Chapter 8: It is I! The Intrepid Hero!

I may have screamed.

Not for the reason you’re thinking!

Sam’s tail shot straight up as his fur began to glow and his right eye began to burn orange. Sam really took his job watching over me seriously, which was great, but sometimes he was a little trigger happy. I think his first impression of baby me when we met after I tumbled into the Dreamlands was 'demented kitten.' It never really went away.

“Right. Booting.”

“No wait!” I yelped.

I wildly looked about my living room as Sam sputtered out, looking like a confused ball of feline fluff.  I copied our actual living room for my apartment and pieces of my bedroom had crept in because Dream. The logical mind worked in the Dreamlands, but it had a severe handicap. The unconscious mind was far stronger and it kind of just did what it wanted. I was still working on it?

Our white leather couches and glass long table was right where they should be. My room’s desk with the small model of the dragon Bahamut on it was not but it wasn’t that obvious. Most of the windows opened up to the balcony where the Crystal Sea stretched out down below from the cliff to the horizon. Except for one window that opened out to a black sand beach. I closed the blinds on that one. So there were patches of my bedroom’s star studded wall paper interrupting the beige and dark wood wall of the living room, but it didn’t look too bad? This was okay? Maybe this was okay. Alright, the baseball bean bag I could just get rid of - wait, shit, the baby pictures! He can’t see the baby pictures.

“Just, uh, tell him I need a minute.”

The wall full of framed images went blank, but as soon as I stopped concentrating on it, they came back. Of course they did. The pictures were part of my actual living room, so the association in my mind was too strong.

Crap.

“So...” Sam began. “Were we expecting this motherfucker or - “

“Uh, no. But that’s okay! I don’t mind.” I said quickly.

Maybe the kitchen?

No, not the kitchen - you don’t meet people in the kitchen, what am I thinking!

“Are yooouuu sure? He’s fucking dodgy, mate, calling from the fucking Pit and I don’t think - “

“He’s literally in a thousand pieces right now,” I interrupted him. Obviously not any of the bedrooms, but the balcony might work? Nice view right? And it's got chairs. The yellow duck floatie in the pool was eh. “He’s Dreaming, Sam. He can’t do anything to me here, it's a good faith thing. Really good.”

...why was the duck even there!?

“...why does he need a good faith gesture.” Sam asked flatly and I cringed.

Maybe good faith wasn’t the right term to use? I mean, Olympus was his problem, right? Mom wasn’t the one who cut him up and threw him into the Pit. Sure, he got that False Prophecy, but he knew that wasn’t Mom’s fault, right? That was just Ouranos being a prick!

He probably knew, right? He was a smart cookie.

“Why does he need a good faith gesture?” Sam repeated with a bit of a growl.

“Can’t you just work with me here?” I shifted my apartment around us. The open space of my living room blurred into my replica of Dad’s office.

“No!” Sam snapped as he hopped onto Dad’s big black art deco desk, scattering a few of the manilla folders and spilling their blank white pages on the floor. His tail batted at the small lamp shaped like a giant piece of cut emerald as he stared me down with his green cat eyes. “Gimme a good answer or I swear I’m booting his creepy arse back - “

“He’s like Potato!” I pleaded as I picked up the papers. “You know Potato, if he comes to visit we still try to break out the good treats and toys and everything?”

“Well yeah, but that’s only because - “ Sam stopped and then pressed his forehead into the lamp. “Potato’s a fucking dog.”

“It’s the same thing!” I insisted as I inspected the office. It was the same thing.

Right?

It was all dark wood walls with an equally dark wood floor underneath a plush red carpet. There was the diamond patterned shelf for Dad’s wine collection complete with the dusty bottles of wine that would probably taste like fire and sunlight if I opened them. The wall behind the desk was a giant bookshelf stretching wall to wall and all the way up to the ceiling. The left side had the books, notebooks and blocks of paper clipped together for his work and the right was the fun stuff. I knew that set of books was Tolkien and that was Jordan even if I couldn’t read any of the spines and the pages were either blank or full of gibberish.

Reading in a Dream was already a bitch and a half. My Dreams still ran on demigod brain so that was not happening.

This would work.

“Perseus.” Sam said seriously and I bit my lip as I rounded Dad’s desk. He wasn’t going to work with me. I collapsed into Dad’s plush brown leather chair and spun around once. “What the fuck.”

I snorted and kicked my feet.

Where to even begin? The Dreamlands had visitors, but it also had natives. People who were born here would probably ask me if ‘Greek’ was a food. Cats not being able to talk? That’s crazy. No one batted an eye when my apartment popped up on a street corner. To most of the people here, Earth might as well be in a different galaxy.

Uh, maybe it actually was?

Anyway, you learn pretty quickly what you take for granted when you talk to a cat.

“I’ll explain,” I promised. I guess it couldn’t be too different from teaching some of the kids at Camp. “I guess, from the beginning?” A beginning. “What’s the history of the Waking world according to Sam?”

Cats in the Dreamlands didn’t have any official titles for the place. They just called it Here and There, changing depending on where they were.

Sam was clever though.

“Cats ruled the earth, then you fucking wazzocks popped up out of nowhere.” 

Yup. That version of events coming from him did not surprise me at all. By ‘wazzocks', he meant humans. I think that word meant something like ‘idiot’ but I’m not sure. Sam had a lot of words for idiot. 

"Training you took forever.”

Trust a cat to have his priorities straight.

“There was a war,” I told him. Sam knew what that word meant, but I think it was more of an abstract thing. It once took me an hour to explain what a billboard advertisement was for and by the time I was done I was the one confused. He knew killing though. “The star-spawn rebelled.” 

Sam’s head tilted.

“Right. There was something about the Waking sun…” His eyes narrowed as he thought. Eventually, he started to pace back and forth on the desk as his right eye began to softly burn orange. “Yes...we had a blue one. Something broke out of it.” Sam paused, looking back at me. “You were a bit different then. Less fucking fragile, but a lot more manky.”

