NOTE: MANY OF THE IDEAS IN THIS STORY ARE FROM THE SCION ROLEPLAYING GAME. I DO NOT OWN SCION. SCION IS THE PROPERTY OF THE COMPANY WHITE WOLF INC. I HUMBLY APOLOGIZE FOR ANY CONFUSION. THIS STORY, WHILE MOSTLY MY OWN WORK AND IDEAS, ALSO POSSESSES ELEMENTS OF WHICH I CANNOT CLAIM ANY ANY OWNERSHIP.

Goddess Born Part 1 – Heritage – Chapter 1 – Scion

Long ago gods and titans clashed in a horrific war, in which the gods emerged victorious. Tales and legends from this time have been passed off as simple mythology and are often thought of to merely teach lessons or to tell stories about events by disguising them in metaphors and fables. The epic poem named Beowulf or the tales of Atlantis are such examples. But know this: they are not fiction anymore than the World Wars were fiction. Gods and goddesses exist and not just from one culture. Every culture that believes in its own pantheon actually has its own pantheon. The Japanese deities Amaterasu, Susano-o, and Tsuki-yomi exist. As do the Norse gods Thor, Odin, and Baldur. The Greeks weren't wrong either, and neither were the Egyptians. The Irish pantheon of warrior gods and goddesses still continues on to this day, same with the blood-thirsty gods of the Aztecs. China, Hindu, Voodoo, et cetera, et cetera. Even the Atlantean gods are still around, though they are far less known.

These gods and goddesses have children with mortal humans and because of this divine heritage these child has the chance to become gods or goddesses themselves. These children are called demigods, for they are half divine. When one ascends to godhood, they leave behind their mortality, becoming a completely divine being. Heracles, Cúchulainn, Muramasa, and many other famous historical and mythological figures are demigods who proved themselves to their parents and pantheon. When that time comes they may sire their own demigods, who are also called scions.

Many millennia have passed since the war with the titans, but now something has changed. Titans and their minions, called titanspawn, have begun to break free from their prison. They are free and they want one thing: revenge. The world has begun to experience the effects of this renewed war. Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters have multiplied. There are other forms of chaos which reflects that of the Overworld, which can be identified by the rise of even more scions to aid in the war effort. Some of these demigods don't follow in their parent's footsteps and instead become corrupted by the titans' promises of power.

Now a few ambitious titans and titanspawn are beginning to break away from the battle with the gods in the Overworld and are looking at a different prize, the mortal world, a place completely unaware of anything out of the normal happening. The humans have all but completely forgotten their gods and the titans and only a few scions can stop the titans' plans.

– – – – – –

I really need to grow a backbone. Sean Dolan thought as he shrugged off more taunts from the neighborhood bully, Joseph Williams and his friends, Ray Kellogg and Kyle Smart. They were just finding ways of venting before they went home to their abusive families, especially Joseph. They had been bullying Sean for years and finally Sean's parents put him into therapy. If only I could just hit Joseph onst. It wasn't really fair that they should torment Sean, but Sean had long since learned that life itself was not fair. It wasn't like the movies. There would be no miracle that would save Sean from his hell.

Sean took one last look behind him as he opened his front door. Joseph and the others had left for their own homes. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sean stepped into his house and dropped his backpack by the door. The entire house was silent. There was an eerie feeling to the air.

"Mum? Da?" He called. Nothing. After a few seconds, Sean began walking forward. When he passed by the doorway to the living room, he stopped as a caw sounded. Looking for the source, he saw a large black raven sitting on the coffee table. "How'd ye get in here?" He asked, knowing that he wouldn't get a reply.

"Yer mum is waitin' for ye, scion," the raven responded in a heavy Irish accent. Sean started in surprise. "Ye'd best not keep her waitin'." Sean's eyes were wide. Shutting them, he waited for a moment, telling himself that he was hallucinating, before opening his eyes again and noticing that the raven was still sitting there. "Ye done wastin' time, scion? The Phantom Queen isn't patient."

"This can't be happenin'…" Sean groaned, rubbing his eyes. "This is impossible. Ravens amn't talkin' to me." The bird merely studied him for a bit.

"There's only one of me, laddie," the raven said. "I doubt ye talked to those Aesir pigeons and I don't know of any others. If ye want me advice: get used to it. There're quare things than just me out there." Sean just stared. "Now, go." The raven spread its wings as if making shooing motions. "Yer mum's been waitin' to meet ye officially for years. She won't be pleased if ye make her wait any longer." Sean was all too happy to leave the living room, which he did as he tried to shake his head clear of what he'd just experienced.

