Aisha Karimi was all set to start her life after graduating highschool... at least that was until the egyptian goddess of Magic decided take her head. Now she's been thrust into a war to prevent the end of the world itself, and a power struggle among the gods that might spell her doom before the end of the year.
Of Gods and Monsters (Urban Fantasy/Mythology)
- Thread starter Spectre
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Prologue
Spectre
eternal servant to the Fire/EMS gods
- Location
- NY
Cairo Egypt, October 1798
Alister Agnar had seen many a field of carnage over his long and storied life. He still remembered storming the English shore as a young man, laying waste to the countryside as part of the Great Heathen Army. Centuries later, he could only mutter a hope that the fates would find a fitting punishment for the young King Henry of Monmouth as watched the English monarchy slaughter helpless French nobles on the fields of Agincourt.
The path of destruction left by Napolean Bonaparte through the ancient city was almost too much for him to bare. Pulling the cotton scarf higher up over his greying mustache in a vain attempt to keep the stench of death that now permeated throughout Cairo, Alister stumbled out of the slaughterhouse the Al-Azhar mosque had become.
"Christ almighty." His son Thomas exclaimed, stumbling out right on his heels. The young man with sandy brown hair dropped to his knees before hurling his breakfast onto the street. "I can't wait to see what Hel has in store for that fucking corporal." He seethed.
"I believe Anubis may have a better case for having a go at him." Alister corrected bitterly. Truth be told though. He thought, glancing back at the piles of bodies inside that had been torn apart by French cannon fire before being set upon by sabers and bayonets. I'll even settle for one of the circles of hell.
Thomas struggled back to his feet. The veteran of The Seven Years War whipped his face with his sleeve, not daring to look back at the carnage behind them. "I didn't see Amin or his daughters in there, did you?"
Alister shook his head, thankful that for at least the moment, his old friend might be safe. "We should check the sanctuary." He said, loosening the buttons on his acquired French army coat. "With any luck they made it back there."
"Yeah, maybe… look out!" Thomas shouted, jumping in front of Alister and letting swing an engraved forging hammer. Thunder echoed through the quiet streets as a previously unnoticed figure slammed against the wall of a nearby house.
The figures black hijab fell back from the force of the impact, revealing a girl little more than eighteen years of age. Her captured French uniform barely fit her slender frame and showed signs of the weeklong battle its new owner had endured, as did her blood caked face and short black hair.
Scrambling to her feet, the girl charged Thomas again, the air crackling with energy as her golden knives crashed into his hammer again with a loud clang.
Alister felt Gungnir materialize in his hands as he moved to help his son. The spear crackled with energy as he spotted another figure dressed like their attacker step out of a nearby alleyway, bow drawn.
"Haniyya!" Alister gasped as he and the girl recognized each other simultaneously. "Thomas, wait!" He shouted as Haniyya lowered her bow immediately, shouting at the other girl to stop the fight.
Haniyya's sister immediately skidded to a halt mid swing upon hearing her words. Unfortunately, Thomas was already caught up in Thor's lust for battle. The resulting blow to her abdomen launched the girl into the air, sending her crashing back down to the street headfirst. Before Alister could say anything else, he was already on top of her, Mjolnir raised for the killing blow.
CLANG!
"Thomas…" Alister cautioned as he deflected the blow. "Look."
Thomas regained control of his breathing as he looked down at their friend. "Oh god, Sameera." He said, pulling the girl to her feet. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be." Sameera grunted as she was pulled back on her feet, only to double back over in pain. The girl's caramel skin was ashen to the point of almost being grey, and blood soaked the white shirt under her coat. "I attacked you two. I'm sorry… the uniforms."
Thomas scooped Sameera up and began carrying her to nearby alley to get out of the street before any curious French soldiers showed up, Alister and Haniyya acting as a rear guard. "Is your father alive?" Alister asked.
Haniyya shook her head, and a shudder ran through her frame as she held back tears. "We found him in his study. The blade… the poison on it was immune to even my magic."
"It was that witch." Sameera grunted as Thomas gently set her down against a wall and began removing her jacket. "I never should have trusted her. I should have slit her throat when I had the chance."
"You didn't know this would happen." Haniyya tried to reassure her. "We all thought she could control her."
"Bastet didn't." Sameera muttered. "If I had listened to her, father would still be alive."
Haniyya gasped as she lifted Sameera's shirt, not at what her sister had said, but at triangular bayonet wound on her abdomen. The stab wound looked to be a few days old, hastily stitched and incompletely stitched closed and clearly infected. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"You needed to save your magic for father." Sameera weakly replied. She tried pulling herself back up on her feet, only to collapse against the wall.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Thomas asked as he moved to support her. "We need to get you to our place, get you to people who can heal you."
"No." Sameera insisted, shrugging off Thomas's help. She tried to stumble back out into the street, even as her body began to shut down. "We need to get to the citadel. There's still time to catch them if we hurry."
"The Citadel…" Thomas called out as Sameera collapsed again. "Do you hear yourself?" Rushing out to catch her, he carried her back into the alley. "Sameera, what your proposing is suicide, and not the fun kind that gets you into Odin's Hall. You'd be lucky to make it half a mile before you dropped dead in the street, never mind fighting your way through Napolean's guards.
