Chapter 2: The Morning After: Part Two
Joan stared at me as I finished recounting what had happened to me the day before. Throughout my explanation, I’d seen plenty of emotions flit across her face, though she had been quick to control them. There had been surprise, concern, shock, irritation, anger, sympathy, more surprise, and then excitement and curiosity as I went through the events. She asked me some questions about Etienne, then about my wait for him, then finally about Li, asking me to clarify some details.
When I was done, she stayed silent for a moment, just looking at me. The silence seemed to drag on for a bit, enough to make me feel awkward, then she broke it.
“Adam. You should know that I am proud of your achievement in helping a fellow demigod to escape a horrifying situation. That you were able to . . . rebalance his damaged divinity is remarkable, and something that speaks well to your future power. More than that, it was an act of commendable compassion, healing rather than harming.
“I am also pleased to hear that you managed to advance your power. We shall have to conduct some tests to see how great your development has been. Honoured Hadriel believed that battle might prove to be a catalyst to draw forth your potential, this would seem to confirm that thought.
“Lastly, the confirmation of one of your divine ancestors is another boon to us. The knowledge that you are also descended from the goddess Nüwa will grant us further insight into your potential powers, assuming such information is accurate, of course.”
That made my eyes widen. During my meeting with Li it had never even occurred to me that he might be lying. His appearing, obviously with power of his own, the ways he’d addressed me, the orb of metal he’d passed to me, even the pouch I’d received, all of it had struck me as genuine on a deep level. Of course, there hadn’t been any real proof that he’d told the truth, just his word. I opened my mouth to ask Joan what she thought but never got a chance to say a word as she kept on speaking, her voice growing hard.
“However, why did you act so foolishly after losing the charm with which to contact us?!” She wasn’t shouting, but her voice had risen. “Why were you so reckless as to continue to face some rampant demigod rather than return to us and ask for aid?!”
Her eyes were locked on me, and their gaze pinned me like a butterfly to paper from sheer intensity. What made it even more piercing was the emotion there, not simply outrage, but also . . . fear? Fear and concern. I opened my mouth to ask what she meant, what I had done, but again she spoke before I could.
“Adam, I was set upon this plane to protect you, to teach you, to aid you. I do not expect you to sit back and let me fight in your place, if for no other reason than that in time your power shall eclipse my own. But until then, let me aid you!”
She took a step back gesturing about herself.
“Do you understand? All this is for you! I, honoured Hadriel, even goddesses Athena and Kali, we are all here because of you! Mon dieu, if you die, then it is for nothing, the world will turn on, and it shall grow darker without the light you shall one day cast. You cannot take such risks! You cannot afford to let yourself die in some backwood, fighting against a monster that is so small in the grander scheme of things. You have to be more discerning, Adam, too much depends upon you.”
I . . . wasn’t entirely sure how I should respond to that. In truth, I never liked it when Joan brought up my supposed destiny. I knew she had complete faith in it, and I suppose that some part of me accepted it as true. But, at the same time it still just didn’t feel quite real to me, even after all I’d gone through. I tried to ignore it, instead focusing on the other part of what she’d said.
“I do understand, but leaving just . . . it didn’t feel right, you know?” I said, trying to explain. “Just turning and coming back at the first sign of real trouble . . . it was more like running away than getting help. Plus, it felt wrong to leave him like that. Even if he was an enemy, I didn’t want to leave him at my back, and once I got talking to him . . . I couldn’t just leave!”
There was a pause as she just kept looking at me, our eyes locked in a measuring stare.
“Adam . . . there is bravery, and there is recklessness,” Her voice was softer now, but I could still hear that core of iron in it. “I shall not ask you to discount your instincts or your compassion, but you must show greater judgement. You must not give in to the heat of the moment, and you must remember that you are not alone, and you are not expected to be. Your desire to stand upon your own merits has value, and in the future, I do not doubt that you shall stand tall, but until then allow us to help you.”
I understood what she meant, and I couldn’t really say she was wrong. Still, I was sure that what I’d done at the time hadn’t been a mistake. If I hadn’t done it would I have been able to help Etienne like I had? If Joan and Hadriel had been there with me would I have been able to make that link I’d forged out of desperation? If they’d been with me would I have pushed myself as much as I had?