Making a beeline for the stairs, he paused when he reached the top. His peripheral vision picked up a flicker of movement coming from his parents' room. Something was seriously wrong about it though. Just as Sean took a step towards his parents' bedroom, however, the raven's voice sounded again.

"Seen any dead spirits lately, laddie?" Shivers went through Sean's body at the words. He did not see spirits. The therapist told him ghosts didn't exist. Just like… just like talking ravens! But he could see the dead. Ghosts did exist. He didn't know how other people couldn't see them, especially near cemeteries.

Shaking his head once again, Sean walked forward and pushed open the slightly ajar door. The scene his eyes beheld was horrifying. Sean gripped the doorframe with all of his strength as his legs went weak at the sight of his parents' bodies. Both were stripped naked, but that wasn't what made Sean feel sick to his stomach: their blood was everywhere. Sean's mother was nailed to the wall halfway between the floor and the ceiling, impaled by black spikes placed all over the woman's body. Blood was pooled on the floor beneath her and there were trails on the wall leading down to the puddle. More blood was sprayed around the room and as he looked at his mother's face, Sean saw that she had died from when her throat had been slit.

Tears started to well in his eyes as Sean turned his attention to his father's body… or what was left of it. He'd been ripped apart into pieces no bigger than Sean's forearm. Only his head was recognizable. The couple's bed had been destroyed, probably in whatever act that had led to their demise. Sean's body shook before his arms gave out as he simultaneously emptied his stomach. Who would kill two people in this manner?

Sean ground his teeth in anger and in an attempt to keep from crying. His hands curled into fists as he stared into the pile of his own vomit. What had happened? Why was his life like this? In anger, Sean pulled himself to his feet and stepped towards his mother's body. There wasn't anything he could do for his father, but he couldn't let his mother hang against a wall like a painting or a poster.

The spikes were slick with sticky, crimson blood, but Sean grabbed a tight hold of one and pulled as hard as he could. Strength wasn't anywhere near his best trait, but Sean was determined. Slowly, the spike pulled free of the wall and the flesh of his mother's forearm. Throwing it to the side, he moved to the one in her bicep, not paying attention to the fact that the difference in height and the awkward angle he had to pull from put his face directly against her bare and bloodied breast. His mind wasn't thinking about anything except for getting the woman down.

After he pulled a fourth spike from his mother's thigh, a shadow outside of the open bedroom door caught Sean's eye. Holding the spike in his hand like a knife, Sean spun to face the door and bared his teeth, crouching low. He saw nothing. After a moment he dropped the spike and returned to his previous task. Five spikes later, Sean braced himself and eased the final one from the center of his mother's chest and then catching her falling body against his. Gently he laid her on the ground as if she were only sleeping before realizing that her eyes were still open. Biting his lip in grief, Sean used two fingers two draw the lids over her eyes.

"You are soft, Seán," a woman's voice said behind him as Sean pulled his hand away from the corpse in front of him. "It does not suit one like you. You should not care about these mortals, not with your potential." Sean's hands clenched into fists again as he rose to his feet.

"Was it ye?" He asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. "Did ye kill them?" There was silence for a moment.

"Yes." Sean spun around and lunged at the woman with a cry of rage. She sidestepped him, her long black hair flying in her wake. Sean's fist missed her by a large margin, though the woman was frowning. Sean turned to attack again but stopped when he saw the look in her eyes. It was empty, as if she were looking on something that was less than dirt. "You have willingness to attack me. Yet you have not struck back against your classmates, do you know why?" Sean was at a loss for words. "You are weak, that is why. Only your anger is fueling your desire to strike me. You do not need rage to kill. Rage takes away from your effectiveness in battle. Only the ríastrad is an acceptable form." Sean's jaw tensed as the woman's eyes studied him. "As you are now, you are not fit to be called my son. If you continue to disappoint me, I will kill you."

Sean's mind whirled at the revelation. Then he saw the similarities. Looking past her insane beauty, Sean saw his cheekbones, his chin, everything. He was almost literally a male version of the woman in front of him. The only real difference was that he was slightly broader in the shoulders. "Who are ye?"

