Grover was pretty insistent that we parked the pickup and walked towards the camp, thankfully the walk was short.
The moment we walked past a nondescript tree, I felt my magic trill out to me, and we were instantly swarmed by a few figures.
Though going by Grover's jittery stance easing, it was safe to say we were in safe company, "Grover." The centaur greeted the young satyr with a relieved smile, though his eyes then snapped to Thalia and then me and let out a deep and long sigh.
"I feel ya."
"If you would follow me?" Chiron motioned for us to follow as he spoke in a tired voice.
He showed us around and even introduced us to a few demigods that strayed around the camp, though none masked their confusion regarding me.
"And here is Mr D," Chiron said with a slight flair as we were supposed to be impressed, but all I could see was a heavyset man with bloodshot eyes, clearly suffering from some sort of withdrawal going by his eyes and the slight shaking of his hands.
"Oh, joy." He muttered under his breath and into his diet coke can, "I don't know which is worse, the three of you brats or you." His bloodshot eyes narrowed onto mine, and I felt a slight probing feeling against my mind. Thankfully, my mental defence was near perfect, thanks to my natural occlumency. I was gifted all of those years ago.
He reeled back, glaring at me with vitriol for a moment.
When beings like him feel the slightest signs of weakness in themselves, they tend to lash out like a toddler throwing a tantrum.
The desire to mock the being in front of me was strong, I was raised to be respectful, but the perception of being respectful for most beings is a sign of weakness, people tend to think because you've been shown respect, that must means you are simply better, I wonder how that shit show thinking took root? I am respectful, but that does not mean I will take shit from anyone.
Grandfather's lessons moulded me more than I like to admit, but one always stuck out more to me, 'You look a man in the eye, whenever you shake their hand or when you stab them' and when I questioned the logistics of a wizard using a knife, I got cuffed upside my head.
I felt a fist dig into my side when I glanced at the boy while he sent a shaky look towards the God, a faint glimmer of power washed around him, affecting nearly everyone else around us.
"Enough, you fat cunt." I commanded in a low voice that carried to everyone's ears.
A palm meeting their forehead could be heard soon after, and I'm pretty sure Grover was going to die from a heart attack.
"What did you say?" Dionysus got onto his feet, and I could feel the swirl of godly power threatening to smite me.
"For one so mighty, you would think to fix your fucking hearing. I said enough." The Fateless power coursed through my blood as my magic roared in my ears, "Ask yourself this. How well do you think you'll fare, godling? Because let me tell you something that clearly didn't pick up on, I don't give a damn about you." Not like how I loath to even think it, but I care for Hades, so in all I have no qualms about beating the ichor out of my cousin.
His fists clenched and he turned a shade of purple, though before either one of us came to blows, Chiron came in between us, "Mr D, Alton. Enough." He commanded.
"I doomed." Thalia said as Chiron led us away from the Wine God, "You said you'd protect me, but how the fuck are you going to do that when you pick a fight with every God and Goddess we meet?"
"You want me to be honest?" She nodded with a hesitant jerk of her head, "I'm surprised I'm still alive."
"Oh. That's comforting." She groaned out.
"And this is where all Demigods reside." Twelve cabins or varying designs clearly showing the patron God or Goddess that they were dedicated to, so the four of them not currently occupied made sense, but the real question was, why did they lack one more cabin?
"I see twelve cabins."
"Careful he can count," Luke mumbled to Thalia under his breath.
I placed a hand on top of Luke's head and messed his neatly combed hair without looking in his direction.
"Yes." Chiron stiffly nodded, "Twelve for the Olympians."
I ignored the snarky comment threatening to burst out. It was hardly Chiron's fault, "And what about the children not of the Olympians, those of the minor Gods?"
He motioned for us to head towards the cabin that screamed Hermes. As we entered, the room was filled to the brim with kids of different races. My magic lulled in my mind as the different abilities that these halflings possessed.
"Chiron." A teenage girl on the cusp of adulthood approached, "Determined?" She said as she eyed Luke with a sly smile.
