"There, that ought to do it," I said to myself, finishing the hex of Concealment over the opening of the cove that Chief Hiccup had lent to me. And not a moment too soon. Having to refrain from using magic that'll help my recovery for two whole days was agonizing. I had to eat four whole roast chickens to muster enough energy to cast the hex with a power signature low enough that even the sharpest dragon couldn't sense it if they walked right into it.

Dragons despise magic, regardless of who casts it. No matter what we tried, no dragon could tolerate the existence of magic, so I had to go to great lengths to conceal the cove from dragons, both physically and magically.

I dropped my arms heavily, feeling the exertion of the hex. "It had to be the home of all dragons. It just couldn't be the home of magic-loving kittens," I grouched.

I walked over to the Ritual array I had constructed and laid down after tossing my tunic, arms and legs splayed. I channeled the minimum required power into the array, activating the Ritual. Instantly I felt relief.

"Oh Ritual of Photosynthetic Re-Nourishment, how I love thee," I said gleefully.

I thought back to my encounter with Chief Hiccup yesterday. Basically he told me how an elder on the Council had brought it to his attention that all magic had been outlawed on Berk, though the reasoning behind this was unclear. He told me how I would have to refrain from using magic anywhere besides the cove, because whether we liked it or not, that was the law, and he would uphold it.

So, that meant that Berk was quite possibly the single most hostile environment to Sorcerers in the whole of the world.

"Aaaaaaand I have to stay here indefinitely. I swear, this whole adventure better not be for nothing or else-"

At that moment, the distinct ker-thunk of an ax chopping through my carefully constructed wooden barrier broke me out of my thoughts.

"What idiot put all this wood in the way?" That particularly pleasant voice belonged to the Thorston family matriarch, an overbearing windbag by the name of Besvara.

"Probably the same idiot who forgot to tell you that you were supposed to die a century ago, Bessy!" I hollered.

"Oh," retorted Besvara as the whole Thorston clan descended into the cove by way of the entrance-ramp...now bereft of any camouflage to deter dragons, "I was told we were going to visit a healer of some renown, not the village jackass."

"Mother, enough, please," said Avgift Thorston, Ruffnut's father. Along with those two the elder brother, Tuffnut, carried his Ruffnut, while Lilja, their mother, trailed behind.

I sat up as they approached my Ritual array, glowing gold against the green moss beneath it. I made eye contact with Ruffnut. She was still dangerously thin from the Siphon nearly killing her, but the color had started to return to her skin and the light to her eyes.

"What's up Dark Girl?"

She chuckled, "Not much Bar Wench. You?"

"Oh, you know," I said flippantly, gesturing to the array "Just converting the energy of the sun into metabolic energy to regenerate lost muscle mass and to promote healing."

"Oh is that all," she said with an eye roll. "I passed a particularly large turd while doing that one time." With a chuckle, I ended my flow of energy to the array and gestured for Tuffnut to set my patient next to me. When he stepped back I resumed the flow of energy, and the array resumed its glow of golden warmth. "Ooh!" Ruff exclaimed. "Oh, me likey," she said, sinking into the array as if it were a bed she could become one with.

"It's pretty great," I said while closing my eyes to fully enjoy the sensations. "Only works under certain conditions, otherwise I'd sleep on one of these."

"Mmmmmm," was the intelligent response I got in return.

"Um, Lord Hades, sir-" started Lilja with a soft, timid voice. It was a far cry from when I saw her upon my arrival. If I had to guess, she was out of her element, and unsure of how to help her daughter here.

"Just Hades, please."

"Hades. What happens now?"

"Well, for the next week, Boney-Butt here will have to come here to heal in the array during the day. Next week, I suppose we start working her muscles to she can start doing basic physical work; standing, walking, that stuff."

"And after that?" asked Avgift shortly.

"Well, during week three I suppose she could start training with her spear again. She's going to need to rebuild a lot of her warrior's instincts; they will have been taken by the Siphon."

"And then what? When will she be fully healed?"

I glanced at the Thorston patriarch. "If you mean when will she be exactly like she was a year ago before she was afflicted with a magical creature that sucked the very life from her bones? Never. You don't just get over something like that. This is going to be a learning process on top of that." I sat up cross-legged and turned to the family. "What you don't seem to have grasped is that Ms. Thorston is the first and only person to even survive a Siphon. There isn't a magical spell or text that I can conjure up to tell us all the answers."

I ran my hands through my hair, taking a beat to formulate my next sentence. "Look," I sighed, "I gave my word that I would stay until you are convinced that she is healed and recovered. I already turned down the money to try to convince you that I'm the genuine article and that I'm here to help. Are you telling me that my word isn't good enough on top of that?"

