Themyscira's Grand Arena was located on the outskirts of the city, a bit further inland. The main structure was a coliseum, if one shorter than the one in Rome at first glance. Getting closer though revealed that it was dug into the earth a fair way, and looking down into the space from a nearby hill revealed that it could easily seat tens of thousands. I spied several smaller buildings and tunnels leading into the ground around it, so I figured there was an underground portion to the complex.
Just outside the structure was an outdoor training area. There was a series of sparring rings, an archery range, a circuit, and a very involved obstacle course. But as we got closer, Diana steered our group towards a specific set of training dummies. "Just a moment, there's someone I want to see who I suspect is here." In short order she hommed in on a specific woman hammering away a rather battered facsimile of a Greek soldier with her fists.
The woman had dark brown skin, and her curly black hair was in a loose ponytail. She was dressed minimally with some wrappings around her chest and nethers, and had a light sheen of sweat on her exposed skin. She turned to face us, and her strong face broke into a smile when she saw her fellow Amazon. "Diana. Knew you'd find your way here at some point." She glanced at the rest of us, her eyebrows shooting up at the sight of myself and Kori. "And you've brought some interesting company."
Diana returned the smile with one of her own. "We have some guests for this festival, Nubia. Heroes from Man's World." She looked back at us. "Nubia was one of my instructors when I was learning how to fight. She was also the one who let me get up to the most trouble."
"Like I've told Hippolyta several times, I have no idea what you're talking about." The wry grin on Nubia's face made the statement less than convincing. She then turned to Donna. "Welcome back. Still practicing your forms?"
"Of course." Donna replied. "I'm also finally getting some sparring practice with people other than Diana now," She gestured to myself and Kori.
We both greeted her, and Nubia hummed as she looked us over. "Strong enough to handle our Little Moon? Interesting."
Before I could follow up on that, Diana spoke up. "I imagine you're fighting in one of the matches today?"
Nubia chuckled and leaned back a little, running her hand through her hair in a pose that would have every fashionable magazine in the world climbing over each other to get her on the cover. " Yes, an exhibition, though I'm tenser than I would like. Dara was supposed to help me warm up, but she got side tracked with decorations. Now I find myself bereft of a sparring partner."
A small smile crossed Diana's face as she stretched out her arms. "I believe I can spare some time if you'll have me."
"I appreciate it Diana, but circumstance presenting, I'm interested in fighting someone new." Nubia said, her gaze shifting to Kori…
And continuing right on to me. "So, you up for a match?"
I blinked. "Me?"
She grinned. "Sure. The last men who visited were too 'polite' to face me in the arena, so it's been a long time since I have faced a man in battle. And I want to see what one of Man World's champions is capable of."
I hesitated. "What kind of match?"
"Oh nothing formal, if that's what you're worried about." She waved her hand. "Just a sparring match to test our skills against each other. I'll let you pick the equipment."
"A test of skill..." I repeated, looking at the assembled Amazonians. After a few seconds I looked back at Nubia with a smile of my own. "Sure, I'm game. Let's keep it hand to hand."
Nubia arched an eyebrow. "Fine by me. Do you usually use a weapon?"
"Not… exactly. I can shape my body into weapons. Which would at least destroy any mundane weapon you might use. And at most would result in me glassing the area. Neither of which is very sporting."
This confused her, and Nubia looked to Diana and mouthed 'glassing?'. The other woman sighed. "He has some very… destructive capabilities. Hand to hand seems like the best."
We then moved to one of the open sand sparring rings, Nubia trotting forward to take her spot on the other side of the ring. Before I moved Kori touched my arm, and I looked to see her giving me a look of mild concern. I paused for a moment before I made a gesture, pressing both of my closed fists together in front of me. She nodded in understand, and I ignored the confused looks of everyone else around me to change my Mask.
"What are you doing?" Donna asked, looking me up and down.
"Getting into appropriate clothing." I had changed my outfit to remove my outer robe and shoes. I changed my tunic to open in the front and pulled my arms out of the sleeve, letting the top half hang down. This left me bare save for the cloth hanging around my waist.
