"We're back on earth." Theron noted, glancing at the pier, it was pitch dark still as if time had come to a standstill.
"Well, of course. You didn't expect me to take you to Vanaheim, now did you?"
Theron shook his head, "No. What about them? Will they be alright?"
"You don't need to worry about them, aftermaths of Ratatosks bark. Nasty little gremlin, that one." The man waved his concerns away.
For the first time, Theron took the time to look at the man. He looked to be in his late fifties, stout and sunburned as if he had worked decades as a lifeguard. He wore a light blue polo shirt and short cargo pants. He had fine, honey-colored hair and kept his beard trimmed.
The man snapped his fingers, and the other two shifted their attention to him, "Please don't mind what Ratatosk says, he utters the vilest lies and half truths to make you lower your guard."
Valen breathed in and out in a practiced manner, nodding complacently, "Yeah, yeah of course. They were all lies, it wasn't my fault…" He shook his head, "Thank you, for saving us."
"Who are you?" Aricia asked, looking all the worse for wear.
"I am Njord." Njord said simply.
"The god of the high seas?" Valen confirmed, "The Vanir god?"
"The very same." Njord grinned, showing his gleaming white teeth.
"Wait, so like the Norse version of Posiedon?" Theron blurted out.
Njord scrunched his face, "I'd prefer not to be referred to as such, if you please."
"Oh, right, sorry."
The god shook his head, "It's alright, now, don't you have a quest to finish?"
"Yeah, we should head back to the garden."
"Not so fast," Njord interrupted, fishing something out of his pocket, "Take this and show it to Ratatosk when he finds you, he will leave you alone if he knows what's best for him."
Valen carefully put the fishing line in his ring, "Thank you, Lord Njord."
"Go, the nine realms depend on your success."
Valen nodded, guiding the others back to the garden.
"Do you think they will succeed, Frey?" Njord said, glancing to his side, where a man stepped out of a golden rip in space.
"Can't say, it could go either way. Now if they had my old pal Samurbander that would have been a guarantee." The blond-haired man said.
Njord chuckled, "We both know your son will be the one to wield it."
"Magnus…I only wish he doesn't hate me for not intervening."
.
.
.
"I wish we had earplugs." Aricia muttered as the trio stepped into Yggdrasil once again. The branches of the world tree swayed in a nonexistent breeze.
"We wouldn't be able to help each other if that was the case." Valen said, "Besides, Njord's gift should help."
"Not very reassuring." She muttered, stepping onto the black platform.
"We don't have many choices right now Aricia." Theron said, "We have to do with what we have."
Aricia grumbled unintelligibly under her breath. Valen kept glancing at his surroundings, preparing for the squirrel to appear as he kept lowering the platform.
He didn't have to wait long before the familiar yark greeted him. The platform came to an abrupt halt as Valen diverted his attention to the form of the brown squirrel, summoning Njords fishing line, he thrust it at the beast.
Ratatosk screeched, baring its teeth in rage, and bounded away. Valen sighed, thanking the god under his breath.
"We don't have much time." Theron noted, pointing at the already vanishing fishing line. They had until the line ran out.
Storing it inside his ring, Valen instructed, "Brace yourselves."
They barely had the time to ground themselves before the platform shot down, like a metal anchor through the sea.
It wasn't long before they touched down at the roots, and Aricia immediately rounded on him, "What the hell was that for?"
"We don't have much time, we need to find the shield and get out of here before the line runs out." Valen said, not willing to admit that he panicked.
He cleared his throat, "Moving on, our destination seems to be that castle."
Narrowing her eyes at him one final time, Aricia looked ahead, and sure enough far in the distance a stone castle stood, it looked shoddy, crude almost.
She sighed, "Fine, let's get this over with."
"Now hold on a minute," Valen interrupted, pulling her back, "Come closer Theron."
Theron raised an eyebrow but complied. He almost yelped when a dark mist rose up around them, clinging to their body.
