"Keith, I also wanted to show you your basic abilities. Your Power, Endurance, Dexterity, and Agility are all A, but your Magic is SS. You have any idea how it could be this high?"
"Well, to inscribe the vellums and grimoires I have to actually cast that spell. So I have been practicing my magery for 3 months straight now stockpiling everything for when I found the familia I was ready to call home."
"That would explain your Magic." She went silent for a few moments then spoke, "Keith I have to warn you, it might not be a good idea to let everyone know what you are able to do right now. Like you said before, many people out there would use you as a weapon or tool."
"Thank you goddess, I'll keep as much under wraps as I can, OK?" She just nodded.
"Are you and Bell going to move in here goddess? This big house is pretty lonely, it would be nice to have some company." I gave her a big smile and watched as she got a blush on her face.
"Bell and I have been living in the abandoned church in town for a while now, if you would let us stay here with you, we would love to move in."
"Of course my goddess, my home is now your home for as long as you will let me stay by your side." I gave her another hug and we just stood there for a few minutes.
"Well, let me show you and Bell where your rooms will be and then I'll help you move your things over here, sound good goddess?" She nodded happily.
NOW TO THIS WEEKS EPISODE!
Ottar made his way back to Freya and then knelt before her. "Goddess, I'm sorry, but I lost your newest prize and the Hestia Familia. I lost their trail near the north side of town, I was going to double back when I felt a large magical energy source and assumed it was them making their get away."
Freya looked down at her favorite pawn, "No worries Ottar, I am sure they will surface sooner or later. I want them both so badly, Bell has so much potential and this new person is such an enigma that I can barely contain my joy." The goddess swished her hand to the left and Ottar took up his position as he always does. "An angel as well as Bell as her only two members, how can one goddess get so lucky? I might just have to have a talk with the other gods and goddesses at the next Denatus coming up very soon. I don't think it's fair for Hestia to hog all the interesting new additions, do you Ottar?" He just nodded in agreement.
I helped my goddess and Bell move what little they had to our new headquarters and finished showing them around. "My library is the only room I keep locked goddess. Every other room is open for use, if you would like we could set up the cellar beneath the house to use as our meeting room. It's large and well lit, and is completely finished. I would be more than happy to go furniture shopping with you tomorrow to get anything you feel we will need now that this is our headquarters."
Hestia was listening as we walked about the house. "Keith you don't have to buy all of this now, we can get things slowly as we go. I feel bad enough moving into your house never mind you buying all the furniture we will need." I walked up and slowly gave her a hug. "Goddess, this house is your house now. If it will make you feel better let me show you something." I took her hand and led her to my bedroom. I moved the area rug and lifted the hidden vault door. "See goddess, I meant every word I said. There is enough here to equip Bell and turn this into a familia headquarters to be proud of. Let me do this please, I want too. I want to get you a nice bed to sleep on, nice clothes to wear, good food to eat, and all the comforts befitting someone such as yourself. After we get our shop set up in the tower money will never be a problem again. You WILL have the respect your deserve, people will see that it's possible to be a good person and well off at the same time. I will help those who need it, feed those who are hungry, and defend those who are weak. I will do all of this in your name Goddess, all you have to do is give me your blessing."
Hestia was sitting there on my bed with a surprised look on her face for a moment then I noticed the tears slowly make their way to the corner of her eyes and then down her cute cheeks. She sniffed and then looked up at me. "Keith, I don't know what to say. It doesn't matter to me where I live as long as I'm with Bell and now you. There is so much I want to give my familia and now here is the one I am supposed to be supporting, taking care of me. How sad of a goddess am I?"
I rushed over to her and pulled her to her feet. "Goddess, please don't cry and certainly don't talk like that. You are the kindest and most caring goddess I have ever met. I would bet there isn't anything you wouldn't do for your friends and familia. So what if you can't buy us what we need, you still give us all you have. If you promise to always love and care for me the way I care for you then I will give you everything I have in this world. Let me help you get started, let me set you up with a way to make folks realize just how great you are. All of those vellums and grimiores in there are my gift to you, they will be unlike anything this city has ever seen. They will change how people go about their daily lives." I lifted her face so she was looking me in the eyes. "Together we will build something this world has never seen before. A familia that helps everyone no matter who it is or where they come from. What do you say goddess? You with me on this?"
She blushed at our closeness and my touch, but she nodded her head in agreement. "Let's make this the best familia anyone has ever seen." I just beamed a smile back at her and nodded. "Then we need to go find some furniture for our headquarters. It wouldn't hurt to find you some nice new clothes and see if Bell would like and new set of armor and maybe a new weapon. On second thought, why don't I loan Bell my kukuris. They are durable and enhanced with fortifying powder, they should last until you can give him a weapon fitting of his status. That sound like a good idea?" She just hugged me closer and nodded again. "Alright, then why don't you go get ready and I'll go find Bell." With that she hurried off to get changed.
I found Bell in his room. "Hey Bell how''s it going? You getting settled in alright?"
"OH, Keith, yeah I didn't have much to move to begin with so I was able to get unpacked rather quickly."
"I wanted to loan you these until goddess Hestia could get you something made", I said as I handed him both my kukuris and their scabbards.
"Keith, I can't take these what will you use?" I patted the firearm under my arm. "These will do the job just fine my friend." He looked closely, "What are those by the way, I've never seen anything like them before." I unholstered my Beretta and removed the magazine and cleared the chamber before handing it to him to inspect. "These are Beretta 9mm handguns. They fire these small cartiages here at a very high rate of speed towards my intended targets. The only thing is I have to be careful with how often I use them since I didn't bring alot of spare ammo with me. I will either have to figure out how to make more myself or find a way to make a foci like mages use in their wands and channel my magic thru them." Bell raised and lowered his arm getting a feel for the weight of the weapon. "They are kinda heavy, do you think you could ever teach me how to use them?"
