Alta…
Ever since he returned from Lunaas he’d been contemplating what he should be doing now that Gaiyen was dead.
For the time that he had spent with him, Alta had been following Gaiyen along for whatever quests and adventures that they signed up for. They were paired up for nearly every job and worked together better than most other teams did in the brotherhood.
With Gaiyen’s magic to keep monsters too heavily weighed down to move and Alta’s magic to control hot and cold, the two of them were nearly unstoppable.
That was...until the Dragon Wraith.
That abomination of death killed Gaiyen right in front of him and left him alone to figure things out.
Just what the hell was he supposed to do now?
He didn’t really feel like looking for other members to pair up with for jobs after what happened to Gaiyen, but he also couldn’t leave the brotherhood since it was his only source of income right now.
He could always head back home but…
No. He wanted to avoid going back to Alfheim if at all possible. He didn’t want to deal with all the bullshit that his father would put him through if he had to go back home.
Though if his sister Fayebel found out that he was here then she might drag him back home anyways.
He needed to find something new to do with his life or else he’ll be forced to go back home.
The only problem is what to do…
Marcus…
After talking with Selene and coming clean to her about who he used to be, he felt that he could trust her now more than ever. He felt that he could really be himself around her without worrying about how she might judge him.
In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it must be how she felt about him as well. The two of them were in similar situations before they shared their pasts.
When Selene had told him about what she did when she was younger, he wasn’t quick to demonize her and understood her.
Even though his own circumstances were arguably far darker, she was not tied down by the morals of his world and looked past what he did.
Being around her...he felt more at ease than he had been since…
No...its probably best that he didn’t focus on that part of his life. The here and now was more important to him.
What he needed to do now was let go and look at his future…
With all these thoughts in his head, he was relaxing on his sofa, watching his memories of Lord of the Rings being played on his improvised TV with Selene sitting next to him.
Her eyes were engrossed to the TV as she chowed down on a big bucket of buttered popcorn.
His eyes drifted over to her and wouldn’t leave her as she focused on the movie.
She seemed to realize he was staring at her and looked at him awkwardly before asking, “What? Is there butter on my face?”
“No...well, yes, but that’s...I guess its not that big of a deal ,” he said with a faint smile on his face as he returned his attention to the movie.
Selene…
She had half-noticed the way he had stared at her, even if for a short moment. He looked like he was trying to look for something but she wasn’t able to figure out what it meant for before he looked back at the TV with a small smile.
With all the things that he had told her about himself not that long ago, by all accounts she should feel a little on edge around him but…
Ever since he had listened to her story as well and even accepted her despite what she had done, she knew she could trust him. Add on top of that, the armor he had made for her sake made her feel like the first time since Dean had found her in that cave, that she could depend on another person.
The fact that their pasts were so similar, the fact that there were people who feared them yet they did not fear each other, and the fact that they could depend on each other…
What did that really mean to her?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that she wanted to take a step back from taking jobs from the brotherhood. She wanted to be able to depend on someone rather than always trying to handle things on her own like she had done so for so long.
In fact, she almost wanted to stop being the vice-captain of the Darkmoon Knights, or even just leave the brotherhood altogether.
But what did she really want though…
She wanted to know the answer to that but didn’t know how to go about finding it.
As these thoughts went through her head she felt a strange sensation. Like a pulse of energy surging through the entire house.
“Marcus...do you feel that?” she asked as she looked at him only to find him staring at his bedroom door.
“Yeah...something’s not right,” he said as he slowly got up from his seat and started walking towards his bedroom.
Thalia…
“You are...The Goddess of Hell?” Thalia asked in shock.
“I am. Neat isn’t it?” she asked jokingly.
Thalia was silent for a moment as she tried to process all of this but then realized something.
“Wait! Does this mean that I’m a Demigod or something? What am I?” she asked as she started patting down her body and holding her face in her hands as if trying to feel out her own existence which made Hestia chuckle.
“Yes, I’d say that you are a Demigod. Honestly, I feel kind of sad that I had children so late in my life. I should have had more. My brother Zeus and Poseidon had so many children and had so many stories written about their great heroic deeds and yet, because I didn’t have children until Marcus and yourself, I was too late for all of that. I would have loved to hear the retelling of your legends,” she said with a wistful smile on her face.
Hearing that, Thalia couldn’t help feel sad. She wondered if her mother knew of the things that Marcus had done just to keep them taken care of all her life.
Actually…
“Mom…? Were you...able to see what Marcus had to do to provide for him and I?” she asked cautiously.
Her mother’s expression, which was a joyous smile, seemed to fade slowly as she fell silent for a moment.
When she spoke again, she had a look of guilt as she said, “You’re asking me if I was able to watch as your brother killed all those people for money to keep you fed, clothed, and taken care of?”
