21 The Task

1138 AD: 174 Years(17)

"Me? I have many names. You can call me Aditi." The lady, Aditi, answers. Now that I listened closely, I can hear that she's speaking Sanskrit.

Now, who do I know named Aditi, who is powerful, and calls Nundu's as her child? Okay, I got nothing.

"Nice to meet you, Lady Aditi." I answer warily, still pointing Ljosgeirr at her.

Aditi squints her eyes at me, and asks, "Wait a minute. Why am I Aditi to you? You are an Asgardian. I should be Jord to you."

Holy buggering crap. She's Jord. Gaia. She's THAT Aditi. Mother Earth, and many other names. Holy crap I'm talking to the mother of many Gods, both Vedic, and others. And I'm still pointing my weapon at her.

I sheath Ljosgeirr on my back, bow immediately, and say, "Lady Aditi! I'm sorry for not recognizing you."

Lady Aditi smiles at me, and says, "You may rise, Prince Baldur. And yes, of course I know who you are."

I gulp a little, and rise up. Remembering what she said, I ask, "Why did you say that? That you didn't understand why you were Aditi?"

Lady Aditi, comes close to me, and squints her eyes again, examining me. She whispers, still examining me, "I look to everyone as they expect me to look like. Each Pantheon sees me as the version they are most familiar with. You being an Asgardian, should have seen me as Jord. But I felt that you see me as Aditi. But you're not a Vedic God."

I let her examine me, standing stiff, and lie, saying, "I don't know, my Lady. I simply do."

Lady Aditi nods, and says, "Well, I know you're lying. I also know that you're who you say you are, so I'll let it pass for now." Saying that, Aditi goes back to stand a few feet away from me.

I freeze, when she said I was lying, but relax at the end. I nod at her stiffly, and ask, "So why did you show yourself to me, my Lady?"

"Well, first of all, thank you for saving the Nundu. She's not the first to die by the hands of humans, but I hope she will be the last, if our talk goes well. Could you please bring her out?" Lady Aditi says, and I obediently bring out the Nundu from the Mirror Dimension.

Hey, you stand in front of the Primordial Goddess Jord and then see if you dare to disobey her.

Lady Aditi looks at the sleeping Nundu, smiles and puts a hand on it's head, making it shine. She then says, "Well, now she's safe from humans, at least until she has a safe home. You can leave her here. The humans won't bother her anymore."

"Sure. What else, My Lady?" I ask, warily, nodding at her.

Lady Aditi puts on a business face, and says, "Prince Baldur. I need your help."

I simply sigh, and wave my hand, nodding at her to continue, as I'm still processing that I'm talking to Mother Earth, and that she apparently needs my help.

Lady Aditi turns into a white woman, who I'm pretty sure is Jord, and explains sadly, she says, "I had many descendants on this planet. Most of whom with Magic within them."

Magic? Is she talking about Sorcerers? Or like Harry Potter Wizards?

Jord continues explaining, "A few years ago, a calamity occurred, which killed all of my human descendants, on this side of the planet, leaving only the Shamans of the Tribal lands, alive. I need your help in killing the beings that did this to my descendants, as I can't do it myself."

I frown at that, wondering what could have killed off so many humans that they pissed off Jord/Aditi so much. She's literally one of the calmest beings on the planet.

I slowly speak up, "Lady Adi-" she glares at me, so I correct myself immediately. I say, "Lady Jord. I don't know if an enemy that you are unable to kill, will he killed by me." Boy, Gods are really picky about their personas.

Lady Jord starts chuckling, which turns into a full blown laugh, making me confused. She stops laughing and says, "My child, it isn't a matter of whether I'm able or not. It's a matter of whether or not I'm allowed. I could have simply snapped my fingers to kill them all, but I can't, no matter how many of my own descendants are dead." She scowls in the end, and turns back into Aditi.

And I understand. Aditi/Jord, being the first Goddess, is not allowed to interfere in mortal matters. And frankly, even I'm a mortal. She is a complete Immortal. As long as the planet survives, she survives. Even if the planet gets destroyed, I think she'll still survive, or even ascend, like Agamotto.