"I don't see why not, I mean it will take some practice. You will have to wait till I figure out how to overcome the ammo problem, but after that I will gladly show you how they work." He nodded and handed it back to me. I reloaded it and inserted the magazine into it before putting it back in my shoulder holster.
"Oh by the way. I was taking the goddess out to buy some furniture and clothing and wanted to see if you wanted to go to the tower and look for some armor for yourself?"
"I don't think I can afford any armor from the tower Keith." Bell said looking down at his clothing with a dejected face.
"I said I was going to buy you some armor. You are familia now, I can't have my party partner running around in hand me down armor now can I?"
"Wow, I don't know what to say?"
I laughed, "Thank you is all that's needed."
"O-of c-c-course, thank you Keith." Then he got a devilish smirk on his face. "What are you trying to do? Are you trying to sweep our goddess off her feet?"
I laughed, "Don't worry bud. I won't take her away from you, I can see how you two are."
"W-w-w-what are you talking about?", asked a flustered Bell.
"Dude, a person would have to be blind not to see she has a thing for you. I mean come on you have got a beautiful goddess throwing herself at you every chance she gets. Just enjoy it, she is a great person, you are very lucky."
"Uh, Keith, I don't know what you are talking about. I thought you knew. My grandfather told me that goddess and gods can't marry humans. If they do they lose the ability to give their falna to their familia."
"You're kidding?"
"Wish I was, so even if she liked me and I liked her that way we couldn't ever be together. Plus there's another girl I really want to get to know better. She saved my life not long ago in the dungeon. Now that I think about it tho, there's no reason Goddess Hestia and you couldn't be together. I mean you aren't human are you?"
"No, I'm not. The thing is I don't think Goddess Hestia would ever see me that way. There's something I should tell you. You see I'm half angel, half dragon."
I then told him, "All dragons are drawn to maidens. You know how all the stories about dragons and how the dragon kidnaps the maidens, then the knight has to ride in and save the maiden." He nodded his head in understanding. "Well the truth is, a dragon doesn't kidnap just any maiden, they look for mates by going into their human form and looking for love like anyone else. When they find a woman who has an affinity for dragons they are drawn to her and she to the dragon. If they fall in love, then the dragon will take her away to be his mate for life. Thru their bonding she will gain a longer life span, but sometimes the maiden's family will send someone to bring the woman back. That is how the stories of dragons and maidens came about."
"Well, I'm not sure if you realize this, but Hestia is THE maiden. She has had many suitors ask for her hand in marriage and she has turned them all away. Bell, she is one in a million, if she has truly fell for you, and I'm pretty sure she has, then please let her down easy. The person Hestia chooses to stand beside her will be the luckiest person in all the heavens or earth. Truth be told, when I get older if she ever hinted she was interested in me, trust me, the dragon in me would treat her as my greatest treasure. Until then just continue doing what you are doing and try not to lead her on, OK?" He just nodded.
"It would tear me up inside if I thought she was in pain. I won't know for sure if I react to her until I turn 13 in a few months, but if I do then I just have to hope she will feel the say way." Bell just looked down while nodding again. "I promise, I won't lead her on and if I get a chance I'm going to let her know just what a great guy you are." He laughed and punched me in the arm. Unknown to us someone had been in the hall for a while and had heard everything we had just said. If anyone had seen her they would have seen the tears in her eyes from sadness, but also the blush on her cheeks from joy.
"Well, let's find our goddess and head out for a fun day of shopping, sound good to you?"
"Lead the way, I have been wanting a new set of armor. I can't thank you enough, I promise to pay you back when I get the vallas."
"Forget all that, this is a gift from me to my new dungeon partner, understood?"
"Gotcha, I'm ready when you are." Just then our goddess knocked on the wall by Bell's door.
"I'm ready to go, is everyone else?"
"I think Bell and myself are all ready. Let's take one of my gates to the tower. We can start there and work our way around town." I pulled out my spellbook and was about to start casting the spell when an idea hit me. "Wait, here Bell use this. This is a vellum with the gate spell written on it. Just say the words to cast the spell then target my runebook on the floor with your hands." I handed Bell the vellum and stepped back as he started to cast. "Vas Rel Por" he said then put his hands to the runebook. With a hum the portal opened up and the vellum vanished. "Good job, see how easy they are to use?" They both nodded while giving approving looks. We could see people walking by and looking at the portal from the other side. I picked up my runebook and motioned to them, "After you my goddess." Hestia gave a slight blush then stepped thru followed by Bell then myself. When we were thru I dispelled the gate and watched as the townsfolk all stared at us slack jawed.
I heard many people, "Did you see that?"
"Is that Hestia and her familia?"
"How did they do that?"
Hestia looked over at me with a smirk, "You did that on purpose didn't you?"
"Maybe", I laughed. "I wanted to start getting word out and I also wanted to see if I could find us a place to set up shop while we were out and about."
"I looked over to all the gathered townsfolk and said, "That was my spell called Gate. I will be selling vellums and grimiores soon with that spell as well as many others. I will make them affordable to most people. Please remember come see the Hestia familia for all your Inscription needs from now on. My goddess will be setting up shop very soon and her wares will change how you live your daily lives." Cheers and claps sounded out over the crowd.
She just smiled and then to my surprise she took both mine and Bell's arm and proceeded to lead us toward the tower. I noticed for some reason she was hugging my arm just a little tighter then she was Bell's. I just assumed she was showing me her thanks for everything so I didn't pay much more attention to it.
AND THERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER HOPE YOU ENJOY IT, IF SO I WILL CONTINUE TO WRITE IT.