Chereads / Phantom; Blessed by the devil, Cursed by the gods / Chapter 20 - Chapter 19 Love Lessons

Chapter 20 - Chapter 19 Love Lessons

Sal hadn't known where he was going when he stepped through the portal. All he knew was that the minute he stepped out, the minute he knew Katarina was far away, he felt heavy, as though what was in his chest was an anvil instead of a heart.

To love someone wasn't supposed to hurt this much, was it?

When he imagined love he'd imagined light in darkness, the thing that kept you hopeful inspite of everything wrong around you, but now he realized that love was the darkness, and that there had been no light at all.

The crazy thing was that he hadn't even known he was in love. He'd only known that from the moment he met Katarina there would be no other moment without her in it. Now he didn't know if that was a blessing or a curse. To have her there with him without truly having her in the ways he wished he did.

The loud, blaring sound of a car horn jolted Sal back to reality. City sounds and lights engulfed his senses all at once, making him unsure of where he was.

There were people walking about on the streets, some held umbrellas in their hands despite the lack of rain, and they all gave him strange looks as they passed him, probably wondering where he'd come from and how he'd appeared on the sidewalk in front of.....wait, it couldn't be.

Sal looked up, the Empire State Building loomed like an old not-so-familiar friend in front of him. Above it he couldn't see the moon but he could see it's soft silver light hidden behind dark clouds.

Why had he ended up here?, right now this place was the farthest thing from his mind.

Then he saw Peter walking out of the revolving doors and tugging gloves down his fingers, his brown hair was neatly combed, his Shemer's tunic, complete with a long purple hood and cape, fitted tight to his muscular body, and his eyes darted across the street cautiously as his fingers slipped into the gloves.

Then they landed on Sal and widened with surprise, then creased in worry. He walked to Sal, soldier-like as all Shemer walked, his cape billowing in the wind as he approached him.

"Salome, what on earth are you doing here?" Peter asked.

For a second Sal couldn't speak, he just looked at Peter, his chest heavy, his heart sinking.

"Salome, what's wrong?" Peter asked.

Sal looked directly into Peter's eyes and he desperately wanted to tell him everything, desperately wanted to let him in, but desperation wouldn't do him any good, it never had.

What he needed was to forget for at least an hour or too, what he needed was a distraction.

So he guided his emotions to that dark empty space in the back of his mind and placed a mask on his face.

"I lost my sword" he said finally. "I need a new one"

Peter searched Sal's eyes, obviously he could tell that something was wrong, but he smiled a knowing smile and placed a hand on Sal's shoulders, the feeling of safety washed over Sal immediately.

"Let's go inside" Peter said, he wrapped one hand across Sal's shoulders and together they walked back inside the building.

They went unseen pass the mortals still sitting in the lobby, climbed the whirring elevator and rapidly ascended until they were finally in the heart of the Shemer Headquarters.

The headquarters lobby was empty save for the Fey receptionist from the last time Sal was here. She didn't seem to notice Sal at all and stared only at Peter, a question in the arch of her browless eyes as the both of them approached the front desk, their footsteps echoing against the floor as they did.

"Where is everyone?" Sal asked.

"Hunting, resting", said Peter, then he turned to Sal with a smile, "thankfully that means we have the place all to ourselves"

They got to the front desk where the receptionist stood, flawless Fey features made her seem like a dream in her navy blue suit and skirt.

"Mr Rose, how hastily you've returned, I imagined the excorcism would take longer" The receptionist said with a serious expression.

"It's supposed to Nelly but I have something more important to attend to", he winked at Sal, "Could you please send Tridax on that"

Her eyes shifted to Sal, they were bright purple, without irises, but with thin lines webbing across the eyeballs like a net, and she smirked.

"Oh, it's you again" she said kindly, "very well then, I'll send Mr Tridax"

"You're an angel Nelly" Peter said, "also could you tell Leitha to prepare those moulds we talked about"

"For you, anything" she said with a wink.

Peter only smiled politely and led Sal to the tube at the end of the lobby. They walked in and watched it glaze over with mist.

When the mist cleared they emerged into a large room full of steaming forges and lit up by the fire that roared from them. The sound of iron clanging against iron and furnaces being fanned filled Sal's ears, and the heat overwhelmed him instantly.

There were large humanoid creatures manning the forges, they were all muscular with nothing but a dirty white shirt and shorts and heavy leather aprons draped over their thick shoulders. Their hairs were brown and long and looked like pieces of string falling over fire-tanned skin, they all had one eye and were so engrossed in their hammering that they hadn't noticed Sal and Peter in the room with them.

"Cyclopes" Sal said in unbelief, "you own cyclopes?"

Peter only smiled at Sal's fascination as he gestured with his hand like a proud artist would showcase his masterpiece.

"Welcome to the Forge, this is where we make and enchant weapons for the Shemer" Peter said as he walked, that excitement that always seemed to bubble up when he talked about the Shemer rekindled like drywood.