The woman smiled, though that too was empty. "I am the Morrigan of the Tuatha dé Dannan. I am your biological mother. I am also a goddess." Slowly, she held out her hand. In her palm was a necklace, on the end of which was a round, metal pendant with a raven carved into the surface. "This is the only gift I will give you without work. It is one of my flocks, so use it wisely." She pressed it into Sean's hand with a steel-like grip before stepping past him. "If you wish to live, Seán, I would suggest you abandon that innocence of yours. Take what belongs to you and perhaps I will change my opinion of you being my son." With those final words, she vanished. Sean could feel it and thoughtfully he gazed at the pendant his real mother had given him. Placing it over his head, he stepped back in to look at his parents' room and saw the knife of the floor. It was a modern military-issue combat knife and Sean could see that it had been the weapon that had killed his human mother. The Morrigan had left it for him.

Crouching down, he picked it up and studied the bloodless and flawless blade. As he looked at it, a smirk came to his lips. His father had been a leatherworker and had taught Sean the trade as well. And Sean needed a sheath for it if he wanted to carry it around with him.

Despite how repulsive the idea seemed, Sean's mind was different after what he'd just been through.

– – – – – –

Sean rubbed his eyes even though he wasn't the least bit tired. He hadn't slept at all, having seen and experienced too much the day before to rest properly. Sean was used to going without sleep though and so he had spent the night researching information on his mother. There hadn't been much, but he'd come across enough to piece together what the Morrigan expected of him. She wanted him to be a true warrior. Something Sean had always felt was his true calling, despite his ability to learn, but his mortal parent had forbidden him from pursuing any form of that path. And he'd always been afraid of the consequences.

Now he wasn't. With a smirk, Sean finished off the sandwich he'd made during the night and walked towards the front door, grabbing the knife his real mother had left behind the day before.

As he reached the front door, he turned to look back over the lifeless house he lived in. Carefully, Sean tied the straps he'd sewn into the knife's sheath he'd crafted around his waist, hiding the weapon beneath his shirt. A gray figure was floating in the doorway to the living room. Sean smirked again as he reached down and picked up his backpack.

"I told ye I could see ghosts," Sean told the specter of his mortal, adoptive mother. The apparition frowned in disapproval. "Aye, I'm takin' a knife to school. Mum doesn't care; why should ye?"

Without waiting for an answer, Sean turned and walked outside, closing the door behind him. Just over fifty feet away stood Joseph and his cronies. Slipping one arm into a strap of his backpack, Sean ignored them. After walking a few steps, he sidestepped a rock thrown by Kyle. As the boys all prepared to throw more at him, Sean shook his head in amusement and let his backpack slide from his shoulder to fall to the ground.

"What's so funny, leprechaun?" Joseph demanded angrily. Sean lifted his face and smiled confidently. But he didn't answer. He just took a few more steps until he was only a foot away from the older boy. Joseph glared at Sean, who stared back in calm humor. "I asked you a question, Irishman."

Sean acted as if he were thinking for a moment. "Yer drunk da must've hit ye pretty hard last night, didn't he?" He asked, putting on a thicker accent than he normally spoke with. "Tell me this… did he use the belt or the board this time?" Joseph, Ray and Kyle all looked taken aback at Sean's sudden courage. Yesterday, he wouldn't have dared to say anything like that.

"Don't talk about my father like that!" Joseph ordered when he'd recovered, bringing the rock in his hand against the left side of Sean's head. Sean grunted from the force of the blow but otherwise remained unfazed. Lifting his hand to the point of impact, Sean's fingers came away red and wet.

The older boys watched in astonishment as Sean shook his head in amusement once more. "Is thon really all ye have? Me mum can hit harder than ye." Even though Sean knew it was the absolute truth, Joseph didn't know the facts of Sean's parentage. Meaning Sean's words only infuriated Joseph even more and causing him to lash out again with the rock. This time Sean was ready. Ducking under the wide strike, he slipped behind Joseph as Kyle and Ray watched intensely. The combat knife was out instant and Sean grabbed Joseph in a hold, restraining the boy's arms with all his strength. The boy stopped struggling instantly when he felt the sharp edge of cold steel against his neck.

"Are yous gonna leave me alone from now on?" Sean asked dangerously. Joseph seemed to be almost hyperventilating as Sean withdrew his knife and let his captive go with a shove in the back. "If any of yous bother me again: I'll kill ye. 'Tis only fair payment after what yous put me through so far. Is thon clear?" All three of his previous tormentors nodded in fear. "Good, now feck off." Sheathing the combat knife, Sean grabbed his backpack and began the short walk to school. He could already tell that it would be a good day.