‘Manky’ meant ugly. Sometimes it was hard to believe Sam actually spoke English.

“Humans were vessels for…” I waved a hand vaguely. “You know.” 

“Them muppets,” Sam said with a nod.

He wasn’t a fan of gods.

Any of them.

Especially not Mom.

I guess we kind of still were vessels? I mean, demigods were viable for a reason, right? Anyway, it had been all about the Elder Gods. I don’t know if we evolved or if we were created because Mom wouldn’t give me a straight answer, but I do know that we came to Earth through a Gate and we were ‘manky.’ We couldn’t help it though. Who you served and which planet in our corner of the cosmos you came from meant sometimes you had two arms and sometimes you had four.

“The war lasted...a lot of cat years.”

Sam huffed, raising a paw to groom his uneven whiskers. “This chuffer some big shot from all that then?”

“One of them,” I admitted, fiddling with the drawers of Dad’s desk.

I opened the top one and couldn’t stop the embarrassed, pleased smile when I saw the picture Dad kept there. It was just me and him at SeaWorld. Mom must have taken the picture. I looked about six with a toothy grin and Dad’s hand on my shoulder to keep me in one place as a dolphin curiously reared out of the water to look at me.

“Mom would tell me bedtime stories and I always asked for more about him.” I smiled. “He was one of my favorites.”

Wodanaz was another awesome dude I went to sleep hearing about.

You know him, I’m pretty sure.

He goes by ‘Odin’ now.

Sam’s ears flicked back and then forward again. “Was?”

I closed the drawer a bit harder than I should have as my smile flattened. “Yeah. Was.”

Sam’s face wasn’t made for human expressions, so I didn’t know what he was thinking as he started to pace again. He walked from one side of the desk, all the way back to the gem lamp and then did it again before finally setting his butt down on the papers I had just picked up from the floor.

He ignored the look I shot at him and sighed. “I get it. Fucking Potato.”

“Fucking Potato,” I agreed.

Potato had been the mayor of a nice little town in a lush, forested area in the shadow of the mountain range that dominated the south pole here.

He was a dog, but that didn’t matter as much in the Dreamlands. He couldn’t talk, but he learned how to write in Dream letters. He started out an ambitious, adventurous pup following at the heels of an alchemist. He got there through hard work, long hours of study and connecting with the right people. A classic success story everyone knew about! He could have been happy with what he had, but you know how it goes. Eventually, it wasn’t enough. Despite warnings about the mountains of madness, he sent out survey crews to see if he could start up a mining enterprise. People were reluctant to work at the sites out of unease. They suffered horrible nightmares. They became obsessed. He couldn’t just leave it alone.

They woke something up.

Now he was an old dog, mayor of nothing. Everyone knew about that too.

Try not to stare at the scars.

Sam sighed again. “Well, your guest’s a patient arselicker, I’ll give him that fucking much.” 

The door to my father’s office closed with a flick of Sam’s tail. I slipped out of Dad’s chair and double checked the office before heading for the door. He’s Dreaming, I reminded myself as I reached for the doorknob. The butterflies refused to sit still in my stomach. Nothing was going to go wrong. I knew nothing was going to go wrong, and if it did, I could fix it.

Some part of my brain was still a chicken with its head cut off for no reason.

It was annoying.

My hand landed on the carved wooden knob and I felt my eyebrows try to invade my hairline.

Wow.

He got fucked up.

I could feel the shattered pieces of the Titan Lord beyond the door. It kind of felt like someone threw a handful of confetti in my face. His presence was very weak and I just knew he wouldn’t be anything more than a voice.

Disappointing.

But that’s what you get for being an ass to your kids!

I took the call and opened the door.

“Hel - “ The powerful voice of the Titan Lord started before I did...something. I don’t know. I’m going to blame my unconscious brain for it. He was now in my home as a disembodied voice and my Dreaming mind had things to say about that. It felt kind of like when I manifested Damocles in my Dream. What that meant was that all the gravitas of the powerful fallen evil dark lord whatever instantly disappeared as his voice broke two octaves higher. “- Llloooooo?” 

Kronos blinked surprised eyes made of golden sand at me with his mouth falling open, before quickly raising his hands in front of his face. He went through about a dozen different emotions within two seconds before closing his eyes. He breathed in, then out, clearly thinking.

“...How?”

Fuck if I know.

The Titan Lord looked exactly like how Mom showed me years ago. Short curly black hair and olive skin with heavy brows. He looked a bit like Dad. I think it was his chin and cheekbones giving me that feeling, but unlike Dad his short beard didn’t look patchy. My unconscious mind had put him in a classic brown chiton, thank God, with blue trim. The only hint that his form was a Dream construct were the harsh golden lines where every piece fit together.

Did I actually pull him from the Pit into the Dreamlands proper or…?

“Lil’ Fucker is made of bullshit,” Sam volunteered from the desk. “Don’t think about it too hard.”

“I am awesome,” I corrected my cat friend and rolled my eyes. “Duh.” 

I stepped back from the door so Kronos could enter the office. That’s when I realized what I had been missing this entire time.

A fucking chair for him to sit in.

I made another copy of Dad’s office chair in front of the desk and tried to look like that had been the plan all along. Sam snorted and I gave him a warning look.

“So, awkward question, but are you still in the Pit?”

Kronos clenched his hands a few times into fists before slowly lowering them.

“...I do not believe so.”

Oh.

Oops?

“Well Sam could probably toss you back - “ Like the Titan Lord was an unwanted fish, but you know. Kinda. - “cause my apartment moves? Annnd you probably don’t want to be a pile of body parts in the Salt Plains.”

The vultures were murder.

Kronos sighed. “You might have just ruined everything, but I will forgive you.”

