No One Understands Quite Like a Parent Understands

“Your… girlfriends,” John’s mother slowly said, her gaze somewhere between surprise, disbelief, and concern. “Your girlfriends. Plural.”

“I mean, it’s not that unbelievable, Mom,” John said with a bit of a disgruntled huff. “I just so happened to be found attractive by two extremely attractive women.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that part, John,” Brenda said with a small smile. “In fact, I’m proud of you. You’re a very handsome young man, and I’m glad you’ve found others who can see that. I’ve just never heard of someone going from never having a girlfriend to having two in the span of a few days.”

“Well that’s- Wait… you don’t have a problem with it?” John asked, raising an eyebrow.

“If I did, I would be a hypocrite,” Brenda said with a smirk. “Honestly, if you heard half of what I did in college-”

“Mom, I really don’t wanna know about your sexual life,” John interrupted, to which Brenda responded with a laugh.

“Alright, hun, I will spare you the gory details. But needless to say, I know what its like to be in a polygamous relationship, and I hope you can make it work.” Brenda sighed before turning to Talia. “Now, with that out of the way, it’s lovely to meet you Miss…?”

As Talia introduced herself, John heard the voice of Mavis speak in his mind. ‘Um, with all due respect, John… Did we ever actually talk about that beforehand?’

‘No, but I figured it would be easier to just say that than tell my mom, “Hi Mom! Here’s my official girlfriend and my sword who is also sleeping with me!’ John thought back as Talia talked with his mom.

‘Well, unless you’ve suddenly changed your mind since we walked inside, I know you plan on telling her that part of our lives eventually.’

John sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘... Right. You would have seen that.’

‘Yeah, I saw that.’ Mavis crossed her arms and gave John a small glare. ‘I know Gaia gave you the green light on getting to do that, but do you know how dangerous your mom’s life can become just from learning about the Abyss? Not to mention the paranoia that comes with learning about a mystery world that you’ll never actually get to see or interact with.’

‘Look, I just… I just need someone to talk to about all this.’

‘Oh, and what are Talia and I? Chopped Tanngrisnir liver?’

John gave her an incredulous stare. ‘One of you is a sword that is older than several nations put together, and the other is an elf born in the Abyss who has had access to magic her whole life.’

Mavis looked like she was about to object again, but just gave a slight shrug. ‘Fair enough, I suppose. Just remember, secrets are like enemies. The more you have, the more likely one is going to result in you being killed.’ Mavis then pressed her lips together to a thin line, looking over to Talia and Brenda who were laughing about something. ‘And with the amount of secrets being kept around you… honestly, I’m surprised you’ve made it this far.’

‘Hey, the thing with the council turned out okay, and the new guild should be a good start at staying alive longer.’

‘Sure,’ said Mavis in a tone that was entirely unconvinced. Before John could respond, she walked forward and began to introduce herself to Brenda. Talia took the moment to walk over to John, pulling him a bit to the side before speaking in a hushed tone.

“John, please tell me you somehow got taught some illusion magic from one of the gods.” John shook his head, to which Talia groaned. “Shit… If we are going to be staying here… I can’t hide my ears or glow forever.”

“It’ll be okay, Talia,” John said softly, rubbing her arm softly. “I’ll take care of it.”

Talia stared at John for a moment before muttering, “Shit… you’re gonna tell your mom, aren’t you?”

John was taken aback. “Wha- How…”

“Oh come on, John. It’s obvious.” She smiled softly. “It's practically written all over your face.”

John rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Didn’t realize I was that obvious.”

Talia chuckled, squeezing his arm. “For what it’s worth, I think it’s a good idea.”

“Mavis would disagree with you. She says it’s too dangerous.”

“She might be right in that regard, but I think that we should be able to handle whatever life throws at us.” Talia then winked while sticking out her tongue. “Either way, your girlfriends will support your choice.”

“Shit, I meant to talk to you guys about tha-” John began, but was quickly shushed by Talia’s’ finger.

“Look, while I would have preferred a bit of a head’s up, I’m okay with it. Mavis and you will now have a connection ‘cause of that whole soul magic, and it would be pretty dickish of me to deny the two of you any form of connection. Honestly, I’m more glad that you wanna keep things with me despite having a girlfriend that is also a sword.”

“How could I not keep you around, Talia?” John asked with a cheeky grin. “After all, we started this journey together. I was hoping you would stick around long enough to see the ending.”

At that statement, Talia gave John a quick kiss on the cheek. “That’s my mage. Now go talk to your mom. I think you need some family time.”

