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“They started turning humans to keep up their numbers, didn’t they?” Nitsa said.
“They did indeed. Wiped out entire villages. Thus, mundanes were forced to fight for their lives, or become a puppet in death.”
“How did all of this end in Olympia?” Nitsa asked. “This sounds like the start of the end of the world.”
“It very nearly was.” I twisted in my seat, tracking her path. “Until the final species could sit out of the battle no longer.”
“The fae.”
I didn’t know who said it, but Remis’s pleased cry said they were right. “The fae, my young novices, the fae. They joined the side of the mundanes, and the last and final interspecies war was over in a fortnight.”
“Why did they join the side of the mundanes?” Sirena asked.
“For the same reason they stayed out of the conflict for so long. Fae are beings of nature—born from the primordial gods to become creatures all their own. They never obeyed the Olympian gods, and the Olympian gods never had the power to make them. Their only loyalty is to the balance and protection of the natural.
“Whereas we demigods, vampires, and werewolves are not natural. We’re mundanes perverted by magic, curses, and gods. When we became a serious threat to the survival of the mundane species, they stepped in, ended the war, and crafted the Five Dominions Treaty.”
“That, I know of,” Sirena said, nose high in the air. “The Five Dominions Treaty designated the sovereign land of the mundanes, vampires, werewolves, demigods, and fae.”
Remis snapped her fingers. “Correct, but did you all know that because of the treaty, we got the short end of the stick?”
“By being granted Olympia?” I heard myself say. “How?”
“Oh, it’s not the land. It was magnificent even back then when it went by another name: Atlantis. No,” she said. “We got the bad deal... because we got the monsters.”
“Got the monsters?” Nitsa repeated slowly. “Are you saying the monsters live in Olympia because of the treaty?”
“That is exactly what I’m saying, Miss Castellanos. When it came time to determine what species monsters were, and therefore which dominion they should live, the other four representatives voted ours unanimously.
“These creatures were the descendants of Greek gods, the creations of Greek gods, and the enemies of Greek gods. If they were anyone’s problem, they were ours. Back then the very first council was ordered to enter this land with the monsters and seal the barrier behind us. If a single monster escaped to wreak havoc on the other dominions, it’d be a violation of the treaty and the war would begin anew with every being magical and mundane descending on Olympia.”
No one spoke for so long, I wondered if we lost the ability.
“I don’t understand,” Sirena said. “How can any of that be true? Why is this the first we’re hearing about this? If the fae or the whoever forced the monsters on us, it’d be known. It’d be taught.”
“Would it?” Remis said softly. She leaned against a bookshelf, running her fingers along the spines. “Between the pages is a safe place, isn’t it? There can be no lies, no half-truths, no missing information in the books we trust to tell us the world. I’m sorry, my dear novices, but the first thing you’ll learn about history is that it’s like everything else—subject to bias. Do you think the history books in vampire academies paint them as the villains or the heroes?”
A low growl escaped Daciana’s lips.
“But then why?” I asked. I laid my hand over Daciana’s, comforting her like she did me in the face of Captain Hondros.
“Because look around you.” She swept out her arms. “We’re trapped in a land with monsters that eat our flesh, devour our children, sing us to our deaths, burn down our villages, and wipe away everything we love in a single day.
“In the early days after the treaty, demigods attacked the barrier daily. Bands of Hecate’s children went after it looking for weaknesses. The council weathered more than a few assassination attempts for agreeing to the terrible terms in the first place. Keeping control got ugly and violent very fast. As a result, the wars and the true terms of the treaty were stricken from the history books. Here we are two thousand years later, and no one remembers.”
“Why can we know now?” a guy in the third row spoke up.
“Because there’s been a recent change in the curriculum.” Madame Remis’s smile swept over us. “Me.”
“You?” Sirena repeated. Did she hear the disdain in her voice, or was it just natural at this point? “You’re going against council law to teach us banned information? You have no right.”
“This is my classroom, Miss Cirillo, I have every right. You’ll find Deucalion Academy is autonomous of the council. Here, I tell you what the laws are.”
A choked noise came from Sirena’s throat. “Nothing and no one is autonomous of the council. You—”
The gong sounded, signaling the end of class. I jerked like it snapped me out of a dream. An hour and a half passed already?
“That’s all for today, ladies and gentleman. Your assignment for tonight is to read chapter two,The History of the Gods. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what’s missing.”