Thalia nodded.
Hestia sighed and said, “Daughter…your brother was forced into the role of a parent at the age of eight years old. Its a responsibility that no one his age should have to take on and yet he did so, at my request of him. It was something that I never should have made him do if I knew it would cause him so much stress and pain later on in his life. His sins are his own but...I cannot blame him for going down the road he did. Any parent that truly loves their children would tear the world apart for their sake and Marcus loves you as his dear sister. Be sure to remember that.”
“I’ll never forget it. Even after watching him kill those people in front of me to save my life, even if I was afraid of him for a moment, I know that he would never hurt me. Nearly everything he’s ever done has been for my sake which is something I’ll never forget,” she said.
“So what are you so concerned about?” her mother asked.
“I’m worried that his past won’t let him enjoy the life I think he deserves. After all the horrible things that he’s had to to and had to go through, I just want him to be happy and live a normal life,” she said.
Hestia chuckled as she said, “Well...I’d say living on Erebus is far and away from normal compared to what you grew up in but...I think the two of you have adjusted to it pretty well so far. Although, you’re gonna have something to get used to pretty soon here.”
“What do you mean?” Thalia asked and right as the words left her mouth, she started to feel the ground shake around her.
“W-what’s going on?”
“Looks to me like you’re starting to wake up,” Hestia said as she wrapped her arms around Thalia and squeezed her tight.
“Wait, no! I don’t want to go just yet! I want to talk with you a bit longer!” Thalia protested as she cried into her mother’s chest.
“And you’ll have every opportunity to do so in your dreams. I’ll be waiting for you here,” she said one last time, and with that, everything faded away.
Marcus…
He could feel pulses of energy spiking to such an absurd degree from within his bedroom that it made his heart sink in his chest.
He hadn’t even felt this much energy being emitted from Ruvick during the times that they had sparred. This was on a scale that was immeasurably larger than his own, something that he couldn’t feasibly grasp.
With every step closer he took towards the door, his body felt heavier and heavier. It was if the force of gravity was trying to crush him, but that shouldn’t have been possible with the mark on his arm.
No, this was something else entirely. It was like his very soul was trying to lift up the weight of the sky.
Behind him he could hear Selene shuffling across the floor as she struggled to make it to the room with him. Grunts of effort escaped her mouth as she tried to make to the room along with him.
As his hand touched the bedroom door handle, he recoiled in pain. Steam rolled off of the palm of his hand and he clutched his hand in agony.
He turned it over to see what had happened to him but there was nothing there.
It felt like...it felt as if his hand had been burned. A feeling that he had never experienced in his entire life.
Oh, what the hell does it matter, he thought to himself as he wrapped both hands around the door handle and forced it open.
The moment the door opened, all the light in the area became distorted. It almost looked like rainfall as the light was being pulled to the ground.
Then, in the very next instant, a sudden and searing flash of heat slammed into him. A burning agony unlike anything he had ever felt before in his life tore through him.
It did not burn the skin or scorch the hairs off his body, nor did it set fire to his clothes.
No, it felt more like his soul itself were on fire.
He shouted in pain as his soul burned from the unknown force in that room. He fell to his knees and clutched his chest as it hit right at the heart of his being.
Yet in the corner of his eye, he watched as Selene managed to power through and had made it all the way to stand right next to him. She looked down at him and realized that it was affecting him but not her.
What did this mean…?
No, never mind.
It didn’t matter what it meant. What really mattered is that right now, he was struggling to bear the crushing weight of whatever force was in the same room as Thalia and he needed to be there next to her to put things right.
“R-Release…,” he said and the pain, although it intensified many times over, he used that pain to fuel his rage and give him strength.
He could feel the blood in his veins coarse faster and faster as it made him stronger. The lightning surging through him to grant him power.
With that power, he managed to force himself back on his feet and walked all the way over to Thalia’s side with Selene next to him.
As he took a hold of Thalia’s sleeping body in his arms, the pain worsened even further but he let it give him further strength to bear the pain of holding her close to him.
“Thalia! Thalia, listen to me! Wake up!” he shouted as he brushed her hair out of her eyes, and as gently as he could, shook her shoulders to jostle her out of her sleep.
Thalia’s eyes then flew open and so too did the surge of power vanish as well as the pain. When it did he gasped for air.
Blinking herself awake, Thalia asked, “Brother...what happened? Why are you-?”
Without a second though, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his chest.
“I don’t know what the hell that was but I’m just happy you’re alright,” he said through labored breaths.
Thalia chuckled weakly as she said, “Heh, funny you should say that…”
He then pulled away and asked, “Are you okay? What happened to you…?”