She gestured. "I mean, I know that clothes don't really provide protection for you, but you really don't have to be stripped to the waist."
"And deny these women the sight of my mathematically perfect abs?"
Donna groaned and rolled her eyes, which gave me the usual sense of satisfaction. And with that out of the way I stepped forward into the ring, meeting Nubi in the middle of the training ring a few meters away. She rolled her shoulders and said "I should ask, how 'intensive' has your hand to hand training been?"
I grinned and took a fighting stance, arms up and hands open. "I train with a shapeshifting alien soldier who like s to get 'creative'. I don't think you have to worry." I took the moment to alter my internals for optimal kinesthetics.
She barked out a laugh and settled into a fighting stance of her own before shouting. "Call it, Diana."
"...BEGIN!"
Nubia rushed in, and was on me in an instant with a straight blow aimed at my midsection. I deflected the fist, but she was already stepping in for a strike at my head. I shifted to the side and let the blow pass before stepping in to trip her up. But Nubia moved back with me perfectly, kicking at my knee to break my stance. I twisted away, but it left me open for her to follow me and strike me in the chest. It hit me with enough force to push me back a few meters, my feet dragging lines in the sand before I stopped myself.
Got more of a kick than expected, I thought, settling my stance just in time to parry the next flurry of blows. I hadn't known exactly how strong normal Amazons were, given how much that varied in the comics. Sometimes they were just as strong as Diana, other times they were more just the physical peak of humans. Nubia was definitely superhuman, though not anywhere near her princess. I was stronger than her, considerably even, but not by as much as I had expected. I adjusted my strength down to her level before moving back in.
Nubia lashed out with a hook, but this time I slipped into the strike and ducked under her arm, punching at her now open side. She was quick enough to pull back, but I still got a glancing hit on her ribs. Keeping up my momentum I moved around her, switching from still and defensive to moving and aggressive. I focused my attention on her upper body and head, trying to predict her attacks and stop them before they started. Nubia was on the defense, but easier moved or rolled with my hits. She even perfectly leaned back to avoid the crescent kick I aimed at her head.
So, as she straightened back up, I transitioned into a short jump and drop-kicked her in the midriff.
The two of us were thrown apart, and we both hit the ground and rolled to our feet at the same time. I saw Nubia grin as she kept low to the ground. "Now we're talking!" she yelled before sprinting back at me. She didn't let up on the aggression, but even as she launched a series of blows Nubia started moving around me a lot more to keep up. I responded in kind, and soon sand was kicking up around us from the force of our movements.
As the pace started to pick up, and we fell into a rhythm of attack and defense, our fight started to cover more of the arena. A natural consequence of us both being as strong as we were was that when a hit landed we'd be knocked back a fair ways, and we could clear that distance just as fast. And while I had gotten used to that type of fight over the past few months, Nubia had a lot more experience than that.
Every time she attacked she tried to push me back or knock me off balance, and she kept moving to attack me from as many directions as possible. I could keep up, but it was giving me little chance to go on the offensive, and when I did I was rarely in a position to capitalize on it. Still, I was getting used to it, and with every exchange I was getting a little better at deflecting her momentum.
Nubia sensed this too, and suddenly switched up her attack with a series of low kicks to my legs, bringing my attention downward. I realized what she was doing a half second before she kicked a cloud of sand into my face, surging forward to take advantage of my blindness. Which, unfortunately for her, wasn't actually a problem for me. Instead of flinching I dropped low and pushed forward, catching her off guard and making her stumble back. This time as I pushed forward with a flurry of strikes it knocked her more and more off balance. A final blow to the chest knocked her off her feet and she tumbled to the ground, and without hesitating I stepped up and raised my foot to deliver an axe kick.
But even as she fell Nubia was still moving, stretching her arm above her head and on impact digging her hand into the ground with enough force I heard a crack beneath the sand. Then, in a motion that would have been impossible for a woman of normal strength, she pulled herself away from me. And since I had stepped in, that meant her leg hooked mine before I could bring my kick down.
