[3rd POV]
With Loki and the lot leaving, Wanda was left alone in the shop. Which wasn't really the worst thing, to be honest. She had found that Loki was...not really annoying per se, but she was definitely not her favorite customer.
She did like Finn and Riveria though, and she suspected that little "Prank" of theirs was something that she herself had ordered. Probably some sort of petty revenge for shocking her so much throughout the day.
Either way, Wanda was now sitting behind her counter, sipping on some tea as she glanced at the clock. There was around an hour or two before closing time, so she was hoping that another new customer would come in.
She would love for it to be another Goddess from that universe, but she wouldn't complain either way, as long as it's someone new and at least somewhat interesting. There was a large list of very interesting characters from that universe, all of which she would love to meet.
Hestia and her familia. Artemis and her familia. Hephaestus and her familia. Freya. Ryun. Mama Mia. Syr. Ais. Tiona and Tione. Ouranos. Ganesha and his familia.
She could go on and on about the people she would like to meet. But thankfully, it did not seem like she would have to wait long to meet one of them.
As soon, the door began to creep open, and she looked up from her book. Only for her eyebrow to shoot up upon seeing who was walking in.
It was a red haired woman, with an eye patch covering one of her eyes. Wanda could tell from a glance that the eye that was covered had been cursed, and rather brutally at that. The curse was very strong, and divine in nature. But it was also anti-divine, meaning that other Gods could not do anything about it.
Nor could the deity it was on.
And that Goddess was of course, Hephaestus, who was in fact, a woman in the world of Danmachi.
Hephaestus was a pretty attractive woman, Wanda had to note. The eye didn't really take away from her at all, as Wanda had seen far far far more horrific things. And her eye was not even remotely close to the strongest cursed object she had seen.
it wasn't even in the top 1000.
Her curse was indeed brutal for that universe, having been layered many times over by whatever the hell cursed her. With the curse having influences from various pantheons. The ones she noticed the most were Greek, Shinto, Aztec, Norse, and Chinese.
All of them were layered masterfully together, and if her guess was correct, was made by someone that had a domain relating to curses. Because there was no other way that something like that could be made to such a level.
At least, not in that universe. The Gods there were simply not strong enough to cast such a curse if it wasn't one of their primary domains.
Although, she supposed that a primordial or the highest peak of Titans could do it. So someone like Kronos of the Titans could probably make a curse that strong. And a Primordial could just casually will it into existence. It wouldn't be a problem for any of them, regardless of their level of power in the Primordial hierarchy.
It could also theoretically be done by a group of Gods as well, granted there was at least one God of Magic in their group, or at least someone that had a related domain that was similar.
She had a feeling it was a group of Gods that cursed her, rather than a single person.
The amount of hatred you'd have to feel against a God to cast a curse on such a level, was quite immense. And that rage was actually required for this sort of thing, or at least this curse in particular. But if it was a group of people, it would only require them to dislike her for that to all combine into working.
Either way, it didn't actually matter all that much.
Wanda could just glance at the curse and make it disappear. So, she should be able to offer such a service to Hephaestus. In return for knowledge and books of course.
Something that she had done with Harry Potter as well, so she didn't see why she couldn't also do this with Hephaestus.
"Are you the one that Loki was speaking of? The bookstore owner that is also a primordial?" Hephaestus asked, as Wanda raised an eyebrow.
'Seems they must have ran into each other after Loki had shopped here. Otherwise Hephaestus couldn't have possibly learned about this place so quickly' Wanda thought, hoping that Loki wasn't going to be a pain in her ass.
She just didn't want the Goddess spreading her shop everywhere, as she didn't want to get all of Orario trying to shop with her.
She preferred just having a decent amount of customers and that's it. Nothing too crazy.
"I am. I am assuming that the two of you ran into each other?" Wanda asked, which got a nod from Hephaestus.
"That's right. She was...well, ranting about you. Also talked about your store and how many books you've got. Well, she talked more about wine, but that elf of hers did say you had an incredible selection" Hephaestus replied, making Wanda chuckle.
"Yes she was quite insistent on getting some wine. Too bad she decided to attempt a prank on me. She would have gotten the best wine in the the multiverse otherwise" Wanda said.
"That explains why she seemed so annoyed when describing this place" Hephaestus said in amusement, as she glanced around. She noticed that this place was definitely not normal, like Loki had said.
It was very obviously some sort of pocket dimension, a very very advanced one. Unlike anything she had ever seen before. But she didn't focus on that.
"Yeah well that's her own fault" Wanda replied, having a feeling that most of Loki's complaints were made up.
"So, I am assuming you are here for books on blacksmithing and similar areas?" Wanda asked, locking eyes with Hephaestus. The woman looked a little surprised at the question.
"I am, but how did you know that?" Hephaestus asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm a primordial dear, knowing that you are Hephaestus, the Goddess of the Forge, is easy enough" Wanda replied, looking amused at the question, as it was an easy one to answer.
Hephaestus looked a little embarrassed as she realized that Wanda was right, it was kind of a dumb question.
"Uh, apologies for the pointless question"
"Hmm? Oh no it's fine. It was a perfectly valid question, Hephaestus. And as for your question, yes, I do have many many many books on blacksmithing. More than you can count" Wanda said, as books began to glow an iron color, which Hephaestus instantly noticed.
"All the books glowing right now are ones that are on smithing techniques, unique mineral compositions, ways to cultivate special and unique fires, and more" Wanda said. Hephaestus looked over at them with interest.
"And those books...do they teach methods that even a Goddess can use? Ones that are actually useful to someone like me?" Hephaestus asked, which got a nod.
"The ones glowing a dark silver color are more in tune with mortals and those that are in your familia. Those that are glowing bright silver, are more in tune with you as a person, and the divine in general. I'm confident that they'd be of use to you" Wanda replied, knowing that she had quite a few books on divine blacksmithing.
There was thousands of smithing Gods out there, and DC had a LOT of books on the art, especially divine ones. As Hephaestus was a powerful God in DC, and there was tons of divine weapons in DC that were capable of obliterating planets with laughable ease.
Quite a few of them had been made by Hephaestus of the DC universe himself.
"Can I?"
"Go ahead. But, please don't take too long, as I am closing up in around an hour and a half. If you can't look through them all before then, you can come back tomorrow as I am open everyday except the weekends" Wanda explained, which got a nod from the woman as she immediately walked over to start looking through the books.
She started with ones for her familia, which was kind of her.
Watching her begin her search, Wanda leaned back in her chair, and began to read once more, all the while, she hummed.
'She's a lot nicer than Loki, that's for sure'
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That's the end of the chapter!
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