Harry waved at the rising sun, grinning as it winked back at him. Or it pretended to, anyway; as usual, he couldn't quite make it out.
Drawing a deep breath, he sat down next to the hot springs, folded his legs up, closed his eyes, and dropped into a meditative trance. His body utterly relaxed, his mind flowing free through the universe, he finally pulled himself together and focused on his inner energy.
His energy levels were nicely balanced, and his energy network was open and circulating without issue. Good. That was good.
He tried, once again, to externalize his Chi. A flash of red and yellow was followed by a veil of black.
He woke up half an hour later, flat on his back. "Ow," he complained. Groaning, he dragged himself on to his feet. "Looks like I will never be able to do that," he muttered to himself. "That sucks."
He closed his eyes, and re-centered himself. After another disastrous attempt at externalizing Chi, his energy flow was completely out of balance and he needed to work at re-centering it and restoring the correct, unimpeded, flows.
Finally, he drew a breath and opened his eyes once more, feeling a lot better with all three energies nicely balanced.
He pouted for a few moments, feeling down about not being able to shoot Chi out of his hands like some of the comics the three sons of Apollo so enjoyed. That would have been awesome.
He'd have to ask Marduk about doing that with magic next time. That could be fun.
Remembering a different exercise from the Big Book of Martial Arts, Harry decided on trying something new. After all, since he couldn't shoot blasts of energy, he may as well try something else, something different, but therefore no less spectacular.
No less dangerous, either. If he messed this up, he could blow himself up. If he did not do this evenly, he could lose control over all three energy types at once; if they moved around too much, the resulting detonation would rip him to shreds.
No pressure there, Harry, he told himself.
He drew a breath and centered himself. If he had enough momentum, then theoretically, all he had to do was lift his energy and raise all three energy centers, evenly, at the same time.
He reminded himself that, if he lost control, all he had to do was release the centers and let himself fall. Just, you know, as long as he did it evenly.
He went very still, and concentrated.
Then, finally, he launched himself at the wall, one foot hitting the wall hard, momentum allowing him to push himself up the next step.
He then grabbed his energy centers and lifted them. Evenly, he reminded himself even though it wasn't necessary.
All three energy centers moved, and lifted him from the inside out.
It felt euphoric on a level he had not yet experienced; the feeling of being carried from the inside out by his own energy was incredible.
He managed three more steps up the wall, carried by his own internal energy, before he felt the centers slip out of his control.
Immediately, he dropped them back into place, and the upwards force was replaced by gravity asserting its dominance.
He fell, feeling as if the ground was spinning to meet him.
"Ouch," he muttered, even as demigod reflexes allowed him to tuck-and roll to dissipate most of the fall's energy. He rolled one shoulder. That was going to bruise.
He didn't mind, because he had just run up a freaking wall.
Harry grinned widely, re-centered himself, and tried it again. He made it five steps up this time, before falling. The bruise was on his other shoulder this time, but he didn't care; this was a trick he could learn, and learn well, it seemed! He was going to have so much fun with this one, he could tell.
He concentrated, and re-centered himself, preparing for another go at it. Even if he ended up full of bruises, the results would be worth it.
An hour later, he re-entered the temple, covered in sweat and bruises, but smiling widely. Wall running was awesome.
After a shower and a change of clothes, he made himself some breakfast, and shared it with Helios, before going back outside.
Once more, he sat down next to the hot spring, and closed his eyes. This time, he tried to find the magic behind his own, as Marduk had told him.
For a week now, he'd been trying, and failing, to find the greater outside magic.
Harry's focus darted in and around his upper dan tian, his Shen energy center, yet couldn't find anything even closely resembling outside magic. Apparently, the oriental methods that had worked so well for him so far were letting him down miserably.
Maybe he would have to find some other method, some other way, of visualizing his internal magic and realizing his access to the greater outside magic.
0000
That evening, Harry sat quietly, next to a sealed box of cookies, watching the fire. He'd been baking the entire afternoon and now he had a box full of cookies, everything ranging from chocolate chip to raisin bran. He hoped the guys liked them. And his mom, Hermes had said he'd invite her again.
Part of him wondered why it had taken over two months before the next invitation came, but he was determined not to ask. He was just glad to have been invited at all. For all he knew, everyone had been busy.
The fire pinged and Harry grinned. Thor had sent him a flag, and resolutely, he picked up his box of treats and walked through the fire.
"Harry! Welcome to Asgard!" The Norse God of Thunder boomed as Harry strode through a hearth in a large hall.
"Hi, Thor!" The young demigod said, grinning widely. "Happy to be here." he looked around; the room he had appeared in was a large hall, kind of like how he had expected an old Viking Hall to look like. One side had some large windows, however, that should have been completely out of place, yet somehow weren't.