Alister knelt down next to Sameera. The girl looked up at him, tears running down her face. "Your father wouldn't want you to throw your life away. It's time to rest child, you've done more than should have ever been asked of you."
A bright gold light washed over the alley as Thomas finished the portal. "Elizabeth is waiting for you two on the other side." Alister told Haniyya, as the two helped Sameera towards it. "Thomas and I will join you once we've retrieved your fathers body for a proper burial."
"He's at the sanctuary." Haniyya whispered. "And thank you. We should only need a day or two at most."
"It will be months before Napolean's rage has been sated, and Egypt won't be safe for you two until then." Haniyya was taken back by Alister's words. "Stay as long as you need." He insisted. "Your father would have done the same for Thomas and Elizabeth if anything ever happened to me."
Haniyya took one last look at the Ruined city around her. "Thank you."
As she and her sister limped through the portal, little did they realize it would be the last time they'd ever be able to call the city home ever again.
----
Present Day
Smoke and dust choked the air around Aisha Karimi as she wandered down the street in her nightgown. It reminded her too much of that night in Cairo when the revolution began. The night her parents were killed.
This wasn't Cairo though. It was always a different city in these dreams. Sometimes New York, sometimes the great European cities like London, Paris, or Rome. Tonight though, it was her home… and San Franscisco was burning.
The ground shook as one of the skyscrapers began to collapse, drowning the street in a cloud of dust and choking Aisha's lungs. She shook what she could out of her clothes and shoulder length black hair. Looking up at a sky which glowed bright red from the countless fires raging throughout the city. "What is this?" She whispered.
"Depends." A voice said behind her. Turning around, Aisha saw a woman in a bright red ankle length dress approaching her. The figures facial features were hidden by the blinding light a pair of rainbow colored wings emitted. The figure was familiar to Aisha, yet unrecognizable at the same time, and the power she radiated forced the teenage girl to take a couple steps back.
"The Norse called it Ragnarök. The Christians Armageddon. Even your prophet." The figure spit the last word out. "Had a word for it. Malhama Al-Kubra." The figure chuckled. "The end of days, the final battle, gods descending from heaven to fight the legions of demons climbing up from the pits of chaos."
The figures wings disappeared as the figure began to walk towards her, giving Aisha a good look at her for the first time. Her olive skin was adorn with so much gold and precious stones that the clatter of her bracelets and necklaces could be heard even over the chaos around them. Her raven black hair was done up in intricate braids adorned with even more precious stones.
"Don't worry though, this is only a vision of what might come." The woman smirked. "As my vessel, you will have all the power needed to stop it." The figure stopped just in front of Aisha, brushing a few strands of hair out of her face. "At least, as long as you follow my every command."
Aisha flinched at the woman's touch, the figure though, she just smiled. "Yes…" She continued. "With you I will finally be able to deal with those two lapdogs of Ra, and my treasonous upstart of a son. Then together, we will bring Egypt into a new golden age."
Aisha pushed her heart back into her throat. "…And if I refuse?"
The woman rolled her eyes as she patted Aisha on her shoulder. "Then let me give you a taste of what's to come." The woman disappeared as a wall of fire came rushing down the street. Aisha took off running as the conflagration approached. Flames licked at her body as she was picked up by it and tossed down the street…
And she woke up screaming in her room moments later…
Alister Agnar had seen many a field of carnage over his long and storied life. He still remembered storming the English shore as a young man, laying waste to the countryside as part of the Great Heathen Army. Centuries later, he could only mutter a hope that the fates would find a fitting punishment for the young King Henry of Monmouth as watched the English monarchy slaughter helpless French nobles on the fields of Agincourt.
The path of destruction left by Napolean Bonaparte through the ancient city was almost too much for him to bare. Pulling the cotton scarf higher up over his greying mustache in a vain attempt to keep the stench of death that now permeated throughout Cairo, Alister stumbled out of the slaughterhouse the Al-Azhar mosque had become.
"Christ almighty." His son Thomas exclaimed, stumbling out right on his heels. The young man with sandy brown hair dropped to his knees before hurling his breakfast onto the street. "I can't wait to see what Hel has in store for that fucking corporal." He seethed.
"I believe Anubis may have a better case for having a go at him." Alister corrected bitterly. Truth be told though. He thought, glancing back at the piles of bodies inside that had been torn apart by French cannon fire before being set upon by sabers and bayonets. I'll even settle for one of the circles of hell.
Thomas struggled back to his feet. The veteran of The Seven Years War whipped his face with his sleeve, not daring to look back at the carnage behind them. "I didn't see Amin or his daughters in there, did you?"
Alister shook his head, thankful that for at least the moment, his old friend might be safe. "We should check the sanctuary." He said, loosening the buttons on his acquired French army coat. "With any luck they made it back there."
"Yeah, maybe… look out!" Thomas shouted, jumping in front of Alister and letting swing an engraved forging hammer. Thunder echoed through the quiet streets as a previously unnoticed figure slammed against the wall of a nearby house.
The figures black hijab fell back from the force of the impact, revealing a girl little more than eighteen years of age. Her captured French uniform barely fit her slender frame and showed signs of the weeklong battle its new owner had endured, as did her blood caked face and short black hair.
