Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Fancy going easy on me this time, Father?”

“Pah! You wish. Let’s get this over with, boy.” Hades boomed from his place across the frozen clearing.

He tossed his cloak from his shoulders, it fluttered towards the ground, burning into nothing before it could do so. His spear appeared in his hand and he took up a battle stance. I readied Aegis. Perhaps I didn’t need to see my mother on the surface anymore but that didn’t mean I would let myself die to my father and risk being humiliated by Hypnos. I charged towards my father, lobbing my bloodstones at him as I ran. Green arrows struck him, my cast blessed by Artemis. As I got close, He stabbed at me with his spear before slashing it at me in wide sweeping motions. I darted back, not quite making it out of the range of the weapon. The spearhead slashed a bloody line across my chest, making me stumble. I was already quite wounded and could defy death no longer. This wasn’t going to go well for me but I couldn’t let my father know that.

I threw Aegis at my father, smacking him in the throat with it. While he heaved and tried to regain his breath, I sprinted up close to Hades, catching Aegis from the air and hit him across the face with it. Theseus was always claiming that I fight dirty so I thought I’d give it a try. He stumbled backwards but quickly regained his composure and fired a beam of heat at me. Cheater. That was usually a last resort for him. I felt it burn through my tunic, through my flesh and I collapsed, expecting to feel the cold waters of the Styx rush to return me to the House.

Instead, I must’ve passed out. That explains why I dreamt that I was flying through endless grey fog. That explains why I thought I could feel a hand gripping at my tunic, holding me up. That explains why it felt like I was on the ground instead of in the Pool of Styx.

I sat upwards with a shock. Where was the Pool of Styx? Had I somehow dragged myself out of it while semi-unconscious? I rubbed my eyes, Beneath me wasn’t the marble floors of the House of Hades, instead grass greeted me. A sight I had only ever seen in my mother’s glade. A large marble and limestone building stood before me, somehow inviting as opposed to intimidating. I stood up and brushed myself off. Wait. I was wound-free and my clothes were perfectly clean. Normally, I wouldn’t give that a second thought. That happened every time I arrived back at the House. But I wasn’t at the house this time, clearly, and yet I was in as pristine condition as always. For a moment, I thought I had lost Aegis, but then I saw it sitting in the grass beside where I had woken up. It, too, was in pristine condition. Before I could question this further, the large front doors swung open, casting a golden light upon me. I picked up Aegis and prepared for an attack. Instead, a large, bearded man stepped out of the doors towards me.

“What do you want with me? Kidnapped me from the House, have you?”
The man’s face twisted into a scowl. “Kidnapped? That’s a bit rude. No, I’m here so you can check in.”

“Check in? What are you talking about, mate?”

“Well, you’re dead, aren’t you? I’ll take you to the front desk.”

Chapter Text

“Well, you’re dead, aren’t you? I’ll take you to the front desk.”

“No, I’m not dead. I simply died while-”

The man gave me a look. “Kid, that means you’re dead.”

I sighed. “Fine, then. Let’s pretend I really am dead. What’s your name?”

“It’s on the badge.” He tapped his badge, it was written in a language I didn’t speak.

“Yeah, I don’t know how to read that, can’t you just tell me.”

“How does a guy your age not know how to read? Midgard gets worse every day, I swear. I’m Hunding. Come on, we need to get you checked in.”

I decided to leave it for now and just follow Hunding wherever he was going to take me. I could figure out what had happened to me after.

Hunding led me across a huge lounge space and towards a desk that appeared to be made out of an upturned boat.

“Did you bring any luggage?” Hunding asked as we walked.

“Just my shield, Aegis.”

Hunding nodded. “Okay, okay. You can pick up a new weapon to go with that later.” ...Apparently this man hadn't heard of Aegis.

The man behind the boat-desk had just as huge a beard as Hunding. He looked up at me with a false smile.

“Welcome! I’m the manager, Helgi. Checking in?”

“I think so?”

“Well, check-in time is three pm. I can’t guarantee your room will be ready.”

“Does… that mean I can leave?”

“Nope. No, of course not.” He said as he tapped away at an unusual device. “Let’s see… We’ve upgraded you to a suite, free of charge!”

