"So, I admit I didn't expect Pepper to call about so guests today, less so for my guest to be the queen herself." Stark greeted as soon as he arrived, the nervous Pepper Potts stood by his side, not sure what to think at all.
"Well, I was in the neighbourhood, and figured I might as well pick up Mordred, lest she ends up causing you more problems than you can handle."
"She seems to take joy in causing problems, but she is just a kid; she can't cause any trouble I can't handle," Tony spoke with bravado.
"I doubt that. Mordred can be a handful. She must be going easy on you, likely out of pity." I said, sensing the truth. Mordred was indeed giving him trouble, but Stark was too proud to admit that.
"Tony, who are these people?" Pepper couldn't help but ask.
She was fairly sure she knew Tony well, and knew the people he liked to deal with. But she also had to admit that he had been doing things she couldn't understand as of late.
In fact, since he returned from Afghanistan, she felt like he was another person. A better person, or maybe just the best version of himself.
Not that he didn't still have plenty of problems, he was far from a saint or a perfect person, but he was better.
Even if he was still his annoying self.
Sotis she felt like she didn't know him at all, and at other tis, she knew him all too well.
Yet, she had also noticed that for the last few months, he seed to be working on sothing… different.
First was the strange new complex elent he had worked on in total secrecy, even she wasn't allowed anywhere near it.
After that, he seed far more carefree than before, like he had new life breathed into him. And after that he almost seed stressed again, as if one of the secret things he worked on wasn't going well.
But damned that man, he just wouldn't tell her about it, and she had promised that she wouldn't pry, even though she damn well wanted to.
And now, these three won, or two won and a child, showed up. One of the won was making her feel inadequate; she was just so beautiful. And she seed to know Tony.
It wasn't strange that Tony knew beautiful won. God only knows how many she had seen leaving his bedroom or office or sothing.
But she normally knew about them, he wasn't shy about showing off his conquests, and he seed to really have stopped doing that since he returned.
So, who was this living goddess of a woman? And why did Tony call her a queen, well, other than her looking like one.
"She's an old acquaintance," Tony said with a shrug, as if that explained everything. "Royalty tends to stick together, you know. Private club. Crowns mandatory, snobbery optional."
Pepper gave him a look that could have cut glass. "Tony."
"Fine, fine." He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Arthuria Pendragon. Yes, that Pendragon. And yes, she's technically a queen. Or king. It's complicated, but she's the real deal."
Pepper blinked. Once. Twice.
She was about to say sothing — sothing rational, sothing that would cut through Tony's inevitable bullshit — but then Arthuria smiled faintly and inclined her head, as regal and natural as if she'd been born with a crown.
Which, maybe, she had.
"Tony tends to oversimplify things," Arthuria said gently. "But the truth is close enough. I lead Albion. I ca to pick up one of my wayward knights." She glanced around. "Where is she, by the way?"
"Wreaking havoc in the newest safehouse I arranged for that little team of yours."
Pepper was still trying to process it all — the invisible weight of authority Arthuria carried without even trying, the casual way Tony accepted it — when Sprite piped up brightly.
"We're also on the run from governnt agents! It's been a super fun day."
Pepper turned slowly to look at Tony.
Tony gave her his best innocent smile.
"Is it too late to claim I don't know them?"
Pepper didn't answer. She just folded her arms and gave him a look that promised retribution later. Possibly violent retribution. Tony cleared his throat and moved swiftly on.
"Right, introductions." He turned toward with a raised brow. "You I know. The kid—" he nodded at Sprite—"I'm assuming is so sort of magical gremlin you picked up along the way?"
"Oi!" Sprite protested, hands on her hips. "I'm not a gremlin. I'm older than your entire civilisation! You should show so respect!"
Tony laughed at her outburst, and even Pepper just smiled, both finding it funny and endearing.
That was until Tony suddenly rembered how he had recently learned about magic and apparent Gods, which made him turn to .
"That's Sprite," I said smoothly. "Don't let appearances fool you."
I purposefully kept things vague, and honestly, Sprite wasn't wrong; she was… millions of years old, and her mories did indeed extend back further than humanity's earliest civilizations.
Tony blinked once, twice, clearly reevaluating the very small but very smug child in front of him.
"Right. Got it. Another of your friends… and this one?" He asked, hand raised towards Sersi.
Sersi, ever patient, offered him a polite smile. "Sersi. Just Sersi. I'm... another friend."
"She's being humble," Sprite piped up before anyone could stop her. "Sersi's basically a goddess of life. She can turn rocks into trees. Probably turn your tower into a garden if she wanted to."
Tony stared at her for a beat. Then at Sersi. Then back to .
"...You brought an ancient magical gremlin and a reality-bending garden goddess into my tower?" His voice pitched upward slightly in disbelief.
"Sersi is no Goddess, though she may have been worshipped as such long ago; these two are far older than even ." I tried to calm him down, though I think I may have failed.
I think he took it well enough, but Pepper seed to be really struggling with the situation.
Pepper opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. She looked at Tony with an expression halfway between "I need wine imdiately" and "I am going to kill you."
