Tales From Olympus: Gods Reunited

by Erik Schubach

  There was a slight delay, then a smiling Odin, with Geiravor looking over his shoulder in his workshop appeared. “Arina! Well met! It is such a relief to see you. We expected you to contact us days ago.”

  She smiled back with all the pride and love in the world as she inclined her head in respect then clapped her hands inside the display and threw her arms wide. Shimmering light cascaded around us as the photons took shape and the room took on the likeness of Odin's workshop as the holographic projection from the console took shape. I knew that on Valhalla's side, they saw the opposite as this room shimmered around them.

  At least this did not surprise my parents as much as the fact we were actually speaking with someone light years away, as we are possibly more adept at creating holograms than the Asgard.

  A huge smile bloomed on Geiravor's face, after that second and a half delay, and she walked up to us, relatively speaking, to lay the backs of her holographic hands on our cheeks. “Well met daughters.”

  We replied in unison, “Well met, mother.” Hera seemed to stiffen a bit at that. I still hadn't had time alone with her and father with all that had been going on, to explain the idiosyncrasies of the Asgard family unit. I was, to any Asgard, the daughter of Odin and Geiravor since Odin had introduced me as such, I think mostly to see the shock on my face when he did. This made me a daughter of the rulers of Valhalla as sure as blood. They saw no distinction that I was not even of their race until that moment.

  I moved beside her and smiled as I indicated the three Olympians standing tall, Zeus puffing out when he saw how huge Odin was. The man was almost as big as a small Ragnarok. I hid a smile. Men are such boys.

  I said, “Mother, father, these are my parents and First of Olympus, Zeus and Hera. And this is Hephaestus, what you would call our First Scientist.” Then I turned slightly to indicate the holographic leaders beside me and said, “mother, father...” pausing because of how silly it sounded 'moms, dads, meet each other.'

  I saw Arina smirking, knowing the thoughts in my head and I said, “This is Geiravor, Spear of Asgard, Savior of Valhalla, mate of Odin of Asgard. And, Odin of Asgard, Ruler of the Realm, First Scientist of Valhalla, and Protector of the Innocent.”

  Odin stepped in front of my parents, looking regal as ever in his flowing robes of the ruling caste and offered an arm to Zeus. “Well met Zeus.”

  My father, after learning from his meetings with the Asgard here in the Citadel automatically went to bump forearms with him and was a little surprised when he realized his foolishness until his arm did not pass through Odin's. It was a surprise to me too that they were using coherent photons in the projection. Arina seemed pleased as Zeus said, “Well met, Odin.”

  Ruler to ruler he did not beg leave to address Odin so familiarly, as he didn't need to. The men sized each other up, Odin standing a head taller than Zeus. The only Asgard larger than their ruler was Tyr, captain of the Einherjer.

  Then Odin turned to Hera with a gracious bow of his head. “Well met, Hera.”

  She inclined her head as she took in the imposing ruler of Valhalla, not knowing that he is how Kate would put, a teddy bear.

  “Well met Odin.” She bumped forearms with his projection.

  I could see her slight disorientation at the time delay that we all experienced when communicating through the Bifrost.

  Then Geiravor moved over to offer her greetings as well. Hera was a little surprised when the projection pulled her into a virtual hug. Geiravor was one of the few older Asgard who embraced the way the humans and Vanger were so open with their expressions of affection.

  Hephaestus was a true scientist as he just looked amazed at the rulers of Valhalla then they offered their arms and greetings. He was examining the projections, and I could see a million thoughts going through his head.

  I had to smile when I saw Kate and Kara come quickly into the workshop. Introductions were made and then all the wind was pulled from Arina's sails when Kate said, “The girls said you were making an attempt. We were worried about you being days late.”

  Arina looked at them in suspicion then back at the door and asked, “The little stinkers contacted you already in Pegasus, didn't they?”

  I chuckled. So much for this being the first contact with Valhalla, I guess we could settle for second. I bet the Three Embers had been just sitting inside of Pegasus and had her tell them the moment she could make contact.

