Grace
The lady standing at the door had a different kind of aura that said she wasn't from here. And by not from here I meant not of Earth. She wore a simple shirt and jeans and even that gave me the chills. I exchanged a glance with Sam who was standing behind me. He had the same kind of look in his eyes.
"Who are you?" Luke asked her.
"I'm Penelope Valerius, child. I suggest you better let me in before more assassins reach your place." She said in a smooth voice.
"What assassins?" Sam asked. Luke looked ready to shut the door in her face and run away from home.
"The dozens headed this way to get you to Madronys. Without a cloaking spell you won't be able to stop them." She said calmly.
"Are you alone?" My voice finally appeared.
"For now I am." She answered.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Luke asked.
"It's time you meet some people who have been a part of your life. But I can only do that if you let me in." She looked at him.
"Forget about the people Luke. If any of those assassins are even close to what we saw at the restaurant we are dead." Sam put a hand on his shoulder.
"Okay, ground rules. No funny business. I'm letting you in my house and you better not kill us for it." Luke warned her and then stepped aside to let her in.
"First do whatever cloaking spell you're supposed to do." I told her.
She gave me a smile and then rested a palm on the wall beside her. Then she whispered three words over and over: Protect, shield, defend.
A golden glow spread over the walls of the apartment and kept spreading until the entire apartment was glowing golden. And then she removed her hand from the wall and the glow faded.
"You're safe now. Whoever passes by this building will not feel the presence of a powerful being." She smiled again.
"Take a seat please." Sam told her and Luke shut the door. Penelope sat on one of the couches.
Penelope walked to the couch and took a seat making herself comfortable. The three of us remained standing.
"Aren't you going to sit?" She pointed to the other couch.
"Not yet." Luke said tightly.
"Why don't you start talking and tell us who exactly you are and what do you want with us?" I asked her.
"For that to make sense, more people need to be here. With your permission I can bring them here and then we can start talking." She answered patiently.
"Wait a second." Luke stepped forward. "I already let you into my house. I don't plan on letting anyone else come in. Especially not if said assassins are after us."
"I can promise you that the people who you are going to meet are not assassins and I assure you that you will want to meet them after you know who they are." She said calmly.
"If so, who are these people?" Sam asked.
"You would understand better if you see them." She told him.
"Why can't you just tell us?" I asked.
"Because you wouldn't believe me." She answered.
The three of us exchanged glances. "Why not?" Luke asked.
"Because human minds are not capable of believing things without proof." She met his gaze.
"What. Proof?" Sam asked quietly.
"It's better if I show you." She answered.
"Go ahead. Show us." I told her. Sam and Luke both whipped their heads at me. I shot them a glare.
"You might want to step away from the windows." Penelope stood up and raised her hand. Purple sparks ignited at her fingertips.
Those purple sparks moved towards the window and started moving in a circle from which white light started to grow from the middle. The circle expanded to a size equivalent to a bear. But what was even more startling was that someone stepped through it. Three someones to be exact.
It had the three of us taking a step back and closer to each other. The first to step out of the swirling white mass was a young man in his late twenties wearing white robes and sandals. My attention first went to the golden crown on his head. The delicate crown had fine minute detailing of thin golden bands decorated and woven together with tiny diamonds. The crown had five spokes rising up to hold small rubies that glowed. The man however was only looking at the three of us in awe.
The second person to step out of the portal (let's face it, I can't keep saying swirling white mass every time so I settled with portal) was a lady. She looked younger than the man and wore a long white dress which was cinched at the waist with a silver belt. This lady however had a crown made of ice. A tiny band of ice held alternated long oval shaped diamonds and smaller crusted diamonds on it. A single blue oval shaped sapphire sat in the middle of the diamonds and it glowed. She also had the same look of awe on her face like the man.
And the last person to step out of the portal was another man. He looked around the same age as the first one. He too, wore white robes and sandals. This man had a metal crown with embedded emeralds in it. The metal on his crown was fashioned into closely knitted swirls and designs. The emeralds glowed on his crown.
Penelope bowed before the three as the portal vanished behind them. The three newcomers had the same otherworldly aura as Penelope did.
"As requested, these are the children." Penelope gestured to us three while speaking to the three new people in the room.
"They've grown up." The lady whispered.