Hunding muttered something under his breath but I chose to ignore him, paying attention, instead, to the manager.

“I think that’s everything! All will be explained at dinner, do you want the minibar key?”

“He wants the minibar key. Kid, you definitely want the minibar key. Forever is a long time. Come on, I’ll show you to your room.”

Chapter Text

The rooms in this place were massive. They could easily put the House of Hades to shame. Each of the rooms were easily twice, some even three times, the size of the lounge back at the House. Lots of mortals were hanging around these rooms, chatting, lounging on sofas, eating and playing games. In one room, they were playing some game that involved throwing daggers at a boy with a chicken leg in his mouth. Various platters of food were being carried around by strong-looking women.

“This is a strange afterlife. Are all of these people good? Or is there a mix of the good and bad?” I asked.

“Valhalla contains the honourable dead. Those who died in battle. We’re the einherjar , those Odin chose to serve in his eternal army. Ah look, the elevators are nice and empty.” Hunding led me into a strange box which moved upwards when we got into it.

“You’ll be on floor twenty-one with some other nineteen-year-olds. You probably won’t see them much, though, these lot are quite introverted.”

The doors of the box opened again into… you guessed it, another massive room. Well, hallway. This one had a row of doors along one wall. Names were inscribed on each one. The names were rather unusual, such as “Sebastian Booth” and “Sky Gardner”. Just as we got close to the end of the corridor, Hunding stopped in front of a door simply labelled “Zagreus”. How they managed to find out my name, I have no idea.

“Oh! Here’s your room key.” Hunding handed me a smooth stone with an hourglass shape engraved on one side. “Touch it to the dagaz on the door to unlock it.”

I did as he said and the door swung open.

Inside was a replica of my room at the House but better. It was neater, for a start. The poster of Achilles was instead a regal-looking print in a matching frame, the papers that were usually swept all over my desk and the floor around it were gone. Even the bed was made. Nyx’s mirror was absent though. So was my scrying bowl. The doorway that usually led to the courtyard had a dark wooden door in it. Perhaps a bathroom?

“I’ll be off then.” Hunding announced. “I can’t wait to see your heroic death at dinner. Your Valkyrie will come and get you when it’s time. Until then, enjoy your stay at the Hotel Valhalla.”

I didn’t know how long until dinner so I decided to flip through a random book from my shelf. I wasn’t paying much attention to it, though. I needed to find a way home. It was strange, not too long ago I would’ve been over the moon to be free of the underworld but now I kind of missed it. It was familiar. Speaking of familiar, I hadn’t yet experienced the stabbing feeling in my chest that came with leaving the underworld. Perhaps I wouldn’t experience it because I technically was in a place where the dead reside. Just not the same one as usual.

A while later (who knows how long had passed), I heard a knock on my door. Having a door to my room was strange. I opened the door and found a tall person standing there. They had forest green hair that matched their shirt, pale skin and warm brown eyes.

“Hi, I’m Sage, your Valkyrie. Shall we head down to dinner?”
“Uh, sure. Nice to meet you, Sage.” I followed them out of my room. “Why am I here? I don’t belong in whatever afterlife this is.”

“Of course you do! I saw you fight that huge guy, that was really brave. So when you died, I decided to bring you to Valhalla.”

“No, I mean, this isn’t my culture, I should be somewhere else.”

“Culture doesn’t factor into it. We have people from all different backgrounds here. We’ve got Muslims, Christians, Pagans. We have people from all over Midgard. I’ll let us into the dining hall early, that way we can get you seated before everyone else arrives.” Sage led me back into the strange box (which I still didn’t know anything about) and it took us downwards this time.

When its doors opened, We found ourselves in a massive dining space. It was larger than the entire Temple of Styx. Sage led me to a small table at what seemed like the front of the room. Eight chairs sat along it. Six of the chairs already contained some teens and three Valkyries. Sage and I sat in the remaining chairs just as countless doors around the dining room opened and Hades knows how many teenagers swarmed into the room.

“Oh good!” Sage exclaimed, “It’s dinnertime!”