  I blushed as both projections of the women hugged me. Knowing that for Kat it was normal, but it was an effort for Kara, who was hidebound in the old ways. It always made me feel... loved. Then more introductions were made.

  Father's eyebrow rose when it was revealed the small woman in Valkyrie armor was the most dangerous warrior in all the worlds. He would have totally discounted it if Arina and I hadn't shown them the visual records of the battle of Kara's Stand, in order to show why the Asgard needed so few Valkyrie. My parent's had blanched at the sight of the lone Valkyrie taking on an entire army of Ragnarok as Valhalla transitioned away from Earth.

  I knew his mind since it was hard to tell in the visual records since Ragnarok are so huge, to begin with, but he was likely thinking, “I thought she'd be... bigger.”

  Arina was in heaven as she collected her hugs like candy from the coherent projections.

  Then the real negotiations began. If I thought the discussions when Arina and my parents spoke, whenever Arina was not setting up Asgard equipment, was tedious, then this was enough to drive you mad as the four rulers spoke. The rest of us sitting back and watching.

  I was trying not to impale myself on a vibro-arrow in boredom, Arina looking quite fascinated at the negotiations which would take endless weeks, while Hep was busy looking over the communications console like it was made of precious gems.

  I looked up, happy for any distraction when Aphrodite strode into the room, her hair red with streaks of blonde. Oh crap, she was in a mood. Whatever was annoying her washed mostly away when she saw Arina and then me, the red receding to streaks of highlights in her blonde.

  Her thirsty eyes were drinking in Odin and Gerevoir like she could sip from the cup all day. I almost chuckled when her hair went almost white when she saw Kate and Kara, and to my surprise, she seemed more interested in Kate. Kara was, like most Asgard, a walking study in beauty, but Kate had the imperfections of the humans that made her so intriguing and beguiling.

  Kat was aware of the interest from the newcomer and smirked. Cheeky human. Kroth did I love her. Hera noted the interruption and almost sighed in resignation when she saw who had walked in. We didn't need Dite spilling her sexual innuendo all over people light years away.

  Before anyone could introduce her, I grabbed her arm, Hep grabbing her other and we dragged her out of the room, calling over my shoulder, “I shall contact you later, mother, father, girls.”

  They did look amused as we slid out of the room. Dite's hair took on her more golden hue as her arousal ebbed a bit. I muttered to her, “Really woman? They were projections from another star system. You'd dry hump a stump if you thought it looked good.”

  Her bubbly laughter rose up as her hair took on purple streaks. Great, just what we needed, a mischievous Aphrodite. Hephaestus shook a finger at her. “Dite, behave.”

  She made a pouty face and leaned into me and said hotly into my ear, “Spoilsport.”

  I swallowed. I will control my arousal, I will control my arousal. I had really gone too long without intimacy, and this teasing harlot was no help.

  Then her hair went back to blonde as she asked, “Did you see them? They were soooo... I don't know... different.” She bit her lower lip in want.

  I'm pretty sure she was born... how do the humans put it? Horny.

  I realized what she had seen in the rulers of Valhalla. Like us, the average Asgard looked between eighteen and twenty-five, but Odin and Geiravor were old, even for Asgard and looked to be in their early thirties. I have only met one Asgard older than them, and he was positively ancient, fr
om the first days of Valhalla itself. Hajart, the Loom Master, appeared to be in his sixties in human terms.

  I almost chuckled, that for how old Hajart was, most of us Olympians, like myself, were ancient before his race had ever been created. But we were not used to seeing people look so... old. And that did give Odin and Geiravor an extra air of sophisticated allure.

  Her hair took on a light brunette cast as she dropped into thought. I often wondered what her default hair color was because I really liked this rich golden brown. Her endless attempts at seducing me kept her hair blonde, I have never been privy to seeing it any other way except with her changing moods.

  She caught me looking at her, and I swear I saw some pink in her hair before she slipped on her mask of seduction again as her hair lightened. I was a little disappointed, and I think she saw that because a couple red streaks spiraled down a couple of her curls. Why did she care what I thought? I was just prey for her bed to her.