I corrected myself in mid air as best I could, but I still landed on my back. I kipped up as fast as I could, but somehow Nubia had already reversed her momentum and was flying at me in a tackle, she knocked us both back to the ground and tried to pin me, but I rolled in an effort to shake her off.
Both of us tumbled out of the ring, rolling a few times before we broke apart got to our feet. For a moment I thought that would be the end of it, but Nubia bounced up and down on the balls of her feet and said "You are a tough one," before rushing me. I moved at her in kind, but before I could reach her she turned her forward motion into a slide and went under my strike. She slid to her feet and kept running, jumping into the nearest part of the obstacle course next to our ring. It was a sort of pit which had numerous narrow poles sticking out of it, clearly intended for having people carefully walk on them to cross the gap.
Nubia nimble stepped across a few poles before turning back to me. "But how's your balance-?"
I didn't even slow down as I crossed the threshold, running on the pole tops before jumping at her with a flying kick. The woman was forced to fall backwards and twist so that she could catch herself. I had to skip off a few poles to bleed off momentum, but I came to a stop balanced on one foot, pirouetting back at Nubia with a wiry expression. "Quite good, point of fact."
She took another moment to take my measure before she started to circle me, and I mirrored her motion. We skipped from pole to pole until we closed the distance and resumed our dance. With only a few points of contact beneath us, our movements and attacks became measured. Once again I found myself at a disadvantage, because while my perfect sense of balance let me fight on this footing, it still wasn't as good as Nubia's experience.
Her tactics changed to trying to knock me off the pole I was standing on, but I wouldn't give. My toes gripped into the wood beneath me as blows hammered down onto me, counterattacking whenever I could. My attempts to reposition were constantly blocked as she moved around me, though she still couldn't break my defense. Even when she rather impressive spinning kick flip that took her clear over my head so she could kick down at me-
I both heard and felt the groan beneath my foot, but it was too late to react. With a cry Nubia stomped on my standing leg. And while my foot may have withstood the blow, the pole did not.
I found myself falling and caught myself with my hands and feet on different poles, but Nubia followed up by raising her foot above me. Her heel came down on the back of my neck, and I found myself forced down, the front of my neck jammed into the edge of a pole.
For a long moment, neither of us moved. Then, I chucked. "If I were a normal man, that would have crushed my throat." I raised a hand. "I give."
Nubia grunted before taking my hand and hauling me to my feet. She was breathing heavily, but otherwise was no worse for wear. "What are you made of?" she asked as she shook her hands out. "It felt like I was punching a boulder."
"Mostly metals," I admitted, the two of us walking back to the other. "That thing you did where you pulled yourself out of the way was really interesting. I may have to steal it for myself."
She gave a non-committal hum, and when we reached the others she took a towel that was helpfully offered by Diana. Artemis glance looked at me with an odd smile on her face. "So Jacob, what do you think after facing an Amazon warrior?"
"It's great!" I replied cheerfully. "I don't have a lot of chances to fight people with superhuman strength, but no flight ability. Let alone one who has thousands of years worth of martial training. I think I learned a few tricks about human motion and leverage in the last few minutes."
That wasn't the response she was expecting, given how brow rose. But she recovered quickly. "Ah, well, good. It's nice to see a man who has proper respect for a more skilled opponent. Especially when said opponent wins."
"No, I didn't," Nubia said as she ran a towel across her face. "He was going easy on me."
"No, you are definitely more skilled than me," I protested. "And I did say I wanted to keep it hand to hand-"
"No, I'm not talking about your other abilities," she said. "There was something off about your movements. You were trying to move with my hits when you could have withstood them. I felt something similar when it came to your strikes, a tenseness to your attack that comes with restraint. You were holding back."
"Wait, what?" Artemis said in confusion, looking to Kori.
She nodded. "Jacob wanted an equal contest," she said, mirroring the Tamaranian gesture I had given her earlier. "I can assure you he is much stronger than he just showed you."
I pursed my lips as I regarded Nubia. "I tried to match my strength to yours. Did I go too low?"
