Chapter Text
Clouds blew overhead, chasing the wind that crossed through them like it was an old friend.
Jason was familiar with that sensation. The wind was his friend. He could feel it washing over his skin, his eyes fixed in place, barely focused through the quiet around him.
It was too quiet. Too quiet, too still even with his friend the wind calling the grass to tickle him awake. He was awake. He was... where?
Here. He was here. Where. Was. Here.
How long he'd been lying 'here' was undetermined, but Jason managed to sit up, expecting to feel a pain in his chest. He'd been impaled, after all, but did Elysium keep track of that?
Right. Elysium. Dead man's land. The home of the brave dead. That must be where he was. Awake. Aware. He must have slipped through the cracks of Pluto's, or Hades', very large fingers and ended up here without trial, without consequence—
"Hey, a new guy!" a voice said from somewhere behind him. When Jason looked, a large door was closing, a call of, "You'll see at dinner!" slicing through his ears.
New guy? Dinner?
This was not the Elysium Nico had told him about, the one he'd dreamt about blindly, the one he'd always been told he'd wind up in. Elysium didn't have dinner. Or wind. Or walls, and especially not a building standing whatever the hell number floors tall this one did.
Especially squared, it did not have a building with a flashing label reading: "Hotel Valhalla".
Jason took another look around, eyes narrow. Valhalla? It didn't ring many bells except that he'd maybe heard Annabeth mention it a few times in reference to Boston.
Was that where he was? Whatever scent the wind was carrying wasn't New York, or San Francisco, or any other number of places he'd been so it must have been...
That still didn't give him much context. Boston, Hotel Valhalla, Annabeth.
Her cousin. This was... this was his home. Now and forever until Ragnarök, wasn't it? Viking Elysium, if he remembered the story he'd heard from her right. Joy. That was... joy inducing. He was sure it was meant to be, anyway. He felt no joy. He'd been impaled by Caligula, out on the open sea, and yet he was supposed to be here now, living it up until the world's end.
Ah, yes, the picture of happiness in this moment was Jason Grace.
He found himself on his feet soon enough, unstable as if he were still on the boat. His vision rocked, his stomach shifted, plummeting to his toes.
Hands came and steadied him. "Careful, buddy. It's a lot to get used to, I should know."
Jason blinked, turning his head slowly toward the voice so that he didn't fall over. Green hair, no, blond, no— oh, there were two people standing there but only one was holding him up. The blond guy was the one who'd spoken, judging by the way his mouth was still moving but Jason couldn't hear over the rushing in his ears; of blood or excess water he wasn't going to guess. The green-haired person was bending down and picking something up, sleeve wiping at it.
Jason's glasses were placed on his face and the motion blur stopped. One of the people had blond hair, and familiar grey eyes... recognition hit him.
"You're Magnus, aren't you?" he asked.
"Present," Magnus said carefully, a little confused, looking between Jason and the green-haired person. "And this is my—"
"Alex," she interrupted, dual-coloured eyes narrowed in scrutiny. "Fierro. She and her pronouns."
"Jason Grace," Jason introduced. He locked his eyes on Magnus. "I know your cousin."
Now, it was Magnus' turn to have recognition smack him in the face. "Right. Right, she's talked about you. Her and Percy both. You're a Roman." Alex mumbled something under her breath akin to 'more pantheonic fun, great' and Magnus let go of Jason now that he was steady to grab her around the shoulders instead. "Excuse her. We're used to the Norse side of things and only know a bit about you guys thanks to Annabeth's knowledge."
"No harm, no foul, I'm sure. Romans are strong, aren't they?" Alex said sarcastically.
She tilted her head so the lighter of her eyes fell into the shadow of her hair, still staring at Jason like he'd personally offended her; Jason didn't know enough about her to assume he hadn't done just that despite only waking up.
He cleared his throat slightly and looked back up at the hotel, his vision much clearer now. The sign he'd read was bright but he guessed it still managed to be hidden from mortal view, just like the camps. "This is quite the place," he murmured.
"It's bigger inside." Magnus smiled a bit and let Alex go. Jason half-expected her to become rabid, but she just kept still. "You're around our age, right? You'll be on our floor. Floor 19."
With Alex looking at Jason like that only more joy was being added onto his plate.
"There are nineteen floors in this place?" As soon as he uttered it he knew it was stupid after it had just been explained—the Empire State building, the building in New York which led to Olympus, was the same way, shorter on the outside, a fun journey. "That's... wow."
"Way more. We'll be your personal guides, man, don't worry. Alex can even let your friends know where you ended up." Magnus turned on his heel, leaving her behind with Jason, apparently oblivious to the continuing stare down, or he just trusted her that much.