"This will keep us hidden from prying eyes, dont make any sudden movements and we'll be able to sneak in easily." Valen explained, slowly walking forward, the other two hot on his heels.
"While we walk," Valen said, as the trio got closer to the castle, "I want to let you know of the prophecy."
"Prophecy?" Theron asked.
"Yes, annoying poems that tell the future." Valen explained, reciting the prophecy he received from the norns.
"So that's how you knew the shield was here." Theron said, having connected the dots.
"The second line worries me the most, as a son of Hades I can count as a 'Ghost king', I could be injured, or even killed in this quest. If that happens, I want you to go to the ducks and call out for Heimdall."
"Heimdall? The one in those movies?" Theron said.
Valen nodded, "He's nothing like Idris Elba's portrayal of him, but yes."
"How can you talk about your death so non-chalantly?" Aricia rounded on him.
Valen shrugged, "I'm a son of Hades, death is what we specialize in."
"Still, you shouldn't talk about it like that, have you no sense of self preservation?!"
"Relax, I defied death once before, I can do it again." Valen said, hoping he sounded braver than he felt. Truth be told, he was terrified of the prospect of dying here, away from his home, away from his friends and family. Heck, he still hadn't found his mother!
"You did what now?" Theron interrupted, doing a double take.
"Irrelevant, point is, I can handle myself….probably." He whispered that last part to himself.
"You can't know th-"
"We're here." He cut her off, staring at the castle. It looked underwhelming as if a child had built it.
The first thing he noticed was the open gate as if inviting him in. The second thing he noticed was the distinct lack of guards.
He sighed, "Let's go."
"You know it's a trap right?" Aricia asked, "I mean its obvious."
Valen shrugged, "We don't really have many options. If it gets out of hand, I'll just shadow travel us out of there."
Reluctantly, she followed, Theron not much behind. And of course, as soon as they entered, the door shut behind them.
"Cliche." Valen clicked his tongue, materializing Stormguard as over a dozen Draugr materialized around them.
"We have zombies now?" Aricia asked, summoning her twin daggers.
"The proper term is Draugr, but yes, they're essentially zombies." Valen clarified, stabbing his sword in the floor, sending arcs of lightning toward the closest Draugr.
Aricia sent wave after wave of purple energy, annihilating a Draugr every time it made contact. Theron's arrows found their mark, each hitting a weak point in the human body, alas for Draugr such weaknesses didn't apply. And Valen shadow traveled around the room, backstabbing the zombies sometimes and electrocuting them other times.
It only took them a few seconds to clear the entire horde. "That was easy." Theron commented returning his bow to its bracelet form.
As if on cue, the door to the next room broke open, and another horde spilled in, charging straight at the trio.
In a split second, Theron conjured a shield of silver light around him, protecting him from the oncoming horde. Unfortunately, Aricia had no abilities like that, and could do nothing but brandish her daggers.
Seeing this, Valen wasted no time to warp next to her, wreathing both of them in a dome of shadows.
Focusing on Therons shadow, a difficult task considering the rampaging Draugr, he warped himself and Aricia to his position, the dome following him.
Without the risk of harming Theron, Valen was now free to retaliate. The dome of shadows rippled, dark lances materializing over it.
"Theron, conjure your shield over mine." He ordered, releasing his lances, skewering the zombies closest to him.
As Theron followed his orders, Valen's shield melted down, covering the floor in tar-like darkness. Stabbing his sword in the ground, he sent wave after wave of lightning into it, the blue electricity taking on a black hue.
The Draugr backed away, sensing something amiss. But before they could run, the spell took hold. Thunder roared, and black lightning overtook their vision, filling the entire room with bluish-black light.
Barely anything remained of the Draugr once it was over, but the spell had taken a toll on Valen. Leaning heavily on his sword, Valen took a moment to gather his bearings.
"Are you alright?" Theron asked, placing an arm over his shoulder.