Looking out, Harry saw that the building he was in was located on top of a mountain, and judging from plants and trees, it was bombarded by heavy winds. Built around the mountain, and on its slopes, were homes. Palaces, for the lack of a better word, built from silver, gold, or other precious metals. Each palace had huge doors and tall towers, and vast gardens stretched around and between them.
Harry had been on Olympus enough to recognize the feeling of a Divine City, so he realized that this place must be the real Asgard. Around the city stretched a great wall with white ramparts, tall and thick and strong.
Then, Harry noticed details. Through the windows, fine drapes hung in tatters. The streets were empty; the braziers that lined the roads were cold and dark. Statues were overgrown with thorn bushes; no fires burnt in any of the buildings he could see.
Thor had stepped next to the boy. "Quite a few of us are dormant or traveling," he explained. "It is a quiet place, these days." He shrugged then. "They'll be back, and things will go back to what they were, don't let yourself worry."
Harry grinned at the Norse God, and nodded. "Alright, Thor."
The big god gave a laugh, and slapped him on the shoulder. "Come, sit," he invited, motioning to a bar set against one side of the massive hall.
As the young boy nodded his acceptance, and sat on one of the barstools, Thor slapped a tankard down in front of him. "Have a drink, while we wait," the god stated, filling his own.
Harry shrugged and sipped. "Whoa, honey mead," he said, staring at the drink. "This stuff is brilliant."
Thor's smile widened. "Best in the Nine Realms!" he boasted, before leaning in. "It's been a while, so I'm sure you have new tales to regale us with," he cajoled easily. "Any hints for your old friend Thor before the others get here?"
Harry laughed, and pulled open the container. "Would you like a cookie?" he asked, blatantly changing the subject.
Thor laughed, and looked in the box. He fished out an oatmeal cookie. "You wound me, my young friend," he lamented on a tone that showed he wasn't wounded in the slightest.
"Plying our young guest with alcohol?" Triton asked as he appeared without fanfare. "Hestia will disapprove," he added, before finishing with a greeting. "Hello Harry, Thor."
Harry took another sip from the tankard while Thor nodded a greeting back to the Messenger of the Seas. He'd learned enough from Athena's lessons to know that, if he only drank one, and stayed long enough, he'd be stone cold sober by the time he returned.
"Hi Mister Triton!" Harry greeted, immediately holding out the box. "Would you like a cookie?"
"Don't mind if I do," Triton agreed, fishing out a chocolate chip cookie. "Your confections have grown in reputation. There was a tale about a delicious cake sent to my father."
"Oh?" Thor said. "More tales of bravery and wit?"
"Tales of labors in the kitchen in any regards," Hermes said, appearing in a sparkly of lights. "Triton, Thor, Harry."
"Hi, Hermes!" Harry chirped, holding out his box. "Cookie?"
"I'll never say no to one of your creations," the Messenger God said, grabbing a raisin bran cookie while the other two gods said their greetings.
"Now I find myself even more curious," Thor said. "Harry refused to share in advance."
Hermes grinned and messed up Harry's ever-messy hair. "That's my grandson. Always leave them wanting more."
Harry smiled back at his grandfather, and took another drink of mead. He hadn't been kidding earlier, this really was very good.
Bai was suddenly there, already seated at the bar. He didn't look as energetic as he usually did. "Guys, Harry," he greeted. "Drink, please," he asked Thor.
The God of Thunder simply poured him a mug. "You alright?"
The Chinese God shrugged. "Been better. Been worse, too. I'll live."
Harry felt bad for him. "Is there anything we can do to help?" he offered.
Bai eyed him. "You're implying we can't handle our own problems?" he asked, dangerously flat.
"Bai!" Hermes snapped. "You know that's not what Harry meant!"
Harry shrugged instead. "Everybody needs help sometimes, and that's what friends do, help each other out," he said. "I didn't mean to imply anything; I was just offering help, like Hestia told me to do."
Bai eyed him for a moment more, then finally shrugged and relaxed slightly. "Thanks for the offer, kid, but no, nothing you can do to help."
The young demigod just nodded. "Alright, Bai. But the offer's open if you need it."
Bai snorted. "Thanks, kid," he answered, draining half his mug of alcohol. "I appreciate it."
"Bai's been… busy," Hermes said, as if to lessen the impact of Bai's testiness. "It's why this get-together was delayed a bit."
Harry just nodded, accepting the explanation. He didn't need to know what had kept Bai; he just wanted the Chinese God to know that he'd help if he could.
The four gods all turned at exactly the same time, watching as the last invitee arrived.
Tyche looked both uncomfortable and nervous. "Good evening, My Lords," she greeted the four gods politely, before turning to Harry.
She tried to speak to her son, yet no sound emerged from her throat. Hermes' shoulders sagged slightly. "Dad's curse travels, it seems," he muttered sadly. "Sorry for getting your hopes up."
