GuesssWho
To Assemble A Name From Scars
- Location
- People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Definitely a scarier interpretation.
An Undertow of Sand (Percy Jackson and the Cthulhu Mythos)
- Thread starter Shujin
- Start date
Ah, I think I get it. The Fates were aiming for Olympian drama akin to the canon books. But they fucked up by giving Mom an opening: by dint of this prophecy's wording she could force viability of a halfblooded child of her highest/innermost identity. And that's why people keep saying Percy isn't a demigod/human:
- He's not "just" the child of a Protogenoi but of the even more powerful/primal god-within-fate. Not just an Old god but one of the Eldest.
- With such a pedigree even a demigod is outright at least as divine as one of the New Gods.
- And that shouldn't be fucking possible but the prophecy let Fate throw the full force of her power into preventing him from exploding or mutating or generally ceasing to be a half-blood
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
You got it exactly, well done @mastigos . Fate abused a loophole in Prophecy to make her own loophole of a demigod. In English, Greek and Latin the Great Prophecy of PJO is ambiguous. As Percy points out 'protogenoi' literally means First Born or Eldest Children, therefore since Prophecies always come true, a half-blood must be possible. Normally, a half-blood not being possible would disqualify the Prophecy from even considering the children of protogenoi, but Fate itself got involved...
Out of curiosity, what is Percy's mom's mortal pseudonym? What does his dad call her?
God this story always brings me on such a wild ride. I love every chapter as it comes out and I love the mystery of everything going on.
So I've been thinking about this, his mother is chained, thus limited, but how?
I've had an idle thought as to whether we're in a ballad of the wind fish situation?
We don't know if it is becuase of the nature of Fate or if it was done to Fate. I personally think its both, that there were limitations that were then added to, such as Time not really doing much because he is time space but then some maybe the Biblical Gods or the Hindus, other Elder God faction came in and added to it.(Personal Theory)
A related question I've been wondering about is "Where do prophecies come from? Who/what decides their wording?"
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
Her 'legal' name is Morrigan Stele.
On another note, here is some random trivia that definitely doesn't mean anything: 'Angel' is derived from the Greek Angelos, which is in itself a translation of the Hebrew word meaning Messenger.
This just makes my pet theory that Fate is Lucifer and Percy is the Anti Christ even more valid in my mind.
An excellent question, not one I'd been considering.
That's definitely a thread to tug =)...
So what you're clearly saying is that Hermes is the real puppet master
.And not that the Christian God is the source of Prophecy and Lucifer is possibly another of Mom's names
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Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
Actually it was about the update and the broken up canon Prophecy Percy received, sadlySo what you're clearly saying is that Hermes is the real puppet master
And not that the Christian God is the source of Prophecy and Lucifer is possibly another of Mom's names
I just realized: Kallisto was REALLY FUCKING LUCKY to survive this stunt, considering the Hunger that Percy inherited. Of course, considering that her survival helped the Demigod of Fate to escape a dangerous situation, luck is perhaps to be expected.
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
SUPER lucky. Percy was having Domain Sickness symptoms because he was trying to eat her, but couldn't manage it, so he threw up. With Percy being trained for Epona and all, it's very much implied that Aura and Kallisto were meant to be the appetizers to the Epona dinner, but Night fucked it up by messing with Percy.
That just makes me start to understand how much of a petty asshole Fate is. Percy was trained for years to fight and eventually eat Epona who was presumably chosen because she annoyed Fate or would insult her in the future. Also I am assuming that if he ate Epona he wouldn't undergo Apotheosis but would just be taking another step and getting a bump in power due to growing.
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
The 'apotheosis' or what would count for it technically speaking would have already happened already in Fate's plan. Percy knew Aura wasn't an actual monster because she bled gold. Artemis' cousin was minor divinity but still immortal and if you know who Kallisto resembles, you'd get an idea of what she offered too.
Yeah Apotheosis is kinda a weird thing for Percy since his immortality/godhood is kinda present already, he won't die of old age and that makes him more immortal innately than say the Norse. As it has been said by Fate and Percy godhood doesn't really mean much, and most gods are their own thing with the classifications exists to paint a rough picture.
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
The Norse probably won't die of old age? The problem is that they still get old, they just won't die from it and let me tell you, immortality is not all its cracked up to be if you're suffering from arthritis, loss of hearing/blindness and never being able to have enough socks the entire time. Percy as a twelve year old hasn't really thought about what old age would mean in terms of mortality. He just knows he can die and that when his father gets old he will die.
- Pronouns
- ImBuda
Yes but due to the blessing, the situation was bad enough that they went to Rhea's house and Percy was able to eat that sea god in dreamlands. Even if the original objectives werent possible it does not mean that it was fruitless.
- Location
- Lordran
I'm so sad. I read the first nine-ish chapters of this story all at once and then decided to take a 6 month break on it to build up a backlog.
It's only been THREE days and I'm out of chapters again.
It's only been THREE days and I'm out of chapters again
.
Trust Me. I Am a Professional.