Valen nodded weakly, summoning a flask of nectar and taking a few sips, regaining some of his energy. "We shouldn't waste any more time."
He shook his head, "No, rest for a few minutes. You're our main powerhouse, if you drop unconscious mid fight, we're screwed."
"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right." Aricia added, plopping down on the ground beside her and patting the floor invitingly.
Valen sighed, knowing they were right, but he wanted to get the quest over with as soon as possible. Although he supposed a few minutes of rest wouldn't hurt.
It had been half an hour. The moment he sat down, it was like his body shut off. The weakness he had been suppressing came back with a vengeance and prevented him from moving too much.
But after half an hour, he was almost back at full capacity. Getting back on his feet he beckoned the others to follow as they delved deeper into the castle. It had no right being this big inside, it was clear some sort of magic was at play.
Surprisingly no other Draugr attacked them, making Valen even more suspicious. They couldn't have killed all of them in the first room, he was sure there were more. But where were they?
He would soon get his answer, at the center of the castle. As the door swung open, the first thing he noticed was the thin purple line in the center of the room, crooked and held together by runes he didn't recognize. Strange.
The next thing he noticed were the 4 draugr, unlike any other. The first one was tall and lanky, its arms hung low, reaching his shin. The second one was as bulky as it was massive, its head almost touched the ceiling, and it seemed to be covered in a mesh of flesh and bone. The third was the most balanced, it was lean, but had enough 'muscle' to count as bulky, but this one had some cracks in its armor, and greenish-red blood dripped out of them.
The final one stood behind the three, it looked normal, it had no mutations like the other three, and a cape flowed behind his shoulder. A laurel wreath of flesh and bone adorned his head. It grinned, for it had enough flesh left to do that, and barked out an order Valen didn't understand.
But the other draugr did, and fell into action. The lanky one was fast, faster than Aricia and Theron could see. The bulky one, on the contrary, was slow, but with each step, he shook the entire castle. And the last one was a mix of both, slow enough for the two rookie demigods to see and bulky enough to make up for his's lost speed.
"Aricia, handle the big guy, your destructive force should bypass his armor," Valen yelled, intercepting the lanky one, "Theron, get the other one, aim for the weak points!"
As he fell into a comfortable dance with the fast one, he took his mind away from the other two. It was fast, but not fast enough. Countering his every hit, Valen dealt some of his own, each hit cracking his's bones. It wouldn't be a long battle.
It was a different story with the other two, Theron was not the best in close combat, and it was difficult to aim properly at his foe, especially considering how thin his's cracks were.
Still, he managed, Six swords of silver light floated around him, as he barely evaded his opponent's attacks.
His swords moved with but a single mental command, and in the opening created by his dodged strike, hit three of its weak points. The swords lodged themselves deep into it, but nothing happened. It continued on, feeling no pain, and no worry for his self-preservation.
Theron wasn't able to dodge this one.
Aricia was having an even harder time, Valen had said that her destructive energy would bypass his armor, but it didn't. Her daggers made gashes into it, but never pierced through. Thankfully, it was slow enough for her to safely dodge it, but it was only a matter of time before she slipped up.
Theron's scream of pain distracted her, and she turned to look, an expression of horror on her face. That one moment was enough for the draugr to close in on her, hitting her square in the chest, sending her flying.
The third draugr clacked at Valen, both its arms lay broken on the floor, It sprung from the ground, maneuvering mid-air in a downward kick in a last-ditch effort.
Valen's sword moved faster than it could respond, iron met bone and cut clean through. Valen almost pitied the creature.
He froze hearing the screams of his comrades, his neck snapped in their direction, and what he saw made his blood boil. Theron was on the floor, holding his broken arm in pain as his opponent closed in on him, flexing his fingers. Aricia had gotten to her feet, using the wall as a support, every breath she took felt like a thousand daggers twisting in her chest.
