Audrey POV :

Sarah was busy reading and rereading everything inside her status, like it would disappear soon, even though Mimir told them that as long as you were affiliated to a pantheon, that pantheon lent you a minor ability to appraise yourself, even if it would never be as strong as it was for the gods. Well, it didn’t hurt her, so why not.

Audrey decided to use that time to think calmly. She had been really impressed when Mimir appraised her coat. He shared the details with her, and she asked about everything.

Coat of the First Caduceus

Unique, divine, soul-linked.

Made by Hermes, greek god of medicine, and consecrated by Hippocrates’ last breath, this coat contains their will.

Grants the wearer +1 DEX, +1 PER, +1 INT and +1 WIS per level of the ‘Medicine’, ‘Apothecary’ and ‘Surgery’ skills. Grants the wearer +50% Experience when healing people. Grants wearer a +100% resistance against diseases and poisons. Grants wearer +100% Experience toward acquiring the first level of any Medical skill.

May grow with the wearer.

Special: If the wearer breaks the Hippocratic vow, there might be dire repercussions.

Thought she couldn’t guess how high her stats were, Audrey could tell how much of a boost it could be. A potential +30 to four stats was a lot, according to Mimir. She also was surprised when Mimir had told her that the coat would probably evolve given time, as a soul-linked item was able to adapt to its owner. It seemed to be a really important item, and she was wondering why Hermes chose to gift it to her. And how is Hermes the god of medicine? Mimir refused to answer that. Guess I’ll have to ask.

As they were flying toward Greece on a gigantic white crow Mimir summoned, Audrey thought about everything that happened. Mostly, how these gods didn’t seem godlike at all! They acted like, well, normal people. When she asked Mimir about it, he just told her that the Norse pantheon was always closer to the mortals than some others, and they had only met some of the most open-minded of them. If Tyr hadn’t been drunk, he would probably have objected to Audrey’s presence, and Freyr might have left altogether on any other day. So he advised her to be careful with gods, even though Hermes himself was really friendly toward mortals.

She could feel Sarah’s back leaning on hers, clearly intending to lock her between the leather handles she was grasping and herself, and she couldn’t help but blush a little. Sure, she almost fell before on Thrud’s eagle, but this was bordering on indecency, and Audrey’s mind was running wild with the thoughts she first had when seeing Sarah’s body. No, she shouldn’t indulge on those, she was a doctor, and Sarah was her patient. Nothing more.

But before going to Mount Olympus, she wanted to eat something. It had been several hours since her last meal, and her emotions were calling for comfort food. So, where? Looking down, she saw they were above the sea. Maybe close to Germany? She leaned on the crow head.

“Hum, mister crow, can you bring us to Berlin, maybe?”

As soon as she said it, the crow dived to the right, heading toward a faraway metropolis. A few minutes after, the crow landed in front of the Brandenburg Gate. They jumped off its back, and the bird flew away to perch himself on the famous monument.

“Sarah, what do you want to eat?”

“Maybe a real meal, I think I want some meat.”

They began walking through the crowd, while people stared at the gigantic white crow that looked down on them. Surprisingly, there was more curiosity than fear in their glances. But as they progressed, Audrey couldn’t help but notice that it was too easy. The crowd parted before them. Maybe the arrival on a giant crow was too much?

They went on, and soon stopped by a little restaurant, and consulted the menu. She ordered a tuna and rice dish, and Sarah took some ribs. As they ate, they went back over the last few hours.

“So, what do you think is up with that divine quest of yours?” This quest, which was enough to grant a perk, was quite intriguing to the young doctor.

“I don’t know if it’s that rare, I mean, the benefits seem good, but not that amazing, so maybe it’s something a lot of people can have.”

“Even then, how do you plan on completing it? I mean, it happened a very long time ago, right?”

“Yeah, we guessed the city we found the gods in was buried between 1000 and 2000 B.C. Thought it was really hard to tell, since it spent most of its time along the oceanic floor.”

Sarah stopped eating to think a little.

“Maybe I’ll go interview some gods about what they remember, maybe a detail will put me on a lead.”

“Well at least you seem motivated. I thought you wouldn’t like to be guided like this.” Sarah looks like she doesn’t like being bossed around. She even dared to go against a goddess’s will!