Harry bravely patted the Messenger God's arm, obviously upset but equally obviously trying to reign it in. "It was a good idea. Thank you for trying, Hermes," he said, softly, before turning to his mother.
"Hi, Mom," he said, softly. And, everyone noticed, somewhat uncomfortably.
She tried to speak again, her voice failing once more, before sadly gathering him up in a hug.
He hugged her back. "I really don't like Mister Zeus," he confided in her. She gave him a gentle squeeze. "At least we can write," he said, trying to find the silver lining.
His mother nodded sadly, before looking up from her son. The four gods seemed unusually occupied with the contents of Thor's barrel of mead.
"Thank you for the invitation, My Lords, but unfortunately it seems that my personal punishment would make this evening incredibly uncomfortable," she told them, sadly.
"Entirely understandable," Thor replied, easily.
Tyche looked down at her son, who seemed lost. She gave him another hug, and then made scribbling motions.
He grinned at her. "I'll write, Mom," he told her. She gave him a nod, and a smile, before saying her farewells to the four male gods, and disappearing.
"That seems like a story," Bai stated. "Cursing a goddess badly enough that it travels across realms is no small feat."
Harry sat down at the bar again, and drained what remained in his remaining tankard of mead in one go. Bai let out an impressed whistle.
"Apparently, Mom got angry after our last game, when she found out I was on Olympus," the young demigod said, staring at the empty tankard as if debating whether he could get away with a refill or not. "The next morning, I was called to the Throne Room; Mister Zeus had brought Mom up on charges."
Hermes looked upset, and drained his drink. He had no compulsions against asking Thor for a refill. Triton had heard everything second-hand, and looked interested in hearing things from Harry's first-hand account. Bai and Thor looked dangerous, all of a sudden.
"What kinds of charges?" Thor asked.
"Apparently, he thought Mom broke some laws by going to the mortal world as her mortal aspect, scare a few mortals into straightening things out, and manipulating a domain that wasn't her own," Harry explained. "Oh, and she talked to someone in the Slavic Pantheon, too," he added.
The two foreign gods nodded, as if in sync, urging him to continue. "The other gods don't agree, though, because they feel that they would have done the same thing if they found out their children had been treated as I had been," the young demigod said. "That makes Mister Zeus really mad, and he said that, because Mom had manipulated his domain, he didn't need the rest of them to punish her. So, he cursed her to not be able to talk with me, or answer my prayers. Ever."
"Worst of all, she hadn't manipulated Father's domain," Hermes interjected. "She's Goddess of Fortune. She manipulated probability into having nature create the bolts of lightning she used to scare a mortal."
"That..." Thor said, trailing off dramatically.
"That evil bastard," Bai declared. "Why? Why did he do this?"
Harry looked at his empty tankard as if he wanted to disappear into it.
"Because dear old Dad is still upset Harry exposed his philandering in front of his wife and the entire Olympian Council," Hermes replied. "We've all pointed out that keeping up a one-sided feud against a mortal reflects badly on him, but unfortunately Dad will always be Dad."
Harry blinked when his tankard refilled itself. He looked at Thor, who winked at him, then surreptitiously put a finger to his lips in the universal 'this is our secret' motion.
The young boy gave a sad half-grin at the Norse God of Thunder. The others were gods, the entire thing had not escaped them, and they decided to just play along. All four recognized that their young guest was still down, and that something needed to be done.
"After that tale, I think we need something more upbeat," Triton declared. "I heard some interesting rumors about a statue and the defeat of a two thousand year old spidery enemy."
Harry slowly smiled at the Messenger of the Seas. "I didn't really defeat Arachne, Mister Triton," he said. "I just got her to turn back, that's all."
Hermes grinned, and sat up straighter, wanting to hear the first-hand account of this adventure. Thor and Bai laughed.
"That sounds like a tale, Kid. Have a drink and share!" Bai encouraged.
"It all started when I took some friends of mine on a trip to Rome. School was coming up for them, and I thought we could use a day away, you know?" Harry said, starting the story of getting the Athena Parthenos back. Already, his mood improved as he thought of the fun adventure.
0000
"That's when I wake up in the infirmary, to find out someone set my dislocated shoulder, and with Hestia disappointed in me, because I took a huge statue through personal transport," Harry finished, finding his audience paying rapt attention.
Thor boomed out a laugh. "You have the most exciting adventures!" he said, still chuckling.
The other three agreed, nodding deftly at the statement. "Come, let's play," the Norse God of Thunder said, stepping from behind the bar.
Harry grinned, sad mood completely forgotten, hopped off the stool, and found that his legs felt strange. He glanced at the empty tankard. That mead was stronger stuff than he thought, it seemed. He'd have to stay longer and make sure he was sober before returning home. He and Hestia were back to normal, he didn't want a repeat of disappointing her.
