Marcus...
As he sat down on the floor in exhaustion, Artemis looked like she wasn't sure how to react to seeing Selene covered in his blood and unconscious. He looked up at her and she turned her head towards him and eyed him warily.
"While I have the time...I want to ask you a few things," he said, deciding to stick with speaking in ancient Greek since it felt more natural to him anyways.
"What would you like to ask me?" she replied.
"While we were fighting...you mentioned my mother's name. Hestia...," he paused for a moment because he dreaded what he was about to hear when he asked her.
Artemis tilted her head in curiosity as she waited for what he was going to say next.
"To be honest...I'm a little surprised to be seeing you right now. I didn't even think you existed," he said as he began deflecting from what he really wanted to ask.
Artemis then furrowed her brow in mild anger as she said, "Didn't...you didn't think I existed?! What the hell do you mean by that? Didn't you say that the stories of the gods have lived on for well over two thousand years after I had left Terra? What would make you believe that I did not exist?"
"Well...for one thing, magic does not exist on Terra. Everything is dependent on mechanical engineering and science rather than spiritual means like this world does. Not to mention the fact that any memories of you or any of the Greek gods would have been diluted down to being nothing more than tall tales and fairy tales," he said and Artemis had a frustrated look on her face.
"That's nonsense. How could the memory of the gods been so diluted that we are seen as mere...make believe?! Aren't there any humans left alive from our era who could recall the many great wars that I myself have participated in?"
His eyes widened as he heard that.
"Do you...do you really not understand? Thousands of generations of families were born and have died in the span of the two thousand years since the Greek empire fell. No human could possibly live that long and tell about it in my generation. Everyone you might have known, any human you might have interacted with back then, they are dead and gone," he said.
She shook her head in denial and said, "No. No no, I knew a man who had lived to be over ten thousand years old and he was nothing more than a human born man. Nothing special in particular about him."
There was an uncomfortable silence between them that lasted for several minutes before Artemis finally spoke up.
"You strayed off topic from what you had originally wanted to ask didn't you? About Hestia?"
He shivered slightly but he didn't feel cold.
"Yes...About my mother...I went off topic because I didn't think the possibility of...of my mother being THE Hestia from the Greek myths was possible. Though...now that I see you, here in front of me. I KNOW that you are real and so therefore other Greek gods must be real as well...," he said as he started trailing off.
"Ask me plainly. Stop running circles around the point before you get to it," she said sternly.
He took a deep breath before he asked her, "Is my mother Hestia, the goddess of the hearth-flame?"
Artemis locked eyes with him and said, "Yes she is."
The moment he heard the words leave her mouth he could feel a rising panic grow in his chest.
"What...what the fuck is going on...?" he said to himself, in English this time.
"Did...did I say something wrong?" she asked but he didn't answer her.
"If...If the Goddess Hestia is my mother and I came to this world after saving my sister-"
Artemis' eyes widened as she asked, "Hestia has another child?"
"-and shortly after coming to this world I run into you...Something about this doesn't feel right," he said as a strange feeling started washing over him. It was an unusual feeling that he only got when he knew he was being watched by someone who was trying to stay hidden.
He didn't know what it was that drew his eyes to any particular spot in the room but his eyes drifted to a corner in the room where the light from the sun didn't shine and shadows were cast.
He stared at that spot.
He didn't know what it was that held his attention there but he had an eerie feeling that whatever it was that was looking at him was standing in that spot.
Of course, there was nothing there.
He was probably losing his mind over nothing but when he turned to look back at Artemis he realized that she was staring intently at the same spot that he was. She was staring at it with a calm rage in her eyes that he didn't understand but it affirmed the feeling he had of being watched and he looked back at the corner in the room.
Just to be safe, he extended his hand outwards and Light Taker flew into his hand from the opposite side of the wall. Artemis' eyes did not move from the corner of the wall even as he had called his sword to him. However, the moment it reached his hand the feeling went away and Artemis looked away from the corner as well.
"Artemis...I can't shake this horrible feeling I'm having that my encounter with you was predetermined or something. It just feels...off. I lived my entire life thinking that learning Ancient Greek from my mother was something normal and that her name had no more importance than simply being her name. I believed that the Greek gods were not real and thought that everything I knew about the world was all it would ever be. Now I come to this world and find out that not only are the Greek gods of Terra real but for some reason they are here on this planet when they shouldn't be and that my own mother was none other than the goddess Hestia herself. I learn that I am...a demigod...," he said and he trailed off as he failed to finish the thought.