John gave Talia one last smile before walking over towards his mom and Mavis. His mom was currently sitting on the couch, watching Mavis as she told a story about her parents. John was taken aback for a moment, thinking that Mavis already divulged what he had planned to tell his mom, but then he listened in and noted that her story had conveniently swapped out the names and exact identities of her more god-like parents.

“So my dad wanted to get his tools back, right? However, he knows that his neighbor knows him too well, and if he comes over, they will just deny everything. SO DAD THEN PROCEEDS TO CROSSDRESS ALONG WITH MY UNCLE TO GET THEM BACK!”

Brenda and Mavis both began laughing until Brenda responded, “Did he get his tools back?”

Mavis waved dismissively. “Oh of course. Nothing can keep Dad away from his hammer. Course, that was after his neighbor asked my dad out thinking he was my aunt.”

“Oooooh, I can only guess how mad your dad was.”

“Absolutely livid. Almost as mad as the time my uncle-”

“Mom?” John asked quietly.

Brenda turned to John and gave him a soft smile. “John! Come sit down! Mavis was just telling me about her family! Did you know her grandfather tames animals in his spare time? Apparently he has a pair of ravens that he uses to carry messages!” Brenda snickered softly. “Wonder if he started that before or after watching Game of Thrones.”

John smiled, giving Mavis a small nod to take a step back. As she did so, John sat down next to his mother. Slowly he took a deep breath, his mind recounting the journey of his past week, before he slowly said, “Mom… I have one helluva story to tell you.”

‘Another three mages missing from nearby towns… These kidnappers are getting bold.’ Lord William Brighton sighed as he looked over the various messages he had been receiving from his knights out in the field visiting the friendly guilds in the area. While most guilds were tight lipped about their members, especially to the Order, the recent surge in kidnappings had been enough for them to seek out aid from the Order. Currently he had knights posted in as many locations as he could, trying to figure out where these kidnappers were stationed and how they were operating so efficiently.

‘It would be one thing if it were one or two mages a month. But this doubles that count in just under a week!’ He sighed again, his hands shifting through his greying red hair. He knew the lawlessness of America’s Abyss was always going to a problem he and the rest of the Order would face. Normally, he felt that they had the tools to deal with any situation that the world would throw at them. However… Lorelei had been having trouble from the start in locating the enemy, and for the past week she had been damn near useless. The worst part was that William had no idea why! One minute she was utilizing her magic on the corpse of a mage from three months ago who they had found in the dumpster of an old bowling alley. Apparently he had been too weak for the mana factory and was dumped when no longer useful to these kidnappers. Just as he thought they were about to make a breakthrough, she suddenly started off in the distance, said the words, “The powers… they have returned,” before refusing to use her seer magic for the rest of the day.

Granted, when Moira returned from school, they had learned why. Well… not exactly why, only that something weird had been going on over at Ashcroft. Apparently she had detected an illusion barrier being set up within the school, probably by the kidnappers. However, when she finally got to enter the barrier, instead of kidnappers trying to take a mage, she found a school lit ablaze with unholy fire and was **** to retreat. Thank the Lady that she had been able to get away unscathed, but the mystery still remained. Who had created this barrier? Why use unholy fire to set an illusionary barrier on fire? Was it intended as a trap for the Warden? If so, why not trap her in the first place? Did they attempt to catch someone else, only to meet a fiery resistance? If so, who was this rogue mage, and how was he able to call on such power? Moira had described the fire, she said it was hotter than any fire she had ever seen. It was wild and chaotic, rather than the controlled heat of most mages’ fire. William’s historians had been pouring into records to try and find out what this fire spell could possibly be, but so far their searches had come up empty.

That was until last night when one of the freelance historians called him up. Normally the Order would rely only on their own to find such an answer, but William was at his wits end. This particular historian, named Hikari Lightseeker, told him that she had managed to dig up some very, very old historical texts on fire magic, and after a quick rendezvous with Moira, had been able to pinpoint what the fire was. According to her, the fire was that of a Fire Jotun, which were apparently fire giants from old Nordic tales. She told William that he would keep looking into the records as long as the payments kept coming in, hopefully finding an answer to how and why Jotun fire was showing up in Springfield.

Just then, a knight rushing into William’s office broke his train of thought. The knight quickly saluted, although it was obvious he was quite flustered by the half hearted nature of the salute.

“Sorry for barging in, sir!”

“What’s the meaning of this?” William asked as he rose from his desk.

