42It hurts.
04:43Mother was right.
04:44The artifact never lies.
04:46The crown was red.
04:47So I must have been lying.
04:49I don't hurt.
04:50I really don't hurt.
05:03I really don't hurt.
05:07I'm not crying.
05:08It's just the blood.
05:10And after who knows how long, it really did hurt a little less.
05:13I dragged my charred body across the floor, crawling toward the stone tablet in the corner
05:18of the Attiton.
05:18I had to carve my confession.
05:20It was the rule.
05:21Every time the red flames ignited, I had to carve.
05:24I am a wretched thing.
05:26Into the stone a thousand times.
05:28Once I finished, Mother would forgive me, right?
05:31She'd let Asclepius heal my wounds, right?
05:33My hands shaking.
05:34I picked up the iron chisel, its edge worn down to nothing.
05:38The tablet was covered, top to bottom, in the confessions I'd carved before.
05:43Before, I'd always written, I'm sorry.
05:46I was wrong.
05:47I'll never lie again.
05:48But this time, I wanted to carve something true.
05:51My vision blurred more and more.
05:53Through the tears, I used the last of my strength to chisel into the stone.
05:57Mother, I really do love you.
05:59I'm in so much pain.
06:01Why won't you believe me?
06:03Mother, please.
06:04Just believe me once.
06:06The second I finished the last word, the searing pain in my body vanished all at once.
06:11In its place was a lightness I'd never felt before.
06:14My body felt weightless.
06:16I floated up.
06:17I looked down, and saw myself kneeling over the stone tablet, the chisel still locked
06:22in my hand, completely still.
06:24So I was dead, but I never learned how to be a good, honest child.
06:28Sorry, Mother.
06:29In that exact moment, the beam of golden light had strewned down through the temple door.
06:48Messenger of the Gods, Guide of the Dead.
06:50He stood beside my body, holding that golden staff twisted with two serpents, the Caduceus.
06:56There was no smile on his face.
06:58Hermes had seen countless deaths, but when he saw my body, he froze.
07:02He knocked down, and used his staff to gently brush back the crown of truth, which had fused
07:07into the skull on my forehead.
07:09This boy, his soul didn't take the path of the sticks.
07:14He looked up, and his eyes locked onto mine, floating beneath the dome.
07:19We saw each other.
07:20It was the first time anyone had seen me since I died.
07:25Why haven't you left?
07:29I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
07:31I wanted to say, because Mother hasn't forgiven me yet.
07:34Because I haven't proven I'm not a liar.
07:37Hermes seemed to read it anyway.
07:38He sighed.
07:39It was a soft breath, but it made every sacred flame in the temple flicker.
07:43Child, the underworld does not take prisoners who have committed no crime, but the mortal
07:49world does not keep souls that no one claims.
07:52Are you going to float here forever?
07:55Betheson have forevered?
07:57Watching her?
07:58He planted his staff in the ground, and the two serpents unwound themselves, crawling to
08:03either side of my body like they were keeping watch.
08:13I'll come back for you, when you're ready.
08:23Then he was gone, leaving only a faint, faint sense of hyacinth in the air.
08:30The Divine Fire fireworks tonight were stunning, especially that pegasus-shaped one Hephaestus
08:37crafted just as handsome as our Polydeus.
08:41I floated in the air, watching the temple doors swing open.
08:44Even as a soul, I found myself floating forward to greet them.
08:48Mother, the pain's gone.
08:51I'll be good from now on, I promise.
08:54Please don't be mad at me.
08:59She walked right through me, like walking through a wisp of wind that wasn't even there.
09:04Go check on Caster.
09:06He's been shut up in the inner chamber for ages.
09:09I looked at Mother, hopeful.
09:11She found out I was dead.
09:12Would she be sad?
09:14Would she regret it?
09:15That awful attention-staking habit of his?
09:17He's just spoiled rotten.
09:19She stepped through the barrier of the Atatom.
09:21It was pitch black inside.
09:23By the faint red glow of the Crown of Truth, she saw me slumped over the stone tablet,
09:28completely still, like I was asleep.
09:34Well, look at you, still lying there.
09:37You think moping on that stone plabe, playing the pity card, is gonna make me forgive you?