"Of course, I don't expect you to do it for free. I will compensate you fully for the task." Lady Aditi says, breaking me out of my musings. I open my mouth to say that I don't need anything, but she waves her hand, interrupting me, and says, "You will, take the reward. Refusing it will be insulting, don't you think?"

She has a thin smile on her face, which makes me immediately nod my head, and I say, "Yes, My Lady. I will accept any reward you think I'm worthy of. But, may I ask what the enemy is? I would rather not go in blind."

She turns back into Jord, scowling at the change, and says, "Okay, first of all, make up your mind on which form of mine you prefer. Transforming every time you change faiths is not exactly a pleasure for me."

I blink, and then blush, not realising that I was the cause of her changes. Concentrating hard on only Lady Aditi's current form, trying not to think of her as Jord for a while, I nod at her to continue.

She waves her hand, bringing forth trees from the ground, which shape themselves into two chairs, and says, "Sit down. This will take a while." I dumbly nod at her, and sit down, marveling at her casual use of Nature magic, or as I called it in my head, Mokuton.

She takes her seat in front of me, and explains, "First you should know about my descendants. My Wizards. Very much unlike Agamotto's sorcerers, wizards are born with a connection to my energy, and the Cosmic Energy of the Universe, making it so they can manipulate it freely, but in limited quantities. Their use of Magic, cannot be taught, not even to the best of your Sorcerers."

Holy. Fuck. This day keeps getting better and better. Apparently Wizards exist here. And they're descendants of Aditi! Well, fuck! Do I have to worry about Voldemort and Grindelwald now too?

"Of course, some are born with a better connection to me, than others. Just like how some Sorcerers are better at manipulating your energies than others, some Wizards were inherently better than others.

"Four such individuals, which included my Avatar of the time, built a castle, a school, to teach their young how to use their magic, in a safe environment. This was in 890 AD*." Lady Aditi says, making me gape at her.

Hogwarts. She's saying Hogwarts exists here. Why haven't the Sorcerers heard of it then? Or did we deliberately forget it? It's possible.

She then snarls, "One other such Extraordinary Wizard of that same time, Dark Lord Ekrizdis did something foolish. In a bid to power, hee made a pact with Ikthalon- a Cold Demon Lord, and Anubis, a God of Death, who together created soul sucking demons for him. Dementors." She snarled the word with such poison in her voice, that I was a bit worried if she was really Lady Aditi.

Unknowing of my inner thoughts, Lady Aditi continues, "Gods, do I hate them. The bring only despair, to anyone even near them, and freeze water by just their presence. They eat any soul they could find, other than Ekrizdis. Normal people, Wizards, Sorcerers, mutants. No one was safe from them. Although the Sorcerers and most Wizards were safe in their warded homes, a few Wizards, the normal people and mutants were not.

"My Avatar, Helga, helped the Wizards develop a spell, that brings a spirit animal, spreading happiness around it, to defend against the Dementors. It couldn't kill them, but it was able to repel them. So, Ekrizdis and his Dementors were pushed to the island in which he hailed from."

She pauses a little and then again starts, "Unfortunately, that wasn't agreeable for Ekrizdis.In 956 AD, he stumbled upon the battle between Asgard and Jotunheim, where he stole the bodies of the casualties from both sides."

I feel a stone in my guts, horrified. Please don't say it. Please don't.

"He experimented on them, and imbued the Dementors with the Magic of the Jotuns, as well as the Asgardians." She snarled out, making wind rush in the clearing. Fucking scientists man. Always messing where they shouldn't. She then says, almost offhandedly, "He also went through a ritual, sacrificing the bodies of the dead Jotuns and Aesir, taking their properties into himself, and increasing his lifespan by a couple thousand years."

"Why didn't the Wizards stop him? Or even Sorcerers?" I ask, still horrified.

Lady Aditi smiles sadly, and says, "There were very few Wizards who would have been able to stop him. Unfortunately, no one knew anything. Same for the Sorcerers. Ekrizdis was smart, so he did not target the rich Wizards, or the other sentient Magical races, like Goblins or Dwarves, at first. Once he managed to extract and imitate the magic of the two races, in the Dementors, they were unstoppable.

