Of Thorns and Lightning

by Fiona Price

  William realized this and knew that when they were all sober, he would have to get them together to try and piece together the evening so he could figure out what to do with them. Could he punish them all? Should he?

  Meanwhile, Maize had startled awake and felt very sick. She tripped into the bathroom and emptied the minimal contents of her stomach, but she hadn't eaten since before she went out to the club. The acid burned her throat and left a bad taste in her mouth, but she made sure that she was done before getting up and brushing her teeth. She stepped back into her room and diverted her attention to the windows. She walked over to them and pulled back the curtains, revealing a threateningly dark sky with heavy, intense rain falling from the thick clouds. Maize heard the occasional low rumble of thunder and cracks of lightning. She turned to Thor, who was sitting in a far corner of the room, reading.

  "How long has it been raining like this?"

  "Saturday night, Ms. Leto," He answered, looking up from his novel.

  "What's the weatherman saying?"

  "I don't particularly care for what the weatherman is saying because he can only speculate the weather, where as I can control it, but the last time I checked the TV he said it was some sort of freak storm system that was impossible to predict with the weather patterns they observed."

  "Is this you?" She asked.

  "No, this one isn't me." He responded contemplatively, looking out the window with her. Maize then went back to bed. She fell into a heavy sleep, only waking up in a pool of cold sweat with the feeling of being unable to breathe. It felt as if her lungs were full of fluid and her throat was glued together with phlegm. The voices around her made her more quickly aware of her situation. William, Thor and two people in white lab coats and gloves were standing over her.

  "Maize, you're really sick, so the doctors are going to put an IV in your arm and start a treatment, okay?" William spoke. She nodded, slinking off her hoodie so her arms were exposed. She relaxed as the doctors found her vein and taped the IV tube in place. They started her on a saline drip as well as an antibiotic.

  "What's wrong with me?" She asked, her voice barely audible.

  "Your fever spiked past 105 in your sleep. I called the doctors in. It's pneumonia, just like I thought it might be." William spoke. "Thor says you have advanced powers of healing but with that, the onset of disease is accelerated as well."

  The intensity of the storm increased. The sky was nearly as black as night and the thunder was monstrous, catching everybody in the room off-guard. The floor shook when the sky rumbled and cracked with lightning. William gave a look over to Thor, who shrugged to communicate he wasn't controlling the storm.

  "Thor, can I talk to you for a second outside?" William asked, Thor knowing that wasn't a question. The men walked out into the hallway, leaving the door ajar.

  "Have you tried fixing it, because this is getting crazy. It's like a hurricane here, Thor!"

  "I'm well aware, William. This isn't my doing, and I've tried to alleviate some of the rain. The ground is flooding, and it's worse than the man on the TV says it is. But, I have a theory."

  "Oh no. It's not what I think it might be, is it?"

  "Well, that's quite vague, but I think that this storm is the physical manifestation of the storm inside of Maize since we know how badly this weekend left her. It started right when they all left her at the door of the club and has barely stopped since, right?" Thor spoke. "We noticed that the storm had lightened to a mere shower when she was at peace, especially in her sleep."

  "Can she even control the weather?"

  "Yes, William. She can. She will inherit all of my responsibilities, and we are nearing the time where she is growing into some of those capabilities. It began with the vision, which is unique to her, and this is what followed. I didn't expect it to be so soon, but you and I both knew that it was only a matter of time before she would become more powerful."

  "Well, we have to tell her to quit it!"

  "She might not even be aware she's controlling the storm, so there's a good chance she won't know how to stop it. We can do what we can for now."

  They both went back into her room which had become a quarantine, though William and Thor were less likely to acquire the contagious disease and were somewhat protected against it. The doctors informed them both that she would eventually need to be taken down to get a chest x-ray to assess the situation in her lungs. By the end of the day they would take her down, since the antibiotics will have had time to work in her body with her accelerated powers. Until then, William and Thor sat near her and tried to talk to her about the storm.

  "Maize, I know you're not up for a big explanation and lecture, but I need you to concentrate as hard as you can on stopping the storm."

  "I can't control the weather, why do you want me to try?" She coughed.

  "Well, it turns out you can. It's a Thor thing. If you are subconsciously controlling it, you need to consciously stop it. Just try?"

  "Fine, I'll try." She spoke, then closed her eyes. The room was silent and meditative. William kept his eyes glued on the sky, and the nearly-black sky lightened to a steely gray.

  "Holy fuck." He whispered, then turned to Maize again.

  "Maize, it's you. You're in control of this storm, Maize. I know you have a lot going on inside, but try and find closure. For now, you have to let it go."