Scrambling to her feet, the girl charged Thomas again, the air crackling with energy as her golden knives crashed into his hammer again with a loud clang.
Alister felt Gungnir materialize in his hands as he moved to help his son. The spear crackled with energy as he spotted another figure dressed like their attacker step out of a nearby alleyway, bow drawn.
"Haniyya!" Alister gasped as he and the girl recognized each other simultaneously. "Thomas, wait!" He shouted as Haniyya lowered her bow immediately, shouting at the other girl to stop the fight.
Haniyya's sister immediately skidded to a halt mid swing upon hearing her words. Unfortunately, Thomas was already caught up in Thor's lust for battle. The resulting blow to her abdomen launched the girl into the air, sending her crashing back down to the street headfirst. Before Alister could say anything else, he was already on top of her, Mjolnir raised for the killing blow.
CLANG!
"Thomas…" Alister cautioned as he deflected the blow. "Look."
Thomas regained control of his breathing as he looked down at their friend. "Oh god, Sameera." He said, pulling the girl to her feet. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be." Sameera grunted as she was pulled back on her feet, only to double back over in pain. The girl's caramel skin was ashen to the point of almost being grey, and blood soaked the white shirt under her coat. "I attacked you two. I'm sorry… the uniforms."
Thomas scooped Sameera up and began carrying her to nearby alley to get out of the street before any curious French soldiers showed up, Alister and Haniyya acting as a rear guard. "Is your father alive?" Alister asked.
Haniyya shook her head, and a shudder ran through her frame as she held back tears. "We found him in his study. The blade… the poison on it was immune to even my magic."
"It was that witch." Sameera grunted as Thomas gently set her down against a wall and began removing her jacket. "I never should have trusted her. I should have slit her throat when I had the chance."
"You didn't know this would happen." Haniyya tried to reassure her. "We all thought she could control her."
"Bastet didn't." Sameera muttered. "If I had listened to her, father would still be alive."
Haniyya gasped as she lifted Sameera's shirt, not at what her sister had said, but at triangular bayonet wound on her abdomen. The stab wound looked to be a few days old, hastily stitched and incompletely stitched closed and clearly infected. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"You needed to save your magic for father." Sameera weakly replied. She tried pulling herself back up on her feet, only to collapse against the wall.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Thomas asked as he moved to support her. "We need to get you to our place, get you to people who can heal you."
"No." Sameera insisted, shrugging off Thomas's help. She tried to stumble back out into the street, even as her body began to shut down. "We need to get to the citadel. There's still time to catch them if we hurry."
"The Citadel…" Thomas called out as Sameera collapsed again. "Do you hear yourself?" Rushing out to catch her, he carried her back into the alley. "Sameera, what your proposing is suicide, and not the fun kind that gets you into Odin's Hall. You'd be lucky to make it half a mile before you dropped dead in the street, never mind fighting your way through Napolean's guards.
Alister knelt down next to Sameera. The girl looked up at him, tears running down her face. "Your father wouldn't want you to throw your life away. It's time to rest child, you've done more than should have ever been asked of you."
A bright gold light washed over the alley as Thomas finished the portal. "Elizabeth is waiting for you two on the other side." Alister told Haniyya, as the two helped Sameera towards it. "Thomas and I will join you once we've retrieved your fathers body for a proper burial."
"He's at the sanctuary." Haniyya whispered. "And thank you. We should only need a day or two at most."
"It will be months before Napolean's rage has been sated, and Egypt won't be safe for you two until then." Haniyya was taken back by Alister's words. "Stay as long as you need." He insisted. "Your father would have done the same for Thomas and Elizabeth if anything ever happened to me."
Haniyya took one last look at the Ruined city around her. "Thank you."
As she and her sister limped through the portal, little did they realize it would be the last time they'd ever be able to call the city home ever again.
----
Present Day
Smoke and dust choked the air around Aisha Karimi as she wandered down the street in her nightgown. It reminded her too much of that night in Cairo when the revolution began. The night her parents were killed.
This wasn't Cairo though. It was always a different city in these dreams. Sometimes New York, sometimes the great European cities like London, Paris, or Rome. Tonight though, it was her home… and San Franscisco was burning.
The ground shook as one of the skyscrapers began to collapse, drowning the street in a cloud of dust and choking Aisha's lungs. She shook what she could out of her clothes and shoulder length black hair. Looking up at a sky which glowed bright red from the countless fires raging throughout the city. "What is this?" She whispered.
"Depends." A voice said behind her. Turning around, Aisha saw a woman in a bright red ankle length dress approaching her. The figures facial features were hidden by the blinding light a pair of rainbow colored wings emitted. The figure was familiar to Aisha, yet unrecognizable at the same time, and the power she radiated forced the teenage girl to take a couple steps back.
"The Norse called it Ragnarök. The Christians Armageddon. Even your prophet." The figure spit the last word out. "Had a word for it. Malhama Al-Kubra." The figure chuckled. "The end of days, the final battle, gods descending from heaven to fight the legions of demons climbing up from the pits of chaos."
