It has been 6 months since I saw Poseidon and Oceanus. 6 months and a bit since the Kraken gave me additional powers and now I am reflecting on what was, what I was and what I am becoming. I could feel elements of my body, but not much. The moment the Kraken flooded me something happened, something the powers of Perses did not achieve. The power within me started modifying me and repairing me, even issues I was never aware of were repairing through the powers of the kraken. I reckon that this was in the first month when I started to feel whole, not Olympian, not a mere mortal but something in between. I still believe I can be killed, but it would take maximum effort (was that a quote Deadpool had?) to bring it about. The speed at which I healed was uncanny, that much I have experienced. In all this there was a shift in Psychofagos as well, it was a bit more than a bident now, and even if I looked at it, I felt fear within me and I wielded this bloody thing. But in 6 months a lot happened. My eye sight upgraded over time even more. It is hard to describe, I saw the old way, the olympic way and now I see even more, but is it my Olympian part? The views seamlessly overlapped and at a moments notice I saw one, the other or all. Like a simple switch in my brain, which gets me to the next part of it all, the thoughts from birth came flooding in, my brain now recollected ANYTHING that I had seen and the Olympic side could enhance it, like watching 3d TV in front of me, allowing me to reexamine the past as I saw fit. It was about three weeks after the initial event with Poseidon that I was walking the streets of Athens. There were all kind of people out there and some tried me but others held them back, almost like they knew that it was the worst idea ever. I walked down Faonos away from the park when my mind picked up on something. It was mild at first, then louder, almost like a shriek. I looked at the sky and made 360, there it was, it was the sign of Hades in the sky. A clear sign if there ever was one. I walked into its direction, a walk that took close to an hour. I ended up in front of a hotel named A for Athens. I walked in and asked for a room. The man looked sceptically at me. Another room sir? Is something wrong with your room? I slapped my head. Sorry, Raki. It was the best excuse I could find on short notice. The man smiled. He gave me my key and a letter. I made a puzzled look. The man smiled and pointed towards the corridor. Would you like som coffee brought to your room? Yes, please I responded and gave him a 20 euro bill, the man nodded. Right way sir. I went down the corridor and found the door that represented the number on the key and walked in. The room was empty, the bed was made and there was nothing that stood out. I wondered what this was about. I checked the room and saw nothing out of place in any view I took. I looked at the letter and I was about to open it when there was a knock on the door. The man had brought me a coffeepot filled with coffee, he poured a cup, placed it on the table and placed sugar and cream. There is enough for two more cups sir, enjoy the evening and he quickly left. I opened the letter. Hello, we have not met, we should. I will be at the Temple of Hephaestus at 10:00, I heard breakfast is at 07:00, the Sfakianopita is amazing in this place. See you at 10:00, please do not be late.
I took the message for what it was, an invitation, but an invitation by who? I set my phone alarm for 06:30 and I decided to sit in the chair and drink some coffee. It was better then I expected, always a nice surprise. And after that I laid on the bed and took a restful stance. I had learned that even as I did not sleep any longer, laying and relaxing still had a soothing influence on me. Even now I felt the energy of the Kraken drown every cell in my body and when that was done the energy reverted every cell in a combined powerpoint. There were thousands of PowerPoints within me at this time and they all screamed energy. A feeling that was relatively new to me and I rested. When I opened my eyes I looked at my phone. It was 06:29 and a few seconds the alarm went off. I switched off the alarm and I was getting pretty good at not breaking things. I got up and had a nice hot shower. And I was about to dry myself when I looked down and noticed something odd. It was bigger? That as definitely new. I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked better, stronger, more muscled. I was still no Schwarzenegger (thank you very much), but I was decently on par with any highly trained gymnast or athlete. I got down as the tables were still being set. Sir, breakfast will be ready in minutes. I nodded. He gestured me to the side where the tables were set and I nodded again and set at the table pointed out to me. What will you be having sir? I looked at him and voiced “I heard good things about your Sfakianopita, I will have that please. With coffee.” Yes sir was the response and the waiter walked to the kitchens.
The meal was served and it was indeed outstanding. I had a second coffee and it was close to 07:45 when I was done. I walked by the front desk and asked for a tourist map. I wanted to see the Temple of Hephaestus. Was it far away? As it turned out it was a mere 10 minute walk. I went back to my room and contemplated who I would meet and why there? I left the room a little over an hour later and walked to the Temple, it was 13 minutes later but I did stop twice so I was still half an hour early. As such I scoped out the place by walking around the temple. I saw nothing out of sorts and I also did not see anything Olympian, and so I walked into the temple.
Part 2
The Temple was like all the Greek temples. Empty and a little too elaborate. I walked through it in _under a minute. I stared at the building again, just to see if there was something hidden, but I could not spot anything. I was about to walk around the building again when a voice stopped me.
