chapter 6

At this point in time, and as of this chapter, only Harry, Medusa, Eris, some goblins and Hades know he is a Gorgon. Everyone else thinks he's either just an Immortal or cursed. Maybe a minor god. His children are classified as 'monsters' though, only in the same way as centaurs and pegasei and unicorns are 'monsters'.

The Centaurs at the end of chapter 3 were Greek and, while they are party animals, some of them are still kind-of alright and like kids, so would give the demi-gods directions and assistance. They were probably in the camping grounds for a party, though.

Harry, and I, chose these goddesses because they were both useful for a society, and because they, with the possible exception of Eris, never did anything really bad to their children or made monsters and what-not, while still being relatively well-known. And, honestly, would any Olympian want to upset their beloved Hestia?

Seriously though. In the Percy Jackson novels, from a psychological standpoint, the gods are either mostly-heartless manipulative arseholes who don't care if their children and relatives die for them, or they have all the common sense and logical thought patterns of young adolescents. They just don't think about consequences . Like with Athena cursing the Gorgons and Arachne. She's supposed to be the goddess of wisdom and tactics, so she should have seen that they would go after her children for revenge and made them mortal monsters that would grow old and die and that would be the end of it. But, no, all of Athena's children for the rest of forever will develop acute arachnophobia because their mother was stupid.

Thanks for the plethora of reviews. They are awesome. You are all awesome. Keep 'em coming.

"If you talk to God you're religious. If God talks to you, you're psychotic." - House, House MD

Parking the trolley beside the bench, Harry flopped down beside the Ghost King, who, for his part, was watching him from the corner of his eye, head tilted slightly. This close, he could smell the slightest scent of myrrh and the ashy waft of funeral incense combined with cold stone.

Harry tilted his head back.

"So? What can I do you for?" And, no, that was not a slip of the tongue. It was just an older way of asking what someone wanted. He had both picked it up from Nana Em and continued to use it since it was a little thing that would identify him as not-quite as young as he was by forty to eighty years.

The God of the Underworld continued to watch him with black eyes for a moment before looking away to the flow of people around them. "Curiosity, mostly." Instantly, Harry identified the God's voice with chocolate, specifically Cadbury's. "Not many Immortals like demi-gods, and fewer would stick their necks out to help them."

Harry just hummed non-committedly, the sound vibrating in his chest.

"I doubt any of the Olympian Gods know what it's like to be raised for the sole purpose of dying for something they never really had a choice in believing in." Ignoring the curious and inquiring look from the God, Harry changed the subject. "Not to be rude, but which aspect are you? Some Immortals get touchy when I address the wrong person."

The God's lips quirked wryly. "I am Hades. Pluto is a bit more stiff and reserved." His eyes followed a happy family, smiling softly, which encouraged Harry to bring up something he'd learnt two days previously.

"You know," Hades tilted his head back towards the Immortal in acknowledgement. "Brona Holmes is still alive."There was a stillness in the God before he began smiling painfully. "I was worried when she didn't enter the Underworld after she disappeared. I thought one of my brothers did something." Harry nodded in understanding. It was completely understandable. "She must be over ninety by now. How is she?"

A group of school kids ran past, laughing, as he answered. "She married a son of Hephaestus, Cor MacDougal, and they had three children, who each married demi-gods and their children married demi-gods. Her eldest great-grandchildren from her daughter's daughter are throwbacks to your legacy. Their names are Corvis and Elenora, and they are nineteen and eighteen respectively. The entire clan is preparing to move into Home with the additional hundred-odd demigods and assorted legacies they gave sanctuary to over the years. Mostly adults who've left the Camps."

The relieved and attentive expression on Hades' face morphed into a slight frown. "Camps?"

The gorgon nodded understandingly. "The Mist has been parting for the last thirty-odd years. Many demi-gods who disappear but don't die, disappear from Godly senses because they come into contact with members of the other Pantheon, so they no longer fall under either Pantheon's purview. Did you know there are already nearly three hundred people of godly descent waiting for Home to finish?"

