Free Mightiest of Swords (The Inkwell Trilogy Book 1) by Aaron Buchanan Page B

some fancies, jam with some locals.”
    Something about Tolliver and his apprentice’s plan didn’t quite sit right.  “I don’t think Tolliver has left the U.S. yet.”
    I’m not sure how, but I felt the others’ eyes on me. Joy was the one who prompted, “Okay, Grey, please share with the rest of the class.”
    “If Tolliver means what we’re suggesting, then Solemn Ages is an obvious target. Not only because he could use one of you to, maybe, track down the whereabouts of other deities, but any havoc wreaked here would be a devastating blow.” I had no salient logic to back my assertion up, but there was a way to confirm his where he got off to… “Goddess, might you have gotten anything from the house in Northampton that might have belonged to Tolliver or his apprentice? If he had been staying there for a while, there’s no way he could have gotten all his hair out of the drains. There’s no way to be that thorough with spellcasting unless he dismantled every piece of plumbing!”
    “You’re very perceptive, Grey. Diomedes extracted some whiskers.” The goddess was definitely sitting now and seemed more at ease, though urgency never left her voice.
    Diomedes. Now things made more sense. This gave me a whole new line of thought to keep me occupied when I had some spare moments. Hopefully, those spare moments would come on a beach somewhere delightfully warm.
    “I am giving these whisker s to Joy. You will be able to divine his whereabouts based on these hairs?” Athena surely had some idea how it could be done, so was likely trying to ensure I was personally capable of doing it. With the help of a brand new apprentice, I had my doubts, but Joy had, by her own admission, already begun her secret apprenticeship to me without me even having noticed.
    “I think we can, yes.” I turned to where I believed Joy to be sitting, took a piece of paper from my pad along with a Bic and waved her over to me.  With plenty of light and free from pain, she directed my hand much more easily.
    “What am I supposed to be watching, Grey? The whiskers aren’t doing anything.” Joy let go of my right hand the second I stopped writing. She should have seen the whiskers moving to make an arrow the same way the vault-divination had worked.
    “The whiskers budge at all?” I concentrated, pouring more of my will, myself into completing the spell.
    “They, I don’t know…vibrate, but don’t do anything else.” Her answer was disheartening, but not unexpected.
    Tolliver had predicted that I would try this. “He’s obscuring himself. We won’t get an answer like this. But I have an idea.”
    “Good. Most of the Olympians live in assisted living apartments on the far side of this campus. They are now on strict lockdown. They are not allowed to leave. They are not taking any visitors, but they will help me secure the campus in the meantime.” Diomedes was a man once upon a time, yet here he was. I wished to the depths of my being that I could see him. He seemed quite advanced in age, but obviously still lucid.
    What he said inferred an answer to a question I wondered since first learning of Solemn Age’s existence. “You do take visitors here, then?” I tried to hide my earnest, but was fairly sure I failed in that regard.
    “Yes. I do not fear the gods who live in these buildings. Oblivion, to them, would only be a favor.” Athena sounded somber, wistful. For an immortal goddess who had whiled away millennia, how strange it must feel for her to discover that immortality was not what it once was. “I realize you are unable to see, so I will tell you: I hire local caregivers. We need minimal medical care and the caregivers are not aware of the true reality of this place. Your own father set in place the wards that protect us from others finding out our identities. We do our part to keep up appearances. Enough gods pass away that the employees do not seem to notice our longevity.”
    “Gods die?” I had little