Hearing the word 'Demigod', Artemis raised her eyebrows and said, "I wonder about that...You being a demigod and all. I don't believe that is the correct term that would apply to you. A demigod would apply to someone born of a god like that of Zeus, Ares, Hermes, and so on. Your mother Hestia...she is no normal goddess. She is more akin to a cosmic force of nature. Not only that but being a demigod would also suggest that you have a human father and that you are half human...You are not a human being."
His head slowly turned to look at her in shock as he said breathlessly, "What...what are trying to say?"
"Marcus...I don't know what you are."
He stood straight up abruptly with his hands shaking. He looked down at himself and at all the blood soaking his body and realized what he needed to do.
On his way to the bathroom he stopped right next to Artemis.
"If you say a word about this to anyone, there will be nothing in this world to stop me from killing you. Not a word to anyone," he said with chilling ruthlessness that he hadn't expressed in years.
Artemis tilted her head slightly as if to question the audacity he had to threaten her but he then locked eyes with her to emphasize the point and real fear shone in her eyes.
"I...I swear upon the River Styx I will not speak about this to anyone without your permission. I swear it," she said.
He maintained his stare for over a minute before he was satisfied and carried his sword into the bathroom with him.
The moment he closed the door behind him and looked at himself in the mirror he realized that he was starting to return to form. The look in his eyes was of a man who would murder kill those involved with the dark side of his past. The blood covering his torso and traveling up the length of his neck certainly didn't help to make him any less guilty of looking like a murderer.
It made him sick to his stomach to see himself like this again.
He started peeling off his clothes and once he had stripped himself down completely he looked at himself again and the expression on his face changed and although still full of anger it had begun to lessen. He looked at his bare chest and saw the various scars all across his body from various stab wounds and gunshots and various other injuries.
He then looked at his expression again and there was no rage in his eyes. All that was left was a look of weariness from someone who had gone through too much in the short time he had been alive.
He then looked at his neck and realized that the place where Artemis stabbed him in the neck had left a scar.
"Son of a bitch...," he cursed.
He then drew the hot water and stepped into the shower. Being immune to extreme heat and fire thankfully didn't take away from the enjoyment of a hot shower. It was something he needed right now to calm his frayed nerves. He stood in the shower as the water poured down on him and he took in a deep breath to calm himself...
In a fit of rage he pulled back his fist and punched a hole in the wall of the shower.
His anger was so strong that he didn't feel the pain of his fist going through the wall, nor did he feel any pain as he pulled his arm out of the wall and...his arm was fine. He must have released a small portion of spiritual energy to protect his skin as he punched the wall because his hand was unharmed.
He took an exasperated sigh, repaired the hole in the wall with his magic, and continued his shower in peace.
Alta...
He had been spending the entire time of his stay in Lunaas helping Selene train Marcus as well as getting drunk off his ass with Gaiyen every other night. If it was any other night he would feel excited to go out for drinks and party while the night was young till dawn broke the following morning. He would then vomit his guts out and then mindlessly do it all again the next night.
Some people worked in the brotherhoods simply to live for those kinds of moments and for the longest time he wasn't sure what he was living for but he had thought that maybe he had gotten it figured out. He thought for a while that maybe the life of the party was what his life was all about. All his fancy swordsmanship and powerful magic was surely useless to someone like him who lived to drink, bleed, and piss alcohol like it was his very life blood. Surely it was useless to someone like him who lived in the moments he could sing songs and drink and enjoy the moments he shares in the bars and brothels any night of the week.
Now though...he stared down at the single shot of liquor that had been poured for him that he hadn't touched save for fiddling with the glass itself. Gaiyen however had already finished ten of his own shots and was well on his way to being buck ass naked and drunk under the table if he wasn't properly managed. He usually followed the drinking pace of whoever was drinking with him but since Alta hadn't ingested a single drop of alcohol tonight, Gaiyen had taken things into his own hands.
He finally decided to simply pass his shot over to Gaiyen who eyed him warily. The alcohol took over his thinking as he didn't focus on it for long and simply drank what was given to him before running off to join several other drunkards in a song.
Alta sighed as he self-reflected and realized that he still had no idea what he wanted to do with his life.