[3rd POV]
"You know, when you said that you would return the next day, you didn't say that you were going to bring your entire damn familia" Wanda said, as she looked around her bookstore.
It was absolutely full of Hephaestus familia members, over twenty of them excitedly clambering over the books throughout the store. Many of them make large stacks of a variety of books. She was surprised to see that most of them hadn't touched a blacksmith book, but she understood that Hephaestus likely told them not to since she herself would be buying a majority of them.
And then she would filter them throughout the familia so everybody can learn from them and use them to increase and improve their techniques rapidly. There wasn't really much of a need to buy more than two or three of each book, if that.
It would be a waste of coin to do something like that.
Instead, she was focused more on getting other knowledge now that she knew for a fact that the forging techniques would be good.
"Yes well...I told my captain of my familia, and she decided it would be smart to tell another member, and then that member told another...and then another, and it sort of spiraled from there" Hephaestus said, giving one woman in particular a sharp look.
The woman looked away with a whistle in response.
"...I see. I suppose I will not complain...this time. But next time you decide to do something like this, have them come throughout the day. I do not like to have so many customers in my shop at the same time, makes it too rowdy" Wanda responded to the Goddess, who nodded slowly in understanding.
Hephaestus was not willing to test her luck pissing of a primordial. Honestly she was wondering if it would be more accurate to say that Wanda was THE primordial.
She was not going to test that though. She would rather not piss off what was potentially the most powerful entity in the entire universe, besides Khaos herself at least. Khaos was their supreme deity, the highest existence they knew.
So to even begin comparing someone to her was...insane, well and truly insane. But it was also accurate, as who else could create a dimension like this one, with such causal ease?
Who else could sell books that can overturn thousands of years of knowledge casually? Books that told secrets that not even the Gods of the very domains they were written about, knew of.
Like forging.
So many techniques she had found, none of them within her knowledge, none of them existing before now. All of them adding to what she had, and showing that she had a long way to go, even with her being the most powerful of the Gods of Forging.
Hephaestus wondered if Wanda herself had any power in the domain, but decided that it was likely to be the case. She had to have at least some understanding of the Forge, with what she has created for herself.
She liked to read books, so she most likely read all the forging books that would add to that knowledge.
"I apologize, Miss Maximoff. I will make sure to do so next time. I'll also take the liberty to warn Loki of this as well, so she doesn't incur your wrath" Hephaestus responded after a few moments of silent thought.
Hephaestus knew Loki enough to know that the woman was almost certainly going to try something monumentally stupid. Just so she could piss off the literal Primordial running a bookstore.
Loki liked to get petty revenge, and in this case, she would do it by annoying a primordial. Not really a smart idea, when the supposed rules of the mortal realm were more like suggestions for someone of her power. Not even Ouranos can do jack shit to stop her if she decided to use her power.
Although Hephaestus was confident that her familia (Loki's) would stop her from going that far, or at least try to do so. There was no way that Riveria would let the source of such incredible magical knowledge slip away, especially when the store in question was constantly getting new books added to its growing selection.
Ais would probably stop her as well, since the store would be a huge source of new knowledge and new power. And with how addicted to gaining power Ais had become, it was likely she would do her best to help Riveria with the task of stopping Loki from doing anything monumentally dumb.
But that was kind of hard at the same time, since Loki was...well, Loki. And she was also the God of Trickery for a reason, so she could likely find a way around them if she really wanted to.
Hence why Hephaestus herself decided she would intervene before the troublesome Goddess did anything dumb.
"Apology accepted, and I'll leave you to do that. As while I do like Riveria and Finn decently enough, their Goddess is...quite irrating at times" Wanda replied, as Hephaestus sighed.
"Yeah that's Loki for you. You should see her when she's having one of her bouts with Hestia, that is when it gets really bad. Gives me a migraine every single time" Hephaestus responded, remembering the two and their screaming matches.
Which usually consisted of them making fun of each other. Hestia making fun of Loki for her lack of breasts and boyish appearance. And Loki making fun of Hestia for being petite but also having large breasts.
Honestly Hephaestus was 99% sure that Loki was just jealous of Hestia and her incredible figure.
Loki loved breasts, afterall. Or, at least she loved Ais's breasts.
She is weird.
"I'd rather not" Wanda replied blandly, remembering their screaming matches in the show. She imagined that it was a lot worse in person, and she was not interested in being anywhere near...that. Too much noise and too much yelling for her taste.
"Fair. They are pretty overwhelming when they get into it" Hephaestus replied with a nod, understanding why she had no interest in seeing...that.
"So, how much longer is your familia going to take? I'm pretty sure I have other customers waiting to come in, and your familia is taking up most of the store" Wanda asked, as Hephaestus looked over at her people, finding that many of them were looking at books while muttering in excitement.
They didn't even bother to hide what they were feeling about this. And how excited they were to learn from the books inside the shop.
Some of them were even grabbing manga, which Wanda was honestly not surpised about. As she had a feeling that there was not much of anything in their home world that would compare to manga.
They had storybooks and legends, but nothing like a manga or comic books.
"It's...probably going to take a while, sorry" Hephaestus said, realizing that most of them were not even close to being finished with whatever they were doing.
"...It's fine I guess. Just try not to be here for more than an hour or an hour and a half. Otherwise you'll really be cutting into my customers. And while I could care less about money, I do enjoy seeing my regulars" Wanda replied, not all that surprised after she saw their reactions to her selection on forging and magics involving forging.
"I'll go and make sure they're not wasting time, and thank you again, Miss Maximoff" Hephaestus said before walking off to the forging area that the students were all looking through. Well, they might not literally be students, but it was the best title for them, and technically was true.
With Hephaestus back talking with her familia members, and Wanda being left alone at the counter, she brought out a book, and began to read.
All the while, she had only one thought on her mind.
'I wonder when I'll get to meet Hestia?'
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That's the end of the chapter!
A bit shorter than 1400 words but I wanted to get caught up, and it's close enough, so...yeah.
I'm gonna take a nap now.
Have a good day