An Undertow of Sand (Percy Jackson and the Cthulhu Mythos)

[GuestLurker]

I mean… it literally means "husband" in Japanese. But I didn't know that until I looked it up. I was going off of the last syllable and assuming it was a name.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that would do it.

 

[Shujin]

I mean… it literally means "husband" in Japanese. But I didn't know that until I looked it up. I was going off of the last syllable and assuming it was a name.

Click to shrink...

Wait, hold up, it does? The closest I found was 'master of' when I looked decades ago. I mostly just liked the sound of it.

 

[Mquz]

Wait, hold up, it does? The closest I found was 'master of' when I looked decades ago. I mostly just liked the sound of it.

Click to shrink...

Specifically means head of the household but when referring to someone else's husband "shujin" - master or "goshujin" - young master are used. When referring to your own husband "shujin"/ "goshujin" is apparently considered "master" as in the BDSM sense, so it's a little problematic, but it is the most polite/ formal way of saying it.
I don't speak Japanese but that's what I can find online.

When you looked it up Japanese was probably not as popular among a certain crowd as it is now. I can guarantee quite a few people would recognize the term "goshujinsama" from cultural osmosis.

 

[Shujin]

Author's note: So, this was really hard to write and should have been out over a week ago. But it's longer than normal so please don't lynch me?

An Undertow of Sand
A PJO Fanfiction
​

Oh hey.

Welcome back. Everything okay?

Alright.

So where was I?

---

Humans still had a lot of survival instincts leftover rattling around in our skulls somewhere.

If you fall down while sleeping, you wake up. The dark is scary. The instinctive repulsion from a person that doesn't look like they should, wrong proportions, too pale, moving too stiffly or too gracefully. A sudden change in temperature gives you goosebumps. The chill down your spine when you hear noises from something you can't see, from something that shouldn't be there or the way that you notice when all the ambient sound disappears.

Hypnos wasn't here.

My body was in the back of a Jeep, probably leaning on Luke's shoulder, trying to catch some Zs. I was tired. I've been up at least twelve hours and all of that was bad news. Realizing what it meant to have to Quest during the Night. Luke's fate. Mine. Being harassed for four hours into Texas, almost being killed twice, Artemis'...everything. I deserved a few winks. We were finally leaving Houston and under the harsh, watchful gaze of the Night Winds, that frying pan wasn't yet hot enough to sizzle.

My sleep felt empty. Restless. I was already regretting trying to nap, because not having my friend here felt wrong. It felt like being back in the deep, dark ocean of the Dreamlands, hoping nothing noticed me.

'Yow! Percy, it's me!'

Clovis?

So I was totally going to blame that paranoia for why I almost cut Clovis' head off.

Or I guess, why I almost cut one of Clovis' heads off.

Uh, I said dumbly, staring. You look…like your dad, I finished lamely.

'Mhm,' the eight eyed shadow with three bull-like heads and a mess of a lower body reminding me of five octopus squished together hummed. 'I noticed.'

New thing?

'Very,' he said gravely and that jump started my brain. My logical mind was asleep, but that didn't mean alarm bells hadn't started ringing really loudly. Along with red flags, the mining canary started choking, the whole nine yards.

Wait, how the fuck are you here - didn't they ward Camp?

They better have, because if they couldn't be bothered to even do that much….

I was burning the whole thing down.

'They did.' The bull heads grinned and those teeth were definitely not for chewing cud. 'But I'm a demigod of Sleep. You can't chain me,' he almost snarled and I backed up. He sounded like Ethan. 'Not like that anyway.'

Clovis was a chill dude. He's been that way since the day I met him, half-asleep and everything. Now he seemed too intense. I didn't want to put Damocles away when he was acting so weird. Back at Camp, Clovis' Sleeping soul still looked like his mortal body. Kind of. He could change shape, just like a Dream spirit, but he's never looked like this.

Ethan was more sensitive about it, but Clovis still cared that he wasn't human standard. He looked like his dad. That was the only thing that kept me from thinking this wasn't Clovis at all.

Little cousin, I tried. I made myself look smaller. I had the feeling spooking him would be a bad idea. What happened?

'We went looking,' he admitted and I felt my stomach swoop back in my body.

You…went looking? In the Night? I took even more steps back so that I didn't lunge forward to shake him. He might eat me. Argh, I told you - I ran a hand through my hair several times, frustrated. It wasn't like I saw the Night coming. I didn't tell them all the ways it could go wrong because that would take years. I thought they would be safe as long as they took it slowly. You can't take this stuff for granted -

'My father, Percy!' Clovis snapped at me and he sounded like Ethan. It was his actual voice. 'No one told us anything - ' Annabeth. 'We needed answers - you don't know what it's like to find out you've been left in the dark your whole life.'

Castor and Pollux.

Clovis, I whispered, horrified.

He pulled himself back. His three heads swung around the same way a horse's or cow's would when they were strutting across a field.

'Sorry,' he whispered.

I almost didn't want to know, but this was my fault. Maybe without me, Clovis alone would go looking because his dad was already teaching him. But without me, no one else would have been at risk.

What happened?

'We went looking,' he repeated slowly. 'Grandmother was there instead.'

At this rate, my heart was going to be permanently lodged in my ass.

'She recognized us, Ethan and I.'

Her grandkids.

'We tried to tell Her what we were,' he said too calmly. 'That we couldn't go "home," but She didn't understand.'

Home, I said numbly. She grounded her children and their children. That was why not even the Dream spirits remained behind. She didn't even need to mistake them for rogue Oneiroi. Not really. Erebus thought I would take him up on his offer to bunk over at The House of Night, but I was mortal.

The House of Night drives mortals insane.

He didn't understand.

Are the others still there? I asked him quickly.

I didn't know what I was going to do if the answer was yes. My first idea of telling Mom I threw out just as quickly. I didn't need to cause more problems. Maybe Mr. D could fix them after? I don't know if asking Erebus would work. I spent two days sick as a dog from burnt mortality when he could have just given me a lift. None of Nyx's kids would go against their mother.

'We never made it.'

What?

'Percy, we're in the Dreamlands.'

I gaped at him.

That might actually be worse.

'Grandfather stepped in.' Clovis' form trembled. 'I don't know what happened. He said something. I could only understand a little and it hurt. I think we were sent 'back' but I think - I think Annabeth confused Her.'

Wait, I said sharply. What about Annabeth?

Clovis' baby blue eyes, all eight of them, blinked innocently at me. 'She doesn't - the Sleeping soul, she doesn't have one. Her soul doesn't split like ours, it's one piece.'

I'm sure that meant something, but I couldn't really think about it right now. My thoughts were a jumble of fragmented panic.

Are you telling me Annabeth's body is empty right now? She's trapped there?

'She's not doing well,' Clovis whispered. 'We were too close, everyone's changed.'

Because that's what exposure to gods like the Night and my brother does to you.

Fuck!

'I tried to protect them.' Clovis shrunk back away from me. I forced myself to calm down and dimly noticed burning green eyes closing up on my form. 'Took them inside a bit. Castor is doing better than Pollux, but Ethan made me let him go and I've been trying to find help…'

Okay, okay. I tried to breathe before remembering that I was a Sleeping soul.

Think!

Should I wake up, think it through and then go back to sleep? Was that a bad idea? It felt like a bad idea. Should I get Luke? Clovis could probably find me again, but what if something happened? Erebus intervened (favorite sibling, hands down) and Nyx tossed my friends into the deep end. How long have they been there?

Days?

…I was in the Dreamlands. Erebus came to find me. My brother came to the Dreamlands.

My brain felt like it was made of mush, but I was on to something.

Was it because of me?

Because I was there too?

Where are you?

'Some kind of safari,' Clovis offered. 'Mountains nearby.'

Can you see black towers or pyramids?

Don't say pyramids.

'The towers,' he said warily.

Oh, thank God.

Head right for them and then keep going past it, I said quickly. Run away from everything until you see a village. It's the right one if there's a bunch of cats. They'll help.

Clovis side-eyed me with four eyes.

'When you said a week ago about getting me a cat…' he drawled, sounding more like himself and less like everyone he 'took inside.' I don't know what he meant by that, but I wasn't going to ask. He did what he had to. Have to respect that.

You thought I was kidding? I tried to make my smile not look as sick as I felt. Just stay in Ulthar, and when Night's over, your dad will come get you guys.

This could be fixed. It had to be.

I wracked my brain for anything else that could help. If you ask around about the Dreamer, Willie. He'll help too. He was mortal once.

Clovis' heads bobbed thoughtfully. 'Okay. Ulthar. Cats. Willie. Got it.'

I swallowed thickly. I'm sorry.

'Not your fault,' my cousin said immediately. 'You couldn't have known. It was just…bad luck.'

I wanted to believe him. I couldn't. All of the sudden, Cliff's joking accusation that this wouldn't be happening if I hadn't been born wasn't funny.

Still sorry, I said. Be careful!

'I will. We'll be different,' Clovis said as his body flickered like a bad channel on the TV. 'But maybe we'll be okay?'

Then I was alone again in the dark.

Almost.

I whirled around, Damocles already drawn -

And stopped.

"It is just me," the small, auburn rabbit whispered as she limped into view. "Just…me."

How long were you there?

"I heard very little," she assured me. "I…did not want to intrude."

The creature behind her dwarfed the both of us. It was smaller than Hypnos, but not by much. It was hunched over, curling over the rabbit like it was bracing its back for a blow. I couldn't see how tall it was without craning my neck. The right half looked like a person. A black haired girl with golden hued skin and wearing a drifting pale shroud. And it was a girl, she didn't look any older than maybe fifteen, with a small nose, mouth and an iris of molten silver with a black pupil. She had a despondent, thousand yard stare.

The left half looked like a nightmare.

This is your inheritance, isn't it? Mom didn't take it away, I asked. I lowered my sword slowly. These jump scares couldn't be good for my blood pressure. Maybe it said something about my life (or my brain) that this all made perfect sense and clearly checked out.

"Why am I still surprised that you already know?" The rabbit honked softly. "What is left of my inheritance, yes." It looked up at the hulking form above her and introduced it like we were kindergarteners on a playground, "Perseus, this - this is Diana?"

The bunny blinked up at me. The creature seemed to breathe. The left side had her chest cavity flayed open. Hundreds of shattered ribs, bloodstained at the site of the breaks like they weren't ribs, but teeth fluttered open and then closed again. Half of the spine was fully exposed in a bloody column of warped and pitted vertebrae. It looked like someone went through the trouble of field dressing a human, cutting away all the fat and meat and organs but were stopped halfway through. Most of its weight was on the right leg, the left was gnarled and lame, ending in a club foot with black talons.

The left side didn't have a face. It looked more like a mask. Its eye was the hungry void I recognized like an inverse of the right eye, a dot of silver light in the center like a pupil.

Hi, Diana, I said. That answered one question. When Artemis changed her eyes, she was shoving this Name further away. Further separate. So this is where you keep her? In Sleep?

"Yes," the rabbit said eventually. "Manifesting her is not - it is better for her here. Selene has always had a way with Dreams…"

I got my hopes up.

Campers, I said abruptly. Some Campers fell into the Dreamlands and one of them managed to find me for help.

The rabbit reared back, eyes wide. "Oh…"

Can - can you do anything?

"I - as I am?" She sounded incredulous. "Perseus, I know of the Dream, we all do, but I have never been foolish enough to go there." I don't know what expression I made, but she shrunk into a ball. Her voice became very small. "Selene brought it to me. What little time I spent there was hunting and being hunted. I know nothing."

I should have known better. It wasn't really her fault this time, but I was getting a little used to feeling disappointed in her.

It's okay. I understand.

"We can still help, Perseus," she murmured as she turned away. "We are not Hypnos, but we can watch over you here. And anyone that needs it." Her voice went quiet as Diana slowly hunched even further forward, towering over us.

I felt lost. There was nothing else I could do. Everyone else was busy with the Night and I didn't put good odds on Olympus dropping everything for some demigods either.

Get Luke in here, I muttered as I stomped away until just the flowing tendrils coming off Diana was above me. I was trying not to run away like an upset child, but my stomach boiled with helplessness. He needs to sleep too.

Maybe this wasn't completely my fault, but I wasn't blameless either. Knowledge is dangerous. I knew that. I know that. I was too busy running my mouth on a righteous crusade to think about the consequences if anyone actually used what I told them at the wrong time, or to the wrong god.

The truth made the stakes so much higher.

So of course, like an idiot, I continued to shove Luke off a pier into the deep ocean and hoped he swam.

It began the way it usually did: my dumb ass just not thinking anything through until the problem was staring me right in the face, shakily whispering,

'Perce…what is that?'

Because duh.

Everything wrong with this situation was obvious as hell.

Luke's Sleeping soul was a shadow, an impression of a person and more movement than substance. The dim light of his mortality glowed brightly in the dark in between our souls wander into.

Uh, I said stupidly as I turned back around. That's…can't you tell? I tried to avoid saying it outright. I considered lying, but I wasn't going to do that to him. It's…well, it's -

'Artemis?' Luke sounded horrified.

Kinda sorta. I pointed towards the rabbit. That's Artemis. And that. I moved the pointing finger up. That's Diana.

'Diana's Roman - ' Luke went rigid.

Then his form nearly exploded, all spines and mouths with long tongues.

'You're the same?'

Remember when I said that conversation about the Romans was going to suck?

Yeah.

My bad.

Long story short, Romans tried to conquer them and almost did. If you can't beat 'em, join em, I said quickly. They aren't all the same, because how would that even work? Kronos was in the Pit and Rhea would be Ops and Cybele at the same time which is kind of weird -

'Percy.' Luke said.

I shut up.

His form trembled once, then twice.

'There are Roman demigods,' he stated flatly. We were riding in a Jeep with one. Him and his dumbass hellhound puppy. 'Do they have a Camp?'

Artemis' gaze drifted over to me. I don't know why. Maybe she was realizing that if she didn't answer him, I would. She looked down and away.

"Yes," Artemis said softly. "Camp Jupiter."

For a long moment, he didn't say anything, and I knew he was thinking about Quintus. An Olympic demigod old enough to start going gray.

He finally, painfully, muttered, 'Is it better?'

The bunny's ears drooped. "No."

I almost contradicted her. New Rome had the minor god of Borders, Terminus playing security guard since it was built. Lupa and her pack of wolves were around. The Little Tiber river was kind of useless as a boundary but at least it did something and they didn't need to sacrifice a demigod of Zeus to get it. The 'camp' was an actual city, meant to be lived in.

The impulse to blab passed, and I remembered that all my modern Roman knowledge was from whatever Apollo let slip. The downsides I didn't know about must be fucking terrible.

Why is it bad? I asked.

"...many reasons," Artemis admitted. "But the first and foremost reason is…it is not a good idea to rear children to believe in the Roman ideals of justice, responsibility, truthfulness and piety…"

Acta, non verba, Diana rasped.

Holy shit, it talks.

Luke's form rocked backwards and I knew he understood what it said.

"...if you do not intend to uphold your end of the bargain. Deeds, not words," Artemis said quietly.

Luke's shadow strobed quietly, mimicking someone taking deep breaths to calm down. 'I'm…relieved,' he croaked. 'How - how messed up is that?' He laughed and it sounded broken. 'I'm relieved Olympus is equally unworthy for two separate pantheons.'

Artemis flinched.

'Where is this other Camp?'

"Near San Francisco."

'San Fran - ' Luke strobed again. 'We were told to avoid the city. That it was dangerous,' he said and I remembered that he was just there two years ago, on a Quest for a Golden Apple. 'Chiron knows.'

The bunny rabbit looked at us with sad, silver eyes.

'I could have gotten Brandon help - ' Luke hissed.

No more secrets, I said. Not anymore. Not between us three.

Artemis lowered her head. Luke didn't say anything. He fluttered away. He looked almost like a dark, shifting bird as he paced back and forth. He came back spiny, like a pufferfish.

'How'd Olympus almost lose so bad?'

I blinked at the subject change, but Artemis seemed almost happy for the pivot, "We have physical forms," she said. "Give us a target to break and it will break. That has limitations. The Romans were incorporeal. Pure divine energy."

So basically a pantheon of poltergeists with the powers of a god. Yikes. I can see why that'd be tough.

It made me feel a little better about not feeling any kind of way about how the Greeks won. Desperate times call for desperate measures. It was just like that one dude Mom convinced to commit suicide by cannibal. If I had a problem with it, I'd be a hypocrite.

'Can't beat them, join them?' Luke echoed.

"How did we win…" Artemis whispered softly, almost as if she was talking to herself. "Perseus taught you, did he not? Of what Divine Names are?"

Luke's form shimmered, shivering. 'They're…aspects,' he said warily. 'They can be Given through worship and Taken away?' Artemis nodded, so he kept going. 'They can be made into avatars, a focus for a god's divine nature, having more makes you stronger because they are a source of power - '

"Power, yes," she interrupted. I felt like she had been waiting for that particular word to come out. "Power that is used and replenished, much like energy."