"Not as of…" The centaur trailed off as he muttered under his breath something along the lines of messing with his timing.
A sigil-like rune hovered over the heads of the kids. Each one in relation to their godly parent.
"Hail Luke Castellan, son of Hermes. Hail Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. Hail Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus. Hail Alton Geur, son of Hades."
All eyes zeroed in on myself and Thalia.
Fear, awe and trepidation were all things that I could handle. After all, my life turned on its head when the war started, and I stood firmly against the Dark Lord, many witches and wizards began to worship the ground I stood on. Sure, I hate attention, but I'm an adult, I can handle my emotions, not being so easily overwhelmed anymore, but the way Thalia was fidgeting.
…"Come on, Sparky."
She swallowed thickly, "Where are we going?"
"To cut down some effing trees. Make a cabin."
"What now?"
"See ya, Chiron." I walked out of the cabin with Sparky in tow.
She wiped away the sweat forming on her forehead before sending me a glare, "Are you going to help, or are you going to continue to whittle, like some lumberjack?"
I didn't turn my focus to the girl, "If anyone here is a lumberjack, it's you."
She grunted out a swear under her breath as she threw the axe down on the ground, "The fuck are we doing, Alton?"
"Cutting a tree down." I shrugged as I kept my attention on the runic design in my hands.
She clenched a fist and raised it up before taking a deep and long breath, "I hate you."
I finally turned my attention to her, "I know." I stood up from the chair and banished it, drawing a lot of attention just from the simple spell, "Good job, kid." My wand pointed at the fallen tree, and I coaxed my magic to imbue itself with the dead wood.
"Alton? What are you…" She trailed off as she saw the tree lift in the air, clean cut lines appeared in various sections of the tree, as the lines separated the tree, seemingly regrew the parts that left it, while said parts flew towards the small clearing I claimed.
Large slabs of wood were dug into the ground, making the foundation.
"What is this!?" Thalia said with shock and awe in her voice.
"Magic."
She looked angry for a second, but eventually, she swallowed a lump in her throat, "You're being for real, aren't you?"
"Yep." I answered when the thistles I plucked earlier weaved themselves into a sturdy roof, "Hold up here." I told Thalia as I walked into the small cabin ignoring the small gathering crowd.
It took me no time for me to implant the freshly etched series of runes into the cabin's foundation, and in no time at all, the cabin expanded to a massive degree.
A few test spells here and there to check that the runes would wane under the pressure of this fucking place would throw at it, Gods and the spawn alike.
When I headed back out, I was quickly met with the tired expression of the resident centaur, "Alton, did you honestly create a cabin for your father?"
I was quick to let out a scoff, "The hell I did." I shooed him back a couple of steps as I pushed away some dirt with my feet. I searched around for a moment ignoring the half-man's pointed stare, "I'm taking this." I said as I plucked an arrow from his slung quiver.
I snapped off the head from the shaft, and I pointed my trusty wand, transfiguration magic, and I had a love-hate relationship. I loved the branch of magic, and despite gaining mastery of it that most wouldn't be able to, I knew I paled in comparison to a former professor and a former headmaster of mine.
Sure, going by the look of awe in the older man's face, I had created a spectacular piece, but a nagging thought simply had to remind me, that my former head of the house would clearly outshine me.
"Is that a hearth?"
"It's supposed to be." I grumbled under my breath, "What do you think, aunty?" I asked the child with eyes that conveyed near-limitless patience.
"You didn't need to-"
"Correct a fucking wrong?" I cut off the Goddess, "Because you should've been the first one to receive a cabin. Well before your twat-bag siblings."
A thunder strike boomed in the sky above us, and Hestia gave me a chiding look, "Is it your goal to anger every God and Goddess?"
I shrugged my shoulders, "No, but I'm in a limbo of not caring if I die and a lippy state where I just want to flip off everyone I see."
"Alton." She groaned out.
