Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It started on a normal day, well normal for me that is. A school day in L.A and it was weird as usual. My teacher was looking at me with what I could have sworn were reptilian eyes. I thought they were contact obviously, that she was playing a prank, but after the bell it became obvious what was happening as unbelievable as it might seem.

I was done putting my things away when I noticed the strange pendant in my locker. It sorta looked like a  human spine. A bit weirded out I looked at the small message that came with it and snorted.

Hello Raava I know this message probably looks strange maybe even silly, but you're in great danger. Go to the nearest post office and ask for the twelfth container. The code is 12-7-3-6, be quick you're life could be depending on it.

Sincerly , Carter Kane.

I threw the message back in and closed the locker and would later refer to myself as one big dumbass later on for doing so. It's obviously a prank is what I told myself at the time. I was about to go home, but Ms. Dodds wasn't about to let me go so easily. I've honestly never met a more unpleasent lady in my entire life. She knew damn well I had ADHD and Dyslexia, but she still acted like I was the scum of the Earth. Giving me twice as many assignement than the rest of my classmates. My mother suspected some form of ableism or worse, but I never got what her deal with me was.

Until that day.

She asked me to stay behind, in the middle of the hallway in front of too many witnesses for my taste. After some mocking ooooh's sent my way I was practically escorted back to math class AKA the bane of my existance. Seriously if I ever meet the person who put letters in math I was giving them hell.

Anyway I digress, Ms. Dodds was fuming practically growling. I stumbled in the classroom as my teacher roughly pushed me in. I turned back to yell at her a bit, but she was gone. "We know who you are!" A near demonic voice claimed from behind me. I spun around to find Ms. Dodds looking at me with red slithed eyes. I gulped and stuttered "w-w-w what do you mea--"

"You're father, where is he!" She thundered. I started trembling "I-i I don't know."

"Liar she growled back, there is only one person with those green eyes!" I had no idea what she was talking about. I didn't even know what my father's name was. Bastard walked out on my mom before I was even born, but since no one else had green eyes in my family I assumed it's what I got from him. Not that I particularly cared, well until now since aparently, he was to blame for my current predicament. "Tell him to come out and both of you're deaths will be swift!" She ordered gesturing to the confiscated phone on her desk. "I don't even know his name!" I finally yelled, in an instant she was right up in my face. When she detected no lie she threw her head back and laughed heartily. "Well you're screams should make him come out of hiding." She stated gleefuly, her form blurred and suddenly a leathery winged demon was flying in my direction. Her yellow razor sharp teeth bared.

It all happened in slow motion, which I was kinda grateful for since I got to see a glowing blue holographic fist slam in her cheek. Sending my demonic math teacher flying throught the window. I slowly turned back to a tall dark skinned man with curly brown hair brown eyes and a small goatee. He didn't look that much out of place beyond the door reduced to splinters and the strange piece of wood in his hands. He wore a dress shirt and khakis. All in all he looked a lot more like a teacher than any of my actual teachers.

"Didn't I tell you to go to the nearest post office as fast as possible?" He asked as a greeting. Remembering the name on the paper I breathed "Carter Kane?" He sent me a small smile "in the flesh, now Raava I think it's time to leave this wretched place." He stated offering me his free hand. I took it with a look of awe on my face. It's at this moment that Carter became my hero.

My mother had other words in mind.

"Cursed, wretched sinner! I'm not letting you filthy pagan take my daughter away for you're twisted rituals!" She screamed in the face of a very unimpressed magician. He clarified a few things to me on the way home. Egyptian gods were real and I descended from the ancient pharaos of Egypt. Which meant that I could learn how to summon giant blue fists too, which is all my mind bothered to hold onto. In my twelve year old mind I just wanted to be half as cool as his entrance was. Sadly my mother was a fiercly religious woman. A bit too religious for someone like me, who already knew where her heart layed. If you catch my drift.

"Miss Jones" Carter began his voice shifting from the gentle and kind tone to a more authorative one. "You're daughter was just attacked by a demon, and more will come whatever you do, her powers will developpe, no matter what you do in order to stunt them. She'll attract the attention of people even I can't protect her from alone. At a young age the powers of a magician can be like a baby snake. They can't control how much poison they inject, but in Raava's case she might get so angry one day that she'll blow something or someone up and accidentally kill herself in the process."

"My sweet child is capable of no such thing!" Mom immediatly denied, but I knew she was mistaken. Now that I had all these new informations I remembered the astronomical ammount of lightbulbs that suddenly broke whenever I was upset with my homeworks. And I did feel weirdly tired after each times. It wasn't all, I also remembered the time I angrily reached for my crayon when my mother forced me to draw more 'feminine' things like princesses and other stuff I hated. Yeah instead of a tiny crayon my tiny fingers wrapped around the hilt of a Rambo survival knife. I was six, but I still had the knife carefully hidden from my prying mother's hands.

Carter wasn't mistaken, there was undoubtedly something off about me. Something magical even, maybe. I wasn't sure turning a crayon into a knife seemed like a good sign, but who knew. As my mother yelled more and more I grew angrier and more afraid. Angry because she was bad mouthing the person who just saved my life, and afraid because I didn't want to lose the potential answers I could get from all this.

"Mom I want to go." I protested she sent me one shocked look before it morphed into fury directed at Carter. "What did you do to her?!"

"He saved my life and nothing else!" I protested louder desperation creeping into my voice, Carter yet again fruitlessly tried to appease my mother. Assuring that the House of Life could assure me a more than good education in a private school in Manhattan. Normally my mother would have went for the troat of such an offer, but she was too busy roughly grabbing me by my shoulders and shaking me. "Get out of my daughter devil!"

"Mom, you're, hurting me!" I tried to say, but I was too busy trying not to bite off my tongue. She didn't bother even trying to listen to me. She raised her hand making me flinch, because aparently dissagreeing with her was ground for disciplining me." I clamped my eyes shut, but the slap never came. I carefully opened one eye to Carter holding my mother's hand, pressing the smaller tip of the curved wand to her forehead. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head, she would have hit the ground if it wasn't for Carter catching her. He set her on the sofa and turned to me. "Are you perfectly certain, that this is what you want?" I nodded so quickly I almost gave myself a whiplash.

"Ok good, I won't have to change the false memories I just gave you're mother. She agreed to send you to a..." He cleared his troat searching for the right word. "Prestigious, old school academy in New-York."

"Did you just control my mom's mind?" He winced "yeah sorry about that."

"Oh no i'm not mad, can you show me how to do it?" He chuckled "when you're ready to learn, but we'll start from the beginning when we get there. Right now I need you to pack you're things, can you do that?" I nodded practically sprinting to my room. I wasn't particularly worried about my mother, i'm not gonna lie our relationship was just summed up a few moments ago.

...yeah anyway, I thought we'd be taking a plane or something, but Carter brought me to the beach where a boat of woven branches waited for us. Aparently it's what ancient Egyptian used to naviguate the Nile, but we didn't sail to New-York, we actually flew there on a magic boat! When we arrived I was greeted by another gaggle of kids of various ages and ethnicity all seated around a table eating what looked like a small feast. I was eager to learn to say the least, but first I needed to read the introduction book and get the right gear for the job After shyly telling him I had dyslexia Carter assured me that it wasn't a problem. Which came as a surprise, then he introduced me to the shabti, tiny servants made of clay. He read me the book while I exitedly memorised everything about it.

The day I first doned on my linen and coton clothes and began scrybing, it might have just been the best day of my life. I got to eat sweet stuff I got to wear what I wanted and best of all, I felt at home with them. My teachers the other initiatites. I felt accepted for the first time in my life.

Over the years my powers grew exponentially, maybe even faster than the initiates who had been there for years before me, but I didn't brag. Carter's most important lesson, the one he put the most emphasis on was that there was always something new to learn about everything, and that while pursuing knowledge is important. It's not worth not living you're life in an attempt to know everything. Since there's always something that you won't know that someone else does.

Essentially it could be summed up in a smaller quote. Comparing yourself to someone better or lesser than you only makes one angry and bitter, while comparing yourself to someone lesser than you only makes one vaine and prideful.

Someone should have made it clearer to Carter's own daughter Ruby. She hated my guts with a burning passion even hotter than the flames she wielded. I decided to specialise in battle magic, while Ruby decided to specialise in healing and elemental magic. She followed the path of Sekhmet while I followed the path of Horus. Which meant that I spent a lot of time with her father, who taught me everything about following the path of Horus. Also because she only ever managed to beat me in training a few times. While I more than often wiped the floor with her. I like to think that we're frennemies, but i'm sure she'd dissagree, I don't hate her, but sometimes her know it all attitude did grazes my nerves like a flint stone.

On the other hand I did get along very well with Ruby's cousin. Nathan Julius Stone. He was the result of Sadie Kane and Walt Stone and Anubis that inhabits his body so he could cheat his way out of an hereditary curse. I never had the guts to ask if that made it a polyamorous relationship, but I was willing to bet a fifthy it was. Nathan was probably the strongest magician of our generation. Being a more literal demigod than the rest of us, he inherited some powers from Anubis while he also got to follow another path.

It made him a literal force of nature and the only other initiate I absolutely dreaded to fight against.

Apart from all the magic stuff I didn't escape regular school. You know the shitty place that never let's you learn at you're own pace. That's what I loved the most about Carter's untraditional teaching style.

I was happy, until I learned the truth that is.

Now I was an accomplished sixteen nearly seventeen year old magician. It's actually shortly after the next day of my birthday that Carter asked me to meet him in his study.

When I entered the neatly organised room with rows upon rows of library occupying the walls. With only one window at the back. It casted a light around Carter who looked like he was trying hard to look optimistic. I sat down in front of him "yo teach, what's wrong did someone die?" At Carter's expression mine turned to worry "oh shit did someone actually die?"

He suddenly chuckled "no it's not about that" he paused before saying something i'll probably remember forever.

"It's about you're father." I froze, "my father" I repeated confused "my father walked out of the picture before I was born." Carter shook his head suddenly looking much older than what I thought possible. "You're father and I were actually very good friends, but as to why he wasn't there. It's a lot more complicated than him being a deadbeat which I know he'd rather die than be."

"You know my father!" I roared, emotions suddenly taking over, because as much as I act careless about the subject it's something i've always wanted to know. Staying calm Carter calmly answered "yes, I was even one of his best man at his wedding."