A small voice told him he shouldn't have had the alcohol if he hadn't wanted to disappoint Hestia, but a larger part of him stated that refusing a god pouring you a drink could be just as bad.
He sat down at the poker table and nimbly stacked his gold. "Who's dealing?" he asked, happy to play a game instead of recount his adventures.
Thor laughed and smacked a brand new deck of cards down in front of the demigod; they were still in the wrapping paper, too.
His nimble fingers immediately opened the packaging, extracted the cards from their box, dumped the non-standard cards, including jokers, back into their box, and shuffled them expertly.
By the time he looked down at his hands, he was already shuffling.
"Kid, as impressive as that is, it'll make every player weary of you," Bai counseled. "So you may want not want to show just how good you are at that when you play with regular people."
Harry flubbed the shuffle, and cards sprayed out of his hands.
"You probably don't want to shuffle that badly either," Thor said, amusement on his face.
"Whoops," Harry muttered as he gathered the cards, did a strip cut, shuffled them, did a block cut, shuffled them again, then put the deck in front of Thor. "Please cut," he requested of the Norse God of Thunder, who burst out laughing as he cut the deck.
"We'll turn him in a professional card shark yet," he told the other deities, who offered different levels of amusement.
"Nah," Harry said as he took back the cards and gave them a final shuffle. "There's no need to ever go professional," he said, giving them all a look.
Thor and Bai laughed loudly, Hermes joining in a few seconds later, while Triton, highly amused, slowly shook his head.
"As long as you have some poor and unsuspecting gods to cheat out of their lunch money," Bai added, to more laughter.
Harry grinned at the Oriental deity. "I've said it before, I'll say it again. Poor unsuspecting gods? Where?" the young demigod asked, cheekily.
More laughter.
"Seriously, though, guys," Harry said, as his fingers dealt cards on their own. "I've explained it to Hestia, too. I treat the gold as if they were poker chips. That way, it's not really money, you know?"
"Hence the reason why you come back with the same stack of gold you had last time," Hermes said, eyeing Harry's loot.
The young demigod grinned at his grandfather. "Hestia takes good care of me, what would I need this amount of gold for, anyway?" he asked.
0000
"So I was walking along the beach in mortal form," Bai said. "When I came upon this small restaurant. Feeling hungry, I entered, to find the place packed. Luckily, I got the last seat, and ordered a bowl of soup. I raise," the Chinese god added, throwing in some gold bullion.
The others called.
"Anyway, my soup arrives, and I start eating, only to find this huge Saint Bernard staring at me and my bowl of soup. The owner, seeing this, tells me not to worry, that the dog's friendly, and really smart, so it wouldn't do anything," Bai continued his story. "Pair of sixes."
"Two pair," Thor said. "Threes and Jacks."
Triton threw his hand down. "Pair or nines," he stated.
"Three of a kind, eights," Hermes said, grinning widely.
"Sorry guys. Straight," Harry declared, raking in his loot, dexterous fingers pilling the gold into stacks.
"Still taking our lunch money," Bai muttered humorously as the deck shifted over to the next dealer. "Anyway, so I tell the owner the dog doesn't look that smart, seeing as it's just staring at me. The owner grins and says, 'oh, no, it's not you he's staring at. It's the bowl. He recognizes that bowl. It's the one he usually eats out of.' I never was in more of a hurry to leave a place."
Everyone burst into laughter, Bai included.
As Triton startled to shuffle, Hermes looked at Harry, still grinning over what happened to Bai. "By the way, Harry, didn't I hear rumors about you getting in trouble with my sister and her Lieutenant?"
Harry frowned, and looked back at his grandfather. "I haven't been in trouble with Artie. Or with Miss Zoë," the young demigod said, confused. Suddenly, the metaphorical lightbulb went off. "But they got in trouble with Hestia."
"That sounds like a story," the God of Messengers said as Triton dealt.
Harry shrugged. "It all started when Miss Zoë decided it was time my next test in survival skills," he said, starting the story.
0000
"It took me some time to get Hestia to forgive both Artie and Miss Zoë," Harry concluded. "But on the other hand, I can summon food and drink now, so that's a boon."
"Kid, you have the most interesting trouble after you," Bai said, shaking his head.
Harry pouted. "If that stupid bear hadn't eaten everything, Miss Zoë would have been right," he defended his teacher.
"You have such a crush on her," Hermes said, causing the three other gods to laugh.
"I do not!" Harry yelled, before realizing they were just teasing him. He crossed his arms and pouted. Which, of course, set off another round of laughter.
Fine, let them laugh. Looking at his cards, he said, calmly, "all in." With no effort, he shoved the various piles of gold currency into the middle of the table without knocking any of them over.
The four gods shared a look, and as one, decided that discretion was the better part of valor where Harry's card skills were concerned and folded.
The young boy grinned, and collected his winnings.