Chapter Text

As the countless teens swarmed into the room and rushed to take their seats, Valkyries swooped by overhead. One of them deposited a plate in front of me, meat and potatoes sat before me, drizzled in gravy. I looked around and saw everyone else tucking in eagerly. I decided to eat as well, even if I didn’t technically have to. The food was good . Not that I’d ever say it but it might even be better than the head chef of the House could make.

After a while, the men at the head table, who Sage informed me were the thanes, began banging their cups against the table. Almost everyone in the room joined in, creating a loud drumbeat. Helgi stood and raised his goblet. The noise died down.

“Tonight, four new einherjar join our ranks! Let the presentation of the dead commence!” He announced.

Apparently, the “presentation of the dead” consisted of a projection of what had happened at the einherji’s death which Sage explained was called a “video” when I questioned it. The other three people all died saving lives, sacrificing themselves to ensure the safety of others. I wasn’t sure that me dying while fighting lived up to the same standards.

“Zagreus!” Helgi boomed, “Rise and impress us with your courage!”

My video began to play. It showed me walking up to Hades and exchanging a few words with him. Not many could be heard but the room gasped when they heard the word “father”. The room watched as we fought and I was soon killed. When the video ended, there were mutterings between the thanes.

They debated whether:

A) Aegis counted as a weapon. One argued that a shield cannot be a weapon because it’s, well, a shield. Another shot back that it counted because I was using it as a weapon.

B) My death counted as being a heroic sacrifice to save others. Most decided that it didn’t as there was no one else there. One thane argued that I could’ve saved others from being targeted by my father.

In the end, it was decided that I shouldn’t have been brought to Valhalla. Sage grew pale when Helgi announced this.

“Sage Gordon-Walters! This is your second infraction! You will be temporarily stripped of your duties and abilities of a Valkyrie. Your punishment will last for one month.” Helgi waved his hand and Sage disappeared in a flash. That certainly ended dinner on a sour note.

Chapter Text

Everyone seemed to be heading up to their rooms so I decided to follow suit. I was fairly certain I could figure out how to use the strange box. I left the dining hall and was walking to the nearest of the strange boxes (apparently Valhalla needed lots of them), I heard yelling behind me.

"Hey! Hey, new guy! Wait up!" I stopped, turning around to the source of the yelling.

Squeezing his way towards me through the crowd was a blonde boy in a green hoodie.

"Hey, I'm Magnus."

"I'm Zagreus, nice to meet you, mate."

"Nice to meet you too, um, shall we go sit in the lounge next door to talk. It'll be a bit quieter." I nodded and followed Magnus to a sofa in the lounge in question. "I have a bit of a strange question. Are you Greek, by any chance?"

"Um, yeah. I guess you'd say I'm Greek, why?"

"My cousin's Greek and your Valkyrie Vision video reminded me of something her boyfriend told me about once. Was that Hades?"

"Yeah. How'd you figure that out?"

"Well my cousin, she's a daughter of Athena and she and her boyfriend met Hades once. Your video matched how they described him."

"A daughter of Athena?" I wondered. "She really doesn't seem the type to have kids. Anyway, yeah I'm Hades' son. Is there any chance you could get me in contact with this cousin of yours?"

"I probably could, why?"

"I need to get back to the underworld. No offense, this is a lovely afterlife but, uh, it's not for me."

"I don't know whether you could travel between afterlives. Sorry, but you might be stuck here."

"Oh! I'm, uh, not dead. I just died and somehow ended up here instead of the House of Hades."

Magnus raised an eyebrow, "That sounds pretty dead to me."

"Death's, uh, not very permanent for me. My blood is seventy-five percent god so when I die I, usually at least, get sent back to the House of Hades. This time when I died, I didn't."

"Okay, wow, um. That is. Weird. Yeah, I'll see if Annabeth can meet up with us in the next couple of days. What floor are you on? It'll be easier to take you to her if I know where to find you."

"I'm on floor twenty-one. What about you, mate?"

"Floor nineteen, where all the best people live. I'll catch you later, Zagreus." Magnus got up from the sofa and disappeared into the hall. I guess it's the waiting game, then.