Slowly I nodded, my thoughts racing as I tried to put my thoughts into words.
“I get what you mean,” I said slowly. “I get that I should have been more careful, and I’ll try to be in the future.”
Joan smiled as she began an answering nod of her own but paused as I continued.
“But . . . I don’t think I was wrong this time. If I’d left, if I’d waited . . . I don’t think we’d have been able to save him when we got there. We’d have just found the monster, nothing of Etienne left.”
The French saint frowned slightly but offered another, slower, nod.
“I was not there,” She admitted. “So, I cannot know how it was at the time. I shall trust your judgement in this matter, but please show more care in the future. Agreed?”
“Okay,” I replied, trying to defuse the heavy atmosphere. “I’ll try to avoid fighting powerful insane demigod monsters on my own. I really don’t want it to become a habit.”
The quick smile I got out of her seemed genuine enough, so my attempt at humour seemed to have worked. She came deeper into the room, taking a seat in one of the armchairs facing the one I was sitting in.
“Très bien, then let us move on to other topics,” She said, leaning forward as she sat. “These balls of metal that you now have, show them to me.”
I nodded and soon had both of them out. Joan stared at them both, her gaze lingering on the sphere Li had given me, the one he called the Thousand Heavenly Blessings Metal Sphere. The other one, the more misshapen dark orb of metal I’d found at the battle site, caused her to frown slightly, her face more puzzled than disturbed. She got out of her chair and came over, but her approach was slow, almost as though she was worried she’d scare them if she moved too fast.
“Well,” Her voice was low as she reached out to gently touch the darker sphere. “I am honestly surprised, Adam. How could I possibly have expected you to stumble across such treasures in a single day?”
“You know what they are?”
“I know what one of them is,” She replied, gesturing to the sphere Li had given me. “Or at least I have a strong notion. The metal this ball is composed of feels very similar to the divine metal that angels use to forge their weapons and armour. It is not identical, but the power within it is almost a match.”
She paused, her eyes flicking from the orb and then to me several times.
“It lends weight to the claim that you are descended from the goddess Nüwa. The similarities are offset by the differences in casting and refinement. I am no sage in the art of divine metals, but a portion of my training by the soldiers of Heaven was in the forging of my own weapons and armour. I did not create the materials I used, only reformed and reforged them, but that was sufficient to grant me some familiarity with them. From what I can sense this metal is infused with the celestial nature of the Jade Court, the governing deities of the Chinese divinities.”
I wasn’t sure how I was meant to react. I was really glad that it didn’t seem as though Li had been lying to me, and it helped cement the possibility of Nüwa being my ancestor. However, I had no idea what having a small sphere of this metal meant. If it had been larger then I could see it being used to make something useful, maybe a shield or some armour, but the sphere was only the size of an average orange. That wasn’t enough metal to make anything other than a small knife at most. Was that what I was expected to do with it?
My confusion must have shown because Joan continued.
“It is a small amount, but do not be overly concerned. Many great weapons have been forged using combinations of magical metals. The Norse Mjolnir, the Irish Gae Bolg, even the famed Excalibur, all of them were created with a combination of materials, rather than just a single metal. Even a gift the size of a seed can be valuable, and you have much more than that here.”
“What about the other one?” I asked, lowering the gift passed to me by Li and holding up the smaller and darker ball of metal. “Do you know what it is?”
A troubled look passed across the resurrected saint’s face as she looked back at the strange lump. She didn’t seem concerned, which I took as a good sign. Instead, she just stared at it, as though it were a riddle she was trying to answer.
“There you have me,” She admitted, reaching out to lightly prod the metal with a fingertip. “I can tell that it is not harmful, but I have never heard of a metal with such a reaction to magic. I have heard of stones that consume magic, I have heard of metals that can disrupt spells they come into contact with. But this metal . . .”
“I couldn’t move it with magic,” I volunteered. “When I tried the TK just came apart as soon as I tried to get a grip. The weird thing is that I could still use magic when I was touching it.”
To demonstrate I closed my fingers around the dark ball, then reached out with Arcana to levitate the wallet Athena had given me the night before. There was no disruption to my magic at all, the act as smooth and controlled as I could have wished for.
“C'est intrigant,” Joan commented, a small spark of light jumping from her finger to the misshapen ball, only to splash on its surface as though it had been a droplet of water. “It only appears to respond to magic that affects it directly. And you say that you just found it in the remains of the demigod's monstrous form?”