See?

He’s a cool dude.

“Sorry, thanks and call me Percy,” I offered with a small smile as I went back to my Dad’s chair.

“Percy it is,” he said easily. He flashed me a small grin after searching the room. His sand eyes traveled to Sam where the cat was spinning in a circle on the desk, preparing to lie down next to the emerald lamp. He dipped his head. “Master Sorcerer.”

Sam groaned as he laid down and put a paw over his face.

“Oh fuck off with that shit,” he moaned. “It’s Sam.” 

Kronos confidently sat down in the seat offered and let me tell you, a tall Greek dude in a classic chiton sitting in a modern office chair was kind of a surreal picture.

“Sam of Ulthar, I’m assuming?” He asked.

Sam bristled just as I knew he would as he glared at the titan with two colored glowing eyes as his fur turned molten.

I flinched.

It’s not like Ulthar was a bad place! It was one of the largest settlements in the Dreamlands and it’s been around for a very long time. It was actually really nice. Very rustic. Lots of cats. It’s just that unless I wanted to be used as a scratching post for all of eternity, it would be a bad idea for me to show my face there.

And Sam had been banished.

I had just...wanted to see my Mom. My birth mother, I mean. Face to face.

I was stupid.

It’s a long story.

My fault.

“Do I look like some bitch to you?” The cat growled.

The Titan Lord held up both hands in surrender. “Forgive me. I meant no offense.”

“Hmph.” Sam curled up against the lamp, looking like he was determined to ignore the world. I ignored the urge to pull his tail in favor of a few back scritches. “Why’re we entertaining this knob head?”

“Potato,” I reminded him and ignored the completely bewildered look on the Titan Lord’s face as I tickled some exposed toe beans. Sam tucked his feet closer into his stomach as he pinned me with a one eyed glare. “Be nice?”

“Fuck no.”

“He’s an ass,” I told Kronos blandly.

He shrugged. “Cat.”

Sam grumbled. “You fuck up, I fuck you up.”

“Noted,” Kronos said dryly.

The titan leaned in the chair, propping one arm on the armrest and resting his head on his hand as he studied me. I wiggled a bit in my own chair suddenly super self-conscious about the burning eyes on my left collarbone and forehead and right shoulder.

I -

I have no idea how I forgot about them.

I bravely resisted the urge to spin my chair all the way around away from him.

“You do have her eyes,” Kronos observed softly.

I straightened. “You’ve seen her?”

“Once,” he said wistfully. “Then the Gate closed and the vision was lost to us forever.” He let out a little laugh. “Iapetus actually mourned her departure, stubborn fool.”

Uh.

Wait.

“Please tell me you don’t have a crush on my mom.”

Much to my relief, he snorted. “No, boy, I’m just not blind.” Okay, that’s fair. “Though I do wonder what caliber of man your father was.” ...Was? “What god was he born of?”

I frowned. “Uh? He’s mortal? From...two mortal parents. And still alive?”

His heavy brows lifted in surprise. “Indeed? Your eyes - perhaps I have severely underestimated the degraded creatures wandering the world now,” he mused. That was a little harsh, but he’s also not wrong. “I assumed a mortal would be dust in her presence.”

“Oh, no he’s - “ My brain chose that time to remind me of the ring of dust around me at the javelin toss and the burst blood vessels in Ryan’s eyes. “ - fine.” I rethought the definition I was using for ‘fine.’ “I mean, he lost his mind for a few years, but he got better.”

“Ah, of course. That does sound like her.” Kronos said with a little smirk. “She must have been fond of your father, if it wasn’t permanent.”  His gaze drifted. It was the same look Mom got when she was remembering something she thought was funny. “Others were not so fortunate.”

“Only if she’s mad,” I said a bit defensively. “And that takes a bit. Unless you’re stupid.” Awkwardly I ventured, “Like your old commanding officer?”

Kronos’ sand eyes snapped back to me.

“You know about that?” He asked in surprise. The sand in his eyes rippled, like there was some kind of worm moving just below the surface, as he studied me. I’m not sure what he was looking for. “She actually raised you, didn’t she? Her demigod.”

“Yeah?”

He leaned forward a bit eagerly. “What else did she tell you of us? The Titans?”

I wracked my brain for a minute.

Maybe I should have paid more attention to the boring stuff. How the armies were set up and the tactics used and all of the logistics, but I just kind of focused on the fun stuff. ‘Tales of derring do’ as Dad would say. The heroic, the clever and the just plain stupid.

Can you blame me?

I learned the important parts, like where the prisons were and how mankind used to be and the difference between the gods. Everything else was gravy.

“Background knowledge, but my actual history lessons started with the Feast and went on from there.” I bit my lip. I wouldn’t call myself shy, but admitting this felt a little strange. “You were one of my heroes,” I said with a limp hand wave. I could feel myself smile sheepishly. His eyebrows rose and I sped up my words. “I mean, one of my first bedtime stories was that time you had to rescue Hyperion from the Spinner with the chains and the mirror - “

Kronos pinched his nose.

“I should have left that fool there,” he muttered, but I thought he looked pleased. Emboldened, I let myself smile widely.

“ - and about the Devourer in the Mist with Wodanaz? The Dweller with Atum? The Sky’s surrender?” I sighed happily, leaning back in my own chair. I snuck a glance at Sam to find him taking a catnap. He was a sloppy, deflated cat loaf, looking like he had collapsed against the lamp and face planted into his paws. “It took us three nights to cover the campaign against the Earth Mother.”

“Well, she couldn’t have told you everything,” Kronos said in a mock arrogant voice. “We had many great deeds to our Names, such as when Iapetus slacked on latrine duty - “ Oh. Oh! I think I know this story! “ - passing off a ready made pit as his work leading Okeanos to uncover a nest of chthonian worms - “

“By shitting on them!”

