Chapter 11

Harry closed the book, then closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Today was the third day of his job for Hephaestus, the last day he had the boon he had been given, and he wanted to finish that book on Martial Arts before it was too late.

Yesterday, the second day of his task, had been brutal. He'd slept four or five hours, maybe, and had gotten up with a massive headache, feeling exhausted still.

He'd remembered how adults liked coffee to wake up in the morning, so he'd gone out and bought a cup before going to the junkyard. The coffee had tasted pleasantly enough, but it had made him jittery. And he'd forgotten his lunch.

The headache had lasted him all day, but Harry had grit his teeth and worked through it. he'd made a deal with Hephaestus, and he was going to stick to his end of it.

Despite the headache, he'd managed to make good progress, and he was pleased with the work he'd done when he returned to the temple when the sun started to dip.

After dinner, he'd read some more in the book, but it had only made his headache worse, and he'd turned in when it was barely eight thirty.

He slept through the night, but woke up early, feeling fresh. The sun was not yet up, and Harry had walked out the back of the temple, carrying the book with him, and settled in to read under the light of a brazier.

Each page burned as he read it, but as always, he grit his teeth and stuck with it. He knew Hermes had warned him. He knew Hestia had warned him, too. He just wanted to finish the book before the boon ran out.

The headache was subsiding slightly, but it did not disappear entirely. Something wet tickled his nose, and he wiped absentmindedly.

He blinked when he noticed it was red. Using his handkerchief, he wiped his nose again – more red. He felt a surge of ice cold adrenaline burn in his veins as he remembered the warning about his brain melting.

Thankfully, his nosebleed seemed to have stopped already, and he breathed deeply to relax. Maybe he had pushed it a bit far.

Warmth caressed his face, and Harry's introspection shifted to the first rays of the rising sun. Clearing his mind, he watched the sun rise. The warmth and the light seemed to seep into him, and Harry hummed when his headache settled into a dull throbbing sensation.

"Hi Mister Apollo, good morning," he said to the friendly God of the Sun, before grunting and standing up.

He blinked; was it his imagination or did the sun wink at him? He stared some more, but it didn't repeat. With Apollo, one never knew, but Harry finally decided it must have been his imagination.

He turned to walk inside, when he stopped. Maybe he should see if he actually learned anything? He had the knowledge, he could recall what he had read with perfect accuracy. But did he actually have the skills described?

Putting the book on a table, he stepped back. His mind sunk into calmness as if he had done it hundreds of times. He body flowed through a set of yin-style Tai Chi.

He completed the set, and stood normally. Something had felt a bit… off. He closed his eyes again, thought for a moment, and went through a yang-style Tai Chi set. It felt better. So he was Yang; that was good to know. Bright and Hard, rather than Dark and Soft. His book-knowledge told him how to progress from there. Excellent!

Grinning excitedly, he relaxed his stance. It definitely looked like he could do what he had learned! He was looking forward to when he had a new chance to train with Ares. Or with Miss Zoë, now that he thought of it.

Still grinning, he picked up the book, and started getting ready. He had to finish the junkyard first, followed by a lot of sleep. He had a feeling that he would need it after the massive amount of information he had forced into his brain and his body in the last few days.

Half an hour later, he arrived at the junkyard through the flames of the ever-burning brazier, carrying a cooler with a packed lunch and lots of bottled water. Wherever the junkyard was located, it was hot and dry.

He casually walked to the wreckage of the prototype robot he jokingly called 'Mount Talos'. he'd completed the inventory on most of the large piles yesterday, so he only had a couple more to go; then he'd do a walk around to catch any of the smaller items that he missed from his vantage point.

Arriving at his spot, he placed the cooler in the shadow of the Talos prototype, then checked the two items he'd put apart as a 'possible' for his reward. Next to the plushy lightning bolt, he'd found a bow yesterday. It was silver, and looked to be as enchanted as the Hunter's bows were, but it also turned into a really girly-looking crescent moon hair clip. The bow interested him, the hair clip didn't. He'd put it apart to ask Hephaestus if it were possible to change it into something else.

As fun as the bow Apollo gave him was, it was still a mortal bow. He could use an enchanted one after seeing how useful it was when taking demigods to camp. Something told him that he'd be doing that again.

He nodded to himself; his 'stash' was still there. He would have thought he'd find more that would interest him, but most of the items here were broken.

He sat down, and worked on inventorying the remaining large piles of trash. Flipping to an empty page, he started writing. The process was almost automatic by now, and he wasn't even thinking about it anymore.

Hours later, his stomach growled, and he closed his notebook. The last of the large piles had been done. He'd make a walkthrough of the junkyard after lunch, and make sure he caught any smaller items.

After he finished eating, he took a large bottle of water with him, and started walking.