The figures wings disappeared as the figure began to walk towards her, giving Aisha a good look at her for the first time. Her olive skin was adorn with so much gold and precious stones that the clatter of her bracelets and necklaces could be heard even over the chaos around them. Her raven black hair was done up in intricate braids adorned with even more precious stones.
"Don't worry though, this is only a vision of what might come." The woman smirked. "As my vessel, you will have all the power needed to stop it." The figure stopped just in front of Aisha, brushing a few strands of hair out of her face. "At least, as long as you follow my every command."
Aisha flinched at the woman's touch, the figure though, she just smiled. "Yes…" She continued. "With you I will finally be able to deal with those two lapdogs of Ra, and my treasonous upstart of a son. Then together, we will bring Egypt into a new golden age."
Aisha pushed her heart back into her throat. "…And if I refuse?"
The woman rolled her eyes as she patted Aisha on her shoulder. "Then let me give you a taste of what's to come." The woman disappeared as a wall of fire came rushing down the street. Aisha took off running as the conflagration approached. Flames licked at her body as she was picked up by it and tossed down the street…
And she woke up screaming in her room moments later…
Last edited:
Chapter 1: A New Era
Spectre
eternal servant to the Fire/EMS gods
- Location
- NY
And together, we will bring Egypt into a new Golden age… The figures words still bounced around Aisha's head the next day as she made her way through the hallways of her school. She was sure it was a demon, looking to sway her from Allah's path, but at the same time…
She was so caught up thinking about the figure didn't even notice the stairs in front of her until her foot hit air. A small yelp escaped her, as she was yanked back by the people behind her. "Earth to Aisha, you awake up there?"
Aisha turned around to her foster siblings. "You must have really been shaken up last night." Sarah Kadanski muttered, her intelligent grey eyes looking Aisha over.
Aisha blinked a couple times at that last part. Sarah's eyes had been a dark blue as long as Aisha had known her, but sure enough her irises were now a steel grey. A figure shimmered behind Sarah, a woman with matching grey eyes and long brown hair tied in a simple a simple braid. The woman wore white dress beneath a silver breastplate, a similarly colored and intricately engraved shield covering her left arm and shoulder. As quickly as the figure appeared, it vanished like a mirage.
Aisha tried to put on a brave face and push what she had just seen out of her head. "Whatever gave it away."
"Well for starters, you were screaming loud enough to wake the hamster dad buried in the back yard when we were eight years old." Sarah's twin brother Mark deadpanned, running a hand through his sandy blond hair. Another figure, a roman centurion in full armor, flickered behind him. "What the hell kind of dream were you having?"
"Just the end of the world." Aisha sighed nonchalantly. "Cities destroyed, fire raining from the sky. Demons offering unlimited power to stop it in exchange for selling her my soul." She let out a soft chuckle. "Just the normal end of finals nightmares all highschoolers have."
That chuckle died when she saw the looks on Sarah and Mark's faces. "Aisha…" Sarah asked, her face pale. "What did this… devil look like?"
A chill ran down Aisha's spine. "Ancient Egyptian… like that one old movie mom and dad like, complete with that gaudy makeup and jewelry, red dress, with rainbow-colored wings of light behind her." She tried to stuff her heart back down her throat. "Why, have you two been having the same dream too?"
The two siblings looked at each other. "Kinda, but not the same figure." Sarah told her. "I keep getting visited by a woman in silver Greek armor, going on about how I'm an important part of her plan. She told me that when the time came, I would know what to do…"
"Still better than having a roman centurion yell at you about honor and duty every single night." Mark muttered. "Even if this was all real, what are a bunch of kids going to do to stop the end of the world."
"One shouldn't be so quick to sell oneself short." The trio turned to see a young woman walking towards them. Aisha put her at barely being old enough to be out of college, though it was hard to tell with how much of the woman was covered by her jeans, white long sleeve shirt, and hijab. "As long as one source of light remains in the world, it will always triumph regardless of the darkness around it."
"Can we help you?" Sarah asked. A chill went down Aisha's spine. There was a familiarity to the woman that Aisha couldn't place, especially since she didn't remember any other practicing Muslims in the school. An image flashed across her vision, one of the girl covered in blood and gore, a knife in her hand raised high as if ready to strike. A voice in her mind told her to run, causing her to take a step back and almost fall down the stairs a second time before being caught by some coming up them.
"Are you alright Aisha?" Karen Matsushita asked as Aisha steadied herself. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Yeah…" Aisha replied, as much to assure herself as to assure her friend. "She turned back to the girl who had addressed them earlier. "Sorry, who are you?"
"You don't remember Miss Dodds?" Karen asked, nervously tapping the... Aisha did a double take at the sword the Japanese American teen was holding, not sure if it was real or not. "She's the student teacher helping Mr. Burns run our social studies class."
Aisha glanced back at "Miss Dodds". Memories began to wander into her head of a student teacher fitting Dodd's description, but the seemed to fade in and out like a mirage. A dream that never really happened. She looked over at the others. Sarah and Mark eyes were glazed over, their heads nodding along sleepily. Karen though still seemed to be all there. Her panicked gaze flickering back and forth between Aisha and Dodds.