"Oh and he's a fucking cheater on top of that great!" I snapped before jumping as Carter slammed his fist on his desk leaving a sizable crack in it. "That was mahogany" he sighed "Raava, as much as you're mother wants to believe so you weren't born naturally per say. You're mother was essentially forced to carry you because she was chosen by outside deities to carry a child of you're father, hoping that his immense power mixed with the blood of the pharaos would give a powerful champion. Regretfully they were right, there's a reason why you have so much endurance and titanic reserves of magic. Raava i'll be blunt you're the daughter of the most powerful greek demigod, but he has literally no idea that his blood was used to basically create magic super soldiers."

Attempting to shrug off my shock I directed my anger on Carter once again. "Well if you're such good friends with him then why didn't you tell him huh?!" Impassive, but slightly hurt Carter shot back "because he dissapeared sometimes before you were born. I was warned of you're existence via a dream a few years later. Who sent it, I have no idea, but I owed it to him to give you a chance in this crazy world. That's why I came to find you personally, I know the life of a greek demigod can be tragedy incarnate. Well not for the kid of my best friend if I have a say in it. I know this is a shock and you have every right to hate me for this, but please. Just let me finish before you storm out."

I crossed my arms in response. I didn't know what to say. Carter arguably raised me more than either of my blood parents ever did in barely a few years. All because i'm the kid of his friend. Maybe that greek demigod isn't too bad. I wasn't surprised about that part. Carter alluded to it on my first day here, "Manhattan has it's own gods and it's problems." I peeked throught the window at the empire state building up in the distance, wondering if it had anything to do with this. "Go on" I said coldly.

"The thing is, you're definetly not the only one." My head snapped up, I can't have heard him correctly. "Are you implying that I have siblings?" I breathed shocked and deep down overjoyed. "Oh definetly, with the ammount of fishy stuff going and the ammount of seemingly random natural disasters all around the world, one of them is bound to be related to you. I waited this long because well, I know you kid. The second you'd find out you'd be making plans to find each and every last one of them." Carter smiled hitting the nail right on the head. "But I needed you to be ready, so I taught you everything I could in a few years. You passed every test I gave you with flying colors and there's no other initiates that fights as cunningly and as fiercly as you do. So in preperation for this day, I compiled many documents that could be a lead to one of you're siblings."

He opened a drawer and pulled out many and I mean MANY thick files each marked with a country. "That many?" He shrugged "probably not, there's gotta be an ammount of blood they could take before he noticed. Honestly ive never even heard of magic capable of doing that, but I guess you might find out on you're quest."

"Quest?" I repeated a little amused "that's cheesy even for you?" Carter laughed "well that's just how you're father called his mission. I swear that guy could be more dramatic than a high school teenage girl." I glared at him unsure if he meant me or someone else. He sent me an akward look before slowly pushing the files towards me. "Well there you go."

I pulled the files towards me and looked at the first, which unlike the rest had a name on it. "Who's Perseus Jackson?" I wondered aloud. Carter gave a gentle smile.

"That's you're father."

Chapter Text

After somewhat getting over my shock I did exactly as Carter said and stormed out. The files tucked tightly to my chest. These might be my siblings, (still getting used to even thinking that) and i'm not dropping them for the apocalypse.

Or so I thought, because the moment I stomped around a corner, I collided with someone and fell straight on my butt. I rubbed my forehead and looked at the equally annoyed Ruby. I looked at the files who were thankfully tied together with magic string. "Watch where you're going!" Snapped Ruby, I ingnored her and picked up the files. I wasn't in the mood for passive agressive comments, but Ruby wasn't done. "Don't you ignore me!" She exclaimed stomping after me. "Oh, what miss mindless brute is too good to talk now?" I started fuming, the moment I started gaining muscle a few years ago she's been calling me that. Like she actually bothered to get to know me after all these years. "What is it? Did my dad give you too much reading material? With that pile you'll be done by the end of you're life" she laughed, a growl started rising in the back of my troat. "Pfff, use you're word Ra."

I abruptly stopped "fine" I agreed throught gritted teeth. I spun on her glaring making the obnoxious healer take a startled step back. I took in a deep breath and roared,

"FUCK, YOU!!!"

The second I was done yelling all the lightbulbs in the hallway exploded, emphasising just how pissed I was at the moment. The hallway now showered in darkness I snapped the word HAKETH making a small hieroglyph appear over my head, illuminating the path ahead.

(A.N sorry I couldn't find a smaller one)

"Who pissed her cereal this morning" I heard Ruby mutter to herself. I stomped faster and finally ended up in my room. I plopped down on my bed and sighed, rubbing my weary eyes I sent a look at the pile. As annoying as she put it Ruby had a point, if I tried reading all of that I'd end up with the migraine of the millennium. Reaching for my nightstand I pulled out a small wooden box and slid it open.

"You whore!" Shrilly yelled the shabti trapped inside, with a high pitched voice. I named him Leroy, I don't know why this felt like the most fitting name for anything. Either way, he was one rude fuck. "Yo Leroy I need a reader." I casually shot back at the vulgar sentient clay. "You left me in that smelly ass box for two weeks and you want me to read! Seriously what else do you store it there you're fart collection!"

"You don't even have a nose?"

"That's how smelly it is you soulless c-"

"You want to go back in the box?" I offered the dramatic shabti, acting careless. "Woah woah woah, let's not jump to quick decisions." He said trying to bargain while looking as terrified as a crude statue could.

"Hm, I mean you obviously don't want to read something that would keep you occupied for days and maybe weeks out of the box. So i'll see you in a few months." I slowly started to close the box. "No, no, no, NOOOOooooo." I slid the box shut and counted to five in my head. "OK FINE, GODS OF EGYPT JUST GET ME OUT!!!" chuckling under my breath I pulled out Leroy from his smelly prison. Which I may or may have not filled with rotten onion at one point, after one insult too many.

Snapping my fingers I nearly instantly summoned a dagger from the duat and cut the files loose. "What the hell is this?" He demanded as I set him down in front of the now loosely scattered files. "Just read, you'll be busy now." I shot back deep in thought. Even if I followed these leads how would I know any of them are my siblings? It's not like Carter has a portable DNA test machine lying around... Oh who am I kidding he totally does. The shabti started reading the first file aloud.

"Perseus Jackson, mph. I heard about that guy once, anyway.

"Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon, the most powerful Greek demigod and the best swordsman i've ever seen and fought against. He soundly defeated me when we were kids and i'm certain that he still could do it today.

I'm pretty sure i've never met a better person as well. It's not everyone who'd say no to immortality and godhood in in a heartbeat twice, it's what really saved us from Setne. That and the fact that he hosted Nekbeth in order to fight him while we prepared the spell. We did our best to keep contact after that, but it wasn't easy. Percy couldn't catch a break and neither could I. So it came as a shock when I found out he mysteriously dissapeared. I'm still looking for a lead to this day, but now I have other obligations."

"Just get to the next one" I told Leroy, if I wanted to know my father it wouldn't be throught some piece of paper. Leroy complained about rotten deals before doing as I asked.

He told me about many isolated incidents all over the world, some I even already knew about. Like the unatural ammount of natural disaster in some region of China where there's not supposed to have any. Heck he even had notes on many posts on a blog called they're among us. Some conspiracy site about aliens. Carter's own note about those sort of made sense. Since the page he copied ended up getting erased barely a few hours after it got posted. It was interesting, but I couldn't just run after ghosts, I need something concrete.Then Leroy caught my attention.

The cult of Marzenna gains yet again the harvest of the year by the time winter strikes. When asked how they managed the rigid tundra of they're home the chief claims that they're goddess gives them everything they need as long as they stay faithfull. While some laugh at the mere idea, many poeple are leaving the cities to join the village and they're simple way of life."

Now I wasn't sure why this felt like a lead, probably because there's actual people I can go talk to. Beside my Russian could use some practice. So I asked Leroy to jump to another file while I kept this one on hand. If there was any sort of magic at work there, I could find out with a simple amulet. Now I just needed to find the place that still whorships a Slavic goddess that I never even heard of. So a jump by the library was in order.

I was going to walk out, but the next file made me freeze. "Young rich heir of the Bénisson family admitted into a psychiatric hospital after the brutal murder of his parents and his own suicide attempt. The young man claims that a demonic creature is responsible for the murder. Some fingers are pointed at the boy when it comes to who commited the crime, but from the complete lack of any sort of proofs the investigation was dropped."

I shivered hoping to all the gods that this unfortunate guy wasn't my brother. Well if he is i'm busting him out of that place for sure. I told Leroy to wait for me and I walked to the library, noticing that it was now night time I walked as quietly as possible.

When I reached the big room I asked for a book about Slavic mythology. The newspaper made heavy emphasis on that word. I honestly never even heard of the word Slavic. So while doing my research at nearly 3:00 am I didn't really expect anyone else to come down here, but of course I was wrong.

It was Pavel, if I remember correctly he followed the path of Nut the goddess of the sky while his father Leonid followed the path of Shu the god of air. His father insisted on him learning from the legendary Kane siblings, but Carter was usually the only available since Sadie was nearly always busy acting in a new movie. We barely saw her unless it was from a self imposed vacation. Nathan acted like it didn't bother him, but I knew that guy had almost as much mommy issues as I did. Not that Sadie Kane was a bad mother. She's just way too self centered in my humble opinion, and impetuous and careless and arrogant and I could drone on about this for a while, but I don't really have enough time.

Back to what mattered Pavel asked me what I was doing here at this hour. "What are you doing here at this hour?" I shot back genuinely curious. He crossed his skinny arms "I asked you first."

"I asked you second" the snark coming out of my mouth like it's what I breathe. He huffed knowing it was useless to argue with me. "I came to study more before tommorow's test. Now what about you?"

"Couldn't sleep, just reading random stuff." I lied playing with the pages. Pavel sat next to me and his eyes went wide. "Marzenna" he whispered in a perfect accent. "Why are you reading about the Slavs he nearly demanded. "I was just curious ok, what's wrong with you?" I asked suddenly on the defensive.

"The Slavic deities are not to be trifled with and neither are those who whorship them. Marzenna especially, she's the goddess of Winter, famine and death. She represents a great part of the cycle of life the Slavs believe in. Life death and rebirth represented by the seasons or life in general is something they make sure is respected. The Slavic tribes weren't exactly pacifists either, some even comparable to the vikings."

I whistled "sounds interesting, wait a sec. Why are you talking like they're still around too." He looked at me "that's because they are, they obviously are very far from the power they once had, but the cult here and there is enough to keep them afloat."