The knight quickly dropped several files onto his Lord’s desk. “Sir! Our scouts have reported back, and we finally have an identity and a location!”

“That’s no- wait, you do?” William’s face broke out into a grin as he quickly reached over to look through the files. “Well… where is it? Who is doing this?”

The knight quickly pointed to a file, which William grabbed and opened up. He read through the information quickly, his smile growing with each juicy detail.

“So, that explains it…” he muttered to himself. It appeared that these kidnappers were part of a larger guild, with the guild’s leader having been connected to the Jotun fire. Who would have guessed a Ljósálfr would have set up shop here in Springfield?

“Orders, sir?” the knight asked, clearly enthusiastic about whatever his commander would say. Lord Brighton smiled, closing the file softly.

“Gather the men and tell Moira to prepare. By the end of the week, we will attack this Scarlet Hand and imprison their members. But more importantly, we move to imprison their leader, Lifthrasir Skivarason.”

Odin hated this place.

He hated everything that it stood for. He hated the fact that its existence was a constant reminder to him of what once was. Of the bittersweet memories of his blood brother, of the sad memories of his now dead son, of the terrifying visions of what was to come because of this place.

Odin despised this place.

And yet, if Odin ever wanted to talk to… him, Odin had to come here.

“Ahhh… Odin. I should have known you would have been coming by.”

‘Speak of the devil…’ Odin thought to himself as he discarded his Bob disguise, appearing now in his full regal glory. Although, in all honesty, there was little need for that. After all, the two people in this cave were most definitely not impressed with such an appearance. If anything, they hated it.

“Yes, Loki, I’m here. And I am going to guess you know why.”

Loki gave a bitter smile, chuckling. Odin could only imagine that, were it not for the shackles that bound him to his prison, Loki would have probably shrugged. “Oh, I could fathom a guess or two. But please, come and sit down!” Loki looked upward to his wife, who was busy holding a bowl full of poison above her husband’s head. “My dear, would you be so kind as to get out the fine China? We have guests.”

Sigyn rolled her eyes, looking over to Odin with a bit of a sneer. “Oh, I would love to, but I seem to have my hands full at the moment. Odin, could you be so kind as to, perhaps, hold this bowl for a moment? Or better yet, remove my husband from his shackles?”

Odin sighed. “Sigyn, you know I-”

“Because I am fairly certain that your **** OF OUR CHILDREN was enough of a punishment, but to keep me and my husband locked away in here-”

“Sigyn, you are not bound here. You could leave any time you want.”

Sigyn’s face grew red in anger, and with a quick flick of her wrists she threw some of the poison towards Odin. Most of it did not quite make it, but enough managed to land on Odin’s foot. Immediately, Odin’s foot was wracked with pain, akin to his foot being dipped in pure acid.

“That’s why. Because I love this man, even if he has made his mistakes, and I refuse to be free while he suffers.” She turned back to Loki, muttering under her breath, “Even if he is a colossal twit.”

“Love you too, honey,” Loki said with a small grin, turning back towards his blood brother. “So, I take it you’ve come for something? A few insults? Jabs? Some more poison? Got plenty of that.”

“Loki… I know about Lifthrasir.”

Loki gave an exaggerated gasp. “Oh noooo, not Lifthrasir! Odin knows about Lifthrasir!” He looked back up at his wife. “Honey, did you hear? Odin learned about my little loyal elfy boy!”

“I heard, husband.”

“Oh no, it’s almost like I wasn’t trying to hide his identity from the gods!” Loki rolled his eyes before turning his head back to Odin. “So you know about my little carrier. Big whoop.”

“Yes, but I also know he is trying to-”

“To get me free? Duh. What else would I be trying to do?” Loki gave a quick tug at his shackles, before giving Odin a look of tired annoyance. “Do you have a rest stop between here and the fucking point of why you’re down in my prison?”

Odin grumbled, crossing his arms. “I could smite your little carrier right now. Ruin your whole plan.”

“Then why haven’t you?” Loki said with a grin.

“Because I thought if we could just settle this like gen-”

“Well, we can’t,” Loki said with a huff. “So go ahead. Smite him.”

Odin stared at Loki for a few moments before Loki started to chuckle.

“Just as I thought,” he said slowly. “You can’t, or don’t want to. Is Gaia holding back that smiting hand of yours? Stopping you from stopping me?”

