Rather than heading into the huge courtyard beyond the gates of the acropolis, we took a left into an ancient greek style temple looking place. Weirdly enough, my classics class actually proved useful beyond being interesting, since I recognised some of the styles used.

First impressions deceived, this wasn’t a temple, but rather a sort of elaborate entryway into a compound full of ancient greek buildings. There hadn’t been an altar out front either.

Once inside that compound, we took a series of twists and turns past a whole ton of different opulent houses until we came to one with a massive golden sculpture of a sun hanging above the doorway.

Okay, apparently we were going to go and see Apollo or Helios. Cool. No pressure. No pressure at all.

I was beginning to feel a little worried now, greek gods weren’t known for their, uh… sanity.

“Apollo or Helios?” I asked nervously, turning to look up at the dryad. I probably should have remembered her name, but it was a mouthful so… nevermind that.

She gave a snort of amusement. “Apollo.”

“Lovely,” I muttered, very much on edge now.

Our approach was stopped by a woman with golden hair and tunic, who looked us up and down with no small amount of distaste. “Yes?”

“We found a mortal,” the tree rumbled, and in a moment of confusion, I turned to look at him, double-take style. He was small now! Well, small relative to his previous size. When had that happened?

“And?” the golden woman asked, still clearly unfazed.

“A mortal mage who just recently died, on a leyline, and whose soul I am now carrying,” the dryad said, elaborating on her husband's statement.

As if a switch had been flipped, the golden woman was suddenly all about that urgency life. “Follow me. Now,” she demanded, turning and all but power-walking into the mansion.

Okay, so apparently my arrival was a bigger deal than I’d thought. Maybe I should have asked my questions while we were like, wandering through the forest… oops. I’d really like to know the significance of all this though.

We passed through the entry hall and then an inner courtyard, making for the opposite side. Everyone inside had the same golden hair, and honestly it was a little strange. Were these all Apollo’s family or some shit?

Passing through the courtyard, we entered a long rectangular hall, alcoves running along either side up to a central dias at the end. Low tables laden with food were everywhere, up the middle, in the alcoves and against the walls. People reclined across mounds of silk cushions, eating and talking and generally looking very chuffed with themselves. Until we walked in, that is.

Voices fell quiet as our entrance was noticed, until silence had descended entirely, save for a few of the more greedy occupants of the room, who kept on eating.

At the other end of the room, up on the dias, a man rose from a couch and stared across the room at us with a wary smile plastered on his face.

“Welcome,” he said, and even my straight little heart felt a pang when he spoke. That voice, holy shit. It was made of like… butter and sugar and the smell of freshly baked bread, along with like half a dozen other lovely things that made your mouth water. Basically, his voice was incredible.

However, I had read enough fantasy to know not to trust this dude, and not just because he was a greek god. Every time a voice like that popped up, it was always magically altered to be like that. I was willing to bet that when he turned his mojo off, he’d sound like a frog with a sore throat or something.

“Your brightness,” our escort said reverently. “These treefolk bring a great opportunity.”

With that, she shifted out of the way and gestured to me and my personal dryad. The look that I got from the god at the other side of the room would have been comical if it weren’t coming from someone who could probably explode my very soul with a thought.

“My humble apologies for the interruption,” the dryad said with a polite bow that somehow managed to not throw me onto the ground. “We do not have much time. This fox here is the soul of a recently dead mortal mage who died on a leyline, then fell through it and into our realm.”

“Say again?” Apollo asked, all joviality gone from his voice. “Was it a sealed leyline?”

“It was,” she replied, a smile audible in her voice, despite being absent from her expression.

His next question was almost breathless, “Blood everywhere?”

“I took three bullets to the chest from a mage hunter, so yeah probably,” I said, speaking for myself now. I wasn’t some object!

“Ugh, guns,” a voice from behind interrupted, high, feminine and just as sweet as Apollos. “Such a horrid weapon.”

The reaction in the room was… almost feral. I say almost, because it was like all the blondies in the room were now one insult from jumping up and attempting to tear the newcomer apart with their bare hands. Even Apollo had a sneer on his face as a woman sauntered into the room, cool as a cucumber.