"That's enough." Ruff sat up, arms wobbling from the exertion. "All of you get out of here. You're ruining my nap," She dismissed with a wave of her hand, laying back down.

After a tense moment, Avgift sighed, then turned and left, gently guiding Bessy and Lilja with him. Tuffnut stubbornly remained planted.

"You too, Idiot. You're poisoning my good vibes. Go find Astrid. I haven't been able to get the latest rumors in days."

Tuffnut stayed silent, eyes flicking back to me. I could see that he obviously didn't trust me. A blind, deaf, mute leper stuck in a cave on the other side of the world could see that.

I sighed. He cares for his sister. Not exactly something I can get angry at him for. "I swear Tuffnut, Ruff will be safe in my care. She'll even be in better condition when you come back than when you leave. On my honor as a Sorcerer, I guarantee it."

Tuffnut grumbled all the way to the cove entrance.

"Ugh, finally, some gods-forsaken isolation. I love my family, I really do, but they've been smothering me since I woke up."

"Mmmmmmm," was my intelligent response as I lay back down, and promptly fell asleep.

X

"...I mean, how in all of Midgard could he have been so blind? Anyone with eyes could see that she only wanted him for his money." A new woman's voice I hadn't heard before spoke as I woke from my nap. I chose to pretend I was still sleeping...because why not?

"Aye, and now she's gone with everything he had. She's probably halfway to Avalon by now," commented Ruffnut.
"Mmm. And the worst part? I think he actually loved her...like more than himself if that were even possible. This could actually break him."

"Well, good! That half-baked son of a troll's wench has been in serious need of a wake-up call for years."

"That's a little harsh Ruff, even for you. I mean, yeah, Snot isn't the easiest guy to get along with, but what Darna did to him was downright hurtful."

"Easy for you to say. When Hiccup marked his territory with you Snotlout basically gave up. Yeah, he was still annoying, but anyone could tell he wasn't really trying to get with you anymore. Me on the other hand? Do you know how many marriage proposals my father turned down from the Jorgenson clan? More than I'd care to admit. Thank the gods that Fishlegs came along and-"

At this point, I was done with listening to the local gossip and decided to fake waking up just then with a loud inhale.

"Aw man! Here I was hoping you'd died so I can have this magical nap thing all to myself," Ruffnut drawled sarcastically.

"No such luck Chopstick. You couldn't kill me if you tried." I got up from the circle, heading for the clear pond, nodding a greeting to the woman. She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place her face.

I knelt down by the water to wash my face.

"Mister Hades, I was wondering something…" started the woman.

I looked over at her, water dripping from my face. "Just Hades, please, Miss…?"

"Oh, it's Astrid."

I nodded and returned to the water. "Whats up Astrid?"

"Well, I've never met a sorcerer before. In fact, no one I know has. Could you teach us something about sorcerers and magic?"

I finished washing my face and held out my hand to pull a towel from my belongings, making sure it hit Ruffnut in the face as it flew to my hand. After drying myself I stood up and said, "That's a very broad subject." I walked back to the Ritual array and said, "That'd be like saying 'tell me everything about dragons and dragon-riding'."

I sat down next to Ruffnut. Astrid was sitting casually just outside the circle. "The very basic version is that the organization that governs and polices all sorcerers, the Syndicate of Sorcery, has been around for well over a thousand years and is responsible for maintaining the peace between all magic and non-magical peoples."

"Are you a member of the Syndicate?"

"Yes."

"So you're not evil then?"

"Evil?" I asked with a raised brow.

"My little brothers have been arguing for days whether you're an evil wizard or a 'benevolent mage'; my brothers' term. Those brats somehow figured out that I was coming here to spend time with Ruff and threatened that if I didn't get an answer for their argument they'd make my life hel."

I laughed loudly at that. "Well," I said with a chuckle, "Tell them I told you that I'm both."

"Both?" Ruffnut asked, speaking up for the first time.

"How can you be both benevolent and evil?"

"Depends on my mood. I try to be 'benevolent,'" I used air quotes, "as much as I can, but I've been known to be evil when the mood strikes me." I said jovially.

At that moment, the proximity sensors, a passive ability to the Hex I cast warned me that seven men with weapons were approaching.

I snapped my fingers and all my belongings, my bag, my tunic, my robes, all floated over to the circle. When they settled down, I reached out and grabbed Astrid's arm.

"Hey, what are you-" I pulled her into the circle while at the same time leaping out of it.

I gestured at the circle and uttered, "Khre-ay." That instant the circle, all my stuff, and the women all vanished as if they weren't ever there. To the men, clad in black and concealing their faces, it appeared as if I was alone in the cove with nothing but the pants on my legs.

I walked over to the large boulder that sits just next to the water and leaned against it, crossing my arms. "You know," I addressed the mob, "I'm disappointed. I expected you to get here an hour ago."

