# Chapter 10 It took over a month, but the mortals had finally assimilated into Ironsoul. Well, assimilated is a strong word. The mortals just accepted the demigods’ existence. Charlie sat with Jack, rather closely. The pair were on top of the building, taking turns with the binoculars just scanning the area surrounding Publix. “I just wish we had some space. More privacy and more space.” Charlie sighed. Jack lowered his binoculars and grinned, “Privacy huh?” Then lifted the binoculars once more. “Shut up. I just want to sleep without a ton of dudes in the same room.” “Just one then?” “Jack!” Charlie blushed furiously. *I gotta phrase things more carefully.* “I know what you meant darling. And I agree.” “I want to organize a scout crew.” She said. Raven sat nearby, smoking a cigarette. “You want to go with them.” She guessed. “Yes, but the ringblade thingy is insane. And they have more kinds now.” Jack looked down, relaxing his arm slightly around her shoulders. “I understand.” “We will find a way for you to use them too.” Charlie said, giving him a peck on the cheek. Thus far house Koryph had only managed to make rings for Avaela, and Navitor. It wasn’t very consistent. The other blades worked as expected, summonable and dismissible by intent. They just didnt give powers. She held her hand out, flexing her fingers, 3 rings. The first was from the first ringblade, the second, from one of the newer blades, and the third on her ring finger. *Jack’s promise.* The world ended, and their lives were probably cut very short, so it only had more meaning. “Jack, I love you.” She said, hugging his side. He turned to her and laid his head on hers. “I’m yours.” Charlie saw Raven roll her eyes, and Charlie released Jack soon after. Later she and raven were together in the makeshift arsenal, organizing theguns knives and swords. A weird combination, but swords in this world had much more use than they would have before. “Raven, are you okay?” Charlie asked, Raven froze, she was facing away, moving a rifle to the back corner of the room. She turned, black hair swaying. “Define okay.” “I've just noticed you've laughed and smiled much less now that Jack gave me a ring.” “We can't both have him. And I realize this is stupid, but I realized I wanted him only after he took his chance. It isn’t anyone's fault but my own. I’m happy for you Anne.” *Anne? She hasn’t called me that since we were kids.* Their shared middle name. “I want you to be happy too. Whatever I can do to help I’d like to, smoking fixes nothing. I’m just happy you won't get cancer from it.” Raven looked down, took a drag from her cigarette, and laughed. “Yeah I guess you're right.” She paused, surveying the storage room. “We decided on too much space here. Not enough in living quarters.” “Yeah there's no privacy there.” Charlie complained, Raven grinned. “Don't even.” “Come on let's go see Koryph, maybe they’ve found something out.” They still didn’t have a name that didn’t sound goofy, but the leaders of the camp were Rhett, Hunter, Alaina, Rose, Jack, Raven, Nova, and herself. Eight. A large group, but sufficient. The mortals usually kept to themselves, half out of fear, half out of ignorance. Rose had been the first one with a ringblade. It was a shardless knife, lacking a god power, but she had 2. *That girl would be a deadly thing if she wasnt stable.* They’d all gathered at around 3 in the afternoon in the forge, present with Cass and Wade. “Anything?” Jack asked the young men. No discoveries had been made in a couple days, but they'd taken in volunteers from the rest of the demigods, and wanted to see if that changed anything at all. “Yes!” Wade said quickly, probably louder than he should have. “Yes, yes there has been quite a breakthrough!” He said grabbing some rings and sitting them on an anvil. First, Jack, as a halfblood, use this one. Jack nodded, picking up the first ring. He’d been without one, finding them useless if not granting more powers, which was fair. He’d always carried 2 lighter shortswords. “I’m feeling something much stronger this time.” He nodded. *That’s just in the ring.