"This is where I forged Nathuel, searched every mould placed before me until I found the one that I would call mine"

He turned to Sal, brown eyes animated with the light and fire around them.

"Not once have I regretted my decision." he said.

As he talked they reached where the moulds were hung on the walls like paintings and Sal saw them all, the shapes of blades and axes, arrows and spears, bullets and crossbow bolts, all of them ingrained deeply into the blocks of stone, just waiting to be filled with hot, molten metal.

Sal wondered which he would call his, he wondered if there was anything like a sword he was destined to use or a weapon that resonated with who he was.

He doubted it.

They walked further pass hyper focused Cyclopes hammering and shaping metal, and then made a turn into a corridor lit by hovering balls of yellow light powered by a tapestry of Daylight glyphs. The heat from all the forges lessened as they went in deeper and the pictures on the walls offered a substantial distraction.

The pictures were black and white and showcased generations of Cyclopes decked in their leather overalls and dirty tshirts. They stood with generations of Shemer, all of them smiling. Despite the variation in race they looked like a family.

The pictures gradually turned to paintings, the paintings turned to embroidery, then the embroidery turned to detailed carvings in stone.

Casmir would have loved this, all this art displayed on the walls of the Shemer's Forge. Sal wondered if Katarina would like it as well, then dismissed the thought from his mind, shutting it up like it was a treacherous memory he wanted to forget.

"What's her name?" Peter asked suddenly.

Sal was stunned by the question and turned to look at Peter.

Peter was looking back at him, his eyebrows raised in expectancy.

"Katarina" Sal said after a while.

He was surprised by how hard it felt to say her name, he shouldn't have been suffering so badly, she made him fall apart, but he needed to put himself back together.

"How did you know I was thinking about her?" Sal asked.

"Cause I had that exact same look on my face when I found out your mother would never love me" Peter said.

Sal turned to Peter, he'd known Peter and his mother were friends.... but love?

Then Sal remembered the way Peter had talked about his parents, the softness in his eyes when he spoke of his father, the bitter longing in his voice when he talked about this mother.

Your father was like a brother to me, he'd said, your mother was my everything.

"You'd said she was everything" Sal said softly.

"She was, she still is"

"Even after breaking your heart, even after knowing you can never have her, you still love her"

Peter's reply was soft and sure.

"The knowing doesn't change anything Salome"

"But it's stupid" Sal argued.

Peter chuckled, like he was talking to a child.

"Love has made the smartest people do the stupidest things Salome but I would never trade the feeling of love for anything, ever"

They stopped at a door decorated with a rune circle on it, no doubt a kind of magical security code.

Peter placed his hand on the door and the rune circle erupted with fire.

"Besides, there is no value in hatred, only seeds of pain and anger" Peter said as the fire slowly filled the outline of the circle, "letting those seeds grow is what destroys the greatest of men"

The door clicked and Peter pushed it open, the light coming from the room was dull and silver like moonlight .

"Enough talk about love, there is something I want to show you"

They walked into the room, the door creaking as a fresh wave of magic leaked out like a gentle breeze.

The room was large and resembled a sort of library, there were very large shelves standing sturdy against the walls that reminded Sal dreadfully of the transparent vaults in Mammon's lair, except these shelves were filled with an iron substance that shone with metallic lustre and hummed with magical energy. There were dwarves in the room, short man like creatures with scruffy beards and wild eyes, lifting the blocks of metal and loading them in carts. Some of them looked at Sal and Peter as they entered but like the cyclopes they were too busy to pay them attention.

Sal wasn't focusing on the dwarves though, he was looking at the metal, he'd seen it before. Bloom's shining whip flashed before his eyes, Katarina's deadly arrows whizzed across his vision.

"What is that?" Sal asked.

Peter walked forward and touched the metal, his hands grazing it with such care that it almost looked like he was caressing it, soothing it into acknowledging his presence.

"It's what our weapons are made of, a metal unlike any other mentioned in legend or myth" Peter answered.

He picked one up, if it was heavy he didn't show it, instead he seemed pleased, as if the metal may have not liked being picked up.

"Hephaestus called it aiónios" Peter continued.

"That means eternal" Sal translated.

"Yes, the eternal metal, we've been fighting with it for millenia, it cuts through the hardest of substances, never breaks, never rusts, it's the Shemer's greatest weapon"

Peter dropped the metal back and motioned for Sal to follow him out of the room, they turned back towards the Forge.

"Once aiónios is melted down it must be named the minute it is forged, once named it is bound to the one who named it, no one else will be able to use it, and no one else ever will"

"So what happens when the user dies?"

"The weapon dies along with them, loses it's magic completely, both the weapon and it's wielder, gone forever" Peter said. "That's why we take care not to forge any weapon the wielder isn't comfortable with, the weapon must resonate with who you are inside"

"And what if I don't know who that is anymore" Sal asked as they emerged from the hallway, the heat was less now and some of the forges were free of cyclopes.

Peter sighed as though he didn't know how to answer the question, and before he could a large female cyclops walked towards them.