Tony, anwhile, just ran a hand down his face. "You know, I was starting to doubt Mordred being your child… but now I believe it, you two both bring endless trouble."
I smiled, unbothered. "Trouble builds character. You should be thanking ."
"Yeah, no thanks," Tony muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I've got enough character to last several lifetis, courtesy of you people."
Pepper finally gathered herself enough to straighten her spine and fix — and then Tony — with a firm stare. "Alright. Let get this straight. You are the legendary King Arthur of Calot, the very sa king of Albion who has the entire world up in arms, and you are here, because Tony." She pointed from to him.
"Sohow have the Knight of Rebellion, the Bloody Knight, the chief enforcer of the cruel and dieval rule of King Arthur, that Mordred, stuffed away sowhere? And she is also a woman?" She looked like she desperately wanted this to be a joke.
Tony gave a helpless shrug. "When you say it like that, it sounds way more insane than it actually is."
"It is insane!" Pepper snapped, throwing her hands up. "I thought you were supposed to be working on clean energy or building super-suits, not harboring mythological figures!"
"Hey, multitasking is the mark of a genius," Tony said with a wink. "Besides, it's not like I went looking for them. They kinda... fell into my lap."
Pepper looked ready to combust.
I decided to intervene before her blood pressure reached critical levels. "Mordred is not what you think. She was a loyal knight, misunderstood by history. Much like myself. She's no villain — not truly."
"That's... reassuring?" Pepper said, voice unsure.
I was honestly surprised at how bad Mordred's reputation was, but then again, she had been my go-to choice when it ca to fighting. So the world had seen the most of her strength. That along with dia bias against … I guess I could understand.
"I'm sure this is a lot to take in, Lady Potts. I won't impose on you, just show towards Mordred, and I will be on my way." I tried to smooth things over, ignoring the looks Tony gave .
Yeah, he didn't look forward to having to explain everything to Pepper, but that was very much a Tony Stark problem, so let him deal with that.
…
"Well, that was sothing, wasn't it?" Sersi said as we left Stark Tower behind and headed for the location of Stark's little safehouse.
"Well, if it hadn't been for Sprite spilling the beans about her age… he might just have been curious, but not ask questions." I cast a look at the person in question.
Sprite stuck out her tongue unapologetically. "Please. He was already two seconds away from asking if we were aliens or magical deer or sothing. Better he gets the truth from than whatever crazy theory his brain would've cooked up."
"You're assuming he believes any of it," Sersi said lightly. "He might still think it's a very elaborate prank."
I shook my head. "Tony Stark might be many things, but he isn't stupid. He knows enough of the world to believe things, even if he thinks you are aliens rather than gods, and don't try to fool us Sprite, you just got pissed he called you a kid."
Sprite didn't even try to deny it. She crossed her arms with a huff and looked away. "He's lucky I didn't do anything else but shatter his tiny mind."
Sersi chuckled. "He is one of the smartest humans alive."
"Emphasis on human." Sprite shot back as we finally neared our destination.
"Alright, lets get Mordred and head down to find Phastos, the sooner that is done, the sooner we can get back ho." I tried to steer things back on point.
"And the sooner you can give a killer body like yourself." Sprite replied with clear excitent in her voice.
Sersi raised an eyebrow at that, lips twitching in amusent. "That's still your plan, is it?"
"It was always the plan," Sprite replied without sha. "Do you know how hard it is to command respect when you look like you're twelve? I could be saving the world and people would still ask where my parents are."
"In fact, I pretty much have, and look at today? Forced to stay inside all day, afraid to be sent to school again!"
Sersi let out a laugh, light and lodic. "You do know most twelve-year-olds aren't ancient and immortal, right? You could always try pretending to be a genius child prodigy."
"I tried that," Sprite grumbled. "But I would have to study… and everything moved along so quickly, and things were so boring… I just couldn't do it…. and you know that! You were there!"
Sersi just giggled. "Yeah, I rember, but I still wanted to bring it up, maybe it will make you appreciate people like Tony Stark a bit more."
"Please, Stark is insufferable enough without soone like Sprite paying him a complint. I think it's just fine as it is… and this should be the building." I said as I stopped the car we acquired from Stark.
Sprite leaned forward in her seat, peering up at the building through the windshield. "Looks boring."
"That's the point," I replied. "Stark doesn't exactly want people knowing he's stashing mythological warriors and enhanced teenagers all over the city."
(end of chapter)
Okay, here is the chapter, and yes, it's a lot later then I wanted, but I woke up feeling like shit, so took a while to get around to it.
I won't spend too long talking about it; it's not the best, not entirely happy with it, but at this point, I can't be asked to change it. Hopefully, I can receive a bit for tomorrow's chapter. Not sure if there will be one or two chapter left before we return to Calot.
Almost feeling like skipping the rest of the Eternal stuff and just deal with things later, because I'm sure you all know how its gonna go.
I would be smart to pull so twist out in the end, but hey, I'm not smart, so neither is the story.
So yeah, we can all guess the final result, so rather than having yet another Eternal reunited, might as well just move things to Calot and have a big old Reunion there at so point.
Or a chapter or two about Sprite going around showing off her mature appearance could be fun.
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