* He brought the sword out from wherever it hid between realities, “Is this Nephel?” He asked, wide eyed. “Yes!” Cass said, taking notes in his chart. Jack dismissed the blade, then Charlie could feel him use his new power. A water bottle flied across the room, into his hand. A distant “Hey!” sounded from the opposite end of the building. “Holy shit. I am a grandson of Nephel, but I am not that powerful at all. How did you guys do this?” “So we had a bunch of volunteers from across camp, even one child of veluna. We had each of them form a ring individually, with guidance, and we tried them. Fullbloods could still use them, seemed the same to them as the older ones, but now halfers and quarters can use them. When a demigod forges them, they are able to imbue more power in it, as well as the god parent of theirs. It doesnt work so well for distant relatives, or fullbloods. It seems its about how much blood they have thats god’s or man. For instance wjth a halfblood, they only have one god parent, and fullbloods have 2.” “Holy shit, yall really got to work. Fuckin chatwalled us.” Jack said, “that phrase is gonna die out so soon, might as well use it while we can.” “Yes now I have a bunch of others here, and we are going to see if we can simplify the process. Adamantine seems to work best when pure, it isn’t quite as powerful when diluted, but it's easier to work with.” “Got a few others here, and Jack, as the sole living son of Syla, I don’t expect you to make a ton for us, you are the only one, in either camp.” Cass said, “that being said, I would love it if you would.” “I appreciate it. For now I’ll refrain, except maybe make one for our leaders here.” “Before I let you go,” Wade added, “Mortals can now have our powers.” “What?” Raven asked, “They can use powered ringblades?” “Yes.” Wade smiled. “Volunteers?” Rose immediately raised her hand. Stepping forward she looked at the remaining 6 blades. She picked up one, “Do I need to just guess?” “Oh not at all, see the symbol etched in?” Wade pointed, a dove. She picked it up, slid it on her finger. “What’s it supposed to do?” “Twofold. It's Veluna, goddess of beauty, allows you to change your face, looking however you want for a time, great for disguises. But it also allows you to influence others, the way they talk.” “If you use it on me, it won't be a good thing for us.” Rhett said. He looked mildly terrified. “Oh I won't. I’ll be using this thing later.” She grinned. *Sounds like she is gonna try charming a corpse.* “Anyway thats it, yall take what you want but tomorrow we will begin circulation of others.” Wade said, Cass nodding. “If you like, we can make an announcement tonight.” Rhett said, “Long’s Jack’s alright with that.” Charlie looked over to her boyfriend, his eyebrow was raised, “Yeah sure.” *It is good of Rhett to step up a bit.* “Wonderful.” Cass said. The others dispersed, but Jack caught Charlie's eye, and stayed with him. “Wade, I made Charlie's ring out of Adamantine.” “Oh?” He asked, then smiled, “oh shit, yall’re a thing now.” “Yes, yes, but this is about the powers, its unbonded.” Charlie nodded, “Yeah ain't any power coming off it.” “But bonded to a blade it would have the powers of Syla right?” “Yes actually.” Wade said, he ran his hands through his hair, and grabbed a blade, then paused. “Jack, do you want to pick one, or her?” “I want her to. This could be a new tradition or something.” She smiled at the thought, walking closer to Wade and his pile of blades. They were all different lengths, weights, some one-offs sat aside, clearly experiments. One of them was a Greek shortsword, almost identical to Jack’s. “Any issues with the short sword?” She asked, pointing. “Oh none at all, it seems to be the rings that matter more.” He said, bringing it to an anvil and setting it down. “If this is gonna be a new tradition, if we survive this hellhole, you guys should be the one to set it.” “Alright,” Jack said, taking Charlie's hand. They approached the anvil, and Jack took her hands. He pulled the ring off her left hand. He took her right hand, and wrapped it around the hilt of the sword, then touched the ring to it. Jack then slid the ring on her finger and kissed her. “Jack, was that...” she started. “Not exactly. This is a new world. I want to pledge myself to you, like courting.” “Well of course but… Oh my gods.” ___ “So soon?” Rose asked Charlie. *You make that sound bad.* “Yes, we can’t live forever.” She said simply. “What was it like?” *A sneak attack.* “A shock. He did start a new ceremony or tradition or whatever.” “Oooh okay, what's it like?” Ivy asked, sketching another disturbing distorted corpse. *Fucking hell girl.