"It would be best if you introduced yourselves to them." Penelope told them. The man with the golden crown nodded once.
"My name is Archer." He placed a hand on his heart. "This is my sister Alora." He gestured to the lady. "And this is my brother Jonah." He gestured to the other man. Funny, I would've never pegged them to be siblings. They looked nothing alike.
Penelope looked at us expectantly.
"Um, I'm Sam Jackson. These are my friends Grace Smith and Luke Walker." Sam introduced us to them.
"I think we should all sit." Penelope motioned towards the couches.
Sam, Luke and I all squished together on one couch while the others took up the other two couches.
"Now that introductions are out of the way. I think the children would like to know who you really are." Penelope said while looking at the three of them.
"I can think of no other icebreaker that will cushion the blow of what we tell them." Jonah said.
"Have you ever wondered who each of your missing parents was?" Alora asked.
"Sometimes." I answered.
"We are those parents." Archer said softly.
"Wait what?"
"What did you just say?" Both the boys asked simultaneously.
"Sam Jackson. I am your father." Archer looked only at Sam. That left the other two to Luke and me.
I looked closely at Alora. Her eyes seemed to have a silver lining. She was the mother who had left when I was only only a few months old. She was the one who gave birth to me. Her stark blue eyes contrasted against her pale fair skin. Her long brown hair nestled the ice crown quite perfectly and she looked beautiful overall.
"Before we can get to personal family introductions let's get to the main story and then you can sit and talk." Penelope said.
"The main purpose we are here is because your powers surfaced like they would when you come of age. That same power also attracts the wrong kind of attention like the assassins." Archer began.
"Those powers need to be honed into a weapon or else it would consume you. But most of all you would be targeted for those powers not because someone would want to steal it. But because of who sired you." Alora filled in.
"We're the ones who sired you. You're not the children of just some people with magic. You're the heirs to the thrones of Madronys the place where we live. You children have the blood of Gods flowing through you." Jonah finished.
"The blood of the Gods?" Luke asked. Why wasn't my mouth working? I had a hundred questions going through my head at this moment. What Gods? What heirs? Madronys what? Why were we targeted? But no, my brain just didn't seem to cope with the shock of what was happening.
"We're the Gods of Madronys. Not only do the people worship us but we rule over the land in the Summer Palace. You three are the heirs to that position." Archer explained.
"What are you the Gods of?" I asked. Finally! My mouth started to work at last.
"I am Archer, God of Fire." Archer raised an open palm. Flames sparked to life and danced in his hand. "The world is divided into three factors: Land, water and sky. I get the Land factor. I have jurisdiction of the lands and the defence forces of the land that is the army." He said.
"I am Alora, Goddess of Ice." Alora held out a closed fist and opened it to reveal a snowflake floating in her palm. "I get the Water factor. All the seas and water bodies are under my jurisdiction. My defense forces are the navy." She said.
"I am Jonah, God of Nature." Jonah rotated a finger and formed a tiny tornado over his finger. "I get the Sky factor. All the air and the wind along with nature come under my jurisdiction. The air force is my defense force." He said.
"And we just inherit it all from you?" Sam asked.
"Yes." Archer nodded.
"Why come now? Why not stay as we grew up? Or else at least tell us about this a lot sooner than now? Take us to the place where you guys live?" I asked.
"When you were born the concept of Gods having children with humans was not as accepted as it is now. It still is a shock to everyone when people come to know about but it has been dulled over time. The idea of demigods being alive and living within the people of Madronys was unacceptable in the beginning. Over time as you grew it has become a somewhat acceptable concept within the kingdom." Jonah explained.
"The reason why we didn't tell you about this sooner was because the more people knew about you the more in danger you would be. You are the heir to the throne and if you knew about our world and the place it is you would be hunted for your life since you were born." said Alora.
"We didn't want you to be born with a threat to your lives the moment you were born. We wanted you to have a life free of all the magic and danger. You wouldn't know the pleasure of living without having to look over your backs at all times." Archer said.
"So you left us here with one parent to look after us so we would be safe?" Luke asked.
"It was what was best at that time. If anyone knew that we had children with humans who would one day inherit the throne to Madronys, then they would eliminate the threat of that child to get the thrones for themselves." Archer explained.