Chapter Text

Over the next two or three days, I got comfortable with life in the Hotel Valhalla. I got breakfast with the other people on floor twenty-one, sparred with Magnus in the mornings and went to battle in the afternoons (the Hotel-wide battles were fun, they almost felt like I was back in the underworld. Dying in them just got me sent back to my room, though.) It was quite nice. A lot more calming than in the underworld but I missed the rush of racing from chamber to chamber and the thrill I got from receiving boons.

On the morning of my fifth day in Valhalla, there was a knock on my door. I opened it, rubbing sleep from my eyes. As much as I cared for Hypnos, I was not a morning person. Magnus, however, seemed perfectly awake as he stood in my doorway.

“Morning, Zagreus! How are you?”

“Sleepy. I don’t know how I’ll survive in the underworld without coffee now that I’ve tried it.” I mumbled.

“Well, sleepy, you might wanna wake yourself up. Percy and Annabeth want to meet in half an hour.”

“Gimme ten minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”

I got ready fairly quickly, taking a detour into the bathroom to splash some water on my face. As promised, I was ready to go in ten minutes.

“Wanna get breakfast?” I asked once I’d emerged.

“Nope. That’s why we’re meeting those two. We’re gonna chat over breakfast. C’mon, let’s get going.”

“...Am I gonna be allowed out? Am I even gonna survive once I’m out there, that’s the real question. Maybe I’ll be fine. How’s coming back work outside of the Hotel?” I wondered.

“Nonexistent. If you die out there, poof gone.”

“Ok. Uh, if I start coughing once we get outside and generally looking terrible, get me back here. My body doesn’t always handle being on the surface very well.”

“Alright… Anyway, to answer your question, you’ll probably be allowed out. If anyone tries to protest I’ll pull the hero card.”

Once we exited the Hotel, I spent a good couple of minutes getting used to the sunlight. It wasn’t usually this bright, was it? Once I’d gotten over that, though, I was completely in awe. The world around me was a far cry from the brief glimpses of Greece that I’d caught. Poor Magnus had to explain pretty much everything to me. Eventually, though, we got to the cafe where we’d agreed to meet Annabeth and her boyfriend. Magnus had explained what cafes were like before we arrived there so I wasn’t too confused about what was going on. It was like the lounge back at the House. I knew what the lounge was like. 

Magnus waved to a blonde girl in the corner of the cafe so I guessed that was Annabeth. And the dark-haired boy next to her must be her boyfriend, Percy. We made our way over to them and, a s we got near, Annabeth stood up.

“Hi. I’m Annabeth, this is my boyfriend, Percy.”

Chapter Text

“Hi. I’m Annabeth, this is my boyfriend, Percy.” She held out a hand for me to shake.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Zagreus.” I shook both her and Percy’s hands.

Once we’d all sat down, Percy stared at me for a minute before saying “He looks nothing like Nico.”

“Percy!”

“What? He doesn’t! The closest they have in terms of resemblance is they both have dark hair and it’s not even the same colour.”

Annabeth looked at me, her eyes were piercing. “No, actually, you’re right. Nico’s a friend of ours and also a son of Hades.” She explained.

“Ah. Nyx always said I look a lot like Mother so that could be it. Anyway, do you guys have any ideas on how I could get back to the underworld?”

“...I might. It relies on taking you to Camp, though.” Annabeth said.

“Camp?”

“Camp Half-Blood. It’s where we go to train, spend time with other half-bloods and generally be safer than just out in the wild.” Percy explained.

“I think we should take him to Camp Half-Blood.” Annabeth said to Percy. They started discussing whether they should take me to their camp.

“I’m feeling real left out right now.” Magnus chuckled.

“You try dying and waking up in some weird garden, I need all the help I can get right now.” I said.

“I did. I literally died and woke up outside the Hotel Valhalla. All of the Einherjar did.”

“You’re coming with us to Camp Half-Blood.” Annabeth announced.

“Um, okay then. When are we going?”

“As soon as possible.”
“I’m good to go now, then. Oh! Magnus, would you mind telling Sage where I went?” I asked.
“Sage?”
“My Valkyrie. They got stripped of their duties for a month when they brought me to Valhalla but I doubt I’m coming back so, uh, let them know for me. I don’t want them to worry.”