"What'd you have?" Hermes asked, curiously.
"A pair of threes," Harry said, as if it were the highest hand in the game.
His poker buddies were silent for a few moments, before Thor let out an impressed whistle. "You have nerves of steel and balls of brass," the Norse God of Thunder said. "Not many people, especially mortals, would dare to pull that trick on us."
Harry grinned. "Payback for teasing me," he answered with a chuckle.
"Balls of brass. Big ones," Thor repeated, before laughing and slapping Harry on the shoulder, almost driving the poor demigod out of his seat.
Hermes and Bai seemed to like the joke, but Triton gave Harry a good, long, and above all stern look. Just long enough to make the boy feel uncomfortable, before giving him a short wink.
0000
"You should have seen the look on that merchant's face when he discovered his purse full of ill-gotten gold was gone," Hermes said, chortling.
Everyone chuckled. "Three queens," the God of Thieves finished.
"Pair of nines," Triton said, putting his cards down.
"Pair of sixes," Thor said, huffing slightly.
Bai just scowled and put his hand down. "Garbage," he said.
Harry looked dejected. "I only have two pair," he said, making Hermes perk up. "A pair of tens," he continued, putting the pair down, "and a second pair of tens," he finished, laughing.
The look on Hermes' face was probably as funny as the look on that merchant who found his purse missing.
Both Harry and the three other deities seemed to think so, anyway, as they laughed. The God of Messengers pouted outrageously.
"No mercy for your dear old grandfather?" he asked the demigod as the deck passed back to Harry.
The boy grinned at the god. He liked Hermes, he could both take a joke and diss one out. "You want me to throw a game?" the demigod asked, aghast. Without paying attention to it, he had picked up the deck and startled shuffling it.
The God of Thieves pouted deeper. "No..." he wheedled, trailing off.
Harry shrugged. "Not really much I can do, then," he said, as he continued to shuffle the deck. Finished, he started the motion to flick the first card out, when he stopped, and stared at the deck with a frown.
Turning it over, so the cards were exposed, he fanned them out on the table in front of him.
The cards were in numerical order, Ace to King, suit by suit. "What the?" he managed before any of the gods could react. "I shuffled them back into numerical order. How did I do that?"
"Kid, that's one heck of a talent," Bai acknowledged. "Especially since you didn't even seem to be paying attention to it. But honestly, that's going to make anyone weary of playing with you."
The boy just nodded. "Yeah, no kidding. I didn't even mean to do that," he said. "I'm not even sure how I did it, either."
He stared at the cards for a few moment, then swiped the cards together and passed them on. "I think other people better shuffle for now," he said. "Until I figure out what happened, what I did, and how I can avoid it in the future. Like you said, Bai, it'll make everyone uncomfortable, and I'm not a cheater. I'll take everyone's lunch money fair and square."
They all laughed and Thor startled shuffling.
0000
"So, more than slightly drunk, I tried to sneak back inside the palace," Thor recounted. "Unfortunately, my less-than-stellar drunken sneaking was no match for Heimdall's keen eyesight and keener hearing. Fortunately, he took pity on me. Unfortunately, he did so by sneaking me past the palace guards in a barrel of wine."
There was sniggering from Triton and Harry, and outright laughter from Hermes and Bai. "The smell did not wash out," Thor continued. "The next morning, Father looked at me, raising the eyebrow over his functioning eye, and need not say anything."
The sniggering had turned to outright laughter now as well.
"Fortunately, Father decided that the hangover was enough punishment, and ordered nobody heal me or otherwise relieve me of it," the Norse Thunder God recounted.
More laugher. "I learned my lesson, and wasn't caught the next time," Thor finished, in his usual boisterous manner, joining in the merriment of the others.
Once the laughter subsided, he announced, "Two pair, fours and jacks," while putting his cards down.
"Bah," Bai said, putting his hand down. Triton frowned, and put his hand down as well.
"Three twos!" Hermes announced, trumping Thor's two pair with a three of a kind.
"Flush," Harry announced, raking in his loot. The four gods grumped good-naturedly.
0000
"I have no luck today," Bai said, once more throwing his cards down in a clearly exaggerated manner that showed he really didn't mind that much. "Mahjong, anyone?"
Harry grinned. "Sure, I'll play mahjong!" he said. "At least that way, I won't accidentally cheat with the cards."
"I'll grab a drink and sit out the first round," Hermes said when both Thor and Triton announced interest in playing the tile game.
"Do you still remember the rules, Kid?" Bai asked Harry.
The young boy nodded, then grinned, and recapped both the rules and the most common winning hands.
"You only played once, months ago," Bai said, clearly impressed. "You must've read up on it, didn't you?"
The demigod shook his head. "I think I forgot to tell everyone what Miss Athena did for the return of her statue. The day I woke up, she summoned all of us to Olympus, and basically gave all of us who helped retrieve her statue a boon."
