Chapter 18 : Now I only have to see Asgard.(part 2)

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I entered the library eating a hotdog I had summoned using Hestia's power of...summoning home cooked food. Not sure why this was a power but it was definitely neat to have.

Sadie and Carter looked hungrily at it which made me realise Zia had not given them anything to eat yet. My backpack, which suddenly appeared in my room last night, was slung over my shoulder. Sadie and Carter were wearing the same unusual clothing as yesterday, and I saw they had already started with their magic lesson. Carter was covered in, bird poop? Wow.

"You're late!" Zia exclaimed and I rolled my eyes.

"You did not give me any directions." I countered.

"I already taught Sadie and Carter about magic." Zia said.

"Did you give them anything to eat?"

Sadie and Carter both pouted.

I sighed and took out a few oreos out of my backpack and handed them each a roll.

"We're not supposed to eat 'till we are done." Zia scowled.

"Magic drains energy right? If we don't have energy, we can't do magic. Are you setting us up for failure?" I asked.

"Percy-" Carter began but Zia interrupted him.

"Yes and you want to know why? Because all of you three are lying."

"Lying?" Sadie asked innocently.

"Yes, I know you three are children of the Gods."

Carter raised his hand, "Whoa...we are not children of the Gods."

Sadie nodded.

"The Gods choose their hosts carefully," Zia said. "They always prefer the blood of the pharaohs. When a magician has the blood of two royal families..."

"I don't have any magical blood." I said.

Sadie exchanged looks with Carter.

"Our parents were from different royal lines," Sadie said. "Dad...he must've been descended from Narmer, the first pharaoh. I told you he looked like that picture!"

"That's not possible," Carter said. "That was five thousand years ago."

"Then the Fausts..." He turned to Zia. "Ramesses the Great built this courtyard. You're telling me our mom's family is descended from him?"

Zia sighed. "Don't tell me your parents kept this from you. Why do you think you are so dangerous to us?"

"You think we're hosting gods," Sadie said, absolutely stunned. "That's what you're worried about—just because of something our great-times-a-thousand grandparents did? That's completely daft."

"And even if they were hosting a god, why would that be their fault?" I interrupted their small discussion.

"Oh, don't you dare to start talking about hosting Gods, we both know all three of you are a host of a God."

Carter gave me a questioning glance but I gave him the I-tell-you-later look.

"You are wrong, we are not possessed." Sadie said.

"Then follow me and duel, show me how weak you all are!" she said angry and waved with her wand to create another magic gateway, which Zia summoned right on the library wall.

She ordered us to follow her into the circle of swirling sand. We popped out on the other side, covered in dust and grit, in the front of some ruins. The harsh sunlight almost blinded me.

"I hate portals," Carter muttered, brushing the sand out of his hair. Then he looked around and his eyes widened. "This is Luxor! That's, like, hundreds of miles south of Cairo."

"Get used to that stuff." I told him after getting up.

He was too busy checking out our surroundings to answer.

I suppose the ruins were all right, though once you've seen one pile of crumbly Egyptian stuff, you've seen them all, I say. We stood on a wide avenue flanked by human-headed beasties, most of which were broken. The road went on behind us as far as I could see, but in front of us it ended at a temple much bigger than the one in the New York museum.

Zia drew three circles each at a small distance from each other.

"Step into a circle," she demanded us.

"Why?" Carter asked.

"Because you three are going to duel and show me how weak you all are."

I stepped into a circle, Sadie and Carter followed and looked at each other with an unsure expression on our faces.

"I don't think this is fair, first off I am experienced and they are just new to this stuff."

"Yeah, I don't want to hurt my brother." Sadie added.

"Hey!" Carter said with mock anger as held a Khopesh in his hand. Sadie had a long staff in her hand, I had both my swords out.

I had no idea what Carter was supposed to do. Throw his sword?At least I could throw fire and water but the odds were not in his favor.

Perhaps Carter was thinking the same thing, because he'd started to sweat. "What if we do something wrong?" He asked.

"I will oversee the duel," Zia promised. "We will start slowly. The last magician to get knocked out by the others wins."

"But we haven't been trained!" Sadie protested.