“That too? Amazing.” He barked a laugh. “By the Void, we were stupid then.”

I smiled, but then I had to look down at Dad’s desk.

“For years, I wanted to be you.” I confessed softly. “The story ended so well. You got a hero’s reward and married the girl.”

Kronos’ smile withered. “Ah.”

Good, he knew where this was going.

“So what the fuck happened!?” Sam cracked an eye open at my raised voice. I took a deep breath, forcing the unpleasant bubbling of my stomach down and shook my head. My cat went back to sleep as I leaned forward over Dad’s desk. “You had everything. You won! Why did you have to ask? How could you believe Mom would betray you like that?”

Like I said, he was Potato.

It wasn't enough.

Mom told me he reached for more out of fear, but I couldn’t believe that. This was the man who boldly demanded the attention of Mom’s absent-minded nerdy ex-boyfriend to save his friends and got out of that mess with a mortal Name.

Kronos.

He was born Zagreus.

This man was so scared of his first immortal child that he couldn’t think straight?

He ate his kids.

Mom doesn’t lie.

But.

I didn’t want to believe that.

The Titan Lord sighed. “It was because I knew your mother that I believed.”

“What?” I hissed. Blood immediately started rushing in my ears as my gut clenched with anger. I immediately tried to control it, because it was easy to fall into an emotional feedback loop in a Dream. The logical mind wasn’t as strong here. I still don’t like people insulting my parents. I don’t care who you are. “Pick your next words very carefully.”

Kronos shifted in his chair, eyeing me like you would eye a hungry wolf. I was vaguely aware that I had sprouted more burning green eyes all over my body and I was...hazy? I could feel my spine shiver, sending ripples across my shoulder blades.

“I know what you were told,” he said in this soothing, calm voice. He clenched and unclenched a fist on the arm rest as his sand eyes bored into mine. “That we were soldiers or warriors. We were rangers, scouts, researchers and physicians. That we were heroes.” His lip curled into a sneer. “We were slaves, boy.”

The hot ball of anger abruptly bled away.

What was I going to say to that?

I was told they served, but I don’t remember asking if it was voluntary.

Mom doesn’t lie, but I knew that didn’t mean she told me everything.

Maybe she had just been waiting until I was older and could understand what I was being told without my ADHD getting in the way too much. I got the kid friendly version of history. Kind of. It was easier to show me a battle, than to show me economics.

I don’t remember being told their service was voluntary.

“Generations upon generations upon generations fought for our gods.” Kronos said with this tightness to his voice. “We bled. We suffered. We died. We were promised freedom. How did we get it?”

“The Feast,” I murmured. I fell back into my chair.

“I can barely remember it,” Kronos admitted. “It is like a dream, filled with ecstasy and confusion. Our gods gave us one of the star-spawn. It was still alive. Our gods guided our blades. We dismembered it as it screamed. We ate it alive.”

I remembered more than he did. It was a serpentine creature with many limbs and two heads and it had been born from the blue star that used to be the Earth’s sun. Greek tradition remembered it as ‘Phanes.’ That meant light-bringer. It had other names that made more or less sense. Erikepaios. Eros. Protogonus.

Dionysus.

His lips twisted into a wry smile. “I do remember how much growing out of my own skin hurts.”

The celebrated and the favorites of each Elder God were chosen to ascend and they each had their own meal. A captured star-spawn.

You could literally trace each pantheon back to dinner.

The birth of the Young gods still lingered in human consciousness. That concept of eating divine flesh to ascend could be found all over, but it wasn’t like you could just take a bite out of a god and get superpowers.

Your divinity had to be welded on.

Something, or someone, had to do that for you.

This didn’t bother me. I was way more annoyed that Apollo’s stupid Oracle tried to kill me than I was about eating her. Maybe it should? You’ve probably guessed by now that Dad was in charge of my morals. But this was god stuff. He left that to Mom. I’ve known since I was little that this was how it was. It didn’t matter that they ate it alive. I remembered being so proud that Mom’s Chosen wouldn’t grow old and wouldn’t die, not like some of the others. This was history.

This was now.

“But you were free?” I tried uncomfortably.

Do you ever get the feeling you aren’t as great of a person as you thought you were?

“Free,” Kronos repeated blandly. He laughed lightly and it was not a happy sound. “Free. Who were we fighting?”

I blinked at the change in topic. “Uh, the star-spawn?”

“The same star-spawn that lay helpless as it was butchered alive the moment its betters tired of its rebellion?”

Something lurched in my stomach, making me feel sick.

“All it took was a moment of their attention and there it was.” Kronos was almost snarling. The golden lines holding his construct together began to bleed. “Time could have saved us. Fate could have saved us. Night could have saved us. The Pit could have saved us. What were we dying for, boy?”

I -

I don’t know.

The unconscious mind was stronger in a Dream, but now that I was thinking about it the idea that Mom was ever truly threatened by the likes of the Earth Mother seemed...childish.

I don’t know.

He said he knew my mother and that’s why he believed she would betray him. He was a slave. Mom’s slave. The star-spawn rebelled and he only saw her once.

I was - I was missing something?

And I didn’t like anything my mind was coming up with to fill in the blanks.

“I - I don’t - “

“You do not know,” Kronos said for me. “Perhaps it was nothing more than a game. Some divine whim that spilled over to this wretched world. What need does She Who Stalks Stars have of this dirt?”

My mind was reminding me of The Black Pharaoh and the unpleasant feeling it gave me. The trip to the moon I took with Sam. Eater of the Bloody Tongues.

She said he was afraid.

Mom doesn’t lie.

Do you ever get the feeling your parents aren’t as great as you thought they were? The very thought that the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Titans, everyone had a good reason to be afraid of her and I was the one who was wrong…What did that mean for them? What did that mean for Dad?

What did that mean for me?

