1 Do All The Gods Drop In Like That?

Hey, I'm Beatrice Chase and I've always known what I was… well, kinda. I knew who my father was and that my mother was a goddess. I knew about my elder sisters… step-sisters… and their mother who all died on a yacht years before I was born.

Oh, did I forget to mention? All the myths are real. Greek, Roman, Norse… we got it. My cousin Annabeth and her husband Percy are children of some Greek gods, never really paid much attention beyond the fact that they attracted monsters with their scent.

With the both of them busy, they have left me with our other cousin, Magnus Chase. He and his boy- no, girlfriend, Alex Fierro were tasked to take care of me, even though I said I would do just fine alone in their apartment.

Both Magnus and Alex looked way too young for people in their late twenties and I have no idea how or why. Looking at them from the other side of the room, I was hesitant to even ask and this really wasn't a thing I usually do. Alex's half-sister, Samirah was slumped on the couch, as if exhausted by the atmosphere of rowdy kids in the Chase Space (long story, just ask Magnus what happened). Maybe I should ask her instead.

I stood beside Samirah, who greeted me with a smile. She said, "Hey, what's up?"

"Can I ask you something?" I asked her.

"Sure."

"Why do they look sixteen? Like, always." I said quickly, pointing to Magnus and Alex at a corner.

Samirah seemed shocked for a second before regaining her composure. I looked at her, more confused than ever. As far as I know, Samirah is older than Alex by just a few years so it was puzzling to see her all grown up and mature while Alex still looks like a rebellious teenager… not that Alex doesn't already act like one.

"Well… " Samirah began. "They have… They're dead, basically." She studied my face for a second, like I was a piece of calculus homework. I stared at her blankly, not even noticing until she continued. "They went to Valhalla. Hasn't any one of them told you this yet?"I shook my head.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to rethink everything she wanted to say, looking as if it would blow up my mind. She had nearly done that once, with her husband Amir Fadlan when she introduced the crazy world of the gods to him. If it weren't for Magnus' healing, he could have actually gotten hurt.

I wondered how the topic of being dead had escaped me for so long. Maybe there wasn't ever a conversation where I needed to know. Samirah told me about her days as a Valkyrie. She retired as she wanted to live a… practically normal life with Amir. With that, she lost all her Valkyrie abilities and weapons and her magic hijab.

I realised how little I knew about that side of the world. Magnus and Alex don't tell me much about their missions and quests… at least not as much as Annabeth, Percy, and all their friends. They all went their separate ways as they grew up but still go on quests together for the occasional prophecies.

"Oh!" Samirah said, remembering something. "I'm heading over to Blitzen's Best, wanna come with?"

I smiled and nodded. There was no one better than Blitzen and Hearthstone. There's just that something about that fashionable dwarf and magical elf.

Samirah and I got an umbrella, seeing the dark storm clouds roll in with a storm was going to hit at any time. The distant thunder and lightning made me wonder if Percy had just offended Zeus by calling him "Big Z" or "'Greeced' Lightning"or something else stupid. Percy had an affinity for angering gods besides his father and it is quite funny to watch as his confidence didn't waver while the gods screamed and hollered.

We made it to Blitzen's Best, fortunately before the storm. I saw Blitzen and Hearthstone and walked up to them to say "hi". As soon as that word came out of my mouth, I felt my face turn red with embarrassment. It was easy to forget Hearthstone couldn't hear anything. Blitzen said that he gave up his voice and hearing when he practiced rune magic.

"Hey kid," Blitzen responded, patting my head. I wonder if it's a dwarf thing, always reminding himself that he's still a couple inches taller than I and grinning. He faced Samirah, "Hey Sam."

Blitzen pulled Samirah away, I assume it must be for whatever reason she came here for, leaving just me and Hearthstone. He did some hand gestures which I could barely recognise since I was newly introduced to sign language.

Sometimes I wonder if he could write down what he wanted to say but Blitzen and Magnus were very much against asking him to do that, with what happened in Alfheim and his father.

