-Ann-
Ayme had her sword still pointed at the woman in front of us, refusing to retreat. What we were supposed to do, I didn't know. I would have lowered the sword if I had had a gun pointed in my face. In fact, as I looked at my surroundings, I found three of the fifteen men that had entered the room pointing their guns at me.
"Ayme, do what they want," I said.
She gritted her teeth and raised her sword a little, causing the men to step closer.
Eva wasn't fazed by the death threat. She narrowed her eyes and looked at the man. "Marcus, stand down. They are not a threat." Her voice was dangerously calm.
"Ayme, please," Eve reasoned.
Ayme shook her head. "Not before I have an answer."
"Put the weapon down girl,' the man said again.
"Marcus."
The man looked at Eva. "Eva, you saw what she.." He didn't even get the chance to finish.
"Marcus. Don't make me force you," she spoke, the authority clear in her voice.
"As you wish," the man, Marcus, mumbled, and he took a step back, motioning his men to do the same.
"Now, are we going to solve this problem properly?" Eva asked Ayme.
"I need to know," she answered quietly.
"I met your father when he saved me from a burning house. Percy believed I was a demigod who needed help. It was funny actually, because he wasn't all wrong."
Ayme lowered her sword. "My father rescued you?"
Eva nodded. "But.. you're not a demigod?"
Eva shook her head. "No, but we worship the same God, or Goddess, actually."
"Say what?" Eve said.
"I believe in who you would call Artemis, or Diana in Roman. For us, she's simply the Moon Goddess."
"You only believe in Artemis? And you're not a demigod?" I asked.
"You know, when I was on my own I used to read a lot of those stories, where they would be talking about werewolves worshipping only to the Moon Goddess, but those stories must not rely to you.. right?" I trailed off a bit, noticing the small smile on Eva's face.
"What? You're a werewolf?" Eve asked.
"Why are you so surprised?" Eva replied. "You believe in the Greek Gods, don't you?"
Ayme shook her head. "That's not possible. Only the Greek Gods exist in real life. There's no such thing as werewolves."
Eva sighed. "Didn't your father ever tell you about his encounter with the descendants of the Egyptian Gods?"
Ayme's mouth hung open, not being able to form a word.
"He didn't? I'm actually surprised," Eva said, picking up the magazine from the desk and putting it away. "I believed he had told you."
She motioned for us to follow her as she walked away. "It doesn't matter now anyway. There are many different religions in the world. But the only way you'll notice they're all there, is when you actually encounter them.
For example, when your father, or brother, or friend, well.. whatever you want to call him, came by to ask me a favour, I met Apollo, the Greek God of healing. I hadn't known he had existed, but because Percy managed to get me too meet him, I found out about the ability of different religions being able to exist."
My nose scrunched up as I was thinking. "You met Apollo? Why would you do that?"
Eva's lips turned into a straight line, her expression changing into sadness. "It's not something I can tell you. I will have to show you. Come along, but.. don't be surprised at what you're about to witness. It's nothing.. really."
---
When Eva told us not to be surprised, I found out we probably have a different meaning of what life looks like. For example, I hadn't thought of an entire house hidden in a janitors closet, but as it turned out, I realised anything is possible. Eva had led us to a closet at the far end of the Book Shop, stopping in front of a small door. She had turned around, facing us.
"For your information, if you will try to enter the Globe, it won't work. The door to the Globe opens only to members of the Pack, so for you, it will probably stay closed, even if you try to break it down."
"Okay.." Eve said. Eva opened the door and let us into a small hallway.
She told us not to be surprised, but can you imagine what it's like to enter this tiny bookshop, and get into a janitors closet that turns out not to be a janitors closet at all and you walk along in a little hall that ends in this big main room, where you can see at least fifty people enjoying each other's presence by reading books, or talking, or watching television? It felt like my eyebrows where about to raise from my head. They rose that high. I looked at Ayme and Eve, to see if they were reacting the same. Ayme didn't seem to be fazed by our surroundings at all, while Eve looked like he was going to pass out. I nudged him with my elbow to get his attention.