I had a Prophecy. It said my days would end in four years.

The room spun. For a terrifying second, I actually thought I was having a vision as my apartment warped around me. I felt suddenly unanchored, like some part of me had broken off and had begun to just float away.

“The fucking fuck - “ Sam was suddenly there, headbutting me in the chin. “Oi, Lil’ Fucker. Breathe.” His eyes were glowing, orange and green, along with his molten fur as he turned on Kronos with his fur beginning to stand up. I felt that phantom hook drag itself through my insides, beginning to pull me out and away. “What the fuck did I miss? What did you tell him, you fuck!”

“Mom doesn’t lie,” I forced out as the apartment began to fade.

“Your mother is Fate,” Kronos pointed out ruthlessly as he watched me with eyes made of sand. “She does not lie as a Prophecy does not lie.” He smiled at me. “And Prophecies always mean what we think they do, don’t they?”

I was tossed out of the Dreamlands.

Morpheus caught me. I was pretty sure he said something but I was a little out of it as he passed me back into his father’s realm. Hypnos welcomed me, pulsing feelings of pride and excitement as his ever-grasping presence pulled me close. The complicated mess of emotion swirling in my head and chest and stomach was doused in ice cold water when the immense pressure of someone’s attention fell on me.

A woman with long twisting black hair in a pitch black dress studded with dismembered stars was looking at me. She had black eyes, like her pupils had swallowed her irises but a galaxy burned very faintly within and moonlight shone from under her skin. She stood underneath her planet sized shadow as it loomed over Hypnos and me. It was a living thing, moving and reaching and birthing twisted creatures that scrambled to escape before they were dragged back into the mass.

I had this vague uneasy feeling. It was like...She was too close. I knew she was too close. I could almost hear the sirens wailing in my lizard brain. The reaching tendrils of her form were not made out of skin, or maybe they were? Like solid clouds or mist but it was still shifting like it was only following the idea of being solid in this way that kind of made my head hurt. There were drooling mouths filled with constantly gnashing teeth. I could see every contraction ripple through her shadow as another monster crawled free.

I pressed back into Hypnos.

Hi, uh, ma’am.

Hypnos immediately hit me with an amused rebuke, followed by encouragement and happiness.

I cringed.

Uh, Aunt Nyx?

I hope he didn’t just get me killed. Mom would be so pissed.

The galaxy in her eyes sparked as her blank expression softened. I felt a pulse of approval from her before her attention moved off me, letting me breathe.

I don’t know how long I slept as the third wheel to Hypnos’ visit with his mom, but it felt like I was watching a buddy get fussed over, complete with questions about having enough clean underwear, washing behind his ears and giving kisses to the cheek.

You are reading story An Undertow of Sand at novel35.com

Awkward.

On top of that, I had my own issues popping up again. It sucked, because I knew I wasn’t able to think it through properly, but the thought of making myself wake up and having to think it through in the light of day was terrifying.

Eventually, Nyx started to turn away and I felt a surge of desperation for answers. I needed to know. Problem was, I had a hundred questions, but didn’t know what they were. I didn’t know how to ask or what to ask or what I wanted to hear. I reached out anyway, because I was stupid probably, trying to stop her from leaving.

Wait! I - 

I don’t know!

It all came out somehow. Like I pushed it out or threw it at her. I thought I just imagined it, but she stopped and her attention was on me again.

I shrunk back into Hypnos. All my insane courage just evaporated. I didn’t uncurl until Hypnos gently prodded me and I looked up to see the faint, almost thoughtful expression on Nyx’s face.

There was a burst of hostility from her and I flinched, hard.

But.

It wasn’t aimed at me.

You have enemies? 

Approval.

Oh.

I mulled that over and felt something unclench.

That made sense.

It was like a comic series, right? You had the street level stuff. That was where you got the boots on the ground, like Kronos, and then you had the high level stuff with higher stakes. Basically the difference between the Punisher and Superman.

Right?

Mom wasn’t perfect. I knew that. That was okay. She probably didn’t want to worry me. Maybe this was her being, for once, overprotective. Missing details were fine. I was still a kid.

She’d tell me when I could understand.

I felt relieved.

Anchored again.

Thanks, Auntie Nyx!

She sent me her amusement as Hypnos radiated curiosity and confusion. Her attention shifted, probably to him because he was suddenly happy. He grabbed me in a ‘hug’ as his mom left, taking her terrifying shadow with her.

He gave me a moving picture along with a sense of anticipation. It was...an egg? I think that was an egg, of the bug type. A pale, spongy sac that bulged and stretched until some kind of ugly as sin grub finished eating its way free.

Uh?

I puzzled.

Uh, congrats on the new kid? Clovis...might be a little weird at first cause his mom? But he’ll get over it?

Hypnos paused and then I was nearly bowled over by his amusement.

I rolled my eyes.

Laugh it up, buddy. I’m fucking twelve, what do you want from me?

More amusement.

Oh come on!

Prick.

I woke up annoyed.

I laid in my bed for a few minutes, staring up at the ceiling as my stomach crunched and loosened and crunched. Thoughts chased each other around in my head. The bands of Celestial Bronze around my room were still shining in the dim light. Did I wake up early? It was a lot darker than I thought it would be.

I might as well get up, even if it was early. I didn’t feel like going back to sleep.

I grumbled wordlessly as I made my bed and then dug through my backpack for clothes to wear today. As I closed the metal latch on the canvas bag, I remembered my tin of Mythomagic cards in the pockets and the now active Prophecy.

And Prophecies always mean what we think they mean, don’t they? Kronos’ voice rang out in my head, but I pushed it away with a simple reminder.

It’s our choices that decide our destiny.

The Prophecy bit was the wrong thing to focus on. By its very nature, a Prophecy does mean whatever we think it means. Maybe it’s not so much that Mom doesn’t lie, so much as she can’t.

