7CHAPTER FOUR: LAYING DOWN SOME RULES
PREVIOUSLY:
"Percy: 350. Zeus: 2" Hermes muttered to himself and yelped in pain as he was zapped with lightning for his troubles.
Zeus frowned but didn't back down from his arguments, "Even at that, ignorance of the law is no excuse, and you and I know as well that Olympian law advocates against unprovoked attack on members of the council by non members" he argued firmly.
Percy rubbed his jaw, "In that case, what do you suggest?" he asked tiredly making Clare more nervous than she already was. "Well since it would be somewhat unfair to kill her…" Percy rolled his eyes, "… the best we can do is to assign her as a sort of servant to Ares until his wounds are fully healed" Zeus stated.
Percy's face adopted a thinking expression for a few moments before he shrugged, "Sounds fair enough…" Ares face lit up, "… but she'll be supervised by someone of my own choosing and she stays at my palace instead of his, the last thing we need is her finally finishing up the deed by murdering the meat head in his moment of weakness just because he thought he could rape her easily." Percy supplied in a clipped tone making Zeus nod in understanding.
Artemis (who had finally snapped out of her perverted day dreams) was glaring at him for the 'stays at my palace' part, while Ares attempted to glare at the king but it came out as a grimace as his nether regions throbbed in pain.
"Council dismissed" Percy intoned dully yet authoritatively which was enough to make everyone (Artemis included) flash away to attend to other things that required their attention.
"You and I have a lot to talk about '47'" Percy stated flatly while the Claymore nodded numbly with only one thought going through her mind.
'Did… Did I just get handed out into slavery?'
NOW:
In a bright flash, Percy and Clare materialized in the main room of the formers palace, letting go of the Claymore's arm, Percy walked over to his favourite chair before plopping down on it with a tired sigh while Clare remained standing where she was as her brain attempted to come to terms with what had just happened.
"I let you out of my sight for just a few hours and you've already had your self given out into slavery, please tell me that falling into trouble is a special skill of yours" Percy asked tiredly before pausing a bit, "… Olympus knows that I don't need another of my kind running about" he muttered.
That seemed to snap Clare out of her reverie, "Another of your kind?" she asked tentatively, Percy fixed her with a tired stare, "The kind that gets into trouble without effort" he deadpanned.
Clare shook her head before clenching her jaw tightly as her frustration over all that was going on caught up with her, "Who the hell are you people?! Where am I?! Why the hell am I here in the first place?! And most importantly what the hell is going on?!" she snapped in frustration before letting out heaving breaths as she was done with her venting.
"Are you done?" Percy asked with an amused smirk on his face, a question to which Clare nodded slowly with a small blush of embarrassment on her pale chheks.
He nodded before waving a hand and a sofa materialized out of thin air close to him. He gestured for her to sit and she complied hesitantly.
Seeing a chair appear out of nowhere would make anyone hesitant to sit on it.
"Well, to answer your first question, we are gods, Greek gods to be precise. The second, you're on Olympus, the home of the Greek gods. Third, the reason you're here is anyone's guess. And the answer to your final question is that I don't have a fucking clue on what the hell is going on, but I'll just roll with it, a lot of unexplainable shit happens in the Greek pantheon so after a while you just get used to it."
Clare blinked at the answers that she had just received.
"gods? As in like the twin goddesses Teresa and Clare?" she asked for further clarification sake.
Percy gave her a weird stare, "If you mean divine deities then yes. I'm the king of Olympus, it is my job to maintain peaceful or at the very least stable relation between Olympus and other pantheons. I for one have never met or heard of any twin goddesses by the name of Teresa and Clare, that on its own is worrying enough."
Percy scrutinized her a bit before asking, "Where exactly are you from?"
Clare opened her mouth to speak before shutting it, her brows furrowed in thought.
Where was she from exactly? She had spent so long training as a Claymore to avenge her mother figure that she had lost touch with her past.
Hell, Clare wasn't even her birth name, it was the name that had been given to her by the most important person that she had in her life.