"Look, if you won't accept this, I will have to change it for dad, and I very much doubt he will want all of the unclaimed 'Demi's' running amuck in his cabin."
Her tired annoyance slyly turned to understanding and pride, "You did it for them."
"As well." I added, "I did it for them, as well. You should have had a cabin ages ago, and they shouldn't all be cramped in Hermes' one, as kind as it is of him." The patron of thieves earned some brownie points for that.
"Umm," We turned our attention to Thalia, who looked nervous about speaking for some reason, "Alton, the cabin seems really small, like maybe six or seven people will fit."
"Go inside," I said, simply trying not to smile.
She gave me an odd look and clambered up the three steps looking over her shoulder at me. She opened the door and shuffled in before almost immediately rushing back out. She broke off in a sprint and ran around the 'small' cabin.
She did that a few times before finally standing in front of me, "What. The. Fuck?"
"Language, young lady." Hestia chided the young girl before throwing me an accusing look.
"Hey, the fuck is it my fault she swears so much. She came with the potty mouth."
"What is your dad's name, my dad's name? Who the fuck cares? What is going on?"
"Magic."
Thalia groaned into her hands as she tried to understand what I had just told her, "So, magic is real, not Gods likes our dads, but literal pointy hat witches and long-bearded wizards."
"Sure," I groaned at the fact she wasn't, of course in any regard, wizards like Dumbledore painted our kind in a stereotypical light in muggle fiction, "I mean, is it really that hard to believe, considering what you already know?"
She groaned, "No, I suppose not, but," She stared at me with an unreadable expression, "could you teach me?"
Ah understandable, even for a girl like Thalia, tough from a hard life and a much more mature outlook, even a young girl like her would be awed by the prospect of learning magic.
"Sorry, kiddo." I shook my head, setting down the slab of granite that I was etching another rune on, "My magic is something you're born with." She opened her mouth to ask the inevitable question, but I cut her off, "There would be tell-tale signs of it when you were growing up."
I didn't like the downtrodden expression on her face, nor did I like how I've grown attached to her. I just wanted to be left alone, and I could easily just pull away and leave her and the other brats to their devices, yet here I am using my magic to protect her, Annabeth, Luke and all the other brats all around us.
"My magic," I said, drawing her attention, "it's a tool," Oh wow, I can hear the thousands of magic theorists screaming at me, telling me how it is a living force. "A tool that allows me to feel closer to my mother, but as much as I loath to admit, my powers from my father," I let out a deep sigh as these words pain me, "are more useful." In a certain capacity.
I think it's prudent to her mood that I don't mention the outward artefact that gave me a significant boost to Hades' powers.
She gave me a small smile, and I could tell her mood flexed back to its take-no-shit mood, "That killed you to say, didn't it?"
"Like a kick to my b-Shins!"
She gave me a crooked smile while letting out a snort, suddenly she stared off over my shoulder with a confused expression on her face.
As I glanced over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of gold speeding towards me, "Fuc-" I clamped my mouth shut to stem away the series of pained curses that threatened to leak out as a pair of taloned feet dug into my shoulder.
A letter dropped on my plate, followed by her tail feathers smacking my face as my first familiar gave me the silent treatment.
"Shimmer," I greeted her, nonetheless, "meet Thalia." My oldest familiar looked at my charge with interest as she shuffled off my shoulder, allowing me to roll off the ache.
"She gorgeous," Thalia said with a smile as she grazed the neck of the egotistical bird.
"Yep," I said as I picked up the letter, perplexed, well sure Shimmer was probably the only creature who could track with me ease, but she had mostly stayed with my uncle back in England, and just like my familiar, the man was giving me the cold shoulder.
Two words on the parchment, that's all it took.
All that it took for me to drown in my past fury.
"Alton, are you…"
"Thanatos," I uttered low and yet the previously bustling and joyous camp was deathly silent.
Thalia inquired further, but I really couldn't find it in myself to speak further without losing it. Thankfully a shift around me indicated the God of Death was here, "Take me to the underworld."
