Chapter 1
Tom didn't believe in God.
To be more specific, he didn't believe in the God almighty from the christian mythology and its branches. It just didn't make sense: How could a being so powerful be so benevolent?
The beatings he'd received from teachers at school and the harsh punishments dolled out by Mrs. Cole had long ago shown him what people in a position of power do.
Power consumes people, makes them do heinous things only because they can.
If God is so perfect, why didn't he fix that? There were so many questions revolving around the christian God that Tom just couldn't believe him.
So that was when Tom discovered the greek gods.
It was all ancient mythology and no one seemed to believe them anymore. In fact, his entire class had laughed at him once when he mentioned it.
But that didn't stop Tom from believing it.
As the years passed, he never quite understood why he'd such a strong belief in gods that supposedly never existed.
But every time he gave offerings to Athena when he had an important test at school, or when he pleaded for Hermes blessing when stealing some food, Tom could feel it. He could feel that ancient power in his bones and he just knew that the gods were there, listening to him and even indulging him sometimes.
Even so, when Tom was around 7 or 8 years old, he learned to keep his mouth shut about his unusual religious beliefs. It seemed that the adults thought it was cute of him to believe in the greek gods when he was younger, but now they just thought him stupid. So eventually, Tom decided to just keep his faith to himself, and thankfully everyone else just sort of forgot about it after a while.
There was also the matter of the weird energy that he could feel dwelling just under his skin. It felt powerful and heady, and after noticing the weird occurrences that such energy caused, Tom came to the conclusion that it was some kind of power.
And power could be wielded.
So for the next few years, Tom figured how to control his power and use it to dominate the insufferable orphanage he was confined too. And really, he was fine with living like this. He'd study and get a scholarship at a good college, do something interesting and live out the rest of his life.
But then came the letter. And literally in the next hour, the old man with odd clothing.