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
An Undertow of Sand
A PJO Fanfiction
A PJO Fanfiction
"She what?" Artemis croaked as she huddled by the headboard of the cheap motel bed. The crumbs of her breakfast were still on her whiskers. We must have gotten five or so hours of rest. It wasn't enough to get rid of the bags under Luke's eyes, but at least I no longer felt like every bone in my body was made of splinters.
Progress!
One of these days, I'll remember to thank my mother for my healing factor (and maybe Apollo). It probably wasn't something she consciously thought of when I was conceived, but it was wild to think that a few hours ago my spine had been broken.
That's awesome!
"She what?" The rabbit looked like a toy stuffed in between the lumpy pillow and my one strap backpack.
I will be asking my father to send Quintus an invoice for a replacement.
"Agreed," I said again before I stuffed the blueberry Eggo waffle into my mouth. My left arm was still really sore. The plastic bag of cold water Luke got me helped, but I was really wishing for the cast of ice Khione had made when I broke my leg. The place where my bone had pushed through the skin was still a dark blackish purplish scar line.
I wondered if I could actually see through my bones if I ever tried to.
That would kind of be gross, wouldn't it? I'd just see my tissues and stuff. "I toldsh you I was gonna ashk someone."
"You personally went to the Crossroads - " The bunny took a big, deep breath. "Consider me now forewarned," she said quietly. "You are always serious about the nonsense that comes out of your mouth."
Luke threw up his hands from where he sat cross legged by the door, nearly throwing his hash brown. "That took long enough."
Have I mentioned yet that my party members were both jerks?
"You should try it sometime," I said acidly. "It's amazing what actually following through can get you when you don't make a habit of not meaning what you say."
"Even when it is insane," Artemis sighed.
"Especially if it's insane," Luke said.
"Okay," I said, offended. "What is this, did I miss the memo for 'pick on Percy day?'"
"I," Luke said very deliberately. "Am trying not to freak out about you just invading a god's territory uninvited alone."
Oh right.
That was a thing.
"So you," he continued. "Are going to sit there and take it."
I knew it was stupid.
I still tried to defend myself.
"...she could have blasted me earlier when Mom accidentally threw me over there, so I figured she was cool - "
"Percy," Luke gritted out through clenched teeth.
I shut up.
"What did she say, exactly?" Artemis asked, sounding impatient. "She'll meet us in the meadows…?"
"She will meet us in the meadows," I recited. "In the sunlight of new construction. You will not be late."
"Sunlight?" Luke said, glancing towards the small motel window partially covered by the too small faded curtain. The Night still reigned.
"It's a riddle, duh," I said. "Problem is, I have no idea what she means. Maybe 'sunlight' is referring to an obelisk? Those represent sunlight to the Egyptians. Maybe there is one by a construction site somewhere?"
"How would we even find it?" Luke asked. "There are a ton of those things around."
"Look for a meadow? We are near the Great Plains area?"
"Wendigos," Luke said.
Fuck.
"You will not be late," Artemis murmured. "You will not be late. You will not be late?"
Luke pointed at the rabbit. "And that. She didn't give a deadline? We have less than seven days."
"You will not be late…" Artemis said again, with a different emphasis. "Perhaps we cannot be late?"
Luke glanced at her. "How much you want to bet on that?"
"I do not want to bet anything," she insisted. "Much less a potential Name, but…" Artemis sat on the pillow in a thoughtful silence. "Hecate often has an uncommon foresight. She has always been…odd," Artemis said slowly. "Different."
I was starting to get the sinking feeling that Artemis didn't know how different.
Hecate was Old.
In between the Young gods and the Elder gods, there was a third category. I must have mentioned it before, right? The Dreamlands usually knew of them too.
Oh, so I just kind of left it hanging?
Sorry.
Old was a category reserved for the ones who used to be Young, but somewhere along the way something happened. Or maybe someone interfered or maybe they did something, but you couldn't really call them Young gods anymore. They weren't Elder gods, though. Mom was clear on that.
They were just different.
Young god Names could be Taken, but why bother peeling off the layers one at a time when you could just swallow them whole? That was what Old gods were.
Young god predators.
Mom gave me a few Names to watch out for. Aphrodite and Hecate from my own pantheon, Ra was another one and maybe meeting Bast would have been a bad idea. The twins of Zurvan were around somewhere and someone in the Shinto ate a bunch of buddhas, but it was anyone's guess who.
Mom didn't have many rules, but she did tell me to be polite if I ever met an Old god.
They earned it.
You bet your ass I listened.
So there you have it. Young, Old and Elder. Don't worry, those are the only labels that matter. Everything else you can ignore. I was planning to. I had first hand experience now how useless some labels were. Khione spent who knows how long as a nymph, because it was just as Mom said. The word 'god' didn't mean much.
Mom also told me my first cousin Rhea, the one who had to build suppressors into her house so her presence wouldn't accidentally kill me, was a star-spawn.
Beneath me.
Mom told me a lot of things.
"Percy?" Luke called out. "You still with us?"
"Yeah," I muttered, shaking my head. "I zone out sometimes, you know that."
"I also know you had a concussion a few hours ago," Luke countered.
"I did?"
"Mhm."