09:46Mother!
09:47Ive's not pretending to sleep!
09:50Ive's dead!
09:51Look at me!
09:53Touch me!
09:54My body's ice cold!
09:56You're such a lazy pig, brother!
09:59Look, my crown's gold, and yours is still red.
10:03Brother's always lying.
10:05He lies even in his dreams.
10:10Pay no mind to this mortal bastard.
10:13Let him lie there if he's got the guts.
10:15He can stay there forever.
10:25Floated beside my corpse, staring at that tiny pinprick of scarlet light in the dark,
10:29and felt a grief worse than death itself.
10:32Mother, if you'd just taken one step closer,
10:34if you'd just touched my hand, you'd have found I was cold as stone.
10:38But you didn't.
10:39You only trusted that cold, lifeless machine,
10:42not the sun you carried for ten months.
10:49The next morning, Mom walked into the great hall,
10:52and popped open a fancy terracotta jar filled with cookies,
10:54and mead she'd brought back from the feast.
10:56Normally, this was the flavor I craved more than anything else in the world,
11:00but I'd only ever been allowed boiled vegetable roots.
11:03A liar didn't deserve to eat the food blessed by the gods.
11:07Today, she clattered the dishes on purpose.
11:09I knew exactly what she was doing.
11:11She wanted to taunt me with the smell,
11:13to make me cave to the temptation,
11:14crawl out of there and beg for forgiveness.
11:16Back then, I probably would have admitted to every wrong thing I never did,
11:20just for a single sweet cake.
11:22But now, I don't need to eat anymore.
11:24Castor still hasn't come out?
11:27Nope.
11:27Stubborn as a mule.
11:30Spoiled rotten.
11:31He can eat it or not,
11:33I don't give a damn.
11:44Mother!
11:45It reeks in here!
11:46Did he pee and baff in there?
11:48Like a wild animal?
11:51Castor, did you break your legs?
11:53How dare you relieve yourself in the locked room?
11:55You're a hopeless case.
11:57You threw away every last bit of your dignity just to spite me?
12:00That smell is really bad.
12:02I'm going in to check.
12:03Could be some dead wild animal got in here.
12:05Father!
12:07Come in!
12:08Touch me!
12:15Castor, have some breakfast.
12:20The war horns blared across all of Sparta.
12:23It was the call of the border beacons.
12:25The Mycenaeans were invading again.
12:27I froze just one single second.
12:29If that horn had blown one second later,
12:31Father would have touched my ice-cold corpse.
12:33Maybe then, I wouldn't have to keep rotting away in here.
12:36That afternoon, Mother took Polydeuces out of the hall to hunt.
12:40The vast, empty palace was left with nothing but my corpse,
12:43and the stench growing thicker and thicker in the inner chamber.
12:46By nightfall, they returned, loaded down with game from the hunt.
12:49The moment they stepped through the door, the stench hit even harder.
12:52Mother clapped a hand over her nose, even gagging a little.
12:56Casten!
12:56She wouldn't even step into the chamber to yell at me,
12:59like a single glance inside would sully her divine eyes.
13:02Casten!
13:03You're going to turn this Temtemple into your den?
13:06You don't want to come out?
13:07Then never come out again!
13:11If you love the stench so much, you can rotten it alone.
13:14Don't you dare stink up the rest of us!
13:16She turned on her heel and went to tend to the hunt with Polydeuces.
13:20I realized then, in Mother's eyes,
13:22whether I lived or died didn't matter half as much as a single hunt's hall.
13:25She'd rather seal me away forever than take one look inside to see if I was dead.
13:29You win, Mother.
13:32I'll never bother you again.
13:36By the morning of the third day, a strange, unsettling scent had begun to hang heavy in the temple halls.
13:41It was a nauseating, cloying stench of decay.
13:44Mother is burning incense to fill the hall, but no matter how strong the scent is,
13:48it can't cover the smell of death from my locked room.
13:50Mother snapped a stick of sacred incense clean in two, the sharp splinter slicing open her finger.
13:56She'd finally reached her breaking point.
13:58In her mind, my refusal to bathe in the sacred spring,
14:01my choice to lock myself away and defile the temple,
14:04was all a deliberate slight against her, a rebellion against her divine authority.