“Yeah,” I replied as I nodded. “After he . . . got smaller, more controlled, the rest of him just broke up into something like sand. I found that in a pile of it. I’d probably have missed it if some light hadn’t hit it just right.”
“I see. May I?”
The French saint asked as she reached for the shiny dark lump of metal. At my nod she picked it up, weighing it in her hand. She held it up to the light coming in through the window, then turned it over several times, studying it from various angles.
“I cannot be certain,” She finally admitted, handing it back to me. “But I believe that it might be some form of hardened essence.”
She said it as though that should mean something to me, but my blank look must have conveyed my ignorance because she explained.
“As beings of power live it is only natural that power accumulates within them. This is true of you, of me, of angels and gods, even demons and monsters. In most cases when such creatures die that accumulation of power is absorbed into them. For immortal beings, it accompanies them when they return to their natural plane of existence, their absorption of it going some way to compensate for the loss of power incurred by the destruction of an avatar. However, for beings that die permanently, the results can be different.”
She pointed at the smaller of the balls, prompting me to put it down on the arm of my chair as I slipped the other one back into my pouch of holding.
“In such cases the accumulated power has no channel to follow, so on most occasions, it just dissipates into the atmosphere. However, there are times when it instead congeals, hardening into a solid state. What it becomes is influenced by the nature and power of the being it was accumulated within. Sometimes it takes the form of scales or hide, sometimes it can be metal or wood. On rare occasions, I have heard of it even taking on the form of completed weapons, or pieces of armour, though such occurrences are extremely rare. Unless I am mistaken, this is one such condensed power, though what it is now I am less certain of.”
I looked at her, then back at the black ball, my expression most likely as bemused as I felt. Loot? Was she talking about a monster drop LOOT SYSTEM? I’d been able to stretch my mind and credulity to take in a lot of stuff. I’d learnt about gods, magic, angels, and demigods. Some of it had been easy, some of it had been near impossible to get my head around, but this . . . this might just be a step too far in the direction of absurdity! Life should not resemble a computer game this closely!
Taking a deep breath I did my best to calm myself, focusing on the dark lump of metal as I did so. I told myself that this was fine, that it wasn’t rationality giving up the ghost. Yes, item drops were a popular part of video games, but there was also a basis for it in mythology. Heracles, for example, was famous for claiming spoils from the creatures he slew. He got an invulnerable hide from the Nemean Lion, and he got lethal poisoned arrows from the Hydra. Seigfried claimed power by bathing in a dragon’s blood, and by eating its heart. The same was true in Chinese mythology, if I remembered right, something about claiming pearls from a dragon. If I looked at it from that angle it was easier to swallow.
Stolen story; please report.
“So . . . do you think it’s worth anything?” I asked, my tone exaggeratedly greedy as I tried to waggle both my eyebrows.
My small joke seemed to go down well because Joan grinned before answering.
“That is a difficult matter to be sure of,” She admitted. “That it is metal means that, like your gift from your ancestor, there may be value in it as a forging material. Likewise, it might be of use as a reagent or ritual component. Its natural property against magic is of interest, though it might reduce its value if it cannot interact with other magic due to it. For now, it seems to be capable of being stored in your pouch easily enough, I would recommend keeping it in there until you find either a use for it or someone that might value it enough to barter with you.”
“Okay,” I agreed, slipping the ball of shiny dark metal back into my pouch. “I can get behind that. So, what’s next?”
“That is the question, is it not?” The French saint sat back down. “There are still some days left of the protection afforded to us by the Hallowed Sanctuary. It was originally the plan of honoured Hadriel and me to use those days to further train you, hopefully building upon what you might have learnt about yourself during your outing. Once the Sanctuary fell there were several missions that you could have cut your teeth upon and used to build some notoriety, both with the divine beings and with the mortal world. However, that was before two goddesses decided to ‘honour’ us with their presence.”
She didn’t say the word ‘honour’ with spite or contempt, but there were definitely some strong emotions there, and I felt my curiosity rise. Before I could ask a question though, another thing occurred to me.
“Oh yeah, there was something I wanted to talk to you about. It's about the Hallowed Sanctuary. I noticed something off when I came back yesterday.”