"Lord-" I shoved the parchment in my hands, and he repeated the words out loud to my cringe, "He's lives?"
"Take me to The Fields of Punishment." Thanatos briefly looked as if he would deny my request, but he let out a sigh, and he raised an arm out to me.
"Alton." Most gazed at the God in fear and wonderment, but a trio approached with concern in their eyes.
"Where are you going?"
I let out a deep sigh, trying to simmer my anger for a moment, "I need to deal with something." Annabeth and Thalia gave me a worried look as Luke simply nodded his head, "I'll be back,"
"Promise?"
"Cross my heart." I made the motion that seemed to put the Wise Girl at ease. However I wasn't allowed to know if I had eased the girl's worries as Thanatos whisked us to the Underworld.
The Fields of Punishment held its beauty in its own right, though I've been told my concept of beauty was a bit shaded, it must be because of Hades. The way fire gleamed, against the molten rock, where large portions of the Underworld were, in fact, blistering cold for added torture. Even the creatures that roamed these lands held a haunting beauty to them, though barring one, the few seemed skittish in my presence.
"Lord Alton." Iflora hissed the once great and mighty nightmare of the fabled Chamber of Secrets that was couped up underneath Hogwarts, roamed freely in a plain amongst the Underworld.
"Hello, dear friend." I greeted her back as she moved towards me.
"What brings you here? It has been some time since you last came home."
I let out a sigh, the Underworld is my father's domain, but I dread the day when I would consider it home. I shook off my thoughts, "Iflora, I came here today for a purpose. Where is Tom Riddle's putrid soul?" I said, cutting to the chase, the more time I spend talking of the man grates on my nerves to no end, enflaming a sense of immoral thoughts of torture.
"Then look no further, Lord Alton." She uncoiled her massive tail and revealed a husk of skin and bone.
"Thanatos?" I uttered out in a whisper, unsure of what I was looking at.
"This is not right." He uttered out in bewilderment, "No." His hidden wings unfurled and batted at the husk, "How? How? HOW!?" He roared, and if I were a lesser man, I would've flinched at the anger of the ordinarily passive and subdued God of Death.
Instead, I allowed him to seethe and eventually calm down enough to speak with some rationality, "What has he done?"
"His soul, Lord Alton." He sneered down at the husk, "He splintered it."
"How is that possible?" A soul was not something that could be altered no matter how much fables claimed that it could be a tangible object and yet, I already knew.
Magic.
It didn't take long for Thanatos to extract everything the husk knew. I would be lying if I denied the satisfaction I felt when I hurt the rancid man. Still, here laid the folly of The Fields of Punishment. His mind was addled from the years it spent here, in addition to its being a fraction of his entirety.
We didn't stay at The Fields of Punishment nor the Judgment Pavilion for long. Thanatos simply wished to head over there for a moment, so he could inquire who had passed judgment on the slither of the would-be Dark Lord.
"How did this slip past through anyone's notice?" I dared to ask after we left the area and was granted some privacy.
"You won't like the answer, my Lord," Thanatos said as he trailed a hand against the marble podium with a massive gush across it.
The familiar faces of the Underworld gave us a wide berth.
"Do you know what I like about you?" He hummed, "You don't BS me. Don't start now."
He let out a sigh, his earlier wariness really did a number on his cool and collected professionalism, "The timing, my Lord, think it through." I did, I had already done so multiple times in our walk.
"When I lost Lily. When dad told me I couldn't see her again."
"When you left scars on the Underworld." He nodded, when I ravaged the fucking place in a fit, I forced my dad to call away his people to subdue me, in doing, I allowed Riddle's altered soul to pass through unnoticed.
"Alton." Zagreus, the eldest of Hades' children appeared with his arms outstretched and a broad smile on his face.
"Hey, Zag."
"Why didn't you say you were coming?" He reached for my hand and brought me into a hug.
"I've missed you also, but I…" Pulling back I let out a sigh.