And he had to admit: it felt excellent to be a demigod.

– – – – – –

Sean arrived at school with twenty minutes until first period. He'd walked fast, not wanting to be outside much longer than needed. He had immediately noticed more changes in his body. He had walked incredibly fast, covering almost twice the distance in a single step than he used to. His mind was moving a million miles an hour as it calculated the distances. In the few seconds that it used to take him to walk five yards, he now traversed nine.

Looking around, he watched people walking from the freshman hallway. As one group exited, all of them girls, one noticed that Sean was watching them and, for a moment, her gold-flecked green eyes meeting his near-black ones. Her hair was auburn and glinted fiery red and sometimes gold in the light. Calmly, Sean nodded at her before breaking away his gaze.

Walking towards his locker in the somewhat-crowded sophomore hall, Sean touched the combat knife briefly beneath his shirt. Stopping when he got to his locker, Sean's fingers unconsciously spun the dial and opened the door. Taking out the books he would need for his first class, Sean slid his backpack into the bottom of the long metal container and closed the door, only to turn and find himself face to face with the freshman girl he'd seen only a minute before.

"Your smell is strange," the girl told him, her nostrils flaring slightly as she seemed to sniff the air between them. "And just by looking at you, there's a creaking sound, almost like a tree straining under its own weight or a weak floorboard." Sean stared at the girl evenly.

"I don't know what ye mean," he told her. He moved to step past her, but she blocked his path. "Will ye please get out of me way?"

The girl's eyes left his to rest on the pendant Sean's mother had given the day before. "This is a strange necklace… may I?" She asked, motioning at it with her hand. Sean scowled at her.

"No," his voice was firm. "Now I asked for ye to let me by." The girl only smiled at him as her hand instead went to rest against his hidden knife. He stiffened unconsciously at the contact.

"You're a scion, aren't you?" The girl asked suddenly, her voice excited. Sean's eyes widened slightly at her words. "I thought you might be. It's so great not to be the only one." She removed her hand from Sean's waist and he relaxed slightly, but it was unnoticeable.

"Ye're a scion as well?" He asked when he managed to get over his shock. The girl nodded, tears brimming her joyful eyes.

"My name's Helen Stringer," she told him. "I'm an adopted daughter of Artemis; my real parent is her brother Apollo." Sean's mind was reeling. The raven had been right. There were a lot stranger things in the world than a talking bird. "Who are you?"

"Uh… Sean Dolan… son of the Morrigan." His voice was heavy with its Irish accent. Sean was largely taken aback by the energetic nature of Helen, whose smile grew wider.

"I've heard of you," she said. "Everyone says that you're a loner who won't stand up for himself." She studied Sean thoroughly. "Though I can see that you aren't like that anymore." Sean glowered at her.

"Can we get off the topic of me past?" He asked impatiently. "What do ye want?" Helen face dropped slightly before she sighed.

"That's why I don't like boys," she muttered. "They're too… brutish."

"Excuse me, lass," Sean asked, one of his eyebrows rose. "I'm sorry thon ye didn't go through years of bullyin'. I'm sorry yer parents probably let ye do what ye want. I'm sorry ye seem to know more about the gods and goddesses than I do. I'm sorry thon ye didn't have to pull metal spikes out of yer dead adoptive mum's body thon were pinnin' her above the floor and against a wall. I'm sorry yer da wasn't torn to pieces and thon ye didn't have to clean up the gore to avoid frightenin' anyone who saw the destroyed bedroom where the two were murdered by yer divine parent." His tone was harsh and with each detail Helen had taken a step back in fear. For a moment, Sean was glad that nobody but her had heard his rant. "So forgive me if I'm a wee bit… brutish. 'Tis probably due to traits I received from me mum."

"Your mother k-killed your family?" Sean leaned against the lockers and gave a smile that was obviously false. "Oh… I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize…"

"Didn't think to ask now, did ye, lass?" Sean responded. "She slit me adoptive mum's throat with…" he motioned to the combat knife beneath his shirt. "She had been alive through the impalin' process. Wojus way to go if ye ask me." Helen didn't respond. "So I'll ask again: what do ye want?"

"I-I was told to gather a group of scions together," she answered after a moment. "To fight the titans." Sean just stared at her.

"Aye, I read about them. The fomorians are me mum's enemies, after all."