Luke recoiled as he figured it out.

"And our enemies were nothing but," Artemis finished.

'You grafted the Romans onto yourselves?'

"We had no choice!" The rabbit spit, but the anger faded just as quickly. "Nothing remained of Venus. We don't know what Aphrodite did," Artemis continued, speaking faster. "She wouldn't say, so we had to use other methods and Athena's was incomplete. Minerva almost took over and I - Selene, I - " she sputtered and stuttered to a stop.

Diana curled in, looming closer.

That's when you got adopted, I spoke up. You went to her for protection and let her change you. You gave in.

"It was…not that simple," Artemis said in a small voice. She shuddered, curling into herself as Diana's massive hand came down to gently cup around her small body. "But I was safe," Artemis said miserably. "Trivia, Luna, Egeria, Virbius - between her and the Three-Formed, there was nothing left. I was allowed to take the Name Diana for myself and - and the rest is history."

You turned on your adoptive parents then too, I pointed out. Endymion and Selene.

"It was not that simple," Artemis repeated stubbornly.

My gut had been right.

Rhea did have a sore spot about Selene's death and for good reason.

Luke sputtered, trying to say something before he gave up and just blew a loud, obnoxious raspberry.

'By the Styx, is there anyone you haven't screwed over?' He asked.

That's what I said!

We spent the rest of our nap ribbing Artemis over and over for everything under the sun (she left Apollo holding the bag of cat shit more than once. Never forget). I don't know if it was just my subconscious mind spitting out a crazy idea, but by the time I woke up, I was sure of two things.

One. Elder Gods like Selene can't really use Names. Which means Hecate, the Queen of those Below and the Three Formed gave up a Name for Artemis before and that bunny ain't dumb enough to burn down all those bridges.

And Two.

There was something I could still do for my friends.

I could end the Night.

---

"Uno," Artemis said quietly.

Quintus and I looked at her from over our cards. I grimaced as I leaned back against my backpack. Quintus smirked. The bunny's ears flattened as she narrowed her eyes at the Roman demigod sitting across from her. He mockingly narrowed his right back, grinning wider and Artemis began to look cornered. Her ears went straight up again in alarm as she shuffled protectively over her last card.

"Just one?" Artemis pleaded. "Can I win once?"

"No," all three of us said and she immediately turned on Luke next to her, betrayed.

"You were supposed to be on my side!" She protested. "I trusted your advice! Were you trying to make me lose?"

Luke grinned sunnily back at her.

Quintus slapped a +4 card in her face. She gnashed her teeth as Luke snorted, leaning forward to draw the cards for her. The rabbit thumped her seat as she turned away from him, huddled into her annoyed loaf.

I reached over to play a card. The sarcophagus, weighed down by steel padlocks and chains, rattled menacingly at me.

Too bad, it's not like we have a card table in here.

Our truck roared over the highway towards San Antonio. It was black with dark red flame decals on the hood. We had to switch over from the Jeep due to some blown out tires. Running over monsters tends to void the warranty on those. A Nightspawn was driving us. The Ghost Rider voluntold him, all golden eyed glaring from the helmet when he tried to protest. From what little I could make of his whistling, I creeped him out.

Which means I have a new hypothesis! Very scientific like. That maybe - just maybe - Nemesis didn't lie to me. Wait, wait. Just… hear me out, okay?

It wasn't Night when she said it.

Maybe I would be drowning in monsters right now, but I wasn't because Nyx's touch canceled it back down to normal.

Don't ask me why Night's monster kids hate me so much.

It's probably Mom's fault. Rhea said Fate and Night weren't feuding, but for all I know she's using Olympus-logic. According to Olympus, sure, Poseidon will drown demigods of Zeus caught in the sea without an excuse and Zeus will blast demigods of Poseidon out of the sky if he could get away with it, but they're not really feuding.

Inheriting bad blood was a thing, right? Just ask any spider about Athena.

…I can't explain the hellhound puppy.

Clovis' uncle looked like the same kind of vaguely goat-like, six limbed twisted creature with eyes all over that I saw birthed from Night when she came to visit Hypnos. He just looked more stable. Not tearing himself apart, not eating his own face or anything like that. Instead, he was stuffed into a poorly fitting leather jacket and might need an inhaler. He was sucking at the air like he couldn't get enough through the slimy tubes he had for mouths.

Our 'escort' to California was a large group of motorcycles, trucks, Jeeps and monsters. There were humans too, but I wasn't confident if they were actually human or if they just looked like it. The inhuman, the old and powerful prowled the outskirts of the parade of vehicles. You could hear them jeering, whooping and hollering in the distance, praising the Night. Every so often, there were gleams of eyes, flashes of teeth, eerie calls from the darkness around us echoed back.

If it looked like an outlaw biker gang of monsters making a run, it was because it was an outlaw biker gang of monsters making a run. That's how we were being escorted through the desert.

By being disguised as just another group of horrors. There were mortals on the road. I don't know where they were going or why they were leaving Houston behind.

Were mortals on the road.

Quintus blocked my line of sight every time, a look of resigned apology on his face. A screech of burning rubber, breaking windshields, doors torn off. Short, sudden screams. Then nothing.

We were the cargo. They weren't.

The back of my neck constantly hummed with a vague warning. I don't know if it was the ominous box we were playing cards on or just all of the barely restrained violence of the monsters around us.

Quintus' dog Mrs. O'Leary ran with them, coming back to the open door of our truck every so often to make sure her favorite human (that's still weird. His dog's broken) was still okay. She showed off her trophy of my chewed off backpack strap still in her mouth every time.

Sam was right.

Dogs were jerks.

Quintus slapped me with a +2 card.

This dog owner was a jerk too.

"I was doing you a favor!" Reverse cards suck. "You're going to pay for that, old man," I threatened as I drew my cards.

"You'll try," he said smugly, which was uncalled for, by the way. Out of seven games, I won two and he won five. I still won a few though. He then did a double take as we all took our turns. "Wait, old man?"

Luke snorted again. "He's twelve. What are you, forty five, fifty?"

"Forty eight," Quintus muttered.

"Practically geriatric then," Luke said indulgently as he settled back in his seat. It was the same tone of voice Mom had when she was trying to convince me that maybe your father isn't being an idiot right now, humor him please.

Real 'the child is being adorable, play along' energy.

I could work with that if it kept the panic from Luke's eyes. If I acted like nothing was wrong, maybe I could convince my group nothing was wrong a little.

"Objectively true," I nodded sagely. "Four times my age? Nutty. How are you not dead yet?"

"By being clever." A quicksilver smile I could have sworn I've seen on someone else flashed over Quintus' face.

"Clever doesn't stop your hair from turning gray," I countered. "Or like, arthritis."

"Can't argue with that," he said with a huffed laugh. "But if I am geriatric, what does that make of your divine parents then?"

"Ancient," Luke said.

"Paleolithic," I said. "Actually older than dirt."

"Old enough to know better," Artemis mumbled and Quintus laughed at her.

"I'm afraid age does not automatically confer wisdom. If it did, we would not need a word for wisdom's lesser cousin, experience."

Huh.

Never heard it put like that before.

We played a few more rounds before Quintus said, "Uno."

Artemis' wide silver eyes swung over pleadingly at Luke. He grimaced at her cards, shaking his head.

"Enough!" She groaned out loud. "I surrender!"

"What?" I gasped. "You can't just give up." My cards were garbage. The best I could do was stall until something happened, but it was the principle of the thing! "Don't be a quitter."

The bunny glared at me.

"It is called 'cutting your losses,'" she said snootily.

"Just for that, we will play until you win," I sentenced her and the rabbit belly flopped onto her seat.

"I hate card games."

"You hate losing," Luke corrected her with a small cuff to the side of the head. "You'd love Uno otherwise, don't try to deny it."

Quintus watched us with a fond smile.

Turned out, Artemis was equally bad at Rummy, Oh Hell and Pinochle.

"Are you cursed?" I asked as I gathered up the cards for another round. We were stopped, because those giant jellyfish weren't the only worrying creatures roaming the countryside at Night.

"No!" She gasped.

"Are…you sure?" I couldn't figure out what cursing Artemis' cards was going to do to her exactly, but I will never put any level of pettiness beyond a Greek. "Because Tyche cursed Apollo's dice and he didn't figure it out for like, a year, so maybe…"

"I am simply unused to it!"

"Card games have been around forever?"

"Exactly!" She hissed under her breath. "I grew up knowing them only as something men do for betting and gambling."

Oh.

"Okay, first, if anyone's gambling money with Uno, they're dumb and second - "

The van door slid open.

"- be almost a day, so you are better off trying before we reach San Antonio," Quintus was saying. He glanced over us. "We'll get moving again soon. Road's almost clear - argh!" A happily woofing hellhound jumped on his back. "Mrs. O'Leary! Down!"

The dog chased him away from the van and Luke stepped up. He was wheeling a really gnarly looking motorcycle with him, painted blood red and gold with eerie blue lightning along the machinery.

"What's with the Iron Man Mobile?"

Luke shrugged. "Its owner is a pile of ash back in Houston, sooo mine now."

I didn't know what to say.

"I'll be riding, so you're gonna have to lose for her," he said and the bunny hissed at him. Luke smirked back at her as he swung himself into the seat.

"When'd you learn to ride?" I asked.

"The second I got on," he answered easily, fiddling with the dashboard. "Like the bulldozer," he clarified. "I'll give it back to Annabeth once the Quest is over."

Annabeth.

My stomach scrunched.

"You are using someone else's divine gift?" Artemis hissed then, pointedly looking over with her ears to where Quintus was talking with the Dullahan. He had a hand in Mrs. O'Leary's eye-scorchingly pink collar as she play-wrestled with a painfully skinny white dog with red ears almost as big as she was.

Luke stiffened, glancing around before relaxing. Khione had hushed him about the fact that he could do that. Looking back, I guess Luke being able to use Athena's trademark instant skill mastery like he was one of her own demigods was a big deal?

"I'll give it back," he said quietly.

"I believe you," Artemis said just as quietly. "But…careful."

Quintus came back to Luke giving me a heart attack popping wheelies. I know he's a demigod. Hermes Enagonios, of Athletes, was a Name I knew he inherited. I know he was using Annabeth's skill. He hasn't killed himself yet, but I was still a little concerned.

"I see why you wanted the bike," Quintus said.

"I prefer 'em. They're easier to hotwire than a car and you don't need driving lessons," Luke said with a sly smile. "It's just like being on a very fast bike and you never forget how to ride those."

I have no idea if he's telling the truth or not.

Once we got on the way again, Luke drove next to us. The highway was big enough for him to shout through one open door of the van while Mrs. O'Leary harassed her human from the other door whenever she came back from playing around.

Artemis suddenly had a whole seat to herself and she shuffled back and forth anxiously. "How long until we reach the Roman border?"

"Hours," Quintus admitted with a shrug as his smile faded. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Almost a day. We will be heading straight past San Antonio and across the US border into the desert - "

"What?" Artemis snapped.

"Into the desert," Quintus said calmly. "We have little choice. None here would risk a wendigo sighting."

The rabbit cringed back.

…what's in the desert?

"That's the second time I've heard that," Luke observed loudly. "What's up with wendigos?"

I remembered that Khione said we didn't want to meet a wendigo.

That she didn't want to meet one.

And this was a goddess that offered blood and snow to an old soul stealing tentacle murder dog like it was just a rowdy puppy that got out of its playpen.

Um.

…Okay, so - Olympus was shit to her, alright. She's still my second favorite goddess, but now that I've actually put into words her whole deal with the Amarok, I could be convinced that Khione might actually be a little crazy.

"To lay eyes on What Walks on the Wind…" Quintus trailed off. As if summoned by his words, the Night Winds blew harshly, resting a whistling noise as we drove further and further away from the Houston metropolis. We would be running parallel to the sea for a while yet, but the lights of the city were long, long gone.

"...is a bad idea," Quintus finished.

"Thanks," Luke sighed, exasperated as he maneuvered around a pothole. A bit of his rough accent was back, making him sound just like any other annoyed teenager. "That explains everythin' and totally isn't just as helpful as what I'd get from the gods."

Quintus' lips twisted unhappily at the comparison. "I apologize. You don't live as long as I have without being overly familiar with the bitter taste of secrets."

"No need for that," I said. "Whatever you were told, doesn't apply to me. I was personally trained by Apollo at the order of my mother." Quintus shot me a sharp look. "I'm teaching Luke too."

The Roman demigod looked over at Luke curiously, only to get a short nod back.

"It's been…enlightening," Luke said.

"Painful too, I bet," Quintus replied evenly.

Yeah, no kidding.

The Roman sucked in a harsh breath. "The wendigo is legion, yet singular. A hive mind. An eater and wearer of flesh. A being and an idea in one. Knowledge of that idea is restricted, because knowing increases the risk of exposure."

"Oh, one of those," I said. "Memetic hazard."

Like that book I told Athena Cabin about with all the Names of gods like the Night and Fate in it. I only knew two of my mother's Names, because some of them were too dangerous for me to even know.

"Yes," Quintus said with a wry smile. "One of those." He crossed and uncrossed his arms. Then he was playing piano on his knees. "We'll be stopping again. I do have to pull my weight." Quintus was still shifting in his seat, uncomfortable. "It was part of the deal. I know how to navigate - we have to pass through an Indus worm nest."

I blinked.

Shit.

"Those are nasty," my mouth said.

Think carnivorous pale worms big enough to swallow a car whole with giant naked mole rat teeth and venomous spit. Hard to kill, like miniature hydras. Just cutting one in half meant now you had two worms.

They also had a bad habit of hollowing out the planets they infested.

"Indus worms," Luke said blankly as Quintus raised disbelieving eyebrows at me. "Don't those live in the Indus river? In India?" He glared at me, for some reason. There was no universe where Indus worms existing was my fault. "And are extinct?"

"Weelll," Quintus started to say.

"There are two of you!" The roar of the motorcycle engine was almost loud enough to drown out Luke's cursing as he drove off.

Rude.

Artemis stared after him. Quintus' lips frowned, before he pursed his lips and let out a god awful high pitched whistle that assaulted my ear drums. Artemis winced bodily as Mrs. O'Leary happily ran over.

"Hey, girl," her master murmured as he reached out to rub at her ears. "You see that boy?" He pointed in the general direction after Luke. "The blond. Can you keep an eye on him for me? Can you do that?"

When she went to bark, Quintus snatched the backpack strap out of her mouth. He tossed it onto the floor of the van next to me as if I actually wanted it back.

"That's a good girl." He distracted her from her stolen trophy with a slap on her broad back and a tossed dog treat. "Off you go."

She booked it, barking.

"So he can handle Filipino vampires, Russian werewolves and the headless Celt, but Greco-Indo worms are what gets him?" I asked no one. I faintly heard Luke's muffled screech as a hellhound puppy ran him down.

"Hmm. If I had to make a guess…" Quintus leaned back in his seat, hand on his bearded chin. "It's because other pantheons and their horrors are much easier to accept than yet another lie from your own."

I heard the bitterness in his voice. 'Yet another.' I wondered what happened that taught him the truth. Did anyone tell him or did he have to wait until he grew up and realized the world outside didn't like staying in its little Roman box?

Or maybe the Roman box wasn't all that little.

Half of the Roman pantheon came from somewhere else. It was like some kind of weird daisy chain. The monsters followed their original pantheon that were conquered by the Romans that were underneath the Greek.

I asked Apollo how they kept the secret once.

His guilty face said it all.

"It was not a lie," Artemis said quietly. "The native tribe was extinct."

"They come from elsewhere," Quintus scoffed. "There is no such thing as a native tribe of Indus worms. The invasion simply started becoming manageable after the Hindus personally intervened." Artemis' ears flicked back and forth, but she didn't say anything. He looked at me next. "Only gods would call a selective culling of their transient parasites to be extinction."

"Only some gods," I said. When my mother says something is extinct, she means it.

Quintus conceded that, nodding. "That's right, you said you were trained by the god of Truth and the restrictions didn't matter." He scratched at his beard. "How long was your apprenticeship?"

"Uh, seven years?"

I redid the math as Quintus' eyes grew huge. Left unsaid was that most of the 'training' was Apollo's desperate flailing trying to figure out what kind of demigod I was, tiptoeing around the Celtic Name and then shitting his pants when he figured the Mórrígan out, realizing he didn't know half as much as he should and wondering what Ananke wanted from him. He tried his best, but I'm not sure he ever figured that last one out.

I haven't either, but I wasn't about to complain about it. I couldn't blame Mom's scheming for just the bad things in my life. I got a big brother out of it.

"Almost eight, why?"

"What'd you mean, why?" He gasped. "I was expecting a year at most - eight years? That's unheard of - the god practically raised you?"

My mother raised me.

I…wasn't going to say that though. It was bad enough with Luke. I didn't need to brag to someone else, who already grew up and had been on his own for decades, how much of an outlier I was in my own pantheon.

