A/N
Hi! Thank you for continuing to read my story. Sorry for the late update. I got this awesome new holodeck program and Commander Yarborough refused to take an extra shift so I could use it, so it cut into my writing time. Then Q wouldn't send this chapter back in time, so I cut his head off. Then he got all mad and changed the gravitational constant of the universe and stuck the Nemesis in a time warp so I would be sucked into a black hole over and over. When we escaped three weeks had passed. Also please excuse my sleep-deprivedness. I stayed up all night two nights in a row to finish this chapter (slight exaggeration, but not by much). Anyway, I'm also working on cover art. So here is chapter 2! Enjoy!
(Btw, is there, like, a disclaimer or something I'm supposed to do? Because if so I own the plot and ocs and ideas and stuff but nothing else. That's all Rick Riordan's.)

Edit note- sorry for the error, was trying to post from a kindle.
Chapter 2: Welcome to the Hotel Hell (or Valhalla, Whatever)
I woke up in a small grassy courtyard. That puzzled me, because if this was the Greek afterlife, I would be at DOA recording studios, waiting for Charon to give me a lift. I always kept a few drachmas in my pocket for that reason. But if this was the Egyptian afterlife, I would be in some waiting room in Osiris's palace. Both choices were indoors. But this wasn't. So where was I? I scowled for a few seconds, then a thought struck me. Maybe I was still alive. If so, it was time to get going. I stood up, shouldered my bag, and pulled out my favorite favorite swords. They were a katana and a tonto, the two swords carried by samurai, made for me by a Japanese son of Hephestus and swordsmith I'd rescued from a scolopendra. Mine were called Asahi no ken and Yuhi no ken, sword of the rising sun and sword of the setting sun. I did an automatic check for supplies and was surprised to find that my clothes were clean and free of ash, and even smelled like the vanilla scented soap I always keep in my drawer at home. Even my skull was back in place and my hair was fresh, clean, and un-charred. Best of all, I was still wearing my spiders-silk bodysuit and socks. Okay, so I still had all my stuff. Now how to escape? The courtyard was small, full of fresh green grass even in the middle of the winter, with one rather odd-looking birch tree and tall marble walls, maybe twelve feet tall. No challenge for me. There was also a pair of large, ornately carved doors, which I had no desire to go through. In fact, they seemed to repell me like a demigod magnet. I quickly scaled the wall. At the top, I saw a city that might have been Boston. I decided that anywhere was better than here and lunged forward. A massive shock blew me off the wall. I barely managed to grab a small bronze plaque on the wall, but by that time my feet were touching the ground. I examined the plaque. It said, Welcome to the Grove of Glasir. No soliciting. No loitering. Hotel deliveries: Please use the Nilfheim entrance. Weird, I thought. What's a Nilfheim? I considered making another go at the wall, but then the doors opened. "Welcome to the Hotel Valhalla," said the guy who opened the doors. He was a short guy with a green uniform and a beard that reminded me of a large hedgehog. "May I take your bag?" I dazedly handed him my laptop bag and stumbled through the doors. "Real leather," he said. "Nice. You know, not that many people bring luggage anymore. Everyone always wants to be buried, or cremated and put in a jar. No one has a good old-fashioned pyre anymore." A pyre… That reminded me. I was dead. My siblings were probably burning my shroud, if not my whole body. I'd told my brother and dad that I wanted to be burned with my bag and whatever clothes I was wearing when I died. I wrote a will too. I didn't think I'd ever need it, though. It had been so simple - I would keep killing monsters as long as I could, then the gods would make me immortal. Then I'd keep killing monsters until the end of time, because of… I almost fell down. There was one reason that I was happy to be dead, and hoped I would go to the Greek afterlife. But now I was stuck in the Hotel Hell, and I would never see her again. The bellhop led me to the front desk, staffed by a guy with equally imposing facial hair. "New guest?" he asked. I shrugged. "I guess." A small bell on the desk rang. "Well, it looks like you're not the only one," said the desk guy. "Here's your key." He handed me a small stone cube with a green symbol carved into it. It looked kind of like this: . "I'll have one of the other guests show you to your room." He hit a few keys on his computer. "Ah, floor 19. Magnus!" One of the guys toasting marshmallows over the huge fireplace stood and came over. He looked to be about my age, maybe a little younger. He was a little taller than me and had dirty blond hair and gray eyes. He wore a hunting jacket over a green t-shirt, baggy jeans, and worn sneakers. He reminded me of someone I knew, but I couldn't remember who. "Magnus, this is Karyn Kane, your new hallmate," announced the desk guy. "Karyn, Magnus Chase." Chase- I knew that name. But how? Magnus shook me out of my contemplation. "Come on," he said, pulling a stray marshmallow out of his hair. "I'll show you to your room."

