Sometime Later, the Middle Floors of the Tower of Babel, Hephaestus's Forge.
"Pwah! Hooooo, damn this is the good stuff! Have you been holding out on me Hephy?" Loki said downing some high grade booze like it was laughing her ass off.
I on the other hand couldn't help but put my hand up against my face feeling second hand embarrassment from what I was seeing, this was supposed to be a serious conversation between gods but it devolved into Hephaestus giving Loki heavy amounts of alcohol and getting her drunk rather quickly.
"Hehe, this is good stuff, but trying to butter me up with alcohol?" She said before opening her usually closed eyes to show off her deep crimson eyes as she switched from carefree to serious.
"Then you really don't know me well do you?" She said with a squint in her eyes, from what I learned later on is that they didn't really interact with each other in heaven, and here on earth both of our familia's had a business relationship at best.
Seeing as Loki had me now, she wasn't even hesitating at the thought of breaking off any transactional agreements with Hephaestus and her Familia if she goes to far, on top of that's she isn't the only blacksmith god in heaven as their are many more that could come down to the mortal world in the future.
Seeing the serious look in her eyes, Hephaestus sighed, "Alright I'll admit that having Tsubaki go to you about this must have come off as rude, for that I apologize." She said as she scratched the back of her head.
"I'm more surprised you apologized so quickly." Loki couldn't help but raise her brows but Hephaestus just shook her head.
"I'm not like those two idiots, I can admit when I did something wrong." She said and I could guess who she was talking about.
"Alright, I will accept your apology, now let's get to the point, what do you want with my newest Familia member?" Loki said putting down the mug onto the table before she put her elbows on her knees, her chin on the back of her hands and leaned forward on the couch.
"I have heard from Týr of a man in unique armor coming to save his small familia from Annihilation due to an encounter with an Infant Dragon they weren't prepared to face, he even brought them out of the Dungeon even if he didn't need to, but what caught my attention was strange looking ranged weapons that could fire faster than bows, pin monsters to the dungeon walls and even completely destroy their heads with one shot, hearing this I got curious about who this 'hero' was, so I had someone figure out who he was and it lead me to your Familia member." She said before looking at me to which I kept my arms crossed but not saying anything, for now.
"Oh so you are interested in those? And why is that?" Loki said playing the fool to get more information out of her but probably already knows.
Hephaestus just took a deep breath through her nose before slowly letting it out, "Don't play dumb with me, I take anything made by mortal hands rather seriously, now I'm hearing of a weapon I've never heard of along with an armor that is empowered by magic stones? Of course I had to know of the source." When it comes to any weapons or armor made by mortals she takes both seriously and critically, and her interest was peaked with something she has never seen or heard of before.
"Oh yeah? Then you tell me, what reason should I give you to let you have a close look at those weapons and armor." Loki said back, not outright saying that they were made by me and more making it look possibly made by another.
"Materials, Valis, magic stones, drop items, whatever it is you need just so I can look upon these weapons and armor." She said clearly willing to fork over whatever she could to look and maybe even study these things.
I didn't say anything, neither did Loki, though I was tempted to do so, I originally thought about joining a familia that had a high concentration of materials like Hephaestus but for several reasons I decided against it.
Simply put I didn't want to be forced to become a blacksmith because of my weapons being sold off to others along with several other reasons that could lead to problems later on and getting unwanted attention by Hera and Zeus as a result so that's why I decided to join the Loki Familia instead, there are more reasons but those are the main ones.
"What do you think Hayden? Should we?" Loki decided to ask me making Hephaestus look towards me as I scratch my head.
Overall I know my weapons and maybe even Warframes will become more prolific in this world due to my presence here, so after thinking about it I looked back towards her.
"Loki, is there a way that a God can make an Oath that if they attempt to break they will be forced back to heaven." I said seriously making Hephaestus one eye widen while Loki looked over her shoulder to look at me seriously.
She then looked back to Hephaestus, "There is…. If a God or Goddess swears upon their Arcana they must uphold their oath they have made or else they will be forced back to heaven as a result, it's why when a God or Goddess uses their Arcana here in the Mortal World is forced back into heaven as a result and can't return to the mortal world for a thousand years as a result." Loki goes onto explain to me as I nod before I walk forward and sit next to her.
"Well then, there you have it, in order for me to let you look at and study my weapons and armor you need to swear upon your Arcana that everything you learn from me is known only to you alone and not a word of anything I say to anyone else." I say looking her in the eye, but her eyepatch suddenly catches my attention.
For a mere moment I notice something, a black mist with a dark greenish hue seeped on out of it, so before she said anything I held up my hand.
"I hate to ask this when it sounds like it has nothing to do with what we are talking about, but, were you born, or should I say created, with a missing eye?" I asked her.
This completely threw her off, same could be said with Loki who was about to tell me to knock it off, but she stopped when she saw an extremely serious look in my eyes.
Hephaestus also saw how seriously I was looking at her that she got embarrassed and held her hand over her eyepatch, "…. No, I didn't always have this, I gained…. This…. After claiming the Eternal Flame from the 'Veil'." She said making my eyes widen hearing that word.
"Then one last question…. When you were about to claim your Eternal Flame….. Did you make a deal?" I said making her eye widen in shock at what I just said.
"…. How….. Do you know…..?" She couldn't help but say as her hands began to visibly shake at remembering what happened all those Eons ago.
"Hephaestus, Goddess of the Forge, do you swear upon your Arcana to keep everything you learn from me a secret, less you be forced back to Heaven?" I ask her as the room became extremely tense as I realized something horrifying.
'It' has been in this universe much longer than I thought.
This Universe has no 'Wall'
So Nothing is Holding It Back.
*******
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