Oliver had turned to go with him, but Hod had stopped him there, when he was all but the last person in the room, aside from his own retainers.
A finger to the chest. That was how Hod held him in place, as he stared him down, as if trying to see through him. Oliver frowned his annoyance. Everyone seemed to be seeing beyond him these days, as if there was a second him present in his shadow that they were all trying to find. But it was hard to complain when the man doing that staring was as perceptive as Minister Hod.
"In a handful of days, I will need you to be capable of handling King Germanicus yourself," he said finally. "Do you believe that you are capable of such a thing?"
"…No," Oliver said, quite honestly. "No. I really don't think I am. Germanicus is something else entirely. He's of the Fifth Boundary at least, isn't he? But what God or Goddess works through him? I understand him not."
"And if I told you it was Gaia, would you begin to understand?" Hod asked.