  Then she said, “You two promised we would have midday meal together, you're late. I want to hear more about your adventures with the gods, Artemis.”

  I countered with a grin, “They aren't gods, Dite.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “I don't know about that, I mean, did you see their rulers in there? Delicious.”

  Hephaestus groaned and rolled his eyes. “You said the same thing about the Amp...”

  I growled and lunged in a blur, slamming him up against the corridor wall, my arm reaching up, barred across his throat and warned with venom in my voice, “Finish that sentence.” I was getting sick of the slur when people spoke of Intark in hushed tones in passing.

  I had body checked a secondborn, Hermes, out a second story window when he applied it to Brunhilde.

  I saw genuine concern in Hep's eyes at my resolve. Intark was my family.

  He inclined his head slightly and revised, “You said the same thing about... Intark, Dite.”

  I stared into his eyes so he could see how serious I was about anyone disparaging those I loved.

  Then Aphrodite was there, her hair blue in concern as she placed a hand on my cheek. She tried to make me smile by saying, “He's a tasty morsel, but those three girls won't let me get close to him.” Darker streaks of blue were winding through her locks as she looked at me.

  I looked at her and lost my resolve, then pushed one last time on my brother before releasing him. I said without looking at either of them as Dite lowered her hand while Hep rubbed his neck. “Intark is one of the bravest men I know. He is my brother, sure as blood.”

  My brother said with apology coloring his tone, “I apologize. Old prejudices.”

  I really couldn't fault him, truth be told. I harbored the same feelings when I first arrived on Folkvangr to document their downfall to find the planet infested with Ragnarok. Now I see them in a different light.

  Her hair fading to a darker blonde, Aphrodite said to him, “Be sure the word spreads. He is to be treated with respect. And if I hear anyone using the slur around Brun, I'll make it my life's work to be sure whoever says it is assigned to sewage maintenance for the rest of their eternity.”

  He inclined his head, and she pulled us both by the arms down a side corridor toward the outer doors, a little red of restrained anger in her hair. “You can make it up to her by letting her select a decent weapon. That crappy bow on her back actually hurts to look at.

  Ok. I snorted at that, and she looked pleased to have elicited it, breaking the black mood we had slipped into. Hep played it up, sounding like an impudent child, “Yes, ma'am.” Then he added, “I do outrank you, you know, woman.”

  She jabbed his gut with her elbow. “In your dreams. You are three days my senior physically, but you're still an unruly pup mentally you nit.”

  Hey, you can't argue with logic like that. I found myself smiling fondly at the familiar banter, it was the first time since I returned that Olympus started to feel like home again.

  Once we entered the science and defense building that housed the great forge, Dite chastised both of us, “Now make it fast you two, I'm hungry, and your little side trip here isn't helping. You two and your weapons.”

  It would do no good to point out this was her idea, especially seeing the mischief reflected in her hair.

  Now she may look like seduction incarnate, dripping in sexual innuendo that makes you just want to thank her and drop your panties when she looks at you, but what lay under that facade was one of the most dangerous warriors of Olympus.

  Those wide gold bracelets on her wrists were anything but. They were some of Hephaestus' best work. An achievement with nanobots that rivaled Asgard nanite tech. With the flick of a wrist, one bracelet folded out into an almost impossibly thin bow constructed of pure carbon enhanced trilithium alloy. Stronger than titanium.

  The other supplied her with almost three dozen impossibly thin arrows of the same alloy, that had a vibro core in the arrowheads spun of a silklike spiderweb of trilithium. Each had penetrating power twice that of my broader arrowheads into that ungodly Jotunn armor.

  So here was our seductive assassin lecturing us on our appreciation of weapons.

  Hep started to ask as he took my borrowed bow and quiver from me, “Do you want me to design...” He was cut off by the bubbling laughter from Dite which would make a morning breeze sigh.

  He turned back to see me glaring at him, my finger pointing above the fiery mouth of the plasma forge. Then he deflated as he exhaled, and chuckled to himself as he reached up to grab Wrath and her quiver from the hooks.