"Mom wanted him to? He's the god of Prophecy. Sometimes gods raise kids." I said eventually. I tried not to sound defensive. I don't know if I managed it. "And they choose champions and stuff. It happens."

"From the primogenitors?" Quintus was incredulous. "The gods that never even acknowledge the mortal realm?"

"They have!" I protested. I knew that Latin word. You didn't think I made up the term 'Elder God' did you? That's the English translation. Primogenitor had the same meaning as protogenoi did in Greek:

The Original Ancestors. The Firstborn. The Eldest.

Yeah, I know.

'A half-blood child of the eldest gods.'

And Olympus thought it meant the youngest children of Kronos and Rhea for …reasons? Even Athena put her money on Demeter being the one. Maybe because she was the only one of the Elder Olympians connected to an Elder God?

I was hoping the goddess of Wisdom was just praying the protogenoi were never going to get involved in anything ever, because I'm not gonna lie.

She done goofed.

"The Night and the Pit each had a demigod once," I continued.

Quintus blinked, taken aback. Some expression flashed over his face before he frowned. "I see."

Telling him that was thousands of years ago would defeat the point. I also didn't volunteer that the demigods of the Night and Pit were monsters. I knew the gods of Olympus put down the daughter of the Pit, but I didn't know what happened to the Night's son. I am not sure I wanted to know.

"Mom's never been good at doing what you expect her to," I said instead.

Quintus snorted softly. "I suppose that is one way of looking at Fate."

"Yeah," I said weakly. I just realized that quirk of hers might be Mom going out of her way to test the limits of her chains, desperate for any kind of freedom. It was why she had me in the first place. "One way of looking at it."

I felt sick.

"Let's play something else."

Artemis moaned, burrowing her face underneath her paws.

"Don't be like that." I nudged her. "Mythomagic?"

Quintus perked up. "I have not heard of that one. Is it new?"

"Ever heard of Magic: The Gathering?" I asked as I dug my card tin out from my still damp, slobbered on canvas backpack with a missing strap. I could only hope Mom would fix it once this was over. My bag and my shirt.

"Vaguely."

"It's the same kind of game, came out about six years ago. It's based on our pantheon."

Quintus curiously drew a card from the deck I held out towards him.

I saw the blood drain from his face. Then he turned away from us to try to hide it, coughing. "Based on our pantheon, right."

I took the card from him.

"Not this one," I said, holding the card up before I put it to the side. You could tell by the gold band along the edges and the shiny, holographic background that this was a mythic card. The rarest of the rare. Reflecting light that didn't exist back at us from the seat of the van was the hybrid trap and spell card:

The Labyrinth.

"It was banned in tournaments five minutes after it came out," I offered as Artemis looked the card over, her little nose wiggling furiously. "And for good reason."

A defense or offense card that allowed you to draw 2 extra cards and 'lost' the opponent's highest attack card in a maze for three turns?

Busted.

The only way to counter it was with the rare String of Ariadne card so you only lost 1 turn and could draw a card too. I've been trying to get my hands on this card for my collection for two years.

It was just like the Oracle of Trophonius rare card. The one I knew I didn't have in my deck before I drew it for our Quest Prophecy. And afterwards? I couldn't find it again, no matter how many times I checked. I put it out of my mind, forgetting about it, until three weeks later when I woke up to the crack of angry thunder with that Prophecy tugging at my mind. The weird thing is, I've been badgering my parents to take me to the store to buy booster packs just to make my readings easier. They only used the cards I actually had before.

I don't feel possessed by an Oracle spirit? Apollo said I wasn't.

I shuffled the deck again. Artemis cast suspicious looks between the two of us. Out of the corner of my eye, Quintus' ghost ground down to a halt, the gears seizing with a relieved smile and crumbled to ash.

"You're not going to ask?" Quintus said quietly.

"Ask what?" I shrugged. "I don't care."

"But - " Artemis started.

"He's doing us a big favor," I pointed out. "He can keep a few secrets, right?"

And I would be a hypocrite if I wanted to know his life story, while not telling him we were being hunted because of our rabbit's life story.

Maybe I should tell him. Do you think he deserved to know? It's not like Aura is breathing down our necks right this minute or anything. We still have to get to California. What if he changed his mind about helping us because of Artemis?

I should probably tell him.

Just…not right now. Maybe we can hoof it once we get to Arizona or something. I was fine being the flashy, distracting puzzle for a son of Intellect for a bit.

"There's no way he could turn out to be any worse than the vampire," I reasoned out loud. "Because that one might really bite us in the ass eventually."

"And whose fault is that?" Artemis said.

"Uh, excuse you." I scowled at her.

She was stealing phrases from Luke to use on me and I did not appreciate it.

Storm gray eyes searched my face. I don't know what he was looking for. His shoulders slumped and for a moment he looked like he was far away, but then he looked down as I split the cards into seven groups and then gathered them up again. I split the deck in half. It wasn't going to be perfect, but Quintus seemed like the type of guy that would enjoy a challenge.

"So the rules. We both start with five cards - Arty, you're with me…"

We were halfway through the new game when Luke came back. "New game?"

"Yeah," I said as I placed down The Cydonian Cincture as a face down trap card on the coffin. The sarcophagus rattled its chains, protesting, but nobody cared. Artemis inspected the remaining cards in my hand from my lap. "Mythomagic."

"Huh." Luke glanced over the cards, lingering on Tisiphone, the Punishment and The Minotaur cards facing off against each other on the field. He looked fine. He leaned into his motorcycle's handlebar. "How's she doing?"

"Arty's been cursed to be bad at card games," I admitted. "All of them."

The rabbit squeaked in protest. "You cannot tell me my boar would ever lose to - "

"What about 'card game based on our pantheon' do you not understand?" I asked her. "Honest question."

Artemis tried to blame me for it (my instructions were fine!) and Luke smiled.

I think we're okay.

In about another fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, the convoy of monster bikers went off road away from the city of San Antonio. Quintus was all business, staring out into the darkness with pupils that were shaped like squares, gray eyes gleaming like they were lit from within. Artemis huddled on my lap as I shuffled my Mythomagic deck over and over again.

I breathed out. Then I let my mind drift a little. I didn't try to focus or force anything. I watched Mrs. O'Leary bound up happily for an ear rub from a resigned Luke before she took off again. I flipped a card. I was hoping for a sign. An Indus worm nest was one hell of a rough patch on a road trip.

Chiron, the Trainer of Heroes.

Again.

Mom? I prayed. What are you trying to tell me?

Instead of a clue, or a nugget of wisdom or some help, there was a strange electronic beeping sound ringing out in my head.

What the -

Is that -

Is that a fucking busy signal?

Mom? What is this? What's happening? I have never felt her respond like this before. I then had a sudden realization. Are you still mad?

The beeping continued.

Mom - Mom, you know this one is on you, right?

The beeping got louder.

Literally an Elder God - have you tried not having shit powers?

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

I take back every good thing I've said about my mother.

She's the worst.

Our van rumbled to a stop. Quintus was out of his seat immediately. I watched his hand drift to his dagger, but he didn't draw it. His expression was tight.

"Take a bit of a walk," he told me, making the effort to relax his face. "Stretch your legs. Gotta protect those young knees of yours."

I snorted, but got out with our rabbit clutched to my chest. "Whatever, old man."

That earned me a light cuff on the head.

"Brat." The Roman smiled.

I turned to Luke. "Coming with?"

He hesitated. I saw his cloudy blue eyes dart around.

The monster bikers were setting up some kind of perimeter, all their wheels in a circle, facing outwards. One of the tall, hulking 'distractions' had started prowling around like it was hunting everyone in the center, restless.

It was dressed like it was from the Middle Ages in a rusted plate of armor. It still had spear handles, arrow shafts and a few broken swords sticking out of it as it dragged something behind it in a massive claw. I couldn't see what it was clearly through the brush grass, but it was either a mannequin or a corpse. It was a vrykolakas, a kind of revenant. It was just enough ghost to make its form indistinct, and just enough beast to hunt the living.

Never heard of them?

I guess they were originally Slavic monsters, but Macedonia shared a border. They're Greek too now. You could tell. It was staring at Luke and I, thin nostrils flaring.

Luke smiled weakly at me as he sank into the open seat in the van as Quintus vanished into the darkness with Mrs. O'Leary at his heels. "I'll…stay here. You can go on, if you want."

I swallowed the flash of unease I felt. Were we okay? "Alright."

I ended up standing guard for Artemis as she went to the bathroom behind a tree. This part of Texas was really forestry with short, tough grass and gravelly soil. The rabbit was embarrassed, but at least it wasn't the utter disaster of last time.

"I do not trust Quintus," Artemis said quietly. She was cradled in my arms, ears alert. "He smells like machine oil and sulfur."

"Is smelling like a mechanic a crime now?" I asked, shrugging. I didn't make a habit of telling other people how someone died. That seemed personal. "He seems nice."

"Your judgment is the very definition of suspect," she said bluntly.

"...that's…fair," I said thickly, stung.

I wanted to snap back that she was right, because I thought she was great once, but I couldn't. She was hardly the only person I've misjudged. She wasn't even the latest. My mother had that spot.

I wanted to blame the ADHD, but maybe I was just stupid.

Artemis wriggled in my grip.

"I…am sorry," she said softly. "I did not mean it that way - "

"I get it," I said tightly. "You don't have to explain. He's playing nice with the son of Fate, like everyone else."

The rabbit stiffened in my arms. For a second, I thought (I hoped) she was going to explain anyway. To tell me what was wrong with Quintus or tell me I was wrong, but she didn't. (She won't, just like with Khione) My heartbeat pulsed in my ears.

Take away her power, her privilege and what was even left?

Right now, it was looking like the only parent she hasn't backstabbed was Leto, and that's because the woman was three-quarters dead. Rhea called her out as a problem child. Artemis wasn't a wolf, she was a rabid dog.

Or maybe a vulture.

For the first time since Rhea told me what it meant, I truly saw what Mom's punishment was. Like Narcissus as a flower staring into its own watery reflection, or the wind nymph Echo forced to repeat the words of everyone she heard as an eternal gossip.

A cruel echo of the victim's true nature.

Ananke cursed Artemis and it was so very classically Greek.

I started walking. Just so that I was moving, just so that I was going somewhere and not waiting around. I was trying to keep the black feeling in my stomach (my friends are trapped in the Dreamlands. The Night. Luke doesn't know anything. Have to get the Bolt, if it's not in California, what do I do?) from eating me alive.

The rabbit was silent.

I walked in a circle, making my way back to the Jeep where I dumped the rabbit back on Luke. He said he'd handle her, so let him. I had to keep walking, because then I started to wonder why we were all staying here if Quintus was supposed to navigate us through an Indus worm nest and then I was thinking that maybe it was less like having a map and more like being the first soldier through a field of landmines.

That didn't give me good feelings about all this.

It was in the middle of my second rotation when one of the monsters called out to me. My head jerked in their direction automatically, my ears ringing with I understood that and I shouldn't understand that. It wasn't in Greek and it wasn't English either.

The back of my neck prickled with warning as I realized that I had wandered way too close to Ghost Rider and the group of monsters that surrounded him.

Thin, hungry faces eyed me.

"I…understood those words separately," I admitted. I shifted from one foot to the other, resisting the urge to draw my sword or run.

Ghost Rider's head was perched on top of his bike as his body turned towards me. His motorcycle was all black with a grinning skull decorating the front suspension. It was big enough, cracked and stained enough to be real. The handlebars were long and curved, looking just like what you would expect out of a classic motorcycle club or something you'd see from the Grease movie, just built for a giant.

The one who called out to me had an outfit that looked like it was made out of belts with silver buckles, a featureless helmet on her head. Her bike looked like she fused a three headed deer with sapphire eyes to an engine and two white tires and the animal was still alive.

"But you did understand," the woman said. She was tall, but not as tall as Ghost Rider.

"Mac Morrigu," the Ghost Rider rumbled in his deep, dark voice. "Tuigeann sé ar ndóigh."

Son of the Morrigan, I heard. Of course he understands.

Yeah, right.

Obviously.

Like any of Mom's kids wouldn't understand Gaelic - who do you think you are? Get the fuck out.

I tried not to stare at the lady monster's ghost. Under her helmet, she was pretty the same way Hiraya was. Recognizably something like a human, but clearly not. When she took off the helmet, it was even worse. I looked at her and sometimes I saw a woman that could be related to Luke with her sharp features and pale hair. Then I blinked and I saw greedy shadows and smoke and fire licking at her skin from the inside. Her eyes burned like stars and she flashed me a grin with sharp translucent teeth like icicles in the sun.

So, that's an elf, my brain went stupid at her pointed ears.

Fuck.

"Um, hi," I said, like a dumbass.

"Your need must be great, to risk the Romans," she said in a dialect that didn't sound like modern Irish at all. I had to focus on it to be sure of what she was even saying.

"Like, are they just really grumpy right now, or…"

That got me a bright flash of her star-like eyes and I had the feeling that the shadow and smoke lurking in her skin was amused. I bit down on my lip. Don't expect straight answers from elves, right.

She wouldn't say anything if it was just the normal risk of coming across a Roman right now. So that must mean it was the fuck you in particular risk. Which was.

Not great.

We were planning to break into Ares' temple while in their territory and hopefully get away with our lives. That would be hard enough without anyone having it out for me.

I didn't even do anything!

For fuck's sake, Mom!

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

I wanted to scream, but that wouldn't help anything.

The monsters around drifted closer only to scatter when Ghost Rider's golden eyed gaze opened.

"Be sure to defend your mother's honor, Kieran," the elf told me.

"An mhi-onόir?" I blurted out. I ignored the name (but real talk, what is it with old monsters calling me some variation of 'dark boy?').

The elf (what is she, Norse ljósálfar? Welsh Tylwyth Teg?) had a sharp, eagerly malicious grin. "Do not die too quickly. It would be disappointing."

"Disappointing, right," I said. "Sure you don't mean embarrassing? For her, not me. Because I'll be dead." What was I doing? Shut up! "But thanks, anyway. For the vote of confidence."

I beat a hasty tactical retreat.

I was too busy wondering who Mom pissed off (and who was going to be pissed at me in response) to realize I hadn't taught myself how to ask about 'dishonor' yet.

I hadn't learned…

I stopped dead in the middle of the clearing. The circle of monsters were penning me under the empty sky. I felt trapped suddenly, almost claustrophobic. Did you think it was weird that Mom raised me, but I didn't know if she had blessed me with Greek fluency when Castor and Pollux asked? It's okay if you don't remember that. It was a while ago.

Apollo was the one who figured out I could understand the Greek dialect he had been born knowing.

I could understand Coptic Egyptian, you know.

Cliff figured that one out. We both thought it was because Coptic Egyptian was written with mostly Greek letters. Ptolemy, you know? The Greeks, Romans and Egyptians had all been one backstabby family ruled by Serapis back then.

Cliff called it a 'pantheon bleed through.' When the pantheon that laid claim wasn't the only claim. It was a monster thing. The elves could be both Old Germanic or Gaelic. The vrykolakas could be both Slavic and Greek. Cliff's Cynocephali Mom was all Egyptian, but my best friend was Greek and Roman too. I'm not a monster, but we thought that maybe it happened to demigods as well.

I highly doubted my pants shitting Prophecy scare would have been in Egyptian, but I didn't rule it out then either. Not likely doesn't mean impossible.

Mom has an Egyptian Name, you know.

The Black Pharaoh.

Mom said she let me inherit from all of her Names because she wanted me. Because she chose me.

But Mom can't lie, not won't. My whole life up to this point was shaped by everything she let me assume was the truth. By everything she didn't say.

The god within Fate was there when I was born to Ananke. She's an Elder God. They are always there.

I don't like thinking about this.

I took one shuddering breath and then another before I almost ran back to the van.

"You alright?" Luke gave me a look. He was brushing Artemis again, but this time she seemed 100% with the program, huddled on the seat as if she was trying to disappear.

"We might want to avoid running into any Roman gods," I muttered.

Luke snorted. "Yeah?"

"I mean, we really might want to avoid any Romans." I chewed on my bottom lip. "Or I really want to avoid - look, if you have any ideas for how we're going to handle after we break into that temple - "

A loud 'bwaooooh' howl of a big dog shattered the quiet.

We all sat, tense as everyone around us sprung into movement. The 'distractions' vanishing from sight into the darkness and engines starting with throaty grumbles. There was talking, but the only one I could make out was Ghost Rider's deep voice.

Mrs. O'Leary was still barking her head off somewhere along with her friend.

Something in the dark screamed. It almost sounded like a person being tortured to death, but it was too guttural and hoarse for the sound to have come from a human throat. I wish I didn't know enough to say that.

Artemis went still.

"Oh, no," she moaned as she pressed herself back into her seat. "No no no no no."

"Arty?" I asked as Luke hauled his motorcycle into the back of the van, like it didn't weigh over 300 pounds. "You know what that is - what's coming after us now?"

"An béar! An béar! An béar!" went up as a cry of warning.

The bear.

