Sarah woke up drenched in sweat, in what looked like a hospital bed. Quickly looking at the clock, she realized she slept around twenty hours. She tried to lift herself off the bed, and succeeded beyond her expectations. She threw herself out of the bed so hard she fell on the ground. Ouch, how the hell did I do that? Did I lose weight? No, I would have lost strength too. She went into the bathroom while massaging her elbow. She ran some water over her hand and face. As she lifted her head towards the mirror, she met her own gaze and froze, her attention caught by the sight.

“Is that me?” She checked herself, and it seemed the mirror wasn't lying. While Sarah was in quite a good shape, her body well-toned from archery, aikido and climbing practice, she still maintained a rather slim figure. But the image that stared back at her in the mirror was that of a slightly bulkier version of herself. She was still feminine, but her arms were clearly more muscular. Tossing her coat on the floor, she turned to check her back. The muscles of her shoulders and back were far more developed. She looked again at her face. Everything seemed to still be there. White skin, only lightly tanned, brown almond eyes, oval face, short light brown hair that stopped short of her jaw...

“Miss Lomrow, are you there?” The voice was that of a woman, coming from the bedroom. Sarah went out of the bathroom to see a young woman wearing a white coat that looked at her with surprise, before blushing and turning her back to Sarah.

“Sorry, I didn't knew you were busy! I'll let you get dressed!”

As the young woman hurriedly left, Sarah noticed she was sporting a green and gold caduceus on the back of her coat, which was surprising. It was a well-known symbol of doctors and medicine in general, but it was rare to see it like that. She knew nurses had some colorful scrubs, but she always thought lab coats had to remain white and pristine.

Sarah quickly dressed herself, even if her shirt was a little too tight on her shoulders now. As she left the room, she noticed the young doctor just outside, looking intensely in the other direction. She turned around.

“Hello, Miss Lomrow, and again, sorry for my intrusion” she said as she bowed deeply.

Sarah dismissed the apology with a wave of her hand. “No problem. Tell me, what happened to me? And what's your name?” Though she remembered it all neatly, she wanted to know what other people saw and understood.

“You can call me Audrey. I am part of the medical team that intervened after your friends called us. They said they were looking around the mausoleum when a bright flash of light radiated from its center. When their vision returned, they saw the sculptures moving and gaining colors before either disappearing or flying away. They went to find you. You were unconscious, with severe burns and a broken arm. By the time we got there, there was only one sculpture left, thought it was clearly not a sculpture anymore. He introduced himself as Hermes, god of medicine, travelers and quick-witted people. Then he smiled, and asked who was going to do the right thing first. Everyone was astounded, but I rushed to you, and started tending to your burns. I heard the man saying “Here's a quick one, congratulations.” There was a warm wind, your burns healed instantly, as did your arm. I turned toward Hermes, and he just threw me this coat, saying it would be useful to me.”

She said all this as fast as she could, almost choking on her words, probably due to the excitement that was hinted by her flushed cheeks and gleaming eyes. Is she lying? But why would she? It all seemed far too strange to be true, but the orb was strange too, and the chain of events seemed right.

“So, you met a god? And, wait a second, Hermes? Wasn’t the god of medicine in ancient Greece Asclepios? Or Apollon, I don’t remember well.”

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“I think there was something like that yes. I can always ask him, he invited me to go meet him in Greece if I had questions. And you should see the internet! People are going crazy there! It seems that several people received presents or powers from gods.”

THAT was something else. GODS? Like, plurals? Handing out presents and powers? That was obviously a fake rumor, right?

“And what does this coat have that’s special, except the caduceus I mean.” If this was truly a present from a god, it should be special, right?

“It seems to reject filth. I can’t sully it, whatever I throw at it. I’m also never cold when I wear it, neither hot. Isn’t that great!” Once again, she was getting overexcited.

“Yes, it is.” Sarah was wondering if she was more muscular because of a god. “Didn’t another god leave something? Like an explanation or anything like that?”

“No, sorry. Anyway, you should eat something, because I’ll be making more inspections, just making sure everything is really all right with you. I mean, I already did the standards checks, but I would like to understand exactly what happened.”

Audrey led her to the cafeteria, and the two women went on discussing their hypothesis on the events. Audrey showed Sarah a new website, where people had already started to put everything happening regarding gods. There were reports of gods appearing everywhere, often to a prominent figure in a field, like Stephen Hawking, who met several gods, and was now healthier than ever.

As they scrolled through the reports, the chat on the side suddenly went crazy. Looking at it, they were redirected to a new section of the website, which included a map, and was used to localize every event. An unbelievable number of reports were appearing, all on the same places. And to an archeologist, they were especially significant: Olympus Mount in Greece, King’s valley in Egypt, Kyoto in Japan, Lyon in France, Teotihuacan in Mexico, and several other places, all deeply linked with different pantheons, different mythologies.

The reports were about the sudden appearance of several structures, or instantaneous repairs of existing ones. Sarah was examining pictures of the new temple on top of Olympus Mount, when she felt her phone vibrate. She had totally forgotten it was there. She saw it was John’s number.

“Yeah, it’s Sarah.”

“There is someone here for you…” The voice was John’s, but it seemed strange to her.

“What’s happening? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, but you should really come fast, she doesn’t seem really patient. We’re at the base.”

Sarah hung up, and stood up, to see Audrey barring her way.

“Where do you think you’re going? I didn’t sign your discharge, and we still need to check some points.” The little woman seemed intent on stopping her at any cost. Sarah looked at her with attention for the first time. Audrey was smaller than her, perhaps around 1,60 meter high, with brown hair no longer than the middle of her neck. Her skin was pale, and she seemed quite slim. Her face was pretty, in Sarah’s opinion at least, with a small nose, some freckles and brown eyes. She didn’t want to go against her, but John seemed really worried, and she wanted to see the person that caused it.

“Then come with me, cause I won’t stop.” Sarah spoke with a disarming smile, and used the hesitation of the doctor to go on, walking a brisk pace toward the exit.

“Oh, come on…” Audrey followed quickly, even if she didn’t seem happy about the turn of the events. They walked fast, and it took less than five minutes to reach the ‘base’, the little office from which her team did all the theoretical work. In front of the building was a small gathering of people, surrounding a single person.

As they were closing on the group, Sarah was able to better see the woman everyone was looking at. And she recognized her! It was the winged woman she saw as a statue when she entered the mausoleum! Now that she was awake, she was truly awe-inspiring, standing taller than anyone around her at 1.85 meter high, in full battle armor, axe and spear at her side. But her two most distinctive features were her amber eyes, almost glowing in the shade of her helmet, and her majestic wings. They were almost 3 meters long each, with white and gold feathers.

As soon as she saw them approaching, she started speaking.

“Greetings Tivarvinar, I’m Thrud, daughter of Thor, Goddess of strength. I’m here on behalf of Odin, the All-father. You’re hereby invited to Yggdrasil, where your gifts will be explained to you.”