"One learns by doing," Zia said. "This is not school, Sadie. You cannot learn magic by sitting at a desk and taking notes. You can only learn magic by doing magic."

"But-"

"Summon whatever power you can," Zia said. "Use whatever you have available. Begin!"

I waited curiously to see what Sadie and Carter would do. Sadie raised her staff at me and closed her eyes for a second to focus.

A small flame came to life at the end of her staff but it quickly died out.

Sadie fell to her knees in exhaustion.

"You okay?" Carter asked.

"Shut up!" she answered.

"Sadie, you must be careful," Zia called. "You drew from your own reserves, not from the staff. You can quickly deplete your magic."

"Explain." Sadie said.

"Each time you do magic," Zia continued, "you expend energy. You can draw energy from yourself, but you must know your limits. Otherwise, you could exhaust yourself, or worse."

"You could literally burn up." Carter finished.

"Magic can be drawn from many sources," Zia continued. "It can be stored in scrolls, wands, or staffs. Amulets are especially powerful. Magic can also be drawn straight from Ma'at, using the Divine Words, but this is difficult. Or-"

Zia locked eyes with me, "it can be summoned from the gods."

"Why are you looking at me?" I demanded. "I didn't summon any gods. They just seem to find me!"

"Same here." Carter coughed. "Didn't even believe they were real until the accident at the museum."

Sadie looked angrily at Zia.

"We had a life before this all happened." In her anger she threw her staff straight at Zia. It hit the ground at her heels and immediately transformed into a snarling she-lion. Zia whirled in surprise, but then everything went wrong.

The lion turned and charged at me, as if she knew I was supposed to be dueling me.

Sadie's eyes widened as the lion stormed towards me.

I raised my sword not sure how to fight this thing off without stepping out of the ring.

Was it a monster?

Would my sword even hurt him?

'We can do this.' Chaos said confidently.

Then the cat lunged at me; I felt a new kind of power rush through my veins and I rose from the ground.

My body felt weird, more powerful but also like it was covered with energy.

I looked up and saw I was surrounded by a golden holographic shell like the one Bast had used, except that his giant image transparent woman that had the cosmos as body.

The see through body looked like it was a picture taken from the night sky. I looked up and saw a female face looking down. Her hair wavered and I could see galaxies pass through her hair. She smiled at me before crushing the shocked lion with her fist.

After that I fell to the ground, exhausted from what I've done.

'That was awesome!' Hemera yelled excitedly.

Zia's face was ashen. "The cosmos. He-he summoned-"

Before she could finish, footsteps pounded on the stones. A young initiate raced into the courtyard, looking panicked. Tears streaked his dusty face. He said something to Zia in hurried Arabic. When Zia got his message, she sat down hard in the sand. She covered her face and began to tremble.

I stepped back because I knew what had happened. Call it a gut feeling.

Iskander died. Carter and Sadie were saying things, talking about the old magician I had spoken to last night.

His last words were still fresh on my mind.

'Just don't take away their choices.'

"If Iskander is dead," I thought out loud, "then that means the next guy in charge is-"

"Desjardins." Zia finished my sentence. "He ordered you three to be brought back to the first Nome."

"Desjardins will kill us," Sadie said. "He suspects we are the host of Gods already and wants our heads. Do you think that's what Iskandar had in mind?"

"Use the obelisk."

"What?" Sadie asked. "The obelisk at the entrance, fool! You have five minutes, perhaps less, before Desjardins sends orders for your execution. Flee and destroy Set. The Demon Days begin at sundown. All portals will stop working. You need to get as close as possible to Set before that happens."

I grabbed Sadie and Carter by the arm, "We need to run."

"Hold on," she said. "I meant you should come with us and help us! We can't even use an obelisk, much less destroy Set!"

"I cannot betray the House," she said. "You have four minutes now. If you can't operate the obelisk, you'll die."

That was enough for both of them to start following me.

"Sadie?" Zia called out and we all turned. Zia's eyes were full of bitterness. "Desjardins will order me to hunt you down," she warned. "Do you understand?"

Sadie and Carter nodded.

"Don't worry they'll be safe." I said. We took off to find the obelisk.

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p atreon : Moonhorse