Contents
Chapter 1: The Survivor
Overview
Alexis rejects Persephone’s offer of safety and embraces Hades’s creed: power through fear. Hades takes her to the Assembly of Death in Siberia, where her estranged husbands Kharon and Augustus seethe. Artemis declares a deadly initiation hunt with no fighting back. Alexis and volunteer recruit Drex sprint for survival.
Summary
At the House of Hades on Crete, Alexis (Hercules) wrestles with trauma, hearing imagined accusations and recalling Hades evading responsibility for past casualties. Persephone senses Alexis’s turmoil through her bond with the land and begs her to stay safe on the island, promising protection from Spartan demands, but Alexis accepts a path of violence to survive Sparta and seek redress.
Hades counsels her to harness fear, insisting Spartans like them are born for battle and that legend requires embracing darkness. He reinforces the mantra “No one fears the sane,” binds her with his power, and teleports them to the Assembly of Death’s Siberian outpost, where six Chthonic assassins await. Alexis steels herself while her hellhound Fluffy Jr. and Hades’s Cerberus linger nearby.
Kharon and Augustus, her bonded husbands, greet her with cold hostility, radiating threat. Augustus’s bleeding, activated powers and Kharon’s predatory demeanor terrify Alexis as she hides her blindness. Mentors Achilles and Patro appear with their beasts, joined by Hermos the Gorgon and Agatha the Empusa. Tension spikes as Artemis arrives on a blood-spattered horse, her fear-mist chilling the clearing; Drex, newly exiled Olympian and Alexis’s ally, timidly joins as a volunteer recruit.
Artemis outlines the initiation: a 25-mile forest hunt honoring Pheidippides. Recruits receive an hour’s head start, must not fight back, and face death if captured; surviving until morning means entry and choosing future mission partners, otherwise captors will decide. With the command to run, Alexis and Drex bolt into the frozen woods as their pursuers prepare to hunt.
Who Appears
- Alexis (Hercules)Traumatized protagonist; refuses sanctuary, commits to Assembly of Death; teleports to Siberia; faces hostile bonded husbands; begins lethal initiation run.
- HadesAdoptive father and mentor; teaches fear-as-power, teleports Alexis to Siberia; confident she’ll excel in the Gladiator Competition.
- PersephonePowerful land-bonded goddess; pleads for Alexis to stay safe on Crete, senses her turmoil, offers protection against the Assembly.
- KharonBonded husband; predatory, hostile, with visible hellhounds; taunts Alexis at the outpost.
- AugustusBonded husband; activates terrifying powers, eyes bleeding; silently fixes on Alexis, embodying overwhelming threat.
- ArtemisFear-wielding commander; announces initiation hunt rules and starts the chase with lethal enthusiasm.
- DrexExiled Olympian volunteer; joins Alexis as a new recruit, frightened but determined; runs at Artemis’s command.
- CharlieAlexis’s newly adopted son; witnesses her departure, shares a quiet, supportive farewell.
- CerberusHades’s three-headed hellhound; present and attentive before the leap to Siberia.
- Fluffy Jr.Alexis’s hellhound protector; comic relief in Siberia, then accompanies her at the start.
- NyxAlexis’s hidden companion; complains about the cold, underscoring Alexis’s vulnerability.
- AchillesMentor; imposing, watchful presence with muzzle and cigarette; prepares to hunt.
- PatroMentor and Achilles’s partner; smug, poised, ready to pursue with jaguar.
- HermosGorgon with Chthonic lineage; present among hunters, adds to the threat.
- AgathaEmpusa shapeshifter; part of the hunting cadre, noted for lethal reputation.
- PocoAugustus’s raccoon companion; perches on him as tensions rise.