He found lots more interesting things; unfortunately most of them were incredibly broken. A beautiful shield had been cracked in half. A sword's blade that had no handle, obviously sheered off where it was supposed to be. A busted bow. Incredibly pretty jewelry, horrifically cursed according to his boon.

Not that he was interested in jewelry. Jewelry was for girls.

He dutifully noted each and every piece down in his notebook, then made a final round to make sure he had everything. He also made sure to check over each pile he'd surveyed from his vantage point; he wanted to make doubly sure he hadn't missed anything.

Suddenly, his eye fell on something.

A glint of golden bronze flashed from underneath some corrugated sheets of metal, and Harry frowned; he hadn't seen that glint from Mount Talos and now he was curious.

Walking over, he managed to shift the sheets, uncovering two bracers, side-by-side, covered in dust and grime and buried in the soil.

"Well now," Harry said out loud. It was the first time he had spoken in quite some time, and his voice cracked slightly in the dry desert heat. He sipped some water to clear his throat.

He focused on the two bracers. He blinked, frowned, and focused again.

"Bracers," he said. "Unbreakable. Forged of an alloy of Celestial Bronze and Stygian Iron; enchanted unbreakable by Hephaestus. Forged in the fires of Mount Etna, quenched in the protective waters of the River Styx. Able to store kinetic energy, and release and amplify upon command. When crossing the arms, the kinetic energy will be amplified into an impenetrable barrier in front of the wielder; if struck together will amplify all stored kinetic energy into a wave that is released in a 360-degree sphere around the wielder – blowing back and damaging enemies."

The young boy finished his notes, and looked at the items again. On a lark, he put on one his arm.

Normally, bracers reached to the wielder's elbow, however due to the size difference between him and them, the bracer reached almost all the way up to his shoulder. He laughed for a moment at how ridiculous he looked; before the magical item glowed softly and resized itself to fit him perfectly.

Its twin did the same, despite being on the ground.

"And they change size," Harry said.

"I want those," he decided, picking up the one bracer that was still on the ground and removing the other one from his arm. They were dirty, obviously having been abandoned a long time ago. He blew most of the sand and dust off them, which had stubbornly clung to them despite their changes in size.

"You guys could do with a polish," he said, as if the items could hear him. He started carrying them back to the other items he'd gathered, then froze.

"Mister Hephaestus said one item. I wonder if this counts as one set of bracers, or if I'll get to keep only one." He looked down at the two bracers. "Having just one bracer would be silly."

He shrugged. "I'll need to ask Mister Hephaestus."

After putting the bracers down with the plushy and the bow, Harry resumed his round of the junkyard.

"Huh, a statuette of Mister Hades," Harry said, picking up a small statue carved to resemble the God of the Dead. "I guess I'm not the only one who thinks he's awesome," he said with a chuckle.

Checking his list, he made sure the small statue was recorded, before putting it down again. He finished his round, then made a final inspection of the junkyard, and was finally satisfied that he had completed the job properly when he found no new items to record.

Picking up his potential rewards – even if he did feel a bit silly about the plushy lightning bolt – Harry walked back to the brazier, and stashed them nearby.

Drawing a breath, feeling nervous all of a sudden, Harry waved his hand at the brazier. "Mister Hephaestus," he intoned.

The fire turned green. "Hi Mister Hephaestus," Harry said politely. "I've finished with the inventory."

The fire flared, and Harry stepped back cautiously.

The God of the Forge appeared in all his godly-form glory, and Harry's neck craned to look up. "Hi Mister Hephaestus!" he greeted enthusiastically.

The god seemed annoyed at something, but still nodded. "Hello Harry," he said, gruffly. "Finished the job, have you?"

Harry nodded, still enthusiastic, and held out his notebook. Hephaestus motioned, and the book floated out of Harry's hands, enlarging as it did so.

"I drew an overview of the junkyard, marking the large piles, then listing their contents and info on the contents, before finally making a listing of the smaller stuff, and where they are," Harry reported as the God of the Forge paged through the notes.

The God of the Forge seemed impressed, although his craggy face could be hard to read sometimes.

Finally, he nodded. "This is excellent work," he said, snapping his fingers. A stack of papers appeared in his free hand, before the notebook floated back to Harry, shrinking as it did so, until it was back in the boy's hands in the same size it had been before.

Harry noted that Hephaestus had left him his notes and had merely made copies of them.

"So, Harry," the god said, back to being somewhat gruff. "Did you find an answer to your question?"

Harry blinked in surprise, then recalled the question that had sparked the job offer in the first place. He thought about what he had learned while surveying the junkyard, then slowly nodded. "Osmium isn't a good metal for swords because it is heavy and dense, so a sword made out of it would be too heavy to be useful," he said.