"No you got it about right." she folded her arms across her chest, giving me an even look. "Normally I would take offense, but it was clear from how you fought you weren't trying to win, but trying to learn. And I did say it would be a spar..." she shook her head before tossing her towel aside. "Now, fight me to win."
I blinked. "Ah, right now?"
"Yes." She moved back into a fighting stance, not even bothering to move back towards the ring. "I want to see what you're like when you're fighting for real."
I stared at her for a moment before I let out a breath, mirroring her stance. "Alright. But I'm still not breaking out the lasers."
The others stepped away from us, and a long moment of stillness stretched out between us.
Without waiting for a signal, Nubia threw a jab at my head. At the same time I slipped forward and captured her fist with my rear hand. She tried to pull it back and hit me with a straight, but was surprised when her first was completely stuck in my grasp. That moment of surprise let me pull her in and grab her shoulder with my other hand. She tried to complete her punch and stuck me in the head, but I ignored it as my hand let go of her fist and shot forward. Restrained as she was, she couldn't avoid my hand wrapping around her throat. My fingers found her carotid artery and gently squeezed.
Nubia tried everything she could to break my hold. She punched and kneed me in the head and ribs, but I didn't move. She pried at my fingers, but she couldn't break my grip. She twisted in my grapple, but couldn't break my stance. She even tried to poke my eyes out, for all the good it did. Soon enough, her movements started to slow, and just before she lost consciousness she tapped out on my shoulder.
I released my grip on her neck and quickly moved to support her. Nubia took a few moments to collect herself before she looked back at me. "That was… distressing."
"I don't really have 'weak points' like normal humans," I explained. "It comes in handy a lot. Though it can make training against me kinda awkward."
She rubbed her neck. "I'll bet. You must be a terror to fight when you get serious."
"That he is." Kori walked up beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder and smiling at Nubia. "Though he has more fun with spars like this. Thank you for that."
Nubia's eyes flicked between the two of us before she smiled back at Kori. "I see. Well, happy I could help." She stretched up and groaned. "Ok,that's enough 'warming up'. I think I will take it easy until my match. You were planning on watching a few yourself?"
"Yes. Have you always participated in these tourneys?"
"Most of them, yes."
"Then join us, if for a little while," Kori asked, leaning against me a little. "I'm sure there's a lot you can tell us about them."
The rest of the day was much more sedate (probably for the better). We watched several fights in the arena, most were one on ones though the last one for the day was a group fight between two small squads. Afterwards our group visited a few more important spots in the city before we split up to our own devices. Dianna and Donna had some friends they wanted to meet up with, and I wanted to poke around Amazonian engineering some more. So, Hippolyta informed us of the small house we would be staying at, and we decided to meet up there after we were done.
And that's how Donna and I ended up on a terrace overlooking the sunset. We were high up in the city, so we got a spectacular view of the fading light casting the city and bay in warm hues. Activity in the streets had died down some, but I could still see a few milling about in the street. It would be a big day for them tomorrow.
Leaning against the banister next to me, Donna hummed in satisfaction. "I know it gets old if I stay here for too long, but it's moments like these make me feel I could stay here forever."
"It really is a sort of paradise," I said, casting a sidelong glance at her. Donna looked very artful in the fading light, her hair caught in the wind… but a slight frown crossed my lips. There had been something slightly off about her appearance all day, and I was trying to figure out what.
She caught me staring and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
It took me a few seconds to realize just what it was. "I'm not used to not seeing you without a choker." Honestly, it had just seemed so natural to me for Donna to wear one I hadn't even noticed she always had it in her casual attire until she took it off.
Donna let out a small laugh and touched her neck. "Yeah… collars have a very specific meaning here on Themyscira."
I chuckled, and a thought occurred to me. "You know, you have a very unique position of being familiar with both Amazonian and modern culture. You ever think about going into anthropology?"
This caught her off guard. "Not… really. To be honest, I'm still not sure what I'm going to be doing aside from superhero stuff."
"Well… what do you want to do?"