Jason preferred to think it was the latter as he stepped around the pink and green clad girl to follow the other blond.
Magnus managed to get the doors open and somehow time them so as to not let them slam in Jason's face. Then, he began to ramble off bits and pieces of lore about the hotel, rules, regulations (or lack of), and even showed him the schedule posted on the bottom floor.
Jason was more mesmerised by the Valkyries flying around, the ax-throwing maniacs, the death surrounding him that didn't seem to faze either Magnus, nor Alex who had begun to cling to his back like a pink and green tree frog. If he remembered right, the brighter the animal, the more lethal it was, so to Jason, Alex was a giant walking "Keep Away" sign. Magnus, however, still didn't seem worried and Jason was nothing if not a people-pleaser, so he just kept his eyes on him.
The song on the elevator ride up to floor 19 was just as ear-worming as Olympus' but it ended much sooner and Magnus sped up going down the hall, pointing to a door with Jason's name on it. He didn't remember Magnus being so cheerful in Annabeth's stories, but the guy just seemed fun to be around. Maybe he was in a good mood?
"Yup, here's yours," Magnus said. "Only you can open it. We'll leave you to settle in. Do you want us to tell Annabeth?"
He tilted his head, blond hair falling over his face the way Alex's had before but it didn't make him look nearly as deadly, even with the scars and rough chop.
Jason looked at his door and then back to Magnus. "Uh, no, not just yet, if that's okay. I really think getting used to this all will take some time, and—" And I couldn't handle Annabeth's... everything about this right now if I tried, so soon after death.
Surely, she would tell Piper, who would tell Leo, who would beg him to come back despite Jason not even knowing if he could. Not to mention Nico... oh, Nico's poor heart. That was who he was going to have to get Annabeth to tell first, no doubt.
Magnus seemed to get the hint and backed down with a nod. "We'll leave you to it, then. Come on, Alex."
Alex went without a word, chatting quietly with Magnus and looking back at Jason briefly until they turned to get back into the elevator and he lost sight of the pair. He let out a sigh of relief.
After another few moments of hesitation, he opened the door labelled with his name and... wow. It was unlike anything he could have expected.
For one, it was large. Larger than it looked like it would be from the outside; about half the size of a functioning sleep house at Camp Jupiter. A branch of some tree—the World Tree, he thought back to Magnus' teachings as they'd walked—sprouted up from the middle, and rooms split off from the atrium in the four cardinal directions.
The doorway, where he stood, was plain enough. Behind the gigantic branch was a window overlooking something of a courtyard though he couldn't see outside from this far, and then east and west had their own general split functions.
To his left was what he guessed was his bedroom; if he'd have to sleep here, people had better get real good at blocking out the noise of screams if they weren't already. The bed was big, bigger than anything at Camp Jupiter, and decorated plain but cosy. Another window lined the wall beside the bed, its curtain drawn but dappling light like a forest's canopy across the sheets. Otherwise, there wasn't much except some bookshelves, a sitting area, and a fireplace.
The right side was even less interesting, with a small kitchen and a bathroom, both looking from a distance as if they were fully stocked. He could already guess he wouldn't be spending much time in here, and especially not making much food other than cereal. The gesture from whoever made this room, though, was appreciated.
Jason stepped in further and set off into the air with a strange wind that encircled the tree, finding his way to a low branch and sitting comfortably. His gaze fell out the larger of the two windows, and he watched the grounds below, speckled with einherjar fighting. Or training, as Magnus said.
For Ragnarök. That was a huge thing in the Norse side of the world, the one most unexplored by him and his friends.
He knew that Annabeth's experience with the Norse was mostly secondhand from her cousin, but maybe this wouldn't be so bad with the right motivation.
The motivation being his death, but, well...
His mind filled in the circle, leading back to Nico.
He had to tell him about this. He knew he had to. But then, why did he feel like Nico already knew...?
A while later, the call for dinner rang out in the hotel, startling Jason from his trance. He didn't pay much attention to what it was, though, because the knock on his door was even more startling. Jason's door opened before he even set a foot on the ground, so all he saw was Magnus and Alex's wide-eyed stares as he landed before them both.
"You can fly," Magnus said bluntly. His eyes shifted around the room behind Jason, taking in what he could see.
"I can," Jason confirmed. "Using the wind and... stuff. Are you okay? You seem shocked, you know, considering—" He gestured vaguely.
Magnus straightened up a bit. "Nah, I have friends who can fly. All of the Valkyries can, and do. You seen them already downstairs, I'm assuming. But it's a bit weird seeing, I guess, a boy doing it?"
Behind him, Alex snorted and leaned against the doorway, all surprise washed from her face. "It's different," she agreed. She seemed less poison-froggy now than earlier. Maybe she was excited about the food. "But then I can fly, too, if I pick the right animal, so..."