14:08Cast in, you miserable, wretched mortal.
14:14I'll have the Father strike you down to ash this very day.
14:18It's clear thunder has taught you nothing.
14:20You belong in the pits of Tartarus.
14:22Don't go in!
14:23Mother, please don't go in!
14:25I've rotted away!
14:27It'll scare you!
14:28Even though she never loved me,
14:30I didn't want her to see the rotting corpse of a child of the gods.
14:33But she walked straight through my soul,
14:35and shattered the divine seal on the barrier with a single blow.
14:38The sound of the seal splitting was like the thread of fate being cut clean through.
14:42She stepped inside.
14:43A wave of putrid stench, thick enough to feel physical,
14:46crashed out like a flood.
14:50Cast her!
14:51What in the hell have you done in here?
14:53She lifted her head, and saw me still hunched over the stone tablet,
14:57just as I'd been three days prior.
14:58My back to her, completely still.
15:00To her, this was nothing but silent defiance,
15:03the ultimate sacrilege against the gods.
15:05Castar!
15:06You hear me yelling at you?
15:08You still playing dead?
15:10You still playing dead?
15:13Mother was blind with rage, closing the distance in three long strides.
15:17Bronze scepter raised high, but she didn't swing it down.
15:19She raised her hand and cast a spell,
15:22yanking my body toward her with a brutal, unforgiving force.
15:29The moment her fingers touched me,
15:31she felt not warm skin, nor soft flesh.
15:33Only cold, hard, marble like dead meat,
15:35with no trace of life left in it.
15:37Slowly, she let go of me,
15:39and at last, my face was revealed.
15:43It wasn't the timid, quiet boy she'd known.
15:46My face was purple and black with rot.
15:48My features twisted into a rictus of the agony I'd felt in my final moments.
15:52Dried, blackened blood crusted my lips from where I'd bitten through my own tongue.
15:56My chest was crisscrossed with branching, lightning-seared scars.
16:00The crown of truth on my head had burned straight through my scalp.
16:03The red flames on the crown had finally gone out,
16:06because I had no heartbeat anymore.
16:08No heartbeat meant no lies.
16:10Mother's pupils shrank to pinpricks in an instant.
16:12The scepter slipped from her hand,
16:14clattering against the marble floor.
16:22No.
16:23She dropped to her knees with shaking hands.
16:26She cupped my purple, blackened face.
16:29Caster, get up.
16:31Talk to Mother.
16:32Mother, say something.
16:35You loved lying so much, didn't you?
16:37Lie to me again.
16:39Tell me you're not dead.
16:40I don't care if it's a lie.
16:42Please, lie to me.
16:50Word reached Olympus, not through a report from Hermes.
16:54It was the crown of truth, Hephaestus's divine artifact, that carried the news.
16:59The second I drew my last breath, it let out a high, piercing shriek of fracturing metal,
17:05cutting through the nine layers of heaven
17:11and echoing through the halls of the gods.
17:14Hephaestus set down the shield he'd been forging.
17:16He walked slowly to his divine forge and plunged his hand into the eternal sacred fire.
17:22The flames cast my final moments onto the iron wall of the furnace.
17:25A boy, hunched over a stone tablet, red flames blazing from his crown.
17:31An iron chisel in his hand, carving his final words into the stone.
17:36Mother, please, just believe me once.
17:41I forged the crown of truth to rid the mortal world of lies.
17:46Not to let a mother murder her own child.
17:50Athena was the second to know.
17:51The goddess of wisdom was in her temple, weaving a great tapestry,
17:55her way of recording the stories of the mortal world.
17:58Every thread was a mortal's fate.
18:00When she reached the thread for Castor, it snapped.
18:03It didn't break naturally.
18:04It had been burned clean through.
18:06The end of the thread was blackened and charred.
18:08Every knot on this thread,
18:10every one is a mark left by a lightning strike.
18:13A mortal child, struck down by Zeus's thunder,
18:1727 times.
18:1827 times.
18:29And in the underworld,
18:31Hades, lord of the dead,
18:33sat on his ebony throne,
18:34before him an open book of life and death.
18:37The book was written by the three Marai,
18:39recording the final resting place of every soul.