In a brief feat of control, Valen calmed down, summoning his bident as he took aim. The black polearm hit true, lodging around the draugr close to Theron, and it kept flying, taking him with it as it lodged to the wall. He tried prying the weapon off, but it wouldn't budge.
Falling into his own shadow, Valen appeared next to the bulky draugr. He knew that his sword wouldn't do much against him, nor would his lightning stagger him. So he used the only other weapon he had left.
The wind picked up around him, levitating him to his opponent's head. The draugr swung at him, but the translucent black shield around him deflected his fist away.
Valen placed his palm over his forehead, black fire surging through his arm. "Burn away."
The dark fire engulfed the beast, eating into its skull as Valen levitated away, and to the third draugr, who was still tugging at his spear.
"Dolofónos fántasma, Shadeslayer, fitting no?" He asked rhetorically, thunder crackling between his fingers as he grasped the newly christened bident.
Lightning roared as it pulsed into the beast, destroying any form of sentience it had left, leaving behind only a battered husk.
With the draugr taken care of, he warped to Theron, helping him up and offering him an ambrosia cube. Theron felt the pain numb as he swallowed the divine food, and felt a sharp coldness wash over him as his position changed. He blinked once, turning to face Aricia, who had a similar cube in her hands.
Without question, she popped it into her mouth, and visibly relaxed. "Stay here," Valen ordered, mentally cursing himself. He shouldn't have brought them with him. "I'm sorry." He apologized, warping to the final draugr, the king.
"Face me." He demanded, letting go of his sword, as it floated away. He held Shadeslayer in both arms, misty darkness hung close to the polearm, leaving behind an afterimage with every movement.
The draugr trembled, and for a moment Valen thought he was scared. But no, it was far from it. It was laughing.
Valen grit his teeth, thrusting his arm forward, and tendrils of shadows ripped up the ground, and wrapped around the beast.
He broke free easily. Unsheathing his bone claymore, the undead crept forward, the tip of his blade dragging on the ground.
Valen moved, swinging his spear at his feet, attempting to disbalance him. The draugr moved its sword in time, blocking the spear.
Stormguard flew to Valen, and he sliced downward, a thin trail of thunder following the tip. His opponent anticipated it and moved out of the way. With Valen now defenseless, he struck, holding his claymore overhead with both arms.
Letting go of his sword, Valen held his bident up, catching the blade between the prongs of his weapon. His bones rattled as the force behind the sword pushed him back.
Twisting his weapon, Valen snapped the sword in two. And as the broken tip of the blade fell, he went for a stab, only managing to make a shallow cut. But he wasn't done. His blue eye glowed with power as he filled Shadeslayer with lightning.
The king let out a pained yell pushing himself away and glaring at Valen. But he didn't let him rest and kept attacking him relentlessly. As he pushed it back, he kept creating dark tendrils like tree roots in his shadow, tripping it many times, yet it never lost balance.
Frustrated, the king let out a guttural roar, throwing Valen away. He raised his arm and pulled.
Valen furrowed his brows when nothing happened, he expected to be pulled by some unknown force.
"Valen, behind you!" Theron yelled, and Valen reacted just a moment too late. Pain blossomed in his chest and blood splattered on the floor.
The draugr grinned, the broken piece of his sword floating over his palm. Carefully lining it up, he reattached it to his sword.
Valen pressed his hand over his wound, knowing it was useless to apply pressure on only one side. So he did the next best thing.
Materializing hellfire over his palm, he forced it to cool down to the temperature of a normal fire, and flooded his wound with it, burning it shut from the inside. A pained whimper left his throat as he fought through it.
The king was grinning through all of it. He spread his arms, forcing his will unto the entire castle. The dead corpses of the other three began stirring and were pulled closer to him.
Valen's eyes widened, he could not let them fuse. He sent wave after wave of shadows at the transforming beast, but all the darkness was absorbed by it.