"Oh." It must have happened when Epona hit me on the forehead, but I didn't bleed. "Well I'm fine - "
Luke gave me a look.
" - better," I corrected myself. "Let's put Hecate's riddle aside for now. If she didn't give us a deadline, then maybe we will just be where she needs us to be eventually. We just have to keep an eye out."
Luke grimaced, but he didn't say anything.
"That leaves the Night," Artemis sighed. "You were serious about that too."
"Uh, yeah?" I said. "Waiting it out is clearly not working fast enough."
"What do we need to do?" Luke asked. He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. "Are we going to the Underworld after all?"
"We need an appropriate sacrifice," I explained and then I held up my arms. "Which means you need to take me to the hospital!"
Luke stared at me.
I waggled my broken arms at him.
He blinked and looked around the room like he was searching for cameras.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"The hospital," I repeated and then I took pity on him. "We're going monster hunting. We'll stop by the hardware store for some supplies and then once we get into the emergency room, you can do your Mist thing - "
"The hospital?"
Now it was my turn to blink. "Yeah? The only other nexuses of suffering I can think of are call centers and Walmart during Black Friday - "
"You are going to need to start from the beginning with this one," Artemis interrupted me.
Luke buried his face in his hands. "Please."
The beginning.
That was also a big problem with ADHD. Sometimes I was able to come through like a champ, but other times telling me to start at the beginning meant my mind flew off in fifty different directions of different ways to begin.
I floundered.
"Um, okay," I said. What was even the start? The monster I wanted to sacrifice and why did it like suffering? Maybe why I needed to sacrifice it? Let's go with that. "Burning food like we do at Camp, doesn't work."
"It doesn't work," Luke repeated dully.
Crap.
I didn't mean it like that.
"I mean, it works for the Olympic gods, but for the gods like the Night? You need more." I licked my dry lips, trying to piece the words together. "Something with life, preferably with power, that we can use to bridge the gap between us and Her."
"Not an altar?" Artemis asked curiously.
I felt cold.
"The only one I'm worshiping is my mother," I said flatly. "If She wants one, She'll just have to get over it."
Luke whimpered.
"Do not worry," the bunny crooned at him. "You just need to uninstall your logic - "
"I said don't remind me!" Luke snarled and lunged for the rabbit who bolted from the bed. She forgot Luke had telekinesis. "Come here, you little shit!"
"You pushed the bone back in," the triage nurse said incredulously.
The Palo Verde Hospital was right by the border between Arizona and California in a place called Blythe right off of Interstate 10. It looked nothing like the glass and white concrete and chrome buildings I was used to in Manhattan. It was a small local place that had a squat adobe look to it, blending right in with the desert plateau and plains around. You could really see why this place had a state prison just down the street. If anyone ever got out, there was nowhere to go.
Everyone here looked busy.
The triage nurse had a weak grip on my left arm. I had both my sleeves rolled up. My right arm was just swollen, but my left was looking pretty lumpy along the forearm. Luke tried, but there was only so much you could do without an x-ray.
"How long ago was this?"
"A couple of days?" I guessed. I have no idea how long it takes normal people to scab over. "I wasn't really keeping track, but the pain wasn't going away as fast as it usually does."
The nice lady continued to stare at me, dressed to the nines in hospital scrubs with comfortable looking shoes, bags under her eyes and a flashing pager. Her name tag said 'Rica' and she looked like she regretted asking.
"I heal fast," I told her.
Luke snorted.
Her eyes slid over to him. "And you?"
He held up his right hand with a crooked smile where a bunch of bloody napkins were strapped to his wrist.
"His rabbit bit me."
Artemis remained huddled in her annoyed rabbit loaf on the seat next to us, staring stubbornly at the back of the chair with her butt out to the world.
Rica nodded slowly. "May I?"
Her face pinched a little when she finished unwrapping the napkins. Artemis really got him good this time.
"That might need a stitch or two," she sighed. She bundled up the napkins and fished a packet of gauze from one of her deep pockets. "Keep pressure on it. And this?"
Luke shrugged. "Got caught in some poison ivy," he lied as he shifted his bandaged arm away from her. "Don't worry about it."
Rica turned back to the front desk where a heavyset man in business casual was typing away at the computer. "Are they checked in?"
Luke subtly waved his left hand. "I'm responsible for him. Our father called ahead."
The receptionist (is that what they are called?) blinked rapidly. His fingers flew over the keyboard. "I'm just making edits to their file, we were missing some information is all."
"Alright," the nurse turned back to us. "I'm making the call to take Perseus here back to an exam room straight away. I don't like his fever, so we're going to take a hard look at those arms."
I did not realize I still had a fever.
"And his foot," Luke spoke up.
The nurse looked horrified. "I'll get a wheelchair."
As she hurried off, I muttered under my breath, "You remember why we're here, right?"
Luke gave me a nasty smile. "Yup."
Get a load of this guy.
I graciously allowed the ER staff to bundle me into one of those ugly looking blocky hospital wheelchairs after they took my sneakers. They handed them to Luke in a plastic bag as I was handed my official 'emotional support animal'.