Ha!

See?

I breathed out the lingering unease. Nothing sinister here! Logical thinking is one of those things you don’t miss until it’s gone.

And then you really miss it.

I felt pretty good as I shuffled, yawning, to the front door of the Big House. I felt pretty good as I reached for the bronze doorknobs. I stopped feeling good when I opened the door to see the sky was still covered in angry boiling thunderclouds and Apollo-as-Fred was there leaning against the wooden rail of the porch looking completely defeated.

I closed my eyes.

His sister was still a rabbit, wasn’t she?

Mom.

Please.

“You’re up,” Apollo said with a failed smile. His eyes dropped to my bundle of clothes which was some shorts and my Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. “You probably want to wear...something else.” He rubbed a hand down his face. “Father issued an ultimatum. He wants his bolt back by the Summer Solstice or Olympus is going to war.”

Um, what?

There is now a time limit? His sparkler could be anywhere, as a few months was definitely enough time for a mortal thief to catch a plane and get out of dodge. If they couldn’t find it then, it was going to need a lot of luck for us to find it now.

“That’s in thirteen days,” I said slowly and watched Apollo grimace.

“He has full faith in the Oracle of Chthon.” That sounded like a load of premium bovine excrement. “And Artemis can’t fail him.”

“But isn’t she - “

“Serving a just punishment. Her actions endangered Olympus,” Apollo said dully with his shoulders slumped and golden hair hanging limply, some of his curls getting into his eyes. “And who are we to fight Fate?”

Soooo.

Not only is he setting up his daughter, and by extension me, to fail, he’s also pinning any and all consequences for his petty bullshit on my mother.

…

...

Zeus is a fucking maggot.

“Okay,” I said, feeling like I was going to explode. “Fine.”

“Half-Blood Hill at 10.” Apollo slowly reached out like he was afraid I was going to bite him and ruffled my hair. “Sorry,” he said softly. “Dad’s an ass.”

I just nodded as I turned back towards my room.

I felt oddly calm, like I was so angry I had wrapped all the way back around to chill as I folded up my shorts and put them in the dresser I was criminally underusing. I took all of the other unsuitable clothes out, like some sweatpants and random swimming trunks I don’t remember putting in my Bag of Holding. I didn’t have to remove much, because the point of it was to have my backpack ready made for any of Mom’s tests.

Or Quests.

I double checked my thermos of nectar and my Ziploc bags of ambrosia squares. I adjusted how my sleeping bag fit next to the small tent and made sure my essentials pack was where it belonged. Flashlight. Matches. Water purification tablets. Toilet paper.

That was a mistake I was determined to only make once.

Knife. I unsheathed the small Stygian iron dagger. It had been a birthday present last year. Not all of my siblings were jerks. Erebus cared a little. I sheathed the dagger and put it away.

Going through my check was calming. I had done this dozens of times and making sure I was as prepared as humanly possible helped bleed off some of my anxiousness. I didn’t have to worry about the weather or medical supplies. I had my ATM card linked to my bank account in the little leather wallet in my bag. Mom wouldn’t give me a test she didn’t believe I could do.

It looked bad.

It looked really fucking bad.

But she wouldn’t do that to me.

I finished the check and brought out my tin of Mythomagic cards. I drew cards from the top of the deck until I had all thirteen cards of my Quest Prophecy out on the desk.

I eyed the card for Zeus, King of Olympus.

Did it just mean it was a Quest on his behalf? That he would be responsible for kicking it off? Just doubling up on the fact that it was his symbol of power that was missing?

My eyes drifted to The Cydonian Cincture. The symbol of Apate, personification of Deceit.

Or maybe we would find it.

I just didn’t have to give it back. If whoever took it could hide it from the gods, then maybe…

I don’t know.

Maybe.

I shouldn’t make decisions while angry. That’s what Dad would say. I want to make an angry decision though.

I want it bad.

I packed my cards back into my bag and picked out one of my favorite shirts. It was an ocean blue tunic - and I mean tunic, real Robin Hood looking shit - with complicated looking Celtic knot designs in silver thread along the hems. I don’t know if Mom enchanted it. It took some work to catch her doing something. I wasn’t that good at Sensing yet. She never said anything and they were a package deal with my comfy Beholder slippers and the Lego version of the Millennium Falcon, so probably not.

Wouldn’t hurt to wear it though.

I rubbed the designs lining the collar with my thumbs. Anger is good, but it was not going to help me right now.

Anger was good, but not now.

Not now.

I smiled a little.

I sounded like Athena.

Guess Wisdom is good for something.

I picked up my new chosen outfit and headed out the door.

As soon as I got to the shower stalls I noticed something strange was going on. For one, there were a lot less people waiting around than usual and for second, I could feel that subtle thrum of divine energy coming from the long building. There was no way I could miss it. This wasn’t some minor working, but a big recent thing.

Did someone curse the place?

I watched Melanie, Counselor of Aphrodite Cabin exit the building with some of her siblings, brown hair still wrapped up in a towel. I eyed them suspiciously.

They didn’t look horrifically cursed. They didn’t sound it either.

Was this going to be one of those things where the curse has a delayed activation and everyone keels over dead at dinner? I cautiously crept up to the boys’ side of the building and poked my head in. I felt it immediately.

Not cursed.

Very much not cursed.

After a refreshing shower, I made sure to stop by the campfire pit.

“Thanks for doing something about our showers, Hestia,” I said loudly in my most obnoxious voice behind her back and watched her head whip around towards me as several passing Campers slowed on their way to the Dining Pavilion. “It was getting kind of crowded.”

Her eyes darted around as she shook her head.

“Oh, my bad,” I said with a wide grin. “Spatial warping is complicated.” It is. Mom’s Tardis explanation lost me in 0.003 seconds flat and if Apollo ever lost his car keys it would take him a literal century to figure out how to change modes on his sun chariot again. “I just figured since the divine energy was a direct match for you that you did it.”

