Chapter 28

“This is absurd!” Jupiter screamed, his rage ionizing the air in the room. “We have voted that she is to take the choosing and she must abide by the ruling of this Council.”

Odin sighed, “Jupiter, you know the rules as well as I. She has chosen to bound herself to not only Pathios, but to his future bloodline. The collar has already changed and become permanent. You know that even the Council cannot break this binding once it has come to pass, her soul is now bound to the collar.”

“We are the Council,” Jupiter argued, “we have the power to change this world if we so choose it! We have already made the ruling, so we should break that bond and make her follow our commands!”

“Jupiter, we guide, we do not rule,” Zeus replied, as crackles of lightning emanated from his eyes. “You seem to forget this fact and I wonder why you are so adamant that she go through with the choosing?”

Ra cocked his head, “Yes, I am curious as well, Jupiter. You pushed for us to do this when we felt it was a minor thing that didn’t warrant this level of interference from us.”

“He broke the rules of the Champion’s Challenge,” Jupiter argued. “Only full members of the Pact House are allowed to participate. Tyr is complicit by agreeing to this human’s choice in adding a slave to the Challenge roster.”

“There is no rule that slaves are not allowed to be considered,” Shiva replied. “You have always been a bit too harsh to try and punish our people for things that are minor and paltry.”

Jupiter gritted his teeth and said, “If she is not to go through the choosing, I move to have Pathios ineligible to participate in the Challenge for his attempt to add this woman.”

Odin sighed and glanced at the others, “Very well. All in favor of preventing Pathios from participating in the Challenge, raise your hand.”

Jupiter thrust his hand in the air with a smirk of arrogance, though that smirk began to wane as he looked to his fellow Council members and saw that he was the only one whose hand was up.

Odin began smiling at the lone god and said, “All in favor of putting this behind us and allowing Pathios to participate, raise your hand.”

Jupiter slowly lowered his hand as he saw the other four members raise theirs and I could see the quiet rage building in his features.

“Very well,” Odin said with a satisfied nod, “if there is no other business with these two, I say they should go home, and we should get on with more pressing matters.”

The other members, excluding Jupiter, agreed and they wished us a good day. Tyr placed his hand on my shoulder, placed his forearm on Kat’ilth’ana’s shoulder and in a flash of godly power we returned to the Pact House. My mind was still reeling at the event that had unfolded and when I looked around, I saw we were back in my room. Thankfully Amenthia and Entivala were dressed and sitting with the dragons when we arrived. I could see the worry and expectation on their faces as they saw us. Their view of Katie was blocked by Tyr, causing them to start tearing up, until Kat’ilth’ana stepped out from behind the one-handed god. They cried out and rushed the dryad, taking turns hugging her with tears of joy falling from their eyes.

“What happened?” Amenthia asked, as she fought to control her tears. “Pathios made it seem like you wouldn’t be coming back.”

Katie smiled and said, “I almost didn’t. The Council agreed with Jupiter and they voted to make me take the choosing.”

“Wait, what?” Enti replied confused. “If they voted to make you take the choosing, how is it that you are here now? Did you go through it and still end up a member of Tyr’s Pact House?”

Katie turned her eyes from them and there was a slight blush of embarrassment on her cheeks. They both noticed her reaction and turned to me for an explanation.

I sighed and answered, “They were about to have her go through the choosing, but then she countered with a move that no one in that room expected. Kat’ilth’ana pledged her servitude to me and those of my blood line, until she succumbs to the trappings of death.”

Both looked back at the dryad and had looks of utter shock on their faces, though I wasn’t fully sure why that was. This situation just proved there were still some core aspects in this world and its customs that I was far too ignorant of.

“Are you out of your mind, Kat’ilth’ana?” Entivala yelled, storming into the personal space of her friend. “You realize that you shall never be free now. That you will be spending the rest of your abnormally long life as a servant to Pathios and his descendants. Yes, Pathios has been exceptionally good to you, despite everything that you had done to try and hurt us. However, there is no knowing how his descendants might act or treat you. You have removed any possible respect you might have earned as an adventurer and you lost the ability to return home as a free person. Why the fuck would you do something like this?”

Katie was silent for a few moments and replied, “Because it was the only way I could think of to stay. I knew that the chance of staying with all of you was so slim, I didn’t want to chance it going wrong. I was free before all of this, but I was never happy. Since I returned from my near-death experience, I have felt happier and actually of use towards a lofty but honorable goal. You three have helped me find a purpose and gave me a chance of a real life. I will never be able to repay what you have done for me, but maybe now I can. I know the risk and the possible future for me, but I knew that when I came up with it.”

“When did you come to this decision?” Amenthia asked, more curious than angry about what she was hearing.

“Well, um ... I kinda came to that decision last night,” Katie replied. “I figured it would be a last-ditch effort if things didn’t go our way, but since I have been with you all I have tried to be more optimistic.”

While we were talking, Tyr walked over and touched the dragons, who responded in kind. From what I could tell, they were having a conversation, not unlike the ones that I had with them. Both gave him a nod and he pressed his hand on the top of what would be their chests causing a golden choker to appear around their necks. They were not unlike Katie’s collar, with the same crystal that resides in my bracer and Katie’s collar.

“There you are, Pathios,” Tyr said with a smile. “Both accepted going to the hatchery and have decided to go now. You will have immediate access to the hatchery to see them, but I would suggest that you say your goodbyes now.”

I felt my emotions well up, despite the short time these glorious creatures had been in my care. While I knew that they needed to go, and that they would be better off living at the hatchery, it is still hard knowing that they would leave.