"And how would you deal with them, hypotheticaly speaking of course."

He looked at me suspiciously, but answered anyway. "They're not like the gods of Egypt, they don't need any sort of anchor to exist in this world. So sealing or banishing them away won't work. Unless you have an object powerful enough to contain the powers of a deity. One of our amulets could potentially do the trick since they already channel the powers of a deity. My hand immediatly closed around my own amulet. The eye of Horus had many uses. It could be used to tame griffins and ward a door or an object against attacks of any kinds. I don't see why it couldn't contain the power of an angry god.

"Why do you need to know any of this?" I bit my lip, I wasn't sure what I could tell. Obviously many people in the house of life were aware of other pantheons, but that doesn't mean they'd be ok with me being related to another one. So I did what I had to do and lied. "I have a mission in the region soon, I just wanted to learn more about the place."

"I can come with if you need." Offered the Russian. Now he would have been amazing help, but I couldn't be sure of anything and anyone at the moment. So I lied once more, which believe me I didn't enjoy. "Nah, it'll be fine. Beside it's something I should do on my own."

I meant that, but I definetly hoped I wasn't going on a wild goose chase. Now all I needed to do was go to sleep and plan my trip later tommorow.

It took Leroy a while to read half of the files. I suspected he did it slow on purpose, but I couldn't care less. Because I had bigger issues than that. The school year was nearly done and it's usually then that I go see my mom for a week or two, depends on how much she ends up pissing me off. By accident or not, I always needed to act a certain way for her to love me. So sitting down in girly frilly clothes while drinking tea and talking about stuff I don't really like all day long, that was just torture. I fight demons and evil gods for the thrill and seeing her actually gives me butterflies in my stomach. Maybe I could pass this for a modeling internship. I'm going to be traveling all over the world soon anyway.

I'm just learning about different styles to better my 'craft' even though my knowledge with fashion is limited to knowing what is the most practical in a fight. The only reason i'd ever wear a dress is if it was life or death, and if I have enough room to kick someone in the face.

That's as far as my relationship with feminity goes and it's staying that way.

Not that my mother knew that. I would rather look at an enraged Sekhmet again then at my dissapointed mother.

Anyway i'd need a whole plan of attack for this. First I was going to Russia. I could keep tabs on Leroy in many different ways. Magical or otherwise, next I had to make sure I had everything I needed, and lastly practice the hell out of that translation spell. Because I am probably going to need it. So after making sure I had every tool I would need I went to take some much needed sleep.

The next day I skipped breakfest to pack. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Carter. He passed by my room when he noticed I wasn't there. He knocked on the door asking if he could come in. I hesitated before finally saying yes. Slowly the door creaked open, Carter walked in with a carefully neutral expression. "You're leaving early." I nodded not looking up from my satchel. "Yep."

"I'm not going to ask for forgiveness."

"I'm not asking you to." I had some time to think about what Carter had done. And honestly, I think I understood. I was still pissed, but it made sense. Relations between pantheons are probably extremly tense. My mere existance could be considered blasphemy to both Egypt and Greece from a few powerful perspectives. And me not knowing about it kept me safe from the truth, it's a fancy way of saying Carter lied to me yes, but not because he was being hateful or controling. He did it out of genuine care, me some random kid whom his friend didn't even know existed. If Percy Jackson was alive somewhere out there he didn't know me and I didn't know him. My guts are just telling me this is much bigger than it seems.

"I'm mad at you, but that won't mean anything for long to be honest." I told him honestly. He let out a relieved sigh, "i'm glad, the boat is waiting for you. I warned the others. You're not escaping from here without a goodbye hug from Shelby." I could hear the amusement in his voice at my wince. Shelby had been studying here under Carter ever since she was tall enough to reach up for people's knees. To stab them, because I swear that woman nearly killed me a hundred times over in training, but paradoxaly she was also the sweetest woman I ever met. She even taught art, when she wasn't teaching me how to behead someone that is. Heck she even taught me how to give life to a drawing and keeping control over it. Which believe me sounds a lot harder than it does.

Especially when you're drawing a fricking tiger.

When we reached the balcony Shelby Nathan and surprisingly Ruby were there to see you off. Shelby crushed me in a hug before reminding me to alway go for the nuts if i'm losing.

"Are you sure you don't want anyone else to come along?" Nathan asked worriedly, I found myself smiling. After everything that got dropped on me like a ton of bricks I almost forgot I could always count on him to have my back. "Yeah i'm sure, if that changes you're the first i'll call." I reassured before giving him a hug. I was about to step on the boat, but I was carelessly presented a small glass pot containing a familiar purple paste. "Lotus ointment?" I asked surprised taking it out of Ruby's hands. She shrugged "well yeah, an idiot like you can't go a day without attracting trouble. You'll need it if you want to survive." I rolled my eyes "thanks Ruby."

She still wouldn't look at me "yeah sure whatever." I could have sworn that her cheeks were red. She was probably mad about something again. I stepped on the boat and looked back at Carter who threw me a small device before bidding me good luck. I sent him a small smile before sailing throught the sky.

I thought that a real plane would bring too much attention to myself. If deities were really involved into this then i'd rather not be stuck in a giant metal cage surrounded by people.

It took hours and a near death experience with a plane, but I was now flying throught the snowy sky of Russia.

The village in question was near the highest point in Russia. Mount Elbus was impressive even from miles away. Thankfully nome 21 had enchanted coats. So the cold didn't really bother me.

The boat slid accross the snow for a little while before I could finally leap over the edge. The snow crunched under my feet as I landed. Now all I had to do was walk throught the blizzard seperating me from the village of Izba. They lived like in the old days, so I better expect a potentially hostile welcome.

After nearly half an hour of trudging in the cold snow the knot of Isis around my neck started glowing. I pulled out the amulet from the confines of my warm coat and let it dangle in front of my face. Just by the sheer intensity of the glow, there was an extremly powerful source of magic relatively near. I remembered something Carter mentionned about Russia when retelling one of his adventures. The Russian people was still to this day very superstitious. It kept a lot of "myth" alive, some very dangerous.

So I just hoped I was about to meet up with Babayega, although now that I think about it, killing a child eater sounds pretty damn good.

Either way I would get an answer pretty soon. So I kept walking, letting myself be guided by the amulet. The blizzard howled in my ears in a blinding screech, until it was suddenly gone.

I felt warmth hit my face, I opened my squinted eyes fully and was greeted by a village of log cabins and cobblestone paths. It's almost like I just traveled throught time, but that wasn't the weirdest. What was weird is that winter seemed to avoid this place like the plague. It still looked like the middle of summer here. I was so bewildered I didn't even notice the children's running away at the sight of me emerging from the snow. I looked up at the grey and white dome of snowflakes wondering what could possibly be doing this. When I looked down it was to a girl about my age holding a pitchfork to my neck. She was pale as snow with light grey eyes and black hair tied in a single long braid. She wore a long beige shawl with a few colorful design woven in the dress. My eyes went from the blue ribbon in her hair which made me frown, then I looked up at her worried expression, but she wasn't staring at me. She was staring at the knot which was glowing even more brightly than before.

"Привет" I greeted saying what I hoped was the word hello. She nervously said hello back. Her eyes glancing from me to the amulet. Meanwhile my eyes were fixed on the child running back into the village. I cringed knowing that I should expect more pitchforks and torches to come. Slowly I put the amulet back. "I'm not here to hurt anyone." I assured raising my hands in the air. The girl looked conflicted "are you here to reform?" She asked biting her lip. I shook my head "i'm looking for a long lost family member. I find out it if they're here and I get out of you're hair either way." I told her softly, I knew whatever was happening with the weather was due to her, and that she was most likely a demigoddess. A strong one at that, since she showed no sign of strain whatsoever. She started lowering her tool, but it was quickly replaced by nearly a dozen other as villagers with furious expressions started surrounding me. I sighed deeply "well shit." I deadpanned as a burly bearded man roughly grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me away.

Then I found myself in a very predictable predicament. In a cold stone cell with steel bars. Maybe they thought I was some sort of fairy or something because that was the only cell barred with that material.

I could literally break out of this place whenever I wanted, but my guts told me it wasn't the best moment to start busting in heads. If I had a sibling in this place beating up they're fellow villager wouldn't paint me in the best image.

So I waited, as unskilled as I was at being patient I had time to think. They confiscated everything I had, not that I needed anything else than my words to break out. I just hoped that they hadn't broken the DNA tester Carter threw me.

Sitting on the cold ground with my legs bouncing repeatedly I wondered if what I was doing was even worth it. Even if I did have a sibling, why would they want to leave they're life here?"

I guess that maybe I was a bit delusioned. It's always just been me and my mom in our home, but I always wanted a bunch of siblings. The other kid a school always found me weird. The girls found me to boy like and the boys didn't like that I could wrestle with them. I chuckled to myself remembering the many split lips I got fighting in the school yard. I even still had a pale scar going over my lip. It stood out a lot on my skin. I liked to think it showed I meant buisness, but people especially my teachers prefered saying it meant I was a thug.

I did my best to ignore them, but it's hard to do that when everyone seems to think so too. Well that was before I joined the house of life.

My musings were interrupted as the door of... I wanna say dungeon? Well if it was then it's the least intimidating dungeon i've ever been in swung open.

The girl of earlier came back in nervously looking around. She looked at me and gulped wringing her hands together she nervously asked me who I was.

"Raava" I answered curtly "you?"

"Mila" she answered back. "So what brings you to my new temporary abode?"

"I want to know more about the outside world, do that and i'll help you." I raised an eyebrow "that's one hell of a deal you're giving me. How do I know I can trust you?"

"She bit her lip once more. Probably a nervous tick. "I've been here my whole life, and all i've ever seen beyond the blizzard were frost covered people here to change they're lives and leave everything behind, but it can't all be bad over there can it?" She asked hopefully "you want out of here." I suddenly realised. Her eyes widdened the anxiety in them welling up like a volcano. "I cannot marry, I am not ready for it."

"It's why you have a ribbon in you're braid." I said remembering my short studies on Slavic culture. She nodded, "father believes it's best for the family, but Radomir, the son of the chief is a horrible man to cattle and people alike."