"...Photography." She said, looking out at the panorama. She then let out a slight laugh. "You know, I'm a terrible drawer? The reason everyone here calls me Little Moon is because in the three years I lived here I kept trying to draw the night sky, but I could never get all the detail on the moon right… then when I left I bought a camera and it was so much easier."
I laughed, and silence settled between us again. Eventually, I asked "Why the night sky?"
She shrugged. "Don't know. It's always felt… comforting to me. Even though I don't have a specific place in mind, it's always given me the feeling of home."
Home, huh? I thought, staring out at the fading light in the direction I knew Vega was. My grasp on dimensional physics was… progressing, if slowly. At that moment I felt pulled in different directions, towards the life I had made for myself here and the life I used to have. And I wondered if I could get what I was looking for if I braved the danger and went out there to find answers.
I hadn't noticed that Donna had slid up next to me, her shoulder almost touching mine as she looked at my face. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked, having guessed what I was thinking about.
I sighed. "There isn't much to say. Isn't much I can say. I didn't have a falling out with my family or anything, I just… haven't seen them in months."
"Do you want to?"
"Yeah, a lot. I just physically can't-" I stopped myself. For a brief moment, I considered just telling her. But, even if I ignored my orders… I decided not to. That would end up being a very involved conversation which would get away from me. "I'll tell you the story someday. But for now… I just can't see them."
Donna's pale blue eyes held mine for a few seconds before she looked back out over the city. With a small motion, she moved closer so that our shoulders were touching.
We stayed like that and watched the stars come out.
It was late morning when I left the city to head up the mountain. There were a number of Amazons who stopped what they were doing to watch me fly up into the air, but soon enough I was past the city's edge. I didn't head straight up however, as I still had no idea where exactly I was supposed to go. It was probably up past the clouds, but I wanted to be sure first, so I took a quick around the base. I didn't find any entrances or structures.
Though I did spot a herd of giant kangaroos. Going to have to ask Diana about that later.
So, I then headed up to the top of the mountain, passing through the thick cloud cover. The clouds seemed press around me just as I was about to break through, and then-
The skies opened up, and suddenly I was above a sea of clouds, lit by a gold-white light. The source of the light came from the top of the mountain, which was suddenly much higher up than I would have thought. Perched at the apex was a city of shining gold and silver, the purest white marble forming buildings and columns. Waterfalls cascaded off the sides, creating magnificent rainbows as they disappeared down below.
"...space-time must be crying in a corner somewhere." I said to the open air as I looked around. I supposed I could just head to the summit and ask around, but I had a feeling that the people up there weren't the type to helpfully hand out directions. I landed on the nearest flat surface of the mountain to get my bearings-
As soon as I touched the ground I felt something. A pulse beneath my feet. I stood still for a few moments to take it in, feeling the steady rhythm. It wasn't coming from the summit, but somewhere nearby. I let my feet guide me as I followed that beat, walking over rough terrain and climbing up a cliff face to find the source.
I climbed over the lip of the cliff to see a massive, silvery metal gate, three times as tall as I was. The doors were engraved with intricate patterns that formed a pair of crossing hammers, and the pillars that framed either side were made of a red-gold metal. I slowly walked up and placed a hand on the door. It felt warm to the touch. I only felt it for an instant before the doors opened inward, revealing a stone corridor lit by torches, leading into a dim red haze. With nothing else, I walked forward.
As I walked, that steady pulse I felt was growing stronger, vibrating through the stones at my feet. It wasn't long before it matched up with a predictable sound: that of a hammer on metal. Soon, the hallway opened up into a massive chamber, and I got a good look at the Forge.
The space was about 50 meters across, supported by scattered ornate pillars that held up the high ceiling. There were braziers, but a lot of the light was coming from rivets in the walls and floor which channeled molten metal across the room. There were several vents across the ceiling, but my eyes were drawn to the massive furnace in the back. It was made of a dark but gleaming metal I couldn't recognize, and glowed with power from several spots.