  The storm gradually lightened up to a heavy, but steady, drizzle. The antibiotics were starting to work, and she was falling back into rest. When it was time for the doctors to take her down for a chest x-ray, she already felt better than she did when she had initially woken up. It had been substantially harder to breathe just mere hours previously, and she was up to get out of bed. She was escorted out of her bedroom and over to the elevators, but she had caught sight of Talia on the way. William was frozen. The doctors tried to shuffle her away and get Talia out of Maize's line of sight, but Maize had her targets set on Talia. The storm immediately intensified. Talia's comments didn't help.

  "Oh, what's wrong with you now, Thor?" She asked, mockingly. "Why the hell do you have an IV?! Just one more reason we all think you're getting special treatment for every little god damn thing-" Talia spoke, annoyed. Maize wasn't having it.

  Maize broke free from the doctors surrounding her and took her IV bag stand with her. Before Talia could even think, Maize delivered the hardest roundhouse kick she had ever given as well as a knife-sharp right hook right to Talia's face, knocking her out cold. At the same time, it felt like electricity was buzzing through Maize's veins, and it probably was; the instant she used force against Talia, the storm was the strongest it had been, and a deafening crack of lightning struck the compound, sending them into darkness.

  Maize intentionally harnessed the power of the sky, which scared the hell out of everybody still conscious on the floor. Though, almost instantly, the emergency floodlights came on and partially illuminated the building. Jason announced that he was rebooting, and William had to run down and manually reset the breakers for the lights to come back on. All the fuses in the entire compound had been blown and he had to flick each and every switch. Gradually, the normal lights came back on, and Maize was shaking. The doctors gently picked her up off the ground from her kneeling position next to the knocked-out Talia and finished their journey down to get the chest x-ray.

  Maize was tested, treated and then tested again before all traces of her pneumonia had subsided, as well as the storm. As she was feeling better, the sun rose and warmed the earth. Maize didn't remember her encounter with Talia as hard as she tried. Her memory had blocked it out completely, but she and Talia were still kept separate. Nobody knew how to make things better, but they all knew that the Gods couldn't live like they were. Everybody knew that it was time to take Maize to Asgard, with her developing powers she couldn't delay it any longer. William hoped that in that time, he could finally work something out with his daughter.

  Two days after Maize was completely cleared, Thor met her in
the common room on the first floor. He sat down at the table with her, Maize just finishing up a snack. He got right to the point, knowing that it was past time for their journey. He knew Maize wouldn't react well to him throwing this on her, but she was getting better and would have to follow him on a quick intergalactic road trip.

  "Maize, are you well?" Thor asked.

  "I think so, I just can't believe my pneumonia came and went in three days, it doesn't seem possible. I don't remember a lot, either."

  "Oh, but it is very possible. I have so much to explain to you, and so much to reveal when we reach our destination. Step outside with me," He answered vaguely, gesturing to the door.

  "Do I need to bring anything?"

  "No, Maize, just yourself. Everything you may need will be provided to you in Asgard."

  "ASGARD?! We're going to Asgard? I'm not ready for you to take me to Asgard!" She shrieked, walking out onto the lawn with him, now very skeptical about what he was asking her to do and accompany him with.

  "It's time, Maize. Hold on to me," He instructed, raising his hammer up to the sky. Maize knew that she didn't have a choice and it would be the wisest decision for her to make to hold on to him tightly. She stood in his side and he supported her, blasting off into the sky at an incomprehensible speed in a tunnel of colors she had never even seen before. On the ground, a glowing ember-red crop-circle resembling symbol was burned into the grass, making William and the groundskeepers quite upset.

  Thor and Maize had traveled millions of miles and lightyears in a matter of sheer seconds, and they landed on no other place, but the palace on Asgard.

  The Club, After Maize

  "William knew that when they were all sober, he would have to get them together to try and piece together the evening so he could figure out what to do with them. Could he punish them all? Should he?"

  ♦️

  It was early, early Sunday morning when the rest of the Gods-in-training stumbled through the front doors of the compound like zombies. As a group, they had partied hard but been through hell with each other, and not one of them were in any sort of functional condition. They were in bad shape, and that said a lot.

  Angelina, Ariel and Talia were completely drunk. Jordie was still trying to talk himself down from Menoetius-ing out, and he had managed to score some sketchy club Valium for himself. Peter was trying to forget, and he was painfully becoming sober with each passing minute. Meaghan was battling her own emotions; she was the next Dike, the fighter for the little guy, but she couldn't manage to even defend her own best friend at the club when three drunk girls wanted to pick a fight. She was facing her own morals straight in the face and was starting to deny who she was and what she was capable of. She had been their designated driver, but that didn't mean she still wasn't under the influence of something, and it was something more powerful than drugs or alcohol. She was under the crushing influence of her mind, and her own standards she had held herself accountable to her whole life.

  Things were changing, and she felt it.

  They shuffled as a group through the main hallway towards the elevators, but Angelina stopped to throw up in a potted plant on their way. Talia held her hair back and Ariel moved the leaves, and that was the most Meaghan had ever seen them support another person other than themselves.