"She enhanced your mind, didn't she?" Hermes asked, lifting a tankard off the bar and taking a drink.
Harry nodded. "Better retention and a minor boost in intelligence. And because I was the one to lead everyone to her statue, she gave me a second gift." He lifted his left arm away from the table, and emerged the shield.
"Nice one," Bai admitted, while the other gods let out equally impressed sounds.
"You're gathering quite the collection of divine items," Triton said.
Harry nodded eagerly. "Isn't it great, Mister Triton? And all I'm doing is what Hestia told me – I just help people. I like helping, I don't even ask for anything, because Hestia said helping is its own reward."
"Spoken as a true hero," Thor said, slapping Harry on the back. The young boy tried not to let show that his shoulder was starting to hurt from where Thor kept slapping him, and dismissed the shield instead.
"So you're using the boon from your Goddess of Wisdom to take yet more of our money?" Bai asked, turning the conversation back to the game.
"Oh, stop complaining," Triton said, grinning. "Every time we play, you whine about someone taking your money. You're the god of metals, you conjure gold out of thin air, it's not like you'll miss it."
Bai frowned. "But I like complaining!" he complained.
Harry laughed softly, reached over, and patted Bai's hand. "There, there, Bai. You can complain if you want to." He dropped back into his seat at the table that had suddenly changed from a poker to a mahjong table, and asked, "Shall we play?"
"And take more of your money?" Triton added. Bai frowned playfully and the others laughed.
They shuffled the tiles around, built walls, and started playing. Each in turn, picking up and discarding tiles as the rapid play went around the four players.
"Mahjong," Harry declared, turning over his tiles.
Bai just gave him a baleful glare. He returned a hopefully disarming smile.
The Chinese God winked at him, showing it was just play, and they shuffled again. Every four games, they swapped out a player so everyone got a turn.
0000
Harry came home late. Very late. He sent out a greeting to Helios, and then started to walk towards his sleeping area, intent on changing into pajamas and falling into bed.
Instead, the hearth flashed, and Hestia stepped through.
"Had a good night, Harry?" the Goddess of the home asked, smiling faintly. "Considering some people would call this 'morning'."
Harry shuffled awkwardly, digging at the floor with one foot. "Hi, Hestia," he said. "Yes, the party was brilliant. Well, it turned brilliant; the guys were great at cheering me up after it turned out Mom couldn't talk to me, even on Asgard."
Hestia nodded in understanding, and bundled him in a hug. "I'm sorry to hear that," she said, before pulling away. "Did you drink?" she asked, eyeing him intently.
So intently, in fact, that Harry was sure that she already knew the answer and that a fib wasn't the response she was looking for.
He shuffled some more, looking at his feet. "Ehm… yes? But when the God of Thunder puts a drink in front of you and tells you to drink, then 'no' isn't the best thing to say, you know?"
Hestia stared at him, sternly. "And did you have only the one?" she asked, once again on a tone that stated she knew exactly how much he had to drink.
"Ehm… no?" he whispered.
"No," she repeated. "How much did you have?"
"Ehm..." Harry whispered. "Two? But honestly, the second was right after Mom and everything, and I kept away from alcohol for the rest of the evening, and I didn't fire-travel drunk or anything," the demigod said, trying to defend himself.
Hestia sighed. Harry suddenly felt very tiny. "I'm sorry, I know you don't like it when I drink," he finally said, looking at his feet again.
Hestia gave him a hug instead. "I'm glad that you try and be responsible, Harry," she finally said. "I'm just trying to look out for you. Too much alcohol isn't good for a growing boy."
"I know," he replied softly. "And I do try. But sometimes, a god puts a drink in front of me, and it's really bad manners to say no and all that."
"I know, Harry. I know. And you do try to be responsible, I know that. So far, I haven't seen you get drunk, nor, as you put it, fire-travel while intoxicated," the Goddess of the Home said. "So while I will give you a hard time every time I do catch you, I will not be too disappointed until you show me that you can't be trusted."
Harry hugged his all-time favorite goddess back. "Still the best goddess ever," he told her.
"No, I'm really not," she replied with a slight pout. Releasing him, she stepped back, and suddenly he was dressed in his pajamas. The ones he had actually been thinking of. "Now, please go to bed. You only have four hours before you need to get up. I believe that you have a session with Athena this morning, as well, and if you're not fit, she will be most put out."
Harry pouted slightly.
"That is the consequence of partying too late," Hestia stated, not in the least sorry for him. "It's a lesson you must learn if you want to behave like an adult. Stay out too late and the next day – or in this case, the same day – will be miserable."
Harry nodded, understanding the lesson she was imparting. "Thanks, Hestia," he whispered softly. "Good night."
"Good night, Harry," she said gently, smiling faintly, as the demigod dragged himself to his bed.
