Skyler's POV:
The by now familiar icey feeling becomes master of me as my bones crack into place and my body begins to change.
Not long after I see Athena stand in the middle of the room.
Sam seems deeply in thought, but I assume it's Hestia who's thinking.
Raymond nods as he writes something down on a clipboard.
"Not a bad transformation, but slow." He says.
"Slow?!" I exclaim.
What did he mean slow? It seemed so fast.
"Yes, slow. This transformation took you about fourty seconds to do. Athena's personal record is six point seven seconds." Hestia added.
My mouth drops open. What the hell?! How?!
Athena's POV:
I can feel Skyler's surprise as she hears the numbers from Hestia.
That record was made with my second to last mortal host (without counting Skyler). I was incredibly close with that woman.
We spoke and acted in sync, morphed without any trouble. We even got to the point where we fused.
"Surprised?" I ask, crossing my arms with a smirk.
"Easy you two." Raymond said.
"The average is about ten seconds."
Ray gave his clipboard to Sam. He walked up to me and eyed me up and down. Then he limped around me in a full circle.
"No odd things going on after morphing." Hades said.
Sam wrote it down.
"Athena couple of Questions." He continued.
"It's just basic immortal knowledge to see if there's no memory loss. Knowing you I expect you to do flawless."
I nod as I hear Skyler swallow in my head.
"First question. Whose the king of the gods?"
"Zeus." I say rolling my eyes.
"Alright. Trojan war was started by who and why?"
Skyler's POV:
Athena's annoyance started bubbling up. Right there underneath the surface of her perfect mask she scowled at the question.
"Started by Paris of Troy. He had to pick the prettiest goddess. He picked Aphrodite who gave him the prettiest woman on earth, Helen of Sparta. What Paris didn't know was that Helen was married to Menelaus. Menelaus went to get her back and thus the war began." Athena replied.
Her face didn't change, but her annoyance turned slowly into anger the longer she spoke about it.
Athena might not look like it, but she's definitely the jealous type.
"I'm not." Athena says.
"You know that that only confirms that statement right?" I reply.
For a moment I imagine crossing my arms (Inside Athena's head I don't have a body. I'm a sort of soul? I guess?) since that would be my normal reaction to it.
Not a split second later Athena stands there in the middle of the room arms crossed.
For a moment disbelief seems to flash across her face.
Huh, weird..
"Next question." Hades says clearing his troath.
"Who was a leading figure throughout the fall of Athens?"
If she wasn't mad yet, she certainly was now. I could feel Athena had a feeling of failure looming over her.
She hated every second of it.
"Alcibiades." Athena grumbled.
It was clear she despised whoever that person was.
"Which one?" Hades continued.
"Alcibiades III."
Raymond gives a simple nod.
"One more. Name the minor god of agriculture that apperently has a thing for corn."
I could see Athena raise her brow.
"What kind of question is that?" I ask.
"One she should be able to answer." Hades responded.
Ray looked directly into Athena's eyes, knowing I would see what Athena sees.
His obsidian colored eyes scared me. Mainly because the color isn't human at all. Athena averted her gaze, so neither me or her had to look into his eyes anymore.
'Thank you.' I silently thank Athena.
No reply just a feeling that said something along the lines of 'yeah sure, just don't mention it'.
"Athena, your answer?" Hestia asked.
She gave it a little thought but then said: "Triptolemus."
Sam and Raymond shared a look.
"No memory loss." Hestia concluded.
Athena's POV:
I was mad. How dare he ask things like that?! Things he knows have a personal link to me.
He knows exactly what he is doing though. It's part of the test.
Well not the official testing, but Hades just likes toying with people and gods. It's his thing.
He's searching where my limits are. The challenge for me is to not show them so I keep my aura of mystery.
But he makes it rather hard when he mentions the things that made me feel like I failed.
"..-thena. Athena!" Hestia said, snapping me from my thoughts.
Ray gets a slight smirk on his face. I assume that one belongs to Hades. He knows he got into my head.
I ignore it and turn my attention to Hestia.