I stood awkwardly beside him, still confused as to what he was signing. After a moment he understood and made a sign I finally recognised- one that meant laughter- and put down his arms.

"Thank you so much," I heard Samirah say, holding a bag in her hands that wasn't there before.

Blitzen had a wide grin on his face that faded quickly, "Oh yeah, don't you dare get it wet! It took me a long time to make that and I'm not making another one!"

Samirah chuckled as she grabbed my hand and led me out. When we left the doors, there was a curtain of rain ready to greet us. As it got heavier, clouds of mist and fog obscure everything in sight. I couldn't see anything at arm's length. Samirah's face was just a blur that made her hijab look like it had it's camouflage magic back.

An arm reached out and grabbed me and dragged me along the street, guiding me back. Samirah does that often, she panics whenever I get lost and when she finds me again, she never lets me out of arm's reach.

When we were finally under shelter, our shoes were practically soaked with rainwater. Samirah barraged me with questions, asking whether I was alright and stuff like that. It was very much tempting to tell her off but as no words came to mind I shrugged and told her, "It's not like I fell or anything? It was just a freak storm." I laughed, repeating to her that I was fine, and walked into the house. As I closed the door, she had gone to Amir's place which was a couple blocks down.

"I go by he/him now!" Alex announced loudly, though, the only person in the room who really ever talked to him is Magnus and me. Everyone else kindly knew to stay away from the guy with the world's sharpest wire.

I had a quick change and dried myself in the bathroom before returning to the living room. Having nothing else to do, I grabbed a random empty seat and watched the other kids play and the elderly read. The laughter in this room silenced the downpour outside.

There was a knock on the door but no one responded. I pretended to ignore it by grabbing a book and flipping to a random page, hoping that someone else would answer it.

"Seriously?" Alex whispered with annoyance as she passed by me and smacked the back of my head as lightly as he could. I probably should not have grinned when I saw him answer the door.

I peeked from over the book, wondering who it would be. Hopefully it was Percy and Annabeth coming by early to pick me up and bring me back to New York! It's not that I hated being at the Chase Space, it's just that… well… okay, maybe I do have a problem with how loud the other children could be at two in the morning.

"Come in," I heard Alex say as he invited a middle-aged woman in.

She had dark brown hair and skin as tanned as Fierro's. Her blue outfit had little wave and cloud designs on them. I could've sworn those were actual clouds and waves for a split second. Even more puzzling, she was dry from head to toe despite not wearing a poncho or bringing an umbrella.

She looked around, as if searching for someone or examining which one of my father's many artefacts would be the perfect one to take. I lowered my book to get a better view. On closer inspection, I recognised the way her eyes were darting around the room. It was like mine when I first stepped into the mansion, when everything felt so familiar yet so new at the same time. Her voice felt really familiar, it sounded like the ones that quietly whispered into my ears whenever I had been in a critical situation, which happened a lot around the son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena.

Soon, she set her sights on me. Her dark eyes almost looked pure black and within its gaze felt like they were reading me like an open book. I tried shying away, covering my face with the book in my hands.

The piercing sound of shattering glass irradiated the room. I looked to see Magnus with his feet and the floor around drenched in hot coffee. He stared wide-eyed at the woman, his skin paled as if he thought she wasn't ever supposed to be here. Seconds later, he regained his composure and started apologising and tried to clear the mess.

The woman's expression did not show even a hint of concern on whether or not Magnus' feet were burnt or impaled with fragments of glass. Looking around, it seemed like no one had noticed.

"Magnus!" Alex shouted and ran up to him.

"It's fine, just get me to tweezers to remove the glass," Magnus said. He didn't really scream like I expected anyone in that situation to, then again it could be because stepping on broken glass wasn't uncommon in battles in Valhalla considering how brutal Samirah described them.

I swiftly threw down my book, (which, in retrospect, was kinda rude to the man sitting close to me) and ran up to him. The woman had settled down somewhere nearby and I wasn't leaving her sight. Magnus kept a close eye on her as Alex went to get a pair of tweezers.