"Sorry Miss Dodds." Sarah went to shake her head, but Aisha could tell the mental fog was still hovering over her. "It's been a bit of a week, with finals and all that. We were just on our way to Mr. Burns room so Aisha can complete her noon prayer."
As the group followed Miss Dodds down the hallway, a chill raced further and further down Aisha's spine. She knew something was off, that something about "Miss Dodds" wasn't adding up. She couldn't say anything to Mark, Sarah, or Karen though, not without them thinking she was actually going insane. Besides, maybe this was just the stress of the nightmare's catching up to her. After all, it wasn't like this student teacher could be that dangerous.
Don't be fooled! A voice screamed from the back of her head. Aisha inhaled sharply as the worst headache of her life rolled across her brain. She will kill you if you let your guard down!
Aisha's hands shook as she unrolled her prayer rug and knelt. She was about begin the prayer when Miss Dodds began to speak…
Whatever language the substitute teacher was speaking, it wasn't Arabic, or at least any variation Aisha was familiar with. Eyes snapping forward, she fought to control her breathing as panic set in. Her whole body trembled as she began to recite her prayers.
Aisha slowly stood up after finishing her prayer and turned towards Miss Dodds. "Who… or what are you?" She nervously stuttered, backing away from the woman until her back bumped into the classroom wall.
Miss Dodds just continued to roll up her prayer rug, never saying a word toward Aisha. "Really mother…" A disembodied voice echoed from across the room. Slowly, a girl in her late teens to early twenties materialized sitting on one of the desks. Unlike the figures near Mark and Sarah, she didn't flicker out of existence. "Hiding behind a teenage girl?"
She shared enough features with the woman in her dreams to be her daughter. The two couldn't be any more different though. The girls light brown skin lacked as single smudge of makeup or piece of jewelry on it. Her short black hair was tied back in a simple ponytail. A bronze scale armor breastplate covered her white tunic and two bronze daggers dangled from a belt around her waist. "Could you stoop any lower." She growled, a small leather pouch twirling around her finger.
"Listen…" Aisha's eyes darted between the two girls, her heart racing. "I don't know who are. I don't know what is going on. I don't why I'm hallucinating all of this, and I don't have any money. So, if you would please leave me alone."
A rainbow colored wall suddenly flashed in front of her, Aisha yelping in surprise as a stone sparked off it. The girl next to Miss Dodds smirked, the leather pouch now dangling from her hand.
"Daughter…" Aisha turned to see the woman from her nightmares standing next to her. The demon had thankfully turned down the brightness of her wings, allowing her regal features and regalia to be on full display. Even with all the power that radiated from her, the figure was terrified of the girl across from her. "I assure you I-"
Another barrier flung up in front of the demon… and immediately shattered as another pebble raced pasted her and out the open window behind her. Aisha gasped and grabbed her cheek. Glancing back over at the figure, she could see a thin trickle of blood running down her cheek.
"Bast." Miss Dodds bristled, as if fighting some unseen force herself. Her eyes flickered between hazel and pure gold. "Odin's orders were to confirm her presence, nothing more."
"Odin is a fool." Bast scoffed. She hung the sling on her belt, hands immediately going to the daggers. "If he is so concerned about Loki, then just send us to collect that lowly tricksters head and be done with it."
"That's enough!" Miss Dodds growled, causing even Bast to flinch. He gaze focused on Aisha with laser like precision. "We're done here." She about faced, storming out of the room as Bast disappeared.
Sarah, Mark, and Karen cautiously peaked their heads around the door frame. "What the hell just happened in here?" Mark asked, glancing down the hall.
Aisha could only stand there, more questions spinning around her head than answers.
---
Karen Matsushita, a few hours later.
"This is all moving too fast." Karen Matsushita sighed, glancing down at her family's ancestral weapon. The Honjo Masamune vibrated from the energy inside, and popping the seal on the scabbard revealed a blade that crackled with red and white lightning. "It's not fair to them, to be blindly thrown into a life like this."
The samurai on the bleachers next to her could only nod solemnly. Dressed in a blood red set of laminar armor, Hachiman cut an imposing figure to the few who could see him. "Fate rarely cares for what is fair when choosing those who will carry out its will, only what is needed."
Karen shuddered a bit at her deities' callousness. It was already bad enough for her to lie to Mark and Sarah for months on end after they were chosen, but they were at least ignorant of what was going to happen. Aisha though, the poor girl was slowly being driven insane by the sorcerer in her head.
"There you are." Karen's head snapped to bleachers below her, where Aisha was waving. She walked up and sat down on the row below her, the crafty sorcerer in question appearing by her side in full royal regalia.
"Hachiman." The woman curtly addressed her deity. "Truce."
Hachiman smiled. "I'm ashamed you would view me as so dishonorable as to kill someone during a conversation Isis."
Isis began admiring the rings on her hand. "It never pays to be too careful. After all, your host is a protégé of my treasonous daughter."
"That's an interesting definition of treason." Hachiman chuckled. "Bast have never been anything but loyal to Egypt."
"And I am what Egypt needs to return to glory." Isis sneered. "My vision is her true path."
"You can see too!" Karens eyes snapped to Aisha, who was staring at her. "You can see them too. You know what's going on, don't you?"