Joan sat up a bit straighter and her eyes narrowed slightly.
“What do you mean?”
“When I came back yesterday it looked . . . weaker, kind of fragile. It was stronger when I left, but when I got back it looked like it might break. Is there something wrong with it?”
Joan visibly relaxed, settling back in her chair.
“It is good that you are aware of such a change, but there is no need to be concerned. What you have observed is merely a result of allowing goddesses Athena and Kali to enter. Their presence has caused some disruption to the Sanctuary due to their sheer power, but the fragility you saw is simply a cosmetic change, the Sanctuary remains firm.”
I nodded again, then tilted my head slightly as I thought of something.
“Is their being here a problem? Not to the Sanctuary, I mean to us. To what we’re going to do next. Could they be a problem?”
Joan leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh.
“Oui et non. They bring power to your side, which can be of value, but their presence also escalates the situations you may find yourself in. Deities such as they will not be content to wait as you build yourself up. They will offer you aid but will also demand a suitable stage upon which to perform. Also, power calls to power, and their very presence may draw challenges that you are not yet ready to face.”
I nodded, seeing where she was coming from, but she wasn’t finished.
“Still, they are here, and it is unlikely that they shall be leaving, so we must live with the world we have, not the one we wish for.” She sat back up, her hands clasped in her lap. “Their being here does offer opportunities. As educated as honoured Hadriel and I are in the supernatural realm I shall admit that the majority of our knowledge is focused upon the High Heavens and our foes. We know something of the pantheons, the faery courts, the spirits of the Far West and the empires of the East, but our knowledge is only superficial when compared to that of a goddess of wisdom and learning such as goddess Athena.
“She knows many things we do not. Many secrets, many alliances, and many small details that may carry much more weight than they seem to. This is not solely on her own pantheon and mythology either. During the Age of Legends, she was the Olympian ambassador to many of the other pantheons. She is knowledgeable on them as well, both their legends and their cultures, information that may well prove invaluable in the future.
“As for the goddess Kali . . . she brings us power and reputation. Her contributions are less wide-ranging, but I have no doubt they will be important. I am confident that I am a match for any nine demigods out of ten. Honoured Hadriel is a tested soldier of Heaven, she has faced demons, rogue spirits, and even rampant gods. But neither of us is in the same tier as Lady Kali. Quite frankly, I doubt that even Lady Athena herself could survive if a death battle broke out between them. She might make a fight of it, but Lady Kali is unquestionably the mightier of them.”
She looked up at me, her eyes intent.
“That is the goddess that has sworn to aid you, do you understand? Any enemies you might gain will have to take her into account, and that will mean the dangers you face will be proportionately increased.”
Silence reigned as I processed what she’d just said. The simple fact was that I had only a vague idea as to the real power of a god. Sure, I’d seen pictures online of the aftermath of when gods had fought, smashed buildings, melted concrete, and craters big enough to fit whole houses into, but it wasn’t the same. That was comparable to what I’d managed against Etienne, greater, but in the same sort of ballpark. I knew that when gods put in some effort they could do much more, much much more.
So, now I not only had that sort of power in my corner, but there was a good chance I was going to have to be up against something like that in the future. Wonderful.
“We still have time left before the Sanctuary ends,” Joan said, her tone reassuring. “And the presence of the goddesses does afford us some opportunities that may well prove invaluable in the future.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my curiosity momentarily replacing my worry.
“We have allied gods with us, powerful and skilled ones,” The French saint explained. “They can help train you. They can grant you experience in facing the full power or skill of a god but upon a relatively safe field of combat. Do you understand how rare an opportunity that is? For most, the first time they face the might of a divinity is overwhelming, often fatally so, but you shall hopefully have the chance to learn at that level before facing it in true battle. You shall be able to practice under the pressure of facing such power, to grow accustomed to it. you shall be able to learn where you stand in comparison, and what you can do to either fight or flee.”
Her sudden enthusiasm caught me by surprise. Her earlier tone had been graver, but now she seemed almost excited by the possibilities occurring to her. A thought occurred to me, and I had to ask.
“Couldn’t I have done the same thing with Hadriel? I mean, she’s an angel, right? Shouldn’t she be on par with them?”