"Who is she?" I asked Magnus, who was busy trying to pick out all the larger pieces on his twitching feet with his fingers.

"Aunt Caroline," he answered, sounding fully sure it was her. "I could never forget her face since Loki tied mine and Randolph's memories together to communicate."

"I thought you and Annabeth said she's dead," I whispered back.

"She is," Magnus confirmed, " she's not supposed to be here."

"What a waste of good coffee!" Alex remarked, setting down everything in her hands. He had brought an extra part of tweezers for himself to help and handed me a box of tissues as well as a dustpan and a broom, "Help me clean this up, Bea, make sure to leave some tissues for the blood. "

No one is dumb enough to challenge Alex Fierro in anything. Even something as simple as cleaning spilt coffee and blood. I did as told while Magnus healed his feet by summoning the power of Frey, Alex helping to make sure no bits get left inside. When they were done, Magnus decided to put on a random pair of socks to try and hide the faint glow, a side effect of his powers.

The Caroline lookalike walked up to us when she saw we were done. Before any of us could ask our multiple questions, she instructed us to go somewhere more secluded, stating she needed to tell us something in private.

"Who are you really," Magnus said all of a sudden as we walked. "Caroline was no child of Hecate or Hades, she can't manipulate the Mist."

"You mean Glamour," Alex corrected.

"Does it matter?"

"Nope, " he giggled.

"If," said the woman that looked like my step-mom, "you are done fooling around, I do have some urgent news."

"Like?" Alex inquired.

She sighed, "The storm. Outside. Did you really think it's totally normal?" She looked at us as if we were little kids needing to be spoon-fed everything.

"Yeah huh," Alex replied, "It's probably Perce again."

"Again?" she roared. She muttered something under her breath, along the lines of "stupid son of Poseidon" and "he'll get himself killed one day" mixed with words and phrases I don't understand. Guess she knows him? Percy does have quite a reputation.

We stopped walking when we were far enough from the other people. Standing beside her, I realised how much she towered over Alex and me which, added to the fact that she was staring at us —or just me— intensely, was intimidating.

"Anyway," she began to speak," The storm outside isn't Lord Zeus' doing, it is Tlaloc's doing. "

"Why?" Alex asked as he joked, "His sacrifice cried a lot?"

The woman glared at him as Alex shrugged off her gaze. Magnus and I exchange glances, wondering what Alex may get himself into. It was no surprise he gets himself into quite a lot of trouble, and he usually takes great care of himself, but we have a bad feeling things won't go well if he continues.

"No, that day hasn't even come yet," she snarled, "He's mad. The gods had long since the start the fifth era vowed not to bear children with any humans… He has broken it just like I have-"

Upon hearing the last few words, it clicked in my head. "You're her, aren't you?" She looked at me, her lips pursed like she had something she didn't want us to know… that she didn't want me to know. "Why have you come looking like Caroline?"

In a second, she was another woman. She was neither poised nor confident, no longer looking like the woman with important world-ending information that had to be told right then. She was quiet and it scared me.

"No. She is Caroline."

I faced Magnus, confused as to how he could come to such a conclusion. He looked at her and she nodded.

"I don't have much time, " she said quickly. "Mingling with mortals… it makes us too attached to them, that's how my sister destroyed the fourth era. " I could tell she tried avoiding me, something told me it wasn't for the reason she just said. "Two weeks. Find Tlaloc's son before the other gods bring down this world. You'll know where to bring him when you find him. Get your cousin and Jackson in New York, they can help. "

I watched her brisk walk out and disappear.

I must have been spacing out as Magnus tapped and shoulder and asked, "Are you okay, Bea? "

I did not know. I always imagined how it would be like when I finally met my mother. I thought that maybe someone would bring me on my first quest and I met her along the way like Percy and Magnus did or claimed like Annabeth.

"Give her a moment," Alex advised.