Chapter 61.2: Baste cont.

Prytaneum

Baste​

"Why you…! Big words from someone so goddamn tiny!"

"Ha! I'm plenty big where it counts! What's the matter, Loki; didn't feel like wearing a dress again after last time? Or are even you disappointed in your 'gifts'? Wearing a suit like that...well, I guess it can't be helped when you look like a little boy!"

"Gah! Stop making this about breasts, you tiny bitch!"

"Stop making this about height, you flat-chested sow!"

"Oh dear," Hephaestus said, closing her eye and sighing. "Here we go again."

"Oh, are those two at it already?" A god I didn't recognize said as he came over, apparently the first of many. "It's a bit early for the main attraction, isn't it?"

"Fifty thousand on Hestia winning!" Someone shouted.

"Ha! An elixir on Loki defeating herself again!"

Ho-boy, I thought. I wasn't sure why I was surprised that things degenerated this quickly, but I was and I almost kicked myself for it. A room full of gods like this and it was all but inevitable. Aiz and I sort of moved to the side as people gathered around to watch the two goddesses, both of us watching the display worriedly but sort of obligated to stick around. For a moment, I honestly thought about just picking Hestia up and carrying her away, but doing so in front of all these people…

No. Better to just leave her be; this was obviously normal for the two of them and I didn't want to do anything that would make Hestia look bad here, even if this argument was getting a bit…

"Ha! Your puppy can't hope to compete with my Aiz!" Loki said. "My beautiful Sword Princess, from her soft skin and her perfect hair to the sounds she makes in her sleep, there's no comparison!"

Beside me, Aiz turned to stare into the back of Loki's skull.

"A-and she's the unstoppable!" Loki said, backtracking even though Aiz was behind her and out of her line of sight. "They call her the War Princess because she's a demon on the battlefield! She could tear apart a hundred monsters with her bare hands! There's nothing your puppy could do that my Aizu couldn't!"

"How about Leveling Up in less than a month?" Hestia replied, challengingly. "I heard Wallen-whatever was the previous Record Holder at a year; I guess you can still be second place even if you're less than a twelfth as fast! And my Percy can do things your little princess couldn't dream of doing!"

"Like what!?"

"Like reach the top shelf!"

"P-please! My Aizu's Status is more than high enough to reach things like that!"

"How's it feel to need to rely on the Falna to make up for being short!"

"That's a laugh coming for you! And we have Bete for stuff like that anyway!"

"I'm sorry about this," I murmured to Aiz. "They just don't get along, I guess. What they're saying is just..."

I stopped, not sure how to phrase what I wanted to say.

"...I am sorry as well," She said, looking my way. "And...it's true, isn't it?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at her, confused.

"About the shelf thing?" I asked, looking down at her.

She stared at me for another moment before her shoulders slumped slightly before shaking her head.

"...No," She said. "I can...I can reach the top shelf…"

I opened my mouth to ask before closing it before I put my foot inside.

"Then you mean…?"

"You reached Level 2 in just a few weeks," She murmured, looking at me askance with her head lowered. "How…?"

I wasn't sure how to answer. To be honest, I still didn't really feel like I deserved such praise--what I did wasn't...it wasn't impressive, really. Well, I mean, it was, but I was a demigod. It felt like I was getting a free pass or something, like a heavyweight that had been put in a lower bracket. From the start, I knew I was physically stronger than any normal human and I had 'magic' that broke the normal limits. Even with the magic sword and the plant monster and the Goliath, I thought that people like Aiz and the other adventurers who fought monsters were far more impressive; most of them probably hadn't strangled snakes in their crib or torn off a Minotaur's horns before they came here, or set off volcanoes.

From what I heard, Aiz had Leveled Up in a year when she was seven years old, fighting monsters in the Dungeon at the same age Annabeth had been when she ran away. Fighting, struggling, and striving like that was a lot more amazing than anything I'd done and I felt somehow cheap for surpassing, death and what seemed like a hundred broken bones aside. I could probably beat an Olympic swim team with my eyes closed, too, but I couldn't feel good about it.

"I just got lucky," I said lamely, looking away instead of meeting her eyes. It was a shitty answer for someone who deserved a lot better, but it was all I really had without going into stuff I shouldn't.

"...I heard you fought an Irregular Goliath," She said. "That you defeated a Floor Boss at Level 1. How?"

"Magic," I said, which was lame but sort of true. "And good friends. If I had been anywhere else, if they hadn't helped me, I'd have probably died."