The hallway reminded me of a hunting lodge mixed with my family's house with Camp Half-blood dumped in for good measure. Spears lined the rafters, and heavily armed waitresses brought everyone drinks. At the moment, everyone seemed to be engaged in a massive battle. The air was full of projectiles: arrows, spears, swords, blow darts, food of all kinds, small animals, various appliances, and for some reason, poker chips. "So, um, Magnus," I said, dodging a flying burrito. "Where is this place? And what am I doing here?" "Hotel Valhalla," he replied, shoving aside two people in combat fatigues and a guy in a powdered wig. "You're dead." I rolled my eyes. "I gathered that. But seriously, I thought I was going to E-somewhere else. Why am I here?" He laughed. "You're just lucky, I guess. Trust me, there are a lot worse places to spend your afterlife." His bitter tone convinced me not to ask. But then I noticed something about his expression, his eyes, his tone- and bam, it all clicked. "Are you related to a girl named Annabeth? 'Cause you look kind of the same and-" "You know Annabeth?" he interrupted. "She's my cousin. How do you know her?" Before I could answer, his eyes widened. "You're one of them, aren't you?" I gulped nervously. One of them could mean a lot of things, some good and some likely to get me a lot worse than a burrito to the face. "One of what?" "You know what I mean." That clarified absolutely nothing. He grabbed my hand and dragged me to the elevators. I felt a pang of sadness as I remembered someone else who used to drag me everywhere, who I thought I'd meet again someday but now I never would. "Come on! We can't talk here, someone might hear us. Did Sam bring you here? If she did I'm going to kill her." In the elevator, I half listened to Magnus's rants about what he was going to do to "Sam" (A long list starting with launching her into something called a "Gingungap" and ending with feeding her to something called the Fenris Wolf. In a mixture of an unknown language, English, and sign language, but I got the gist.) and the easy listening music in a language that wasn't any of the five I knew (English, French, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Ancient Egyptian, in case you're curious) while pondering a fewof death's essential questions: Who was Sam? Why wasn't I in Elysium or Aaru? What kind of trouble had I gotten myself into now? And when could I get one of those burritos, I was still starving? "He said we were hall mates, right?" said Magnus. I nodded, and he pushed button 19 out of the second most buttons I'd ever seen in one place. (When you visit the Empire state building to go to Olympus, the key card you get makes an extra 498(I think) buttons pop out of the wall. It's really cool to watch, even though all but the 600 one don't work.) In a surprisingly short amount of time, the doors opened and we stepped into a huge hallway. It was big enough to play basketball in and had more spears as rafters: that same hunting-lodge-meets-luxury-hotel feel. My boots sank into the lush carpet. "That one's yours", said Magnus, pointing to a large wooden door crisscrossed with iron bars and faintly glowing runes. There was a round plaque with my name on it. They'd even spelled it right. My last doubts were destroyed: I was supposed to be there, though I didn't know why. "So how do I…" I trailed off, pulling the small stone cube out of my pocket. "Just stick it in the matching slot in the door," he said. I inspected the plaque. Just below my name was a groove shaped like the symbol on the cube. I slotted the ridge on the stone into the groove and heard a satisfying click! The stone glowed green. My door swung open.

