Scions believe that Atlantis is real, but the problem is that we can’t get there until we accomplish a few things first. See, right after the Trojan War ended, there was a great prophecy made by Cassandra of Troy. She said that if only one Scion House remains, then we can raise Atlantis and claim it as our own land forever. The Hundred Cousins interpret that prophecy to mean that if we demigods earn our entrance into Atlantis then we will become immortal, just like the gods of Olympus.”
“Wow,” Helen murmured. “Why wouldn’t you want that?”
“Tempting, isn’t it? Except the problem is that if all four Houses unite, or if there is only one unified House left, then we would be breaking the Truce.”
“What truce?”
“The Truce that ended the Trojan War.”
“I thought the Greeks won. Didn’t they kill all the Trojans and burn Troy to the ground?”
“They certainly did.”
“Then if the Greeks won, what do you need a Truce for?”
“Right from the start, there was a third group that fought in the Trojan War.” Ariadne smiled at Helen’s puzzled look. “The gods. They chose sides, either with their half-human children or with heroes who had particularly pleased them. Some of the gods even came down from Olympus to fight in the war. They fought against each other, and they were deeply invested in the outcome. That complicated everything. The Scions on the Greek side ended up having to make a deal with Zeus.”
Ariadne explained that the Trojan War was the most destructive war the ancients had ever seen. This was the first time the separate Houses joined forces to make one giant army. It wiped out most of the Western world, nearly ending civilization as we know it, and it was just as destructive to the gods of Olympus as it was to the humans.
Apollo fought riding in Hector’s chariot, Athena fought with Achilles, and Poseidon fought on both sides of the war, changing his mind as often as the tide. Even Aphrodite, the goddess of love, flew down to the battlefield on one occasion to protect Paris, and as she scooped him up to fly him away from certain death, her hand was cut by a Greek blade.
“When her father, Zeus, saw Aphrodite’s injury, he forbade her to return to Troy. She disobeyed him, of course, and that enraged Zeus, but not enough to get involved. It wasn’t until his daughter Athena and his son Ares nearly sent each other to Tartarus, a hellish place of no return for immortals, that Zeus knew he had to act. The human war was tearing his family apart, and it was threatening his rule over the heavens.
“Zeus’s involvement was nearly too late. Ten years had passed since the war began, and all the Olympians were so invested that the only way Zeus could get the gods to stop fighting among themselves was to get the Scions to stop fighting. After ten years of the gods meddling in their affairs, ten years of the gods dragging the war out and making it worse, the only thing that both the Greeks and the Trojans wanted was to be left alone. Zeus had to bargain with the mortals, offering them something they wanted. The humans and the Scions wanted the gods to go back to Olympus and stay there, and in exchange they agreed to end the war.
“Zeus agreed as well. If the Scions ended the war, he didn’t care how, he swore on the River Styx that the gods would retreat to Olympus and leave the world alone. But before he sealed his vow he wanted some assurance that such a terrible war would never threaten Olympus again. As he saw it, the Greeks’ unification of the Scion Houses in order to fight the Trojans nearly tore Olympus apart. Zeus wanted to make sure that such total involvement never happened again. As he set his seal on the Truce and made his unbreakable vow that the Olympians would leave the earth, he also swore to return and wipe out the Scions if the Houses ever united again.”
“It sounds like what happened at the end of World War Two when the Allies divided Germany,” Helen remarked. “They broke the country up, hoping to avoid World War Three.”
“It’s very much like that,” Ariadne agreed. “The Fates are obsessed with cycles, and they repeat the same patterns over and over all around the world—especially when it comes to the Big Three—war, love, and family.” Ariadne trailed off