“Do not get too upset Father,” Saphira said as she nuzzled her snout against my palm. Even at the hatchery, you can see us whenever you wish. We will always be with you and you with us. As we get older, our bond will grow and, given enough time, we will be able to speak like this even when we are separated.”

Draco mimicked his twin and nuzzled my other palm, “We will never be too far from you Father, and soon we will fight alongside you. I long to fight at your side and do wondrous things to help you towards glory. I look forward to what the future holds and how we will both grow.”

So that the others could hear, I spoke out loud. “Like everything else that has happened in my life, you were an unexpected gift. You two ended up being something that I didn’t know I needed, and I am thankful that fate had allowed us to come together as it has. You both are as important to me as those I am closest to and I am pained to see you go. I wish that you could stay with us here, but I know that what you are doing now is the best choice for you and us. I will make sure to spend some time with you every day whenever I can, so I look forward to the day we can show this Dungeon and this world how fearsome we are.”

With our words shared with one another, Tyr simply smiled and nodded before placing both arms on the dragons and disappearing in a flash of light. Despite being prepared for it, I felt a loss at them going. I knew I would see them again later today after we did some training, but it still affected me. I wiped away a few tears that had spilled once they left and looked around at the smiling faces of those who remained. The dragons’ departure had successfully pulled the focus away from the events of the morning, but they still needed to be dealt with.

“I know you two are still shocked and upset at the events of this morning,” I said breaking the focus of the last few minutes. “Now, I know I am ignorant of most of the customs of this world, but for now, I know that she is with us and won’t be leaving. Whether this is good or bad will remain to be seen, and I only ask that you respect her decision. We have come far since she returned, and I would hate to see things take a few steps back because of this. She could have been gone forever, sent to a different Pact House, or even sent home, never to return. I see this as a victory for both our party and our friendship, so I hope that in time you will see it the same way.”

I saw Amenthia and Entivala glance at one another and both took a second to glance towards Katie as I said all this. When I finished, there was a moment of nothing before they simply nodded and gave the dryad a quick hug. With the tension dissipated for now, we discussed what we wanted to get accomplished this morning. We still had a few hours and figured a quick run in the Dungeon would be the best use of the time. We figured that the most efficient use of our time for now would be to stick with the first and second floors to give Amenthia some time to help Kat’ilth’ana with her ranged attacks. The serious fighting would occur in the afternoon and she would be put through her paces. Once we got equipped, we came up with a quick path that would allow us to run into as many mobs as we could for the two to two and a half hours we had.

Katie was becoming more confident in her ranged attacks each day and I wondered how she would do later today. It would be quite different for me, as well, since this would be the first time that I would be fighting in the Dungeon without Amenthia and Entivala at my side.

We returned to the Pact House for our mid-day meal and went over the plan for the afternoon. Amenthia and Entivala planned to head to the training area to do sparring and our usual training routine for most of it, followed with sometime in the training yard for their ranged attacks.

With our plan for the rest of the day done, we finished our meal and said our goodbyes as we split up for our various plans. I called a raven and wrote a note to Darius to meet us at the village on the fifth floor where we were registered. We popped over to the transit tubes and headed for the armory. I could see a slight bit of nervousness and apprehension in Katie, and I would be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a little bit of it myself.

“Don’t worry, Katie,” I said, trying to be as reassuring as I could. “You will do fine. The next month will be about finding our rhythm as a group, so that we can do well in the Challenge. I will be just as out of sync with them as you will be, and they will be the same with us. We are building a dynamic that is new for all parties and will be changing the established places in the group for everyone. I may not be the one giving all the orders and coming up with the plans. Darius is the leader of his group for a reason, and I have yet to prove myself capable to them. You will be a ranged attacker for this group, which is not only new, but I also believe that you may be the only one. There is a chance that we may have to conscript someone else to take on ranged weapons, if necessary. It is a learning curve for all of us, and we can only do the best we can in the situation. Don’t let it get to you and know that I am behind you one hundred percent.”

She smiled slightly, “Thanks, Master. It is a bit unnerving, to be honest, but not for the reasons you think. To be perfectly honest, I could care less about what they think of me and what I can do. I just don’t want to let you down, especially given all the things you have gone through because of me. I don’t want to disappoint you or make you look bad.”

I was slightly shocked, both about the reason for her apprehension, but mostly because she had referred to me as ‘master’.

“I see you are a little shocked,” Katie said with a smile. “It is traditional within the fabric of our society for a slave to refer to the person they are bound to as ‘Master’. If that makes you uncomfortable, should I call you ‘Sir’ or ‘Daddy’?” She asked with an amused giggle.

I gave her a look, though there was a slight grin on my face, “Let’s just leave it at ‘Pathios’ for now when we are around others who aren’t part of our group. In private or around the others, we will figure out what works, but I am not used to such formality or to slavery of any kind. I simply ask that you remember that, just as I will try to treat you well, but within the formalities of our new bond to one another.”

She smiled and nodded in response as we continued to don our armor and collect our equipment for the evening. I decided to use some of Tyr’s shuriken that we had made, and we made our way to the foyer. We had a little while to wait before a flash from the transit tubes brought our evening party to the Pact House. They were already armed and ready to go, each looking a little unsure of what would happen.

“Hello, all,” I said, trying to dissipate the slowly building tension of our first time working together. “I look forward to working together to try and become an efficient and cohesive unit for the Challenge.”

Darius smiled, and I could see the others were relaxing a little bit, but until we started actually working together, that tension would remain on the surface.