0000
Harry cautiously pushed open the doors to Athena's temple. He had slept the four hours or so before he had to get up and make breakfast, and didn't feel too well. He hadn't drunk enough to have a hangover, but he had slept few enough hours to feel miserable.
Not even the very strong cup of coffee he had brewed to wake him up had helped. In fact, it had made things worse, as he now felt both exhausted and jittery, if that were even possible.
"Hi, Miss Athena!" the demigod said politely to the empty temple.
Suddenly, the Goddess of Wisdom in question, at her full three-meter height, was right in front of him. "Harry," she stated, eyeing him. "I see you are exhausted."
Knowing better than to deny it, he answered, with a faint blush and some embarrassment, "I got invited to the maths party Hermes and his friends have every month or two or so, and it got a bit later than I expected."
Athena quirked one eyebrow in an impressive manner. "A what party?" she asked, as if she had misheard him.
"A maths party," the demigod repeated.
"I did not see Hermes, nor any of his usual friends, be interested in the sciences," the Goddess of Wisdom stated. "What was the contents of this maths party?"
Harry offered a faint smile. "We made a study on the execution of various nondeterministic algorithms," he repeated, somehow able to drag up the latest excuse and not flubbing its pronunciation despite his exhaustion.
Athena stared at him for ten long seconds, before one side of her lip quirked up, and a strange shine entered her eyes. "That sounds like games of chance," she said, her voice having a strange lilt of amusement in it.
Harry shrugged one shoulder, as if trying to downplay it. "There was lots of nondeterministic probability involved," he explained.
The quirk grew slightly. "I see. I hope you at least were successful?"
Harry nodded. "More successful than the others," he answered easily.
"Good," the Goddess of Wisdom stated, before studying him for a few moments. "It appears you are having quite a few appointments, to the point where one appointment interferes with another."
Harry looked uncomfortable again, not knowing where this was going.
"Perhaps a vacation is on order," she then said. "Everyone needs a break sometimes, and not taking one can be deleterious to your performance."
The young demigod thought about that for a few moments, then nodded thoughtfully. He spent time with quite a few gods, and Ares jumped him every now and again, so maybe some time away would be a good idea.
"Now, as you seem tired," Athena went on as if she hadn't just given him some very good personal advice, "I know an excellent exercise to the get the blood pumping. We shall begin with an exercise in predictive combat. Follow me."
Harry had no time to even reply as the goddess turned and walked off, forcing him to set in a sprint to catch up to her long strides. He frowned slightly at the 'predict the dummy' exercise he was going to have to do, but at least she wasn't upset with him. She'd even helped him, which wasn't at all a usual occurrence for her.
They arrived at the special hall attached to the library where the sparring dummies were kept. Without speaking, Athena set one out, stepped to one side, and then watched him without speaking.
Understanding the unspoken request, Harry stepped up to the dummy, drew a breath, and prepared himself for several rounds of predict the dummy.
He studied it and its stance for several moments.
"I will go in, and sweep its feet," the demigod said. "It will jump up, attempting to make me miss and it will punch at my head at the same time. I will dodge underneath, and land a two-handed strike on its stomach. It will land on its feet, but be out of position due to my strike. It will try a wild haymaker to cover for it attempting to recover its balance. I will block using my left arm, and simultaneously strike with my right hand at its face. Still out of position, it will stumble back, completely open. I will exploit the opening by landing an uppercut, knocking it out."
Athena gave a nod. "You may execute," she stated.
Harry stepped in, and tried to sweep the feet from under the dummy. It jumped up, attempting a punch at his head. Harry dodged low, and landed a two-handed strike on the dummy's stomach. The dummy got its legs under itself before hitting the floor, and attempted a wild haymaker. Harry blocked it with his left arm, and landed a devastating shot to the dummy's face with his right. The dummy stumbled back, and Harry landed an uppercut through its defenses, right on its chin.
The dummy landed flat on its back, and froze.
"Good," Athena said. "You are improving rapidly." She motioned, and the dummy stood up. "Again."
Harry noticed its stance, and swallowed. Something felt off. His instincts – his probability senses, or whatever his mother wanted to call them – warned him.
He studied it for a few moments. "This one is going to fight back," he said. Athena didn't reply, and just watched him. He knew she wouldn't give anything away, but a twitch of her eyes or lips in confirmation would have been great.
"It will charge, and aim a strike at the junction of my neck on the right side with a karate strike. I will block using my right hand, making it miss. It will immediately try and sweep my legs, I will move in closer to take the sweep on my thigh instead of my lower legs. I will jab it in the face with my left hand, momentarily stunning it, before punching it in the throat with my right hand, which should put it out," he said, before frowning. It didn't feel like he had it right.
Athena simply gave another nod. "You may execute," she said.
