Raymond dropped to his knees and gritted his teeth as he began losing control of the orb. Sweat poured profusely down his temples. The ball started vibrating rapidly as soon as he dropped on the ground.
"You let go off that ball, and you level everything within a hundred-meter radius of here," Adrastea spoke alarmingly.
"N-ot h-elp-ing."
"You need to absorb the magic back into you."
"I can't, I shut myself off," Ray replied through gritted teeth.
Adrastea went around the ball and grabbed the dagger while Ray followed her with his eyes. He almost let go of the ball when he realized her intention. He quickly closed his eyes and tried one more time, feeling for everything he could find. Then he found it.
His body immediately went into autopilot. The orb started shrinking and disappeared after a few seconds before he dropped onto his back, panting like a dog.
"You know I read about you."
"Really, what do the books say?" Adrastea joined him on the grass.
"Nothing much, only a few lines."
"I must be doing my job very well then."
Once he was done sweating on the grass, one girl approached them, she was shorter than Adrastea and skinnier with long flowing white hair that reached her waist.
"There's a man at the gate, he said his name is Jeremy Kyle, a friend of lady Athena's guest."
Raymond's eyes bulged out while Adrastea frowned, she turned towards Raymond. "Why is the Detective here?"
"I don't know, I never told him I was here."
Adrastea turned to the Girl. "Tell him you've never heard of the name and neither has anyone here."
"Do you have your phone with you?"
"Yeah, it's in my room. Why?"
"He pinged your phone. Did you carry it to the Warehouse?"
"No, Charles always made sure I left it at home. Do you think he is going to come in?"
"Not without authorization. And you can always jump out of here." She rose and started walking back into the house. "Get up, there is somewhere we need to go."
Raymond stood and followed her into the house. "Go grab your phone and follow me." He made a quick jump into his room and back before she began walking towards the hallway.
They soon descended two flights of stairs, and they came across another hallway. They walked across it too until she stopped at an unfamiliar double doors where she muttered a short spell, and Ray heard the locks click. She then pulled them open and went in, a couple of seconds later the lights flickered on. "Come on in."
The room was almost as big as his bedroom. There was nothing else inside except a weird looking star diagram on the floor in the middle of the room. There was a large circle inside the star and a few markings on the base of one of the star's arm.
Moving closer to the markings he was surprised when he traced some of the designs and muttered Olympus in his head, and the rest of the markings were unintelligible.
"It's fascinating isn't it?"
"What are we doing here?"
"Step into the circle," she motioned for him to join her, he was a bit reluctant. "Relax, it's just a portal."
"A portal to where?"
"I think you already know the answer to that. "Ray was a bit skeptical but approached the star's center and immediately Adrastea chanted a few words, and he saw the runes began to glow and then the ground beneath their feet gave way to their weight but immediately solidified.
...
They appeared inside another room with a similar circle to the one they used back at Argo. Though this room was much smaller, and darker but as Ray thought about it the room lit up as if triggered by their presence.
"Where are we?"
[It's best if you see for yourself, it makes it even more fun.] Adrastea mischievously smiled at Ray before heading for the door.
Ray followed, and they entered a big corridor that ended at a flight of stairs. [What's the deal with portals and basements?]
[Every portal is the responsibility of the owner who are mostly gods.]
They reached the ground floor to be met by three women lounging in the living area, they each lazily turned to look at them before they went back to their business.
By the looks of it, they looked like they were playing some kind of board game that was unknown to him. "Is there a pod in the hangar?"
"Only the T-pod," one of the women replied.
"It'll do."
"Pod?"
"Yeah Ray, a pod," she had a playful smile while she spoke.
They went out of the large house. "This another one of Athena's house?"
"No, its mine."
They arrived inside the hangar before Ray saw his first T-pod (transport pod). It was nothing fancy, just an oval shape—more like soap shape—with three landing struts. Inside, there were four seats, and Adrastea took the front left seat. He took the right seat, and the door automatically slid shut.
She then punched a few keys, and the machine came to life with a slight, almost imperceptible hum. A few blinks later the controls lit up, and there was a small nudge before it began to turn.
<
A female mechanical voice spoke from the controls, and a moment later a blue holographic display emerged showing a 3D real-time map of a strange city.
"Give us a tour of the city."
Several black dots appeared on the map highlighting the routes it would follow. The dots finally came to a stop when the highlighted route returned back to the pod's original position. Adrastea then settled back in her seat and let out a sigh.
[It has been a while since I flew one of these.]
Once they made a complete three-sixty, the roof opened, and they glided through it and into the open. A few seconds after they were outside the pod angled itself slightly upwards and picked up speed; gaining altitude in the process.
"So, it just flies itself," Raymond made an observation.
"All transport pods are remotely connected to the City's main hub where navigation is guided by a Central AI that monitors traffic. Each pod is equipped advanced AI that interfaces with the central AI relaying our commands."
"Can you manually operate the pod?"
"You can, but in case of an accident the consequences would be severe and definitely not worth the risk."
"And with the AI in charge?"
"There hasn't been any documented accident caused by the AI since its inception back in 1960. She is very good at what she does."
They had been flying for close to five minutes when he saw his first glimpse of the city. It was massive. Easily stretching out on both horizons.
Ray's jaw finally reached the floor.
"Pan, some air please," an amused Adrastea spoke again after seeing Raymond's speechless expression.
The top of the pod suddenly gave a few clicks and then began to retract, the metal cover folded into segments and the finally rested at the back of the pod. Ray was blasted by cool breeze before the pod gradually slowed down to a more comfortable speed.
Glancing around he was able to see several other pods; some like theirs others were bigger while others looked classy. Unhooking his seatbelt, he moved close to the edge and squinted down. Other pods were going to and from, from the city, below them several houses, some bigger than others.
"This is awesome!"
"You've seen nothing yet."