Teresa.
"You don't remember where you're from do you?" Percy asked, though it sounded more like he was saying rather than asking.
"… Not my place of birth at least" she finally answered after a moment of tense silence.
Percy nodded, "I'm curious, but I won't pry… at least not yet. Now that we have put that aside, I believe that I need to lay down some ground rules"
Clare narrowed her eyes but bit down on her tongue to prevent a scathing comment from spilling out.
Seeing her submissiveness, he nodded before continuing, "First and foremost, to avoid getting incinerated by the more… irate deities on this mountain, I'll suggest that you hold your tongue and stay your blade. I have zero doubts that you could decimate some minor gods with your demonic energy and swordsmanship together. But if anyone gives you too much trouble, bring it to me and I'll take care of it. I'd rather not have you fight a being with access to a divine form that will turn you to dust once you take a look"
Clare nodded.
"Secondly, as I stated earlier you will be a sort of servant to Ares meaning that you'll have to do anything he tells you to. Well, everything except sexual activities which should be consensual if thing between the both of you are to get that far'
Clare gagged involuntarily but still nodded, while Percy raised an amused brow.
"Thirdly, you are to return here once you are done with serving Ares for the day which is another way of saying that you are to return here between seven to eight PM in the night. Take note that your services to Ares are to begin by seven AM in the morning. Failure to return at the stipulated time would lead to me assuming that you finally fell in love with him and decided to bang him, which will lead to me marrying you off to him"
A horrified expression appeared on her face.
"… kidding but seriously get here within that time frame, Olympus can get crazy at night, especially with the lot of blue balled male immortals around, and a beautiful lady like yourself will be like a coveted prize to them"
She nodded at the advice, before blushing intensely at the [un?]intentional compliment.
"I guess that about sums it up, keep to the rules and your stay here will be A- okay. Now, if you would follow me, I will take you to your living quarters."
Getting on his feet, he de-summoned the chair with a snap of his fingers and began to walk off into a separate part of his palace. Getting over her disbelief at how he sent the chair away with a simple snap of his fingers (she would never get used to that), she quickly went after him in hurried steps.
As they walked, a heavy, uncomfortable silence descended upon the duo. For some reason, the silence unnerved Clare… or maybe that was because of the fact that she felt like she was being watched by multiple malevolent creatures.
Seeing her state of discomfort, Percy clicked his teeth in remembrance, "Um, sorry about that."
Clare stared at him.
"The feeling of being watched that is, I tend to forget that my 'malevolent' aura spawns dark spirits at irregular intervals. I'm told that I will be able to control it better in a few decades time, which isn't really surprising considering the fact that I haven't been a god for long".
Clare gulped nervously as she struggled to stop herself from panicking at the thought of the fact that she was being watched by evil spirits, "I… If you haven't b… been a god for long, t… then how come that you are the king?" she asked quietly, barely managing to avoid squeaking.
Percy smirked, "Pure, unadulterated badass-ness" he stated bluntly.
"… for some reason, I don't doubt that" Clare muttered.
Percy nodded before resuming his brisk walk… and then coming to a stop once more.
"Clare…"
"… yes?"
"… I know that you might've noticed it already, but for some reason, my wife, Artemis really, really dislikes you for some reason. So add to the ground rules I've already given you… Avoid Artemis whenever you can and if you should encounter her, make sure that you are not alone".
Clare nodded nervously.
"She might by my wife, and I love her to pieces. But I've seen her take things too far just because of her dislike for a person"
On that note, Percy resumed his brisk step.
Clare meanwhile groaned, "… and her I was thinking that the Yoma would be the only problems in my life…"
AN: It's late, but it's here right? Regardless, sorry for the delay, but I've been busy writing my second semester exams, the most challenging papers are out of the way (i.e metaphysics and determinants of behavior) and my next paper is on Thursday so I just had to put this down hurriedly. Hope you can forgive me…
ALTAIR25 OUT!
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PS: pls don't forget to review…