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