Who then proceeded to kick me in the gut because I ruffled her ears.
Artemis is lucky she's so cute.
The hallways of the hospital were filled with people. Most of them were nurses or doctors hurrying one way or another, but there were quite a few people with backpacks, water bottles and coats in the exam rooms or resting outside of them. It was a mirror image of the waiting room. All the people looked like they stumbled in from a cross country road trip or hike, carrying supplies with them like it was the end of the world. All of them looked haunted and everyone looked tired. There were a lot of thousand yard stares, people just lost in their heads, staring at the walls.
The triage nurse stepped between me and a young woman being led back to her room. The patient was talking. She looked like she knew what she was saying, but it was just a stream of sounds that didn't make any sense.
"We're a bit overworked," the nurse offered weakly. "There was a movie set in the area. The sky is…"
She didn't complete the sentence.
I don't think she knew how to complete the sentence.
"We know," Luke said.
We were led to an exam room at the very end of the hall. It was just what you'd expect, with a bed and a lot of equipment around including breathing masks and oxygen tanks, shelves and bandages. There was that thing for taking your blood pressure and small hammers to knock your knees with.
Take it from me, it is actually possible to fail a reflex test.
"Here we are." Rica the nurse flipped a tag on the wall by the door. She bustled around in the room in a circle, adjusting chairs and equipment with practiced movements and then came back out. She waved at the room. "Another nurse will come in to get more information, what exactly happened, your medical history, if you have any allergies, that sort of thing. Then the doctor will come in to see you."
I glanced at Luke.
He hesitated.
I glared at him.
Luke grudgingly lifted a hand. "We're in no hurry," he said smoothly. "You can take your time. Feel free to forget about us."
The nurse's face went blank. She looked around the hall with her eyes passing right over us. She checked her pager and with a muttered curse left us right there out in the open. Luke deftly flipped the tag by the door from red back to green as he pushed me into the room.
"Okay," I said. I put Artemis on the gurney. "Give me my shoes."
"No," Luke said. He raised the plastic bag with my sneakers up over his head when I made a grab for it.
"Oh my god, give me my shoes! I'm not staying here - "
"How'd you do that?" Someone asked and we all froze in place.
"How'd I do what?" Luke's hand dove for the pocket with his dad's lighter as he turned back to the door. He froze again.
I twisted in my wheelchair so that I could see who the problem was too.
The problem looked a lot like a ten year old girl in a baggy pastel green shirt, faded purple jeans, mismatched socks and a baseball cap worn backwards with shoulder length chocolate brown wavy hair. She was cautiously peering into our room from the side, like she was ready to make a run for it at the slightest sign of trouble. The first thought I had was that she was actually pretty cute.
The second thought I had was 'what the fuck?'
Human girls don't look cute, they just look human. I don't think Epona broke my arms and knocked me right into sudden puberty, so that meant something was up.
That 'something' was probably the fact that one of her eyes was brown, but the other one was constantly shattering into a kaleidoscope of color. There was some kind of weird pull, but I was able to snap my head back, shoving the sensation away.
"Cut that shit out," I barked at her.
Both of her eyes went wide. "What?"
Luke stepped forward, frowning, but I caught on to his sleeve. "You've got some kind of aura going." I said. "Stop it."
She inched further away behind the door frame. "I - I don't know what you're talking about and I don't know how."
I felt Luke rock back on his heels.
"Demigod?" He asked.
"Demigod," Artemis confirmed and the girl gaped at the talking rabbit on the gurney. She looked around like she was hoping to wake up from some kind of dream.
"Yeah, she talks and you're part god." I gave her the jazz hands. "Surprise!"
The mission took a backseat. Maybe it was the distraction from ADHD, but I'd like to think that maybe I was trying to pay a debt or at least make up for another girl in baggy clothes that I left at a train station in New York City almost five years ago. The one I changed my mind and went back for way too fucking late. The one Mom left us over.
The Night had lasted this long. It could wait a little while longer.
So ten minutes of a rushed explanation later about the whole god business (Yes, they are real. I'm of Fate, he's of Thieves. Your parent was one. No idea who it is or what pantheons they are from. Yes, pantheons, plural. The rabbit is a rabbit because she was an idiot). There we were, Luke and I, a bunny and Problem Child -
"Piper," she said, annoyed.
"Um," I began. "I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking it," she insisted in the mysterious all-knowing annoying way of preteen girls. "It was all over your face."
"No, it wasn't."
"Yes, it was."
"You just admitted to using your powers to steal stuff five minutes ago," I pointed out. "Why are you complaining?"
"I didn't know what I was doing!"
"You still did it," Luke pointed out mildly with a slight grin, because he would approve of petty thievery to get back at an absentee parent. "Repeatedly."
Piper crossed her arms, a mulish set to her chin. "You know you sound crazy right?"
"Says the girl who's been talking people into giving her shit for the past year?" I said sarcastically.
"Look, I didn't - " Her face twisted up. "I didn't really think about it. I just thought they were creeps."
…aaannnnd she's got a 'look at me, I'm pretty' energy field she didn't know existed.