* “So he gave me a ring 2 weeks ago, an adamantine one. Well today we went and had it bonded. Blade on anvil, he took the ring from my hand, wrapped my other hand, under his, on the hilt, bonded the blade and slid the ring onto my finger.” “That's sweet.” Alaina commented. “Feels like some steps were skipped there.” Raven muttered. “Well it is what it is.” Charlie said quickly. She knew how Raven felt about all of it. She decided it would be good to change subject, moving on to more pressing matters. Lack of space being the prime one. “Gods. I hate not having privacy.” “Me too.” Rose complained. “Yeah same here.” Alaina added. “Could we push the boys to move elsewhere?” “Probably, and it isn't just about us. The forge is tiny, the storehouse is too small.” Raven agreed. Charlie heard some footsteps behind her, and turned. *Well hello there Jack.* “Hey, what do yall think about moving?” “Lovely idea.” Alaina said, smiling to Charlie. “Yeah same here.” Rose agreed. Raven nodded along as well. “Charlie, I want you to set up a scout group.” “Alrighty.” “The rest of you, we need to have everyone condense their stuff for an easy move in a week or so.” ___ Charlie sat atop a tree not far from Costco in Athens. They’d come off of Epps bridge, just near the dilapidated old Hobby Lobby. Both Charlie and Raven were there, along with Cass Mason and Mack Allen, who was of House Caelos. Most of each house had 2 powers, and a drawback. Caelos's kids had the inward power of seeing from the sky, like a bird, and the outward power of controlling the wind. Then drawback was how much energy they lost. It drained so much from them. Charlie had been unable to understand how they managed to see grom the sky, because they could still walk and talk to others normally while doing it. “Haven't seen anyone here. It's been quite a while.” Raven commented. “Yeah I’m thinking its empty.” “Honestly same.” Mack Allen nodded. “I’m up for a lunch break, yall?” “Yeah.” Raven nodded. Charlie sat down, back to a tree, next to Raven. Charlie had brought Saltines and peanut butter, a large contrast to Raven’s homemade bread and Jelly, thanks to Stacy Baker. *This peanut butter was expired pre-fall, but still good. Fucking crazy.* Mack and Cass just had some of that Jerkey Hunter and Alaina had brought along with their group. Charlie was conflicted about relocating their camp further south, even if it was 3 miles. Nobody from Ironsoul had heard from the other demigod camps since the fall, nor the emerging one from Mythborn. *I can only hope they live.* She would have asked the gods for guidance, but they were gone. In their place was just ruin and death. Ivy’s mental state has been declining sharply, the dead still roamed in hoardes, but the group was learning more about the new godmetals. “Raven, remember that time we ambushed Jack?” Charlie asked, smiling. Raven wiped away her solemn expression with a laugh of her own. “Poor guy just wanted peace.” Charlie found herself overwhelmed with the memory. That day was 5 years previous, Jack was 12 at the time, the twins were 13. Jack and Raven had been in a slight argument that morning, Charlie was trying to cheer Raven up. “Ray, he's just a dumb boy.” “He totally ditched us for that new kid.” “He didn't ditch us.” “Did so. It felt like it.” Raven said, arms crossed. The pair were walking through the woods on the border of the camp. This was months after the whole group had left camp Mythborn, so the entire place hadn’t been explored. The twins came across a very small clearing, and Charlie had an idea. She lightly punched Raven in the shoulder. “That’s Jack’s lunch tree.” Charlie grinned, "lets scare him." Raven’s sadness melted, replaced with a matching grin. The twins climbed the tree, high enough to be obscured by anyone walking into the clearing. Within half an hour Jack entered the clearing, apple in one hand, pocketknife in the other. Raven gestured to Charlie to wait. Jack had settled down and started eating when they finally jumped down. Charlie landed wrong and tumbled, but Raven landed nimble like a cat. Jack jumped, play flying to the side. “Gods above.” Before cracking up. Charlie was pulled out of her memories by a crackle of the radio. “Hey Charlie?” Jack’s voice sounded. “Present. Eating lunch.” “Y’all need to clear out the warehouse as soon as possible. Our group has expanded.” *What did he do?* Charlie chuckled internally.