“You can feel that?” She blurted out the first words I have ever heard her say.

As a confirmation of her guilt!

She realized that too, giving me a flat, unamused look that meant nothing because she was currently seven and cute as a button.

Have you seen a three week old kitten try to intimidate somebody?

Same energy.

“Duh.” I rolled my eyes as the eavesdropping Campers came forward to thank her. “I am awesome.”

I will never stop saying that.

It’s true. And if it isn’t true, I will become awesome to make it true!

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Castor said as the brothers joined me at Table 12 for breakfast.

I knew it was Castor because he was usually the more forward of the twins. Three weeks was more than enough time for me to figure out some of the differences between them. They were both clever, but Castor’s sense of humor was stupid while Pollux was a nerd in denial. If one of them spoke up first, it was probably Castor.

That and his shirt was inside out.

Pollux still didn’t like socks, but at least he knew how to dress himself.

“I’m in a decent mood,” I corrected him. “I am focusing on the good stuff.”

Luke is cool and a friend. Artemis is great and will probably not be a rabbit the entire time. Maybe just one more day? I can do this. Zeus set me up to fail, Mom did not.

“Because if I focus on the bad stuff, my first name will be spontaneously legally changed to Ethan.”

“I resemble that remark,” Ethan Nakamura, son of Nemesis deadpanned as he sat down in his usual seat next to where Clovis will eventually sit. Once he woke up.

“The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging it exists!” I told him happily.

He narrowed his eyes at me as the twins snorted, but I knew he wasn’t really mad. Ethan had contradictory eyes of dark brown but someone spilled a few drops of mother of pearl in them that moved around without his input. His eyes shined, but didn’t reflect anything. He was less cousiny. You could see his spine through his shirt, sticking out more than mine and Clovis’ and the bones were a bit weird looking, but he was otherwise normal. Well, maybe his canines were a bit long, but that was it.

He was definitely a less annoying cousin than Hypnos.

It is so stupid he’s stuck in Cabin 11 as a vagabond relying on Hermes’ Domain. His grandmother was the Night. Would it really be too much to ask for a ‘Protogenoi’ cabin for Nyx’s grandchildren and me?

“Keep it up and I’m taking you off the Christmas list,” Ethan threatened.

I gasped and turned back to my food, pouting.

“Really?” Pollux drawled. “The Christmas list is what gets you?”

“Presents,” was my defense.

I take them very seriously.

Castor nudged his brother. “Remember. He’s a spoiled city boy.”

Let them laugh.

Mom always helps me with my presents. Threatening to take them off my Christmas list will hit that much harder when I already have one under my belt.

The Dining Pavilion filled up, getting louder and louder as everyone got their food and sat down with their friends and family. Fred was getting considering looks from his children at Apollo’s Table. That was probably because this was his third day in a row being at Camp when last week, and the week before that, he only stopped by twice. Hestia was watching the finger dances at her table among the Ares kids like they would randomly behead each other if she so much as blinked. 

Mr. D grumped his way to his table. He sat down, made a can of Diet Coke and saluted me with it. “Good luck.”

...oh my god, he’s been replaced by the Illuminati.

Castor and Pollux both checked their father for a second head as Annabeth Chase sidled up to our table with a plate of food.

“May I sit with you, Ethan?”

Nemesis’ son immediately looked suspicious. “What do you want, daughter of Wisdom?”

“I want - “ Her eyes flicked to me, then back. She took a deep breath. “I want to know about your uncle. I want to know the truth.”

Ethan bared his teeth like a wild dog.

And, uh, remember when I said his canines were a bit long?

My bad.

Those were fangs.

“Everything was fine until it’s your mother on the chopping block?” He growled.

“It wasn’t fine!” Annabeth snapped back. She reigned herself back in just like her mother did. “It wasn’t fine, but there wasn’t anything we could do. Just making trouble for the sake of making trouble - “

“Isn’t wise?” 

“If we want things to change, we need a plan.” She arched a blond eyebrow in this challenging way. “We don’t have one. I think we should.”

Storm gray and brown with mother of pearl stared each other down until Clovis walked right between them sleepily, carrying a plate topped with fruits and feta cheese. He sat down, drowned his fruits in maple syrup then seemed to notice Annabeth standing there awkwardly.

He scooted over to make space for her. “Hello?”

She shot a scowling Ethan a triumphant look over Clovis head as she sat down. “Hello! Clovis, right?” She smiled sunnily as he nodded dumbly. “I was wondering about your father…”

Even though there were like fifteen girls at Table Eight, they were definitely the quietest table because every single one of them looked like someone told them Santa wasn’t real. The reason for that was on the table, miserably staring at a small plate of grass and the lone baby carrot her Lieutenant just snuck on top.

I quickly turned back around to my own food, before any of them caught me staring and decided murdering me would be worth it.

Wait a minute.

I turned back around (again) and scanned the Dining Pavilion.

“Where’s Luke?”

Apparently his dad was serious about the training thing. That’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but also weird? Like...he abandoned Luke as a kid, right? Did he just decide he made a mistake tossing his son away after all these years or what? Luke nearly died two years ago on his Quest and his dad had been nowhere in sight.

Now he was personally training him?

After volunteering him for a Quest where he might die for real?

I don’t get it.

None of that makes any sense.

Hermes didn’t look that crazy when I last saw him, but you know. You think you know someone…

When breakfast came to a close, the twins stopped me with uncharacteristically serious faces. Castor had set his chin to jut out stubbornly, while Pollux couldn’t seem to meet my eyes. I swallowed as I faced them, feeling my stomach sink. This was probably going to suck.

“I hope you don’t mind…” Castor began. “That Cabin 12, Dionysus is going to be in charge of your burial shroud.”

Yup.

Oof.