I frowned, "well i'll do you one better, if you help me i'll help you leave this place for good." Her eyes widdened "I will keep that in mind." She scurried off and came back with a bunch of keys. Hurriedly trying each of them I got tired after the fifth one. "Ok step back" I told her, she looked confused, but didn't argue. Calling upon the power of Horus a glow invaded my fist, giving me around the same destructive power as a wrecking ball. I flicked the lock and the door swung open so hard it nearly swung off its inges. I stepped out to Mila's wide eyed gaze.

"What? You live in a winter dome and this surprises you?!"

"Fair enough" she said warily. "Do you know where my--" she pointed at the corner of the room next to the door, where my satchel rested against the wall. "Thaaaank you." I said gracefully picking up my bag. Thankfully nothing was broken. "Ok, you'll probably find this weird, but I need to ask you some questions before any of this goes any further."

She frowned but didn't say anything. "You're father, is he you're blood father or did you're mother remarry?"

"How did you know?" She asked sending me a warry look. "Next question, do you know anything of you're real father?"

"Mother said he ventured beyond the blizzard and never came back. Why are you asking me this?"

I ignored her own question for now and added "why are you holding this blizzard together?"

Her eyes widdened "I don't know what you're talking about, our Goddess Morzanna protects us from the outside world via this mystical blizzard."

"I know you don't believe that, and neither does the amulet." I stated pulling out the knot of Isis. I moved it around, showing how it became dimmer the further it got from her for confirmation." She gulped "you cannot tell anyone" she begged. "Promise, but and I know it'll sound strange, but I need you to rub this against the inside of you're cheek." I asked pulling out a q-tip. She looked outraged so I explained what the machine in my hands did.

Well she looked at me like I was a fool, but she was getting desperate. So she did as I asked, sticking the q-tip in the small round slots on each sides of the machine. It would determine if we're sisters or not. I honestly had high hopes. Carter said that whoever the people who made sure we'd get born, we knew that they wanted champions. And if Mila was the one holding up the entire snowstorm on the outside of the dome above us, then she outclassed every Magicians i've ever met in ice and snow manipulation, and Felix could do some crazy stuff with it. Well when he wasn't obsessively summoning ice penguins.

"Now what?" She asked sounding impatient. I couldn't exactly blame her for being sekptical, beyond implying that she was my sister, to a person who's never even seen a phone in her life before. All of that would sound straight up dumb, but I could worry about the result later. Right now I needed to make sure there wasn't anymore magic anywhere else in this village.

Then I would have the confirmation I need.

We left the prison behind and did our best to sneak around the log houses. I knew I should have perfected the invisibility spell Carter tried to teach me. It wasn't easy to sneak around especially without snow to for cover, but somehow we managed to sneak around the small village. I didn't find anything else even remotely magical around here. So if that light turned green it meant my family tree was gonna have to reach a lot further than before, but that was probably half an hour from now.

At the moment I needed to survive the present. Because if these villagers saw me again i'm pretty sure they were going to use those pitchforks. "What's this ritual everyone keeps talking about?" I asked Mila as we accidentally eavesdropped on two farmers while hiding behind a barn. I jumped and spun on the farm girl in a battle position as I felt a hand run throught my ponytail. She looked at me surprised and meek her hands held close to her on each side of her chin.

"D-did you just pet my hair?" I asked flabbergasted? "I'm sorry she replied meekly, it's just the first time I see hair this wavy and bouncy, I couldn't help myself. If I may, how do you keep it tamed like that?"

"I don't, I just wrestle with it every morning into a bun or a ponytail that eventually poofs out. That's what happens when you descend from Brazil I guess." I deadpanned considering my poofy hair as a genuine curse put on me by the gods.

"Brazil" Mila repeated testing the word she heard for the first time. "What is Brazil?"

"It's in the south, like other side of the planet south, Rio de Janeiro is where my mother comes from, but i've never been there myself." Mila nodded with an honestly adorably curious expression, like a freaking puppy. Even if she wasn't my sister I'm not leaving her here.

"Come on there's just the town square to check out and then we're done." She nodded and guided me towards the middle of the village. While we now had more houses to hide around we also had more people to worry about. The moment I heard Mila gasp I hid behind a couple of barrels that I was lucky were there.

"R-Radomir" Mila stuttered, peeked throught a small opening inbetween the barrels and the first thing that came to mind when I saw the scene painted in front of me is HELL NO!!!

That son of a bitch was near his thirties for sure. Ugly is the first thing that came to mind. His beard looked like a matted dead rat and his eyes shone with malice and unjustified anger.

"Mila! I've been looking all over for you!" He barked "you're not still thinking about this outsider are you!"

"N-no, of course not Radomir. I'm merely still pondering on what I shall wear for the wedding." She sounded too nervous, I might have to step in. Which I wouldn't mind doing, especially when it might result in him getting his teeth knocked off.

"Well what have you been doing then?"

"P-preparing of course, the we are to be married soon and i'm obviously a little nervous." She tried to explain, but it just set him off.

"So you're having second thoughts?" He asked his tone dangerously low."

"Of course not" Mila almost explained, I wanted to shout at her that she should be having more than second thoughts, but I managed to hold my tongue.

"Good, now you should go back to you're chores, you've been slacking off all day." He sniffed before leaving.

That was bullshit, her arms were nearly as big as mine! And I purposely train with sword ten pounds too heavy to sculpt these guns!

"You need to dump that fool." Is the first thing I said rising from behind the barrels. Once again Mila bit her lip, i'm honestly worried she might draw blood. "I assume you mean leave him, I cannot. It's what is best for my family."

"Has you're family ever done anything good for you?" By her offended look I probably said the wrong thing, but hey, it's hard communicating with someone who lives hundreds of years in the past.

She gasped and before I could wonder why something was smashed over my head. I don't think i'll ever look at a game of whack a mole the same ever again.

I rolled on my back to see Radomir standing over me with a thick wooden plank and a nasty smile. The last thing I saw was him raising his boot, before everything went black.

Chapter Text

When I came back to myself I was tied to a post. I looked around my vision blurry. I could make out a bunch of people around us. Then I looked down and my blood turned cold.

I was on a stake! Like some unfortunate lady from Salem. I looked at the crowd, searching for Mila, but she wasn't there. I sharply looked to my left and found a blood chilling sight.

Mila was tied to a post as well, clearly she's been crying a lot before I woke up again. Getting knocked out like that can't be good for my health.

"My brothers and sisters" began a man with a great beard and an even greater belly. "We have gathered on this glorious day-"

"Glorious? It looks more shitty to me!" I called after a quick glimpse at the gloomy and ominous sky. The question sent me a glare, but I just stuck out my tongue. "Long we have profited from the protection of the daughter of Marzenna, I know I know. We have know Mila as a sweet and reliable young woman, but seventeen years ago divine help came to us. And the daughter of Marzenna was created. Not so she could protect us, but so her sacrifice could breathe life back into our true protector throught our traditions. We tried to give her a normal life, a husband to fulfill her, but her actions make it clear. She would rather throw everything we gave her for an outsiser!"

The crowd clamerred angrily making Mila choke on a sob. "Oh piss off you ungrateful cave people!" I roared she's the only reason you haven't frozen to death and now you want to burn her because she wanted something for herself! How dumb and horrible can you people get!" I meant what I said, but I also needed to buy myself some time. I could get out of this in about a thousand ways, but Mila looked in a catatonic state and I would need to get her to safety quickly, and maybe set a few houses on fire while i'm at it.

I could summon a lot more divine words in a row than even some of the strongest magicians out there. Now with my heritage clearer it makes sense, but each word has a specific cool down that even I can't get around, and I needed to choose wisely. I almost didn't notice the chief started to speak again has I planned for our escape.

"Like you could understand outsider! The likes of you live sheltered meaningless lives. You serve no one and poison the Earth!"

"At least we don't burn innocent people alive, and I do serve something. It's called the House of Life and we deal with blind wicked people like you on the daily!" Before he could retaliate I shouted "MAW"

The hieroglyph appeared over the head of the people holding torches, making torrents of water fall down on them. While I let them wonder just what the hell happened I called "I-EI FELLUCA!"

Which basically meant I was ordering my boat to come to us, or at least I hoped it would. As they tried to relight their torches as the villagers shouted jeers and insults, most of them based around the idea that i'm a witch. Which isn't exact, but not far from the truth really. I summoned a small knife and started sawing throught my bindings. Something I learned long ago is that even with my great reserves if I could spare my energy it was best to do so. I ripped apart the rope and lept off the stake. Villagers approached, but I wasn't letting them anywhere near me or Mila. "HEH-SIEH!" I roared with authority, yelling at them to turn back. I didn't even mean to say it in Egyptian, but my anger fueled the unfamiliar divine word so much that a dozen villagers ran backwards with their tails tucked between their legs.

I ran to the still sobbing Mila and expertly threw the knife at the ropes. Swiftly cutting her free, she fell forward, but I caught her and set her on her feet. "Are you hurt?" I almost asked her if she was ok, but that was a stupid question. "M-my mother she sobbed, I looked in the direction she was looking and found the only person in the crowd still holding a lit torche. She was looking at us in pure contempt and disgust. "Just don't look at her".I advised, almost forcibly turning her away from the woman's lign of vision. "Come on come on." I chanted looking at the sky. While punching a random villager who tried to sneak up on me, in the jaw. They were starting to get braver. I turned to Mila just in time to see her get grabbed by the braid.

I lived my dream as I knocked Radomir's teeth out, but the relief in Mila's eyes made me happy, despite the situation we were currently in.

I caught a small silhouette soaring throught the air, I just needed a little more time. My arm snapped up, catching a lit torch thrown at Mila. It didn't hit her, but she flinched back like she was. I threw it back in the crowd as the villagers closed in on us.

I grabbed Mila by the waist and raised my hand to the felucca's edge and grabbed onto it. The ground became smaller and smaller as we left it behind at high speed.

While the boat did It's job it had no orders left. So we quickly started nosediving towards me snow. "Oh crap!" I yelled letting go of the edge. Shielding Mila with my body we tumbled in the deep snow before finally rolling to a stop.

Me and Mila broke apart halfway accross the second skip off the ground. When I got back up after the thankfully cutioned crash I ran to check on the felucca. Thankfully it was just a bit tipped over, I grunted as I flipped it back in the right way and looked back. We hadn't really crashed that far from the village. The angry torch holding mob closing on us made that obvious.

"Mila come on!" I called over the the suddenly howling wind. I didn't want to sound insensitive, but these people were going to tear her apart and I wasn't about to let it happen.

