Oblivion

Training

I'm sweaty, tired, sore, and hungry. I must still press on with my training mainly because I don't have a choice, but also I've never wielded any sort of a weapon much less a spear. The master spearwoman is determined to make me just as good as she is, and apparently that means waking up at 5 in the morning and training till noon with three 30 minute breaks to eat, drink, and rest. 

"Harder! Faster! You must wield your weapon as an extension of your person! You don't make weak and sluggish motions when your life is in danger do you?" She demands an answer and I know it but I'm still trying to be better. "Do you?!" She yells as she's next to me, and somehow she's in my face. "No," I say as cold as Niflheim. I was suddenly so mad, I imagined that my teacher was in front of me and that I was beating her ass with my sledge hammer.

As silent as a shadow, Magnus walked in and simply observed. I didn't falter even once with the barrage of moves I was executing against the imaginary version of my teacher. All the while, I'm using a sledge hammer in place of Oblivion because that's what the spearwoman told me to use. "If you get to be like me when swinging a sledge hammer, you'll be even better than me when you wield your spear," she told me. "How am I to wield a sledge hammer with one hand because there are moves that you can only do with one hand." "Training, lifting, conditioning, and more." She replied as if it were that simple.

Magnus stopped the training and asked me to walk with him, and I did even though I'm still in my pajamas. "I'm sorry for being so curt with you since you got here a week and a half ago. It's just..." he said. "Just what?" I reply genuinely concerned. "Odin stressed that you were much more powerful than the rest of us were ever going to be and that we're to protect you at all costs." "What makes me that important, much less that powerful? I'm just a kid that managed to jump over your guys' hedge fence thing, I'm not even an einherji, and I have a spear for a weapon. What makes me that important? Or powerful for that matter?" I snap. He smiles sadly/ kinda pitifully and says cryptically yet kindly, "All of that and more. Now, let's get you something to eat." His mood changed to a happier one, which is good as I can't stand to see him looking miserable. "Hey I'm sorry I snapped at you, it's just my training is stressing me, I haven't gotten the chance to change out of my pj's even." "I think it's time you get your own room. Since you've been staying with me, Alex has started getting jealous and I can't have THAT, ya know?" "Yeah. After all, these are your pajamas you lent me." "Yeah... I'm going to need those back, by the way."

We get to the main entrance and I get a room key from Hunding and I'm led to said room by Magnus. I unlock the door like he showed me. I open it up and it looks like his, only the walls aren't beige they're a nice shade of purple that gradually goes to blue and back to purple. Where the reading area is in his, there's a combination woodshop and metal shop in mine. Complete with lathes, welding stations, tools, anything and everything, even metal and wood too. I quickly get changed, grab Oblivion and meet Magnus out in the hallway to go with him and get food.

On the way to the dining hall Magnus explains that, in order to get in here, I have to be a demigod. Which is odd for me to think of considering I think I'm, mostly, a normal human. It also turns out that I'm supposed to find out tonight who my godly parent is. I sit with him at his table, and I am lightly shaking with excitement as this is the first time I will meet the rest of the floor 19 group. I recognize each of them by the description Riordan provided me with. Alex with her green hair, T.J. in his Union coat, and the two extreme gingers that always argue being Halfborn and Mallory. I walk up to Alex and say, "My name is Halcyr, and I'm a big fan your work," as I jab my thumb at Magnus. She laughs and says "Yeah me too. My name is Alex Fierro and my pronouns are -" "She and her. Don't ask how I know because I don't even know." " Are you sure you're not related to Magnus?" "Yes. I'm sure." I laugh. I then introduce myself to the others, as I grab myself some food. I eat like a starved person and by the end, I am a stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey and somehow I still want more. I remember what comes next and it's the part I'm most anxious for, the heritage-telling and 'fate' reading.

However, the room starts to grow silent as someone stands, this person points to the throne that the Allfather is supposed to sit in. Gathering around it is a lot of Mist, and it's creeping me out a little. Suddenly the mist dissipates, the Norns step out of it and walk over to me slowly, oddly it doesn't seem like they're walking, but more like slightly hovering. 

They offer me this ring engraved with a weird symbol on it. I take it gingerly, and put it on, it fits perfectly. Halcyr, daughter of the Allfather himself. They announce to the entire room. I sit back too stunned to speak. But it all makes sense to me now. the way he called me child it wasn't just a term of endearment, I'm actually his child.