The God of the Forge nodded. "Good. Now, your reward – as I said, you can take any one item from the junkyard. What will it be?"

Harry swallowed. "I found some items," he ventured, and walked to where he had stashed his 'potentials'. Hephaestus followed him with his eyes, remaining where he was.

"I found this set of bracers," Harry said, picking up his number-one items. "I wasn't sure if they counted as one set or not," he added hopefully.

Hephaestus took a step forward, and studied the items in Harry's hands. "Well now," he said, scratching his scraggly beard. "I haven't seen those in a long time. Made them in ancient times for… someone. He prefered offensive weapons, so they got left behind. Some of my best work, though. If you want them, they're yours."

Harry grinned, hopping once with excitement. "That's awesome! Thanks, Mister Hephaestus!"

The God of the Forge seemed amused, despite himself. "You're welcome, Harry."

"Mister Hephaestus?" the young boy ventured as the god started to turn.

"What?" Hephaestus asked, turned back to Harry.

"Is everything alright? You seem… angry or something," Harry asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

Hephaestus studied the boy for a few moments, then sighed deeply. "Nothing you did, Harry. Aunt Hestia's upset with me over this task and the boon. Which is gone now, by the way."

Harry nodded at the last part. "I thought the boon would vanish when the job was done," he said. "But why's Hestia upset?"

Hephaestus sighed again. "That boon had a bit of danger in it, and she was upset over that," he explained.

"Oh," Harry answered, not having expected Hestia to actually confront Hephaestus over it. He was used to going his own way and not having people care; Hestia confronting Hephaestus on his behalf was something he never would have expected.

"Yes, oh," the God of the Forge said with a crooked smile. "See you around, Harry." He vanished before Harry could reply, leaving the boy to stare at empty sky, holding his new bracers.

He slipped them on quickly and tightened the straps. Flexing his wrists, they turned into a pair of fine-chain bracelets; flexing his wrists agin turned them back into bracers. "Awesome," he declared.

He grinned at the junkyard. It had been a lot of hard work, but in the end he'd gotten a royal reward for it. Not to mention all the things he had learned about metallurgy, and engineering.

Now, though, it was time to go back to the Temple and catch up on some sleep. His head still hurt. He glanced a last time at the bow and the plushy, then waved his hand at the brazier and vanished into the green flames.

When he arrived back at Helios' Temple, he cleaned his new treasures, before making some very early dinner. After sharing it with Helios, he ate mechanically, the pounding in his head getting worse. With a small grunt, he put the leftovers in the fridge, fell into bed, and fell asleep practically instantly.

He woke up with the curious sensation of someone slowly rubbing his forehead. It startled him, and he jumped halfway up, before registering that it was Hestia.

The Goddess of the Home looked amused at his reaction, while Harry let out a deep breath, trying to calm his raging heart.

It was dark, but his headache had eased up. "Hestia!" he complained, as he sunk back down on the bed.

"I'm sorry, Harry. That wasn't my intention," the Goddess of the Home said, still smiling that typical Hestia smile that made him feel safe and relaxed.

"I was asleep," he complained.

"So I saw," she replied, her smile widening a fraction. "Did you have a good day? I believe you finished the task Hephaestus set out."

Harry nodded enthusiastically. "I did. Mister Hephaestus was really happy with my work, and he gave me these!" He flicked his wrists, and the two bracelets expanded into full bracers.

Hestia admired them for a few moments. "Those look very nice," she said. "Defensive, too. I like that."

The boy grinned. "Mister Hephaestus seemed a bit upset, though."

His favorite goddess didn't seem surprised. "Oh? How so?"

Harry swallowed; he didn't want to upset Hestia, he really liked her. "Mister Hephaestus said you were upset with him."

Hestia smiled faintly. "He did give you a really dangerous boon, and then didn't warn you sufficiently. He also pushed his job off on you."

"But it taught me a lot," Harry said. "And I got really cool bracers out of it."

Hestia sighed. "It was still dangerous to you, Harry. Hephaestus is a god. He should know better."

Harry reached out and took her hand. She squeezed it affectionately. "Please don't be upset with Mister Hephaestus, Hestia. Mister Hermes warned me to not read any more books, and you warned me not to read any more books, and I'm sure Mister Hephaestus is really sorry and won't do it again."

Hestia sighed again. "You're a really sweet boy, Harry. But sometimes, people can get hurt, and you are very young. Very young people can get hurt more easily."

Harry was silent for a few moments, digesting that. "People also make mistakes," he then said. "And I know how much you love everyone, Hestia. Please don't be upset with Mister Hephaestus. I'm sure he's sorry."

Hestia squeezed his hand again. "I'm just looking out for you, Harry."

He squeezed back, not knowing how to respond. Nobody ever looked out for him. Not like this.