  It was a miracle they all made it up to their rooms, since nobody who was drunk could seem to remember anything or gather any sort of bearings for position or direction. The rest of the night was peaceful; no one bothered each other, or even moved. The morning and most of the afternoon was silent and motionless, which was rare. She decided that there was no better time to try and find Maize. She felt bad about not saying anything to defend Maize in her presence, and she knew that Maize would still be upset. If only she knew what happened after she left...

  Meaghan and Maize had rooms right next door to each other, so it wasn't a long journey for Meaghan. She assumed Maize would be in her room and thought it was a solid place to start, and that's exactly where she found her friend but in worse condition than she could ever have imagined or expected. She knocked on the door only to have it be opened by Thor, all the lights off and an unmoving mass of tumbled blankets in the bed.

  "Meaghan, Maize is very ill and is asleep. If there's something you need, I can try to help you." Thor spoke, catching Meaghan off guard.

  "She's sick?! What happened?!" She asked frantically.

  "Her car broke down after leaving the club and she was caught in the rain for a little while." He answered simply.

  "OH, my god! How did she get home?!"

  "William found her by pure chance on the same road and he took her home after getting her car towed. She's resting now, but we're hoping her fever breaks soon."

  "Can you just let me know when she wakes up, because I have a lot to tell her and a lot to make up for." She spoke, and Thor was happy to relay the message to Maize when she woke up.

  It was a few days before Thor came knocking on Meaghan's door. Meaghan knew that her friend had pneumonia and was very ill, and she thought it was best that she gave Maize space while she was sick. But it was early Tuesday evening, Maize was nearly cured, and an explanation was long overdue. Meaghan opened it to see the Norse god before her, telling her that Maize wanted to see her. Meaghan followed him back into Maize's room where Maize was awake and aware.

  "Hi, Maize," Meaghan spoke softly. Maize groaned and sat up. Meaghan moved so she could sit on the bed next to Maize.

  "I have something to tell you, because it's really important. I know as you left the club, Peter, Jordie and I didn't say anything, and I can't imagine how you must feel or what you must think of us. I know you're sick, but I'm here to apologize for not standing up for you immediately and I want to let you know that we took care of it. We fought like hell after you left, and it wasn't pretty. But I don't think you'll have to worry about Talia for a little while. Things are going to be different for all of us, but especially you. You deserve it after all this time."

  Maize was quiet for a few moments, soaking up all the new information. Still weak and a little bit sick, she mustered up a brief but sincere response to Meaghan's explanation.

  "Thanks, Meaghan. It means a lot."

  Soon enough, Meaghan decided to go back to her room and let Maize rest for a little longer. She got up off the bed and said her goodbyes to both Thor and Maize before stepping out into the hallway and closing the door behind her. When she turned around to go back to her room, she ran into William Townsend, and he was on a mission.

  "Hi, Meaghan. Perfect that I caught you. I need you up in the conference room, we're going to have an emergency meeting. Do you know where everyone else is?"

  "I haven't seen them leave their rooms since we came home."

  "That's plenty of time for them to get sober, I'm going to get them all together." William spoke, returning to his mission of waking up and gathering the other Gods-in-training. Meaghan followed his order and she was the first to arrive in the room, despite members of William's security detail. Whatever it was, it had to be huge. Considering what Thor said and what happened at the club, she thought she knew exactly what this meeting would be about.

  William gathered the remaining Gods-to-be in the conference room on the fourth floor, and he meant business. Now was the time to find out what happened in order for him to start the damage assessment and the healing process. They all knew William was not there to mess around, and it might be more serious than they all thought. It was the perfect time to get them together, it was recent enough after the club for their memories to still be fresh, but they weren't cranky and hungover. At the time, William was too, so it wasn't a good time for any of them. But now that they were all sober, it was time to get things straightened out.

  They all knew what was headed their way and were mutually uncomfortable, but they had to face the consequences of their actions just like everybody else. They were no exception to the rule.

  Talia sat with an ice bag hel
d to her face, she had an enormous and swollen purple cheek and was a little loopy from painkillers. Maize had fractured multiple parts of her orbital bone and cheekbone with the punch, but Talia knew she deserved it. Out of everyone, Talia had the most to regret that she desperately wanted to forget, but she also had the most self-analyzation to do. She didn't want to be gathered in a locked conference room with everybody until her father got what he wanted from them. She knew he could be dangerously manipulative, and this was no exception to the rule, either.

  They were all going to have to face what they had done, especially in order to help the group get along. They all knew they lacked in coordination and cooperation together, but they didn't want to have it blasted in their faces.

  But maybe that was the only way things were going to change.

  Everyone was silent until William started off the conversation.

  "I know what happened this weekend, but it would be wrong of me to only hear one side and one perspective. Take me back to the club, guys. Run me through everything. Don't talk over each other, and do your best to remember it exactly."