The Games Gods Play

Neve, Ares’s champion, corrects Lyra’s assumption: The tide is receding. Lyra sees Dex, Athena’s champion, using the water to flip around and climb his post to free himself and copies him. She tells the others to follow suit, then takes hold of her axe and uses it to free herself from her ropes. She tells the others she’ll free them, but Neve advises the others not to listen to her. Lyra swims and frees those who accept her help. By the time she reaches Isabel, Poseidon’s champion, the tide is receding too quickly. She offers her wire cutters so that they can free the others more efficiently. When Lyra frees Dex, however, he steals her axe.

Dex attacks Lyra. She dodges, and he swims away. They are warned to weep by a carving on the wall, and moments later, others are screaming to get out of the water. When she reaches the ledge, Samuel, Zeus’s champion, pulls her out as a tentacle tries to attack them. Samuel protects Lyra.

With the water receded, Lyra and Samuel discover eggs beneath the carving. The eggs begin to hatch, and the newborn monsters attack them. Samuel suddenly swings a hand overhead and connects with an invisible Dex, who’d been using the Helm of Darkness, a relic, to escape the cave. Samuel takes Lyra’s axe from Dex and hands it back to her. As the only one with a weapon, Lyra volunteers to stop the monsters attacking Isabel and Zai, Hermes’s champion. As the monsters attack, Lyra can’t think of a way to attack them. She decides to use the dragon teeth and swims to the bottom of the grotto for soil. After planting a few, she faces off with the monsters in the water. Just as she’s about to be attacked, a bone soldier appears and cuts off the monster’s head.

Lyra resurfaces and directs the bone soldiers to kill the monsters while Isabel and Zai join her and Samuel on some rocks. Lyra notices Isabel is bleeding from two scratch wounds. Other champions, Hera’s Amir and Demeter’s Diego, have figured out how to stop the eggs from hatching by using their soaked clothes to keep the eggs wet. Just as Lyra is feeling relieved, Isabel screams in agony as the wounds on her leg become holes and turn her body to ash. She dies in Lyra’s arms. Zeus appears and congratulates them on completing their first Labor, but the champions struggle with Isabel’s death. He awards Diego with the Labor’s prize.

Lyra is teleported back to Hades’s house in Olympus. Hades berates her for using dragon teeth and for having her axe, which he reveals is a twin of his own gifted to him by Odin. He comments on how no one else used their gifts, and Lyra is overwhelmed. She drops to the ground and laughs hysterically. She keeps herself from crying, and he tries to comfort her when she speaks of Isabel’s death. He promises to give Isabel a good spot in Elysium.

Lyra asks Hades if he’s affected by her curse. He avoids the question and simply states that he needs her. Lyra assumes the boundaries of their relationship are defined as god and champion and nothing more despite his kindness. She accepts his offer for Isabel and rails against how the gods think of humans as disposable. Hades presents himself as an exception, as his role as King of the Underworld makes every human his subject when they die. Hades needs to leave and tells her to stay in the house, but Lyra is adamant about finding allies. Hades concedes: Lyra goes out to explore Olympus.

Lyra walks around and finds a herd of pegasi. She contemplates Isabel’s death while Dex approaches her. As he confronts her, however, Aphrodite appears and uses her enthrallment spell to send him away. Aphrodite asks if Lyra would’ve had the wherewithal to fight Dex. Lyra confirms she would. Aphrodite offers to make her forget her grief for a time, but Lyra wants to feel the sadness. They discuss how people view Aphrodite, and Lyra claims love might be the strongest of all powers, for which Aphrodite tells her that her Labor will involve the person Lyra loves most in the world. She warns Lyra that Hades is the most ruthless of the gods when he wants something.

As she explores, Lyra stops at Dionysus’s bar, Bacchus’ Place, where she finds Poseidon, drunk and raging against his loss. The bartender, Lethe, tells Lyra to leave before Poseidon notices her, but it’s too late.

Lyra leaves and visits the temple of Hermes. She finds Zai praying, and he assumes she wants to kill him. Just as she’s about to propose a partnership, Zai’s father, Mathias—the previous winner of the Crucible—arrives. Lyra hides while Mathias berates his son for being weak for relying on her. When Zai claims his father needs him to stay in Olympus, Mathias strikes him and leaves. Lyra emerges and makes her offer: If he helps her with the cerebral Labors, she will help him with the physical ones since he has health issues. Zai has no time to answer, though, because Poseidon arrives and bellows for Lyra.

Lyra looks to run away, and Zai directs her. When his allergies require the use of an inhaler, however, the sound attracts Poseidon, and they split up. Poseidon catches up to Lyra, and he blames her for Isabel’s death. He promises to kill her, but Lyra reminds him how foolish it would be to threaten the god of death’s champion. She headbutts him and escapes. Just as she is about to eat a pomegranate seed, Hades appears, furious. He notices that Lyra is bleeding from Poseidon’s attack. Lyra stops him from killing Poseidon and convinces him to let him go. They teleport back to Hades’s house in Olympus, and he kisses her. When he regains his senses, he disappears, leaving Lyra full of regret for thinking he was beginning to see her as more than his champion.

Hades wakes Lyra in the morning before the next Labor, but she is teleported before she can put on her tactical vest. She reappears on a plank on the edge of a mountain wall. Hermes arrives and explains that for his Labor, they will need to solve a puzzle. Every champion can ask three questions. When they ask a question, their plank grows by six inches, and the other players lose an inch. Once there is a winner, the remaining champions will need to scale down the mountain. With no shoes, Lyra knows she will die if she doesn’t solve the puzzle first.

The three Fates, or Moirai, appear, and Hermes explains that while they typically handle every being’s fate, in the Labor, one of them only speaks the truth, one always lies, and the third may answer either way. The puzzle is to determine which role is assigned to which Fate. Hermes leaves, and Lyra notices Dex plotting with others from the Strength and Mind virtues. Soon, Lyra’s plank shortens, and she must grip the mountain to avoid falling. She asks a question of one of the Fates to regain six inches, but she is otherwise lost as to what to do. Then, someone falls from their plank.

Lyra summons her owl tattoo to contact Zai and tells him that she offers her questions for him to use if he, after gaining Hermes’s winged shoes—or Talaria—as a prize, flies her down to the ground. Zai agrees and gives her a question to ask one of the Fates. With her answer, Zai solves the puzzle and keeps his promise. They discover the one who fell was Amir, Hera’s champion. The Daemones are angry with Lyra because she has used so many gifts, but Lyra worries about whether Hades will be angry because she lost another Labor.

Lyra recounts to Zai what happened with Poseidon. They plan to meet later to strategize. Zai hugs her before leaving, which leaves Lyra disconcerted since no one has hugged her before. When she returns to Hades’s home, Hades is furious about her alliance with Zai.

Hades comments on the collection of men falling at her feet to help her, but Lyra dismisses it. Hades thinks Lyra should not trust Zai, but she argues their alliance worked. When she asks about the general well-being of the other champions, Hades berates her for wanting to save others, though she takes exception with Dex. They review what gifts and relics were used by other champions, and Hades warns her that her alliance has made her more enemies. Then, Cerberus appears.

Though initially scared, Lyra warms up to Cerberus. The three-headed dog allows her to pet him. She names each of its heads Cer, Ber, and Rus. Cerberus informs Hades he is needed in the Underworld. Hades tells Lyra they need to talk when he returns, but as she goes to her room, she tells him she’s meeting with Zai instead.