That sucks.
"So that's why you look like you got dressed in the dark," I said. Piper's face twisted up further into something pinched and pale.
Luke cuffed me over the head.
"So why are you here?" I changed the subject only for Luke to hit me again. "What?"
"This…is a hospital," he hissed.
Piper looked away. She was practically swimming in her clothes, looking more like a drowned kitten than anything else. "None of your business."
I have discovered that I don't like the taste of my own feet.
"Sorry," I said awkwardly. I searched for a way out of this. "Want to hunt a monster?" That got her to turn her head back a little with raised eyebrows. Luke palmed his face.
"We just met her."
"Yeah, and she's got voice powers," I said. "That'll make everything so much easier. So how about it? Do I hear a yes?"
Piper bit her lip. "It's a maybe."
I knew it.
"You're totally a demigod," I told her. "We live for danger."
I reached for my bag. Piper seemed to wince a little when she saw it, but that was probably because it still looked like the victim of a dog attack. "We just grabbed some stuff at a hardware store, so it's not traditional but I still think it will work - "
"A dream catcher?" Piper blurted out. She snatched the hoop of tied together sticks with the rope webbing in the middle right out of my hand.
"Cool, you know what it is."
Problem Child gave me a very cool look.
What'd I say?
"Ye-es," she said slowly. "I know what it is. Do you know what it is?"
"Asabikeshiinh," I said and watched her eyebrows fly up. "From the Anishinaabe. It's supposed to hang between the dreamer and the Moon to protect them from dark influences - " Artemis cringed on the gurney. " - but uh, we're kind of just going to whack a dark spirit that eats suffering over the head with it."
Piper stared at me, then her neck almost creaked as she looked over my head at Luke.
"Yes," he said, slowly closing his eyes. "He's serious."
"Unfortunately," Artemis chimed in.
"It'll work," I insisted.
Piper's cheeks puffed, before she let it out in one breath.
"Anishinaabe?" she asked. She was studying me with some kind of look that I couldn't understand.
"Ojibwe."
"Aren't they called Chippewa in the US?"
"So?" I shrugged as I muttered, "Names are important."
The Originals always had the most power.
The girl smiled at me. I felt my face heat up without my permission, which was annoying. Piper's smile dropped immediately.
"I'm sorry," she murmured.
"You didn't mean it," I shrugged. "I get it."
She glanced down at her hands. She turned the dreamcatcher over and over in her slim fingers to avoid looking at me. "Well, first - " she started to untie the rope and undo all of my five minutes of hard work. "Let's fix this up. Do you have any beads or feathers?"
"I do," Luke the Packrat volunteered as he unslung his own purple and black backpack from his shoulders. He had plain wooden ones. Three of them were etched with little designs made with a sharp pencil. "Ideas," he said as he reached for his own Camp Half-Blood necklace where four painted beads were strung. At the end of every summer, there was a camp tradition. All the Counselors got together and voted on behalf of their Cabin what the most important event of the summer was. Two of the beads on his neck were pretty unremarkable, but one had a winged sandal and the other a lightning bolt. I picked up one of the wooden beads. The clear graphite picture of a spindle was on it.
That was Mom's symbol.
"Aww," I said.
Luke snatched it from me. "Don't push it."
In the end, it was really all very anticlimactic. Piper made us a bona fide Cherokee style dream catcher.
("It's about intent," she said. The colors in her right eye were spinning slowly as she worked. "It's for protection and love and care. You can't mass produce that."
"And you'll do that for us?" I asked.
"I don't want you to die," she said primly. "So yes, I will.")
We snuck up to the hospital roof under the cloak of Luke's sneaking ability thing where he unlocked the door.
("We still have to be careful," Luke insisted. "We can still be seen, we're just…in the background. It gets rid of noise, but not smell or touch, okay?")
And then Luke put the rabbit down and just fucking jumped off the roof, tackling the dark shadow that was phased half in and half out of the side of the building with Reclaim in one hand and wooden hoop of rope and beads in the other. Artemis immediately bounded to the side of the roof after him, looking like she was about to jump off too.
Why am I surrounded by suicidal morons?
I could have screamed.
Piper did scream.
"STOP!"
It didn't come out sounding like English. It came out sounding a lot like what I imagine an octopus underwater trying to speak English might have sounded like. A watery burbling of chiming notes.
She sounded like Weird Girl, Drew Tanaka.
The dark shadow froze and Luke did too, caught in the blast radius of her voice.
"G- get down - " she wheezed.
"Easy," I murmured.
Piper gave me a wild look, like she had just reached into a bonfire and finally realized that nothing had been a coincidence. She didn't burn. But now she had a fistful of embers that she couldn't put back and couldn't put down.
"It is not foreign," Artemis said shakily. She was still looking over the side, not even moving. "It is part of you. It was always a part of you. Think about how it feels," she said. I tried to swallow my own panic and fear down. "Reach for it and then try again."
Piper inhaled deeply.
Climb down, she said and we all watched the shadow move to obey. Luke clung to what could pass for a back.