The dummy charged Harry, and aimed an open-handed karate strike at the junction of his right shoulder and his neck. Harry blocked it, the dummy tried to sweep him so he stepped in to take the sweep on his thigh. Harry aimed a jab at the dummy's face with his left hand; the dummy blocked it and used its recovered right hand to aim a strike at Harry's abdomen, causing him to stop thinking and to start doing instead.
Since they were fighting in very close quarters, which limited to range of motion, Harry both stepped back and blocked the strike to his abdomen, before attempting a kick at the dummy's leg.
The dummy dodged back, causing the kick to miss, before springing forward and grappling the demigod to the ground. Harry landed on his back, instincts urging him on to immediately roll, allowing him to land with his knee in the dummy's stomach.
This broke the hold it had on him. Harry punched it in the face with his right hand, then his left, before grabbing the dummy's head and smacking it firmly into the ground. It was still moving, and Harry struck the dummy's nose with the hell of his right hand, a killing blow under ordinary circumstances. The dummy went still and froze.
"You went off course, yet recovered to achieve victory," Athena said. "Which is, in most circumstances, all one has to do." She circled both the panting demigod and the prone dummy, and asked her next question. "Where did you go wrong?"
Harry recovered his breath and stood up. "I believed I had found an opening, and based my strategy off of that," he said. "I wasn't expecting it to be able to block that shot. I'm grateful I was able to recover in time, though. It could have had me."
"Yeees," Athena said, drawing the word out. "And now we know what to work on. Strategies may fail; it is how you cope with failing strategies that is important. In this case, you were able to recover. Next time, it may be in actual combat and you may not be so lucky."
"Yes, Miss Athena," Harry answered her. This was going to be a long morning, he just knew it.
0000
Harry stumbled back into Helios' temple, feeling wrung out and hung out to dry. Athena was relentless when she got going, but as always, he was grateful for the lesson. After playing predict the dummy, interspersed with theory lessons on reading an opponent, they had gone back to the book learning.
He'd been grateful for the respite, but that hadn't lasted long as the Goddess of Wisdom then started cramming knowledge into his skull. As always, Athena knew just how far to push him to be just outside of his comfort zone, yet not make the challenges impossibly or frustratingly hard. Just enough to make him work for it, not enough to make him quit, in other words.
By the time she released him, he felt like he duly needed that vacation she had recommended him.
"Hi Mister Helios," he said as he walked passed the statue. "Miss Athena is a harsh taskmaster," he confided to the faded Titan-God.
Helios' presence wrapped around him for a moment and it made Harry feel somewhat better.
"I'll have lunch for us in a moment," he promised, and went into the kitchen to start cooking. He loved cooking, and despite how tired he felt, he didn't want to rely on summoning food too often. It was a shortcut, and he didn't want to become dependent on it.
Besides, it may be just in his mind, but he honestly believed that food he cooked himself just plain tasted better.
"You seem rather disheveled," Hestia said, emerging into the kitchen with a faint smile of amusement on her lips. "Hard lesson with Athena?" she asked, giving him a hug.
Harry hugged her back, tightly, and nodded. "Every lesson with Miss Athena is hard," he answered honestly. "But then, she probably has to be hard."
"Oh? What makes you say that?" Hestia asked, releasing him and taking a seat at the table.
"Everybody else goes to school," Harry replied. "And even after hours of school, they still have homework, and they need to revise for tests and such. Instead, I have a session or so a week with Miss Athena, and she has to drill all that knowledge into me in those couple of sessions. Oh, and the books she tells me to read before the next session."
"And yet, you keep up," Hestia said with an approving smile.
Harry nodded uncertainly. "I hope so. Miss Athena rarely tells me I did well, so I don't always know if I'm keeping up or if she has to slow down or something."
Hestia looked amused. "Did Athena ever tell you that you didn't do well?"
The young demigod shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Looked at me like she was disappointed in me, yes, but she never outright told me I didn't do well."
"She looks at everyone that way, Harry, don't pay it any attention," the Goddess of the Hearth said with a small laugh. "I can tell you that Athena isn't one to mince words. If you fail to meet expectations, she will inform you. At length. She will then ensure you meet those expectations."
"Oh," Harry said, suddenly feeling better.
"Yes," Hestia agreed, laughing softly. "If Athena doesn't berate you, you're doing well, and you're on track."
"She did say something else, though," the young boy confided. "She said that I am working very hard, and that I have lots of training from different gods, and she suggested that I take a vacation or something to rest up. That sounded like a really good idea."
"Athena's ideas usually are," Hestia agreed, smiling. "What did you have in mind?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm not sure; I never really had a vacation."
Hestia looked at him sadly, remembering his past and hoping those horrid people were still suffering from her curse. "Perhaps we can look at it differently. What do you especially like doing? Or a place you'd like to visit?"
Harry thought for a moment, and then smiled.