"Leitha!, you got my message?" Peter said as the cyclops -Leitha- approached.

She had hair as brown and stringy as the other cyclopes, but it was bound in a long ponytail, her one brown eye looked at Peter with a softness akin to friendship and she nodded with a smile. Her eye flicked to Sal for a minute and she grunted as if asking a question.

Is this him? , she seemed to ask.

Peter nodded and looked to Sal with pride.

Like a father, Sal thought.

"Take us to the moulds will you" Peter said, his tone still gleeful.

Leitha grunted and walked, the ground rumbling as she did. Peter followed her and Sal followed him.

They walked till they reached an empty forge, this one had a cauldron filled with aiónios placed over a spit of golden fire, and three empty moulds, all of them in the shape of swords.

"I remember you had a fascination for blades so I suggested these three" Peter said.

Sal touched each and every mould, he recognized them all, the way he recognized everything from somewhere, like his memory was a harddrive. One was the Carolingian, the sword favored by the vikings of old, then there was the English side sword, a cross between a rapier and an Arming sword, and then the Arming sword itself, the sword of the knights.

"They're short and sharp, fit for a swift fighter like yourself" Peter said, he sounded unsure, like someone who hoped he hadn't done too much. "I hoped you'd like them"

Sal's fingers lingered over the mould of the side sword, he didn't know why but this one somehow felt different.

"Of course if you don't like them you could pick something else, there are numerous blades you can..."

"I like this one" Sal said, his fingers still on the side sword's mould, he turned to face Peter with a smile, "thank you"

Peter smiled back and nodded to Leitha.

Leitha nodded back and grunted something.

"She says it's a good choice" Peter translated. "It will take quite some time to forge though"

"Can she make two of them?" Sal asked.

Leitha nodded with a smirk that Sal was sure she meant to look amusing but came off as intimidating.

"She can, but it'll take longer" Peter answered. "Why two though?"

Sal raised his eyes from the mould and caught Peter's eyes, Peter who had dropped everything to make sure he was okay, Peter who never failed to show him affection, Peter who held onto love despite all the hurt it had caused him.

But as he looked at him it was not just Peter he saw, he saw Lester and Antony and Marcus and Melchior and Bloom and Casmir.

And Katarina, his mind whispered. Never forget Katarina.

They had become his friends, his family, a family so new to lose them now would be a punishment worse than death.

"Why two?" Sal said, the names and faces of the people he held dear revolving on the surface of of his mind, "because to have one is a privilege but to have more than one is a blessing, and I don't want to forget that"

***

Antony paced back and forth in Sal's room, waiting and hoping for a portal to erupt in front of him, or at least for the bedroom door to swing open.

He was worried about Sal, too worried for his own good. Demigods didn't often care much for others. They spent their whole lives fighting each other, fighting their parent's wars in order to please them. Some of them were lucky to have parents that didn't see them as just warriors but as children. Others like Antony had no such luck.

In fact he'd been fighting for so long he'd begun to think that fighting was all life was meant for.

Then he'd met Salome, his half brother, a boy who had been fighting his entire life too. They shared that, the similarity in needing to fight, but where Antony's battles were of flesh and blood, Sal's battles were of the mind and heart and Antony couldn't lie he had the fairer bargain compared to his brother.

Wounds of the flesh would heal eventually, but scars of the heart always throbbed painfully, no matter how long we bore them.

Since we're talking about pain, said a voice.

"No" Antony whispered.

A thousand voices filled his head and a feeling like electricity ripped through Antony's body as he dropped to his knees and screamed.

He couldn't make it stop, the voices were like a migraine, splitting through his skull like an axe through wood but he still couldn't make it stop. Even though it hurt like hell.

You left, you left and you will suffer for it. You and your brother.

"Stop it, please just stop it"

You will suffer for it, the voices continued, it was like they were everywhere surrounding him like a plague.

He will die.

"I said stop!"

"Tony!"

The sound of Lester's voice cut through Antony's mind like a blade, he raised his head and saw that Lester was standing in the doorway of Sal's room, his face stricken with shock and fear.

"Are you alright?" Lester asked, his voice unsteady.

Antony didn't answer, first he listened.

There were no voices, there was no noise, finally there was silence.

"Yeah" he said, taking a deep breath and exhaling it sharply. "Yeah, I'm alright, what do you need?"

"I just wanted to ask if you knew where Sal went to" Lester said, he was still wary, Antony could tell. He was probably wondering if Sal had a psycho for a half brother.

"No but he said he'll be back." Antony replied. "What?, my company isn't good enough for you?"

Lester laughed awkwardly, his smart hazel eyes looking Antony from head to toe.

"Thanks" he said finally before walking out the door, only turning once to glance at Antony worriedly before disappearing.

Good, Antony thought, he's gone, and so are the voices.

But Antony knew his father, he knew the voices would eventually come back, he thought he could simply leave but now he realized that there was no running from your blood.

Especially when your blood runs gold.