Karen's eyes dipped down to her sword. She hated this part of her life, the lies, the secrets. "I'm sorry." She told Aisha. "It's not my place to tell you what fate has in store for you."
"Not your place!" Aisha shouted in disbelief. "It's not your place. Even after you brought a girl to our school who you pretended was a student teacher, who tried to kill me mind you. And after you've spent all day walking around the school with a real sword." Aisha put a hand on Masamune.
Karen's reaction on instinct, shoving her elbow into Aisha's ribcage and pulling the katana out of her grasp as Aisha stumbled over the bleachers. "Aisha." She explained through ragged breath. "Never do that again."
Aisha stared at her in shock, grabbing her bookbag and sprinting down the bleacher steps as Isis vanished into thin air.
Karen felt sick to her stomach as she watched Aisha sprint back into the school. "Her path is a hard one for anyone to walk." Hachiman told her. "Give her time to learn her role. Not everyone has the fortune you did to know their destiny from birth."
"Of course." Karen nodded as her phone buzzed. She looked to see a message from Sameera, telling her to start heading back to her grandfathers dojo.
The walk home was quiet, eerily so. Karen was so caught up in her thoughts she never noticed two figures approaching her until Hachiman called them out to her.
Looking up she saw a western gunslinger, and a French musketeer. Both figures had clearly died in battle, their ash grey skin and multiple wounds made that clear as day even if they were both surrounded by an unnatural black smoke. Karen dipped into the alley beside her, retreating into its depths as she drew her blade.
A storm of energy erupted from Honjo Masamune's scabbard as the blade left it, and by the time it subsided Karen was in a full set of fitted armor. Both specter's came around the corner firing. Any other sword would have been twisted and bent into uselessness by the force of the bullets hitting its edge…
The Honjo Masamune wasn't like any other sword. The first round ricocheted into the brick walls of the alley, disappearing into a puff of smoke. The seconds slammed into the gunslingers knee, sending him dropping to the ground in pain. The musketeer drew his rapier, thrusting it at her heart. It was Childs play for Karen to bat the sword aside, opening the man to a diagonal slash that opened him up from shoulder to waist. Karen stepped by him as he fell, slicing the gunslingers head from his shoulders as he tried to bring his six shooter to bare on her.
The two bodies had barely finished dissolving into smoke when she felt the presence of a third figure behind her. She was already in mid swing when to her horror, she found her mentor standing behind her. The blade passed through Sameera as if she were a mirage, with not even the hijab on her head being disturbed. She stepped inside Karen's guard, grabbing her arm and giving her a hug. "It's alright." She tried to calm her protégé down. "You're safe."
Karen glanced back at where the two bodies had been. "What were they?"
"Minions of Hel." Sameera spat. "She and her father are growing bolder."
A sudden realization hit Karen. "Mark, Sarah, and Aisha." She told Sameera as she raced back into the street. "If they know about me…"
She felt Sameera's hand on her shoulder. "My sister, Thomas, and Alister are already at the house talking to Hestia and Prometheus." Sameera assured her. "Right now, the important thing is making sure your grandfather is alright."
Karen nodded, leading her mentor down the street to her home.
Up above them, unseen on the rooftops, an archer watched them with his bow drawn. "Nah," he smirked as he lowered the weapon. "Better to wait until they reach their meeting point. After all, eight godlings taken off the board are better than two."
She was so caught up thinking about the figure didn't even notice the stairs in front of her until her foot hit air. A small yelp escaped her, as she was yanked back by the people behind her. "Earth to Aisha, you awake up there?"
Aisha turned around to her foster siblings. "You must have really been shaken up last night." Sarah Kadanski muttered, her intelligent grey eyes looking Aisha over.
Aisha blinked a couple times at that last part. Sarah's eyes had been a dark blue as long as Aisha had known her, but sure enough her irises were now a steel grey. A figure shimmered behind Sarah, a woman with matching grey eyes and long brown hair tied in a simple a simple braid. The woman wore white dress beneath a silver breastplate, a similarly colored and intricately engraved shield covering her left arm and shoulder. As quickly as the figure appeared, it vanished like a mirage.
Aisha tried to put on a brave face and push what she had just seen out of her head. "Whatever gave it away."
"Well for starters, you were screaming loud enough to wake the hamster dad buried in the back yard when we were eight years old." Sarah's twin brother Mark deadpanned, running a hand through his sandy blond hair. Another figure, a roman centurion in full armor, flickered behind him. "What the hell kind of dream were you having?"
"Just the end of the world." Aisha sighed nonchalantly. "Cities destroyed, fire raining from the sky. Demons offering unlimited power to stop it in exchange for selling her my soul." She let out a soft chuckle. "Just the normal end of finals nightmares all highschoolers have."
That chuckle died when she saw the looks on Sarah and Mark's faces. "Aisha…" Sarah asked, her face pale. "What did this… devil look like?"
A chill ran down Aisha's spine. "Ancient Egyptian… like that one old movie mom and dad like, complete with that gaudy makeup and jewelry, red dress, with rainbow-colored wings of light behind her." She tried to stuff her heart back down her throat. "Why, have you two been having the same dream too?"