Hades' eyebrows shot up and he actually turned to face Harry rather that tilt to glance at him. "Truly? I hope this 'Home' is large enough to house them then. Have you taken into consideration any further generations that will continue coming?"

The gorgon grimaced a little in memory. "So long as we have the power to feed the Barrier, we can make the Marble as large as we like, though we will have to move dirt and water in to fill the spaces. At the moment, there is enough room for at least two thousand people to live comfortably. It was very expensive." Harry confided.

Hades hummed, still watching the other male with a great deal of interest. "How, exactly, are you paying for the construction?"

Harry considered how to answer the question for a bit before answering, aware that the God's gaze grew more intense the longer he thought about it.

"I work metal." He eventually answered. "I'm informed my workmanship is exceptional and my materials are high quality. Especially the Divine Material works I've done. The Gem-Studded Mare is my eldest daughter."

Hades' eyebrows were hitched right up and looked to be staying there for the honeymoon. "Huh." He turned back to facing forward and churned the information around in his head for a long while, Harry absently cleaning grime from the tiny scratches in his Celestial Bronze finger points, but appearing to be picking at the fingernails he no longer had to the rest of the world.

Running his tongue over his still-human molars, hands quivering with premonition, Harry decided to bring up something that would really torque off the Big Three, and do something about the over-all demi-god mortality rate."On the subject of children," The God turned his attention back to the shorter Immortal he was beginning to suspect was his descendant, eyebrows raised in inquiry. "Can you see about putting a child-cap on the Goddess of Wisdom? She pops out demi-god babies like whoa, then abandons them to their mortal 'fathers'" Here, Harry made air-quotes. "Whether they want them or not. Then she makes no attempt to help the majority of them and they end up making up a significant percentage of the demi-god mortality rate." Harry wiggled back up straighter, hands flying as he spoke. "And I'm not talking 'birthing' one or two a year. It's more like twelve-to-sixteen a year on average."

Hades' head snapped around. " WHAT ?!"

Harry flinched and the surrounding humans shrieked in terror as the earth abruptly heaved beneath them in response to the God's use of his Godly Voice. In the distance, part of a mountainside gave way onto a highway.

The burning black eyes and twisted snarl levelled at him reminded Harry that Gods were still very much not human, no matter how well they played the part.

" And How Do You Know This?"

The furious Voice gave the listener the impression of being buried alive, apt given who the God was and the likely fate of the poor souls caught under that landslide.

Knuckles and lips white, Harrier caller upon his monster heritage to remain in place and sane as he felt the glamours and Mist fall away, his snakes still and cowering tight against his nap.

His voice, when he managed to choke out a reply, was gravelly with a hiss like steam in the undertone. "I received the statistics from the Fates when I bought fruit from their stand two days ago. I go every week, so they don't mind answering questions as long as I don't ask about specific living people or the future."

Hades stood with a bestial snarl and vanished, the earth smoothing out with a tired shudder.

Heaving a fortifying breath, Harry reapplied his glamours and Mist, pried his grip from the bent bars in the trolley's side and apparated back to his house in Montauk.

He said nothing to the worried Nereid's and quickly abandoned the food to them to retreat to his workroom for the rest of the night.

(space)

The next morning was miserable as a terrible storm had taken over the sky and the oceans were through the mother of all hissy fits. Landslides around the world were abundant, as were tsunamis and hurricanes and tornados, despite the latter two being out of season.

Harry wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Eris had blown into his workroom and smothered him with affection and gifts, laughing about how very proud of him She was, before leaving as quickly as She came.

And, seriously? What was he supposed to do with a rainbow sparkle unicorn kitten with butterfly wings? The only thing giving away its origin were its bright red eyes. It was creepy.

It was genderless, Harry just called it Sparkles and tossed it to the kids. The look Sparkles gave him was hilarious.

(space)Everyone was honestly glad to move into the Reality Marble with its fair weather.