"You okay?" I asked him. He turned to look at me, but his eyes weren't really focused on me.
"Hmm.. oh, yeah."
"Are you coming, or what?" Eva asked us, and we followed her on a long walk, not knowing where we were actually going.
"My lady," someone next to us said suddenly. Eva turned around and looked at the man.
"What is it, Finn?"
"There are some papers that need to be signed," the man - Finn - answered.
"What's this about?" Eva asked, skimming through the papers.
"Alpha Raphael requests permission to enter the Kingdom for the next two weeks."
"And why is that?"
"I have no recordings of his motives."
Eva handed him the papers back, unsigned. "Then his request for permission is denied and until I know what his motives are, I will not look at his requests again."
"Very well, my Lady." Finn walked off, leaving us thinking what the hell was going on.
"What was that about?" Ayme asked. "You'll find out. The only thing you need to know now is that I have a Kingdom to rule, Ayme. Helping you and your friends isn't the only thing I do."
"Then what do you do?" I asked her. "From what I've seen, you were trying to run a book shop not an hour ago."
"That's not exactly what I do for living," Eva answered.
"Then what.." Eve started, but got interrupted again, this time by a low, muscular voice. "I believe Eva will tell you eventually, but it's time and patience that you need, not urge and carelessness."
I looked to my right, noticing a tall man with piercing blue eyes and blond hair join us on our way.
"We're not careless!" Ayme said exasperated.
"Really?" the man said. "What exactly do you know about her, then?"
Eva slapped his arm. "Thomas cut it out, they did nothing wrong. And they have nothing to fear either."
The man chuckled. "Alright, alright. I see you've made new friends already, didn't you?"
Eva put her arm around him and gestured to us. "Thomas, I'd like you to meet Ayme, Ann and Eve. These are Percy's daughter, sister, and his.. friend.. I suppose?"
I saw Eve stumble a little and he swallowed. "Yeah, something like that."
After a really uncomfortable silence Ayme spoke up. "Where are we going?"
Eva didn't stop walking while she replied. "In a minute we will arrive at the Lab I've set up a few years ago. It's were I do my research, not just for fun.."
At this she turned around, facing Ayme. "But also for serious matters, like finding a cure.. for your father."
Eva turned around again, and I noticed we had come to a halt in front of dark grey door. "I do not let many people enter my Lab, but when I do, I expect you to behave and respect my ways of investing."
The grey door opened slowly, revealing many a large room filled with study materials that I would never know the name of. Eva walked up to the wall and placed her hand on it. The wall instantly changed, from being smooth and whole, to a bookshelf that covered the whole area. There wasn't a spot on the shelves that wasn't filled with files of some sort. Eva took something from the third shelf and walked towards a table and motioned us to come closer. She spread out every note on the table and looked up to us. "This is all I have on research of the poison in Percy's body.
We all got closer to the table, examining the papers that were spread upon it.
"This is all you've got?" Ayme asked.
Eva narrowed her eyes, but gave a small nod.
"It's more than Apollo could find," she said.
"Why can't Apollo find a cure? He's the God of healing after all," Eve mentioned.
Eva walked away, taking something out of one of the cupboards and walking back to us. "Because the formula used for this serum is not from this world."
"How can it not be from this world?" I asked her.
Eva looked at me, her head a bit tilted to the side. "You now know there's much more than only the Greek Gods. Then why would you believe there's only one world?"
"So there are more?" Eve asked.
"Of course," Ayme whispered. "Of course there is. My dad used to tell me about this planet where he had been living while he was under Chaos' command."
Eva nodded again, now going through the papers, clearly looking for something. She pulled one of the papers out and laid it out for us to look at. "These are the results of the tests I took from the poison. Percy brought a new vial of poison with him every time he visited, because the formula in his body kept changing. We believed that if he would get a new vial every time, and get it analysed, the structure of the contents might have changed from the previous ones. We had the hope that every time we did so, we would find a new element in the formula that would lead us to finding a cure, but so far.. we've had no such luck."
"Then I suggest you set up everything you're going to need," Ayme said, rummaging through her bag and taking a vial out of it. "Because this is exactly what we came for."