  The muscled man looked at me sideways then shoved the quiver into my chest, and I took it as he looked at me then the creation he loved to hate. Then the man drew the photonic string. I could hear the sinews of his muscles and tendons creaking as he got a quarter pull from it.

  Then he growled as his arms started shaking and yelled as his grip tightened and pulled with the might of a charging jungle reaver. I thought his arms would shake apart as he got the string half drawn, the point singularity thrumming to life. Then he made an exasperated sound as he released the string.

  I smirked at the man as he offered Wrath to me, a playful challenge on his face. I cocked an eyebrow at him as I settled the quiver on my back. The heat of the metal grip warmed my hand as it slipped into my hand like it were an extension of my being. Kroth, I hadn't known how much I had missed Justice. Her twin in my hand felt more than right.

  I inclined my head, accepting his unspoken challenge, Dite looked to be holding her breath, her hair black in anticipation of the excitement of battle, tinged with purple highlights. I smiled at her then in a blur, snagged an arrow from the quiver, drew as I aimed and let loose a shot. It was the closest thing to sex I can describe, the elation of having a weapon that was made for you in your hands. Knowing the precision more intimately than a lover.

  They covered their ears when the micro boom of the arrow going hypersonic was coupled with the instantaneous ping of the arrow embedding feather deep into the huge three-foot thick block of solid titanium Hep kept at the far end of the workshop for target practice.

  I may have shuddered in pleasure, and I slid Wrath onto my back, feeling complete for the first time since leaving Valhalla. Dite was swallowing at the almost sexual shudder from me like she could feel it. Her hair was pink, and she was blushing. I had made her blush?

  Hephaestus was shaking his head and asking as he strode across the workshop to retrieve the vibro-arrow for me, “How? It still makes no sense, how can you pull that string? That bow is a lesson in overconfidence, and it teaches me humility.”

  Dite said as she got control of herself, and echoed what Caeneus had intoned, “It isn't the weapon Hep, it's the archer.”

  Full of mischief as the weapon-smith of the Citadel just shook his head in amusement at me, Aphrodite dragged us out to one of the mess halls, hugging my arm maybe a little more possessively than normal.

  And as we headed into the mess hall, I realized again just how utilitarian it was. We did
n't even have kitchens in our own quarters. When had us Olympians stopped living? I didn't have much time to think about it as Dite took our meal as an opportunity to restart her game of endless teasing with me.

  I swear, one day, I'll wipe that pleased smirk off her face.

  Chapter 8

  Halflings

  The next couple weeks were spent helping Arina, and the girls set up the temporary Bifrost gateway, sitting in on various phases of the talks of a peace accord between our people and the other races, and going out with the Olympian hunting parties with Intark, Inatra, and Talia.

  The gardens and livestock in the Citadel needed to be supplemented by meats and fruits gathered by the hunting parties. If not, we wouldn't be able to sustain what we had.

  It again made me marvel at Valhalla. In the pocket universe that the Frost Giants created to study them in, the city had grown to fill all of their tiny universe. Just a few miles across, it contained farmland and grassland enough to supply food and grazing land for their livestock. To ensure the green space, instead of spreading out to the walls of the perimeter, they built up.

  Impossibly huge glistening towers and spires which held the population of their entire civilization, and more now with the people of other races who chose to live there. They never needed to supplement their food supply except for the few times they took in so many refugees they didn't have room for them all.

  I had to grin at the thought of the hunting parties. We actually had some men with us who were trusted with weapons only for the duration of the hunt. The women with us were clearly unnerved by men other than the Twelve Olympians being armed. I did note that they were all men born after the exodus of men from the Citadel on our first meeting with Rhea.

  This told me that mother and father truly shared my fear that some of our returned men may still be held sway by who they saw as their goddess even though all were free of the nano-phage now. It hurt my heart in ways I cannot explain. But I did take solace and had to smile at the men bumbling around with weapons they had never been allowed to hold.