“I’m not a fan of orders or missions, but come on, who would let a chance like this pass? Discovering what happened to the gods? I will probably need to study what the world was truly like before, why we never saw tangible traces of the gods’ presence, everything! And I’ll have a good excuse for that! I may even be able to make it an official research from the university!”

“And so, what’s our first step?”

“Our? You’re coming with me?”

“I said it before, didn’t I? You’re my patient. I ain’t leaving you alone before I’m absolutely certain you’re ok. And seeing all those strange events, I think it will take some times.” And who would throw away a chance of going on such a cool adventure?

They finished their meal, and after paying for it, the two girls walked back leisurely, an ice cream in hand. Suddenly, Sarah stopped and put her hands in front of Audrey, halting her walk.

“What’s happening?”

“I hear people shouting. We probably should go around here. I…”

But as soon as Sarah said it, Audrey started running toward the noise.

“We need to go see if we can help!” She barely noticed Sarah running after her with a small, dejected smile. She began to hear shouts, and cries of pain. Turning the corner, Audrey ran into a warzone.

A man was standing alone, half naked, blood red flames emanating from his body. Around him, several charred bodies lay, and the people running away from him were crying in pain as the strange red flames burned their flesh. It seemed they couldn’t put it out, as a woman was desperately spraying her burning leg with an extinguisher, without it having any visible effect.

“STAND AWAY, YOU DIRTY PEASANTS! I’M THE LORD OF FLAMES, AND YOU’LL BOW DOWN TO ME OR BE CONSUMED!”

The rambling man was clearly mad, his eyes darting left and right, a flame of absolute hate burning inside. I don’t want to go near those flames. But those people will die if I do nothing. Well, Hermes, I hope your gift is working.

Audrey raced toward the burning madman. As soon as he saw her, he extended his hand and a jet of flames erupted toward her. She dodged it widely, making sure no spark would touch her. She did so twice, getting closer all the while. But after the third, her opponent changed his strategy. He condensed the flames in a bright red fireball, and threw it. Audrey barely managed to dodge the flames, their speed greatly improved by this new method. Soon, they reached a stalemate, Audrey unable to come closer as she was busy dodging the fireballs, and the burning man unable to touch her. Audrey felt her stamina beginning to drop. Wait, if I’m tired, he must be too. And I would guess those strange flames have a cost.

“Audrey, careful!” The cry of alarm was coming from behind her, probably from Sarah. But what was the danger?

Suddenly, a pebble flew through the air, hitting the man in the shoulder. Audrey glanced behind her, to see Sarah throwing everything she could find at the man. Though the technique was lacking, the sheer strength of it was enough to disrupt the flame thrower’s concentration. Audrey slipped between two fireballs, and kicked his right ankle with all the might her taekwondo training would allow. She heard a sickening crunch, and her opponent fell to the ground, his right leg unable to support him. Before he could hit the ground, Audrey kicked him again in the left knee, and punched him twice in the face. He fell on his back, unconscious.

The flames still stuck tenaciously to some bushes, and people started to extinguish them, and attempted to treat the horrible injuries in their wake. Audrey was moving to help the closest victim when she got stopped in her tracks by a powerful hug. Sarah was behind her, and the difference in their respective Strength stats was showing, as Audrey was unable to even take a step.

“Please don’t do this again, or at least wait till we understand how things work. You can’t help me if you’re dead.”

Now that she was thinking about it, those flames were dangerous. Just because gods were back on earth didn’t mean you couldn’t die.

“I’ll try. Could you let me down, I need to help them.” Audrey was pointing at the injured people lying around. Even if this hug was really nice, she had a job to do.

“The medics are coming in. We should go before this gets confused. Look, cops are there too.”

It was hard to deny it, it seemed everything was in control. Audrey followed Sarah toward the white crow they could see in the distance, as the cops cuffed the man. Soon, they were back, and the crow landed in front of them, before going back on his route to the south.

The fact that she almost died started to sink in, but that wasn’t the first time it happened, so she put it aside. More pressingly, she really needed to think before running at her opponent like that. Since there’s magic now, the old way of doing things won’t work, unless she became incredibly fast, at least fast enough to deny any reaction time to her opponents. If Sarah hadn’t been there, I would probably have been forced to retreat. And that hug was really nice...