In front of the furnace were several workbenches, tool racks, and a large anvil. And at that anvil, with his back to me, was a man hammering away at a piece of red hot metal. He wore rough leather pants, leather gloves, and a work apron, along with a metal brace around his right leg. Even hunched over he was tall, probably taller than I was if he stood up straight. As I got within a few meters, he stopped and turned to face me.
He wasn't the most horrifyingly ugly man I had ever seen, but he was firmly in the realm of 'face only a mother could love'. He was broad and stocky, with bunched muscles and rudy skin. His face was square and craggy, like someone had taken a larger head and crushed it down to a smaller size. His beard and hair were a scraggly unkempt mess, though I doubted he cared about that.
Hephaestus looked me up and down with his beady eyes and grunted. "I should really get out more if there are things like you wandering around."
The god was giving me the same impression Hermes had, of being just a little bigger and more real than he should have been. I briefly debated with myself before I simply extended my hand towards him. "Most of them aren't as friendly as me."
Hephaestus barked out a laugh and clasped his hand around my own. As our hands touched I felt something… familiar? I had felt the touch of magic before, but this was something else. Other magic had always felt ephemeral, distant. But what I felt from Hephaestus was more solid, and… well had a rhythm to it. "Just as well then, I wouldn't have wanted to invite some one who couldn't hold a respectable conversation."
"Right, about that… not that I'm not honored to meet you but, how did you know I even existed?"
"I don't get a lot of prayers these days, even from the Amazons." He grumbled. "Io does her best, but aside from her I just get lip service on special occasions. So when I received a prayer from Diana on your behalf, I got interested. She's normally Athena's girl."
I blinked. "Diana prayed for me? Would have thought she'd mention that."
"Probably forgot about it," Again, he grumbled. "Anyway, I had been getting a… feeling in the air lately, so I had Hermes look into you a bit. And I liked what I heard." A crooked grin broke out on his face. "Building the gear for your team is a good job."
I was mildly concerned about my privacy, but for the moment I just said "I try my best. I'm still learning a lot. Great work on Donna's outfit, by the way."
He 'harrumphed'. "As if anyone else could forge the night sky into armor. Granted, Nyx gave me the material. Weirdly insistent, too." Before I could press that, he waved his hand. "Bah, enough pleasantries. Let's get to it."
"And what exactly is 'it'? What did you want to talk to me about?"
"First, a small test." He stepped/limped to the side to give me a clear view of the anvil and the heated metal on top of it. "Need to make sure you can do what I think you can." He turned the hammer around in his hand, offering the handle to me. "Finish this."
I looked between him and the molten slab of metal on the anvil. "I've… never actually forged anything before. And I don't know what it's supposed to be."
"It will be what you want it to be," He insisted.
I hesitated for a moment longer before I took the hammer from him. I could feel it hum with potential in my hand. I hefted it, feeling the weight as I looked at the slab in front of me. Guess I'll just have to do it by feel. I picked up a pair of tongs to grip the slab, and started hammering away.
I didn't try to think about what I was doing, I just hammered in a steady rhythm. The sound, the feel of it caused everything to fade away, and I focused all of my attention on the work in front of me. With each strike, I felt a little more pour out of me into the metal. I saw the mandela crawl down my arm and across the hammer itself, the tool taking to the magic like it was part of my arm.
When I plunged the work into the water basin next to me, I snapped out of the trance I had fallen into. I blinked a few times before I placed the hammer on the anvil and pulled my artifice out of the basin, dropping it into my hand.
At first glance it was a simple rod, made of a gold-red metal. The surface was etched with the pattern of the Algorithm, put in such fine detail that no part of the surface was left untouched. It was only a foot long, which was odd considering I had been working with a lot more material than that.
I hefted it experimentally, before stretching out my arm and flicking my wrist, adding a little bit of thought. The rod extended a whole ten feet, becoming heavier in my grip. Another flick and it changed into a ladder, though I could feel it stretching a bit thin. I flicked it back towards me and it collapsed into a metallic shovel.
Hephaestus grunted as I cycled through a number of tools. "Not bad for a first try," he said. "Couldn't decide on what to make, so you just made everything?"
