No, matter what his sister, niece, and Catherine said, Damian did not tear up. That was his story and he was sticking to it. The family spent a good few hours catching up with each other. His nephew was starstruck to find out that his uncle was one of the Inducted and peppered him with questions about what it was like. His niece and sister focused more on Catherine’s presence and proceeded to interrogate and tease him about a possible relationship. Something not helped by Catherine finding the whole situation hilarious and playing along.
Their call ended by his sister extracting a promise that he would visit as soon as he could. Damian stared at the blank screen for a moment, his smile lingering. With a weight on his heart removed he felt like a new man.
It was a highly amused Catherine and light hearted Damian that emerged from the government office into the night air. Catherine skipped ahead and turned to face Damain. “I seem to remember that dinner was on you? So, where are you taking me?”
Damian just laughed and said, “No, idea. Let’s take a walk and see if we can’t find somewhere good to eat.”
The duo spent the night wandering the city. While they never found a restaurant there were quite a few food carts and impromptu BBQ’s they ended up partaking of. They even managed to stumble into a block party celebrating a strange combined bar mitzva and quincea?era. The two families were more than happy to invite the two Inducted into their midst. A few whipping out phones to record, as Damian felt hands garb and pull him by his wrists to participate in the Hora. Just as he finished with one impromptu, the young lady having her quincea?era pulled him over to dance with her and her friends, their laughter and excitement easing him into their rhythm. Catherine received similar treatment from the boys at the parties. When the two managed to extricate themselves from the festivities their moods were high and they decided to end the night there. They made their way back to the hotel and had a bit of fun themselves before having to depart in the morning.
The trip back to Tennessee was rather uneventful, with the portals closed there weren’t as many roaming bands of monsters that needed clearing. The only interesting part of the trip was when Bronze went out to hunt and came back with a hugag, where she got one this far south was unknown. The soldiers in his escort gave Bronze many head pats and bird treats that night, which mainly just consisted of parts of the hugag they didn’t cook. Bronze was a smug little birdie for the rest of the trip after that.
Tennessee Base Gamma was much the same as he left it. People were happy and productive, giving a greeting to near everyone they met. The Einherjar had integrated well with the civilians and soldiers, making friends and connections among both populations. As he alighted from the truck that drove him here, he spotted Ulf and Big Lu waiting for him.
“Damian! Welcome back my friend, Brynhildr dragged me to watch your portal run, you preformed as a warrior should!” Ulf’s booming, hearty voice greeted him first.
“Yeah, man! Ulf filled me in on what you went through. Did you really think it was a good idea to throw yourself out a window?” Big Lu had a teasing grin on his face.
“Like you’ve never wanted to play action hero before. I did and still believe I did nothing wrong!” Damian fell back into their old pattern.
The trio went to have some drinks in a nearby bar, Ulf had gained a taste for margaritas and watching him lap it up from the large glass was hilarious. The three friends drank well into the night talking about what they were up to over their two weeks apart. Big Lu had to assist the Northern Paiute tribe in eradicating the Si-Te-Cah, a race of cannibalistic red-haired giants. Both Damian and Ulf howled with laughter when he described how after smacking his hammer into an unaware giant knee, Lu was launched back into a ring of trees when it kicked reflexively.
“Laugh all you want; I still killed the bastard and his friends. Earned 5000 essence per giant I killed!” Lu boasted.
Ulf clapped Lu on the shoulder and launched into his tale. Ulf and the Einherjar spread through the Tennessee countryside like a wildfire. Eradicating monsters with vicious glee and making a game out of it. Then they would return to the base and party with the citizens until they passed out and do it all again. The only interesting thing that happened was Brynhildr pulling Ulf away to watch Damians portal run every now and then.
Damian decided to bite the bullet and ask, “What’s up with that? Why was she so concerned with what I do? The first time we met she asked me a bunch of personal questions like she was my mother.”
“Ha! Nay lad she ain’t your mum, she’s you grandmother.” Ulf explained like he was making sense.
Damian spat out his drink, “Explain!”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Well not by blood, but sorta. Ehh, its complicated. It gets into what happens to souls after people pass on. Do you really want to talk about that boring stuff?” Ulf whined.
Big Lu gave their new friend a wry stare, “When you drop a bomb like that you kind of need to man!”
“Fine but don’t say I didn’t warn ya. When a person dies, they obviously go to whatever appropriate after life they believed in while alive. However, the universe only creates so many souls each cycle. That limited the gods’ growth of power, so they all got together and thought over the problem. The solution they landed on came from Budda, reincarnation. The gods would keep the souls of their faithful for a set period of time and then wipe their memories and send them to reincarnate. This allowed for a lot less stillborn babes as there were enough souls to fill the deficit. Your soul, Damian, was once known as Bjorn Ironside, son of Aslaug daughter of Brynhildr.” Ulf explained with a bored continence.