Helen just shook her head. "Not to fight just titanspawn, but the titans and their avatars themselves." Once more, Sean just stared at her with his arms crossed in front of him, holding his books over his hidden weapon, before he suddenly chuckled.

"Great… hope ye like giant maggots so." Helen made a retching sound as Sean stepped past her finally and walked to his first period class.

– – – – – –

When the bell rang for lunch, Sean tossed his books and binder unceremoniously into his locker. It was math. He didn't care about them anymore. He'd already read the textbook cover to cover and had done all of the book assignments and now he suddenly found that he was able to solve every problem in his head, making the graphing calculator he used completely pointless. He'd been smart to begin with, but that had been nothing compared to now. Shaking his head clear of the boring events of algebra II, Sean hurried to the cafeteria, managing to get in front of most of the crowd.

When he received his lunch, Sean took a seat at his usual isolated corner… except it wasn't so isolated anymore. Helen was sitting there pulling out a sandwich, a bag of chips, and a can of Sprite from a paper bag. Luckily, none of her friends were around, making it just the two of them.

"By yer actions this morn, I thought ye've never seen me before," he muttered as he used his fork to pick at the macaroni and cheese he'd been served. "How'd ye know where I sit?"

"I asked around." Helen ate a couple bites of her sandwich as she studied Sean again.

"Take a picture," he told her, noticing her eyes on him. "It'll last longer."

"You look like her," Helen noted. At Sean questioning look, she added, "the Morrigan. I did some research on your mother's pantheon. My guide, Aurora, knows a fair bit about the Irish gods and goddesses and I have a free period before lunch."

"How much ye find out?"

"A fair bit actually. Such as that the Morrigan is not only a goddess of death but also of fertility. She's also fond of life and lives it to the fullest in the way you can probably guess."

"Violence and sex?" Sean asked in amusement. Helen blushed but nodded.

"And sometimes at the same time." Sean laughed at that last part.

"Aye, thon sounds like mum," Sean laughed under his breath. "So who is this guide of yers?"

"Aurora is a nymph," Sean's fork dropped at the words. "Mother gave me a relic to circumvent the problem of a nymph's bonded area. Now, Aurora has to stay within a certain distance of me instead of being bound to her original forest home in Greece which was destroyed only a few weeks ago."

"Sorry to hear thon…" Sean muttered sincerely. "Is it true what the tales say about nymphs and their libidos?" Once again Helen blushed. Seeing her reaction, Sean smirked. "Thon part of the deal so? She'll be yer guide if ye shift her?" The adopted daughter of Artemis only became redder.

Sean's smile dropped when he saw a police officer enter the cafeteria, though obviously not with the intent to arrest anyone. Then, Sean noticed the man's size. He was easily over seven feet tall and built like a tank. Moving slowly, Sean stood and inched towards the door only a few yards away that would lead him outside. Following Sean's gaze, Helen quickly did the same.

The man didn't seem to notice them and Sean breathed a sigh of relief as the door leading from the cafeteria to the unused portion of teachers' parking lot closed. Helen was beside him, holding a wooden object shaped like a grip to a bow in her left hand. Unconsciously, Sean drew his combat knife.

"What's a giant doing here?" Helen asked while they moved away from the door. Sean was about to ask the same question when the hair on the back of his neck rose. "Here he comes…" The grip in Helen's hand became a full composite bow and she pulled a pin from her hair, which grew into an arrow.

"Fee fi fo fum," a deep voice called from the roof. Looking up, Sean saw the police officer standing there, grinning evilly at them. "I smell two annoying whelps of scions." Sean watched as the giant jumped down and suddenly became much uglier. "A Tuatha is a real treat. I've been searching for one of you for months."

"Not a giant…" Sean corrected Helen. "He's a fomorian." Helen merely nodded before she loosed her arrow. It caught the fomorian in the chest as Sean's body bounded forward with supernatural speed. With a burst of strength, he jumped, leaping towards his mother's sworn enemy in a seemingly effortless thirty yards. The still stunned fomorian lashed out with a fist, swinging it wide to knock Sean away. The son of the Morrigan ducked, moving behind his attacker, and slashed with the combat knife, opening a wound in the fomorian's hamstring. The giant roared in pain.

Sean's face was filled with a crazed joy as he jumped up and wrapped his left arm around his foe's neck, just as a second arrow pierced the fomorian's chest. Part of Sean thought that the entire fight was going too smoothly, then he saw the giant's wounds. They were festering. Helen had to be using poison on her arrows.