She ignored me so I ran next to her. Her braid was undone, her hair flowing with the wind like a mass of black tentacles. Then I looked up her eyes and paused. They were blooshot with both sorrow and rage.

"Mila." I tried, but she cut me off by releasing a heart wrenching scream that shook my bones and the entire valley. It was like a shockwave came out of her mouth as the unnatural snow finally receeded from all around us.

The protective dome of snow was blown away like a puny candle.

The scared exclamations could be heard all the way from over here. Mila rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. "We have to go." I told her gently, she nodded numbly before stepping on the boat. She sat down against the side, her head tucked in her knees. I silently set sail, drowning the rageful screams aimed at us.

I let us bathe in the silent for a little while as we flew aimlessly. I felt horrible, I know she was going to 
be killed either way, but still. Her entire perception of her whole life was completly shattered in barely a day. Her friends her family, no one hesitated to try and sacrifice her for their own gain. I searched for something that could possibly make her feel a little bit better, but I honestly couldn't think of anything.

Until a small beep made us both jump. I looked inside my satchel and felt a small smile stretch my face. "What is that?" Mila asked her voice small. "I turned the beeping green light towards my half sister. "The first good news of today." I told her trying to keep the exitement out of my voice. Her eyes suddenly cleared as she remembered what it meant.

More tears filled her eyes as she realised what meant. Her family just got a whole lot bigger.

And this one would treat her right.

Chapter Text

I somewhat parked the boat in an alleyway when we reached the nearest city. I felt frozen when we landed. My teeth were clattering like a tap dance concert.

I blew on my hands hoping to warm them a bit before rubbing them together. Why did my coat have to be taken off? It's not like getting set on fire would make me feel too warm with a coat on. My Brazilian blood can barely handle the cold of Autumn, even less hundreds of feet in the air of mother Russia!

Mila sent me a weird look, but she quickly got distracted by the buildings around her. "W-what now?" She asked her gaze glued to her surroundings. "Right now i'm gonna go buy myself a damn fur coat. I don't even care if it's made of rats I am freezing my soul off!" I said throught my teeth, repressing the urge to swear in every languages I knew.

"Uhm, can we buy something for, me. I don't like all the looks." She admited looking down as people in the street stared at her. I glared at them and assured Mila i'd buy her whatever she wanted to wear.

"I'm not sure what to wear." Admited the Slavic demigoddess. "Meh don't worry, i'm not a fashion genius, but we can figure out what you like." I replied pushing open the door of a clothes store. I let out a sigh of relief as blessed warmth finally washed over me. "Oh that feels good" I groaned "hey, miss" I called over the middle aged woman that seemed to own the store. I threw my thumb backward at Mila who shyly walked inside the store. "That girl probably never wore anything else in her life. Wanna do something about that?" Her eyes widdened with glee as she pulled Mila deeper inside the store. Mila sent me a look as she got dragged, I gave her a thumbs up in response. Hoping that she actually knew what a thumbs up was.

"Coats coats coats" I chanted hoping to kill two birds with one stone. "Ah ah!" I cheered finding a furry coat I could afford. I immediatly put it on with a happy sigh "suck on it winter, you're not taking me today." I said to myself.

I paced from side to side, waiting for Mila to come out of the changing room. "Make sure it's what you're confortable with." I told her, because now that I thought about it that dress looked stiff as hell. Kind of what my mother forced me to wear in order to look more 'feminine.' I just hoped that the cultural shock wouldn't be well... Too shocking, but I couldn't stop for long. Who knows how many more siblings we have out there.

Finally Mila stepped out dressed in loose baggy white shirt with black skirt pants. And a small red stylish leather coat. "How do I look?" She asked nervously. "You look wonderful" I said with a smile. "how much is this gonna cost?" I asked pulling out my wallet. "This one is on the house, but not the coat." Replied the owner when it was halfway in my pocket. "Fair enough." I shrugged paying for the coat. Next we were walking throught the street Mila bag in hands. She kept her dress in one and a change of clothes in the other. I couldn't blame her for keeping a reminder of what was her entire life. I just hoped it wouldn't be a painful one.

After renting a small hotel room I sat down against the side of the bed. And started pulling out what I needed. A small bowl and a sealed jar of oil. "What are you doing?" Mila asked sitting next to me in the dimm room as I poured the oil in the bowl. "Scrybing" I answered "it's an ancient form of communication and surveillance used by the magicians of the house of life. It's basically like talking throught people's reflexions. And no, it can't steal you're soul." I teased making Mila's cheek turn red. "Look" I waved my hand in front of fhe bowl making Leroy appear. "What is that ugly thing?" Mila asked curiously.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Yelled Leroy making Mila hide her face in the back of my shoulder with a small yelp. I chuckled "don't worry about Leroy, he's actually just a tiny servant made of clay. We call them Shabti's and he barks more than he bites." Mila peeked over my shoulder at the grumpy Shabti, "i'm guessing you want some updates?" 

"Yeah, anything from the files?"

"Well there's not a lot of concrete stuff in there. Alien conspiracies cryptide web sites. Places on the internet where humans who think they know what their talking about go to pull stuff out of their asses."

"What is internet?" Mila asked with a confused expression. "Is she joking?" Leroy deadpanned. I sent him a look filled with warning. "I'm sensing a 'but' here?"

"But there's a few concrete things with actual witnesses actual investigations. Like in China for example, it's prone to a lot of natural disasters, but in the past few years it's been prone to around three dozen hurricane sightings thunder storms and floods in the usually least affected zones.

"Carter thinks that there's something magical about that?"

The shabti shrugged "if you bothered reading you're daddy's file you'd know he can summon storms that makes some if not the strongest magicians pale in comparison." I felt my eyebrows go up, I should really go throught with actually learning about him. After all his file is the only one I bothered bringing along.

"Well then I guess I know where i'm going, anything else?"

"Not for now, oh and the place I mentioned is called Hangzhou. Good luck you'll probably need it." I rolled my eyes and made one last demand before pouring the oil back in the jar.

"Do you know who our father is?" Mila asked hesitantly. "His name is Percy Jackson he's a son of Poseidon that dissapeared nearly over a decade ago."

"I've never heard about that god?" Mila said repeating the unfamiliar name under her breath. "Yeah yes from another pantheon. I don't really know why, but some deities decided to use his blood to make champions in different pantheons, aka us." Mila nodded and I knew she didn't understood much. I needed to buy that girl an encyclopedia or something.

"Well enough of that, we go back to sailing throught the sky early tommorow. So let's get some sleep ok?"

"Yes, it's been a long day." Mila admited before going under the covers. I took out my neck rest and didn't bother drapping a blanket over me. Sleep came very easily that night.

Chapter Text

As it turns out Mila really didn't enjoy great heights. So I let the boat hover relatively close to the ground at high speed. She treated the books I bought her a few hours prior like her bible. One om different mythologies including greek and chinese. Since it was there that we were heading. 

The wonder in her eyes made the dent in my wallet all the more worth it. Well my Russian wallet, I made a chinese american french and Indian wallet just in case and chucked them in the duat.

I told a lot about the House of Life to Mila. And she listened to my words like they were gold being deposited in her hands. I was a bit anxious to bring her into a potentially dangerous place. No offense to my sister, but she was just too curious and coupled with her naïvety I was honestly a little scared that she would get tricked by something.

Well not on my watch.

After hours upon hours of sailing we finally made our way above China. Mila looked down wonder written all over her eyes. So much that she momentarily forgot that she was afraid of heights. Following a map I manage to print in an internet cafe I finally landed in a park of Hangzhou.

Now I just needed to find out where the disasters originated from. If the info I had were right then there's a lot brewing in the past few days.

"Ok I need to get on a very tall building, so if you want to stay here and just hang out you're free to do so. I need to figure out what's causing all these disasters and if it's connected to a potential sibling."

I looked back at Mila who looked around the place looking more than a little overwhelmed by the ammount of people she could spot.

"Hey" I called softly making her head snap back to me. "The world is a big place, take it in with baby steps why don't you." Mila nodded "baby steps, I am coming with you." She added right after.

"Mila-" I began hesitantly.

"No" she interrupted sounding fierce. "If this is family we are talking about, then I will help you find whoever it is."

I sighed recognising the same stubborness that people described me having. I still didn't feel any sympathy to my teachers, screw these lots.

"Fine if you insist, but if you puke it's overboard okay, I don't want to clean up this boat again. Seriously anything remotely liquid gets everywhere on this thing."

"You have my word." Mila replied looking very much happy with herself. I flew the boat on a nearby building thanking the gods above or is it below? That we have magic on our side.

"This city is beautiful" Mila murmured looking at the coastal city. "Yeah I traveled around a lot for the house of life, but I rarely get to enjoy the scenery to be honest."

"That is sad." Mila stated sounding sad herself, but she quickly went back to being curious. "What does the House of life do?"

"We're like a police force for the supernatural. If demons and gods are involved we usually have a hand in it. We battle evil in order to keep the universal balance between order and chaos. I think the reason i'm not such a big source of chaos by beeing a descendant of another pantheon is because Greece took over Egypt once and even mixed their pantheon. So I guess that in more ways than one my roots just end up in Egypt."

"I wish I could know more about our Greek roots. This book didn't go into details too deeply."

"Sorry to break it to you sis, but Percy Jackson is the son of a Greek god, that doesn't mean he's greek himself. He's American born and raised in New-York city. It's where I live too actually. I'll make you visit one day, but I gotta warn you. It's a lot more chaotic than this place." Mila shivered a little bit making me laugh.

"Did you just call me sister?" She asked faintly. I froze as well. I was going to answer her, but right before I could lighting suddenly split the sky without even a rumble of warning. I jumped to my feet a Kopesh appearing in my hand as a reflex. I looked up at the whirpool of clouds and shivered as the temperature suddenly dropped. Again Mila didn't look affected in the slightest as my breath turned into steam. 

Considering that it was right above us I could tell that this wasn't natural, beyond the powerful presence that I could feel. The grey clouds turned to black and every hair on my head stood on end. My eyes blew wide when I figured out what was going to happen. "GET DOWN!!!" I roared over the wind. I tackled Mila to the ground right before lightning struck our boat. Luckily both of our eyes were closed when the flash passed, but the near sonic boom that came with it was another story. 

I played with my jaw as a resounding ringing noise replaced every other sounds. I weakly looked up at the typhoon that slowly opened. Revealing a grey and black serpentine body with a reptilian head sporting deer like horns that stretched up like a coral reef. A mane of cloudy grey hair decorated the front arms and the head shrinking accross the rest of the body. Like a dash of grey accross angry storm clouds. 

