Souls, Spells, and Shadows

Emotions, Idiocy, and One Kid Who Has No Idea What She's Doing.

A pounding headache was all Alys could remember. Exhaustion washed through her body, along with a terrible dull ache that spread through every joint and muscle. She reached for her fake nail, tugging it off and stuffing a square of ambrosia in her mouth. It tasted like warm, soft, bread, the kind her father always used to make.

Her father.

Oh gods, he was really dead wasn't he? A memory tugged at the edge of Alys's mind. Her father, screaming as a hellhound savaged him.

She was alone.

Where was she, anyway? It was a miracle she hadn't been devoured by monsters yet, her being unconscious and all.

She should have been. She had failed to protect her father. What good was being one of the most powerful demigods of the age if she couldn't even save one person?

And what could she do now? Alone and stranded somewhere in the world, she had no one to fight with her. Her powerful smell would draw too many monsters to fight off. And she was weakened by the shadow travelling.

And most of all, there was one thought pounding through her head, over and over.

Her father was dead. She curled up in a ball, sobbing quietly, the realisation of it all suddenly hitting her like a ton of bricks.

Eventually, she sat up and furiously brushed the tears away. She was a demigod, and demigods weren't supposed to cry over dead bodies. Thousands of them died each day, and most demigods never lived past 17! They were supposed to keep moving on, to grow stronger and never let grief stop them. Alys had to stop being so damn weak. She'd grown soft under her father's care, thinking that being a demigod was a blessing and not a curse.

But it was a curse.

And Alys would never be free of it.

She got slowly to her feet, wincing at the unexpected pain in her side. A monster must have wounded her, Crimson blood was pouring down her side, drenching her clothes, and Alys had a sudden, horrific memory of her father, covered in blood. She shook her head viciously. She was a demigod. Everybody died when you were a demigod. That was life, plain and simple.

So why did she feel like she abandoned him? The rational part of her was screaming that she couldn't have done anything, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she should have stayed and helped, not gone running off like some coward.

She couldn't mope all day. Stumbling slightly, she scanned her surroundings, just like her father taught her. She was in a... janitor's closet? But why hadn't she been torn apart by monsters?

She limped out, attempting to ignore the pain of her wound. The minute she stumbled out of the closet, the blinding light of a hotel reception room hit her retinas like a speeding train. Where was she? And what was she supposed to do? She'd never been out of her home in the woods, almost never seen people, never talked to anybody but her dad-this was just too much. She rubbed at her eyes, faintly registering the sign above the front desk.

The Lotus Hotel and Casino.

A bellhop rushed up to her. "Oh, hello! I didn't see you enter! Would you like a room? Healing supplies? Ambrosia?"

Alys opened her mouth, but all that came out was a stifled groan. Even with the ambrosia, the exhaustion from her overuse of powers muddled her brain.

The bellhop grinned. "Perfect! Here's your room key. If you want anything, just call the front desk. We have anything you need!"

He held out a green plastic credit card. "This is your LotusCash card. It works on all the restaurants and rides! Don't worry about the bill. Simply go up to room 4003, and it'll have everything you need!"