The Chains That Bind Ch 23

Chapter 23: The Bells Toll for Me
The next morning Erika took the wheel while Kat sat in the passenger seat as she was suppose to be the navigator, but she went right back to sleep during the first 10 minutes of our drive. I was sitting in the back looking at the four links of the chain we had. I told the others what had happened the night before with Hestia and they looked as confused as me about how to combine the links. I grabbed two out of my bag and clicked them together a few times to see if they would magically combine together. However this didn’t seem to work and only frustrated me. The last link of the chain belonged to Zeus and I wondered what the leader of the gods could have given up, as it must have been something really important. Then all at once Kat shot up from her sleep.

“I know how to combine the chains!” she yelled. The sudden shock almost caused Erika to drive off the road while I was shocked to see her this active before eleven.

“Alright, how do we do it?” I asked her as I started tapping the links together just out of boredom at this point.

“And could you please not yell so loud when you wake up from one of your dreams,” Erika added, obviously a little annoyed at her sudden shouting.

“It is actually pretty easy. Think about it, we have to collect five chains but who were the original Olympian gods?”

“Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter of course,” Erika said. I followed up with Hera, Hades, and Hestia.

“Right, there were six Olympians so why did we only collect six links?” Kat said looking at us to see if we could figure out the answer on our own. We couldn’t.

“Because Hera is the goddess of marriage, or in other words, she bonds people together,” she explained letting what she told us sink in. “If we want to connect the links together, we have to ask Hera to do it.”

It seemed simple enough, until Erika brought the question on everyone’s mind.

“How do we get Hera’s attention? I mean it isn’t like we can simply call her as she doesn’t really like demigods,” she said, but Kat let out a big smile before closing her eyes for a second and the tiny cloud above her head took the shape of a wedding veil.

“Don’t worry, I already have a plan,” Kat replied, and I knew I wouldn’t like it as I could still see that cat like grin through the wedding veil. After driving another hour we stopped at a church. It was small and once we were inside, the only person there was an old priest that was praying by the alter. He noticed us enter and walked toward us.

“Hello, is there something I can help you with?” he asked us.

“A wedding,” Kat asked. He looked at us kind of strange, knowing we were a little too young to get married, but Kat snapped her fingers and I could see the Mist covering his eyes.

“Oh of course, Mr. and soon to be Mrs. Swift, I have been waiting for you. Do you have a witness?” he asked.

“Present,” Erika called as she raised her hand to make herself seen. The priest nodded his head and took us to the front. Kat had been concentrating this whole time and a wedding dress appeared around her. It was a simple dress but it looked nice. As I looked down however, I noticed I too had been placed in a wedding outfit. I was wearing a navy blue tuxedo with a striped tie, the kind of thing I would never wear as it made it hard to run. The priest took out a book and told us to grasp each other’s hands for the ceremony as Erika sat down in the front row, obviously feel awkward by the whole scenario. Then he began reading the wedding vows and I started to feel nervous too, especial when we got to the I do’s and there was no sign of Hera.

“Do you, Katharine Sandmin, take Nolan Swift to be your lawful wedded husband,” he asked turning to her.

“I do,” she said without missing a beat and just looked into my eyes. The priest then turned to me and started asking me the same question and I became increasingly nervous and there was still no sign of Hera.

“I…” I began.

“I always cry at weddings,” came the voice of an older woman sitting on the bench next to Erika. As no one had seen her come in, I automatically assumed it was Hera, just as Hestia had appeared next to me the night before.

“Hera, is that you?” I asked looking at the woman. She glanced at us closely and finally understood what was happening.

“Demigods; let me guess, this isn’t a real wedding,” she said as her tone took a more sinister tone. Hera was the goddess of marriage so faking one may have been a grave insult to her, one that could put us in the grave if we weren’t careful with the next words we said.

“We need you to reform the chain,” I said. As I pulled the links out of my pack, which wasn’t easy to do as Kat’s illusion made finding the zipper rather hard. I pulled out the four links and Hera gazed in amazement.

“I see,” she said in a more depressed tone than the forceful one she had earlier. The chains floated out of my hand and flew in front of her. A bright light filled the church and we were forced to shield our eyes as the chains circled around her head. I had to tackle the priest to the ground as the Mist still had him in a daze. Even though I couldn’t see what was happening, the felt all the power of the cosmos in this tiny room and just like that the light faded.

“I have done as you have asked,” she said as the now completed chain flew back toward me. I got up off the floor and grabbed it out of the air.

“Thank you Hera, is there anything we can do to repay you?” I asked her.

“Not right now,” she said. “But when the time comes, I expect to be invited to your real wedding.”

And just like that, she vanished.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive  04:03, July 2, 2011 (UTC)