“Yeah, of course, man. Have fun guys!”

“Woo! Road trip!” Percy exclaimed.

Chapter Text

It turns out that transport has significantly improved since the chariot. Percy laughed when he realised I had no idea what a "car" was. He explained, though, and, soon enough, we were off.

The surface was weird. It was bright, there were tall buildings everywhere and there were so many living mortals. I'd never seen so many. It was a far cry from the little glimpses of the surface I'd had while finding my Mother.

Soon enough, Annabeth was informing me that we were almost at the Camp. When we pulled up, all I could see was a tall tree with a dragon curled around its base but, as we got closer, a large farmhouse came into view as well as lots of smaller buildings that I assumed were the "cabins" Percy had told me about. 

I wanted to explore Camp Half-Blood but Annabeth was adamant that I had to meet the Camp's directors. She and Percy led me into the farmhouse and into the lounge where three people were sitting. One was a centaur, another an older man and the third, a curly-haired teenager. They all looked up as we entered.

"This is Zagreus, the, uh, son of Hades we went to see." Annabeth said. "Oh, Zagreus, this is Chiron, Mr D. and Apollo."

"He doesn't really do anything, he just sorta bothers his kids." Percy chipped in.

Before Apollo could argue otherwise, Mr D stood up and strolled over to me.

"Hey, Zag. I never expected to see you here." He sipped some mystery drink and grinned at me.

It took me a moment but then "Dionysus? You don't look how I imagined, mate. Great to finally meet you, though."

Dionysus looked down at his chubby body and neon shirt. "Yeah, not the best I've looked but do these lot deserve more?" I snorted.

"Now, now. Don't be like that, Mr D. 'This lot' have done more for us than we can repay. Anyway," The centaur, Chiron, turned to me. "It's nice to meet you, Zagreus. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

Chapter Text

"It's nice to meet you, Zagreus. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood." Chiron held out a hand for me to shake. 

I took it. "Likewise. Achilles often has good things to say about you, you know."

"Oh, that's wonderful to hear. I hope Elysium's treating him well?"

"He's, ah, working in the House of Hades as my... mentor, he often visits Patroclus in Elysium, though."

"Can we wrap this up? It's great to see you, Zag, really. But I would like a few hours of peace and quiet before dinner." Dionysus interrupted. 

"Zagreus requires our help, I do think-"

"Nah, it's fine, Chiron. I wanna check out the rest of the Camp, it looks really cool." I interrupted.

"Well, if you don't mind waiting. Percy, Annabeth, would you mind showing Zagreus to the Hades cabin? I'm sure Nico will want to meet him and he can stay there tonight."

Apollo stood up, I'd kind of forgotten about him to be honest. "I'll come too. I'm sure Will's with Nico."

"Wait, so what did Chiron mean by 'the Hades cabin'?" I asked as we walked across the Camp.

"So we're all demigods here, meaning all of us are the child of a god. The easiest way to assign us to cabin is to divide us up based on our godly parent." Percy explained, "Lucky for you, Hades doesn't get around too much so Nico is the only child of Hades we have at the Camp. And now you, I guess."

The walk to the cabins led us down a slight hill and across a large grassy lawn to where rows of cabins were laid out. There was a U shape consisting of 12 cabins (belonging to the Olympians' children, most likely) with more rows of cabins behind. Percy and Annabeth led me to the second row of cabins and to a greyish-black cabin accented with (hopefully) fake bones. The door was painted black with silver accenting it.

Apollo knocked on the door, "Will! Nico! We're coming in!"

The inside of the cabin was decorated in a similar fashion. The bed frames were made of the same (presumably) fake bone and the black bedsheets had faint silver shapes on them that looked like skulls from the right angle. Along the walls were watercolour paintings of the various areas of the underworld in simple silver frames. On one bed were two boys that looked like they'd just been making out.

"Hey, dad. What's with the surprise visit?" The blond boy asked.

"We actually bought you a new cabin mate, Nico." Apollo told the dark-haired boy. "This is Zagreus. 

"Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Zag."

“Uh, hi. I’m Nico. I guess we’re brothers?” The dark-haired boy, Nico, said awkwardly.

“Percy and I are gonna head out, we’ve got studying to do. Have fun you guys.” Annabeth practically dragged Percy out of the cabin before he could protest.

"I would leave you two to it but I don't know my way around so, unfortunately, you're stuck with me for now." I told Will and Nico.

"Ah, actually, I needed to talk to you, dad. Shall we go back to the cabin?" Will said, standing up.

Once Will and Apollo left, I flopped down onto one of the other beds. "It's really gloomy in here. Who decorated this place?"

Chapter Text

“So… yeah. This is Camp Half-Blood. Over there is the sword fighting arena, the stables, the climbing wall, the armoury… Oh, you only have a shield, right? We can get you a weapon to go with that if you want.”

“Do I really need one? I think just Aegis will be fine. Wouldn’t say no to checking out the armoury though.”

Nico’s eyes lit up at the mention of Aegis. “No way is that Aegis. Can I take a look?”

“Sure.” I summoned Aegis, pulling it off my back and handing it to him.

Nico carefully, almost reverently, examined the shield, running his fingers across its edge. For a moment he looked into the centre of the shield before flinching away and handing it back to me.

“How can you look at that without… ugh . I’m gonna see that face in my nightmares.”

“Aww come on. I’m not that ugly, am I?” I joked. “C’mon, what sorta weapons does the armoury have?”

The armoury, it turned out, had most sorts of weapons. Daggers, bows, spears, swords.

“Who’s the best fighter here?” I wondered, shifting a spear in my grip.

“Definitely Percy. He’s one of the best sword-fighters I’ve ever seen.” Nico replied instantly.

“Oooh, I wouldn't've guessed he’s a sword guy. He seems more the type to use a shield and spear. …Then again most of the legendary fighters I’ve met up until now have all used a spear and shield.” I picked up a sword and weighed it in my hand. “What I wouldn’t do to have Stygius right about now. It’s a good-sized sword, made of Stygian iron and it feels as though it was made for my hand.”

“Stygian iron blades are pretty rare. I think mine’s the only one around here. What did you mean by good-sized?”

I lifted the largest sword I could find. “Maybe twice the length of this and three or four times the width?” I shifted it around in my grip, getting a feel for the blade. “This one’s quite nice, though. Where could I go to practice with this?”

The sword fighting arena was the place to go to practice with the sword I’d borrowed. Up one end was a girl teaching some younger kids how to swordfight. The other end was unoccupied, other than some straw training dummies. I took up a position in front of one of the dummies.

“Let’s see what this blade can do.”

I slashed and twirled my blade, cutting the sack exterior of the dummy to ribbons. It was no Skelly, that was for sure. A couple of times I missed my stabs but that could be chalked up to me being used to Stygius’ size. The wooden skeleton holding up the dummy was easily sliced up as well and, in less than a minute, the dummy was reduced to wood chips before me.

“You’re making a new dummy to replace that.”

Behind me was a mini-crowd I hadn’t even realised was there. It consisted of Nico, the girl teaching the kids, said kids wide-eyed and staring and, in front of them all, a rather impressed Percy.

“It’s only fair. Your one’s a little, uh, dead. Apparently you’re the best fighter here.” The crowd began to disperse when they realised I was done fighting for now.

“I’ve, uh, been told that.”

“What’s your résumé?”

“Long. Uh… Ares, Iapetus, Kronos… Lots of, uh, powerful people.”

“No kidding. Wanna add another name to the list?” I challenged.

“Gimme half an hour and it’s on.” Percy replied.

Percy talked to the girl who was teaching the kids, presumably to ask if we could use the whole arena then ran off to somewhere else in the Camp. While he did who knows what, I spent my half hour getting a little more comfortable with the sword in my hand. I didn’t decapitate anymore training dummies but I did almost give Nico an impromptu haircut at one point.

The half hour was over soon enough and, just before it was over, Percy jogged back into the arena. By this point, lots of people were sitting in the arena to watch.

“Hey, I’m back. How are we doing this?”