The pause for thought gave the fomorian a chance. Sean felt a large hand grip his grappling arm and yank him from him target only to be thrown against the ground a moment later. Pain flood Sean's body, leaving him unable to move.

"Sean!" Helen yelled in worry as the fomorian raised a foot to stomp on him. A split second before Sean would have met a gruesome fate, he found his body able to move again, allowing Sean to roll away from his would-be killer. Calmly Sean got to his feet. He was pissed that he'd nearly gotten himself killed.

"Hold still, maggot!" The fomorian roared. Sean flipped the knife around so the blade was extending from the back side of his hand. "I'll crush every one of you damned Tuatha!"

Sean lunged forward with a right hook to the side of the fomorian's face. His fist connected and the knife's edge slashed across the giant's eyes, blinding Sean's enemy. The next slash eviscerated his target while an arrow went halfway through the giant's neck. The fomorian swayed a little before collapsing to the ground, dead.

Looking at his fallen foe, Sean raised his combat knife and let off a wordless cry of victory. Helen was smiling as she put the grip that had become her bow in a pouch on her belt.

If the battle hadn't caught the attention of the other students, Sean's outburst definitely did. Sean sheathed his knife and stared in shock as the first few students exited the school to investigate. Instinct told Sean to run. And so run he did, calling on his strength again to vault over the enclosing fence with ease. A flash of movement beside him let him know that Helen was running as well.

They ran at equal speeds, covering ground effortlessly. After a few minutes, Sean and Helen stopped. They were far enough into the wood surrounding their small hometown to relax. Leaning against an oak tree, Sean started laughing. The rush of the battle was still in him. He felt invincible. Helen was still smiling as well.

"How's your back?" She asked. Sean twisted and tested his body for pain.

"Fine, though it felt I'd banjaxed it when he threw me," Sean answered. Then he remembered how the wound Joseph had given him had stopped stinging after only a few seconds. Running his fingers over the area, Sean's eyes widened. "Not so much as a scab…" he muttered in awe. "I can heal?"

"Looks like it." Helen shrugged. "Handy knack to have, seeing as how it saved your life." Sean nodded. "I wonder what Fate's planning…"

"Hard tellin'," Sean responded. "But I think we shouldn't separate considerin' how the fomorian found us so easily."

"Did you do anything that might have attracted attention?" Sean stiffened. He had known that the police-garbed titanspawn wasn't there to arrest him, but that still didn't mean he hadn't found something that made Sean's presence scream "scion" to any looking for it.

"I drew me knife on Joseph Williams this morn after he hit me with a stone." Sean looked at the ground in shame. That was just what his mother had warned him about. Though his head had seemed clear, he'd acted in anger. Helen let out a sigh as she pulled out a tree-shaped charm on the end of a leather cord from under her shirt. Closing her hand over it, she shut her eyes for a brief moment. As she opened them, Sean jumped at the sudden sound of footsteps drawing closer.

"Is this him, Helen?" A beautiful woman with tiny sprigs of pine growing in her brown hair asked. Sean's jaw dropped, though he managed to recover his composure. The woman, who was no doubt Helen's nymph guide, wore very suggestive clothing, but decent enough that she wouldn't be arrested for indecent exposure.

"If by 'him', ye mean the son of the Morrigan, then aye: I am he," Sean answered. Aurora nodded with a charming smile.

"I'd forgotten the mannerisms of the Irish," she mused. "But your accent is feigned for the most part." Sean gave her a smile that said "bite me".

"If ye want me to speak normally, love, I'm afraid I have to decline." Sean turned to look at Helen. "I guess we can't stay in school anymore. Pity, I'll miss sleepin' in every class."

"So you'll join her in searching for more scions to form a band?" Aurora asked, skeptically. Sean gave her another "bite me" smile.

"Aye, can't really fight the fomorians all by meself quite yet. And unlike Helen, I don't have someone to teach me about what's out there." Helen was beaming.

Aurora smiled at Helen's joy. "I guess we should get back on the right foot. I'm Aurora, Helen's guide."

"Sean Dolan," Sean held out his hand for a handshake, which the nymph took. After a moment of thought, Sean looked to Helen. "What now?"

"You need to find more titanspawn or rely on Helen's perception to do so," Aurora told him.

"So where do we go?" Sean asked. "Remember, I'm still new to bein' a scion."