No matter Olympian, you cannot see what is there. You see Zeus decreed a long time ago that our temples are ours and ours alone. We can be near another temple, but until the person who it is for invites us, we cannot see or do anything. It is even more so that the invited person can only see what we allow that person to see. I looked at the man, he seemed to have similarities with Hesiod, his sculpture. His short silver and black hair, the style and the slim golden band around his head was different, but that was about it. He gestured me to follow. I had walked this empty corridor before. He then gestured to one of the columns. Follow me fast, you will drop a little but nothing an Olympian cannot handle. He walked into the column, I hesitated for a mere fracture of a second then I walked in. I fell and fell for about 10 seconds and landed on my feet. It was OK, there was no pain or anything but my mortal side would be quite dead, or at least with both legs shattered. The room was nicely lit, there were workbenches, a forge and troughs of liquid. There was some Roman style chair with a small table with fruits and I reckoned that it was a up with wine, that was what it smelled like, but a little stronger and more overwhelming. He grabbed another cup, he filled up his and a second one and handed me the second one. The drink smelled sweetening, a strong grape sense and I took a sip. It was like clusters of grapes exploded in my mouth. It had some fermentation, but it was strongly fruity and the overwhelming need to take another sip grabbed me hard. I took the second sip. I then looked at Hephaestus, he was sizing me up and grinning. Never had a bottle of Dionysus finest did you? I shook my head. Don’t worry it happened to all of us, the man is a wine marvel. Give me your bident! It was not a question. I summoned Psychofagos and handed him over. He looked at the bident and saw the shoulder part. Nicely done, not you though was it? Again I shook. I would think not, still it is a decent piece of work, even If I say so myself. He felt the shaft and started to examine it, he then looked at the end of the shaft. And the part attached to the tines of the bident. He then started to measure it with his fingers, like a carpenter of old times. He then started again and grabbed a piece of chalk. He put markers on the shaft and grabbed some kind of pruning knife and carved a path in the shaft, three paths about 7 inches long. He then grabbed some kind of gutter and took a little out of the middle of the shaft. He did this three times. He then walked to his workbench, looking all over the place, a second and third workbench were scrutinised and at the third He seemingly found what he was looking for. They were like beads of metal, he grabbed a small hand from one jar and a second hand from another jar, he then walked around looking for something. It was a much smaller jar and had some fine powder silver in colour and covered the beads with them. He walked to the forge and grabbed some stone jar. He threw the mix into it and placed it into the fire. The fire seemingly worked itself because the jar was glowing red in seconds. As that was happening, he walked back to the first workbench and grabbed some small pot, he took of the lid and grabbed a small piece of wood and placed them on small table. He grabbed the red hot jar with his hand and moved his hand in circular motion and placed it back on the fire. He then grabbed some clay tablet and the gutted and made a small line on it roughly 8 inches. He then put the tablet on a small cork and let it drift in the trough with water. He looked at it for a second and seemed satisfied. He then grabbed the jar and slowly poured the red hot liquid on the clay line. The clay tablet sank just ever so little. He put the jar back where it was in the beginning, by the forge. He then looked at the clay tablet and waited for a few seconds. He then grabbed his wine cup drank the wine, filled it with water and threw the water on the metal rod. The water sizzled and he stared at the result. He grabbed the newly created rod and measured it next to his pinky. He measured two parts of the phalanges and grabbed the end of that measurement and broke it with the nail of his thumb. He did that twice more and grabbed the three pieces. They fit the small guttered parts exactly. He then went to the table and dipped the piece of wood in whatever that was. He slowly dripped it into the wedge he had created, grabbed a piece of some kind of leather from his belt and tightened it as much as he could. He did that for all three parts. He then cautiously placed the bident on two support parts. He looked at me, do not touch it for now. He went back to the second bench and looked trough some baskets. He had found something. He also went to the third table and grabbed some sort of nail and then another one. He walked back and tried whatever he had found on the end of the bident, it did not fit. He threw the piece on the fire and in seconds it was hot, red hot. He used both pinky’s to widen the object. He looked at it and seemed pleased. He then fitted it on the shaft end and grabbed it with his hand to tighten the object. He was pleased and grabbed the nail. I now noticed that the second one was a fraction thicker. He pushed it into the shaft and removed it. The other nail was slimmer, but had small thickenings on it. He grabbed the branch again and smeared the liquid on the nail where the nail was thinner and then cautiously pushed the nail in, he then seemed to focus on the nail as he pushed harder, or so it seemed. He looked at me again, leave it for now, he walked into another room and got a chair out and placed it next to the other chair. He gestured I sat down. I did and got a large filling of Dionysus finest. He looked at me. The bident is now different. What it was it remains, I added an element that allows you to send shockwaves when the shaft end hits the ground. You will likely need it and more important, it can be used anywhere. I was not in favour of this, but you have proven yourself to be honourable, that was what Poseidon said to me, and that man does not ever talk much, not even before the issue with Oceanus started. But his word has value, as does the word of Zeus and Hades. Those two have been unheard of for much longer than Poseidon’s silence. “What happened?” I asked and he shook his head. Not my concern and not my interest. They leave me alone and that suits me just fine. I know where you are headed next, give them this from me. And he handed me a small package. I looked puzzled, how did he know? Do not worry, the action strands of Olympians are easily seen, you have centuries to learn that part. I put the parcel away. We spoke about all kinds of issues over the next few hours and it was at that point Hephaestus looked at the bident. He walked over and felt the shaft. He nodded and handed it over to me. “Do not put it away, examine it first and try it first” I did and he was right, something was different, not off, but out of balance, or better stated it was more balanced now, the metal parts had repaired the imbalance that the shoulder part had added.
I tried a few more movements and on a mere notion I hit the shaft end to the ground, something I still regret, the shockwave was enormous. Hephaestus was thrown straight through the room, I was untouched, but everything else was all over the place. “Put it away” he ordered. Now clean the mess you made, he was not a happy chappie. I had made a mess and I cleaned up the place as well as I could and then he gestured to the other side of the room which I ordered as well. He looked at me and said, well that improvement works. I nodded. He took me back how I got in and going up was no hassle at all, it was like gravity stopped for most of the trip. And it was not long thereafter that I was back where I started. He walked me to my hotel and gestured the manager. They obviously knew one another. I went back to my room with a cup of coffee, it was late in the evening, or so I thought, it was not until the next morning that I saw the papers, I had been away for three days.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 