Shadow of the throne

Chapter Eight Ghosts

Munin weaved through the complex motions Poseidon had taught her. Moving in her new armour was completely different too when she was using normal battle plate. She discovered that training dummies stood little chance against her new mechanical aided muscles; her first training session had been a surprise. She had sliced right through the dummy and span round; her momentum sent her sprawling onto the floor. Poseidon burst into laughter but when Julia shot him a shouldering scowl he quickly adverted his gaze, but his smile still remained. "Would like to try the Training program? Or would you like to spin around some more?"

She picked herself up, failed to be cheered up by his good humour. "You could have mentioned that!" she snapped at him as she re-sheathed Munin but he seemed unaffected.

"Didn't I? Oh, I'm sorry" He pressed a button by the door, and all the weapon racks and dummy fell back in the walls seamless, apart from the half Julia had cut off, there was little evidence that this was a training room. Poseidon picked up the chuck of dummy and threw it out of the room; he had tossed the packed metallic fibers as if it was weightless despite not wearing his armour. He then tossed he a strange looking helmet.

"Put it on and take a seat" The helmet looked like nothing she had ever seen before and did not look like it offered any sort of protection. Behind her a larger pod like chair had risen from the center of the room. She was going to ask him about it, but when she looked up he was already leaving and shutting the door behind him. Julia shrugged and trusted that Poseidon was not going to let her die. Taking a seat, she pulled on the strange helmet, it covered her eyes, but something must of slide back because suddenly she could see again.

There was something wrong with the room though, it just didn't feel right. Her suspicions where confirmed when the room began to break apart. Chunk by chunk it hurtled off into black nothingness. When all the training room had disappeared, a green grid covered the floor, it seemed to stretch on forever. From behind her a voice echoed from behind her

"Impressive, isn't it?"

She spun around, her hand darting to Munin's hilt. She relaxed slightly when she saw it was Poseidon. "What is this place?"

He made swept his arms wide, turning in a circle to survey the shapeless landscape "This is the building block of reality...well my reality at least, here you will learn everything you need to know about warfare and combat, including how to best to use your shiny new suit". Julia narrowed her eyes, his mannerisms were off, and he acted completely different to the Poseidon she knew. "You're not Poseidon, are you?"

As soon as she had caught on to him his whole personality changed, his face become stoic and he clasped his hands behind his back, with his heels together. Whoever it was shook his head. "No, I am not Ravensong, I am the AI for this simulation, I decided that this would be a form you would be comfortable with. I can change it if you preferer?"

She decided to let it go for now, things were already too complicated. "How long have I been in here?"

The AI took a few steps closer. "Eighteen hours

Ravensong"

Her eyes widened in shock. "That long!? But I've only just got in that bloody contraption"

The AI shock his browed head "A human brain needs some time to adapt so the last eighteen hours was made to seem as real as possible"

Julia considered this, it seemed to make sense "So what do

I call you?"

The AI seemed to consider this for a second "You can call me whatever you like, Poseidon calls me Artie, Zeus simply calls me computer and Hades calls me arsehole, he does not seem to approve of me "