It was mutating, adapting to the circumstances. Umbrakinesis no longer affected it. The corpses of the other three came loose, the three pairs of limbs fused with his own to create an eldritch monstrosity, with bones twisting and turning to resemble human limbs. The armors of the two bulky draugr, separated and fused, crafting something akin to a medieval full metal chestplate and closed in on him. His torso opened up, revealing his core of red and black.
Valen threw all he had at him, hellfire, thunder, shattered pieces of the castle. But none hit their mark, it was as if fate itself was working against him.
"Through resplendence the ghost king shall fall." He whispered, unknowingly voicing Therons thoughts.
Light began bending behind the monster, moulding itself into a vague representation of a sword made entirely out of silver.
Theron focused on making it as sharp as he possibly could, sharp enough to cut through steel like it was butter. And then, he pulled.
The blade struck true, stabbing and piercing through the core, halting its transformation.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Valen held his sword out, putting all of his remaining energy into the lightning-filled core.
A red hue replaced the blue, and the lightning flowed out, vaporizing everything in its path, carving through flesh and bone and engulfing the room in red light.
When the glow died down, nothing remained of the draugr king, and that part of the castle was completely obliterated. Strangely enough, the tree roots outside were unscathed.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Valen slumped on the ground, letting both his weapons dematerialize, taking in deep breaths.
Bringing out the flask of nectar, he risked a few more sips of the stuff, feeling the pain deaden. He looked up as footsteps approached him.
He sighed, "Thanks, Ther-"
"What did you mean when you said you were sorry?" Aricia interrupted.
Valen furrowed his brows, "I meant what I said, I am sorry for bringing you two with me. You two are untrained, and I overestimated your abilities. It is because of me that you got injured."
Aricia opened her mouth to retort, but was interrupted by Theron, "Don't blame yourself, you couldn't have anticipated that we would need to fight monsters like that."
"Besides you did save us in the end." He added.
"If I was more careful I wouldn't need to save you." He argued.
"Don't beat yourself up over it, we're both fine, aren't we?" Aricia shot back, shaking her head, "It's you we should be worried about, you got stabbed clean through!"
Valen shrugged "I've been through worse."
"What do you mean worse?!"
"A sword stab doesn't hurt nearly as bad as a spear stabbed through my lung." He said, stifling a groan as he got up, "We should get that shield back."
"Hey, don't change the topic!"
Valen ignored her as he walked to where the rip in space had been. After defeating the four draugr, the runes holding it together had shattered and the portal had opened in all it's glory.
Yet all that awaited them on the other side was mist. A tingle ran down Valen's spine, and memories not of his own flooded his mind.
Instinctively he stepped back, the images of a dark abyss filling his mind. He remembered seeing faces in the darkness and shivered.
'Why am I seeing all this? Whose memories are these?'
That was the thought going through his mind.
Aricia raised an eyebrow, "Why did you stop, let's go-"
"NO!" He yelled, pulling her back.
"Uh?"
Picking up a piece of the broken ceiling, he threw it into the portal. The mist ate it up almost instantly.
"It's like acid." Theron realized, "How are we supposed to get through it?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure the shield is in there."
"How is the shield going to survive this mist?" Aricia asked.
"It's a divine weapon, it probably has resistances." Valen guessed, "We, however don't"
An idea struck Valen, and he sent a shadow construct through. It managed to survive a few seconds before being devoured by the mist.
"Crap, if I had my energy back I could probably keep a shield lasting for a few minutes, but as it stands I wouldn't be able to maintain it over a few seconds."
Theron followed his example, sending his own light construct through, it too melted within seconds.
Seeing them both fail, Aricia was reluctant to try it herself, believing her own destructive energy would reach the same results.
But to her surprise, it didn't, the arc of purple energy went through the mist, carving a gash into it, only to be quickly filled again. Valen's eyes widened and a plan began forming in his head.
"Aricia, how long can you hold a beam with a diameter of, say two meters?"
"Uh, not long, it will drain me very fast."
"And what if the beam was hollow on the inside?"