People say Zagreus was the son of Hades through and through, but that was only because they looked at his fearsome prowess, if you got to know the God of Blood, you'd know he was nothing but a saint compared to the likes of his kin, myself included. "Alton, whatever you need, say the word." He said with an honest smile on his face.
"There's nothing I can…" An idea popped into my head, "Actually, yeah, there is something I could use your devious mind for."
"Flatter, ain't you Alton?" He grinned once again though there was a touch of the fearsome God of Blood shined through.
The best of a bad bunch.
Artemis POV
I could not shake the words of Thalia Grace.
Zoe, a dear and trusted follower, allowed her general hate and distaste to shine through, and she insulted both Alton and the son of Hermes. Which only caused the youngest daughter of Zeus to jump in defence of the two males.
Funnily enough, the young girl then turned to me expecting something, when I didn't give her anything but confusion, she let out an exasperated grunt, 'He's your friend, aren't you going to defend him.' As she referred to the older male.
What a childish viewpoint… was my initial thoughts. Just because the two of us could converse without hostility, does not mean anything.
Yet, when I thought about it, and when I was allowed a moment of solace, I could not help but think of the times I would journey his homestead.
I got to know the son of Hades, and while that was always the purpose, to garner any useful information about the being, I was initially waiting for the shoe to drop, so to speak, waiting for him to prove to be cut from the same cloth as most men.
Instead, Alton proved to be like his father, a cold man with a general distaste for the larger world, yet when push comes to shove, he will kill for those he loves. And while the demigod is a cut above the rest, a testament supporting that where he faced Hades in one-on-one combat, even the foolhardiest of us would never dare tangle with the God of the Dead. I could tell that Alton seemed to be a shell of his former self, a self I had never known.
This only begs to question whether or not I would be amicable with the man before his self-imposed exile.
We grow from our trauma; my girls have done so… I did. But growth does not necessarily mean betterment.
Was he a good man before? I cannot say, and those that I could ask would be biased. Persephone clearly loved the man, she has always been kind and gentle, but there is an underlying edge to the Goddess of Spring, but in the brief interaction, I witnessed that edge was replaced with an undying love.
She did tend to project upon others.
From what I was told by Alton, the Goddess was in love with his mother, 'Love between a mortal and immortal is a fickle thing.' He once told me his 'mum' may have once loved the Goddess, but she did what all mortals do, age, and with her body, so did her love age.
Persephone remained in love with the witch known as Astra, but when the love wasn't returned full-heartedly after years of separation, she projected that to her stepson, thankfully, Persephone did not cross a line that many in our family do.
On the other hand, Hades displayed something I have never seen in him before, pride, well, that is not entirely true. The God, like his brothers, were all prideful beings, that being a massive flaw in the trio, no, this time when he displayed pride, it was for someone else, for Alton.
Hades loved his children though he wasn't as vocal in showing it compared to the other Gods and Goddesses', he did love them, and the Fates pity the fool who would harm them because eventually all bow to the Dead at one point.
Hades coddled his children, he held a tight ship when it came to his spawn, yet he allowed Alton to paint a target in his back, not out of some spiteful misguided hate towards his son, but simply because he knew or believed the men could whether whatever storm would come his way.
Most of the Gods and Goddess brushed off the fact son of Hades started a fight with his father, primarily out of some form of saving face.
But no one fights Hades, no one.
Nor would the man raise a child to openly defy him. Everyone showed cold respect for the Lord of the Underworld, none would dare to throw a punch at the man, let alone insult him so openly.
For better or worse, Alton Geur has changed the forces at work. And I could honestly say it would be a pity if it gets him killed… loath Thalia Grace's words, he is my friend.
A/N – Published 2024/07/24
Yo, thanks for the support shown to this story…
…
I can just slip this in, right? And ignore the massive time it took to publish this, right? Nope, fuck. All I can really say is my bad, lost most of the inspiration for Alton's story slash got my shitty version of writer's block for it. It all sucks just as it sucks that I won't give a possible false promise that this and Changing the Game will get a decent update schedule.