The Truth

“Did you know?” Toby asked her, demandingly as they stood on the ledge, her stroking his wings, and she shook her head.

“I had no idea. It really was just a test on my behalf, to you. So you could realize your own strengths and your own weaknesses.”

“How did I get wings out of Zeus?”

“My guess is that the quarter of you that is unknown may have been Hermes.” Ari said. “Want to meet your grandfather?”

“But doesn’t he have wings on his feet?” Toby asked, flexing his wings and nearly throwing himself off balance and Ari off of the cliff.

“Didn’t you learn about genetics in high school?” Ari asked a question in response to his own, and he nodded.

“Just a guess here, but you might have had wings on your ears, for all we knew. Gods give you their physical characteristics. In your DNA, there would be nothing unusual. There are forty six chromosomes. Well, when the sperm fertilizes the egg, there are not twenty three chromosomes in the gamete. Are you listening?”

“Yup.” Toby said, amused by his wings. He was flapping them and had managed to float a few feet above the ground.

“Gee Ari, how many chromosomes are in a god’s gamete? Well, Toby, I’m glad you asked. You see, upon fertilization, there are actually twenty four chromosomes in the sperm cell. The forty seventh chromosome, the odd one out, dissipates in the DNA and attached a few codons to each chromosome. So in all actuality, your wings could have been out of your ass. The god gene is movable, which is why the sometimes powers come out, and other times they don’t. You happened to get the gene in a good place, and it was bound to come out after you hit puberty, because you are Zeus’ son.”

“Cool. How do I get them to retract?” Toby asked her.

“I have no idea. You’d probably have to ask Hermes on that one, considering I don’t have wings.”

“Well,” Toby said, frowning. “I have no idea, because it feels like they’re a part of me. I don’t... I can’t go home with twelve foot wings out of my back. Someone will try to cut them off. Or put me in a zoo.”

“You... practice. I’ll go find my husband.”

“I thought Arkonel was your husband?”

“He is. And he’s also the only one who knows where Hermes is ninety percent of the time.”

“Maybe I’ll figure it out. Hey, does this mean I don’t have to make you fly me places now?”

“Sort of. Except some of the places aren’t in the mortal realm. And you can’t transverse realms, I don’t think. Unless you have full Hermes powers.”

“Go get him. Wait, isn’t Hermes my father’s son? This is some fucked up genealogy.”

“We don’t think too hard about the genealogy.” Ari admitted as she turned transparent. “We just know our own.”

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