As if to prove her point, Alex turned into a small green hummingbird, flitted around Magnus and then Jason's heads for a second—giving what Jason hoped was an accidental peck with her beak to a soft, tender spot on his head—and flew down the hall toward the way downstairs.
He rubbed his head, huffing briefly. "Shapeshifter. Got it. That was something."
"Like I said," Magnus sounded pained, as if he'd been run over by a horse named Alex, "don't mind her. She hasn't had a great day."
Jason frowned, suddenly feeling bad for all of his internal comments since he'd come to meet her. He stepped out of his room and closed the door. "Yeah, no, I don't mind, don't worry about it."
"She gave me her phone before we came here to get you, anyway, so we can text Annabeth on our way to dinner." Magnus pulled it out of his pocket—an old flip-style phone with green and pink rhinestone stickers. His eyes scanned the screen. "Damn it, Alex, why do you always put this thing on 'Do Not Disturb'?" Honestly, that felt characteristic for the girl Jason had just met regardless of her bad day. "Anyway, it looks like... Annabeth's already spamming it. That explains it. Hang back with me a minute."
Jason stopped in place beside the elevator as some of their other hallmates left their rooms. He spotted a redheaded girl chatting to a large, very Viking-looking guy. They were followed by an excited black boy in... old US military attire?—whose voice sounded awfully familiar, he thought; the guy he'd heard at the door downstairs.
They all greeted Magnus, and eyed Jason with differing emotions, then hopped in the elevator together and continued chatting. He guessed he would see them at dinner like the boy at the door had said?
"Annabeth, hey," he heard Magnus say. The phone was up to his ear. He sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. "You were told by who...? Yeah, okay, here he is."
Magnus held the phone out to Jason. "It's for you. I will never claim to understand how my cousin and her friends work."
Cautiously, Jason took the phone. Gods, he was going to have to be extra careful if he didn't want to make Alex's bad day even worse by breaking her phone with either his hand or his lightning, so he just hoped Annabeth would keep her cool. "Hello—?"
"Aha! Nico was right!" Yup, there it was. Annabeth's voice crackled through the receiver. "I mean, he still nearly ran Percy through with his shadows when he tried to deny it, but he was right! A Roman in Valhalla. I cannot believe it."
Jason imagined her running a hand over her hair over and over like she did when she was stressed or excited or on the the verge of a mental breakdown, messing up whatever curls or style she had for the day. "Yeah, it's... weird, I'll admit. But your cousin's done a good job acclimating and touring me, so I've just gotta get used to it, now... I guess."
"Don't sound so down," she suddenly chilled. "You do your acclimatisation, I trust Magnus to help you. Don't hesitate to call if you ever need a familiar voice. Huh, I wonder if Nico would still be able to summon you to us since you're not a shade or in the Underworld at all. I've never gotten him to try with Magn—"
As if actually summoned, Magnus took the phone from Jason's hand. "Hey, Annabeth, we actually have to make it to dinner before everyone wonders where the new einherji is. Odin'll give us a power-point presentation on timeliness, you know the drill. Talk later, bye."
Jason raised a brow at the quick end to the call but then Magnus was moving toward the elevator again, the doors opening immediately, and they were lost in the music for the ride back down.
The maze of halls brought them through to a grand room with more of that gigantic tree and hundreds if not thousands of dining tables. Jason looked around in awe. This alone was bigger than even some palaces and he felt like his knees were going to give out again. The Valkyries were still flying around but there wasn't so much fighting in here as chaotic chatter from the large amount of einherjar. A dizzying number—like an army.
Which wasn't far off... and this was only a portion of the people meant to fight at Ragnarök?
"Incredible," Jason breathed but Magnus didn't hear him over the noise, walking while Jason managed to both follow and keep pace. They stopped at a table with their other hallmates as well as Alex back in human form. She didn't seem as impressed, still, but she looked at him with a better-fed smile. Or maybe it was a knowing one.
He sat on the other side of Magnus so that the cousin of Annabeth was sandwiched between himself and the shapeshifter before Magnus tapped his shoulder and shook his head, pointing toward a Valkyrie walking toward them. "You've got to sit with her for a minute. Just until the Norns judge your heroism."
Ah.
Jason nodded and got back onto his feet. His Valkyrie, a hefty black-haired girl in Viking armour, introduced herself as Elin and shook his hand when he offered even as she struggled not to pull a face. It reminded him eerily of Alex's earlier demeanour but he said nothing and sat as the ceremony began.
His Valkyrie handed off a camera—Valkyrie Vision, he heard thrown around in his bleary state—and the footage was planted into a hologram projector, the broadcast of his death playing for a hall of thousands.