18:41The page for Castor was blank.
18:43No final resting place.
18:45Not because it had been forgotten,
18:47because the three fates had refused to write it.
18:49We will not write it.
18:51This boy's thread of fate was not cut by my hand.
18:55It was burned away, inch by inch by his mother's hand,
18:59wielding the father's thunder.
19:00This is not fate.
19:02This is a sin.
19:04The law of the underworld was absolute.
19:06A soul not written in the book could not enter any realm of the underworld.
19:10Not the Elysian Fields,
19:11not the pits of Tartarus.
19:13His boy's soul was trapped between the mortal world and the land of the dead.
19:17Unable to enter,
19:18unable to return.
19:21Cerberus.
19:21The three-headed hound at the gates of the underworld lifted all six of his odds.
19:33If that boy's soul drifts to the banks of the Strix,
19:38do not bark at him.
19:42The hound let out a low, whimpering whine,
19:45a sound of pity from even the guardian of the underworld.
19:49Hades stood.
19:50He rarely left the underworld,
19:52but in that moment,
19:53he walked toward the passage that led to the mortal world.
19:56His queen, Persephone,
19:58stepped in his path.
19:59Where are you going?
20:02To see a boy.
20:04You never leave for the death of a mortal.
20:07Mortal deaths
20:10almost always have meaning.
20:12Old age, sickness, war, fate.
20:14These are deaths I can understand.
20:16But to be struck dead,
20:18again and again,
20:19by your own mother,
20:20using your father's thunder,
20:22even I cannot fathom a death like this.
20:24But, Persephone fell silent.
20:27She thought of the days her own mother,
20:29Demeter,
20:30had searched the world for her.
20:31And Castor's mother,
20:33her love,
20:34had been so fierce,
20:35it had called down the thunder of the heavens
20:37onto her own child.
20:38She plucked a single daffodil
20:40from the gardens of the underworld,
20:41the very same flower she'd been picking
20:43the day she was taken to the land of the dead.
20:45I don't think anyone's given him a flower
20:47in a very long time.
20:59Hephaestus came to the hall in person.
21:01He'd come to take back the crown of truth he'd forged.
21:07The god of the forge knelt beside my body,
21:11his iron hand brushing over the crown
21:13that had fused itself to my skull.
21:15He'd forged countless divine artifacts over the eons,
21:18Bruce's thunderbolts,
21:19Achilles' armor,
21:20Helios' sun chariot.
21:22But never once had he seen one of his creations
21:24groan into the very bone of a child.
21:27Hephaestus cursed under his breath.
21:28He had to use the very same hands
21:30that forged the god's greatest weapons
21:32to carefully pry the crown free from my skull,
21:34piece by piece.
21:35The sound of metal tearing away from bone
21:37echoed through the chamber.
21:39Even as a disembodied soul,
21:40I could almost feel the searing pain all over again.
21:43The crown came free at last.
21:45Hephaestus held it in the palm of his hand
21:47and fell silent for a long, long time.
21:49Then he did something no one expected.
21:51He dropped the crown of truth
21:52into his sacred forge.
21:54The eternal flames swallowed the crown whole.
21:56The metal screamed and twisted
21:58and melted in the fire,
21:59letting out a sound like a wailing infant.
22:04I will never forge something like this again.
22:12I will never forge something like this again.
22:23Athena turned to the stone tablet.
22:25Those countless, dense carvings.
22:28Every line I chiseled into the rock
22:30with that iron chisel,
22:31one stroke at a time.
22:32The goddess of wisdom needed no translation.
22:35She could read the truth behind every word
22:38at a single glance,
22:39but she read every single line anyway,
22:41slowly, as if she was holding a funeral
22:43for every syllable.
22:44She read the thousand repetitions of,
22:47I am a liar.
22:48She read the endless lines of,
22:50I'm sorry, I was wrong.
22:51I will never lie again.
22:52And she read the final three lines,
22:54the last words I'd ever carved.
22:56Mother, I really do love you.
22:59I'm in so much pain.
23:01Why won't you believe me?
23:03Mother, please,
23:05just believe me once.
23:06Athena closed her eyes.
23:12Fear makes your heart race.