Then there's the eyes. More intelligent than any demons i've ever faced with so much malicious intent that I clutched Mila close to myself in fear. Thunder built up around the clouds, ready to smite us for most likely no reasons at all. I didn't even see the clash of blue approach our soon to be killer, before it slammed directly into the much bigger dragon. The storm followed them as it raged even harder. Now bringing rain and rageful winds in the mix of their destructive combat going towards the mountains to the west.

"You ok?" I asked Mila looking down at the shaken girl. She nodded looking up at me with awe. Uncomfortable I got to my feet and looked at the retreating storm and back at the broken and charred remains of our boat. "Well guess we have our answer."

"What was that!" Mila exclaimed suddenly finding her voice again. "That was a chinese dragon and I assume that what saved us was another chinese dragon.

"What are we going to do?"

"Follow the storm" I replied running towards the emergency exit. Thankfully this building was only seven stories tall.

Keeping track of the battle was pretty easy. It was straight up monumental. I could feel the raging wind all the way from the ground. I knew Mila was behind me as I ran as fast as I could towards the storm. I wasn't much of an elementalist, but if I could get close to the ennemy dragon I might be able to damage it.

Dodging cars I managed to run towards Hangzhou West Lake. Arguably one of the most beautiful places in China, but I didn't have time to play tourist. I ran accross the ancient bridges as the two dragons plummeted towards the lake like scaly comets in a flurry lighting and claws. The black and grey dragon was obviously much bigger, but the smaller blue dragon was equally as fierce. It's mane was black and it's claws a bright silver gleaming in the sunlight.

I gazed at the two beasts wrestling for dominance, raising tall waves and more wind that actually started pushing me back. I glanced back at Mila who was hanging off the by the small pillar of the pavilion. Tiles flew around and shattered against the lake's surface. The water looked about three meters deep. So I needed to bring out the big guns.

"Stay here!" I ordered over the wind. "What are you going to do?" She demanded, I sent her a smile "what I do best, battle magic!" I let the power of Horus invade me and I lept several meters in the air. I felt a massive rush of strenght and power as a shell of blue holographic energy surrounded me.

I landed back in the water in a fifteen feat tall, blue falcon headed battle avatar. I ran across the now ankle deep water and tackled the bigger dragon by the neck before the bigger dragon could bite down on the smaller one. We tusseled in the water for a bit before I managed to kick it in it's serpentine body. Sending the opposing force of nature flying away, but it started magically flying mid fall. I rolled my shoulders, it's been a little while since i've had to summon a battle avatar. Hopefully I wasn't too rusty. I charged the beast as it flew towards me like a snake slithering across empty air. I ducked under it's charge and grappled with the middle of it's body. It was about two times longer than a bus as far as I could tell, but it's head still followed when I slammed it into the water. I descended on it and slammed my giant fist down, but it's snapped it's head to the side just in time and bit down on my forearm. Making proportional bite marks appear in my flesh. 

I grunted in pain and slammed my other fist in it's face. Knocking it off my arm. Next thing I knew it's tail was whiping across my face sending me sprawling in the water a dozen meter away. I rolled backwards on my feet panting. I could hold an avatar for a moderatly long period of time, but this was starting to take it's tole on me. I glanced at the smaller dragon who was starting to get back up, it send me a look and I knew what to do. Summoning two Kopesh I quickly formulated a plan.

I made a bring it on gesture and next a next a less than respectful gesture. The dragon huffed out of it's nostril and swiftly flew towards me. Charging right back I waited just for the right moment. And I slid down spinning around myself. Effectively catching the dragon in between the shoulder and the rest of it's body with the hook of my kopesh. 

I swung it around using it's own momentum and nailed it to the ground. I then did the same with my other sword, trapping the best in a sharp X shaped harness. The sky darknened, it was probably my cue. So I lept to the side and dropped the avatar just in time to land back on the pavilion. Again my hair stood on end as lighting struck the lake in a continuous stream of power. The smaller dragon spun around the lightning gracefully before flipping head over heels and whipping the opposing beast in the face with it's tail. The resulting smack actually made me wince in simpathy. Well I mean kinda, that thing nearly killed me so I was weakly cheering right after. Yeah I did get rusty with my avatar, but that didn't stop me from kicking ass!

And guess what happened after all that? That big bastard just uped and left?! Like some sort of scolded dog walking away with it's tail tucked between it's legs. The blue dragon was covered in cuts and it was panting like a dog, but it still lowered itself in the lake in front of us. 

In a brief flash of faint light a male teenager with sea blue eyes in a school uniform appeared in front of me. He spoke something in chinese I didn't catch. "I'm sorry what?" I said by reflex, completly forgetting to change the language, but the language barrier aparently wasn't all that thick.

"I said," panted the teen in english with a light accent. 

"I know you?"

Chapter Text

I stared at the boy and blinked owlishly at him. "I'm sorry, but I think i'd remember meeting a shapeshifting dragon guy."

He shrugged "i've seen you in dreams."

"Oh, ok that makes more sense." Mila looked confused "magicians are prone to out of body experience and dreams that shows the past and the present." I explained before turning back to the dragon boy. "So what's you're name?" He straightened "my name is Hailông Qūzhújiàn, dragon protector of China. Who are you? I didn't catch any names in my visions. Only that you were looking for people."

"I'm Raava of the house of life, this is my sister Mila." I said gesturing to the now shellshocked demigoddess. "It's strange, but we were made from the blood of our unsuspecting father. The same thing was done all over the world. Mila is from Russia and i'm from the U.S, we have good reasons to think that another one of our siblings lives in Japan. Our father's name was--"

"Perseus Jackson." He finished for me. He shrugged at my shocked expression. "My mother was more than open about what happened. She's the daughter of Shenlong, the dragon king. There's not a single soul brave enough to court her because of that. So when a couple of deities came to her with such a good offer. She couldn't have cared less that he was from another pantheon. As long as she could get a child, but... She never mentionned anything about others." He stated his tone suddenly turning suspicious.

I pulled out the DNA tester "want the proof?"

"How do I know you haven't tempered with it?"

"Is one's word really that worthless? Beside if I wanted to see you harmed I would have just let that dragon kill you."

He stared at me a little bit longer before snatching the device from my hands and using it himself. "Now what?" He asked giving it back to me. "We wait for a few hours and see so I can prove it to you. Now onto other nearly as pressing concerns, what the hell was that all about?"

Hailông huffed "Túláo de shé is one of the many dragons that hates me because of my mixed heritage, but if there's something he hates as much if not more. It's someone directly connected to another pantheon inviting themselves in China via the sky."

"So that's why he tried to fry us."

He nodded "what did you do by the way? This magic you just performed is unlike anything i've ever seen."

I smirked "Egyptian magic is amongst the most ancient and powerful in the world. You haven't seen nothing yet." He looked at me up and down as if I was gonna try to turn him into a frog. I mean, I might be able to, but it's a lot more complicated than shooting sparks out of my fingers while saying shazam. I had to overcome someone else's will and mind, and Hailông didn't look that easy to overpower.

"If you say so, do either of you have a place to sleep tonight?"

"I can probably afford an hotel not too far from here." He frowned "now that just won't do, sister or not you saved my life. You can come over to my home if you want."

I shared a look with Mila, suddenly realising that she probably didn't understand a word we just said. After making sure she understood the situation, Mila was more than happy to go. Hailông jumped in the water morphing back into his draconic form. He gestured at us to jump on his back with his short horn. I jumped on his neck and helped Mila settle in front of me. Gripping the long hair we soon sailed accross the sky as Hailông slithered throught the sky.

It was a bumpy ride, but we soon landed in a forest down the other side of the mountain. "It's not too far away" Hailông told us over his shoulder, as he started walking deeper into the woods. Soon the soft sound of water trickling down a stream. On the other side stood a cozy cabin with a traditional chinese roof, a few flower blossom trees stood around the wide clearing. Mila curiously walked over under them.

"She has never seen a cherry blossom before?" Hailông asked as he opened the door for me. I shook my head "nope, she was living in a village that still lived in the 16 hundreds or something like that. What about you? Your clearly still in school, but you live in the woods?"

He shrugged "i'm not very fond of the city, beside I can fly over to school and get there before anyone."

"And how well does that go for you mister 15 meter long reptile?"

He chuckled "even if I wasn't protected by glamours, you'd be surprised by how little people look up." He replied moving to the little kitchen in the corner of the small home. He picked out a few ramen cups from his cuboard. "Sorry It's all I have at the moment."

"It's fine, I just hope Mila can handle new food well enough."

"So what are you?" he asked kneeling in the middle of the room next to a small fire pit. He picked a few small pieces of woods and layed dropped them in. "You can summon some sort of giant bird headed warrior armor made of light, but what of your sister?"

"I'm not sure about Mila to be honest, i'm pretty sure she was born from Marzenna, the slavic goddess of winter and death. She kept an entire village at bay from a massive snowstorm. Casually so on top of that, but I have no idea where this powers begin or end. As for me... A'MAX."

The Egyptian word for burn appeared over the wood. Instantly setting it on fire. "I wield the divine words of the Egyptian gods."

"Amazing" he breathed, his eyes transfixed on the flames. He filled a kettle with water and hanged it over the open flame. "Why are you doing all of this? You said you hail from America, then you go to Russia to find your sister, then you come here?"

I shrugged "my whole life I wanted siblings, a family that could look at me for me and not look on with contempt, but that's not all. I can't put my finger on it, but i've been feeling strange for a while. Tense with a feeling of dread, like watching the tides suddenly pull back announcing a tsunami. Makes me want to run like chaos incarnate is hot on my heels."

"Like everything is about to change." Hailông replied. "Exactly, I can't put my finger on why, but this isn't just an impression. Demons have been getting bolder and more violent in just the passed few months. Evil magicians are starting to whorship chaos once more, but it can't be for Apophis the evilest Egyptian god of chaos. He's still sealed away in the sea of Isfet. Yet there's still something big coming."

"And you think finding all of your siblings will answer all of those questions?" Hailông asked practically reading my thoughts.

"Maybe, I don't know much about Percy Jackson yet, but I know he's the strongest demigod of his pantheon. Hell aparently he's made short work of my teacher multiple times. Me being his child, it made me stronger, more enduring, I can cast more spells in a row than any other magicians. That actually earned me a nickname." I smiled remembering the first time Nathan came up with it. "Other members of the House of life call me spell slinger."