They paused where they were, about three arms lengths from me. One spoke up, his voice muffled, "You were expecting us?"

I shrugged, "I'm a sorcerer. Everywhere I go, without fail, there's a group of ignorant morons that feel the need to run off the wicked wicked wizard."

"Hmm," was the man's intelligent response. "Well, if you know why we're here, then we can skip the speech and get down to it."

"Sounds good to me, but just one thing before we do?"

"What's that?"

"Rahzo-rujha," I said, gesturing to the group as a whole. That instant all their weapons were ripped from their hands by an unseen force and thrown into the pond where they sank to the bottom.

The mob's eyes were all wide as plates. Obviously they hadn't considered that I'd use magic on them. They looked to each other and the one who spoke, trying to figure out what to do next.

I got up from the boulder and walked towards them, cracking my knuckles. "Are we going to stand around all day or are we going to fight?" The leader roared and charged at me. He and all the others were tall heavyweight brawlers, their fighting style will be focused on devastating power attacks rather than speed...which worked to my advantage.

As the leader went for my middle to tackle me to the ground, I fell backward, landing on my palms and shoulder blades to deliver a kick to his chin. The leader toppled like a great tree felled, while I used my momentum to spring off my hands, land on the boulder behind me, and jump into the remaining group of men, flying through the air with a thundering roar.

X

-Astrid-

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Hades was taking on seven of Berk's best brawlers by himself and was actually holding his ground. He was fascinating to watch from a fighter's standpoint. He didn't have the muscle mass that his opponents did, so he used what he naturally had to his advantage: his speed and reach.

Hades was easily one of the tallest people on the island, being roughly half a head taller than Tuffnut. He used that reach to lash out at his attackers to...I'm not even sure how to explain it. He was deflecting their punches and kicks with his arms and legs with such speed it reminded me of a bullwhip.

He never stopped moving for a moment. Any fighter could tell you that with odds like that it meant certain death. He deflected a hit, landed three of his own, then danced away before any of his attackers knew what happened.

The sheer skill involved with his fighting style added with how perfectly he executed it was a testament to who he was as a warrior. My warriors' instinct, everything in me told me that what Hades was doing at this moment couldn't ever be recreated with magic. It was years of effort and practice and patience that had honed Hades into the weapons he embodied.

I watched as one of the attackers got a cheap shot in, landing a blow on the back of Hades' head. He used the momentum of the blow to roll away from another, what would have been, devastating blow.

He didn't look like any Viking. He had black hair that was shaved short on the side and back, longer on top that coupled with his red eyes and dark tan gave him an imposing, dangerous appearance. That and coupled with the litany of scars and burns on his skin, Hades' body told a story of a battle-hardened warrior.

That in itself isn't odd, but he was a healer...or said he was; which isn't something that warriors do. Healers heal, fighters fight. Maybe sorcerers do things differently, but that wouldn't explain away all the scars that marred his body, or the confidence and swagger he carried.

On top of that, as I had observed him in the four days since he arrived on Berk there would be...moments, flashes when he would express something on his face. I couldn't place it, and it was often gone so fast that I sometimes thought I imagined the whole thing...but when he had it my heart and head would scream that I knew him from somewhere...and that scared me more than anything else.

Whatever Hades had done to Ruff and me just before the mob got here, we couldn't break out of it. I had grabbed my ax and thrown everything I had at the invisible wall that separated us from the rest of the cove, but nothing came of it; we were cut off.

After a good ten minutes of fighting I could tell that as amazing a fighter as Hades was, he was running out of energy. His defense was slipping, his attacks were getting weaker, he wasn't moving as fast, he was heaving great breaths.

At that moment Hiccup, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, and a dozen men poured into the cove to break up the fight and arrest the attackers. Each attacker had two men subduing them, but it wasn't much of a fight after a ten-minute brawl.

Whatever this invisible wall was it cut off all sound from outside it. I could see Hiccup roaring with fury at Spitelout Jorgenson, now unmasked, but honestly, if I closed my eyes I wouldn't have even been able to guess that anyone was there.

Hiccup then helped Hades to his feet and brought him to the boulder for him to rest against. They talked for a moment, and I could see in Hiccup's eyes that he was pleading to Hades; what for I could guess.

Hades rested his head against the boulder, then, as if remembering something, gestured to me and Ruff. His voice rang out with an ethereal shade to it, "Otkriva."

As if I had just emerged from underwater all sound returned and my hands fell through the invisible wall. Hades had released us from...whatever it was that prevented me from fighting at his side against his attackers.

X

-Hades-

"See Tuffnut?" I asked. "Just like I said, better condition than you left her," I said with a tired smirk.