The rabbit was shaking violently, in tears. "Please, no, Nemesis please - "

"Arty!"

Quintus swept by us. "Keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle," he said quickly. "We're heading into the mountains. Things might get a little strange outside, that's normal, don't stare too long."

"Wait - "

He was gone. Our van started up.

I stuck my head outside anyway, looking back as our tires literally burnt rubber. Luke hauled me back inside as the desert mountains rose up on either side of us, but not before I got a glimpse of the problem.

A flash of teeth and the gleam of silver cloth.

Another one of Artemis' former Hunters. The ones she transformed into monsters.

The bear.

Kallisto.

 

[Aaron_04]

Okay I'm getting really interested on everything that happened in the dreamlands, especially how do they look now.
Also th friendship between artemis, percy and like is now complete and I love it.
Thanks for the chapter shujin, and dont worry too much about the time, it wasn't that long and it was certainly worth it.

 

[MichaelSuave]

Really Artemis? You had to hunt a bear ursa major... so of course it is out to get you.

 

[Mandoanon]

I can't remember my Lovecraft, is the black pharaoh the herald or enforcer of Azathoth?

 

[MichaelSuave]

I can't remember my Lovecraft, is the black pharaoh the herald or enforcer of Azathoth?

Click to shrink...

https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Nephren-Ka

 

[TheDisturbedDragon]

I can't remember my Lovecraft, is the black pharaoh the herald or enforcer of Azathoth?

Click to shrink...

The black pharoah is both. More importantly for lower beings, however, it is the only one of the Outer Gods that is actively malicious rather than simply not understanding mortal perspective. It takes pleasure in sadism and cruelty.

 

[Shujin]

Really Artemis? You had to hunt a bear ursa major... so of course it is out to get you.

Click to shrink...

Artemis is the reason Kallisto is the Ursa Major in the first place...

 

[NounNoun]

Artemis is the reason Kallisto is the Ursa Major in the first place...

Click to shrink...

Zeus: *disguises himself as artemis, rapes kallisto as futa artemis*
Kallisto: *gets pregnant, hides it*
Artemis, finding out kallisto is preggers and hid it from her: alas, if you had told me I would have been angry at my father and not you, and would have let you go your own way, but because you tried to hide it imma fucking turn you into a bear. this will in definitely not backfire on me in any way shape or form.

Kallisto now: hmmm, I wonder what rabbit tastes like

 

[Shujin]

Zeus: *disguises himself as artemis, rapes kallisto as futa artemis*
Kallisto: *gets pregnant, hides it*
Artemis, finding out kallisto is preggers and hid it from her: alas, if you had told me I would have been angry at my father and not you, and would have let you go your own way, but because you tried to hide it imma fucking turn you into a bear. this will in definitely not backfire on me in any way shape or form.

Kallisto now: hmmm, I wonder what rabbit tastes like

Click to shrink...

Yeah, mayyybe someone who was just raped by your look a like might not be all that eager to tell you all about that trauma right away. Who'd a thunk?

 

[Leecifer]

Yeah, mayyybe someone who was just raped by your look a like might not be all that eager to tell you all about that trauma right away. Who'd a thunk?

Click to shrink...

To be fair, though, that absolutely sounds like how Artemis would try and spin things to excuse her overreaction, and, as long as no other deity is willing to scrap over 'some mortal who was stupid enough to worship Artemis', she'd get away with it.

 

[Shujin]

To be fair, though, that absolutely sounds like how Artemis would try and spin things to excuse her overreaction, and, as long as no other deity is willing to scrap over 'some mortal who was stupid enough to worship Artemis', she'd get away with it.

Click to shrink...

The version of the story Riordan uses is iirc meant to be the 'comedic' play one, where part of the issue was that Kallisto didn't know it was Zeus and genuinely thought her assaulter was Artemis herself. Of course, Riordanverse changed that detail to say that Kallisto knew and the punishment was for the lie, but part of this rewrite is to mesh mythology more fully to canon. And consider what we already know this Artemis was like...

 

[Shujin]

AN: Sorry for the delay. Motivation during a cancer scare is hard to find.​

An Undertow of Sand
A PJO Fanfiction​

The sudden silence was loud.

"Did we lose her?" Luke asked, twisting around in his seat to look out the back windows of the van through the handlebars of his bike.

"No," Artemis and I said at the same time.

I could almost hear the hairs on the back of my neck vibrating in warning. Instead of a low hum of danger, I felt like even as I sat in the backseat of a battered soccer mom van that was probably stolen from a soccer mom, I was being stalked through a dark forest by something very, very hungry. It reminded me of a dark ocean in the Dreamlands. That sensation of encroaching doom deep underwater was not going to leave me any time soon.

"My spidey sense is still going wild."

"Spidey what?" Luke asked.

I was getting a little numb to being in danger. It was still there on the back of my neck and has been for a while. The tiny prickle of warning around Hiraya never actually went away after we made our deal and it's just been downhill from there. This entire situation with the Ursa Major after a rabbit's ass with us in the way was terrible and I could feel how terrible it was in my gut, but I'm going to blame my ADHD here:

"...seriously?"

I got sidetracked. In my defense, he doesn't know Spider Man?

Luke made a face. "No money, no time, can't leave Camp if I don't want to get attacked." Luke waved his hands, frustrated. "And if it's from a comic book - is it?" I nodded. "There are a ton of those, they make no sense out of order with a lot of characters and reading."

All good points.

I mean, they were terrible points (because yikes, reading comics out of order?) but they were legit, is what I meant. "...okay, Camp Half-Blood needs an American Culture Class." Like, yesterday. "After we're done here, remind me."

Luke gave me a look of long-suffering. "Find room in the schedule between javelin training and the Greek culture class."

"That doesn't teach anyone about xenia," I pointed out. "That makes it a shit class by default. We can toss it."

He looked like he was going to argue for a second, then he glanced down at his hand where Khione's ring sat. He spun it about his index finger with his thumb.

"Or about reconciliation gifts," he mused. "Or I guess, it does, but I feel like 'refusing a god's gifts is unwise' isn't even half of it."

Holy shit, I had been kidding. Cabin 12 didn't need Greek culture class, because Dionysus taught his fucking kids. I don't know what expression my face made, but it hurt and Luke just sighed.

"Yeeaaaap," he drawled.

I'm going to strangle that centaur.

The exchange of gifts and what they were for was pretty much the basics of the basics. That meant no one in Camp Half-Blood ever expected anyone on Olympus to actually pay for a favor or to properly apologize. They didn't know what a proper apology even looked like.

Jesus H. Christ.

"Remind me to do something about that class too."

"Believe me," Luke said dryly. "I have a list."

"Can we focus?" Artemis pleaded, dragging us both back to the present. "We did not lose her."

"Sorry," I mumbled.

The bunny was a small, sad ball on her seat as our van rumbled through the desert out of Texas into Mexico. The mountain range wasn't very tall. It looked more like a dry, blocky version of the Rockies than anything, but there were flashes of moving patterns in the cliff faces that I didn't stare at. I don't know if it was just me, but it looked like it was getting even darker outside.

"It is - Kali was not impatient," Artemis said suddenly. "But she could not stand sitting still or moving slowly, driving me mad because she always made it worse for me to control my fidgeting…"

The rabbit trailed off.

"Are you trying to say she's still in there?" I asked, trying to make sense of her rambling. "Still intelligent?" Thinking back, I shouldn't be surprised. Aura spoke. I should always be expecting the worst case scenario, because Mom set up nothing but for me.

I don't know if you remember the story. Kallisto was a Hunter of Artemis, the nymph daughter of Lycaon. You might know him as the first Greek werewolf, punished by Zeus for the crime of being a complete asshole and a worse dad (like Zeus had any room to talk. He doesn't). Anyway, Zeus was the one who decided to rape Kallisto while wearing Artemis' face. It was fucked up. She didn't tell Artemis. I don't know why, but I bet trauma was part of it. And when Artemis eventually found out, she didn't react well.

The rest was history.

"She would startle prey on purpose," Artemis said quietly. "Pulling back from us now is just like her. She would let prey know she was hunting them by mimicking the calls of known predators, or loudly trampling through the brush. Make them run or fight. A self-imposed challenge she never lost."

You could tell by the almost tangible atmosphere of despair she had that Artemis didn't think Kallisto was going to lose now.

Luke frowned. "Is she like the other one?"

The rabbit looked up, startled. "I - I do not know?"

"You don't know?" He ground his teeth. "Isn't this your fault - you did this. How can you not know? Can she die?"

"I never tried!" Artemis wailed and there was a loud bang sound as the van bumped over something large enough for all of us to feel the vehicle tilt and then fall back onto all four wheels. My heart was in my throat as I gripped onto Damocles silver pendant, waiting for a bear claw to tear through the doors.

But nothing happened.

The tension broke in my sixth sense, snapping like a taut wire. It was still there, but different. I didn't know what it meant.

"Must have been a rock," Luke muttered as he turned to look out the back window again, but there was nothing but the dark of Night showing.

Nothing but…

"Where's the rest of the convoy?" I asked, searching for the other headlights. There were a few jeeps and bikes in front of us, visible only by the dim red glow of their backlights but we were supposed to be in the middle of the pack.

Luke blinked and then frowned, gripping his dad's lighter in his hand. He squinted out the back, then frowned harder before closing his eyes. He breathed out slowly and his eyes moved underneath his eyelids like he was Dreaming, "Nothing on the wind. They're gone."

"Maybe they're just running interference?" I offered and Luke shrugged, unconcerned.

"Better them than us."

I bit my lip.

That's right. Because they were all monsters. It wasn't like I forgot about the murdered mortals on the road or anything. That kind of stuff is important. I just have to catch myself looking in from the wrong side of the fence sometimes.

I don't know why I do it. I'm mortal. I know that.

"Assume she can't die," I moved on. "What can we do?"

"Maybe she can though," Luke said with the 'click clack' of his lighter cap being flicked on and off, the bright flame appearing for a second. "If I remember my myths right, there was something about a son hunting her down? Arkas?"

Artemis flinched back. I had a really bad feeling about whatever she was going to say next.

"There was a son," she said quietly. "He had not been born yet when…"

"Ah," Luke said blankly.

Oof.

"Kali was - was a terrible, horrible mistake. One I could not undo, no matter how much I tried." Artemis sounded more than guilty. She sounded shattered. "Zoё searched for her because I lied - and she knew I lied, I do not think she knows how to give up…" The rabbit lifted her head weakly. "You asked why my lieutenant would try to end my life," she told Luke. "She wasn't lieutenant then, but…" She shrugged her small shoulders. "...this was it."

Luke blew out a breath. "...you don't want to kill her."

"No!" Artemis blurted out. "No - I - it is - she does not deserve this! She was in agony and I doubt that has changed! Constellations feel no pain or distress, why was she removed? She was safe - "

"Nemesis doesn't care about that," I said, feeling cold at the near panic in Artemis' voice. My niece, the daughter of Nyx and my brother Erebus. Clovis tried to tell the Night that they couldn't go to the House of Night. Erebus could pretend, but he didn't really understand. Nemesis took on a human shape, but maybe expecting the grinding mass of teeth in her eyes to care about her son, Ethan the way I wanted her to was naïve. I thought about my mother, the sentient black hole mimicking right from wrong. Why should she care about dust? The cycle of life is one she's seen millions and billions of times over, not one more special than the last. Even if Luke had the perfect childhood with parents who loved him, if Hermes' plan with the golden apple worked, that still didn't guarantee anything. It didn't mean anything. One little godling on a single planet in a single solar system among billions of stars.

Everything ends.

"It's not about what's best for anyone, not really," I realized. Nemesis might not be capable of thinking about things in those terms. "It's about addressing the Balance."

Artemis sniffled. "...I know."

"You know we might not have a choice?" Luke asked her softly and the bunny nodded miserably.

"She has suffered enough, but…" The bunny uncurled from her little ball. "When she was first captured, Zoё was still near godhood, supported by other senior Hunters." 'Near godhood.' So the fractured nebula I saw in Nightshade's eyes had been broken. "Her death might be possible, but still out of our reach."

"Can we lose her then?" Luke asked after a moment of thought. "In the desert?"

I looked at Artemis, who shrunk back into her seat. "Any ideas?"

The bunny shuffled. "I - if we go much further south, we risk trespassing."

"She doesn't mean territory," I said when Luke opened his mouth to ask. "She means mythologically. Origins. The Mesoamerican pantheons like the Mayans or the Aztecs are all down in South America. We won't fit and whatever doesn't fit, gets attention."

I wondered how Hiraya did it. Then I thought that maybe Olympus was just that dysfunctional and she slipped through the cracks. Wouldn't surprise me at all. It wasn't like anyone would be picking up Olympus' slack. Nyx getting involved in this reality was a bad idea (current disaster said it all), no idea what Erebus does for a living, Chronos getting involved in this reality might be a really bad idea, Tartarus was literally asleep at the wheel and Mom was still getting the rust off on Giving a Shit.

"We'll have a lot less of our monsters and a lot more of theirs," I finished.

Luke's face pinched. "And we might run into wendigos if we go north…"

"Can we make it to the Roman border?" I thought out loud. "They'd have to respond to a monster like - shit."

I almost forgot about what the elf said.

Luke raised his eyebrows. "You just said you don't want to meet a Roman - "

"I know what I said!"

Quintus also told us in that diner that he paid for smuggling because the border was closed down by the order of Mars. That was the Roman Name of Ares. How much you wanna bet that he told border patrol no one was to be allowed through, with extreme prejudice?

Luke held up his hands in surrender. "We might have to risk it anyway. This is the second one, I thought Nemesis only sent one but if there are multiple super monsters out for our hides - "

"Apollo said you only made monsters of two of your Hunters," I turned on Artemis. "That true?"

"Yes," the rabbit said, resigned. "...of my Hunters."

"You - " Suddenly the little tidbit that sometimes she turns boys into jackalopes stopped being trivia and started being a giant red flag of how utterly stupid I was. "Y̸o̴u̶ ̷d̴a̶u̵g̶h̴t̶e̶r̶ ̵o̶f̸ ̴a̵ ̵b̸a̴s̵t̸a̷r̷d̶ " I don't know what language that came out in, but I knew what I meant to say. "How many?"

"I - I do not - "

"How many?"

"One thing at a time!" Luke cut in sharply. I was a little thrown by how angry I was and he was the one being reasonable about the rabbit. When did that happen? "Percy, worry about that later, worry about the bear now."

I breathed in harshly through my nose. My gut churned, but I blew it out. Luke was right. Now was not the time for this.

"How is she here, now?" I asked instead. "Once Nemesis interferes with a Quest, then she can't - "

Out of the corner of my eye, something peered into our windows from the darkness and then turned away. I swallowed hard. Our van bumped and rumbled as it rode on, not daring to slow down, not even for a second.

"She cannot meddle further," Artemis said quietly. "However, Khione could," she said and my stomach dropped a little.

"You mean - "

"Are you really surprised?" She asked slowly and my stomach dropped further. "The withholding of hospitality was hardly an accident."

"Guess not," I mumbled as I realized that I couldn't say that Khione didn't help Aura find us in Quebec City. Now that I was thinking about it, we went all over the city, across the river and to the waterfall and everything. I assumed the pulse of cold energy was a ward of some kind, but then again, she wanted Artemis dead.

She still does, I reminded myself. Really badly. I couldn't take her help for granted. She wanted Olympus to change, but Khione was still Greek. I won't know which side of her won out until after it already blew up in my face.

"Every instance of interference," Artemis continued, "Is counted separately."

Any god with a grudge could piggyback onto Nemesis' revenge. My sisters wouldn't say a word against it.

Luke and I didn't say 'And there isn't anyone you haven't screwed over' but we were definitely thinking it. Bunny faces were hard to read, but by the way her ears dropped, I think she was thinking it too.

"What's around here?" I asked instead. "New Mexico is next to Texas, right?" I wracked my brain for whatever sunk in through my skull during geography class. "And then…Nevada?"

"Arizona," Luke corrected me.

"Right."

Luke didn't even go to school. I was choosing to believe that he knew because he inherited something from his dad. American education couldn't possibly lose out to being chased cross country by monsters.

"...I'm drawing a blank on anything not Native American or, like, terrible," I was forced to admit. That was a bad sign I should have expected. Sure, I knew that one of my cousins tended to wander around the West Coast area, but I've never met them before and Mom kept me from most of my cousins for a reason.

The further from Mt. Olympus, the closer to the Door to the Underworld and the Mountain of Despair. The original Mt. Othrys was still in Greece, just like Olympus, but it wouldn't surprise me if the aftershocks of the Gate opening leaked into its mythological counterpart.
I know Ouranos' prison moved.

Did the Romans close the border to keep people out or to keep things in?

"Are we just going to have to fight her and hope for the best?" I asked, feeling my stomach sink to the floor.

Artemis' ears buoyed.