A small smile crept up Hailông's lips. "I have yet to earn a name that isn't demeaning."

"I'll get you one then, just gimme a few days to come up with one."

"You are quite confident." He commented opening one of the cups. "No, i'm just hopeful."

Hailông looked at me curiously, but it soon turned sour when I asked my own question. "Why do you live alone?" I wondered looking throught one of the holes that acted like a window. Mila was still standing under the cherry blossom as petals rained all around her. The look of wonder on her face even had the half dragon next to me peaking throught his window with a soft smile.

"My mother is busy, very busy. There are many dragons all around just China. She helps my grandfather Shenlong keep them in check. I try to do so too, but she doesn't really aprove. She thinks I should be basically emprisoned in an underwater palace being pampered left and right. She doesn't actually know about this place. Or that i'm neglecting my studies, but between school and all the mystical creatures that dragons often overlook since. None can equal them." He said mockingly "I don't really have time to deal with the demanding schedule of my school. I don't hate it I just don't have the time."

"I feel you" I huffed "my mother thinks that i'm in an internship for a fashion school."

Hailông laughed "you?! Fashion school?" He exclaimed throwing his head back. "Hey i'm not that bad!" I loudly shot back laughing as well. The kettle whistled, which must have warned Mila that the food was ready. Hailông poored the water in the cups before handing us chop sticks. Teaching Mila how to use these was an adventure on it's own, but she seemed to enjoy it a lot. "Hailông" I began gaining the attention of the half dragon. "If the light is green what are you going to do?" I couldn't help but ask.

Hailông hesitated "i'm not sure, you made a lot of good points. There's something big on the horizon, but if I leave it would leave China less protected. And it would paint a big target on you're back."

"I understand that it's probably sudden and anxiety inducing, but if we fight what's ahead united we'll have a much better chance of winning."

"Depends on who or what is coming. The implication that every pantheons have some truth to them makes this list impossibly long."

"True, but we have Egypt, Russia and maybe China pretty soon. It's not only our powers and skills we'd be bringing together, it's our knowledge as well."

"True, you yet again make a good point. I'm simply unsure if i'm willing to take this risk."

I nodded understandingly. "Yeah I get it, we both have a lot to protect. So you were raised into this?"

Hailông nodded "I was born in Shenlong's palace and lived there for a very long time. I've been living on the surface for around seven years. I built this place with my own two hands, I buy and grow my own food, yet my mother still sees me as a child. By all mean I still am in dragon years, but by looking at my fellow humans I learned that humans have a tendancy to grow much too fast compared to the rest. I know my responsabilities to both humanity and the celestial dragons, but if this journey happens to help both. Then count me in related or not."

I smiled and gave a confused Mila who was half way done slurping a bunch of noodles, a thumbs up. She smiled throught her food.

We spent a few more hours talking until the DNA analyser finally beeped. I shared a look with Hailông and he nodded, I pulled out the beeping green light. The proof that I now had a brother.

The half dragon smiled "hello sister."

Glad that he accepted us so fast we soon went to sleep on the cots that Hailông could spare. I could only hope that the rest would be this easy to convince.

The next day we were going on our way towards the nome in Tokyo. It was the closest HQ, so it's where my requested package went. Hailông flew us at the outskirts of the city where we walked the remainer of the way towards the airport. "So the house of life has influence everywhere in the world?" Hailông asked me as I explained where we were going. "Yup, three hundred and sixthy in total scattered all over the planet. Even in Antarctica, but there's only a few magical penguins there."

"Magical what now?" Hailông looked at me like I just grew a second head. "Magical penguins" I repeated "but their a lot less annoying than the explosive donkeys, and yes it's exactly what it sounds like." I deadpanned having once accidentally rode one, but I wasn't about to tell him that.

"What exactly are you going to get?" He wondered. "Just a way to get rid of the language barrier for everybody. I could use the divine word for it, but it would only be a temporary solution."

"Good idea, I would love to be able to talk to Mila."

I smiled "she thinks exactly the same thing."

Thankfully none of the thousand legends of China came to stop us as we boarded the plane. Thankfully I didn't have to worry about Mila's passport. It's easy to somewhat reset the mind of an untrained mortal, but I wasn't on the level of my mentor yet.

We sat down next to each other and enjoyed the flight. I learned more about Hailông while playing interpret. I was glad to get to know my brother more, but as we reached Japan. I couldn't shake a very bad ominous feeling.

Chapter Text

Landing in Tokyo Japan I knew exactly where to go. Midtown tower is a 54 floor multi task building. Some floors are entirely dedicated to a discipline taught by the house of life. I told Hailông and Mila to stay behind so I wouldn't have to answer a thousand questions that might result in me getting arrested.

I entered the main loby and made a beeline for the
secretary, before she could say anything I pulled out my wand and layed it on the counter.

The japanese woman smiled her shiny lipstick hurting my weary eyes. "Miss Jones, Mister Danuja is waiting for you on the top floor. Please don't have him waiting." I smiled back and walked inside the elevator. Once the door closed my smile dropped.

"Well Raava you've done it again, how deep is the shit pool i'm in now." I grumbled to myself. I knew the name Danuja fairly well. He was an old man, even by magician standards. With a tendancy to absolutely loathe any other sort of pantheon. Seeing them as nothing more than sources of chaos in disguise.

Sadly he was the leader of this nome. So assuming that I was being lured into a trap fighting him probably wasn't wise. Ignoring the fact that he's one of the best spell casters in the world.

At least in my pantheon, but maybe I was wrong, maybe he just wants to talk to me or something. Or maybe he just wants to make sure it's me he's giving the package to.

The elevator dinged and I walked inside the smooth white marble room. A statue of Thot throned in the middle of the room. I stopped in front of the statue and looked around at halls all around the statue. Some leading to what looked like librairies and labs.

"Well this isn't suspicious at all." I muttered to myself looking around. It's then that I noticed something far off from the corner of my eye.

I walked towards the small figure, believing it to be an escaped or discarded shabti, but when I saw the son of Horus figure I instantly figured out what was going on. Four openings four figures.

It was a spell.

I tried to reach for the small figure, but a blue spark of energy struck my hand. I snapped it back flapping my hand with a small yelp. It didn't feel too bad beyond being tased. And no I won't develop on how I know what being tased feels like.

A man suddenly appeared over the tiny statue. I looked up a satisfied Japanese man with one mighty receading hairline.

Danuja looked like a regular old buisnessman. Grey hair with a look of superiority that made me want to slap him.

"Raava Jones" he began instead of greeting me. "Fiftheen-"

"Sixtheen" I corrected in a heartbeat. He sent me a look, his green eyes shining with annoyance. "Sixtheen" he corrected with a small snear, "follower of the path of Horus and abnomrally powerful for her age. Oh and how could I forget, the descendant of Poseidon." He spat with disgust.

"What you want my autographe? I'm not sure I should give one to an obvious stalker." I shot back unimpressed "beside, what are you even on with that Poseidon stuff? What is all of this!?" I yelled spinning around acting confused, but truth is I was looking for any faults and weaknesses I could exploit.

There was another magician posted at each hallways and of course the entire spell had no fault. Which is to be expected from such an experienced magician.

"Don't act innocent with me girl." Spat the old scribe. "I have more than enough information to prove my claim. One being you using a spell with flawless control on a bridge over a fast river. The only other people who can do such a thing to an extent are those connected to gods of the nile. Not a battle magician."

"How do you know i'm not just a water elementalist?" I asked knowing full well my cover was blown. I was just hoping to catch something useful flying out of his big mouth.

"My informants keeps a good eye on you." He smirked, my eyes widdened when I realised how he could somehow keep tabs on me. "You infiltrated nome 23" I breathed in shock.

"Well you're not as dumb as you look, sadly people like you aren't allowed to exist."

I looked between his pale ass face and my brown hand. "The fuck is that supposed to mean!?"

Danuja rubbed his eyebrows sighing. "Hybrids, beings who draw power from two pantheon you stupid child.!" He spat angrily

"Well you should have opened with that you self righteous son of a bitch!" I yelled back giving him the finger.

I swore I saw a vein almost pop out of his forehead.

He took a deep calming breath. "As much of an asset you could potentially be, you and you're Little family must be terminated." He informed me like he was talking about the weather.

The world suddenly stopped spinning. "You wanna repeat that again Danuja." I whispered dangerously low. He was all too happy to oblige.

"My best elements have been dispatched to take care of you're little friends. Once they are dead order can take back it's rightful position.

"Yeah i'm gonna stop you right there you old fart, if you lay a single putrid finger on them, there is nothing in this world or the next, that will save you're sorry ass from me!" I yelled accentuating my point by slamming the fist of Horus into the forcefield.

It didn't even make a crack, but the entire room shook. Danuja didn't look phased in the slightest "please child, the strenght of many is always greater than the strenght of one. It's best if you simply accept you're fate now."

His arrogant condescending tone nearly sent me over the edge. Making me consider doing things I didn't really want to do. Breathing in deeply I removed my fist and sighed.

I needed to stay level headed. Even with four powerful magicians there's gotta a be a way to get out of this somehow.

The spell itself was nothing fancy. A standard, but strong protection spell. The small statues focused the power of the magicians involved in a drawned circle. By the chalk traced on the ground the spell only covered each entrances.

I smirked triumphantly. He really thought I was that dumb.

I raised my hand yet again coated in a shell of energy. Next I aimed my fist at the ground.

The marble cracked as a fist with about as much force as a wrecking struck the ground. I heard many curse words in Japanese and the forcefield dropped, but they were too late. Another punch and I was falling down to the floor below.

I fell on my side gasping for breath and covered in dust. Groaning I got to my feet, I rubbed my head and turned around to scan the dojo looking room.

Only to meet with over a dozen pair of wide eyes. At least twelve other initiates were staring at me dumbfounded.

"Uhhh, konnichiwa?" I greeted sheepishly. The initiates responded with a bunch of war cries. Probably assuming that I was an ennemy.

"HA-DI" I hastily aimed the destruction spell at the ground, the blast of the explosion knocked the younger initiaties down and sent me down to the next floor.

This time I fell on my back. "I swear if I have to do this another 52 times i'm gonna snap." I growled to myself getting up.

This floor looked relatively normal. An office section where a bunch of people were now running around like headless chickens, but I soon realised that they weren't running away from me, when I looked at the dragon flying outside the window, Mila wildly waving at me from his back. I smiled and pulled out my wand. Feeling extremly touched that my sister just braved her fear of heights just to make sure I was okay.