“No, I don’t mind,” I said quietly. I won’t need it. I’ll be fine. We were all getting through this. Then on a whim I blurted out, “Make it ugly. Really ugly. Super gross.”

Both boys stared at me.

Then, slowly, Castor began to smile. “Let me guess. Something you wouldn’t be caught dead in?”

Pollux groaned. “You’re an idiot, Percy.”

I laughed as I grabbed them both in a massive hug, the biggest I could manage. And maybe I wasn’t laughing and maybe my eyes were burning and maybe my voice was a little watery when I complained,

“I resemble that remark.”

“You do,” Castor said and maybe his voice was a little watery too.

Pollux sniffled. “You really do.”

Time flies when you’re having fun.

I was absolutely blaming Mom’s absent-minded nerdy ex-boyfriend for time slowing to a crawl when you are anticipating being sent off on a dangerous Quest you are supposed to fail.

Chiron came to get me from Archery class. By now, everyone knew I was going on a Quest and their stares followed me out of the archery range. I felt them boring into my back as I put on my jacket and it changed from a plain looking duster to a fancily decorated burnt orange poncho with ocean blue designs to match my shirt. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed to Half-Blood Hill.

“Percy.” Luke was there in a grey T-shirt with a red vest over it and jeans. He didn’t look like he’d slept well again, but was just a little tired and not exhausted. He had two bags of his own, a purple and black backpack like he was just going to high school or college and a second bright yellow one strapped around his hips.

Forget impending doom.

Someone call the fashion police!

“Is that a fucking fanny pack?”

Luke smirked. “Don’t knock it until you try it.”

Standing by him silently was a very tall, very buff, blond dude with blue eyes all over. Literally. He had eyes on his arms, hands, cheeks, forehead, neck, you name it. He reminded me of my Dream self, if my Dream self was a surfer dude from California. I nodded at him.

“Argus?”

He nodded back. So Hera’s pseudo-Giant servant. I could ask how he felt about everything but I was not going to push my luck. At least she was contributing something to Camp Half-Blood.

And no, her empty pretty cabin no one could use did not count.

“Cool.”

A little ways down the hill a white SUV sat. Luke saw me looking.

“Traditional drive out of Camp Half-Blood.” He smiled sadly. “He’s not going with us. Neither is the SUV.”

Damn.

Chiron cleared his throat. “If I may, the Lord of the Underworld is a dangerous opponent. If you are to face him, you are going to need to plan it out thoroughly.”

I gave Chiron a look.

“We’re not going to the Underworld,” I said and Luke’s head swiveled in surprise. “We’re going North.”

“North?” Luke asked, bewildered.

“Yup.”

“...what’s North?”

“Death, probably.”

Chiron looked like he was going to say something to me, then thought better of it. “Luke. Please watch over Perseus.”

“Percy,” I muttered.

“I know,” Luke said a bit indignantly. “Son of Fate, really big deal and my responsibility. My Camper.”

“He’s twelve,” Chiron said gently and Luke recoiled as if he’d been slapped. The son of Hermes looked at me then and he had this complicated expression I didn’t know how to read.

“I know,” Luke said again.

“I’ll listen to Luke,” I promised Chiron. “Unless he’s wrong. Then I, uh, won’t.”

Luke snorted as the immortal trainer of heroes sighed. “Jason, Herakles, Achilles...all had more training.” He made a rumbling noise deep in his chest as the heavy brows he inherited from his father hung over his eyes. “I suppose all I can do now is trust in your destiny, whatever it may be.”

“It’s whatever I decide it to be,” I said.

I had to believe that.

Argus’ wristwatch went off for our departure time as Apol - Fred - fuck it! Apollo walked up to us in bare feet ahead of the Lieutenant of the Hunters, Zoë Nightshade. Up close, the fractured nebula in her eyes looked broken. Like someone had messily ripped out a few wires behind the screen leaving the lights flickering, sputtering, and on the verge of fading away completely.

She looked between me and Luke as her lip curled in contempt. I made the mistake of holding out my hands and awkwardly watched her hand her precious cargo over to Luke.

“...your pet is not coming on this Quest,” Luke declared as he tried to hand the bunny back.

With a sound of disgust, the Lieutenant marched off.

“Don’t scruff her,” Apollo said in a no-nonsense tone straightening Luke’s spine even as his face scrunched up in confusion. “That will tear the skin from the muscle, basically flaying her and if that happens, I will flay you.”

“I - I understand, Lord Apollo.”

The rabbit made a small moaning sound as it shivered in Luke’s hands. I wanted to pet her, but she'd probably bite me.

“Make sure she eats grass every meal, don’t let her skip, give her enough support while holding her - how you’re doing it now is fine - you better know where she is at all times and don’t involve her in any fighting!”

“I will take good care of your pet, Lord Apollo,” Luke said blankly, clearly not getting a single thing. 

The silver eyes were a dead give away!

Apollo sighed.

“That’s Artemis.”

Luke’s grip on the rabbit went from ‘I am holding a small, helpless creature’ to ‘I am holding a live grenade.’

“Long story,” Apollo said.

“She tried to kill me. Mom objected,” I said. Apollo gave me a very hairy eyeball as I shrugged. “Not that long.”

“Our godly Quest member is a rabbit,” Luke said flatly.

See?

Not even worrying about the attempted murder. Demigods knew how to prioritize.

Apollo shrugged. “Yeah. Good luck.”

Mom.

Please.

I felt her. A gentle, warm feeling of reassurance and confidence. My eyes burned and I adjusted how my sunglasses fit on my face.

Argus jingled his car keys and with that obnoxious high pitched ‘bwark bwark’ sound, the SUV unlocked.

“Don’t die.” Chiron threw in.

Her comfort faded with a feeling of finality. She wasn’t going to hold my hand anymore. The test begins now.

It was time to go.

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