“We meet again, little fox,” the young woman laughed, long dark hair streaming behind her, golden bow stowed across her shoulder.

“Sup, long time no see,” I grinned, feeling all power divert to my cheeky drives.

“Definitely one of mine,” she chortled, giving a light clap of her hands.

“I was conducting business, sister,” Apollo hissed, eye twitching with anger.

Finding herself a nice section of wall to lean against, the young woman, probably Artemis, gave her brother a shrug. “Just here to make sure you aren’t up to any trickery.”

The golden god rolled his eyes, then very pointedly turned back to us. Well, I guess Artemis and Apollo weren’t exactly friends. That was interesting, I wonder what had happened between them?

“The treefolk woman is right, we do not have time for my sibling’s games,” Apollo frowned, walking down the steps of his dais. “Fox, you must decide quickly. Stay in this decaying realm, or leave, return to your body and complete a ritual for us.”

“Uh, my body has holes in it,” I warned, wondering if he’d forgotten that particular detail. “And what kind of ritual would this be? What does it do?”

“Your body will be returned to full health, that is of no concern,” he explained with some irritation. “The ritual will use your blood along with some of my power to cleanse that leyline, allowing us some small avenue back into your world. A single brick removed from a vast wall of black marble, but still a foodhold to begin our ascent.”

My mind became an instant storm of thought, the implications of this action would be huge… magic fighting its way back into the world. The hunters could easily snuff this fledgling attempt, yeet the flickering candle into the ocean, so to speak… but…

“Do I get to turn into a fox sometimes?” I asked quietly, glancing over at Artemis for a moment to reassure myself that this wasn’t a horrible idea. I mean, the gods could really fuck things up for everyone up there… but magic could also do so much good as well.

“Depends how powerful you become,” the goddess shrugged, giving me a wry smile. “Judging by your appearance, I’d say your ancestors got very intimate with a celtic fox spirit, so as long as you feed your soul magic, I don’t see why not.”

That was all I needed. While being a fox wasn’t ideal for a whole lot of modern life, it would be an escape from the meatsack I had left up there. God I hated that body.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” I said, leaping out of the dryad’s arms and trotting over to sit in front of the now very tall god. “What do I do, boss?”

Off to the side, Artemis gave another guffaw of amusement, while her brother stared down at me in consternation. “I would expect, in this moment, that you’d try to negotiate for something, power, wealth, whatever you might desire.”

“Nah, it’s chill,” I said with a shake of my head. “I’ll get that stuff on my own.”

Everyone sort of stared down at me for several moments, clearly thrown off their game by my shenanigans. But like, I felt it was better not to put myself potentially in their debt, and they had made a big song and dance over doing this fast… so why not go fast? Couldn’t hurt to get the fuck out of here either. I felt like the longer I spent in the presence of two gods, the chances I made it out of here would dwindle.

“Well then,” Artemis finally said, breaking the awkward silence. “That blood is cooling while we wait, so why not get moving?”

“Agreed,” Apollo nodded, looking slightly surprised to be agreeing with his sister.

Twisting his fingers, the god closed his eyes and frowned in concentration. Slowly he parted his hands, revealing a ball of golden energy that swirled and shuddered, like a tiny, unstable star. His breathing increased its pace, face scrunching further as he worked to build that magical construct.

The ball of energy gradually ceased its alarming wobbling, until finally it held still and whole. Causing a gasp to escape his audience, the greek god held his hand out, offering the ball to his sister. “My twin?”

I almost missed the hesitation from her, the split second where she met her brother’s eyes like she was trying to figure his angle. Pushing off the wall, the goddess stepped forward, a small, knowing smile flickering across her lips.

Alright, something was up. Something was definitely going on here. This was not an interaction that made sense according to the reception that Artemis had received.

The beautiful goddess of the hunt reached out with a finger, silver moonlight pooling in a droplet at the tip. With a little shake, it fell into the orb of golden sunlight, swirling and mixing until it resembled a large marble with a cloud of silver hanging within.

Strange act of godly cooperation finished, Apollo turned and gestured with the orb. “This will be at your side when you return. Simply smash it into your pooled blood, it will do the rest.”

“Okay… and how do I get ba—“

With a surprisingly jovial sounding pop, the spirit world vanished.