"They could now use Ice Magic, and were more Magic resistant, at least to my Wizards' spells. The spells designed to banish the original Dementors did not work on these new demons. He first targeted the Wizards who lived in isolated places. Even the Wards of the Wizards didn't stop the new Dementors. Then he started targeting the Dwarves, who went extinct within a few years. Then came Goblins, and lastly Wizards. All of them are extinct." Aditi has tears in her eyes, as she talked, but she was furious, I could see.

Taking a risk, I hug her. Oh, grow up. She's like the primordial Goddess of the Earth, so almost like my mother, even if I was not of Earth. It was completely platonic. Letting her cry for a few minutes, I take measure of the situation.

Enhanced Dementors, who can use Ice Magic, and are Magic Resistant. Patronus charm does not work on them. And the Wizards are now extinct. Well, Eurasian Wizards, at least. I know American Shamans still exist. Goddamn. A whole race of humans, extinct? Because of one mad man?

"Thank you." Lady Aditi says, separating herself from me.

We retake our seats, and I ask, "What happened to the school? And your Avatar? Couldn't they do something?"

The Founders of Hogwarts should have done something, right? Plus there was an Avatar of Jo- Aditi in Hogwarts, at the time!

Aditi shakes her head, and says, "Ekrizdis, wanting full control of the most secure place on Earth, invaded it. Everyone died. Children, Teachers, even the Centaurs from the forest. No one survived."

Lady Aditi gets a proud smile on her face, and she says, "My Avatar, Helga Hufflepuff, was the last Witch alive. In a desperate move, she sacrificed her soul and brought, and trapped all the Dementors from the island of Ekrizdis, to Hogwarts. She used her own soul, allowing me to interfere and strengthen the wards, so that the Dementors never get loose. Or the whole planet becomes his."

I nod at her, enjoying the story, but feeling a pit in my stomach, at the thought of fighting such beings. Well, my Light will probably protect me from the cold aspect, but what about the despair?

"Lady Aditi. I don't mean to disappoint you, but how do you know I won't succumb to those Demons? What if they get my soul?" I ask, a little wary.

Lady Aditi laughs out loud at that, and says, "My dear child. You're an Asgardian Prince. You're the God of Light, and Sun. Pesky little demons like those are very much beneath you. Worry not, they won't be able to harm you. Even if you stay a mortal, you'll still be able to kill them all. Which is what I want you to do. Kill all of them, even Ekrizdis, and don't let even one of the Dementors loose. Do you agree to this task?"

I nod, without even thinking, and say, "Even if you hadn't told me about it, I would have found out, sooner or later. And I would have still tried to free the castle from the Dementors."

Lady Aditi nods, and smiles at me. She puts a hand on my cheek, and I feel her Magic entering my body, and mixing with mine. She smiles at my shock, and says, "That was a precaution against the Dementors. I can't directly do anything to them, but I will make the job a bit easier for you. Their despair won't affect you, or anyone you bring with you. I will find you once the task is completed. You don't have to hurry, but I would prefer it done within a month's time."

I nod, and before I can say anything, Lady Aditi vanishes into the Earth. Right. Earth Goddess.

Well, time to Expecto Patronum these mothaf*ckers. But first, I take out the mirror from the PD, I'll watch me some Hogwarts TV.

~~~

A/N:

EDIT: Changed Gaia to Jord, as a few people pointed out that I was wrong in my assumption. Gaia is the Olympian Persona, while Jord is the Norse one. Sorry for that!

* Yes, I know Hogwarts was founded in or around 990AD, but for the sake of the plot, in this AU, it was founded in 890.

Also, Ekrizdis was the one who either summoned, or created, or found and controlled the Dementors. He was born Sometime in the 15-16th century. Again, plot, AU.

I took the persona change from the Percy Jackson series. Now, FYI, there won't be Baldur/Gaia or Baldur/Aditi, not even a one night stand. Mostly because Gaia is sure to give birth if it happens, and I don't want MC to be a dad yet.

That's it. Meet ya later.