She nodded quietly, golden eyes still on me.

"Then why'd you do it?" She asked. "Why did you stay and fight while the others escaped?"

I was silent for a long moment, not sure how to answer that either, but...I thought she deserved something.

"I just...don't want to lose anything else," I said. "I didn't want it to be my fault that anyone else died."

Aiz watched me for several seconds before looking down.

"I, too—"

I didn't hear what she said, because all of a sudden, my attention was stolen. Hell, the attention of everyone in the room was stolen, torn towards the doorway that opened to allow someone in. The first person to enter was a behemoth of a man who must have stood seven feet tall, every bit of which looked as though it had been made out of steel and stone. He had rust-colored eyes and hair, with the ears of a boar sticking out from the latter--and he might have been the strongest person I'd ever felt brush against my senses. Stronger than the elite of Loki's Familia, stronger than Allen or Mia, and far stronger than anyone in this room, he stood out as if the sun had just risen in the night.

And despite all that, I didn't give him a second glance. Most people probably didn't even give him a first glance. You wouldn't think a guy like that could go unnoticed so easily, but being the man behind the curtain had nothing on being the guy beside the woman who followed him into the room.

She was terrifyingly beautiful in an almost literal sense. I'd met Ares and looked into the nuclear explosions in his eyes, but I'd met Aphrodite, too, and she'd scared me a lot more. This woman brought that fear back, in a low current that was utterly dwarfed by my sheer captization.

That's where the similarities ended, though, because she was different from Aphrodite, who'd seemed to shift constantly to match what I found most beautiful, and shifting slightly moment by moment to match that. I don't think I'd ever forget the time she'd given me a smile that could have lit up the dark side of the moon, the expression reminding me at once of Annabeth and a TV actress I'd had a crush on in the fifth grade. When I'd seen her later, she'd been different, adding elements here and there--of Rachel and Calypso and who knows what else. Aphrodite was perfect in an ever changing way, because she seemed to constantly perfect herself.

This woman just looked perfect, period, in a static, self-perpetuating sort of way. She was breathtaking from her long silver hair to her mirror-like eyes to the low, low cut and back of her gown. Her curves were flawless, her white dress perfectly fit, her skin immaculate. It was enough that, had I met Aphrodite again, I thought that she would have looked a lot like her.

And she was frightening, in the way that bug zappers must have been to flies; something dangerous, but inexorably attractive in spite of that danger. Maybe even because of that danger. I looked at her and I forgot where I was, what I was doing, and how to speak; for a terrifying moment, all I wanted in the entire world was to go to her side.

Meeting my eyes, the woman smiled and walked closer.

"Freya!" Hestia greeted, apparently able to still use her words. Her own smile was brilliant, but cautious. "You came!"

The woman--the goddess, Freya--laughed, the sound beautiful and reverberating through me.

"Is there any reason I wouldn't have?" She asked. "It seemed like such an interesting party. This is the child I've heard so much about, Hestia?"

Hestia bobbed her head.

"This is Percy," She introduced. "Percy, this is Freya. She's helped us out a lot recently, so you should thank her as well."

"Thank you," I said, following instructions mechanically.

"It was nothing, Hestia," Freya said, chuckling again before raising a hand and touching my arm gentle. I was intensely, uncomfortably aware of her proximity. "I simply wished to do what I could to help a friend. I hope I haven't caused you undue trouble, Percy; I'm afraid I may be responsible for your recent Alias. It's just that when I saw you protecting your friends so loyally, I thought you looked like a cute little puppy. I hope you don't dislike it too much?"

Oh. So that's where the puppy thing came from. All of a sudden, I was having a really hard time finding it so much.

"…Yeah, it's okay," I told Freya, feeling dazed. I swallowed heavily and looked around, searching for a way out. I'd like to say that was because I was smart and savvy and wise enough to run away, but mostly I just felt uncomfortable, skittish, and awkward, like someone standing close to a crush; I felt embarrassed just standing here, abruptly sure I was going to make a fool out of myself and not wanting anyone to see. Somehow, I managed to get my mouth and brain working, and remembered my manners. "Thank you for everything, Lady Freya, but I don't mean to intrude upon your reunion. Aiz, would you mind showing me around?"

Aiz, who'd looked away the moment Freya entered the room, risked a glance at me and quietly nodded before turning and walking away. I followed a moment after, somehow managing to tear myself away from Freya's presence--and the giant of a man that came with Freya followed.