His voice trailed off as he got quiet and his eyes widened. He was staring straight at her but…
“What? What’s wrong?” she asked, confused by his reaction.
“Your hair…the ends of them are burning,” he said in shock.
“Huh?! What?! My hair is burning?!” she shouted as she grabbed at her hair but could only seem to feel that it had grown slightly longer.
She looked at Selene and she too was surprised but didn’t say anything.
Thalia then rushed to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.
There, at the bottom ends of her hair, flames that burned without smoke glowed vibrantly.
She had remembered seeing Moyako and her mother Hestia as well with the same burning flames at the ends of their hair.
Without really understanding how or why, Thalia had found that her magic had awakened.
It took him a moment to adjust to what had just happened to him as it felt like his mind, body, and soul had just experienced what it was like to be burned alive for the first time. Not to mention that the cause of it all had come from his little sister while she was asleep.
“Selene...are you okay? Did it affect you at all?” he asked her.
“Aside from the enormous crushing pressure?” she asked.
“Yes, aside from that. Did anything else happen to you? Did you feel like you were being burned alive?” he asked her and she tilted her head in confusion.
“I...no. Why...is that what was happening to you? Did you lose your immunity or…?” she asked as she wobbled over to him and held out the palm of her hand for him.
A small ball of fire danced across it and he reached out to touch it.
As his fingers handled the flame ever so tenderly, he didn’t feel any burning sensation as he did before. It felt warm but not scorching hot.
“I feel fine…but whatever it was that caused that to happen to me…,” he tried to say but wasn’t able to finish the thought as Thalia walked out of the bathroom with a shaken expression on her face.
“Marcus...what’s happening to me?” she asked as she looked up at him with worry in her eyes.
“I-I...I don’t-,” he tried to answer but was cut off by the sound someone knocking at the front door.
He gave Thalia a gesture for her to hold on as he made his way to the door and looked through the peephole.
It was Ruvick, because of course it was.
He stood in front of the door wearing his usual black trench coat and pants, however his sword was not at his side.
He opened the door and said, “For someone who can teleport and will himself anywhere in the universe, isn’t knocking a bit…”
He couldn’t seem to finish the thought as Ruvick said, “Its still good manners to knock isn’t it? Now, may I come in?”
He asked as he leaned his body forward as if to invite himself in but Marcus held up his hand to stop him.
“Hold on a moment. Why are you here?” he asked even though he knew the answer.
“I’m here because of her,” Ruvick answered as he pointed directly at Thalia, to which Marcus stepped in front of her instinctively.
He then turned around to look back at her and noticed the calm but nervous expression on her face. She wasn’t sure what to make of Ruvick but didn’t let his appearance frighten her.
“H-Hi…,” she said to him and he nodded to her politely in greeting.
“Hello,” he replied.
“You said that you came because of her, right? So can you elaborate on that?” Selene asked as she stepped in front of Thalia.
Watching her reaction, it seemed that Selene trusted Ruvick even less than he did.
“You don’t have to worry about anything. I only intend to give Thalia something that can contain her immense reserves of energy. With so much energy emanating from her body, if she were to release even the smallest possible drop of power without any idea of how to contain it then...who knows what might happen,” Ruvick said, phrasing it in a way that was clear to both Marcus and Selene that he knew exactly what would happen and how catastrophic it would be but trying to put Thalia at ease so as not to make her worry as much.
Selene met Marcus’s eyes and understood the situation as she stepped out of the way.
Ruvick…
As he approached Thalia and knelt in front of her, she gave him a once over as if sizing him up and sent him a look that said she felt unimpressed.
“You look like some kind of Gothic dark lord or death metal singer,” she blurted out rudely and rather than feel offended, he laughed.
“Well, I’d be happy to hear your ideas on fashion for walking corpses whenever you have the time,” he said with a kind smile which made her warm up to him slightly.
It did dishearten him a bit that children would not warm up to him easily but at this point, he had gotten used to it. He’s had more than enough time to get used to it.
“Alright Thalia, I am going to explain things to you very carefully so that you do not overreact. What I am going to do is place a pseudo curse on your magic that will put a limitation on how much spiritual energy is released from your body. That way, it will help you learn to control it more easily over time. Once you figure out how to manage it on your own, then you can come to me and I will have it removed safely. Can you trust me and my word that I will not harm you in any way?” he asked her and for a moment, she seemed confused by the way he phrased it.
“You said ‘pseudo curse’...what does that mean?” she asked.
“Well, Marcus. Would you hold out your arm for a demonstration? The one with the gravity mark,” he requested and Marcus did as he asked.