Damian’s drink paused halfway to his lips, as he blinked, and let that statement sink in. “Huh, so what do I do about it?”
Ulf raised an eyebrow, something that still baffled Damian due to Ulf’s wolfy face. “Do? Nothing if you don’t want to. She won’t do much more than occasionally pop up in your life and see how you are doing. The gods have different ways at looking at things than we mortals do. They aren’t concerned with the physical form, they look at the soul and recognize that, the rest is a meat suit that changes every now and then.”
“Weird.” Lu said, as he downed the rest of his drink and let out a mighty belch.
The trio eventually parted ways. Ulf went to return to his duties and Lu went looking for his new girlfriends. Turns out they were quite satisfied with the big man that night. Damian teased to big lug mercilessly until Big Lu chose to escape. Damian wandered around and found himself outside the school he taught at. It had been weeks since his last class. Damian shrugged his shoulders and wandered his way inside.
Damian walked the halls before stopping at the faculty office. Peeking his head inside he was greeted by the familiar sight of Dolores, an old woman in her sixties manning the desk. She perked up when she noticed him.
“My stars! Damian, dear, is that you? Come in, come in. It’s been so long since you were last here, the children have been complaining about not having you around.” Dolores beamed at him.
“Hey, Dolores. That’s why I stopped by actually. If there is time in the schedule, I could hold a quick class.” Damian greeted the old lady warmly.
“That would be wonderful, dear. Let me check with Irene first.” The old lady got up and walked into the principal’s office.
There was a muted conversation, before Irene emerged from her office. She was a stern woman, who took pride in her work. She was the school’s overbearing mom, and had practically adopted everyone that worked and attended.
“Ah, Damian, it is good to see you alive and well. While we did need to replace you as a teacher in light of your new duties, I see no harm in a guest lesson. Who knows, maybe it will make the children more studious. Their scores dropped a whole five points since you stopped holding classes!”
Damian chuckled, “Good to see you too, Irene. I’ll go set up in the field outside.”
Irene waved him off with a tight smile and made her way to the intercom. “Attention students. We are going to have an impromptu lecture at the field. Please pack up and make your way there in an orderly manner. Mr. Campbell has returned and has offered to hold a class.”
She gave him an impish grin as the building shook from the cheer that went up from the students. Damian shook his head and made his way out of the building and called Bronze over. The two settled onto the field, only for an annoying, familiar face to make a reappearance.
“Aha! I found you; you damn swindler!” A pixie shot at Damian and stopped a foot short of his face.
Reynold the pixie had found him. Damian let out a groan of annoyance. This was the last thing he needed. “What do you want Reynold?”
“Lots of things, but for now I am here to give you a declaration of intent to feud. You tricked me and I will not stand for it!” The tiny pixie squeaked.
“Can this wait?”
“It most certainly can, but it inconveniences you to do it now.”
“Look, I have a class to teach. Are you going to make a nuisance of yourself during it?”
“Naturally!”
“Fine, I’ll make you a deal.”
Reynold squinted in suspicion, “What kind?”
“If you don’t interrupt my class,” Damian had a sudden thought, “and help out with the subject matter. I will get you a carton of milk and a cookie.”
“Eight cookies.”
“Four.”
“Six”
“Five, final offer.”
Reynold cackled in triumph, “Fool! I would have settled for three! It’s not your fault you are a simple mortal after all. You could never hope to out negotiate a member of the fae wilds.”
Damian rolled his eyes, “Fine a carton of milk and five cookies in return for your help with my lecture on the fae folk.”
“Deal!” The pixie continued to cackle as the kids started to make their way onto the field.
When they saw him standing there, they rushed forward and surrounded Damian. Asking all kinds of questions, telling him how they missed his class, and many other mundane things. Damian smiled fondly and tried to engage them all in conversation. He answered what he could and promised to try to hold more classes. He indulged his former students as they talked about their lives and filled him in on all the gossip he missed. Who was dating who, and who broke up. What was the newest test of courage, and the kind of training they were participating in. Turns out the Einherjar set up workshops for people who wanted to learn to fight, and many of his students took them up on the offer.
The teachers let the students mill around and chat for a while before restoring order. They ushered children into bleachers with fond smiles on their faces. Damian started his lesson as soon as every student fell silent.
“It’s great to be able to come back and teach you all again. Today I’m going to teach you about the fae. The dos and don’ts and most importantly how not to get your name stolen because you……...” Damian fell back into old patterns with a smile. Today was a good day, and he looked forward to when every day could be like this again.