"It's what you do when you care about people," Hestia added with a gentle smile.

"But you care about the other gods, too," Harry said. "And now you're upset with Mister Hephaestus."

Hestia leaned closer, and hugged him. "Oh, Harry," she said. "Sometimes you argue with the people you love most of all. I doesn't mean you love them any less."

Harry had an unsettling flashback to the Dursleys. They were always yelling at him, and putting him in his cupboard. Did that mean that they-

"No," Hestia interrupted his thoughts.

"Sorry?" Harry said, lifting his head from her shoulder and looking straight at her.

"I know what you're thinking. An argument is one thing. The Dursleys is something completely different. So no, Harry, what you had with them wasn't love."

"Oh," Harry said. He put his head on her shoulder again, and let the warmth of hugging the Goddess of the Hearth encompass him. "So you still care for Mister Hephaestus, right?"

Hestia laughed softly. "Yes, Harry. I still love my nephew."

The young boy nodded. "That means you're going to make nice with him, right?"

Hestia laughed again. "Yes, Harry," she said. "I'll make nice with him."

Harry nodded, glad to hear that. He hated the thought of Hestia, kind and caring Hestia, being on odds with anyone because of him. So what, if Mister Hephaestus' boon had been slightly dangerous, and had asked Harry to do his job for him. It didn't matter; the job had been fun, he'd learned a lot, and he was fine. He could take some pain. Hestia shouldn't be fighting with other gods, definitely not over him.

Suddenly, he had the mental image of Hestia, in her preferred form of a nine-year-old mortal girl, waggling her finger at Godly Form, three-meter-tall, solid chunk of muscle Hephaestus, who had his hands linked behind his back, his head bent, scuffing at the floor with one foot, the very picture of remorse.

He laughed softly.

"Can I laugh too?" Hestia asked, sounding amused.

Harry explained the image that had just popped into his mind. The Goddess of the Hearth gave a small laugh. "That wasn't exactly what happened, but that imagine is too amusing not to share," she said, smiling widely.

They fell silent, Harry still wrapped in Hestia's arms, her aura feeling so good and warm and soothing. He closed his eyes, feeling himself ready to fall asleep.

"Hestia?" he muttered.

"Yes, Harry?" the Goddess of the Home said.

"Thanks for looking out for me."

She squeezed him. "Of course," she said. Harry didn't hear; he was already asleep. The goddess smiled at the sleeping boy, and slipped him back in his bed, pulling the covers over him. "Sleep well, Harry. May Morpheus grant you pleasant dreams."

She stood up, and drew a breath. She'd promised, and promises had to be kept. Time to talk to her nephew.

0000

Harry woke up when he felt something shift. It was light out, and he felt really good. His headache had gone, and his body felt like it had gone through some rigorous exercise and had now finished recovering from it.

So what woke him up? Something had shifted, or so it felt. He sat upright, and looked around.

His eye fell on the empty space next to him on the bed.

There was the lightning bolt plushy, with a note pinned to it. What was the plushy doing here, anyway? he'd left it in the junkyard, Hephaestus had said he could only take one item!

Curious, Harry touched the pin, ready to pull it out, when it vanished. The note dropped to the mattress, and the plushy itself looked like there had never been a pin at all.

Curiously, Harry took the note, and flipped it open.

Harry,

I'm not much for writing.

You talked to Aunt Hestia. Thanks.

I noticed you had this put aside yesterday.

Hephaestus

Harry blinked, then smiled widely. "Thanks, Mister Hephaestus," he said, grinning widely. He hugged the plushy, and it rumbled in a soothing fashion, like a thunderstorm rumbling in the far distance.

He dropped back into the bed, pulled the covers over himself, and decided he was going to get some more sleep; the lightning bolt plushy safely in his arms.

A couple of hours later, he woke up a second time, ravenously hungry. He'd basically been asleep since the early evening, and it it was close to lunch time now.

He got up, feeling energetic, and put the plushy back on the bed. He looked at it for a few moments, then arranged it next to his pillow.

His stomach growled again, and Harry grinned, making his way to the kitchen. Yesterday evening's leftovers were heated, then eaten. Still feeling a bit hungry, he made some sandwiches, then ate those too.

A hot bath in the hot springs outside later, he felt ready to take on the world. The headache had completely vanished, his exhaustion had gone the same way, and he felt better than he had felt in a long time.

He tried a basic Wing Chun set, then frowned when he completed it.

He tried it again, taking note to pay extra attention to his movements. It felt like some of them weren't done as they were supposed to; he knew the moves but his body seemed to be unable to execute them perfectly.

He went inside, soon finding himself in front of the full-length mirror installed in the bathroom.

He did the set again, stopping halfway through and correcting himself. He started over, and stopped himself a few moves later than before. Once again, he corrected himself, and started over.