The familiar ivory handle somewhat comforted me as I thrusted my arm forward. A small telekinetic pressure was all that was needed in order for it to shatter in a million pieces. The elevator all the way back in the room dinged. I glanced back at Danuja and his allies.

I didn't waste my time and lept onto Hailông's back. "Get us out of here!" I yelled patting the side of his giant head.

Hailông let out a snort and turned around his tail whiping in the direction of the magicians. A powerful gust of wind slammed into the building. Violently shattering the windows and knocking them away.

"Wait wait wait" I yelled pulling on Hailông's horn. Earning an angry grunt from the dragon. "Sorry, but I think I know where my package is! Just get me back to the bottom floor please!"

By the look in his eye I could tell he wasn't really happy about going anywhere near that building, but he did it nonetheless.

He flew close to the ground and I launched myself throught the door. The small forcefield I casted with my wand is the only thing that kept me from becoming a glass porcupine.

The secretary sputtered something, but I didn't care. My kopesh under her chin she gulped. "Package now!" I glowered. She reached under the counter and shackily handed me the box. "Thanks, by the way you have shitty security." I told her before running back outside. I didn't even get the time to search for him, I was already being swooped away by my draconic brother.

I whooped in joy as the wind whipped past my ears. After some more high speed flight Hailông dropped me on a small building. He landed next to me, panting like a dog. Mila climbed off and crashed into me with one of the tightest hugs i've ever experienced. Then she pulled back and started chewing me out in Russian.

Hailông turned back in his human form massaging his lower back. He raised an eyebrow at the scene. "I hope that package was worth it." He mumbled grumpily cracking his back.

I smiled opening the small box. Revealing a bunch of amulets sporting the egyptian hieroglyph for speak. I held up one up to the half dragon's face. "With these we won't have to worry about language barrier anymore." I announced, Hailông's eyes brightened, he snatched it and immediatly tied it around his neck. I chuckled and handed one to Mila. She looked confused, but I sent her a wink on response.

She smiled back a little hesitant, but she tied it while Hailông exitedly waited so he could finally hold a conversation with her. "Can you understand me now?" He asked her eyes widdened "yes I can." She comfirmed wonder in her voice.

Hailông happily punched the air. While the two exitedly started talking I moved closer to the edge of the roof. The sun was close to setting and we were without a roof to sleep under.

But I could worry about that later.

Thunder shook the sky and rain started hailing down on us. Maybe I needed to worry a little more.

Mila let out a startled shriek that quickly turned into happy laughter. "I never saw so much rain!" She exclaimed spreading her arms. Unbothered by the water falling on us. Hailông looked as comfortable as if the weather was calm.

"Anything supernatural about this storm?" I asked fearing another dragon attack. "No, this one is all natural and well needed." He answered his eyes closed peacefully.

I raised my head closing my eyes as well. I inhaled the smell of the rain finding that yes while extremly wet, this did have some peace to it.

"We should go look or shelter" I commented quietly "do we have too." Mila whined dissapointed. "Afraid so, I don't want you to get sick." She crossed her arms pouting "i'm perfectly capable of handling this." She claimed before letting out the sneeze of a kitten.

Me and my brother chuckled before we all walked down the emergency staircase all the way back down outside.

As darkness washed over the city it lit up with it's thousand lights. Mila looked on in wonder at the neon signs. It was already hard enough to teach her what electricity was, so i'm glad she's not afraid of it.

The more we walked around the clearer it became that we weren't in the most respectable parts of the city, but at least buying a room wouldn't cost me my soul.

We found a nice little hotel where I rented a room. Since i'm the only one with money. Yeah maybe a summer job wasn't so far fetched after all.

Anyways I was lucky, there was only one room with three beds left.

There I collapsed on the nearest bed and layed there for at least half an hour thinking about what had happened. Danuja was a powerful man in every sense of the term and he'd no doubt twist the entire thing. I know Carter wouldn't believe him, but his many including his daughter would probably think otherwise.

I realised that maybe... I'm not going home, what if Carter couldn't sort this out? What if I was about to be stuck on the run for the rest of my life? And more importantly would the same happen to my siblings?"

I steeled myself and pulled out my scrybing bowl. When I asked for Leroy I didn't expect the slightly annoyed face of Carter Kane.

"Hiiiii" I trailed off meeting his stern gaze. "What did you do!" He demanded "because one minute i'm teaching classe the next i'm being chewed out by a pre recorded message from that self righteous prick Danuja!"

"Ok to be fair he asked for it." I replied acting apologetic. Carter rubbed his forehead "well good news is I managed to stop a civil war from happening, bad news is we both know that won't stop Danuja from acting."

"Yeah" I agreed "anything new on the monster's side?" Carter looked even more grim. "Last time I saw this many monsters Seth was throwing a tantrum, i'm not sure what's going on to be honest. Even Sadie hasn't gotten a hint of a vision."

"Do you need reinforcements?" I asked worriedly. "No you keep doing what you're doing on you're side. How many of you are there now?"

I smiled "one daughter of a Slavic goddess and a chinese half dragon. It makes three of us for now." He smiled "that's good to know" a crash on his side of the call made me jump "well I gotta go before my daughter kills her cousin stay safe." He ordered before ending the call.

"Who was that?" Hailông asked jumping on his bed and leaning closer to the bowl. As if to find Carter amongst the now motionless liquid. "That was my teacher Carter Kane and the future pharaoh of the house of life."

The half dragon whistled impressed. "So what do we do now?" I pulled out a pile of cut up newspapers.

"I think this one might have potential." I said handing him the newspaper. Hailông snatched it and quickly skimmed it. His eyes widdened "huh, you sure about that?" He asked doubtfully.

"Ok I know it sounds bad, but look at him." I said gesturing to the face of Benjamin T Bensimon. He didn't look much like any of us, except for his sea green eyes. "Are you sure that's enough to go by?" I considered it, I wasn't sure if we were going on a wild goose chase, but I felt like following my guts on this.

"It's better than following the lead from an alien conspiracy website am I right?" I grinned making him chuckle "yes I believe that is right, but you gotta admit, some of these stories are interesting to read. Like fake tabloïds."

I laughed "yeah I guess that's a fun way to see it, Mila seems to love it." I chuckled seeing my sister reading an old newspaper for fun.

"What is autism? And why is it caused by 'vaccines?'" she asked her eyes narrowed in confusion. It hit me like a truck that I might have exposed her to dangerous illness. Hailông slowly pushed the newspaper down on the bed. "I think you've read enough for the night." He stated bluntly much to Mila's confusion.

"I'll explain it to you tommorow, but and no worries, we need to get you to a doctor soon for a vaccine. It doesn't cause anything that bad. Only idiots believe otherwise."

Mila shrugged and fell back on her bed smiling. Hailông did the same with his bed.

I on the other hand struggled to sleep. I was afraid a magician would come for us, but my eyelids ended up becoming too heavy.

I did my best, but the moment I closed my eyes my Ba or my spirit left my body. I was now a human headed bird flying aimlessly around the duat. Or so I thought, a falcon swooped in front of me. Curious I followed it until I ended up back in the physical world at night. Above what I could have sworn was an authentic Roman city. I looked at the falcon circiling me in confusion.

This city looked nice, but I wondered what it thought i'd find here.

My attention was attracted by the sound of cheers. I floated above a great tent overflowing with teens dressed in Roman armors. Some looked somber and angry, but while looking weird there was nothing of interest here. So I flew out and looked around a little more.

And froze straight in my tracks when a teenage boy dressed in an armor looked up at me straight in the eyes. He was the only one not celebrating. Instead he was cleaing up a stable filled with... Unicorns? Ok maybe I was just dreaming, but he stared at me a little more until he shook his head, muttering something about stupid lares?"

I didn't risk flying closer after this, but I could have sworn I saw him before, but I didn't get to fly closer since the falcon flew in front of me and batted it's wings. Sending my Ba flying throught the duat, back into my body.

I sat up gasping and wide awake, startleling my two siblings.

"You okay?" Hailông asked looking a little worried. "Yeah just a weird night" I huffed sitting up.

"Anything suspicious happened while I was sleeping?" The demi dragon shook his head. "Nothing special, well unless you count Mila getting startled and throwing the room phone throught the window as a common occurence."

I looked at the hole in the window, "I was wondering where that breeze was coming from." I muttered getting up. "I apologised a hundred times." Mila complained in her hands sounding more than a little mortified.

I laughed a little before laying down the plan for our next move. "Ok the next plane goes off in an hour, we should go."

"What about getting Mila vaccines?" Worried Hailông. "We can get them in Paris." I replied "the longer we stay in the same place, the easier it'll be for the house of life to track us."

Hailông nodded "good point" Mila didn't add anything else. Trusting us with her health, I know in the very short time we've known each other, we already crafted a strong bond, but I won't lie that felt like a terrifying and honoring responsibility.

We left the hotel and were already getting tailed by a magician. The amulet around her neck made it obvious. Hailông noticed and asked me what we should do.

"She won't attack us in public. Or at least I don't think she will, stay on you're guard. The moment she gets an opening she won't hesitated. He nodded and walked ahead with Mila.

I was tense, I had literally no ways of knowing what she was about to do. Summon a spirit, shoot a fire ball, turn her staff into a lion or use a divine word. I thought of a dozen ways this could play out.

But when we passed next to an empty alley. I summoned my sword and spun around, ready for a fight. I couldn't have expected what came next.

Something whistled passed my ear and landed straight in the chest of the magician.

Wide eyed I stared at the arrow sticking out of her heart. I ducked behind a wall and peeked around the corner. The shooter was posted on a near building. All I could make out was that they were standing straight and dressed in all black.

Seeing a bus pass by the street I took my chance and ran along with it until it turned around the street. Where I found Mila and Hailông running towards me. "Archer on the roof run!" I said running past them. They slid to a stop and quickly turned around. We ran the rest of the way to the airport.

There was no way this assassin could follow us there fast enough.

So after coaxing Mila a little we climbed aboard. Now on our way to Paris.

I looked at Mila wondering how many people would come after our lives now. Hailông gently bumped his shoulder into mine. "Hey, we did our choice. It's dangerous, but we didn't want to be here we wouldn't be."

"I guess you're right, but I fear we might be causing more chaos than we're fixing." I mused wondering which faction this archer was serving.

And who was that boy?