Wait there, she commanded next. Luckily for us, the hospital was only three stories, so the rush back down wasn't long. I tried not to think about how I attempted to follow along with Artemis' advice.
And got nothing.
Just a yawning empty feeling.
The dark spirit, when we got to it, was a horrendous shape. It was tall, easily topping ten feet and barely humanoid. It looked like the idea of a human being but it was tattered and ruined, wisps drifted off the creature like dead leaves in the wind. You know those Halloween costumes where you put on black cloth overlaid with the picture of your skeleton? Well, invert that. Instead it's a skeleton around an overlay of emptiness. The 'face' was a skeletal shadow with deep pits for eyes and nose. A gaping mouth was jagged with phantom teeth.
These things were parasites. Attracted to suffering and desolation and they only exist to make it worse. Side effects include: unease, insomnia, nightmares and then waking hallucinations where the victims completely lose their grip on reality.
They weren't common, exactly, but they weren't rare either. Everything was going wrong, which meant they would be there.
"Behold," I said, waving a hand at it. "A n'athm."
Luke gingerly climbed off it, a white knuckled grip on his sword.
Stay still, Piper commanded.
"I'm not going to ask what you were thinking," I said as Luke sidled around it. He had his blade pointed at it like he was just waiting for an excuse.
"I was thinking I don't want to see what you'd come up with," he snarked unsteadily.
I was thinking we could find who it was haunting and confront it in the room where we could set a trap. Who does he think I am? Rambo?
"My plans are fine."
"Your plans are shit."
Like he was one to talk. "You jumped off a perfectly good building - "
"Boys!" Artemis snapped.
Piper looked like she was about to pass out as she stared up at the n'athm. I saw her pinch herself a few times. Now that I think about it, this was a rough introduction to the mythological world.
My bad.
"Give me the dream catcher," I prodded Luke.
"Just tell me what to do."
"I'm not an invalid."
"Tell. Me."
I sighed. I lifted a hand in demonstration and brought it down. "Bonk."
That got me an incredulous look.
"That's it," I said and then because I couldn't help myself, added, "You had to go and make it difficult."
Three pairs of eyes turned and glared at me.
I was feeling very underappreciated.
Luke stepped closer to the n'athm. It exhaled noisily. Its breath smelled like rotten meat and old gym socks. The pits it had for eyes shrunk into little pin pricks of darkness when it saw the hoop in Luke's hand and it started screeching. You know, the way all monsters do when they realize their time is up.
Why was it always some version of 'my god's going to kick your ass for this!'
"Sure, buddy," I said back. "Whatever you say."
It kept spitting and snarling until Piper shut it up with a simple,
Silence!
Luke bopped it with the dream catcher and it got sucked into the protective web of the talisman. One minute big scary, the next it was trapped in our pokeball.
Luke dropped it like it burned him.
"Cold," he hissed.
"It would be," Artemis murmured. "That is usually one of the signs of something that does not belong…"
I picked it up from the ground. Piper's creation was smaller than the one I made. A tighter hoop with a more intricate web with five wooden beads woven into it and one of her shoelaces around the edge.
It felt warm.
"Thanks for this," I turned to Piper.
"I…" Piper's lips pursed as she stared at the empty space where the n'athm used to be. "...am going to make a lot more dream catchers."
"Good idea," I told her.
She nodded slowly. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I never want to see you again."
"Smart," Luke said.
"Oof." I mimed being hit in the chest. "I thought we really connected on, like, a fundamental level."
"You're both crazy."
"No, I'm not," I said.
"It's his fault," Luke said.
Artemis sighed.
"Do I want to know…why you wanted that, that thing?" she asked, looking up at the dark sky. The boiling clouds of Ouranos' prison were right above us, lightning flashing along the steel gray bellies with no thunder. I wondered if she could see it. If she could see all of it or if the Mist was barely clinging on or if she could see through it anyway with that right eye of hers. It looked like mine, kinda. She still had the whites of the eye like it was almost a physical structure, but right where the iris would have been just dissolved inwards into that dizzying pattern of colors.
Piper hadn't known she was a demigod. Did the Mist hide it from herself or did someone else step in?
"We're trying to stop the Night," I offered. "This whole no sunlight thing."
Piper dropped her gaze. Her face had fallen, something achingly vulnerable in her expression as she looked at us. "The whole 'people go to sleep and they don't wake up' thing?" she asked in a small voice. "That?"
We were at a hospital.
"Yeah," I said, feeling like I'd been kicked in the stomach. "That."
"Good luck," she said simply and then she turned away.
I didn't much feel like the conquering hero after that.
That was okay.
I was going to fix everything.
Yeah, I know.
I jinxed it.
We went out into the desert. I wasn't nearly stupid enough to make a sacrifice like this right next to a bunch of unsuspecting people. If anything went wrong, either I took enough precautions or it didn't matter what precautions I took.
"This is far enough," I said. I looked behind us from the back of the horse Luke had stolen from the Romans. The beast was so well trained, it didn't seem to even register that anything had changed. Behind us was just the horizon of the desert plains of this part of California. The interstate and the town of Blythe was left far behind.