It took him another two tries before he got the set correct, as described by the book.

"It's like I haven't practiced in a long time," Harry said to himself. "Like I need to work on remembering the moves."

He did a second level Wing Chun set. This one went smoother, based as it was on the basic set. He only had to stop himself twice.

Drawing a breath, he looked at himself in the mirror. "Looks like I'll need to work on this if I want to be any good at it," he said.

He flowed through a yang-style Tai Chi set, calming himself, then tried the first Wing Chun set again. It went perfectly.

He looked at himself in the mirror. The knowledge he had gained from the book allowed him to work on a basic training schedule, and he gave a sharp nod at his reflection. He knew himself, and knew he would spend the rest o the day practicing this if he didn't stop himself now.

Time for a diversion. He didn't have anything scheduled, so he had spare time to burn. He could go visit camp; it had been a while since he'd seen Silena. Or Louis and the guys, now that he thought about it.

Turning around, he walked outside, bathed, then dressed himself in comfortable clothing. A quick trip through the fire later, Harry strolled out of Hestia's hearth at camp, in search for his friends.

He found Silena – of course – in the pegasus stables.

"Where have you been!?" Silena cried as she hugged him. "It's been forever!"

Harry hugged her back, and gave a sheepish chuckle. "I've been very busy. Sorry for disappearing."

"Humpf," Silena huffed, pretending to be annoyed at him.

"It's a bit of a cool story," Harry said. "How about we round up Annabeth, Louis and the guys and I tell it to you?"

The daughter of Aphrodite looked annoyed at the mention of Annabeth, but nodded when he added the sons of Apollo. "That sounds good," she said, smiling. She hugged him again. "I really did miss you."

Harry, always up for a hug, had no problems with it. "I missed you too," he said.

Leaving the stables, they made their way to the archery range.

"By the way," Harry said, smiling. "Black hair?"

The girl grinned and moved a hand through her – now – black locks. "Like it? As daughter of Aphrodite, I can change things like hair color a lot easier than normal people."

Harry smiled back at her. "If you're happy with it, then I'm happy with it," he said. "You're my friend because you're you, not because of your hair color."

Silena hugged him again, looking ridiculously happy for some reason. Harry was confused why such a simple statement could make the girl so happy, but he went with it. Silently, he reconfirmed to himself that girls were strange.

As they walked, with Silena subtly trying to finagle the story from him, they came across Annabeth first. The daughter of Athena was just coming out of the Arts and Crafts pavilion when she noticed Harry.

With a small scream, she raced at him and hugged him. Harry, grinning, hugged back. He had to visit more often; he loved hugs.

"Harry! How have you been?" she asked, when she released him.

Harry noticed Silena looking very unhappy all of a sudden. "It's a bit of a long story," he told Annabeth. "We were on the way to round up you, Louis, and the guys, so I could tell everyone at once."

Annabeth glared at Silena, then pasted a fake smile on her face, and nodded. "That sounds good, Harry."

He looked from one girl to the other. "What's going on with you two?" he asked, not moving.

"Nothing," they both said at the same time, then glared at each other.

Harry nodded dubiously. "Riiight," he said, sarcastically. "That's why you're glaring at each other."

Both girls looked away.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked again, when it became clear he wasn't going to get an answer. He started feeling worried; he didn't like what he was seeing.

"She almost got you killed!" Silena shouted, pointing at Annabeth.

"She doesn't understand!" Annabeth shouted, pointing at Silena.

Both female demigods were glaring at each other again, and Harry had the distinct impression that, if this had been a cartoon, there would have been lightning bolts flying between the girl's glaring eyes.

Then he remembered Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, and she probably could do that for real.

He shook the thought off, it wasn't pertinent to the current situation.

"Please don't fight," Harry said. "I don't like it when people fight."

The girls grumped, and turned away from each other. Harry was feeling anxious now, having the distinct impression he was going to lose friends, and he didn't like it.

He thought for a few moments, trying to come up with a way to resolve things between the two girls, and hopefully, keeping both their friendships at the same time.

Finally, he said, "Silena, Annabeth was out on the streets for some time. The first thing you learn when you're out on the streets is that you never – ever – trust a stranger." He lifted up his shirt, and showed the faint scar where he had been cut. "This happened when I trusted the wrong person when I first set out on the streets. He tried to kidnap me, and he had a knife. I managed to escape."

Silena grumped, but he could see her heart wasn't really in it anymore. "When I offered to help Annabeth," Harry went on, "she didn't know me. And so, she didn't trust me. It wasn't her fault we were attacked; the fault was entirely with our attacker. Blaming Annabeth for it is blaming the victim. Blame that guy who attacked us, instead."

Silena's shoulders sagged. Annabeth looked victorious, and opened her mouth to say something.