Enlightenment dawned on her face as she connected the dots, standing in front of the portal, she held her right arm out, her left hand holding it in place. A purple orb began growing over her palm, increasing in size with every passing moment.
"How are we supposed to find it inside that?" Theron asked as Aricia worked on the beam.
"I don't know, but if the prophecy is to be believed, this is the 'gaping void', ginnnungagap."
"Gin what now?"
"Think of it as the empty space between the realms." He explained, creating a shadow platform under them once Aricia was done.
A purple hue covered the room as the beam of pure destructive energy shot into the portal, destroying all in its path. A few seconds later, it hollowed out, leaving only a tunnel-like apparition for them to traverse through.
The platform under them floated, and moved in, taking the three demigods into the gap. And the cold that welcomed them was unlike any other.
"T-the shield is d-definitely in here." Theron stuttered out, subbing his shoulders.
Valen replied by conjuring a ball of hellfire to keep them warm. He followed the cold deep into the gap, but after reaching a point his construct slowed down, not of his own volition but because of the sheer coldness.
"We're close." He stated, making the hellfire ember larger. He pushed in deeper, and the first glance of the shield of winter greeted him.
It was exactly how he imagined it would be, pristine white with blue glowing runes etched on it. But how was he to get that thing out of there? He couldn't just grab it with his bare hands, he'd lose his hand to frostbite within seconds.
Tentatively he sent a shadow construct towards it in the shape of a massive arm, and to his surprise, it actually worked. Grabbing ahold of the shield, he coated his construct in hellfire just to be sure and began the journey back.
"G-Guys…" Aricia wheezed out, "I don't think I can maintain this for long."
Crap. "Hold on for a few more seconds Aricia." Abandoning all pretense of stability, he shot forward as fast as he could. The hellfire ember in his hands died out and the cold hit them once again.
Patches in the purple tunnel began opening up and the mist seeped in slowly, like a predator eyeing its prey. It got worse by the second, as larger and larger holes ripped open in it, and the gate was still a distance away.
When the tunnel collapsed, Valen was left with no choice but to try shadow-travelling them out, he had no idea if it would work in an interdimensional place like that, but he had to try.
Fortunately, it did, and a moment later, the three of them fell to the cold stone floor of the decimated castle. Valen breathed out a deep sigh, they had made it in time.
The only thing left to do now wast o return the shield to it's rightful owner.
YARK!
Valen froze, his face paling. "Is that the squirrel?" Theron asked somewhat fearfully.
Summoning Njords fishing line from his ring, Valen cursed under his breath. Only a few inches of the line remained. They were out of time.
"We need to get out of here." He said, picking Aricia up with another shadow construct.
"How do we get out? Last time it was Njord who pulled us up, but he's not here now."
"I have a plan." He replied, walking out of the room.
"You do?" Theron asked, somewhat surprised by it.
"I have 12 percent of a plan." He corrected.
"Will it work?"
"Maybe."
"..."
Once outside, Valen took a deep breath in. "HEIMDALL!" He yelled making Theron flinch hard and Aricia wake up with a start.
"What the hell was that!? Aricia yelled, "And why am I like this?"
"I had the same question actually, why are you like this?" Valen shot back, still looking up irritably.
"That's not what I meant you ass!" She retorted.
Yark!
Aricia flinched so hard, she almost fell off, "I-is that-"
"Yes."
"And it's coming for us?"
"Also yes."
"Then what are we waiting for, lets go!" She yelled looking around frantically.
Valen sighed, putting her down, "We can't."
"What?"
"My plan didn't work."
"No surprise there."
"I'll have you know that my plans usually work very well."
"Sure, sure."
Valen sighed once more, looking down at the almost vanished fishing line.
Yark!
He looked up, and there it was, the massive squirrel with a penchant for digging up old wounds. So he did the only reasonable thing he could. He thrust the shield at it's face.
Ratatosk screeched, leaping away, ice lining it's whiskers as it swore revenge.