"Arizona…" She mused. "Something is…yes, one of Hephaestus' junkyards is there, I believe?" She thought it over, her little nose wiggling furiously. "My father dislikes involving himself, but Eagle Point at the Grand Canyon, if we make a petition there or at the Hoover Dam in Nevada then -" Her voice cracked painfully. "Maybe?"

Maybe Zeus would help her, but his so-called favorite daughter didn't sound so sure of that.

Luke opened his mouth.

"Forget I said anything," she said quickly then. "Attempting to circumvent Fate, even indirectly, is not something I see Father doing lightly." My anger abandoned me so fast, I felt dizzy. It was in the way she just collapsed in on herself. "Or at all."

He shut his mouth with a click.

Her brother couldn't help her. Her father wouldn't. That was true for everyone else. She was completely and utterly alone. Except for me and Luke. Most of it was her own fault, but you can still feel bad about it, can't you? Or pity or something?

Maybe it was because I was feeling like a hypocrite.

Kallisto was hunting us down and she was concerned about how much it was costing the bear, not herself. I was struggling to remember if Artemis ever actually defended her actions at all. Was Selene the only time?

Maybe…

Maybe Apollo had been right to say she changed. Mom's punishment was earned, but…

I don't know.

"That's still several states away," I said eventually.

"She might wait that long," Artemis offered, but I doubt she believed it. "If you must, leave me. I will try to buy time."

"No," Luke said immediately. He looked alarmed. "We're not doing that."

"What he said," I put in.

"Then…" She thought for a bit. "You - you mentioned something about Egyptians the - " Artemis shuffled self-consciously. "The first time…"

I blinked in surprise. She remembered? "My phone. We can probably hijack an obelisk for their teleportation magics, so if we need to get away, we got a freebie."

"But?" Luke asked knowingly.

"But where we end up is random," I admitted. "There are a lot of obelisks around and I'm not a Magician."

…

Or am I!?

Mom has an Egyptian Name. Houy of the Flooded Toilets had the Pharaoh Djer as his ancestor, one of the incarnations of the god Horus. A lot of the elite Magicians had similar lineages. Did I count? What did it mean for me if I was? I don't know the first thing about Egyptian magic. What if I tried and messed it up even more? Crap. I should have asked Cliff if he at least region locked my reception or if I could risk ending up in Cairo.

I hated this. All of it. No one told me Quests were supposed to involve an identity crisis.

"So not useful right now," Luke concluded. "That's why you were pointing those out. But." He looked sly. "If we have to grab the Bolt and run, or confront the god of War then run, we have a get out of jail card."

My mouth opened. "Oh, so you don't know Spider Man but you know Monopoly?"

Luke choked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You are actually a Greek barbarian."

"I am not!"

"Have you ever even seen Star Wars?"

"I snuck Annabeth into a showing of The Phantom Menace?"

"...You're irredeemable."

Artemis sighed and stared at the floor of the van as we rode on.

I'm not stupid all of the time. I knew that Artemis' offer to buy us time was her volunteering to go off and die for us. And maybe, in the middle of a fight if we were completely out of options I could see it, but not like this, planned and premeditated. That didn't feel right at all. It bothered me that she offered. I don't think Artemis really came to terms with the idea of dying. I think she came to terms with the idea that she didn't deserve to be saved.

That wasn't the same thing.

I caught Luke's eye and jerked my head towards the bunny. He crossed his arms and looked over the rabbit critically. Then he sighed, nodding to me. He saw it too. He saw it ages ago. He turned to look out the back windows of the van again. "What is it with you daughters of Zeus…"

Riding in a van through the desert expecting a giant monster bear to tear the vehicle apart at any moment did not do great things for our blood pressure. We couldn't exactly ask for the ride to let us off, because the windows had turned pitch black like we were riding through a tunnel. The occasional flashes of light, sound and sometimes feeling vibrating through the doors of the vehicle weren't reassuring. During a bright blue flash, like a bolt of lightning, I thought I saw a derelict city around a giant inverted ziggurat surrounded by a lush forest in the distance, but when the light went, my sight went with it.

I haven't heard of any kind of ancient Mesoamerican city this close to the border?

"So…" Luke puzzled as he clumsily navigated his Isaac through the Golden Sun tutorial dungeon on my Gameboy. "Why doesn't anyone just kill the Joker?"

"Because," I said, shrugging.

He looked up with raised eyebrows. "Because?"

"Look, comics are like modern day mythology. If people weren't stupid there wouldn't even be a story half the time. It's just how it is."

Luke nodded slowly, absorbing this. "...The Punisher is cooler than Batman."

"Fight me."

We were trying to pass the time on the car ride across the desert the best way we could. We were still on guard, but the longer we went without Kallisto ruining our day, the more we unwound. Kallisto was still on our tail. I could feel it. But there was nothing I could do about it until it happened.

"What's the story behind the first monster?" Luke asked eventually as we munched on the snacks he had stolen from that rest stop with Hiraya. "The one that tagged me?"

Artemis looked up at him from her small pile of hay, and then away. "...she's my first cousin, the daughter of my uncle Lelantos."

Lelantos was the uncle she could have bummed a Name of Hunting off of, if she wasn't herself.

Figures.

"One of my oldest companions. We were like sisters, but we brought out the absolute worst in each other," she continued softly, bitterly. "I do not remember who started the stupid game, but it was - it was nothing but poison to both of us."

"Game?" I asked.

"We kept score," she murmured. "We did our best to find petty, mean ways to hurt each other, but if you let on how much blood that needle drew, you lose the round. We were both very good at it. It went on for years, getting more and more thoughtful. Practiced. Cruel."

That sounded like either something I'd hear from a documentary of a school shooting or it was the plot of that new movie Mean Girls.

"And you couldn't stand losing," Luke sighed.

"I had just lost," Artemis admitted. "She just - I was livid, but I could get over - I can defend myself - there were some close calls but I - " Artemis almost couldn't speak. "My mother is off limits." The bunny breathed harshly, stomping around on her seat. Whatever Aura did, just thinking about it still made her blood boil thousands of years later. "Neither of us were ever gracious in victory, mocking each other, but she would not stop!"

On an impulse, I picked the rabbit up. I got where she was coming from. That didn't make it right, but I understood. Hell, I tried to kill one of my schoolmates -

Okay.

So.

I didn't actually mean to tell you that, but guess we're doing this live!

I was.

Not great as a kid. I know that now. Apollo was right. It was a rare occurrence, but not unheard of. Being confidently wrong was just one of his talents. I didn't have a high opinion of mortals back then. Like my big brother, Apollo the Locust, when I lost my temper, I got mean and I used to have a bad one. If there was one thing that stayed the same about me from then to now? It was that no one insults my mother to my face.

Some dumb third or fourth grader with a stupid take on Irish accents and paddywagons. They couldn't prove it wasn't an accident (technically…never mind), but she was paralyzed from the belly button down (consolation prize) so I got expelled.

(Mom smiled)

That didn't help my case with the whole cannon incident at the next school.

Shut up.

The 'disturbed child' thing was still bullshit. I was innocent that time!

"What set it off was not even that bad." Artemis shuddered in my hands. Her nose was cold as it pressed into the palm of my hand and her voice was muffled. "It should not have cut as deep as it did. It was an absurd joke. All of my friends made fun of my base form back then, because I hated it. Her way of apologizing. She expected me to laugh, but not this time." The bunny nearly whispered as she repeated, "Not this time."

I ruffled her semi-floppy ears. She looked up at me, but then her eyes dropped, ashamed.

"I was just so angry. The years and years of insults and slights and assaults from our 'game' was the only thing I could think about. I went to Nemesis, but the Rhamnousia only offered Balance. I agreed to the rules of our game, after all. I gave as good as I got. But mother was a bystander. Aura overstepped, so I was given a token from Retribution. I took it - " Artemis shuddered and wheezed. I was afraid she was having a panic attack as she shook her head almost violently. "I took it," she whispered. "And used it to call upon her mother instead. The Night answered."

Oh, I thought.

That explains why Aura looked a bit cousiny. Artemis was responsible, but it was Nyx who turned her into a monster.

"...what happened to Kali then?"

The ball of fur that was Artemis inflated and then deflated with a wheezing sigh. "Later, please?" she begged quietly.

"Yeah, okay," I murmured. "Later."

She said it was a mistake.

"Thank you," she sighed. "If we have to fight her, do not imbibe her blood." Luke opened his mouth to say something smart, but the bunny pinned him to the seat with her solemn, silver eyes. "No matter what it takes."

"Right," Luke said quickly, spooked. "Message received."

Silence is terrible. Silence because no one knows what to say anymore is the worst. I opened my big mouth.

"How long did it take you to kill the accent?" I asked Luke. And he stiffened (because what the hell Percy? Where'd that come from?) and then deliberately relaxed, looking at me out of the corner of his cloudy blue eye. "Sorry," I apologized, feeling like I wasn't supposed to notice.

"Why do you think it's something I had to lose?" He asked back.

"You've been slipping a bit," I replied and Luke's lips tightened into white lines. He might have been annoyed, but the way his eyes widened made him look almost frightened. "It's not bad, dude."

"Yeah?" Luke said tightly. "You've never had a time in your life that you'd give anything to never be reminded of, ever again?"

I had several.

"I see that you do," he nodded. He turned back to the window. I thought that was going to be the end of it, but then he muttered, "...I didn't want to introduce myself to Thalia sounding like a thug." He glanced back at me, like he was testing my reaction. I tried to look as non-judgy as possible. It must have paid off, because he relaxed further and shrugged one shoulder. "Annabeth made it easier to watch my mouth and I just…kept at it? Besides, I got to Camp and was the oldest one in Hermes Cabin. You know what that means."

Luke's been in charge of raising kids since he was fourteen and his best friend had just died on him.

"You shouldn't have to hide who you are," I said because my brain was stalling on coming up with anything better to say. Story of my life. "You sound like a proper law-abiding citizen."

To my relief, he cracked a smile. "Yeah, not what you expect when you hear 'son of Hermes,' right? The exact opposite of my father. That was the point." Artemis huddled into herself. His face twisted up then. That complicated expression made his scar pop out. "He had to go and copy me. Just - " He deflated.

"He wasn't mocking you," I said quickly. "He just - " My tongue felt thick in my mouth. "Maybe he was trying to relate to you."

"Maybe," Luke agreed thoughtfully, before he rolled his eyes. "And he's a god so of course he thinks I would just get that him copying me is a good thing. He can't explain for crap either." This ugly expression flashed over his face. "Can't explain for...no offense," he muttered, shaking himself out of the sudden melancholy. "But I despise your sisters."

"None taken," I said. "They tried to kill me with a Pit Scorpion."

Artemis started in surprise. Luke's eyebrows nearly flew off his face. "No shit?" He caught himself a second later, grimacing. "I am slipping. Crud." He glared at me. "You are a bad influence."

"The absolute fucking worst," I agreed with a grin.

He huffed. "...a Pit Scorpion, huh? Nasty."

"I was three!"

"Now I know you're messing with me."

I don't know what event or last straw made Luke run away from home and his mom.

Apollo had his mom's blonde hair, Zeus had black hair like his brothers and father. Artemis walked around with auburn hair, but, Diana, the human half was a black haired silver eyed girl. Both of my party members didn't want to be defined by their dads. I tried not to feel like the odd one out. The third wheel, in a sense. I sat there, feeling vaguely heartbroken as I joked around, because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't really imagine cutting Mom out like that at all. I rebuilt myself because she left. Even after everything I've learned on this Quest, the thought was like trying to pick up streams of water with chopsticks. I'd have the shape of what it would look like to be free of Fate. The concept. The idea.

Then it would just slip right through and fade away, because it didn't feel like freedom at all.

My chest hurt.

We rode on.

I don't know how long it took, but my ass was completely numb by the time the van started to slow down. You couldn't hear the crunch of the tires gripping onto the gravel, but you could feel it. Luke hissed, fingering his lighter as he placed a wary hand on the door handle.

"Time to face the music," he muttered.

He was right on the money. We were deep in the desert, surrounded by the short, tough grass with a lot of sandy gravel, peyote plants and rocks. Quintus abruptly stopped arguing with Ghost Rider as soon as he saw us. He straightened, a hand falling to Mrs. O'Leary's eye-blisteringly pink collar and the expression on his face turned to stone. I risked a glance behind us. The mountain range loomed on the dark horizon, but strangely, it didn't look that large. Maybe the Night was messing with my depth perception again, but I could swear the short limestone mountains could be crossed in a day of hiking, but we drove for hours.

Ghost Rider rumbled warningly. Quintus glanced back at him.

"You left a few things out, graceus," he said coldly, holding Mrs. O'Leary back when she tried to shuffle over to me. There was a livid fresh red wound scoring across her side. The dog was weird, but that didn't mean I didn't feel bad about getting her hurt. She was a puppy that didn't hurt me when she could have.

Fuck.

That dog is literally my cousin.

Why did I have to remember that right now?

"Didn't they?" Quintus sneered. "Artemis."

Luke sighed. "I tried."

Artemis hopped forward boldly, ears straight up, lion charm collar on and little jacket tidy. "A few things," she agreed. "Daedalus of the Labyrinth."

I saw Luke shift his weight from one foot to the other, narrowing his eyes.

That name…

…meant absolutely nothing to me.

"Ah, yes, the card rather gave it away, didn't it?" A crooked smile crossed Quintus' face. "Ironic. The Calydonian Boar. Title, sacred animal of the Hunt. Quotation: 'It is customary to offer sacrifices for the Harvest offerings to the goddess of the Hunt. Since you have neglected to remember, I shall provide my own.' Fifteen hundred attack power, four thousand defense, Charge ability."

"What?" Artemis recoiled.

"The Calydonian Boar," Quintus repeated impatiently. "Fifteen hundred attack power, four thousand defense, charge. I defeated it with a mere harpy card because you didn't put it into a defensive position."

He's talking about Mythomagic.

Quintus pitched his voice to sound almost exactly like the rabbit's. "You cannot tell me my boar would ever lose."

I palmed my face. Hard.

I cannot believe this. Artemis is so bad at cards, she loses outside the game too. In hindsight, the Mythomagic was a bad idea.

"Okay, wait, stop." I held my free hand up as I turned to my party members, dragging my other hand down across my nose. "Who is this smug bastard again?"

"Wha - " In an instant, the angry whoever was once again the nerdy Roman with a puppy as he gaped at me. "You don't know who I am?" He said incredulously. "I invented carpentry!"

"Debatable," Luke coughed.

"Oh, like you have done any better, demigod!" Daedalus (?) glared at him. Luke glared right back, crossing his arms. Carpentry, huh? And Luke did not like this guy. Guess we were dealing with some kind of historic…demigod?

(?)

Great.

Mom's education was once again worthless.

"My statues, the daedala? Known for their uncanny likeness?"

"...is that what they're called?" I wondered.

"He was named after them," Luke explained. I could almost hear Daedalus' teeth grind together.

"That's not true. First man to fly."

"His son Icarus was the first plane crash."

"Invented the mast and sail design!"

"Stole it from your sister. Hermes remembers."

"I did not - "

"Yeah, yeah," Luke waved off. "Women couldn't take credit for anything back then."

"Are you going to contradict everything I say!?" He snapped finally. Mrs. O'Leary woofed in concern, pressing against him and almost toppling him over with all 300 of her pounds. Quintus took a deep, calming breath. Then he stood proudly with an equally superior smile,

"I mapped the Labyrinth!"

"He killed his nephew," Artemis said.

His smile disappeared.

"Oh don't you even start with me, hypocrite - "

"Mapped the Labyrinth?" Luke muttered. "You didn't even create it, you absolute - "

"You can't map the Labyrinth," I interrupted everyone and Quintus snapped back to me, scoffing.

"I thought you said you were educated by Apollo, but then knowing that god - "

"Not Apollo. My mother told me you cannot map the Labyrinth." I took off my sunglasses and stared right into his storm gray eyes and watched the color drain from his face. "But if it 'likes' you, it will pretend you can. But you can't. Ever."

Now I could place this guy. The nameless mortal who told the rest of the Greek world about the existence of the eternal maze running in a phased space through the Earth's crust, like blood vessels under the skin. You could walk into an opening you thought was a normal cave with only one exit and get lost forever. You could cross the planet in five minutes or cross the street in fifty years. It was choked with the Mist, messing with all six of your senses. It was vast, it was dangerous, it was malevolent because it was alive.

"That's why you took an escort across the desert, isn't it, Daedalus?" I prodded. "What did he call his usual methods back at the diner?"

Luke had a mean smile as he remembered. "Unreliable?"

Quintus scowled. "An escort I invited you on, out of the goodness of my - "

"Celestial bronze heart?" I asked and he paled again. "Sorry." Not sorry. I grinned my toothy smile and tilted my head at just the angle that creeped Cliff out. My spine clicked. "Forgot to mention." I tapped my left temple. "This son of Fate can see how you die."

The silence was thick and heavy. Mrs. O'Leary's head swung back and forth between us like she was following an invisible tennis ball bouncing back and forth. It was a mirror of the way Daedalus' eyes traveled all three of us like he was trying to see into our bones.