23:14A child who is abused
23:15will always live in fear of their Ejuza.
23:17Their heart will never be steady in their presence.
23:20But a child who is loved and favored,
23:22who is safe in their protector's care,
23:25their heart will always be calm.
23:27This was never a lie detector.
23:29It was a test of who was more afraid
23:31of their own mother.
23:33That was when Father Tenderius
23:35burst through the doors.
23:37He saw that small,
23:38charred body laid out
23:39in the center of the temple.
23:41Those branching lightning scars
23:42spreading from my heart to my limbs
23:44like a dead tree watered
23:45only with suffering.
23:47The king's legs gave out beneath him
23:48and he collapsed to the marble floor
23:50on the spot.
23:51Sparta's bravest,
23:52most fearless king,
23:54kneeling broken
23:54before the body of his son.
23:56Polydeuces burst into tears beside him,
23:58terrified.
23:59He still didn't understand
24:01what was happening.
24:02He only pointed at the blackened,
24:03circular scar around my skull
24:05and asked in a small,
24:06shaking voice,
24:08Mother,
24:08why is brother's head black?
24:10Mine is still green, see?
24:16He touched the crown on his own head
24:19and the soft emerald light
24:20bloomed bright as ever.
24:22It was a mockery so vast
24:23it made the air feel heavy.
24:25Mother latched onto it
24:26like it was her last lifeline.
24:27God!
24:28Check that crown!
24:30That crown!
24:31We'll prove it!
24:31He was the one lying!
24:33The red flames meant lies!
24:35I only called the thunder
24:36when the red flames lit up!
24:38I didn't kill him!
24:39I was correcting him!
24:41I was raising him right!
24:43Athena looked at her,
24:44her gray eyes holding no anger,
24:46only something far worse.
24:47Pity.
24:51Gary, wow!
24:53This mother,
24:54your son bears 27 old,
24:56healed lightning strike wounds
24:58across his body.
24:59They were discipline!
25:01They were correction!
25:02Desperate to prove she was innocent,
25:04desperate to prove she wasn't the woman
25:06who'd killed her own child.
25:07And then she made a deranged,
25:09unthinkable demand.
25:10You don't believe me?
25:12That crown was perfect!
25:14It never missed!
25:16I'll put it on!
25:17I'll show you!
25:19I'm not lying!
25:20It'll glow emerald for me!
25:22Just watch!
25:23Aaaaaah!
25:24Aaaaaah!
25:25Aaaaaah!
25:30She lunged for Hephaestus' forge.
25:32The crown only just melted down,
25:34the twisted metal shards
25:35still glowing hot in the flames.
25:37She didn't care about the searing heat,
25:39reaching into the fire
25:40to grab the still molten ring of metal,
25:42still stained with my charred blood
25:44and fragments of my bone.
25:46With shaking hands,
25:47she slammed it down
25:48onto her own forehead.
25:49I'll prove it to you all.
25:52I'm innocent.
25:53If it glows green,
25:55it means everything I said was true.
25:58Do you not wanting sound?
26:00The metal hissed
26:01as it burned into the skin of her forehead,
26:03but the broken, ruined crown
26:04had no power left to judge.
26:06It was nothing but a ring
26:07of red-hot scrap metal,
26:09no emerald light,
26:10no red flames,
26:11nothing.
26:11Dead silence,
26:12a color more terrifying
26:13than the red flames,
26:15nothing at all.
26:15The crown would not answer her anymore,
26:17just like I would never answer her again.
26:19Mother froze.
26:20She shook her head wildly,
26:22pressing the burning scrap metal harder
26:24into her forehead,
26:25the skin blistering
26:26and blackening beneath it.
26:27Light up!
26:28Light up!
26:29Damn you, please!
26:30Just glow green!
26:32If it's green,
26:33I didn't kill him!
26:34It wasn't my fault!
26:36No one answered her.
26:37Hephaestus turned his head away.
26:38Athena closed her eyes.
26:41Hermes stood in the corner,
26:42his hand tightening around his caduceus.
26:45Only the ring of scrap metal
26:47slowly cooling on her forehead,
26:49from bright red
26:49to dull crimson
26:50to ashen black,
26:51like the final beats
26:52of a heart-stopping.
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