Harry interrupted her. "Annabeth, Silena's my friend. She watched me stagger out of the fire, heavily injured, and collapse. It scared her, and worried her, and she didn't want it to happen again. She blamed you, because you were the only one near that was involved in the situation."

Annabeth looked like she wanted to protest. "How would you feel," Harry said, "if someone you cared for staggered out of the fire, and collapsed, and you heard it was because he or she got attacked while trying to help someone who appeared to be dragging their feet?"

The daughter of Athena sagged slightly. "I'd be angry," she muttered, as if hating to admit it.

Harry nodded, and looked from one girl to the other. "So… no more fighting?"

Silena looked at Annabeth.

Annabeth looked at Silena.

"Sorry," the daughter of Aphrodite muttered, offering an olive branch. "I didn't understand."

Annabeth sighed. "I'm sorry, too. I can see what things look like, at first glance," she said. The awkward silent dragged on for a few eternal seconds. In the end, after thinking about it, she held out her hand. "Friends?"

Silena looked at it for a moment, smiled, before taking the hand and shaking it. "Friends," she declared.

Harry smiled widely. He didn't like seeing people fight, especially if those people were people he cared for. He should talk to Hestia about this; he hoped she'd be proud of him. Maybe she could teach him how she went about diffusing fights – that had been entirely improvised, and came way too close for his comfort.

"I'm glad to hear that," he said, still smiling. "Want to go look for Louis and the guys?"

Annabeth grinned. "Sure!" she said. "I want to know what you've been up to."

"You and me both," Silena piped in. The two girls grinned at each other.

They found the three sons of Apollo – where else – at the archery range. After some good-natured ribbing from the three boys as to his whereabouts, Harry got them to come along with the promise of an explanation.

He took them down to the beach, hands-down his favorite location at Camp Half-Blood.

As the quintet of campers found a good spot to sit, Harry quickly went to the water's edge to greet Poseidon. He didn't get a response this time, but still felt better for having done so.

He quickly rejoined the others, who were watching him with various signs of amusement.

"Enough stalling," Annabeth said. "You were making a big mystery of things, so what happened?"

Harry smiled, and found a good spot to sit, so they were all more or less facing each other.

"Well, first of all, I did Mister Hermes a favor," Harry began. "Now, I can't say anything about it, but he rewarded me with an invitation to a study session on non-deterministic probability."

Louis snorted. Annabeth looked upset. The others just looked confused.

"He invited you to a poker game?" the oldest son of Apollo asked. Silena and the two guys laughed, while Annabeth continued to look upset.

"Gambling's not a good thing," she said.

"Just a bit of fun," Louis replied. "So, did you go?"

Harry grinned. "Later. He invited me, but Mister Hermes is very busy, and so are his… maths partners."

"Gambling is NOT math!" Annabeth protested, crossing her arms.

Louis snorted again. "Tell that to those MIT guys who could have earned millions if they hadn't been thrown out because of their superior maths skills."

The daughter of Athena had no comeback to that and fell silent.

"Anyway," Harry said, still grinning, "I got invited, but Mister Hermes didn't know when exactly that… math's session… was going to take place." Annabeth huffed, but kept quiet. "So a couple of days later," Harry went on to say, "I run into Mister Hermes again, and he invites me to the party on Friday evening at 8. That Friday morning, I got curious about something I read in a book, and went to see Mister Hephaestus."

"You just… drop by the God of the Forge over a question?" Jack – or was it Jim – asked. It was so much easier to call them both just 'guys'.

"Well, yeah," Harry said, as if it was no big deal. "I mean, their temples are right there, and I knock politely. If they don't want to see me, they just don't open the door. It's not like I barge in or anything."

"Sometimes, I forget how different your life is," Silena remarked. "And then you say something like that and rub my nose in it."

Harry laughed, but the other demigods just shook their heads in various stages of amusement. "Anyway, I had a question about metals in use in regular, mortal swords, so I asked Mister Hephaestus."

Harry looked at the other demigods, and said, "Now, you have to understand, Mister Hephaestus is pure awesome. But the thing is, he's not a teacher. He doesn't want to teach, and says he's not very good at it, and because he doesn't teach, I've got no way of knowing if he's actually bad at it or not."

"That happens a lot," Annabeth interjected. "People that are really brilliant at what they do are often very bad teachers, because they can't conceive of anyone struggling with their field, and often overlook the basics because they feel it's obvious."

Harry nodded, keeping quiet about how Miss Athena was the same when trying to teach him. He didn't want Annabeth to feel jealous over him being taught by her mother.

"That makes sense," he replied. "So I ask my questions and Mister Hephaestus tells me he's not a teacher, and he prefers people figure things out for themselves. So, he gives me a bit of a chore to do."

"So, rather than answer your question, he gives you work?" Louis asked.