"How did you even meet humans if you live in a different world?" I asked.
"Gods have a life too, you know." Alora chuckled.
"And that life involved you coming and meeting humans and falling in love with them?" Luke asked.
"Once or twice in a lifetime." Jonah answered softly.
"How long do you live?" Sam asked them.
"Gods are immortal." Alora answered him.
"I'm guessing demigods are not." I said.
"No. But you live a prolonged life." She replied.
"So what's the reason you came here today to meet us after eighteen years?" Luke taunted. Jonah swallowed hard.
"You children are demigods. You have powers and those powers need to be honed into a weapon you can control before it consumes you. To do that you need to undergo training that helps you control it." Archer explained.
"What sort of training?" Sam asked.
"Being a demigod also attracts monsters towards you. Monsters of the worst kind. The training helps you defend yourselves from them. Your blood allows you to heal faster than ordinary humans." Jonah said.
"You didn't answer his question though." Luke said. "What sort of training do you mean?"
"Training in combat is what they mean." Alora answered him. "You will be trained in combat as well as using your powers. You get to choose a weapon for yourself that you can access anywhere. It will be forever yours until you die." She explained.
"What do you mean you will be trained?" I asked. "Don't we get a choice?"
"Didn't you hear what we just said? The power within you is a thing you inherit from us. If you don't learn to control it, it will consume you. There are monsters out there looking for you. Training is a must if you want to survive." Archer leaned forward.
"It still feels like you're not saying the entire thing." Luke said.
"Isn't it?" Sam agreed. "You're keeping something from us." He looked at them closely.
"Where does this training take place?" I asked softly.
The three of them stilled and exchanged glances with each other.
"It doesn't happen here on Earth does it?" I looked at each of them closely. None of them could look me in the eye.
"You need demigod training. You cannot receive that here on Earth. You will receive that training in Madronys where you will first lay claim to your throne and then step into your power." Alora answered me.
"Whoa hold on a minute." Luke made a time out gesture. "What. The. Hell. Do you mean lay claim to your throne?" He asked slowly.
"It means exactly what she said." Jonah said.
"Unless and until you lay claim to your throne as heir to Madronys you don't get to be under the protection of the Gods. As unnamed heirs to the throne you will be hunted for your entire life." Jonah explained.
"Okay wait. Let's take a break here shall we?" I didn't wait for them to agree, I just went on. "It feels like you don't really leave us a choice here. Everything you say either ends in us agreeing with you to do it or else death." I still didn't stop for them to answer.
"You want us to come to this place wherever you live and train in combat for our protection. Then you want us to lay claim to those thrones to get under your protection or else we will be hunted for our entire lives. What even happens after that? We have a life here on Earth. You can't just expect us to leave it and join you wherever you go." I said.
"Exactly." Sam agreed. "Say we even do this with you. What about after that? I don't really think you'll let us come back here and live our lives. You just might come up with something else that will keep us there forever. You're not exactly giving us a lot of options." He said.
"Didn't you just say that you Gods are immortals? So what even happens when we lay claim to those thrones? It's not like you're going to die and then we inherit them from you." Luke added.
"Well this just got a whole lot more complicated." Penelope said from beside us. I jumped when she talked. I'd totally forgotten she was here.
"Perhaps you should spend some alone time with your own children respectively. Then you might be able to convey what you really came here for." She suggested.
"If you kids would be open to that maybe we could do it." Alora looked at us questioningly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Luke asked.
"You will each go to a separate location with your respective parent and then you can talk with them privately." Archer explained.
"What guarantee do we have that you won't just whisk us away to whatever place you came from?" I asked.
"We swear that we wouldn't make you do things without your permission." Alora said.
"Are you completely sure about this?" Luke looked at me. Sam looked in our direction as well.
"What choice do we have?" I whispered.
"So we're going along with them?" Sam whispered.
"Let's give it a shot. Once we get back, we can talk and decide if we're doing this or not." Luke suggested.
"Alright. Nobody gives them any hint that we're agreeing to whatever they say. We hear them out and then we come back and make a combined decision." I said.
"Done." Both of the boys said simultaneously.
"See you guys back here after this talk." I nodded.
And with that each one of us held hands with each one of our respective parents before the whole world swirled before my eyes and everything went black.