Luke blew out a harsh breath as he searched the shrubs with the light of Rhea's electronic torch. "You sure about this?"
Not really.
"Don't really have a choice," I muttered as I slid off the saddle. My previously broken foot twinged painfully when I hit the ground. "This would be safer than going into the Underworld, at least."
It should be.
I walked in a circle, feeling the crunch of the gravelly ground and tough grass against the bottom of my shoes. I unsheathed Damocles and it flashed silver, reflecting the lightning raging overhead. Artemis' silver eyes watched as I drew in the sand with the silver-gold rippled edges. The Night Winds didn't blow out here. It was completely silent as I scratched out the circle and then the ten sided star design in the center.
Something settled in my chest. This was familiar territory.
I set my sword aside and bent down.
"Open the way," I whispered as I drew the symbolic eyes at the points with a finger. "Grant us clarity, grant us vision…"
Knife, I thought. Erebus' dagger fell into my open hand. I cut my palm and let the blood trickle down to my index finger. I kept drawing. I needed this symbol here for the Greek aspect. Don't forget the praise words and then the bridge. We just needed a sliver of the Night's attention. I wasn't asking for much.
Luke was almost milk white. "That's hurting my eyes."
I glanced over it.
Huh, really?
"Hey, Artemis, wanna proofread?"
The bunny sucked in a breath and then hopped over. She inspected it, walking around the circle to take it in. "It looks…fine," she said a bit helplessly. "But…the offering language is…?"
"Killing it in the circle works," I admitted as I took out the occupied dream catcher. "But if She's anything like Mom, it's so much better keeping them alive."
I tossed the dream catcher into the center.
The world inverted.
Pure darkness fell upon us like we had actually been standing in the noon day sun this entire time. Now, I could see nothing. The beams of Rhea's flashlights sputtered out, the sky vanished and the void closed in until there was nothing but the ground under our feet like we had been scooped up from the face of the earth and brought into the depths of a black hole. My ritual circle glowed with a soft unlight, the dream catcher smoked as the n'athm within screamed.
'Hush,' a feminine voice called out from the darkness. It was as soft as the velvet of a coffin lining. A shadow picked up the dream catcher, easily bypassing the circle. 'Hush,' it crooned as it brought it closer.
There was a crunch.
Artemis pressed her face into the ground as a figure coalesced from the darkness, drawing the smoke into itself as a giant of smoke and ash. It was vaguely shaped like a woman with no face, but stars for eyes with large black wings and a dress splattered with the colors of a red nebula, spotted with stars. With every heavy beat of the wings, a pressure battered us with waves of billowing shadow and an odd sleepiness.
Luke choked, falling to his knees.
I sighed.
"Oh, it's you."
Great.
"Perseus!" Artemis snapped, panicked. "Show respect!"
'Perseus?' The figure asked suddenly. The stars it had for eyes flattened as if she was squinting. 'You!'
I waved. "Hiya, cuz. How's it hanging?"
'How is it hanging?' It repeated.
"You know," I said. "How's it going? What have you been up to? The stuff you usually say when meeting family members."
'Are you making fun of me again?' The figure demanded.
I winced.
Boys and girls, meet the personification of Deception, Apate. One of my cousins.
Kind of.
If you're wondering why a ritual to call upon the Night turned up this?
No, I didn't screw up.
This was the Night. Apate was just like my eldest sister.
A spawn.
"I'm really not this time," I promised, wishing I could go back in time to strangle the arrogant little toe rag that had been toddler me. Remember when I said I had to be convinced to play with mortal kids when I was younger? It didn't stop there. When Mom set up some playdates for me. Hypnos was fine, but god forbid a dirty spawn gets to touch my toys.
I know exactly how Artemis and Zeus got into the messes they made for themselves thousands of years down the line.
It starts with being an asshole.
I made an x across my chest. "I'm not teasing you. Cross my heart."
The star-eyes narrowed even further.
"Look, let me start over." I cleared my throat. "Hello, Mighty One. What Name are we using this decade?"
The figure crossed her arms petulantly. 'Night.'
I boggled. "And everyone's just letting you get away with that?"
'Of course they are! I'm her favorite!' was the indignant answer. 'And you just ruined it!'
That means, no one knows if the actual Night was ever going to take over her spawn, or if she was aware of everything said spawn did.
So they spoiled Apate rotten.
'You're supposed to be trembling in fear before me!'
"Why would I do that?" I asked. Luke was jerking his head so hard I was afraid he'd snap his own neck. I don't know if he was trying to tell me to run or trying to get me to shut up. "I literally called you here?"
'I am the Night!'
"I wouldn't be cowering before your mother either."
She blinked. 'You wouldn't?'
"God, no," I said. So maybe it was an itty bitty white lie. I just wasn't planning on it, but if the actual Night showed up pissed, I was going to do whatever kept me alive. "Last time I saw her, I got permission to call her Aunty."
I think that sound I just heard was Artemis, but I wasn't sure.
Apate hemmed and hawed for a bit as she slowly processed the Night not scaring the bejesus out of someone. She was shifting around as a formless shape. The only constant was her star-eyes.
"It's okay," I said. "You are very scary."