Harry nodded. "He wanted me to inventory his junkyard, write down what is where, and what's it's made it of and things. He says that figuring it out for myself, I won't forget as quickly as when he just tells me the answer."

"That… makes sense, I suppose," Annabeth said. "But still, Lord Hephaestus' junkyard must be enormous."

"Plus, I'm only eight years old, so I don't know what things are made of," Harry added. "I tell that to Mister Hephaestus, and he grabs my head, and tells me he's going to give me a bit of a boon."

"Oooh," Louis said. "Be careful with boons, Harry."

Harry nodded. "Especially this one," he told the son of Apollo. "Mister Hephaestus gave me psychometry, it allowed me to look at an object and find out what it's made of, how it was made, and so forth. He also tells me that it's unnatural for him to give me that skill, so it will only last three days – otherwise, it will liquify my brain."

The five campers looked aghast. "That's one dangerous boon," Louis added, recovering first.

Harry nodded. "Only, I was thinking Mister Hephaestus was just… exaggerating, you know? I didn't think he'd actually give me a boon that dangerous."

"Oh yes, he would," Louis said. "Gods aren't that careful."

Harry laughed, but none of the others laughed with him. Silena and Annabeth just looked incredibly worried.

"Anyway, Mister Hephaestus said that, because I would be doing his job for him, he'd let me keep one item, any one item, from the junkyard as long as I can carry it out myself."

"And there's the reward," Jack- or Jim? - said. "I can't imagine the stuff in the junkyard of the God of the Forge."

"Trust me, there's awesome stuff in there," Harry said. "But most of it is too large or too heavy to carry. I would have loved that Talos prototype."

Silena looked confused, but the other demigods got the reference and gasped. "What's Talos?" the daughter of Aphrodite asked.

"Talos was a giant automaton built by Lord Hephaestus to defend the island of Crete," Annabeth replied. "It was huge."

Harry nodded. "The prototype was all curled up, but the toes by themselves were three meters tall. I used it as a vantage point, it was the highest point in the junkyard and I could see almost everything from there."

"Whoa," Silena said.

"So, what'd you get?" Louis asked, grinning widely.

"I'll get there," Harry answered calmly. "So, I go to the junkyard and start doing my inventory. When the sun starts dropping, I go back to Mister Helios' Temple, clean up, and make my way to the maths party."

"Please stop calling it a maths party," Annabeth pleaded.

Harry and the others laughed. "So I arrive at the gambling party," he told Annabeth, "and I find out that it's not a maths party at all, and soon I'm introduced to Mister Triton, Messenger God of the Seas, Thor, God of Thunder in the Norse pantheon, and Bai Hu, the Western Wind, from the Chinese pantheon."

"Wait," Annabeth said, while the others gaped at Harry. "You're telling me the other pantheons exist?"

Harry nodded. "Yup. They try not to interfere with each other, though, so they mostly don't interact. Mister Hermes has some buddies there, though, and they play games every so often."

"oh… kay..." the stunned daughter of Athena replied. "Please continue."

Harry grinned, and bowed from his seated position. "Thank you for your permission, kind lady," he answered, making Annabeth pull a face and causing the others to laugh. "So the evening goes really well, and the other gods are really cool guys. Now, here's the fun part."

The others sat closer, and Harry looked them all in the eye. "I won a load of gold. Drachmas, coins, bullion. And the gods were really gracious about it. Probably because they can conjure gold so it's not worth anything to them, but they still let me keep it."

"Whoa," Louis said.

"What he said," the guys added, simultaneously. Silena and Annabeth just nodded.

"There was some grumbling, though," Harry said, "but it was all in good fun, apparently. Anyway, the evening's getting late, but someone makes a comment about fighting and stuff, and it turns out that everyone pretty much agrees that Thor's the strongest god there and would flatten the others if they fought."

The five demigods stared at Harry again. "So I ask him for some tips on fighting," Harry went on. "He tells me he'd love to, but that he'd need to be careful because the pantheons don't interact usually, and if he teaches me, it could step on other gods' toes."

The five listeners just nod. "That's when Bai pulls out this ancient Chinese book on Martial Arts, and claims it was written by his good friend Xuan Wu, The Chinese God of Martial Arts, and that he's not supposed to have it, but that he's willing to put it up as the next wager."

His audience still mute, Harry continued. "Now, we're playing Mahjong by then, which is a really fun Chinese game played with tiles, but there can be only four players. Thor was sitting out, he was kind of coaching me how to play. I tell Bai that, since he's putting up a book, I'm putting up a dessert of the winner's choice, made by me. The other gods decide that, since we're betting favors or items now, they would do the same. Mister Hermes put up a couple of free deliveries, and Mister Triton puts up this really cool conch shell."