Even though I'd just nicknamed this place Hotel Hell, my room was closer to Elysium. The room was 2 stories tall, with all the furniture built into, or bolted to, the walls and sometimes stuck on small platforms connected with rope ladders, pulleys, slides, and zip lines. The floors were wood the color of honey with strategically placed soft white rugs. The walls were murals of my favorite outdoor places: a mountaintop, a beach, a forest. One alcove in the middle of the wall was a desk full of art supplies. One was a small library with all my favorite books and lots of comfortable chairs upholstered in silky fabric patterened in swirls of emerald green, peacock blue, and royal purple. In fact, everything fabric was that pattern. There was a martial arts dojo. An armory. A walk-in closet. A bathroom. A kitchenette stocked with donuts, chocolate truffles, green apple gatorade. and grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon and olives (a Camp Half-blood staple, sooo good). I didn't know what to do first. Unfortunately, I had company. "Nice," said Magnus, gazing up at the network of rope criscrossing the space. "Not as awesome as my room, but still really nice." "Okay," I said warily. "You showed me my room. Now leave me alone." "Not so fast," Magnus said, crossing his arms. "First tell me exactly how you know my cousin." I narrowed my eyes. "I don't think so. I believe that you've overstayed your welcome. Heh-sieh!" A glowing purple hieroglyph formed in the air and began to shove Magnus our the door. He quickly pulled a pendant off his neck and tossed it into the air. It turned into a sword and flew through the air, slashing through my hieroglyph, which pulsed once, then exploded. The force temporarily blinded me and threw both of us onto our butts. As soon as I could see again, I locked eyes with Magnus and we both said, "What the heck was that?" Well, he said, "What the helheim was that," but close enough. "I'll explain first," I said, struggling to my feet. "Let me just… oh gods." I fell back down. Black spots swam in front of my vision. Magnus somehow managed to stand and gave me a hand up. Or tried to, because as soon as our hands touched, I saw another flash of blinding light, and I felt my power levels go back to normal, then above normal. It was… well, magical. I held up my hand and everything seemed to be normal except that I was glowing purple and there were a few stray white sparks on my fingertips. As I watched, they rolled down my fingers and dissolved into my palm. Magnus was glowing too, only he was glowing gold and the extra magical energy was being siphoned into his pendant, which also glowed slightly. Soon all the glow was gone. He looked at his hands, then back at me. "That was weird," he said. "Normally when I use Jack I get exhausted afterward, but this time-" "You had magic to spare?" He smiled. "Exactly." "Same here, actually. So you wanted me to explain everything. There are some comfy chairs up there, and I'll grab some snacks." Magnus looked aprehensively at the rope ladder. I grinned mischievously. "Forget the rope ladder. I've still got some magic to burn." I twirled my index finger and a small platform that looked like it was made from purple glass materialized beneath us. We floated up to the library alcove, then the platform dissolved as we landed. We sat on a couple of those chairs that are a cross between beanbag chairs and wicker baskets, and I summoned a couple of chocolate bars. "I know Annabeth because we're related," I said. "I'm her half sister. We have the same mum. She told you about the Greeks, right?" Magnus managed to pry his jaw off the floor and nodded. "But she didn't tell you about the Egyptians." We gave each each other a quick, but still too long to write down here, rundown. I told him about our gods, afterlife, and powers. He told me about the hotel, the nine worlds, (The world is like a tree with nine parts, or something like that) the gods, his adventures, and Jack the sword. We also traded insults (Paddy o' stupid, Chum Bucket, Leprechaun Girl, and Lobster Boy, among others) ate way too much candy, and had the most fun I'd had since Caleb and I challenged the Ares cabin to a chariot race. We were mostly done when I heard a knock on the door. "W'peh," I said, and the door swung open with a click. A girl peeked in. She was about my age, and looked enough like me to be my sister, though she looked more Arabic than African- Irish and her eyes were brown. "Karyn Kane?" she called, looking around. "Up here," I said, waving. She blushed. "Oh, hi, Karyn," she said, waving back. "Magnus, what are you doing up there? You guys are going to be late for dinner." "Sorry, Sam, Magnus said. He turned back to me. "So Sam did bring you here! Why didn't you say something?" he hissed. I shrugged. "I don't really remember anyone bringing me here. Just dying, and passing out." I jumped off the platform, flipped in midair, and came up in a standing position. "Top that!" I called to Magnus. He grinned and jumped. Amazingly, he managed to do two flips and spin so that he landed on his hands, then did a front handspring and stood next to me. "Einherji are gifted with strength, speed, and general athletic ability." he said. I frowned, irritated from having been shown up. "If you're done showing off," said Sam. "It's time for dinner."

So what do you think? Magnus x Karyn? Leave a review! Also special thanks to Pixel Zodiac and Twilight's Hunte for reviewing. Nirois out.