“Do you see there, on his forearm? That pendulum mark there is a pseudo curse mark. Most curses are meant to inflict effects that are harmful in their very nature but pseudo curse marks are applied the same way but with the intention to do the reverse. That mark of his increases or decreases the gravity around his body and the direction in which it comes from to suit his needs and it does so by pulling spiritual energy from nature around him rather than pulling it from his own reserves. I’ll be doing something similar to you. I’ll be giving you a pseudo curse mark that pulls spiritual energy from nature to create a layer in space where the rest of your spiritual energy will leak out of so that it doesn’t affect this one,” he said as he tried to explain it but at the mention of layers in space she became confused.
“Ah, I apologize. Allow me to put it in better terms. What this pseudo curse will do is put your energy in a secret compartment of sorts so that no one else notices it and so that the environment doesn’t become affected by your presence,” he said and it seemed to make sense in her eyes as she nodded to him in understanding.
Ruvick then reached out his left hand with the palm facing outwards as if asking for her hand.
Reluctantly, she gave it to him and he gently took hold of it as he turned over her hand so that her palm was facing upwards.
He then focused his energy into the fingers of his right hand and pressed them against her wrist and up her forearm as he began writing the pseudo curse.
When he was nearly finished, a small flash of fire, barely even a spark, danced across Thalia’s skin and grazed Ruvick’s own. Upon coming into contact with him, the scenery of the room as he saw it in his mind changed abruptly and was wreathed in hellfire.
Rather than Thalia in front of him, there stood Hestia, The Goddess of Hell. She stood there, glaring at him with anger in her eyes.
He looked up at her calmly and said, “Hello there.”
She did not seem amused by his pleasant demeanor as she knit her eyebrows and ground out his name as if it were a curse, “Ruvick...you better not hurt my daughter or-”
Cutting her off, he said, “I have no intention of harming your daughter, I promise you that. Though, I must ask where this anger was when Marcus was being beaten into the ground. Sure, it was to train him in understanding his potential but…you don’t seem to concerned.”
Hestia tilted back her head as if to look down on Ruvick and said, “My son is strong, surely strong enough to bear the weight of whatever you might throw at him.”
He nodded as if he were satisfied with that response and said, “Yes, quite. Though something about him strikes me as odd. Flames burn at the end of Thalia’s hair, signifying that she is your child and your power flows through her. However, Marcus may retain the bodily immunity to heat but his flames are no where to be seen. In fact, Apophis herself had to give him two new soul selves, otherwise he would have not be able to use magic at all. Not only that but, even with Thalia being your daughter, the nature of her soul self does not match the nature of her soul. Thalia is half human yet her soul self has no aspect to it that resembles anything remotely close to human nature. It makes me wonder...where did Marcus’s soul self go if no flames burn at the ends of his hair and your flames do not flow through him.”
The intent of the question was clear and the answer was more than obvious.
Marcus’s soul self resides in Thalia’s body.
“And what importance is it to you?” Hestia asked.
“None at all. Just an observation. Though I do have one last question I want to ask you,” he said and her expression became even more agitated.
“You seemed incredibly angry at my involvement with your daughter, even when I’ve made it clear I am only here to help her with this small problem. Even just being near her, you attempted to threaten me,” he stated, intentionally angering her even further.
He then stared directly into her eyes, as if challenging her, and said, “You threaten me when not Azrael, not God, not even Lucifer himself could kill me? What could you hope to accomplish?”
Marcus…
Though he was nervous to trust Ruvick with his sister, so far he has kept his word with everything he said he’s intended to do. He hasn’t been given a reason to be hostile towards him just yet.
Even so, he was still watching Ruvick carefully as he was making the finishing touches on Thalia’s pseudo curse mark he caught a small flash of light shined from her arm.
In the very next moment, Ruvick was sent flying and crashed into him. Both of them slammed into the wall behind him and without a second thought, Marcus shoved Ruvick off of him roughly.
“Get off of me dammit!” he said to him and Ruvick flopped to the ground next to him.
He looked over to see if Thalia was alright and if anything went wrong but she was simply staring at her hands as she said, “Did I do that…?”
Selene was wide eyed and alert as she shouted, “What was that?!”
“Hmm...just a small mistake on my part. It shouldn’t be a problem with her though,” Ruvick said as he groaned and picked himself off the floor.
He then looked at Marcus and jokingly said, “How nice of you to cushion me when I was sent flying. Thank you.”
Marcus made a face at him and returned his attention to his sister as he walked over to her.
“With her spiritual energy being constantly released the way that it is, I doubt it would be easy to keep her well hidden,” he said which made Marcus nervous.
“Well I can’t watch her 24/7, Selene has her own duties, and I can’t just keep her confined to home all the time,” he said.
“Well then, you’d better find her a body guard or someone to keep an eye on her,” Ruvick said.