“That is a question with a . . . complicated answer,” Joan replied. “And not one to go into at this moment since it would take some time to explain. Remember to ask me about it later though, it is something that you should know.”
That piqued my curiosity even more, but if she said it would take time to go through then I could wait.
“Where are Kali and Athena right now?” I asked, suddenly curious as to what the goddesses were doing.
“Goddess Kali is still abed,” The resurrected saint informed me. “She appears to be enjoying her slumber and asked not to be disturbed when she went to bed last night. Goddess Athena has not slept at all. She has been working in her room, though I do not know the subject of her work. She also requested not to be disturbed until she was finished. So, for now, at least, neither of our new guests will be disturbing us.”
“Guess that gives us a bit of time to work things out some.” I offered. “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling more than a bit intimidated with them being here.”
“A sensible reaction,” Joan assured me, a smile on her lips again. “It would require a very brave man, or at least a very foolish one, not to feel such in the face of such powerful goddesses. However, remember that you are not as other demigods are. Your power will one day be comparable to theirs. They know this as well, otherwise, they would not be here, their words of family and fellowship aside. You are not someone they can ignore, remember that and take heart in that knowledge.”
There it was, Joan’s faith in me and my nebulous future. It was reassuring, knowing that someone like her believed in me, but it didn’t completely dispel my own concerns.
“Yeah. I know that I’m stronger now, but the idea of having that kind of power . . . it still doesn’t seem real.” I admitted.
For a moment the French saint just looked at me, and then her smile grew wider.
“Well, you have told me that you felt stronger after your recent battle. So, tell me about this increase in your power. How great would you say it was?”
“Yeah, it happened just after I lost control of things,” I admitted. “Etienne had me down on the ground and I couldn’t get away. He was pounding on my shields until they broke, and when they did I knew that I was next. Then . . . I don’t know, my halo started to make a note like a bell, only it just went on and on, and I suddenly had more power to throw around than ever!”
“Just what do you mean by that?” Joan asked, curiosity clear on her face. “Please try to be as concise as you can.”
“It . . . it was like someone suddenly hooked me up to my own personal powerplant,” I offered. “You know how magic is like colours in my head? Well, it was like I could suddenly just channel more of the colours than ever. Like I could make them bigger and stronger than ever before.”
“How so?”
“Well, you remember the first time we sparred with me using magic?” Seeing her nod, I made a wide gesture with my arms. “It was like I could do more . . . just more of everything! Back then I could only just move enough sand to fill a . . . a bathtub or something like that. Now I can yank up boulders and stone spears shoot out of the ground! It’s like that with everything, fire, lightning, ice, I’m way stronger than I was before with all of them!”
I could feel a grin spreading across and did nothing to contain it. Remembering just what I’d managed in my fight with Etienne was exhilarating. It made me think of what I might be capable of in the future, of what my real potential might be.
“Please could you summon your halo,” Joan asked me, interrupting my thoughts of future god-like power.
I nodded as I sent the mental command. The now-familiar sound of metal snaps and pops filled the room as the circles of floating metal pieces appeared above my head, my sense of the magic about me coming into sharper focus as they did so. However, there was something new, a low, almost imperceptible, hum. A note that hadn’t been there before. It hung at the very edge of hearing, so faint that it was no surprise that I’d missed it in that clearing after the fight, or when I was flying back. Strangely the note didn’t grind on the senses at all. Instead, it felt comforting, something about it making me absolutely certain that it was on my side.
For her part, the French saint seemed more puzzled than anything else as she reached above my head and poked at the halo.
“Once again, you have succeeded in perplexing me, Adam.” She admitted as she took a step back. “I have never heard of a partially activated halo. Indeed, I had no idea such a thing was even possible.”
“Errr . . . . what?”
Her words took me by surprise, but how could I have expected something like that?
“Your halo . . . it is active, and serving as a focus for your power, but at the same time it is not feeding you any additional strength.”
She paused for a moment, and though I couldn’t see it from my angle I was suddenly unquestionably aware that she was using a mote of light to poke at one of the components of my halo. The knowledge was just there in my mind. I heard a slight change to the note of the halo for a second, then it returned to its previous cadence.
“Yes,” She murmured, more to herself than to me. “It no longer seems to be controlling your mana flow for you, at least not completely. Were you able to make some sort of breakthrough? Or has some sort of instinctive control been triggered?”