"Well, I could exactly make a computer with a hammer, could I?" I remarked before I paused. I flicked my wrist again and I was holding a metal abacus. "... you know what I mean."
"May I?" I looked to Hephaestus to see him extending his hand. I changed it back to a rod before handing it to him, and he turned it over in his hands. "Hmm, interesting. Requires a conscious will to use. Not that rare by itself, but this seems critical to its use. To anyone under someone else's influence, it's just a rod."
"Huh. What does that mean?"
"Not sure," he tossed it back to me. "But you are definitely what I thought you were. I've never seen an aspect like yours."
I shrugged. "Technomancy. As far as I know, it started with me."
He gave me an appraising look. "So, you're the first. But it sounds like you think this power of yours is just some magic. Well, it is, but you're looking at it all wrong. You didn't create this magic, you are the magic."
I looked down at my hand, still glowing. "The queen of Atlantis did tell me that my magic comes from my soul. Which I know is not normal, but-"
"You really have no idea, do you?" He interrupted. He shook his head and looked me in the eyes. "You're an elemental, boy."
"...eh?"
"A new one, to be sure." He continued. "Haven't seen anything quite like you. Your physical body is a lot more involved than most elemental bodies."
"Wait, wait." I held up my hands. "I'm not an elemental. I- it's hard to explain, but I used to be human-"
"Of course you were." Hephaestus interrupted again. "You're not the first human to be reborn as an elemental. Tell me, when you got your abilities, did you have to die first?"
"...maybe a little."
He nodded. "There you go. It's not common, but sometimes when a human soul gets infused with magical energy at the moment of death, it becomes something else. Sometimes just a ghost, sometimes a demon. And sometimes, you."
I stood there, somewhere between deeply concerned and nonplussed. "I don't feel very… elementally."
"Like I said, you're new. Not just being an elemental, but I doubt there are many of your specific type."
My thoughts went back to the Remnant AI, the one I was sure who had given Vulcan and Serling the data files which lead them to accessing the Algorithm. Was it an elemental too? "I don't know… what does this mean?"
"That means there will be more… and given how strong you are, I have no doubt you'll end up forming your own Parliament. Which means conflict."
My brow furrowed. "And what does that mean?"
"Elementals… butt heads. Often over physical or conceptual space. As your own kind expands, there will be those that oppose you. Whether or not a group of elementals can stay strong enough to make a Parliament and survive is up in the air." A grin split his face and he leaned in towards me. "But the odds get a lot better if you have a god on your side."
And just like that, the reason for his invitation became clear. I stood up straighter in understanding. "You want an alliance."
"I help you, you help me," Hephaestus confirmed. "I may not have as much influence as I used to, but I can provide safe haven for you and yours if you need it. Taking refuge in a shrine or some place dedicated to me will ward off most other types I can see bothering you."
"...would it be rude to point out you don't have many of those off of Themyscira?"
"And now we get to how you can help me," Hephaestus hobbled up to me. "You have power over technology, the thing mankind has built its civilization on. I need you to bring me back into the minds of men, not just as a memory but someone to be worshiped. If I'm viewed as a proper god again, I'll be able to do more for your elementals than just provide a few hiding spots."
I paced away from him, feeling more uncertain than I had in a while. "This… is a lot to take in. I don't even know if I want to make a Parliament."
"It's how your lot works. The only difference with you is that you remember what it's like to be human." he remarked. "That'll fade with time."
"I'm not-" I started to snap, but I stopped myself. "I don't want it to fade."
He snorted. "They all say that, but give it time. If you're stubborn, I give it a few centuries tops. Besides, you don't have to be human, you're something more now. Why not embrace it?"
I was silent for a long time before I said "I... need to think about this."
"Alright," Hephaestus dusted off his hands and picked up his hammer. "I don't have a deadline for you, but I'd prefer sooner rather than later. Besides, you'll want to prepare for your own conflict as soon as possible too." He turned and began pulling more heated metal out of the furnace. "Remember, you're not human, you're something more."
I left the Forge to the same sound of hammer on anvil, though it sounded a bit more ominous than before.