"Why are you defending her?" Quintus finally asked quietly. "Don't you know what the gods - she has done?"

"Yup." I popped the P, then I gestured down at the bunny with two hands. "But just wook at dat wittle face! How can you be mad at her? She's adorable."

Luke snorted and then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Percy."

"No one else gives that rabbit shit for being shit but us."

My Camp Counselor sighed. "Mascot?"

I nodded. "Exactly!"

Artemis stared up at us, speechless.

I made up my mind.

Mom's punishment was earned. 100%.

But Artemis swore on the Styx.

To help.

We were now parole officers.

Daedalus stared at us blankly. Then he closed his eyes and sighed, resigned. He half-turned away. He exchanged looks with some of the monsters milling around their vehicles and there was a prickling along my forearms. Kallisto was still breathing down my neck.

Awesome.

I was in so much mortal danger, my Spidey Sense was in overflow.

Quintus raised a hand like he was saying goodbye. "Camp Half-Blood remains blindly loyal to the last, I suppose."

This time, it was my turn to snort. I almost choked even as the thin hungry faces of Ghost Rider's crew crept in. I couldn't help it. "Pretty sure that changed once they all learned Athena used to be King of the Gods."

Daedalus just about gave himself whiplash turning back around.

"What did you say?"

Huh, that's funny.

That was literally the same thing Annabeth said when she heard that.

 

[Leecifer]

AN: Sorry for the delay. Motivation during a cancer scare is hard to find.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the chapter, don't worry about the delay, and I hope the scare was just a scare.

 

[Shujin]

Thanks for the chapter, don't worry about the delay, and I hope the scare was just a scare.

Click to shrink...

We will find out for sure next week with the biopsy.

 

[Aaron_04]

No worries it is perfectly understandable, you cant force the writting out.

 

[Oxymoron]

One of these days when I'm not a broke bitch imma force you to make a patreon Shujin, and force feed you money.

 

[Shujin]

One of these days when I'm not a broke bitch imma force you to make a patreon Shujin, and force feed you money.

Click to shrink...

I think people wishing they could give me money is one of the nicest compliments I've gotten.

 

[VH777Dragon]

One of these days when I'm not a broke bitch imma force you to make a patreon Shujin, and force feed you money.

Click to shrink...

Do it

 

[Shujin]

I appear to be in the clear!

In regards to the story, does anyone have any outstanding questions or suggestions for future chapters? I've been told this is a bit of a bad spot to have a side story update, so chronologically the Hiraya PoV will be a bit weird, but hopefully it will be okay.

 

[DeathShade]

I appear to be in the clear!

In regards to the story, does anyone have any outstanding questions or suggestions for future chapters? I've been told this is a bit of a bad spot to have a side story update, so chronologically the Hiraya PoV will be a bit weird, but hopefully it will be okay.

Click to shrink...

I have a question. Will we have a chapter written from Luke's point of view before this 'book' of the story is over? We've seen Percy and had Percy's reaction to everything so far. I know we had that snippet of it in one chapter, but a whole chapter told from Luke's pov might be a nice way to write something a little different, without diverging away from the main story.

 

[Aaron_04]

I appear to be in the clear!

In regards to the story, does anyone have any outstanding questions or suggestions for future chapters? I've been told this is a bit of a bad spot to have a side story update, so chronologically the Hiraya PoV will be a bit weird, but hopefully it will be okay.

Click to shrink...

Yoooooooo! that is great!
About future chapters the Hiraya PoV is ok, it is not that bad of a spot imo

 

[Shujin]

I have a question. Will we have a chapter written from Luke's point of view before this 'book' of the story is over? We've seen Percy and had Percy's reaction to everything so far. I know we had that snippet of it in one chapter, but a whole chapter told from Luke's pov might be a nice way to write something a little different, without diverging away from the main story.

Click to shrink...

Hmm, good question. Currently I have Luke's PoV planned as the epilogue for this book before the preview chapter for the next. I have no problem continuing to write Percy's PoV, so writing something different isn't the issue. The side stories are more of a way to expand on the world and increase reader understanding of events and implications without info dumping in the main story. However, all of the side stories are going to be related to the events in the main story to avoid interlude bloat where I'm just writing irrelevant or fluff stuff to have fun. This story has enough of a problem with length lol.

If I have Luke earlier, well, if it covers his feelings about this cluster fuck of a Quest and Percy's chaotic existence then it will basically cannibalize my epilogue, so not sure what to write for him...

 

[ArcanaVitae]

Maybe a PoV from Dionysus, that would have a lot of potential given that he is formerly mortal, an Olympian, still figuring stuff out.

 

[Shujin]

Maybe a PoV from Dionysus, that would have a lot of potential given that he is formerly mortal, an Olympian, still figuring stuff out.

Click to shrink...

Still thinking about this, but just wanted to say now the weird friendship thing between Percy, Luke and Artemis is complete. Hopefully I sold you all on it going forward?

 

[ArcanaVitae]

Still thinking about this, but just wanted to say now the weird friendship thing between Percy, Luke and Artemis is complete. Hopefully I sold you all on it going forward?

Click to shrink...

The friendship feels realistic and well done which is an accomplishment given how different they are, but I do feel like they are friends now even with all the stuff between them. I am interested in seeing it develop as things happen, such as Luke's whole working for Kronos thing, Artemis possibly having more crazy stuff or becoming an Immortal again, and Percy character development. But I am invested in the friendship now.

 

[Shujin]

An Undertow of Sand
A PJO Fanfiction​

"Again!" Daedalus demanded.

"Athena ruled Olympus for at least two millennia," I droned for the fifth time. "She founded Mycenaean Greece."

Basically.

Malcolm taught me that Theseus, the demigod she helped, went on to found Athens. How many times did that story repeat? Didn't Annabeth tell me something about how Poseidon tried to take Troezen from her too? And Athens itself by contest or something? I'll be honest. I wasn't really paying attention, because Greeks are jerks.

News at 11.

The ancient half-blood leaned back from his seat on the gravelly ground. His head tilted up as his face scrunched into this confused, upset but awed expression. We went from facing off on the edge of a fight to sitting in a circle on the ground Kumbaya style. I wasn't going to complain about it. It meant we weren't dying just this second.

Instead I asked, "Is it sinking in yet?"

"Not really," Quintus admitted. "One more time!"

I sighed. The smart thing would have been to humor him, but I was tired of repeating myself. Luke was a model student compared to this guy.

"No, you're supposed to be smart, or something." I was guessing based on his boasting from earlier. It doesn't take a lot of brain cells to stumble into the Labyrinth when it wants to be found. "We've got places to be. Figure it out on your own time."

"I'm trying!" He protested. "You don't understand how much this recontextualizes - what it means - how? When exactly?"

"You want me to tell you now?" I said incredulously. Kallisto is shivering down my spine. I was not going to get into that whole thing here in the middle of the desert. Quintus may not care if a giant murder bear came out of nowhere and murdered us, but I sure did. "It was ages ago. Why do you even care so much?"

"Why do I - "

"He has no idea who you are," Luke pointed out from next to me. He still had his dad's lighter gripped tightly in his hand. Quintus fumed, fists in his lap. Mrs. O'Leary sniffed around his neck and then laid a big, fat slobbering kiss on his head, giving him a blond cowlick. He calmed down enough to spit out,

"Son of Intellect, remember?"

Uh.

"If it makes you feel better, pretty sure your dad and her are still engaged," I offered. It was like Alabaster and Hecate all over again. Of course the Titanborn would only know the 'safe' uncommon knowledge and nothing else.

"...what?" Quintus croaked and Luke snorted. The look on Daedalus' face was somewhere between horrified and resigned. Poor guy just had absolutely no clue. "I - what?"

"He has no idea," Luke repeated.

"I know about Icarus!" I defended my honor. "He's the guy that crashed the sun chariot, right?" I could feel the stares from both my party members and the Roman go straight through me, which meant I should not have said anything. Luke's mouth opened, then he closed it. He held up a finger.

"One, that's Phaethon. Icarus had the wax wings. Two, I am putting you right back into Greek Mythology for Beginners when we get home."

…um.

Yeah, no, Phaethon (?) never came up.

"Okay, in my defense, Apollo told me that." Artemis grumbled some very uncomplimentary things in Ancient Greek about her brother's intelligence. "And in his defense, Helios was the sun god at the time, not him and he has a hard time remembering Herodotus died two thousand years ago."

"Two thousand four hundred and twenty years ago," Daedalus muttered petulantly. "And seven months."

"Sure, that, okay." I waved. "Whatever."

"The nereid you punched at Camp," Luke said suddenly, realizing something profound.

"The one with the suicidal dumbass boyfriend?" I said, confused. "And she was blaming Mom for some reason?"

Why was he bringing that up?

"You were actually serious. You thought he was her boyfriend." Luke's smile was twisted up. "He was her nephew. You don't know who Achilles is, do you?"

Artemis made a sound.

"...I now feel like I should." Now that I thought about it, didn't Chiron mention him getting training or something before we left Camp?

"By the Styx, Percy."

"I told you I learned about the god stuff."

"I didn't think that meant you don't know about the mortal stuff!"

Quintus (I am going to have to decide what I'm calling this guy eventually) was mumbling to himself. "Intellect - separate deity, he can't mean - Prometheus?" Daedalus said very quietly, like he was scared saying it too loudly would get him smited. "She's betrothed to Prometheus?"

Luke grinned.

"Yeah?" I said. "Has been for a while?"

Daedalus let out a strangled scream, throwing his hands up in the air.

"This is unbelievable!"

Luke leaned towards an exasperated auburn bunny. "This. Is. Amazing."

"From this end, you mean," she replied dryly.

"No more comments from the peanut gallery!" Quintus (fuck it, his identity crisis is his problem) snapped at them, hands on his knobby old man knees in his sweatpants. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"I still don't know why you care," I reminded him.

He ground a palm into his face. "She's my mother."

Oh.

"Huh, so you are a demigod," I said. "Then what's with the…" I made a vague gesture at his everything. "Terminator get up?"

"So I wouldn't die," Quintus said flatly. Cool, he knows the Terminator. "I transferred my soul into a crafted homunculus of Celestial Bronze and - "

"It is unnatural," Artemis muttered.

He scowled at her. "If I had a dinar for every time I heard that - "

"It's perfectly natural?" I spoke up and the old demigod and rabbit froze in place.

"...it is?" The former goddess of the Hunt asked with hesitant ears. "Truly?"

("I love this," Luke muttered.)

"Yeah? Mom is big on everything being permitted." I would know. She never punished me, for anything. "But Step-dad drew some lines. If it wasn't allowed," I pointed at Quintus. "He would have been erased."

Quintus knew what I meant by that. The blood drained from the older man's face.

"Don't time travel, especially not backwards," I told Quintus. "Time really doesn't like that."

("I am learning things," Luke said.")

"I understand," Quintus said weakly.

Maybe the Hounds weren't great fairy tales for a five year old, but that doesn't matter. I preferred Mom's bedtime stories over the nightmares the Dreamlands gave me about Dad's abominations like the Tooth Fairy.

"I am a little confused how you didn't just die as soon as you tried to transfer though…?" I admitted.

I rubbed my chin, thinking it over. The body was important, even after you died. The undead and revenants were trapped in it. You could do nasty things to ghosts if you had their corpse on hand. Quintus wasn't undead though, because I could see him die. The Roman Ancient Greek just got paler and paler waiting for me to say something until he looked like death warmed over.

"I mean, congratulations on defying death?" I tried to make him feel better. I was a little worried he was about to pass out and then all hell would break loose. He was the only thing holding back the monster bikers. They were still waiting at the edges, watching us closely with too bright eyes.

"Becoming a lich is a great goal to have, I approve - but like, phylacteries are always about anchoring parts of the soul. The natural splits - "

Suddenly, I knew how he pulled it off.

"Oh right," I said, remembering Annabeth. Who was stuck in the Dreamlands, unable to return because her soul had completely left her body. Clovis and the others were staying to protect her because she couldn't find her way back through the Night. No anchor back to her mortal coil remained.

If it ever existed in the first place.

"...Percy?" I turned to Luke. He looked concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I…" I wasn't okay. "I am having a second hand existential crisis on the behalf of a mutual friend."

Luke had cracked a smile at first, but when I finished his face was full of dread. "Annabeth?"

"Athena fucked her kids up."

Artemis choked.

Holy crap.

Athena fucked her kids up.

It didn't hit me while I was Dreaming because my logical mind was asleep. Now, I was very awake and the stark reality was slapping me in the face. Human souls shouldn't work like that. They don't work like that. They can't work like that. Mortality means you were tethered to a body that can die. I was reminded of Artemis' account of the Roman gods. Formless, but independent beings. But those were Young gods. A Domain could substitute. Spirits were always tied down. To a tree, a concept, a duty. Elder Gods can't be separated from their physical being either. It's just that what counts as 'physical being' could be a bit weird.

But even my mother could be chained.

If Annabeth and Quintus could just abandon their body entirely without dying, did that make them somewhat immortal? Were they tethered to someone, not something? Was that why Athena didn't treat them as children?

Was Cabin Six full of half-bloods or was it full of semi-divine golems?

Monsters.

"Athena fucked her kids up," I said again, faintly.

Quintus blinked owlishly at me. His face then fell. "No."

"Yes." I insisted. "One of your siblings, she's stuck in the Dreamlands right now because her soul doesn't split. She's not tethered to her body." Quintus' ghost shifted. It changed right before my eyes. Its smile was not relieved. It was sad, but peaceful. Then an explosion from within turned everything white.

For a long moment, the ancient demigod said nothing. He just studied me for a long moment. Then he raised a hand and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"A brand that follows me no matter what body I take," he murmured. "Because my body didn't matter. It was always about my…" His head bobbed thoughtfully. "Excuse me."

He stood up and walked a few paces away, his hellhound puppy at his heels whimpering in concern. Then he stubbed his toe on a rock or something because out of nowhere he started yelling at the sky, cursing up a blue streak in at least five different ancient Greek dialects and a few others. I recognized Egyptian and what might have been Phoenician, but I don't want to know what it means that I knew it.

" - I have fucking accomplishments!" He screamed at the void above us. "Stop fucking taking them away from me, gods fucking damn it Athena!"

One of the monsters watching him, turned to Ghost Rider to complain with a cockney accent,

"I don't get it - are we eating the fecking blighters or not?"

"You're not," I said. Quintus whirled on me. His gray eyes were wide and panicked. His neck was flushing red with rage. I wasn't worried though. Now that I knew this guy was a child of Athena, I knew exactly how to handle him. "Think of all the lore I can't tell you when I'm dead."

"You - " Quintus froze, finger pointing at me.

Got'im.

I stood up slowly. "Finish your business, then I'll see you back at Camp Half-Blood to pay you back."

"Please," he sneered. "Do you think I've been living in the Labyrinth all this time for my own health?" He paused. "Well, I have been, but only so I wouldn't be found - " He sighed. "You know what I mean."

"Hiding from the consequences," Luke said blandly. Artemis looked like she was going to say something, then she glanced at the both of us and drooped. Luke noticed and an absent hand gently cuffed her upside the head. "But your mother branded you for murder."

Quintus froze again. The realization dawned on his face.

"Yeah," I said with a shrug. "Athena knew where you were the entire time." If her kids were tethered to her, it was a few steps away from them being her spawns. She knows. Not wanting to fight the Labyrinth for him wasn't wisdom. It's called being sane. "She knows where you are now."

"She is simply too busy," Artemis spoke up, sounding very pleased with herself for the dig.

"Yes," Quintus hissed, not nearly as pleased. "You gods are good at being too busy, aren't they?"

Luke frowned as the rabbit reeled back..

"Don't worry," I cut in. Let's not go down that road again. "I'll be changing that."

Quintus raised an eyebrow. He looked me up and down. I felt vaguely insulted. "Sure you will."

"My mother's not too busy and I can prove it." I gave him a big grin and mentally crossed my fingers hoping that Mom would back me up here. I took a few extra steps away from my party members. Then a few more steps. Just -

Just in case.

"Hermes has no idea he wrote up for a cross pantheon violation Ananke herself."

Mom was there.

And she was still pissed.

I could tell because I fell about six feet and rolled my ankle when the ground underneath me just evaporated. My tattered tunic fell apart. Time seemed to slow down as I watched it crumble into the same bone white dust as the ground, falling off me in streams of dust that blew away on the Night Winds. I saw my skin ripple and spasm. My stomach scrunched and I thought my belly button looked back -

Then the moment was gone and I was left in a big hole with glass smooth sides and no shirt.

"Thanks, Mom," I muttered. I was stuck. "Sorry, love you too."

There was no response.

I tested my ankle and approached the wall of the hole. My sneaker slid right off the smooth side with a screech of rubber sole. Dust fell in a stream and I looked up to see a gloved hand reaching down to help. There was fire and smoke and shadow grinning underneath. I followed the hand up further and saw the elf look back.