Odin was about to growl out a response, but Loki interrupted him before he could. “Odin, look. I’ve been down her a long ass time. I’ve missed so many things all because of my little prank that got your son killed. And frankly, I am tired of it. And I think Gaia is tired of it too.” He turned to look at Odin, a wolfish grin stretched across his face. “I’ve been getting dreams, Odin. Dreams of a young runic mage who has the power to free me. Dreams of the stars above and the cities I have yet to see. Dreams of battles to be waged and mischief to be spread. But most of all? I’ve been having dreams of that mage coming in here and freeing me of his own accord.” Loki looked back up at the bowl his wife was holding, and noted the sounds of dripping were showing that it was about time for her to go empty it. “Oh darn, looks like we are out of time.” Loki turned back to his blood brother, waving at him from the bindings made of one of his sons. “I’ll see you soon, dear brother.”

Odin stayed quiet for a moment, before slowly turning away and walking out of the cavern. As he did so, screams of torment and agony followed him out, along with the rumbling of the earth from Loki’s thrashing. Odin had hoped that Loki would just give up and not put John through the pain that Odin had foreseen for the boy. But hearing those screams and feeling the power of his fury… Perhaps Odin was foolish to think that any peace would ever exist between him and his former blood brother ever again.

‘“Man, your mom took that really well,” Mavis said as she sharpened one of the knives in John’s mom’s kitchen. The talk between John and his mother had ended a few minutes ago, with Brenda heading out to pick up something for dinner as it had been too late to start cooking anything. Currently, John, Talia, and Mavis were all chilling out in the kitchen awaiting her return. Mavis had decided to alleviate her boredom with sharpening all of the knives she could find in the household, as well as any scissors, razors, or anything else with a sharp edge. Talia was busy enjoying her first ever soft drink, as apparently while the council did let some mortal items into Alfheim, there was still an embargo on sugary drinks. John, meanwhile, was currently sorting through the various cards that he ordered before his trip to Alfheim, which had managed to get here before he returned home.

John gave Mavis a nod as he set aside his copy of “The Scarab God”. “Yeah, honestly, I was expecting her to faint or… something. But aside from half a million questions, she took it super well.”

Talia sighed contently as she drained her second can of coke, slowly leaning back in her chair. “Maybe she was just expecting you to go through some big changes.”

John raised an eyebrow at this, turning to his girlfriend. “She expected me to discover magic was real?”

Talia shook her head. “No, dummy. She just… I dunno. When my brother came out of the closet, my parents had known that he was going to be changing in a big way soon. He had just gotten to that point in his life where he was becoming his own man and was going to change from the boy they raised.” Talia slowly stood up and walked over to the fridge, quickly grabbing a third coke. “Maybe she had been expecting something big to change with you, so she was bracing herself prematurely.”

John leaned back in his chair, thinking that over. It was true that, before he discovered magic, he wasn’t very different from the person he was a few years ago. He was still the same boring kid from Springfield who loved porn, video games, and nerdy shit. His discovery of magic had been so life altering, so powerful of a change that it was both changing his life and who he was as a person. John could only imagine what might have happened had he made even the slightest of different decisions on the day he discovered his powers. He might have ended up a completely different person, talking to who knows and doing gods know what.

While he pondered the alternate paths his life could have taken, his mother returned home, carrying with her several bags of food from the local Thai restaurant. The smell of delicious spices and mouth watering delicacies was enough to pull all three from their respective thought trains and activities, and in moments all of them were sitting around the table eating and smiling and laughing as if they had known each other for years.

The rest of the night passed rather uneventfully. John spent some time one on one talking with his mother about seeking some form of therapy in the Abyss, as she could tell he was having issues with the things he had seen and done. She also assured him several times that, no matter what, she would always be there for her son. If he ever needed to talk to her, he was not to hesitate to give her a call and she would do everything in her power to help him.

With that said, she could tell that her son was exhausted, and clearly needed to lie down and sleep away some of the stress of the past few days. And so, that night, John found himself lying down in the same bed that he had awoken from nearly a week ago to discover he now had secret magical powers. A week ago, his only hopes of satiating his lust were masturbating to the various hot girls at his school. Now he lay in his bed with both of his girlfriends curled up beside him, softly sleeping away after a dinner of delicious Thai (and a short blowjob from Talia). A week ago John had thought his mother was the only one who cared about him, with no other family who even knew of his existence. Now he knew that, out there, Heimdallr watched over him, while the other gods also monitored him to see what he would do.

A week ago, John was able to sleep peacefully, with not a care in the world. And for the first time since this week had begun, John found himself sleeping with not a single nightmare or worry in his mind.