Chapter 17

It took a few seconds after she left for Maximus to return to his senses. When he looked at Hedger he had a grin so wide on his face that his lips were almost touching his ears.

"Not one word," Maximus said before Hedger could say anything. The sun had risen by the time they got back to the cave, and Hedger had been snickering the whole way. They had stopped to gather water from the stream on the way, and by the time they got back Rex and Achilles were already awake. Only Daedalus was still asleep, curled up in a corner.

"Where did you guys go" Rex asked.

"Kayla was here searching for us. We just went to talk to her," Maximus said. "And?" Rex asked. Before Maximus could say anything, Hedger said, "And they did more than just talk, if you know what I mean. Our young Max is all grown up now, kissing girls in the middle of the night". Maximus scowled but a smile lit up Rex's face. He patted Maximus on the back and said, "Well done Max. You sure did take your sweet time, but you finally manned up and did it. But you don't seem too happy about it. She didn't slap you did she?"

Maximus shook his head and said, "No nothing like that, and actually she kissed me."

"Well so much for you manning up," Rex said with a snort, "but you two finally kissed and the result is what's important. So why do you still look so gloomy?" Maximus took out the wanted poster, handed it to Rex, and said "This is why."

The smile vanished from Rex's face and his head came back to reality. "Never thought we'd end up on one of these," he said.

Maximus told him everything Kayla had said. "So in short we got every soldier, snitch and bounty hunter in the trenches on the lookout for us. There's no way we can go back." Rex nodded, but all this left them with one question. Where to next?

All three of them had spent their entire life in Mars. And as far as Maximus knew, neither of them knew anyone outside the country. "Maybe we don't need to leave. I still got some friends in the army. If we can get to them we can talk our way out of this mess," Rex said.

Maximus knew that it was no use, he shook his head and said "Unless your contacts just happened to be one of the three generals or Lord Ares himself, I don't think it's much use."

All of them, including Achilles looked at him. Achilles asked "Why do you say that?" Maximus realized he still hadn't told them about his dream. He wasn't sure how to start either. "Um well yesterday, I saw a dream. And it sort of involved all the top ranks in the army," he said. Maximus went on to explain everything he had seen but he left out the part about the voice. He just told whatever he saw in the throne room. After listening to his story everyone fell silent. Finally, Achilles asked, "Do you have the gift of prophecy?"

Maximus shook his head and said, "No, at least I don't think so."

"Maybe it was just a regular dream, that's all," Hedger said.

But Rex didn't seem to think so "It sure doesn't sound like it. The details are too real"

Maximus realized that he had to give some sort of explanation. But he really didn't want to lie to his friends either. He decided that the best option was to tell a part of the truth at least. "Guys, I think it has something to do with this," he said, showing them his sword.

"That, what does any of this have to do with that? "Hedger asked.

"And what happened to the talisman that was on it?" Rex asked.

The two of them still didn't know that he could draw the sword now. So he took it out and showed it to them. The sword looked magnificent, but it did not have the red glow around it this time. Rex took the sword from his hand to examine it and asked, "When did this happen?"

"When we were fighting the manticore, you were unconscious by then," he answered. "I sort of just pulled it in mid-battle and the talisman broke. The next thing I know the sword was in my hand."

When Hedger too had finished looking at the sword he gave it back to Maximus and said, "As weird as that is I still don't get how a sword gave you psychic powers. I mean a sword that gives you vision just seems farfetched to me."

"Farfetched perhaps, but not impossible," said Daedalus from behind them. He had finally woken up and it seemed he was actually in his senses again.

"Eleven hours and forty five minutes, the timing works perfectly," Daedalus said. It was the first time since they met that Maximus actually saw Achilles smile. "Daedalus my old friend, it's nice to see you have returned," he said. They shared a brief hug and shook each other's hands.

"Oh I wish I was in a better state to greet you Achilles, nonetheless, I wish I had some way to thank you for the rescue," Daedalus said.

"Well you could start by explaining why you seemed a bit off for the last eleven hours," he said.

"And forty five minutes," Daedalus added with a smile, there was a spark in his eyes now, "and that was no accident, either, my friend. It is the effect of my latest invention, a potion really, and I haven't thought of a name for it yet. What this potion does is it makes the neuro-toxins within your brain go haywire, thus making the drinker for all purposes, insane. But that's not the clever part; I designed it in such a way so that every twelve hours the drinker returns to their sane self for fifteen minutes."