And a moment later, the line vanished, and the space where it had been imploded.
"Wha-?!" Valen barely had the time to react before he was pulled in.
On the other side, the three demigods were shot out none to gently. Vlane spat out a mouthful of sand, groaning as he got up.
"I see, you were successful." Njord's voice greeted him.
"You could have made it a bit more gentle." He grumbled.
Njord shrugged, "I worked with what I could."
Theron got up with a similar groan, and Aricia cursed under her breath. "So, what do we do now?" He asked.
"You shall be doing nothing, it's all up to Mr. Steensen here."
"I understand," Valen said, Theron and Aricia were greek demigods, it wouldn't be wise to bring them to the Norse sun goddess. "Can you send them to Long Island?"
Njord shook his head, "Unfortunately I can't, not unless I want to risk war with the Greek pantheon."
"Huh, that's an issue…"
"We're right here you know?" Aricia said dryly.
"Stay quiet for a moment," Valen said, muttering under his breath.
"Can you make a rainbow?" He asked.
Njord furrowed his brows in confusion, but snapped his fingers nonetheless. A rainbow materialized in front of his face.
"What do you need a rainbow for?" Theron asked, but Valen shushed him.
He sighed, "Let's hope this works." Digging out a Drachma from his ring, he tossed it into the rainbow, "O goddess, accept my offering. Show me Apollo on Mount Olympus."
Njord's eyes widened by a fraction and he moved out of the frame.
Soon the mist transformed, and the sheer brightness of it all almost blinded Valen.
"That's a lot of gold." Theron said.
"Why thank you." Apollo said, walking into view with hs signature smile.
"I honestly didn't expect that to work." Valen admitted.
"Oh come on, you're one of the few demigods I like. Of course I'll accept your call." Apollo said flippantly, "So, what do you need?"
"Right, I've got two demigods with me and I can't take them to Camp Half-Blood yet-"
"So you want me to get them there? You do know that's against the rules right?"
"Could you at least take them somewhere close?"
"Of course, I can." He laughed, "Just to ask though, why can't you take them there yourself?"
"You know the drill, apocalyptic prophecy, quest to prevent it from happening, yadda yadda."
"The usual then."
"Yep." He said, dragging the p a bit.
"Anything else you need?" He asked.
"Yes actually, why have you not answered Chiron's calls?"
Apollos cheery facade instantly dropped, and he snapped his fingers, sending the two demigods away.
Valen raised an eyebrow, Interesting.
"Bianca needs to stay like this, at least until Percy reaches sixteen. The moment I heal her, she will become a viable candidate for the prophecy once more, and that is something we don't want to happen."
"Can you at least take some of the pain away?"
"Why do you think she's not constantly screaming hear head off?" He said rhetorically.
"...thanks."
"Don't mention it kiddo," And just like that, his cheery demeanor returned. "When can we see you back in our domain?"
"A few months, I'll be back before the prophecy starts." He promised.
"That's cool, see ya then."
As the mist vanished, Njord walked back toward him, "Apollo is still as eccentric as ever eh?"
"Yeah, why did you walk away though?" He asked.
"To give you some privacy." He said. Valen stared at the blatant lie. Njord sighed, "It is best our pantheons don't mix, the last time it happened was disastrous."
"What happened?"
Njord shook his head, "That's a story for another time, you have a shield to return now. Go."
"I would, if only I knew how to get to the goddess." He retorted.
"You don't need to come to me." A feminine voice spoke from behind, and Valen jumped.
"You deities need to stop scaring me like that!" He said, a hand over his chest.
The goddess raised an eyebrow and Valen sighed, handing her the shield.
"Hmm," She inspected it, "It remains undamaged. Good."
She then turned back to Valen, "You shall receive your reward in your chambers on Asgard." And then, she vanished.
"Kind of ironic, don't you think?" Njord said.
"Huh?"
"For the sun goddess to be so cold."
"I suppose…"