After a dark and stormy night, it was a drear and painful morning on Olympus. The demis and Jot had a pre-Goldfest party which, in the cause of internationalism, featured single malt from Celtia, meade from Germania, wines from Hellas, Rome, and Mesopotamia, barley-beer from Egypt, pulque from Americas, and concluded with sake from the Orient. Jot had withdrawn early in the evening, but Cornellia, as the Designated Demi (they’d flipped a priceless Augustan aureas to see who had to stay sober), gloomily imbibed fresh spring water from Delphi.
As always, the sun dawned golden clear on the mountain, and Cornellia was consoling herself by reading the latest installment in Kallistos’ Alexandros mammoth sex novel, “The Bacchic Rites: A True Story,” looking for names of those she knew. Heraklia was snoring in one corner; Jojo had gone to sleep with a Panda in another; Julilla, ever ladylike, had nested on a purple silk couch; while Bryce was lying in a kiva pit with a friendly python. Hell would freeze over when they awoke with demi-size hangovers.
Suddenly, there was a whirr in the corner of her eye, and Mercury, in his usual outfit including a pale pink tutu, was hanging in mid-air, his wee sandals twinkling. With a sympathetic look, he handed over a solid-gold-leaf scroll with AW’s logo flame on one side. “The boss needs youse guys right away,” he said.
Cornellia looked at the chaos around here. “He picked a bad day for it!”
Mercury nodded, but insisted. “Sorry. If I were you, I’d drop by and you can make explanations later. He’s got that look again. You know – the one where his big brown eyes get all moisty in the corners.”
Cornellia nodded, yelled “Accio Firebolt!” and hopped aboard her broom, whizzing over the stark frozen tip of Olympus and down the other side, where Jot-Jupiter kept his studio and sauna. Typically divine, here it never rained until after sundown and the fall leaves blew into tidy little piles. However, the countless cherubs who did duty as staff, secretariat, cleaning ladies, dog-handlers (Cerberus came for visits) and wranglers (the Sacred Horses of the Sun were renters) were whizzing around the Sauna looking overworked and underpaid.
The place looked seedy, probably because Jot’s studies were driving everyone nuts. As Cornellia parked the Firebolt and came through the entrance hallway, her impression was that the Studio was turning into a divine version of a flea market – piles of potshards, ancient scrolls, Babylonian Bull friezes, and some of Hephaustus’ work on weaponry, littered the walls and teetered on high piles everywhere. There was one pile marked “Meaning of life – query?”, another devoted to “eternal wealth” and a box half-filled with gold and silver-tipped scrolls with the notation “Stone Stuff.” Instantly Wilfred, the maitre d’cherub, appeared; he was looking haggard and, flying gently just beside her right ear, wafted her into Jot’s library.
Inside, Jot was, as usual, stretched out on his favorite couch – a 12’ fluffy Phoenix feather that hung restfully in mid-air, carried by wee, pink, harassed cherubs. Today it was actually listing to starboard, so many scrolls and boxes flowed from one side to the another and hung precariously from the sides. Today was his Egyptian day, so he was dressed like Osiris before partition, with the addition of a small bright-green bowler hat with the gold notation “A Gift from Tir Na Nog.” The air shimmered around him, as flying cherubs were bringing cups of wine, scrolls, tax forms, research papers, so fast, they looked like a mob of pastel-tinted hummingbirds. He grinned hugely at Cornellia.
Jot: Welcome, Cornellia! Where are the others?
Cornellia: Er . . . they were all resting, Boss, so I thought I’d best get here and find out what you need.
Jot *gloomily* I TOLD Heraklia not to spike that Aztec chocolate with Irish whiskey, but would she listen?
Cornellia: So, what’s up?
Here Jot looked demure and mildly embarrassed at the same time. He fidgeted, which caused the south half of the Phoenix feather to undulate, the southeast Cherub hanging on for dear life.
Jot: Well, it’s a bit of a rush, Cornellia. You know all those owls that the cives are sending, all about fixing bugs and new programs and a face-lift for the home page? Well, I’ve been giving it serious thought. As you know, I’m still in the midst of studies, and I’m up to my ears – the programming time has gone down the bog. But it occurred to me – if I could get my hands on ONE thing, all would be well – I can finish my coursework, revamp the whole site, and even offer extra perks to our patrons! I just need a little help in getting it organized, so – well, I guess you’ve volunteered!
Cornellia: (sighing, remembering when she got sucked into counting the Kraken’s teeth for Jot once) - What can I do?
Cornellia *blankly* Is that another Greek sect?
Jot: Not at all – the concept, of course, has been around as long as Kronos. Somewhere out there (he waved cheerfully north, south, east and west) is a magical stone that dates from the beginning of the world, and if you find it, you’ve got it made – eternal life, eternal wealth (it turns anything it touches into gold, the shareholders will love that!), and all the time in the world. If you can go on a Quest for me, Cornellia, and bring back the Philosopher’s Stone, not only will I have all the time in the world to work on AW, but I can finish my studies without becoming severely psychotic! And I thought we could throw out a bit of it as a patron enhancement – you know, an Optimum patronage and you get an additional 2 years of life, and Millennium Patrons even better – we could call it the Methuselah Patronage! I think it’s just what we need!