"Can we continue?" she asked.
I nod.
"What's next?" Skyler asks.
"Battle reflexes." Raymond says in his own voice.
"Athena if you could hand the control back to Skyler please."
As told I returned 'into Skyler's head'.
Skyler's POV:
In a matter of seconds I was back to being myself. No more Athena in the middle of the room, just me.
Raymond nodded at Sam who quickly ran over to a corner of the room. He came back with a relatively long wooden stick.
"To keep it simple Sam will come up to you with a stick and try to hit you. He won't hold back so you have to make sure you're gone before the stick hits you. First round Athena will help you, the second she will stand to the side and let you do all the work." Ray explained.
Sam came back and stood right in front of me.
"Sam remember, no help from Hestia whatsoever." He continued.
The boy just nodded.
May I just tell you this stick is longer than the boy himself. The idea was kind of ridiculous.
But by now I learned that people are never what they seem. Even those who are 'open books'.
"Whenever you're ready Sam." Raymond said.
Sam started moving around me and immediately I felt Athena slip in control of my body. She kept me light on my feet and my body half angled towards Sam.
She made sure he was always in.. Our?.. Line of sight. The moment Sam got his stick ready to swing at me Athena made me duck.
I felt the wind above my head as the stick swung by.
I had barely any time to recover as Sam let the stick come down with a force that a nine year old shouldn't have.
Again Athena did all the work. Without a second thought she rolled over to Sam's right.
We ended up behind him. Quick the boy turned around and stabbed right in front of him as if he held a spear.
Athena made me grasp the end of the stick and then everything happend so fast I'm not even sure how, but we ended up behind Sam again.
I assume Athena did some kind of flip over him.
Again Sam twisted. He raised the stick again ready to hit me. With even more force than the last time he let the object come down.
Faster than I could think Athena turned around and caught the stick in between her hands.
A slow clap sounded from behind me. Right.. Raymond.
Sam was breathing rather heavy and as soon as Athena's power flowed away I was too. My hands turned red in a matter of seconds and a sharp sting was present.
"Not bad Athena. But of course very predictable that you'd do flawless." Hades said.
"Now let's see how your hostess does, shall we?"
Again a smirk came to Raymond's face.
The smirk disappeared as soon as Ray's eyes stopped lighting up.
"Before we do let's get her some water. Going of on her breathing she's definitely not used to this type of work out. Or any type of work out." He said.
Auwch. That one hurt. I know my condition isn't the best but that's just plain rude.
I used to be obsessed with sport and my figure. I'd always work out with my dad. But ever since he passed I've kinda stopped.
'Don't listen to him. Condition isn't as important as mental health.' Athena soothed me.
How does she always know just what I need to hear?
'Definitely not because I'm in your head and know what you think and feel.'
I roll my eyes. Of course she had to reply.
'Well thank you for ruining the moment we had going on.' I think.
Athena's chuckle leaves my mouth.
Suddenly Raymond stands in front of me. He hands me a glass of water.
"Thanks." Is all I manage to say.
He nods.
I let the cool water glide down my troath. Gods that feels good.
After drinking a bit and regaining some energy I'm back in the middle of the room with Sam right in front of me. He's holding his stick again.
"All right get ready for round two." Ray said.
"Skyler, I hope you picked something up from Athena earlier, cause you're on your own now. Athena remember no helping, the same for you Hestia."
Oh gods. I was going to die. I didn't have the slightest idea of how to do this.
I tried to remember the way Athena did it. I already know that if she were here physically she'd hit me over the head for not doing it right.
Sam started moving around me and I tried keeping him in my sight but suddenly he was gone. Suddenly I felt a wack against my right thigh.
Gods that stings. I was so focused my leg I didn't see Sam's next attack and the stick hit my left shoulder.
Great another painful sting going trough my entire body.
I turned to see Sam raising the stick. At least I had the reflex to step to the right otherwise he would've hit my head for sure.
Suddenly the kid disappeared again. Where to? Not a clue. I feel a strong poke in my back and fall face first to the ground.