She stepped back, looking at me appraisingly.
“How much more powerful do you feel, Adam? Be as honest as you can.”
“I feel much stronger,” I admitted, looking down at my hands, then back up to her. “It’s like . . . before I could only see the edges of what I could do, you know? There was loads I could do but it was all so limited. I could see more that I could do, big stuff, things that I could really use as weapons and shields, but I didn’t have the muscle to pull them off. Now I do though!”
An orb of energy sparked to life over my right palm, fire first, then shifting to a glowing ball of light, then a cracking sphere of arcing electricity, then a semi-transparent whirling ball of spinning air, then back to fire. It was so easy, so simple. I lightly tossed the ball to my other hand, the cycle of shifting states continuing even as I caught it and bounced it back. I could feel a grin starting to split my face at the simplicity of what would once have been a gruelling test of control.
“I’ve got other ideas now,” I told her. “Stuff I couldn’t see how to do before, but I might be able to manage now, things I saw you and Hadriel pulling off.”
My thoughts were going to things like the light constructs that Joan had used in their sparring matches, or the living lightning that our resident angel could throw around. I didn’t think I could match their more impressive feats, but I could probably copy some of their simpler tricks.
“Vraimant?” Joan sounded curious, but there was also an edge to her tone that I was missing in my growing enthusiasm. “This growth in power sounds like a great boon.”
“Yeah!” I agreed, still distracted by the shifting magic orb I now held suspended between my palms. “I didn’t really have time to do much against Etienne other than throw everything I could as hard as I could. Then I was just so tired when I got back. But now . . . now I can feel it better. I can sort of sense it, just feel how much more . . . push I’ve got. It’s . . . it’s awesome!”
By the end of my explanation, I was talking more to myself than to Joan, my attention turning inwards as I actively poked with my will at the networks of energy running through me. I could feel the magic, the sparked mana that flowed through my body and my wings. I could feel the chi, the life force that powered my vitality. Both of them felt stronger, more invigorated, so much more compared to before.
“Then it would be best to learn the extent of this growth.”
I should have noticed the oncoming train at that point, but I was just so distracted by the chance to finally take a careful look at my increased power. I could tell that some of it was tied to the halo, and then there was the development of my internal power, but there were other changes, small but fascinating. Things like my muscles, where tiny threads of chi and magic were running through them. Threads that didn’t seem to be a part of the energy circulatory systems that I’d sensed before. Instead, they seemed more like . . . effects? Spells? They were more akin to the extensions of power I made to affect the world, like fireballs or lightning bolts. Only these were clearly not destructive, instead they seemed to be reinforcing my flesh rather than damaging it.
It wasn’t just the muscles either. I could sense similar threads running through my bones, my skin, even through my eyes and eardrums. I couldn’t feel it, not in the conventional way, but once I focused in on them it seemed so easy to perceive them. And there was more, other things happening . . . deeper. It was like I couldn’t ‘see’ them, but I could tell the way they were disturbing other things I could see. It was enough to give me a vague impression, a notion of what was happening. Joan said something else, but I was too distracted to pay attention, just making a general sound of agreement as I tried to narrow my perception, to gain more focus.
“Splendide! We shall begin immediately.”
That drew me out of my reverie, my eyes blinking as I realized I’d missed something. And given how pleased Joan sounded I was pretty sure it was something I should have been paying attention to.
“Sorry . . . what? I got lost in my head there for a sec.”
I didn’t get time to ask anything else, because the French saint grabbed me by the wrist and promptly dragged me out of the room. I barely had time to fold my wings in as tightly as they’d go as I was pulled through the door and down a short corridor, the scratches on the wall showing where I’d failed before. I was so intent on making sure that my sharp feathers were being carefully tucked in that I didn’t voice anything else until Joan pulled me through a door and I was out in the morning sun.
With a bit more space around me, I could relax and let my wings unfold into a more comfortable position. It also let me look up at the resurrected soul, my mouth open to ask her what was going on.
Then I noticed that she was now standing in full armour, her sword at her side and a smile on her face. A smile I recognised from our previous training sessions.
Suddenly I had the impression that getting lost in the study of my changes might not have been the best idea.
“Well then, Adam. Let us learn how you have grown.”
I just had time to draw on my power before she came at me, and then there was no more time for thinking.