The two siblings looked at each other. "Kinda, but not the same figure." Sarah told her. "I keep getting visited by a woman in silver Greek armor, going on about how I'm an important part of her plan. She told me that when the time came, I would know what to do…"
"Still better than having a roman centurion yell at you about honor and duty every single night." Mark muttered. "Even if this was all real, what are a bunch of kids going to do to stop the end of the world."
"One shouldn't be so quick to sell oneself short." The trio turned to see a young woman walking towards them. Aisha put her at barely being old enough to be out of college, though it was hard to tell with how much of the woman was covered by her jeans, white long sleeve shirt, and hijab. "As long as one source of light remains in the world, it will always triumph regardless of the darkness around it."
"Can we help you?" Sarah asked. A chill went down Aisha's spine. There was a familiarity to the woman that Aisha couldn't place, especially since she didn't remember any other practicing Muslims in the school. An image flashed across her vision, one of the girl covered in blood and gore, a knife in her hand raised high as if ready to strike. A voice in her mind told her to run, causing her to take a step back and almost fall down the stairs a second time before being caught by some coming up them.
"Are you alright Aisha?" Karen Matsushita asked as Aisha steadied herself. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Yeah…" Aisha replied, as much to assure herself as to assure her friend. "She turned back to the girl who had addressed them earlier. "Sorry, who are you?"
"You don't remember Miss Dodds?" Karen asked, nervously tapping the... Aisha did a double take at the sword the Japanese American teen was holding, not sure if it was real or not. "She's the student teacher helping Mr. Burns run our social studies class."
Aisha glanced back at "Miss Dodds". Memories began to wander into her head of a student teacher fitting Dodd's description, but the seemed to fade in and out like a mirage. A dream that never really happened. She looked over at the others. Sarah and Mark eyes were glazed over, their heads nodding along sleepily. Karen though still seemed to be all there. Her panicked gaze flickering back and forth between Aisha and Dodds.
"Sorry Miss Dodds." Sarah went to shake her head, but Aisha could tell the mental fog was still hovering over her. "It's been a bit of a week, with finals and all that. We were just on our way to Mr. Burns room so Aisha can complete her noon prayer."
As the group followed Miss Dodds down the hallway, a chill raced further and further down Aisha's spine. She knew something was off, that something about "Miss Dodds" wasn't adding up. She couldn't say anything to Mark, Sarah, or Karen though, not without them thinking she was actually going insane. Besides, maybe this was just the stress of the nightmare's catching up to her. After all, it wasn't like this student teacher could be that dangerous.
Don't be fooled! A voice screamed from the back of her head. Aisha inhaled sharply as the worst headache of her life rolled across her brain. She will kill you if you let your guard down!
Aisha's hands shook as she unrolled her prayer rug and knelt. She was about begin the prayer when Miss Dodds began to speak…
Whatever language the substitute teacher was speaking, it wasn't Arabic, or at least any variation Aisha was familiar with. Eyes snapping forward, she fought to control her breathing as panic set in. Her whole body trembled as she began to recite her prayers.
Aisha slowly stood up after finishing her prayer and turned towards Miss Dodds. "Who… or what are you?" She nervously stuttered, backing away from the woman until her back bumped into the classroom wall.
Miss Dodds just continued to roll up her prayer rug, never saying a word toward Aisha. "Really mother…" A disembodied voice echoed from across the room. Slowly, a girl in her late teens to early twenties materialized sitting on one of the desks. Unlike the figures near Mark and Sarah, she didn't flicker out of existence. "Hiding behind a teenage girl?"
She shared enough features with the woman in her dreams to be her daughter. The two couldn't be any more different though. The girls light brown skin lacked as single smudge of makeup or piece of jewelry on it. Her short black hair was tied back in a simple ponytail. A bronze scale armor breastplate covered her white tunic and two bronze daggers dangled from a belt around her waist. "Could you stoop any lower." She growled, a small leather pouch twirling around her finger.
"Listen…" Aisha's eyes darted between the two girls, her heart racing. "I don't know who are. I don't know what is going on. I don't why I'm hallucinating all of this, and I don't have any money. So, if you would please leave me alone."
A rainbow colored wall suddenly flashed in front of her, Aisha yelping in surprise as a stone sparked off it. The girl next to Miss Dodds smirked, the leather pouch now dangling from her hand.
"Daughter…" Aisha turned to see the woman from her nightmares standing next to her. The demon had thankfully turned down the brightness of her wings, allowing her regal features and regalia to be on full display. Even with all the power that radiated from her, the figure was terrified of the girl across from her. "I assure you I-"
Another barrier flung up in front of the demon… and immediately shattered as another pebble raced pasted her and out the open window behind her. Aisha gasped and grabbed her cheek. Glancing back over at the figure, she could see a thin trickle of blood running down her cheek.
"Bast." Miss Dodds bristled, as if fighting some unseen force herself. Her eyes flickered between hazel and pure gold. "Odin's orders were to confirm her presence, nothing more."
"Odin is a fool." Bast scoffed. She hung the sling on her belt, hands immediately going to the daggers. "If he is so concerned about Loki, then just send us to collect that lowly tricksters head and be done with it."
"That's enough!" Miss Dodds growled, causing even Bast to flinch. He gaze focused on Aisha with laser like precision. "We're done here." She about faced, storming out of the room as Bast disappeared.