“I don’t wanna hurt you mate. How about it’s first to disarm? Sword only, no other weapons or abilities.”

“Sounds good to me.” Percy pulled a pen from his pocket and pulled the cap off. Before my eyes it turned into a gleaming bronze sword.

We took on our fighting stances and prepared for a fight.

Chapter Text

I shifted my feet, taking on a familiar stance. We lifted out swords in front of our faces and I nodded at Percy, signalling that I was ready. He nodded back and suddenly he was rushing at me. I darted back. And back. And back. I needed to see his fighting style. Find out what sort of attacks he favoured. He preferred to slash as opposed to stab. He needed to get a lot closer to land any blows. He also didn’t seem to put as much thought into his sides, leaving them vulnerable.

Percy dashed at me and I took my chance, dodging to the left and stabbing at his side, just close enough to brush his shirt. His head whirled around, his body soon following. I rushed out of the reach of his blade as he attempted to stab at me. It was clumsy, unpracticed. I took that opportunity to make an attempt at disarming him, trying to spin his sword from his grasp. He managed to move his sword out of the way, slashing at my torso as he went. I parried his slash, the force of it making Percy briefly lose his grip on the sword. He quickly recovered but I had already moved out of his way by then.

Percy seemed determined now. He advanced, not letting up with his attacks. He seemed determined to push me further and further back. He wanted to corner me. For a little white I let him, until we were a few metres from the wall of the arena. People were cheering Percy on just above my head. I was less intimidated than when I was facing Theseus and Asterius, though. Percy made a move to disarm me the same way I tried. I parried. Hard. His blade was sent flying from his grip. It clattered to the sandy ground a little way from where we stood.

“Good fight.” Percy held his hand out.

I took it and we shook hands. “You’re not too bad. Ares must be weak to lose to you, though.”

“It’s been a while since that, so maybe he really is.” We laughed and Percy headed off again.

I decided to stroll back to the Hades cabin and just enjoy being outside. On the surface. At first it didn’t make sense that I was able to survive on the surface but when I thought about it a bit more, maybe it did make sense. I was an einherji and I was supposed to fight at Ragnarok. I couldn’t exactly do that if I died ten minutes into the fight so maybe becoming one of the einherjar had changed that. That was nice, at least. I hoped that aspect of being dead stuck around even after I returned to the underworld. I got back to the cabin and slept for a little while (I think I must’ve slept more in the past couple of days than in the rest of my life) and, soon enough, Nico was shaking me awake to take me to dinner.

The dining pavilion was beautiful. Columns framed the eating area but didn’t obstruct the view of the ocean glittering below. There were no walls or ceiling, just open air and the beautiful sunset above. Nico led me to an empty table where the two of us sat opposite each other.

“Welcome to the Hades table. There’s only two of us so I hope you like my company.” Nico said, slightly bitterly.

“Hey, c’mon. Don’t be like that.”

Before Nico could say anything else, Dionysus announced the beginning of dinner and nymphs dashed around the pavilion placing plates of food in the centres of tables. Nico and I placed various food items on our plates. Meat, bread, grilled vegetables. It all looked delicious. Nico stood up and led me to a fire where people were burning portions of their meals.

“A tribute to the gods.” Nico explained, dropping a piece of meat and a bread roll into the flames.

I put some vegetables and some meat in the fire. “Thank you for the boons.” I whispered. I could probably stand to be a little more grateful for all that the Olympians have done for me.

When I returned to the Hades table, Nico and I ate in near silence. It wasn’t awkward, we just didn’t have much to talk about. We drank from goblets that were filled with whatever you wanted them to be. I chose Pomegranate juice and the taste of it reminded me of Euridice’s pom porridge. Wonderful.

Countless thoughts swirled through my head that night as I lay in the unfamiliar Hades cabin. Honestly, I missed the underworld quite a lot. I missed chatting with Euridice, talking to Chaos (as strange as they could be), sitting with Achilles and Patroclus in Patroclus’ chamber… It had been familiar. Normal. It didn’t feel right, sitting here, in the sun, talking to people who seemed to be slightly in awe of me. It was strange. I would be glad to get back to the underworld.