Harry reached into his shirt and pulled out a chain around his neck, attached to which was the conch shell. "Basically, if you blow it, it will calm any storm at sea, no matter how bad it is. It'll only work once, though."

"You obviously won that bet," Louis said, looking at the conch in admiration.

Harry nodded. "That's when the really fun part begins. You see, Mister Hephaestus' boon was still active. So when I open the book-"

"You see its history," Annabeth interjected. "That would be awesome!"

Harry shook his head. "First, I don't know Chinese. So Mister Hephaestus' boon pushed the entirety of the Chinese language, written and spoken, into my brain through my eyeballs. Then it pushes the history and development of each Chinese character into my brain. Through my eyeballs. And then, the knowledge of the page I'm looking at it forced into my brain. Through my eyeballs."

"Whoa," Annabeth said. "I'm so jealous right now."

"It hurt like the Dickens," Harry said. "And Mister Hermes got really mad when I explained it. Now, Mister Hermes is a cool guy, and he's fun to be around. But he can be a right scary bloke, you know? And he goes all scary-bloke on me and tell me not read ANYTHING else, and not DO anything else, other than do the inventory in the junkyard, and read that book on Martial Arts because he knows he can't stop me doing that anyway. And then he tells me that Mister Hephaestus wasn't kidding, and that my brain really COULD melt if I did too much."

Annabeth winced. "That's… bad," she said.

Harry nodded. "No kidding. So I go back home, and I read the book, and then Hestia finds me. And SHE gets really mad at Mister Hephaestus, too. Only, I didn't know that. She just tried to make me stop reading my awesome book, but I manage to talk her out of it."

"Lady Hestia? Angry?" Louis asked, surprised.

"Yeah, surprised me, too," Harry said. "Anyway, two days later, I finish both the book and the inventory, and report back to Mister Hephaestus. He's… upset, because Hestia went to see him, and apparently was upset with him. But, he tells me I did the job well, and if it answered my questions, and what object did I want as a reward."

Harry pushed his arms a bit further out of his sleeves, showing the others the bracelets he was wearing. With a twist of his writs, they turned into the magnificent pair of bracers. "I got these. They're unbreakable, and I can create shields and blasts of energy with them."

"Whoa," the guys breathed. "Awesome."

"So, Harry," Annabeth said. "Do you still remember the things you learned?"

"Yes and no," the boy replied. "Yes, I still have the knowledge, but it's like my body's forgotten it. I need to practice to get the moves down correctly."

"How does that work?" Silena asked, beating the others to it.

Harry got up. "Okay, it's like this," he said. "The book has sets – katas in Japanese – of moves, which you perform, one after another. If you do the set properly, over and over again, the moves get burned into muscle memory, and you're then able to use them when you're actually fighting."

He performed a basic unarmed combat set, knowing that it was a fair bit more impressive than the Wing Chun sets he had performed in private. He stopped halfway through, looking at his right hand. He moved it slightly, then took it from a few moves back.

"Like that," Harry said when he stopped. "You saw me stop and start a few times, when I didn't perform a move correctly. It's like I know what to do, but my body doesn't want to follow."

"That makes sense," Annabeth said. "Lord Hephaestus boosted your mind, not your body."

Harry nodded. "That's what I thought, too. I'll probably ask Chiron if I can borrow a couple of swords so I can practice the sword sets, too."

He sat down again. "Anyway, after Mister Hephaestus gave me my bracers, I talk to Hestia, and ask her to not be so mad at him. I know she loves her family, and I don't like it when she's mad at them because of me. Later on, I got a really nice thank-you card from him because Hestia forgave him."

He left out the plushy, because that would just be embarrassing with the older sons of Apollo there. He just knew they were going to make fun of him because of it.

"That was nice of him," Louis replied.

"I thought so too," Harry said, grinning.

"Now I know how you got us to make up," Silena said. "You have experience!"

All six laughed at that.

"So you've got those bracers now," Annabeth said, when the last giggles died down. "Look what Athena gave me for making it to camp!" She pulled out a New York Yankees baseball cap, and donned it.

Immediately, she vanished.

"Whoa," Harry said. Invisibility rocked! He reached out to where she was, and felt his hand being slapped away. "You're solid?" he asked.

"Yup!" Annabeth chirped, sounding proud. She reappeared, the baseball cap in her hands.

"And all us poor sons of Apollo have are enchanted bows," Louis mock-whined.

"Be grateful, this poor daughter of Aphrodite has nothing at all," Silena grumped, looking more than a tad jealous.

"But you can change your appearance really easily," Harry said, trying to comfort her. "And that's a skill, not an item that someone can take from you."

"That's true," the girl in question said, thinking about it, and slowly starting to smile.

A/N: Please Support Me On patreon.com/The_Alchemyst