The Kid Lich Awakens

The Kid Lich Awakens 18 Will P.

Helpful Hermes

            Alright, that's enough deliberation, get off your ass and do something. Billy thought to himself. This was always how he got up when his alarm went off, at least it was for a long time until he started to understand himself better. But in the past, it was usually some variant of get up, lazy, you got school and it had worked.

            Billy had always seen his brutal honesty with himself as an advantage. He didn't mince words in his own mind; and he didn't beat around the bush. Billy also didn't care much for a person's feelings when he needed something from them (like teachers), but he understood that he had to act like he respected them. Billy usually did actually respect and like his teachers, but there was still that one every year who really pushed Billy's patience and self-filtering skills.

            Anyhow, he went to hunt for Sobek before telling him what he'd like to do. He found Sobek on some pull-up bars Billy had had installed on this bottommost floor of his base.

            "Hey, I wanted to talk to you, I got an idea for what we should do next." Sobek hopped off the bars and walked over to Billy. "Alright, what did you have in mind?" Billy appreciated the fact that Sobek looked like someone who genuinely wanted to hear what he had to say, a symptom of an insecurity Billy had expertly masked most of his life, but still had nonetheless.

            "Well, we already agreed that we can't stay here and do nothing but wait." "And train." "Right, wait and train." Said Billy, feeling a little exasperated. "So I was thinking we could hit the L. I. C. H. E. N. like I said, and make our first call to someone who ought to know what's going on, or at least if any other gods have been contacted." Sobek nodded. "Lead the way."

            The two immortals headed over to Billy's supercomputer. "No new blips, that's a good sign." Billy noted. "Or a bad one, could mean that if Set and Morrigan are recruiting successfully, they don't need to expend any magical energy defending themselves like how Set did with the Blacksmith."

            "Crap. You got me there." "Mm." Sobek just remained in his thinking-man's posture: eyes focused forward, arms crossed over his chest, head tilted down slightly. "So who did you think we should try first?" He asked.

            "I was thinking Hermes. If anyone knows about people getting contacted, it's him. It's in his sphere of influence to know the sender and recipient of any given piece of mail, and while he still honors the mailman's creed of never opening someone else's mail, he'd still know if Set and Morrigan tried to contact someone that way." Sobek's eyes flashed with something for a moment, and Billy thought it may have been pride in his friend. "Let's do it." He said.

            "Computer, call Hermes." The pleasant female voice replied: "Calling Hermes, 11th Olympian, God of Thieves." After a few seconds, a connection was established.

            "—I don't care if it's an international order, overnight shipping is overnight shipping!" Billy suppressed a smirk, and cleared his throat. "Oh, Billy! Hey kid, what can I do for ya?" Hermes asked. "Hey Hermes, Sobek's here too." "Hmph." This was Sobek's way of saying hello.

            "Ah, well what can I do for you fine gentlemen? I always have a minute for my favorite lich." Billy almost commented on the fact that he was the only lich Hermes knew personally, but caught himself. "Right, well, we were hoping you could give us some information. As you have no doubt already heard, The Morrigan sprung Set from his prison and they've been out in the world trying to recruit gods to their cause."

            Hermes sounded pensive. "Oh, right. I had heard about that. Do we even know what that cause actually is?" Billy gave it some thought before replying honestly: "No, but it can't be good." "Fair enough." Said Hermes. Sobek was staying still as a statue, he looked like he was bored, but anyone who knew him would tell you he was completely focused on the conversation.

            "We wanted to know if you'd noticed them trying to recruit any gods through the mailing system." "Unfortunately, no." Billy couldn't help being a little disappointed. He'd had a sneaking suspicion this would happen. "Damn. I figured they'd be too smart to do any recruiting by mail, since you'd know about it, but hoped they may have tried it anyway. I guess we got no such luck. Any ideas for anyone else we could try to ask to get some info about this?"

            After a few seconds, Hermes replied: "You might try my big sister, Artemis. Being the Goddess of the Hunt, she'd know if any particularly powerful monsters were popping up in the world, like the Set Animal for instance."

            Billy was impressed that Hermes even knew about the Set Animal, since it was outside Hermes's pantheon and wouldn't ever be much of a threat to him since it was unlikely he'd be targeted by it. While Set could morph into the Set Animal, he could also summon it and it'd have its own separate beastly consciousness. He could then send it on missions, like hunting down gods or goddesses Set knew would be hostile.

            "Thanks for the info man, love our little chats." "No you don't, you just love the fact that I always have useful information for you." And Hermes hung up. Billy gave a small laugh and turned to Sobek and said: "Well, he's got me there."

End of Pt. 18

- Will P.