Chapter 9

"What happened when your 'Spark' ignited?" Thalia inquired, curiosity ringing in her voice like a bell. The man looked at her for a good thirty seconds before finally decided to tell her of how his new life started.

"It began," the man started, "when I started to hear the voice of people in my mind. At first, I believed it to be nothing more than my own imagination, but, soon enough, this newly found ability proved itself otherwise. During that same time, I began to feel immense pain throughout my body. Soon enough, I had become so engulfed in agony that it had become impossible to move. Then, in an instant, it just stopped. All the pain was gone. The next thing I knew, when I opened my eyes, was that I was in a forest in the middle of the night. But, most importantly, I wasn't on earth anymore." Thalia looked at the man as he finished. Pity was the most visible emothion on her face at the moment. If becoming a planeswalker was this bad, then it made sense that he would hesitate to speak of it.

"Where did you end up?" she asked after a long pause. The man did not say anything, or even move for an entire minute. This put Thalia off her nerve when the man finally reacted to her question by reaching up and slowly removing his hood, giving her a perfect view of his face. Thalia let out a noticeable gasp as she looked into the man's glazed-over eyes that were surrounded by a horrid burn scar.

"Somewhere," the man started as looked directly into Thalia's wide orbs, "worse than any nightmare could ever be."

"Innistrad." Artemis fought the urge shiver at how haunted the Keeper's voice sounded. The grim look in his withered eyes was not helping the case. Even the word itself possessed and ominous ring that seemed to cause the very earth to tremble. After waiting a good minute to collect himself, the Keeper chose to continue.

"It is a place where some of the most malicious, dreaded, vicious, and evil forces in all of the multiverse reside."

"During the day, you work are forced to fend for yourself, working in the farms and avoiding the local lords and barons who try to sap every ounce of currency out of your pocket with their laws and taxes. You find yourself trying in vain to defend your life-stock from wolves and bears. Thieves and murderers are anything but common. And that is on a good day."

"At night, however, the story becomes very different. As the sun fall, the darkness, and all that live within, begin to stir in anticipation of claiming new lives. Werewolves numbering in the thousands, vampires who thirst for the blood of innocent beings, demons with their trickery and dark desires, even the dead will end their slumber in order to terrorize the living."

"If you are caught outside only a few minutes past sundown, or forget to lock the doors and windows to your house before bed, then you are already dead."

"If I had the choice between eternity in Tartarus-"

"-and a single night in Innistrad,"

"I would always choose Tartarus."

"I would always choose Tartarus."

Deep within her palace on Olympus, Athena was pacing back and forth, furiously. Countless scrolls, books, tomes, and even newspapers were strewn across the floor, walls, and desks of her quarters. Athena, herself, was in a mood that could be defined as anything but good. Her mind was in total chaos, a rare occurrence in and of itself, from the previous encounter with the blind man.

From the very instant he was pulled into the throne room by Zeus' powers, Athena knew he was far from an ordinary mortal. The horrid scarring on his face and three swords, made of a material the likes of which Athena had never seen before, were the obvious testaments to that. But what truly threw her off wasn't his appearance, though, if she was being honest with herself, she may have blushed a little bit upon seeing him. Athena, being herself, had simply chalked it up to the lack of sexual activity she had put herself through for the past two years. But no. what had truly given the man's presence her full attention was his aura. From the very second he had entered the room, Athena could feel the copious amounts of power that emanated from him. She could sense his might and power, but she could also detect the wisdom that welled within him. A wisdom that was bred from a dark past.

In fact, that was another thing that through her for a wild ride. All throughout his aura, she could sense the lingering remnants of hundreds of dark and evil things that the man must have come into contact with. The residual darkness that was seeping through him. Whenever a person were to come into contact with a force of good or evil, that force would leave a lingering trace of itself with the person and would remain with them until it would die out. Like climbing out of a swimming pool. The person may be out of the pool, but they are still wet from the water that still clinging to their body.

Athena, like many of the other gods, was able to sense this residual energy. To them, it was a sort of sixth sense that they possessed. One that was not too dissimilar to what the humans called a 'gut feeling'. But while the other gods often ignored this ability, Athena had chosen to harness this power in order to assist her whenever she would be put into a situation that would require a good judge of character.

If only I had used this power when Percy was still here. Greif and guilt welled inside of Athena as these thoughts found their way into her mind. She immediately shook herself of thoughts. The last thing she needed was to have those memories weakening her mind while she was busy trying to figure-

"Wait a minute," Athena said, pausing as a new theory found its way into her head, "perhaps Artemis could help." It would only make sense, seeing as how Artemis was the only Olympian to have any direct contact with him. Perhaps Artemis has learned something that could be helpful to her in figuring out this mystery.

Without a moment's hesitation, Athena snapped her fingers and teleported to Artemis' tent.(ah Athena. Capable of having an epiphany even when it has nothing to do with her current train of thought.)

AN: Now it gets interesting. Also, I've taken notice that a lot of you readers who have voted have been pushing more towards the characters from the Percy Jackson universe, and away from the MTG characters except for Avacyn. What the hell?! Why is she getting all the attention? Are you all basing your votes on how the MTG characters look versus the personalities of the PJ characters? If not, then that would mean you have read up on the MTG characters and given your honest opinion. If you are basing the MTG characters on looks and haven't voted, then before you vote, I strongly suggest that you read up on the bios for these character which can be found on . I have posted a link below that will take you strait to the bio page.

en/story/planeswalkers

Note: Avacy and Ashling are not planeswalkers so you will have to google search them.

On a side not, how about some trivia. The spell that the Blind Man used to calm Thalia down two chapters ago, is based on a card that actually exists in the game. Does anyone know what card it is? If you do, leave a review that gives the cards name, color, card type, mana cost, and its effects.