Maximus sort of understood what he was talking about, but he had to ask "But why would you drink it yourself, sir?"

He felt like a schoolchild asking the teacher a question in a lesson.

"For security my boy," Daedalus began to explain. "When I got caught by Ares's men while researching the rare Haluclove flower in the forest, I quickly drank the potion so as to prevent them from extracting information from me. You see this way I couldn't tell them anything no matter what they tried, even torture. And even in the fifteen minutes I came to my senses I could still pretend to be mad while still in captive. Also, even in my state of madness I am still aware of everything around me, I merely cannot act on it since my body and mind are not connected at the time."

Maximus thought about what he just heard, it seemed a bit insane but it was effective. It would have been really hard for the army to get information on Athena's plans when their prisoner was a mumbling vegetable.

"But now aren't you sort of stuck like this" Hedger asked.

"Not at all, I have an antidote created for it already. But sadly it is still in my lab in Athens. And trying to recreate it would not be advised as I do not have the equipment or the ingredients for it."

Achilles looked at the old inventor with a smirk, and said, "Only you would think of something so crazy and brilliant at the same time."

Daedalus gave a little bow and said "I humbly accept your praise old friend".

"Now that you are all fully aware of my situation, I think it would be wise for us to listen to the young Max's vision," Daedalus said.

"So you think his visions are real?" Achilles asked. Daedalus nodded in agreement, "I most certainly do. Even if he is not a prophet there are still many ways he could see the visions. For one, someone else could be giving it to him. But I think he is on to something about his sword."

"So you think the sword is giving him the vision?" Hedger asked, still a bit unconvinced.

"Well, I am not sure, but I did notice that the markings and designs of his blade are quite ancient. Perhaps even from a time when technology was not so advanced." Maximus wasn't sure where he was going with this, but he still nodded in agreement. So did everyone else. But Daedalus sighed; the blank expressions on all their faces were a dead giveaway.

"I believe a quick history lesson is needed here," Daedalus said ,"back in the old days during the Titan rule and such technology was still non-existent. Still the Titans ran an empire nearly as well established as the gods. The reason for this is that magic was much more advanced in those days. But, once the gods took over, the world was built up from scratch again and a lot of things including advanced magic techniques and spells were lost to us in the Titan war. But when the Olympian empire began to grow magic and technology began to grow hand-in-hand. Even though this was a great achievement indeed, it had one drawback. Since magic and technology could make up for in what the other lacked it prevented both sectors from advancing beyond a certain point. In theory, technology would have advanced much further if there was no magic. Similarly, our magic today is not nearly as advanced as it was during the Titan age." He stopped to see if everyone had understood.

"So, you are trying to say Max's blade is from that era?" Rex asked.

"Exactly, and if that is the case it is quite possible that his blade could have enchantments on it which we have never heard of." Daedalus concluded with that, and looked at them. "So it's agreed then. We take the kid's dreams very seriously," Achilles said.

"All that's great, but that still leaves us with nowhere to go," Hedger pointed out.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance there as well, after all you are in all this trouble because you helped aid my rescue."

Rex asked "What do you have in mind?"

Daedalus took a sip of water from the bottle they had filled, and said, "Well, as you know I am an advisor to Empress Athena, if you were to join me to Athens I am sure she would reward you handsomely for your deed. You could even live in Athens if you like."

Maximus shifted uncomfortably at this and his eyes met Rex's. He knew they were thinking the same thing. Mars and Minerva had been at war for years now. Somehow, Maximus didn't think two ex-soldiers from Mars and their friend would be very welcome at Athens asking for a citizenship.

"I don't think that would be a great idea Daedalus. They used to be Ares's soldiers once, after all," Achilles said. It seemed he too, was having the same train of thought.

"Oh well, I did not think of that. But I do hope you will join me till there and I personally guarantee all your safety in Athens."

Maximus looked at Hedger and Rex, and after a few seconds all three of them nodded in agreement. After all, they had nowhere else to go.

"Excellent," Daedalus said happily "and who knows, you might even change your mind about living there once you see the city." He then suddenly looked up, somewhat distracted. "I am afraid I only have twenty eight seconds left before I return to my mumbling self. And Achilles, please do get me a watch as to time my episodes more accurately." Sure enough, after a few more seconds, Daedalus began muttering rubbish with a blank expression again.