"Thanks," I said. I didn't move. I knew better. "Can I repay you with a joke?"

"A good one," she warned me.

"Cool." I grabbed her hand and she hauled me up easily. Around the hole I saw various monsters of the convoy had either backed off or thrown themselves onto the ground, stretching out all manner of limbs just like Rhea did. Luke was pale and sweaty, unsteady on his feet but making an effort to hold Artemis up. The small rabbit clinging to his vest looked like she just had a decade scared off her life.

"Urk!"

Quintus bent over and threw up.

"Yeah, sorry," I said. "She does that." As he wiped his mouth, I turned back to the elf. "So how many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?" She blinked her star-like eyes slowly at me. "None."

The Ghost Rider grumbled from somewhere behind Quintus (I must have hit a nerve) but the elf's laugh was like the short ringing of a chime.

"What's wrong with you!" Quintus barked at me.

"Uh nothing?" I said as I reached down and picked up my backpack. Capable of traversing space from the van to my hand, cursing thieves and defying physics, still missing a strap because of a fucking dog. "Also, rude."

"Very rude," Luke said unsteadily, but he strengthened. "You won't kill us."

"I don't have to take you with me either," he snapped back, but he glanced at the hole in the ground. It was the same radius as a trampoline and perfectly spherical. "I can leave you here. I -"

"I can't tell you shit if I'm dead," I sing songed.

Quintus rubbed at his temples, torn. "You don't understand…"

"Just tell your mom I said to let you bunk at Camp," I said reasonably as I dug around in my bag for another shirt. Apparently, I packed all my tunics. Another blue one. Blue is good. "Say I'm returning the favor. Feel free to rub it in. She wants to be on my good side. She'll do it."

Quintus wavered.

"He's been teaching us," Luke joined in. His voice was that smooth, calm tone again. "Your siblings have been getting themselves locked in their Cabin at least three times a week since they learned about Athena."

"...rioting?" Quintus asked quietly.

"Researching," Luke deadpanned and Quintus snorted.

"Yes, yes, that sounds like…" His voice got quieter. "Something I would do." The world hung on a breath as he thought about it. "You are being chased. I can't in good conscience put the convoy at further risk." My heart sank. "But," he continued. He glanced over my shoulder and I realized he was looking at the elf. "I won't say no to volunteers. The second route, further north. It's risky."

My heart sank further.

I didn't look back at the elf.

Debts were bad.

"No debt," the elf said, like she read my mind. "The favor has already been paid in entertainment." She smiled, but it wasn't a nice one. "I swear this thrice, on the Name of Nodens."

A chill ran down my spine, the sensation of a mountain that reached the stars shifting ever so slightly with glacial movement in our direction. A howl rang out in my mind of some unnamed predator, blood was in my mouth, a faint unpleasant pressure like being squeezed through a tube lined with the glass shards of its attention and then it, too, was gone.

I breathed out, shaken. Now I know how everyone else feels when Mom answers.

I knew that Name. Nodens. He was Celtic. That probably means she was not a Light Elf of the Norse, she was one of ours. No wonder she laughed at my joke. Dark and gallows humor, we love that shit.

I wish she was Norse.

"Okay then," I murmured. I glanced at Luke and Artemis.

"We need to go," Artemis said quietly. "I feel…"

I felt it too.

We were boring Kallisto.

"Get your bike," the elf told Luke. "Kieran, with me."

Joy.

Quintus watched us scramble around. Mrs. O'Leary first followed Luke around as he hauled his red and gold hot rod motorcycle out of the van and then she ran back to follow me. She was sniffing me frantically, like she was trying to commit to memory what we smelled like. Like she knew her new friends were leaving.

"It's okay girl." I rubbed her ears as her brimstone eyes stared pitifully back at me. I give up. This hellhound was alright. Her siblings were all jerks though. "We'll see you soon."

Up close, I realized that the elf's bike didn't just look like she fused a deer to an engine. The fur was real and warm and I could feel a pulse under my hand when I touched it and it whined. It was a whistling agonized sound as the three heads of the deer twitched.

…please… Destroyer…

Was he talking to me?

"Don't mind him," the elf said lightly as she put on her helmet. "I won a bet and he's a sore loser, aren't you, old friend?"

"So…" I started. "How long ago was that?"

The shadow and smoke chuckled as dark blood from the deer trickled onto the ground. "Does it matter?"

She's definitely a Celt.

"Good to see you still have some spirit!" She said gleefully in Gaelic. The deer moaned and then went silent. I swallowed as she held up a hand and with a twinkle of fae lights and embers, a smaller motorcycle helmet was tossed my way. Right. So I just…keep my hands in very safe locations.

Quintus wandered over as the convoy split into two groups. The more varied monsters, the big ones stayed with Ghost Rider as the thin, hungry human-like waifs drove in circles around us, a low chant starting up that thrummed in my blood.

He sidled up, looking hesitant.

"I'm sorry," he said miserably. "But Artemis…I can't."

"I get it," I said as I put on my helmet. Khione said the same thing and I couldn't blame her either. This guy had thousands of years of history as a branded demigod alone in the Greek world. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Quintus nodded and turned to leave. He took two steps and then turned back around. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"Sure, every human who has ever breathed oxygen?" I paused for dramatic effect. His eyes widened as he leaned in, desperate as the elf's engine roared alive. "Dies!"

I don't have it in me to regret that one, because you could almost see Quintus' soul just leave his body.

"Athena's always been a bad mom. Your brother Ericthonius still lives in Atlantis."

The elf whistled. Her engine roared again, sounding like a dragon and the last I saw of Quintus was his shocked face.

Then it was just the desert.

It was wrong.

The rumble of the engine, the wind whipping past, the crunch of the gravelly, sandy ground and even the look of the Night sky. Everything seemed almost too real. Too bright, too loud, too close. Vibrations were rattling my skeleton as the scenery blurred. We didn't even seem to be going that fast, like our speed was completely independent of how fast we were going.

"Is this a Hunt?" I asked. The noise stole my words away, but the elf heard them. Must have been the long ears.

"Aye, but not yet!" She sounded excited. "We're the prey!"

Glad one of us was having fun.

My neck was still screaming. A looming sense of dread was creeping closer but no matter how much I swiveled my head around, searching, there was nothing around. On a normal day with the sun out, I bet you could stand on one of the nearby plateaus and see for miles. I was back in the dark ocean, feeling the doom creep in. An hour passed like this, waiting.

The attack, when it came, was sudden.

The van. The one we had been riding in until we moved to the bikes drove up next to us. I saw the elf's head turn, "Fiamh, what are you doing - "

It exploded in a burst of rotting flesh and foul blood like it wasn't a van at all, but a giant diseased tick. The shockwave crashed into me, drops of blood burned on my tongue. For the third time in this Quest, I was airborne.

I don't remember hitting the ground.

I remember flashes. Pain. The moment that really sticks out was watching a rabbit look at me and just -

give up

A massive silhouette reached for her, she wasn't going to move in time and the absolute feeling of certainty that Artemis was going to let herself die here. I remember feeling my jaw dislocate itself and distend. There was a different kind of roar. And then -

"Don't you fucking dare!" A voice yelled. "Die on your own time! You swore, Thal - "

Then I must have blacked out again because the next thing I knew,

"- hold on!" I felt myself being picked up as sound came back in bursts along with the pain.
"My legs," I rasped, tasting blood in my mouth. I think I lost a few teeth and I couldn't feel anything under my waist. "I think - "

"I got you - " The sound died. Then it came rushing back as I was placed on a motorcycle. I got the vague impression of red and gold in front of my face. Luke. " - Arizona?"

"I don't know!" Artemis' voice wailed. Someone was screaming in distance, a tortured howl and I recognized it.

"I know where - " The third voice cut off.

I felt like I was underwater, trying to breathe through crushed lungs as the waves washed over me as a rush in my ears. My head pounded.

" - hurt bad, he can't do that again - "

"Strap him in, quickly!"

"Luke?" I slurred. I felt like I didn't have lips. What happened to my face?

"Hey, bud," he said softly with the same tone I've heard him use on the younger Campers. "You're going to be okay, alright?" There was that slight warble that said he was trying to be strong because they were hurting. I couldn't see him clearly. That worried me. "Just need you to do one thing for me. Open wide."

He shoved two cubes of Ambrosia into my mouth immediately, the normal limit for most demigods before they burst into flame.

"Can you - " He turned from me. I could see the silhouette of him moving as my blood rushed in my head again.

"Did he swallow any?" Someone asked. The voice was familiar. I felt an impression of heat against my side as a cool hand brushed my forehead. "Don't die now, Kieran."

I won't.

"I don't know," Luke responded shakily. "Did that cause - he can handle it - " he pivoted. "Son of Fate, right?"

No one answered him.

"Okay," he murmured. "Okay."

"Go," the elf said. "We'll distract it."

"It will not work for long - " Artemis started.

"It does not need to," the elf laughed. "We just want to have some fun!"

Luke started his bike. I felt it rumble against my stomach and I realized I was laying on the seat in front of him. My sense of up and down was all messed up or it was like I was (kind of) seeing through eyes that weren't above my nose.

"Where are we - " I tried to speak but Luke shushed me.

"Just, rest, okay? We've got a little ways and then I'll…" He trailed off. "Figure something out."

"Luke," Artemis' voice said worriedly.

"Who do you trust more?" He asked. "Your father or your step-brother?"

"Hephaestus," Artemis said immediately.

Ouch.

Luke let out a dark sounding chuckle. "Yeah, you and your sister both…"

I think I fell asleep, because the next time I was aware again, no one was saying anything. The screaming was gone and I could hear what sounded like pavement under the tires, instead of desert ground. I felt better, a sharp tingling like pin needles ran up and down my legs and back. I was able to blink again. We were in some kind of town with small squat looking houses with empty streets.

"I'm good," I croaked.

I felt Luke jump. "Styx! Perce - you shouldn't be - " He made a hard turn at the next road sign. "Okay, don't need the hospital - where are we going?"

"I - " I saw Artemis' head poking out of Luke's vest beside me, looking around desperately. "I do not recognize anything - he might not be paying attention - "

"You're a mortal now!" Luke almost yelled at her. "Fucking pray!"

The rabbit startled and then shut her eyes, mumbling.

A store sign on an abandoned corner store flicked on. Some of the lights had burned out but some were left flickering. Before I could even try to read the broken up word it made, Artemis' ears shot straight up.

"Left!"

Luke burned rubber, leaning hard into the turn. I couldn't tell if the back of my neck was screaming or if everything was screaming.

Another store sign flickered on in the distance.

"Left again!"

We followed the trail of store signs off the main road and deep into the middle of nowhere where a ghost town with old school mining equipment rusted and broken silently littered the gravely road. A final 1950s looking diner flipped its sign on, WE'RE OPEN.

Beyond it was a junkyard.

Mountains of trash, old refrigerators, cars, TVs, toys, bicycles in various states of brokenness were piled high on top of each other along with the smashed chariots, crumbled statues, a few dozen crowns decorated with pearls, rubies and sapphires, and a washing machine squatting like it owned the place.

There was another side to the place. Laying on top of an old couch was a gleaming Celestial Bronze bow that reeked of an enchantment. In the driver's seat of a broken down tractor was a shining lorica chest armor, decorated with silver and gold along with an electric guitar shaped like Apollo's lyre. It even felt like him, but there was something wrong with it. Like the time he tried to fix the coffee machine. The broken off heads of bronze horses were scattered around as in the back a giant trash compactor loomed over it all.

And of course, the gate was locked.

Luke flung out a hand, face screwed up in concentration and with a loud click the giant padlock fell to the ground. He spun the bike into a skid, slowing down just enough to let him kick the gate open.

We were through.

Now what?

Luke drove right through, maneuvering around what he could avoid and driving over what he couldn't. Behind a big pile of stuff, he stopped.

"Okay," he breathed. "Perce, how are you feeling?"

I felt like newly ground beef, but I wasn't going to say that. "A bit sore, but I'm fine."

To prove it, I got off the bike. I nearly threw up. My stomach was a miasma of ick and I felt hot. I worried that I was developing a fever again, like at Rhea's on top of the pain. My back was hovering at a level of Fuck/10 and my legs weren't any better. I was really feeling a broken right big toe right now and my face felt raw.

My eyes hurt.

Luke eyed me suspiciously, but he didn't call me out. Instead he turned to look around the junkyard.

"There," he pointed. I looked and saw telephone poles strung up with wires. "Was she tall enough to get caught in those?"

They saw her?

Artemis squinted. "Almost."

"How sturdy are these piles?" I spoke up. Luke knew what I was getting at, looking around again with fresh eyes.

"We need to involve Hep - " She stopped herself. "The forge god. I think he is just - just waiting for an excuse. He has power here."

"What are the defenses like here?" Luke asked. "The only traps I can sense are on some items."

"This is the junkyard of the gods," Artemis said and there was a bitter undertone to her voice. "A simple padlock to keep people out, no warnings and nothing to keep anyone safe. What else could we possibly care about other than thieves?"

The wind shifted.

"She's here," Artemis said, hushed.

She was.

As the lumbering form slowly slunk through the open gate of the junkyard, I could see why Kallisto went down in history as a bear. Just as I could see how Apollo could say her true nature was hidden by the Mist and that she wasn't a bear at all.

There was a vaguely canine short muzzle lined with fangs. It was hunched over, like Artemis' Roman half Diana with a too long neck and torso. The silver chiton like uniform was almost completely intact, billowing about her, giving Kallisto the appearance of a burly, heavyset form, but underneath she was an emaciated skeleton. Large dark claws curled off the tips of hairy paws. She walked on three of her limbs, the fourth clutching desperately the broken remains of a silver bow to her thin chest.

She had no eyes. Gouged out pits partially hidden with bandages stained a rust red with old blood. It looked like worms were writing under her skin and the silver fabric over her chest moved independently.

"Arty…" I sighed.

The rabbit looked down at the ground.

"That pile," Luke whispered, pointing. It was actually three piles close together, but I could see that one had a beaten up Chevy Impala sticking precariously out of it. "Can you play bait? Artemis."

Her head whipped around. "I - yes."

"Bait," Luke warned her. "You don't have my permission to die."

Artemis didn't reply, just darted out into the open and jumped on top of a broken TV that looked like something out of an old sitcom. Just as Kallisto's head peered around a corner, she did something I thought only happened in that one old Disney movie, with the deer. She started thumping her foot against the TV like it was a drum.

"She didn't - " Whatever Luke was going to say was immediately silenced by the tortured scream that shook the yard. Kallisto took one lumbering step, and then it was like she swung her body like it was a bat. One second Kallisto went from standing there, and in the next Artemis was already running as the Hunter was way too close, slamming everything around her into a scattered pile of trash.

You don't understand. Imagine a trash pile of junk with TV screens, old dishwashers and chairs and desks, the works.

And it just scatters like you swung a hand through a Jenga tower.

Luke yanked my arm, ducking under debris, "Come on! This way!"

I think I got it. Lure the former Hunter to where the car was perched, drop said car on her, then keep running. Simple, direct, this was a good plan, right? We couldn't possibly screw this one up.

Right?

As Kallisto smashed through another pile trying to grab Artemis, Luke glanced back at me, "Gonna need your help with this."

"Drop the car on her?" I asked, hoping I was on the same page as him, and blinked when Luke shook his head quickly.

"Not yet, need to slow her down, trip her up, something to keep her still long enough to do the trick." Luke explained, eyes searching the scattered junk before he paused, "Huh, that could be useful."

I followed his stare and saw what look liked the freakish love-child between a roll of barbed wire and a bomb. Luke dove for it, sweeping it up into his hands.

"What do you need me to do?" I blurted out, as another loud crash sounded. Artemis couldn't run forever. In response, he shoved the bomb looking thing into my hands. "Use this."

"But - "

"Yeah, let's hope it works." Luke spun on his heel, grabbing a discarded spear. He completed the spin smoothly, launching it into the air where it cut through one of the wires running from the telephone pole. There was a loud snap! Sparks flew as the wire fell.

"Damn, it still has power. Plan C."

"What even was plan B!" I yelled.

"That that thing works!" He yelled back. My Spidey Sense screeched as he yelled, "Scatter!"

I dove to the side immediately.

Kallisto screamed.

Tendrils burst from her like a mutated hedgehog, slicing through the air in all directions. If I hadn't dropped, I would have been speared like a bug on a pin. As soon as they pulled back, I got up and just ran, clutching the strange device in my hand.

It felt cruel and bloodthirsty. The barbed wire really gave it a Try Hard look.

Junkyard of the gods.

I bet I know whose art class project this was.

I risked stopping. Just enough to crank the obvious handle on the thing. It jammed and seized with rust. "Come on," I whispered. "Come on!"

The handle slammed home with a clunking sound.

Then it started to tick.

Uh oh.

I ran back where I just came from. "ARTEMIS!"

A small auburn light bolt ran towards me, darting over the piles of trash. Kallisto followed her far more sedately, almost deceptively slow. She'd wind up and hold and then blur into motion. I was hoping that was just how she was and it wouldn't change.

