Chapter Text
When he saw the man in the glowing suit of armor, Percy knew his time of peace had come to an end.
Enjoying his time off from college, he was getting little Estelle dressed when someone rang the bell to his mother's apartment. He heard his mom answering it, so he kept closing the buttons to his sister's bodysuit.
"Hey Pewcy, say baby in the bus", the toddler ordered him as he sat her on her his lap and started brushing her hair.
Percy chuckled and started singing. For some reason, Estelle went absolutely crazy if you sang any variation of "the wheels on the bus". She threw her head back, opened her mouth wide and squeezed her eyes shut as she swung her head in sync with the music, clearly enjoying the experience. Percy found that hilarious, though he worried she might choke on something one day.
"Percy !" His mom called him, and though her voice seemed mostly normal, he could sense some worry in it. He lifted Estelle by her armpits and walked to the entrance whilst carrying her. At a little over three years old, the girl was only now starting to be heavy, so he could still carry her accross a room or two or give her a piggyback ride.
"Oh, a kniiiight !" Estelle yelled right into his ear as they approached the doorway, making him wince.
At first, Percy had no idea what she meant. He looked over at the stranger talking to his mom. He was a few heads taller than Percy, maybe his age so a little over twenty, and his long dark hair was tied into a bun. He seemed foreign, maybe south-east Asian, with light brown skin and almond-shaped eyes, and Percy got the sense that his should have been blue instead of dark brown as they were. He wore a Mc Donald's uniform and smelled like fries, so he was probably at the end of a night shift. Though he was smiling politely as he talked to his mom, a strange accent coloring his words, Percy sensed a great sadness from him.
"Oh, hello there !" He said as he saw Estelle, his smile widening and finally reaching his eyes. "Hi", he added for Percy. "Nice to meet you, I'm Kal".
"Hi, I'm Percy and this is Estelle", Percy answered as he shook his hand with the hand that wasn't under Estelle's legs.
Kal's grip was deceptively strong, which made Percy realise how muscular he was, especially for his size. He glanced at his mom, silently asking her what was wrong.
"This is our new neighbor", she explained. "Um, see anything strange about him ?"
He focused to look though the Mist. As the years had gone on, he'd found that he couldn't do it as easily anymore, but neither did he need to. Monsters mostly left him alone, he hadn't been in a quest since Estelle was a baby, and so the worst problem in his life had become keeping his GPA afloat. Still, his powers hadn't disappeared and he could tap into them if needed. As he did, looking at Kal more intently, he gasped and nearly dropped Estelle. Fading in and out of visibility, a glowing blue suit of armor surrounded the stranger. It was of a strange build, definitely not ancient Greek, and the helm made Percy think of the Power Rangers. The symbol on his breastplate was in no language Percy knew or had ever heard of, but he knew the meaning just from looking at it : Bridge four. The words clicked into his head as if it were Ancient Greek, and he could even tell this was a simplified version of a different glyph. What was a glyph though ? He had no idea.
"Do you... know you're wearing a suit of armor ?" Percy cautiously asked Kal after exchanging a glance with his mom.
The new neighbor's smile melted. He raised his hand, and the gauntlet of his suit seemed to become more corporeal as it stopped fading. Yet somehow, Percy knew he wouldn't feel it if he touched Kal's hand again.
"You can see my Shardplate even when it's not summoned ?" He asked incredulously. "I haven't met anyone who could see it at all in months. But you don't seem to see Syl. Maybe because she got bored and left", he added, frowning slightly after glancing at his shoulder.
"You look like there's a lot we need to talk about", Sally said as she seemed to be resigned to something. "Come in, let's have some breakfast".
***
Sally Jackson should have been screaming like a fangirl, yet she was at the edge of tears.
She had started reading the Stormlight Archive a few years after getting with Gabe Ugliano, when Percy was about ten, and followed it all throughout the years. Just a few weeks ago, she'd made 'sad boi' jokes on Reddit about Kaladin Stormblessed, her favorite character in the series. That night, she'd recieved a dream from who she suspected was Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, warning her she would meet him and Percy would need help parsing through the facts to understand who he was. Or at least that was what she had understood. For some reason, the goddess appeared with the face of Imani Lewis and insisted on trying to sound as cryptic as possible, referring to Percy as 'the son of the sea' and Kaladin as 'the knight of wind and truth'. Still, recognizing his Shardplate from the figurines that would be sold soon made it clear that her dream had been reality. Plus she'd gotten a glimpse at Syl, Kaladin's spren companion, zipping away as a blue ribbon as she'd opened the door. She was perceptive that way.