Of course, Harry, some of the Nereids and a number of adult demi-gods had gone in first and scouted the edges and town itself before letting anyone move in.

It was a mix of prairie and forest, the air clear and slightly chill, with a three hills complete with steams. Apparently, the most fiddly part of making a functioning Reality Marble was getting the water system just right to cycle water up from the lake the town was built on to the tops of the streams and into the weather system.

This town was, apparently, built on the lake and river for the sake of trout and salmon fishing, and when the fishing began drying up, the townspeople left. And now the goblins had messed with the salmon and trout life-cycle to make them live and spawn within the Marble Reality.

Most of the housing had been knocked down to make way for three large, sprawling square dormitories, each with a recreational courtyards. One, dubbed the Aniketos Dorms, had a training grounds with a small pool on the side. The second dorms, the Aleta Dorms, had a large garden and greenhouse, and was where Persephone's new Shrine/Temple was set to be built. The third dorms, the Alasd Dorms, had smithies, potteries and other workshops put in.

All the dorms were made of good-quality white-washed sandstone in the 1850's style with many exquisite stone-masonry embellishments, and flat roof gardens for relaxation. Each were three stories tall and held sixty single rooms per floor, not including common rooms and kitchens.

Off to the side were cottages for family housing, also made with white-washed sandstone, but with thatching over tarred timber roofing.

A large cafeteria/marketplace was set up beside the lake in the middle of the dorms with a glass canopy for when it rained. And, as promised, there was a massive fire-pit, town fountain-sized, in the centre with elegant flame maidens of fire-proof bronze twinning themselves through the protective grating and around the modest Shrine to Hestia.

There were 'shops' around, and other things a burgeoning town need, so Harry was pretty happy.

His own house, an elegant, two story building, was off to the side of town right on the water. All he really cared about was the awesome workshop they'd put in for him, not to mention the modern indoor-outdoor pool taking up half the bottom floor.

Nemesis' Shrine/Temple was, predictably, in the courthouse/council chambers off the cafeteria.

Hecate's Shrine/Temple sat in the middle of a roundabout at the only crossroads in town, where the three dorms met and continued into the town centre.

Oddly enough, Eris had forgone the offered training grounds and chosen to have her Shrine/Temple dead-smack in the road between the half-circle of Doors and the town of Home as a kind of second defence against invasion. She was already getting offerings of thanks as a protective deity, despite her Shrine not being finished yet.Each Goddess had been given one of the Doors to guard, and with which they could come and go as they pleased, each door designed to their liking by Harry before they were bound to the Marble Reality and, as requested, the Goddess could just pick up the mobile Doors and move them on a whim. The only request Harry made before giving them the Doors was that, if asked by Harry or more than three of the council, they would go and let in stranded demi-gods.

Of the Doors, there was the black and purple Anarchy Door of Eris, the Meadow Door wreathed in colourful metal doors for Persephone, the bronze Flame Door in a bed of red-crystal flames for Hestia, the Witch's Arch for Hecate that kept changing shape aside from the dog's head doorknocker, and the Judgement Gate for Nemesis, which wouldn't let through any who held malicious intent in their hearts or minds.

The three Doors Harry kept under his own control were the Sea Gate, which was an actually iron-rout gate with stone pillars he kept in his backyard on Earth for the Nereids to come and go through, as well as the majority of the demi-gods still coming. The second was the Sun Gate, which he intended to pass off to one of his next children as soon as they were 'born', as well as the Moon Gate, which would go to the child after that. It would be the jobs of the Gate Guardians to wander America to seek out demi-gods and bring them to safety.

Harry, feeling particularly vindictive against the Sun and Moon deities, had their appearances and names all picked out.

He could admit to not being very happy when Vashti wandered in sheepishly while everyone was moving into the Marble, only to admit she'd met an interesting stallion down south, and might possibly be pregnant.

He could also have done without know the 'interesting' stallion was a carnivore.