'I am!'
"Yup, look at my party members." I pointed at Luke, who was frozen like a deer in headlights and Artemis who had gotten as far away from me as she could without being noticed. "They're terrified."
Apate's giant form loomed closer. 'They do look appropriately awed.'
"Exactly. You can hang this over Hemera's head next time you see her."
'She's my daughter!' Apate crowed.
"Right," I said, playing along. I'd almost forgotten Elderquette 101. They are who they say they are. Always. Apate was easily distracted, easily confused, easily angered and easily appeased. The simple explanation was that she was still a toddler. I grew up. I don't know if she even can.
"Day came to my birthday and I gotta tell you, that girl doesn't know how to pull off a good spook. Not like you do."
Satisfied, she leaned back into the void. 'What did you want then?'
"The Night," I said. "It needs to stop. Any way you can make that happen?"
The star-eyes narrowed again. 'Maybe. What do I get for it?'
"What do you want?" I had an idea. "I could make Hypnos tell everyone at the House that Apate is your favorite child? Or maybe I could talk to my mother about doing you a favor?"
'Hmmm,' Apate hummed long and loud, thinking it over. Then she brightened, the stars for her eyes lighting up like quasars. 'Nope!'
The ground opened up beneath us.
We fell.
'Have fun in the Pit, cousin!' Deception cackled from far above, her voice echoing.
"Wait!" I screamed. The wind whistling past as we fell down and down and down stole my words. "Wait! Please! I can do something else for you! Anything! Can't we come to some kind of deal - !"
Something shot out of the walls, grabbing on to us. I heard Luke's scream cut off as we were slammed back into the side of the hole. Artemis cried out. I choked as the air was crushed out of my lungs as my momentum came to a sudden stop. Now my Spidey Senses started to fucking shriek. I looked down and wished I didn't.
I was being held against the wall of the hole by dozens of rotting hands.
The entire wall around us was made out of dead limbs. Most had only a few strips of rotting flesh still attached with papery tendons keeping the joints together. Maggots and beetles crawled all over them as they jutted out of the wall like we had fallen into the world's largest mass grave and no one here wanted to remain dead.
A long moment passed as I tried to catch my breath.
My head was ringing.
"Perce," was Luke's ragged cry.
"I'm here," I rasped back. The back of my throat was tickling like I inhaled a spider. The air was tinged with the molten taste of the Underworld. "Artemis?"
"Yes," the rabbit said from somewhere. I couldn't see her.
There was movement in the wall of hands. Like a snake moving underneath a pile of fallen leaves, there was a bulge in the wall slowly spiraling down towards us. I held my breath when it finally reached our level. It paused to my right. The hands fluttered apart like an opening eyelid and all I could register was
Rot
Decay
Wither
Spoil
Decompose
Putrefy
Corrode
die
D e a l
?
?
Something asked.
"Yes," I said. I had no choice. The red glow of the Underworld river, Phleglethon, burned beneath us. We'd fallen far enough beneath the earth that we could see it. "An exchange or a bargain between parties. I'm willing to make one."
Silence answered me. The eye closed. The thing beneath the wall of hands kept moving, like a shark underneath the surface of the ocean. I felt my stomach cramp up in fear the closer it got to me. I felt it pass under me feeling like my spine had just been brushed by a thousand tiny fingers of lightning and then it was on the other side directly across from us.
It stopped and then the wall opened. Artemis let out a cry as a large gnarled hand blackened with rot and decay reached out. The hand was all wrong. There were seven fingers and four joints on each one, swollen and twisted. I caught a glimpse of the owner, but I can't tell you what it was because my brain just recoiled backwards. That lizard hindbrain was wailing hysterically as I forced my eyes onto the woman that stood on the palm of that hand. She was a pale skinned brunette with long black hair. She had an old 1940s looking dress with colorful flower patterns all over it in soft reds and yellows. A simple headband held back her hair and tucked into it was a single, blooming pomegranate flower.
She didn't have eyes. Smooth flaps of skin covered where the eye sockets should have been. Instead, there were eyes strung throughout her long hair like rhinestone decorations, each one trapped in a small glass ball allowing them to endlessly spin around, focusing in all directions at once.
"Deals are nice. Everyone is always so eager to make one with me."
The Dread Persephone had a voice like bone dust and honey. Her presence was almost crushing.
"Aren't they?"
"How could they not?" I croaked. "You have an excellent sense of timing."
She laughed.
"Oh, I like you, boy."
"I aim to please."
"Then you'd better get on with it," she said with an amused tilt of her lips as all the eyes in her hair focused on me. "You have my attention."
Yeah.
I did.
Fabula Amanti
I want a Grimoire, but I got books.
- Location
- Singapore
From the pan into the fire. Or rather from Night to the Pit. Jeez, didn't Perce learn not the tempt Fate? Guess even Mom can't stop Murphy from kicking people for their quips.
DoubleThought
Bad at Communicating
- Location
- The Moon. The? There are so many
Oh dear. With so much emphasis being put on attention, both in this chapter and in earlier chapters, having the attention of Dread Persephone is extremely ominous.