Sarah, Mark, and Karen cautiously peaked their heads around the door frame. "What the hell just happened in here?" Mark asked, glancing down the hall.
Aisha could only stand there, more questions spinning around her head than answers.
---
Karen Matsushita, a few hours later.
"This is all moving too fast." Karen Matsushita sighed, glancing down at her family's ancestral weapon. The Honjo Masamune vibrated from the energy inside, and popping the seal on the scabbard revealed a blade that crackled with red and white lightning. "It's not fair to them, to be blindly thrown into a life like this."
The samurai on the bleachers next to her could only nod solemnly. Dressed in a blood red set of laminar armor, Hachiman cut an imposing figure to the few who could see him. "Fate rarely cares for what is fair when choosing those who will carry out its will, only what is needed."
Karen shuddered a bit at her deities' callousness. It was already bad enough for her to lie to Mark and Sarah for months on end after they were chosen, but they were at least ignorant of what was going to happen. Aisha though, the poor girl was slowly being driven insane by the sorcerer in her head.
"There you are." Karen's head snapped to bleachers below her, where Aisha was waving. She walked up and sat down on the row below her, the crafty sorcerer in question appearing by her side in full royal regalia.
"Hachiman." The woman curtly addressed her deity. "Truce."
Hachiman smiled. "I'm ashamed you would view me as so dishonorable as to kill someone during a conversation Isis."
Isis began admiring the rings on her hand. "It never pays to be too careful. After all, your host is a protégé of my treasonous daughter."
"That's an interesting definition of treason." Hachiman chuckled. "Bast have never been anything but loyal to Egypt."
"And I am what Egypt needs to return to glory." Isis sneered. "My vision is her true path."
"You can see too!" Karens eyes snapped to Aisha, who was staring at her. "You can see them too. You know what's going on, don't you?"
Karen's eyes dipped down to her sword. She hated this part of her life, the lies, the secrets. "I'm sorry." She told Aisha. "It's not my place to tell you what fate has in store for you."
"Not your place!" Aisha shouted in disbelief. "It's not your place. Even after you brought a girl to our school who you pretended was a student teacher, who tried to kill me mind you. And after you've spent all day walking around the school with a real sword." Aisha put a hand on Masamune.
Karen's reaction on instinct, shoving her elbow into Aisha's ribcage and pulling the katana out of her grasp as Aisha stumbled over the bleachers. "Aisha." She explained through ragged breath. "Never do that again."
Aisha stared at her in shock, grabbing her bookbag and sprinting down the bleacher steps as Isis vanished into thin air.
Karen felt sick to her stomach as she watched Aisha sprint back into the school. "Her path is a hard one for anyone to walk." Hachiman told her. "Give her time to learn her role. Not everyone has the fortune you did to know their destiny from birth."
"Of course." Karen nodded as her phone buzzed. She looked to see a message from Sameera, telling her to start heading back to her grandfathers dojo.
The walk home was quiet, eerily so. Karen was so caught up in her thoughts she never noticed two figures approaching her until Hachiman called them out to her.
Looking up she saw a western gunslinger, and a French musketeer. Both figures had clearly died in battle, their ash grey skin and multiple wounds made that clear as day even if they were both surrounded by an unnatural black smoke. Karen dipped into the alley beside her, retreating into its depths as she drew her blade.
A storm of energy erupted from Honjo Masamune's scabbard as the blade left it, and by the time it subsided Karen was in a full set of fitted armor. Both specter's came around the corner firing. Any other sword would have been twisted and bent into uselessness by the force of the bullets hitting its edge…
The Honjo Masamune wasn't like any other sword. The first round ricocheted into the brick walls of the alley, disappearing into a puff of smoke. The seconds slammed into the gunslingers knee, sending him dropping to the ground in pain. The musketeer drew his rapier, thrusting it at her heart. It was Childs play for Karen to bat the sword aside, opening the man to a diagonal slash that opened him up from shoulder to waist. Karen stepped by him as he fell, slicing the gunslingers head from his shoulders as he tried to bring his six shooter to bare on her.
The two bodies had barely finished dissolving into smoke when she felt the presence of a third figure behind her. She was already in mid swing when to her horror, she found her mentor standing behind her. The blade passed through Sameera as if she were a mirage, with not even the hijab on her head being disturbed. She stepped inside Karen's guard, grabbing her arm and giving her a hug. "It's alright." She tried to calm her protégé down. "You're safe."
Karen glanced back at where the two bodies had been. "What were they?"
"Minions of Hel." Sameera spat. "She and her father are growing bolder."
A sudden realization hit Karen. "Mark, Sarah, and Aisha." She told Sameera as she raced back into the street. "If they know about me…"
She felt Sameera's hand on her shoulder. "My sister, Thomas, and Alister are already at the house talking to Hestia and Prometheus." Sameera assured her. "Right now, the important thing is making sure your grandfather is alright."
Karen nodded, leading her mentor down the street to her home.
Up above them, unseen on the rooftops, an archer watched them with his bow drawn. "Nah," he smirked as he lowered the weapon. "Better to wait until they reach their meeting point. After all, eight godlings taken off the board are better than two."