Cornellia *cringing* Oh, no, Jot. You’re not doing this to me again. I still remember the time you sent me off to find Klingons on SciFi Sites, NOT to mention that excavation of the Great Pyramid where you forgot to tell me about that flaming river of death! I’ve paid my dues.
Jot *looking sad* Oh dear, Tante. If I can’t depend upon you, who can I depend on? And (his large brown eyes moistened becomingly at the corners) it would be so good for the site! Just look at my schedule! I learned Attic Greek last week, this week it’s Sanskrit, I’ve a paper due in Archaic potsherds from Mycenae, next week I have to revamp Thera after that eruption, NOT to mention that the Incas are revolting...there simply HAS to be more time and money somewhere!!
Cornellia thought about it, and figured – why not? Things had been quiet on Olympus, and she was probably ready for a little all-expenses-paid world travel. Anyway, Jot was irresistible when he got the corners of his eyes all moisty that way.
Cornellia: OK Boss, I’ll do it. What’s the time frame?
Jot *bouncing up and down on his feather* I knew you wouldn’t let me down, girl. Well, the sooner the better, but if we could find the Meaning of Life and Eternal Wealth and Eternal Life by Goldfest, it would be perfect!
Cornellia *looking heavenward* Any clues where I can start looking?
Jot immediately buried himself in such a pile of scrolls that only the tips of his ears were visible. A muffled voice, occasionally sneezing, says “Well, I always thought Midas would be a good place to start – in Hellas. You know all that gold, he might VERY well have found the Stone at some point! Anyway, start there and I’m sure you’ll find something helpful. And just think about the corporate benefits, if you find this thingie!”
Cornellia whistled to the Firebolt, hoisted her Hurskvarna chainsaw into its holder on the broom’s tail, and gave Jot a look. “If I pull this one off, Boss, I want you to PROMISE that I’ll finally get my 25-year-old-red-haired Hunk as a driver! I’m too old to be without a chauffeur!”
She kick-started the broom and, with Jot waving happily from his feather, vanished slightly southeast – in the direction of Hellas, and the first step of the Quest.
A sweet and innocent dawn was just beginning to break over Jot’s study on the wrong side of Olympus. As opposed to the opening of our story, all the remaining demis were now alert, sober, and working on handicrafts to be sold at the AW store. (jojo, in particular, turned to be a fine hand at pettipoint). Jot, in his corner, was pondering his large Fairy clock (to mark every hour, the fairies flew out and zapped each other, with a noise like cat sneezes).
Jot was worried. Goldfest was nearly over, and the Divine Cornellia had still not appeared. He flushed guiltily when he realized that the quest might have, in fact, been more dangerous than he had anticipated. Julilla caught his eye sympathetically. Heraklia, who was burning the hot chocolate while playing with Jot’s tame Griffin, looked depressed. Bryce was sharpening her onyx sword pensively.
Suddenly, there was a “whoooosh!” that made everyone sit up straight, and two cherubs, manfully overburdened, dropped what looked like a bundle of dark, muddy laundry on the floor, none too gently. The bundle groaned and stirred feebly. “TANTE!” they all screeched in unison. One ran for hot tea and scones, while another grabbed the First Aid kit, and yet a third patted Cornellia’s notably dirty hand while making soothing noises in Attic Greek. Jot came over with his “Olympus fixit” wand and did a movement somewhere between jitterbug and a Pyhrric war dance. Tante opened her eyes and sat up, groaning.
Julilla cried “welcome back, dear!” and everyone exploded in a babble of deminoise. Tante raised sad brown eyes to Jot, however, and managed to stagger to her feet (the cherubs, flitting about, propped her up by an elbow).
Tante took a deep breath. “Jot, I have bad news for you” she said. “It turns out that the nearest thing I could find to the secret of eternal life and wealth is that it makes you look like Britney Spears. I figured you’d rather not!”
jojo patted Tante’s hand. “We should have known” he said wisely. “Usually those eternal-life-and-wealth thingies turn out to be a disappointment. Didn’t I tell you, Jot?”
Jot winced, but then noticed that Tante was without her trusty chainsaw. “Tante, you don’t mean you made it ‘round the worlds without protection?” he cried, appalled. Cornellia nodded mutely. Jot pondered a moment, then whipped over a cherub and whispered. Heraklia just heard “Hephaestus – rush job.” A few more wand-waves and Cornellia was washed, brushed, with a new hair color and style, and looking far more like herself. The cherubs shot off, looking important and mysterious.
“Well, Tante,” Jot said kindly, “I very much appreciate your giving it your best shot. You have my eternal – well, long-lived! – thanks. And, of course, a gift for your selfless nobility and loyalty, not to mention, your savage instincts as a peerless AW bouncer!”
The cherubs now whizzed back with a beautifully wrapped present, so hot from Hephaestus’ forge that it smoked gently, slightly charring the pretty blue velvet ribbons. All gathered ‘round while Cornellia pulled open the gift-wrapping. With an “oooooooooooh”, a solid-gold, top-of-the-line, Huskvarna chainsaw was revealed. There was even a little heart engraved “Tante from Jot. You da best!”
So, in the whirl of laughter and wine (the cherubs knew their jobs and had brought out the iced Chian), we leave Olympus. They didn’t have eternal life or fabulous wealth, and the patrons got no perks – but it was, as usual, worth the laughs!