While making some blue pancakes, Sally discretely shed a few tears, making sure the boys couldn't see her in the kitchen. If only a few things had gone differently, Percy's life could have been as horrible and full of tragedy as Kaladin's. She'd spent years feeling guilty for failing to protect her boy from the tragedy he did face. Then she'd learned to live with the fact that she couldn't have changed anything, but seeing Kaladin in person right in the middle of her yearly reread of The Way of Kings, seeming barely any older than her Percy, brought all those feelings back to the surface. She felt like a terrible mother.
Wiping her tears with one hand as she put batter on the pan with the other, she took a deep breath and composed herself. Maybe she wasn't perfect, but now she knew for sure Lirin the surgeon, Kaladin's father, existed and he was absolutely terrible. For all her flaws, she'd never told Percy he wasn't her son anymore. She was proud of him regardless of who he became, and she'd never put some stupid oath over her love for him.
"Kaladin dear", she asked when her voice felt normal, "would you like some strawberries in your pancakes ?"
"Yes please bright- er, ma'am", the youth answered from afar.
Sally chuckled to herself at his slip up, then wondered how Kaladin had learned English, which was unlikely to be easy to pick up from Alethi. As she added sliced strawberries to the pancakes, she considered how the man -half her age, but still a man- she'd just invited into her house was a literal alien, born and raised on another planet than Earth. It was only a slight layer weirder than anything surrounding Magnus, Annabeth's cousin, but it still hurt her brain a little to wrap around.
When she was done, she brought the plates to the dining room, where the children -or rather they were not children anymore, though they still felt that way- sat. Percy, thinking ahead, had already put Estelle on her high chair and wrapped a bib around her neck. Kal looked awkward, towering over Percy as they sat, but he smiled wistfully at the toddler while she tried to catch Syl in her meaty little hands.
"Estelle reminds you of Oroden, I imagine", Sally said as she handed him his plate.
"Thanks. How do you know about my brother ? And about my full name ?" The knight frowned, but he seemed more curious than suspicious, oddly out of character from him.
"Good question, mom", Percy agreed.
"It's a long story", she answered as she sat down next to Estelle. "But let's start from the beginning, shall we ? Kaladin, do you know how you ended up on Earth ?"
"Are you implying he's an alien ?" Percy asked before Kaladin could respond.
"Well, he is one. Maybe even a double alien since technically his species isn't even native to the planet he grew up on, they're from another planet in the same solar system. The natives of his planet are singing crab people with marble patterns on their skin".
The boys gave her an odd look as she started the cut up the pancake she'd made for Estelle.
"What ?" She asked. "Isn't that exactly what the Singers are ?" Then she picked up a piece of pancake with a small fork and presented it to the child. "Estelle look, the plane is landing !"
"I swear she's not usually like this, man", Percy said while she fed the little girl and congratulated her on not claiming the airport was closed. "She only gets this odd when talking about... this book series she loves". Sally's son's face went slack. "Mom, tell me he isn't a character from it".
"Well, he's not just a character from a book anymore if he's right here now, is he ?"
"I guess, but what is happening ? What god is causing this ?"
"What god ?" Kaladin asked. "Implying there's several ?"
"Ours are a little different from the ones you're accustomed to, dear", Sally explained. "For one, there are hundreds of them, and they're nowhere near as powerful as your Honor or Odium. Think of them more like the Heralds, only usually slightly less insane."
"The Heralds ?" Percy asked. "Is that like the guy who was tortured for like thousands of years and says the same sentences over and over again or am I remembering wrong ?"
Sally had to suppress a smile. Finaly her years spent reading books were serving a purpose, and an important one at that !
"Ah yes, the Talenelat copypasta. I don't even remember mentioning it to you. Funny that."
"I mean, you only quoted the entire text of it to me twice, of course you wouldn't remember it", Percy replied while rolling his eyes.
"Please tell me the monologue of the Herald of War is not a copypasta", Kaladin gritted through his teeth.
"Okay, I won't tell you".
"I want copypasta, not pankcakes", Estelle said, closing her mouth right in time to avoid the bite Sally was presenting her.
"Copypasta is not food, sweetie, and it wouldn't taste good if it were. Now pancakes on the other hand... say aaaah".