I was counting on it.

I hefted the ticking barbed wire bomb and threw it as hard as I could. It sailed over Artemis' head. Kallisto was blind and thousands of years old. The ticking meant nothing to her. She suspected something as she wound up her arm. The ticking stopped as it fell with a clunking sound at her gnarled feet.

Oh, okay.

Fuck me, I guess.

The bomb exploded. Reams of barbed wire snaked out of the bomb, wrapping around the Bear as she screamed.

"How do you like that!?" I yelled, whooping.

The Bear reached up, and ripped the barbed wire spike from her chest and tossed it aside. My cheer died as the wriggling under her skin got worse. Her dress started to rip as streams of repulsive, clotted blood began to stream out from her wounds. This thing with two mouths burst from her chest as her scream took on multi tones.

So I was right earlier.

Fuck me.

A roar punched through the Night air as I watched a fucking RPG missile slam into the Bear, knocking her back into a large pile of trash. It didn't all fall over. Underneath was a shining Celestial Bronze construct of some kind. The gears and frame of what was clearly a giant robot arm. Someone's been watching Star Wars movies over and over because there was a suspicious resemblance to C3PO.

There was no way someone would throw an entire giant robot away, right?

I remembered what Artemis said.

What else would gods care about, than thieves?

I ran.

"Artemis!" I called out. "The pillars!"

She split off from me, dashing through a broken down car with missing doors.

I had an idea. It was a stupid idea, but I knew that we were on a deadline. Kallisto was only going to get stronger.

Artemis had an idea too. It was the same as my first one. She made a beeline for the tallest pile, the one with the Chevy Impala defying gravity.

Trash gave way under my feet, causing me to trip. I reached out to steady myself and my world tilted. There was a brief glimpse of Nightshade, tiara and all. The girl and boy from before, on the mountain. Black hair punk with brilliant blue eyes and someone who could have been my twin brother who's sea green eyes looked away from the scene to -

To see me.

"It…it was for Nico," a girl's voice said. "It was the only statue he didn't have."

'Not now!'

The vision broke. I could feel blood gush out of my nose, my head pounding as I finished picking up the small figurine. It was a Mythomagic statuette, from back when they launched their failed answer to Warhammer 40k figurines to go along with their card game. Now, they were just collectors items, discontinued after only 2 years of production.

The figure was of Hades.

Artemis made death defying jumps, hopping from perch to perch as she wound her way up the trash pile. Ominous creaking noises rang out as Kallisto lurched after her, blind. My heart was in my throat. If Artemis brought it down, it would hit Kallisto, but Artemis would still be on top of it.

She hopped onto a part of the pile where the car was sitting. The car creaked menacingly, and just like a Saturday cartoon, I watched the bunny rabbit slam her whole weight into an Olympus Air refrigerator. It fell onto the car, finally losing its war with gravity and the whole thing tilted.

"Artemis!" Luke yelled. "Jump!"

Kallisto just had enough time to scream as the car came down right on top of her head moments before the rest of the pile buried her under metal and other garbage.

I spun on my heel, breathing out just like Apollo taught me, and tossed the toy right into Kallisto's open mouth as she thrashed underneath the trash. She choked but couldn't spit it out. It had been a perfect throw.

"Oh no!" I cried out as loud as I could, clapping my hands to my cheeks. "Goodness me! Look at that! A thief!"

Artemis was right. Hephaestus just needed an excuse.

The Talos moved.

"Run!" Luke yelled as he caught the flying bunny he yanked towards him with his power.

We ran straight for the half buried trailer by the fence. I stumbled. "Wait," I called. "Luke, your bike!"

"Leave it!" he snarled as he jumped onto the roof with a single jump and turned around to haul me up and then tossed me over the barbed wire. I hit the ground hard enough to rattle my knees, but I kept running. I heard Luke land just as hard right behind me, Artemis in hand. I risked a glance backwards.

All I saw was the giant bronze frame of the Talos. Kallisto nowhere in sight.

This wasn't the end, but we bought ourselves time.

Not a lot.

---

I want to say our escape was a thrilling adventure, but the reality was we just ran blindly in a vaguely westward direction until we felt like our hearts would give out. Luke had to pick up Artemis when she ran out of stamina. I felt sick. My head was pounding and my blood felt like it was shifting underneath my skin. It was like I had a really bad vision, but that didn't happen. We found the Roman border by running right into it. I felt like I was six years old again, running face first into the sliding glass door I thought was open. Something shattered and then I fell through, stumbling up the hill.

"What the…hell…" I stopped at the top of the hill.

"By the gods…" Luke breathed.

"Oh," Artemis murmured.

All three of us stared down the hill at the land beyond the Roman border. The sky was no longer just the Night. Above us, dark storm clouds boiled beneath the black Night sky, rolling in and out like billowing smoke. Lightning flashed in the cloud, illuminating the massive silhouette of a creature in the sky.

Who was the sky.

I lifted a finger.

"The prison of the Sky Father," I whispered. I shifted my finger to point far behind us towards the East Coast, shining brightly against the darkness. An unbelievably large trunk, a pale white ash tree disappeared into the darkness above.

"Yggdrasil."

I traced the farthest branches to where they intertwined with the fiery branches of another massive hardwood growing far in the West, glowing gold. "The god that Burns."

Vesta.

The mountain of Despair, Mt. Othrys was far larger than it had any right to be, visible from an entire state away. A giddy feeling rose up in me. They were here. Not phased, or removed from reality, but here. It was like the world was glitching, merging the Was and Could Be and Not together into one plane.

"This is amazing!" I shouted.

"This is terrible!" Artemis shouted back. Luke said nothing, staring at the red harvest moon looming large in the sky. "We can't let it fall! We need the Mist! Even the gods!"

Wait.

"Wait, what?"

The moment was interrupted by the thundering of horses. The sound got louder and louder until they stampeded into sight. The horses were just what you expect. The riders weren't.

Hideous, twisted figures like humans turned inside out but still living with their arms or heads split open with teeth lining the wounds, joints twisted backwards. Some of them had eyeballs hanging out of the socket by the optical nerve with their internal organs showing through their mouths or chests. Their hair, if it could be called hair, were spikes sticking out in all directions like thorns. They were flayed, spurting blood, staining their leather armor.

I knew this. The riastrad, the same affliction that the Celtic demigod, the Hound of Ulster Cu Chulainn suffered from.

'Warp-spasms,' Mom called it.

"The Reserve," Artemis sighed sadly.

The Reserve?

At the head of the column rode two people. The first was a goddess, the rolling thundering of her presence was easy to sense. Strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a severe bun. She was definitely Roman if the armor meant anything, a long spear in her hand. Her right eye glared at us, an endless plain with no horizon. You could see and see and it kept going forever.

Her left eye was just blue. A faint scar crossed the socket. A replacement eye.

The second was a boy about three years younger than I was, the same age as Weird Girl. He was a light blond with electric blue eyes and a scar on the corner of his lip wearing armor that looked too big on him.

Luke made a wounded sound, staring at the kid like he'd seen a ghost.

"What's this?" The Roman said. "A graecus and…" She paused and I had a bad feeling about what she was going to say next. "...A celtae." She stared at me. Artemis wiggled free of Luke's hands, making him set her down.

"Epona," she called out and the goddess' attention shifted down to the small animal standing in front of us.

Oh good, Artemis knows her. We can get through this.

It wasn't like we could outrun horses on foot.

"Ah," the Roman said slowly. "I was mistaken. There are two graecus."

Artemis thumped. "You know who I am! Let us through."

Epona smiled at her. "I know who you are," she confirmed. "I also know what you are now and no mortal may command me."

Well, shit.

There went that faint hope.

"Fine," Artemis said eventually, but she sounded shaken. "If you cannot be commanded, then can you be reasoned with?"

The goddess' horse took a few steps forward and then back, dancing around. "What is there to reason?" She asked carelessly. "My lord has bid this border closed and closed it shall remain. You should be glad I am sending you away intact."

"Well," she said suddenly. "Most of you."

There was no warning.

The nearest Warped just extended in my direction like a human rubber band. It caught me around the neck. I had just enough time to realize how utterly reliant I've become on my Spidey Sense before I was slammed into the ground. I heard Luke let out a wordless yell. The ring of swords clashing, then a wet 'schlick' sound, a high pitched wail and I saw a twisted arm fall to the ground. Red blood spurted from the amputation and I could see that it was tattooed with 9 bars and a spear on the inside of the wrist.

Luke froze. Horror bloomed over his face as he stared at the blood. He didn't move, even when he was tackled to the ground next to me.

"Stop! Stop!" Artemis was yelling and so was the blond boy.

"Boy!" Epona barked, ignoring the rabbit. "Be silent. Soldiers of the Legion do not question their superiors. They obey."

I couldn't see much pinned to the ground, but I could hear the small pony skitter backwards. "I will obey," a childish, thin voice spoke from somewhere above me. Grass tickled my nose. Don't sneeze. "I just…wished to know which section of the legal coda holds the law we are judging them by."

So that heap of bullshit wasn't going to fly, but I loved Mystery Kid for trying.

Epona barked a harsh sounding laugh. She rattled off some numbers interspersed with Latin that had my head spinning, but Mystery Kid seemed to understand. He didn't like whatever it was he understood.

"That's for wartime," Luke whispered. He was slurred from his face being pressed into the road. "He's saying the code she's using is for prisoners of great enemies."

"And she is reminding him that Rome is at war," Artemis said despondently, head hanging. "The war with the Greeks has paused, not ended."

"War with the Greeks?" Luke was bewildered.

"And him?" Mystery Kid said in English again. "We are not at war with the Gallia - "

"He's not of Gaul," Epona snarled. He snarled back, a rough almost barking sound. "And you are not an animal! Bite your tongue."

Yeah, I knew who she was. She was Roman now, but once upon a time, she used to be Rhiannon's foster sister. Epona, the Gallic goddess of the Calvary and Equines, the Fertility of Spring and the Great Mare of the Dead. The Romans conquered Gaul. Absorbed what was left, and the rest was history. I knew now why the elf told me to avoid the Romans.

Mom was the Tuatha de of Future Victory in Death and Battle. The Harbinger of Fate. Just her omens alone could turn the tide of any battle.

The Gauls lost.

"Did you think I could not smell the stench of the Betrayer on you, celtae?" She sneered at me. "Did you think I wouldn't recognize the magic of the Dagda's black whore anywhere?"

Fire roared in my stomach.

"What did you just call hrmghl." My head was ground into the grass and dirt. I bucked, nearly throwing whoever was on me off, but that just invited their friend to dive onto me too.

"I won't kill you," Epona said graciously as I wriggled. Two, three, four Warped sitting on me. "I will just send you back to your mother in pieces, boy. Take his arm!"

How about not?

I struggled harder, digging as deep as I could past the pain until it took five of them just to stretch out my left arm.

Mom!

Nothing.

"Please!" Mystery Kid was begging. "You don't have to do this! At least give him a chance!"

A chance.

My brain started firing on all cylinders. Epona thought I was just a Celtic demigod. An Irish one.

There were rules.

"A duel!" I cried out as my left arm was finally straightened flat onto the cold ground. "I have the right to fight for it!"

I instinctively yanked, expecting the sword to come down on my arm at any moment, but there was nothing. It took me a moment to register that nothing was happening at all. I was abruptly released.

The goddess' mismatched eyes bore into me. "I am Roman, boy," she said severely. "I need not heed your request."

"I can tell you're Roman," I said. I brushed myself off, trying to hide how my hands were shaking.

I just challenged a god to a fight.

"Otherwise you'd treat your foster better."

Mystery Boy stiffened, sneaking a glance at Epona who scowled. "He's not mine."

Yeah, right.

And I'm just Greek.

"My existence doesn't offend Epona of Rome," I continued. "I offend Epona of Gaul. Fight me."

She tilted her head, eyeing me.

Then she smiled. "Very well." She swung off her large black horse smoothly, rolling her spear with her wrist. "My handicap?"

"The fight is to first blood," I said quickly. There was no way I was going to actually beat a god in a fair fight. Being able to land a hit first was my only hope. The way that got a bark of laughter from her didn't make me feel good though.

"You will ask three for advice in my hearing."

Okay. That was a traditional handicap. I didn't know how to feel about it. Glad she didn't ask for worse, like for me to fight one handed? Or worried that she was just that confident?

Why wouldn't she be?

She's a god.

They let Luke sit up, but twisted limbs still held him in place. His face was pale as he gazed around the crowd of Warped. His eyes met mine and they gleamed in the dark.

"They're children," he hissed and I thought back to the cry I heard when he cut one's arm off.

Artemis said Camp Jupiter wasn't better.

"I - okay," I dragged a hand down my face. I was tired. "I have to fight her and you have to give me a tip." I tried to motion with my eyes and face the rest of the sentence, 'that doesn't give itself away.'

Luke looked at me for a long moment. Then he watched Epona pace for a few moments. A small, superior smirk formed on his face. "Spear user, huh? She's worse than Silena."

I breathed out a sigh of relief. I knew what he meant. Luke has bitched often enough about her footwork, and just learned that it's because she was born of Astarte, Lion goddess of Chariots and Horses.

Epona was goddess of the Calvary. She's not used to fighting on foot.

"Thanks."

Luke's head bobbed. The Warped holding him down shifted and he glanced at them. "That kid," he said softly. "I know him."

"You do?" I asked, confused. Luke didn't know the Romans existed, had been at Camp for four years and you could clearly see the six bars for years of service on Mystery Kid's inner wrist. He must have been thrown into the Legion as a toddler.

"Well," Luke continued quietly, painfully. "Know of him."

I approached Artemis next.

The rabbit blinked up at me.

"You know the drill?"

She nodded slowly. "I do. I am…sorry, it has come to this."

"Hey, none of that," I said. "This time it wasn't your fault."

"If I was not a rabbit - "

"Stop beating yourself up. You've got plenty of others willing to do that for you."

She snorted.

"She doesn't know," I said quietly, jerking my head back to where Epona was still pacing impatiently. I pointedly raised a hand to my sunglasses. "If I were to tell her - "

"There must be a reason," Artemis told me, head dropping. "Fate always has one." I remembered that Rhea said the Hunter was in the Celtic pantheon. Someone who really didn't like my mother and was strong enough to do something about it. If I outed myself to the angry Gaul, I might be dropping a steaming pile of shit on Mom's head. I might be dropping that shit on my head.

"Plan B then," I said softly. "If this goes…poorly."

"Yes." Artemis then looked up at me again. "I am assuming you know far more than you should, so I will tell you a riddle. The death of Nuada Silverhand."

I waited. She didn't say anything else. "Wait, that's it?"

"Here." Artemis shuffled off her protective jacket, nudging it over to me with her nose. She did it so easily. I felt warm. Her silver eyes gazed at me solemnly. "And think about it."

I tried, but the second I started I then realized that Epona told me that my handicap was to ask three for advice. That was only two.

Fine.

Electric blue eyes widened as I stomped up to Mystery Kid's pony. "Hi, sorry your mom's a jerk. Got any tips?"

Those eyes widened further, then they narrowed. He slid off his horse and I noticed that he was younger than I was, but nearly just as tall. That was very unfair. He glanced at Epona before stalking around me. He had a strange, loping walk. He was leaned forward, a little hunched over and walking on the balls of his feet. He circled me like a wolf eyeing prey.

Then he stopped.

"You won't win," he said, just a little louder than necessary.

"Is that the advice?" I said dryly.

Mystery Kid smiled gently for a second. That's when I noticed he didn't make a full circle. He stopped just where my slightly taller frame hid him completely from his mother.

"Your mouth will get you in real trouble, better watch that."

"Gee, tha - " His mother has a temper, I realized. One that I could exploit. I gave the kid a considering look. "-nks."

"Don't thank me, graecus," he sneered as he stalked back to his pony.

I was going to have to do something real nice for that kid.

I dragged my feet a little going back, thinking furiously over Artemis' riddle. Nuada Silverhand. He got voted out from being King for a while because he lost his hand and the Celts at the time were vain perfectionist jackasses. You got maimed?

Sucks to be you!

You didn't know that your years of good kingship was worth jack shit compared to being ugly?

Should have thought of that before you got your hand cut off.

Surprisingly, after the jackasses voted the stupid tyrant Bres in his place, seven years was long enough for them to accept his new silver hand replacement as 'good enough' to make him king again. Balor killed him in battle though, because his silver hand wasn't…

Wasn't good enough.

I called my backpack to me. I dug into it desperately. It probably wasn't in here, I took it out, I know I took it out because why would I use it on a Quest?

It had to be in here.

It was.

I grabbed the object I was looking for, slipping it into the pocket of my jacket. As I took up my position and watched Epona show off with a few twirls of her spear, something occurred to me. Epona was goddess of the Calvary.

A Celtic war goddess with a spear. Stronger with longer reach than me.

Like I've been training against for years.

"Even if you win," Epona taunted. "It will be short lived, demigod."

Mom.

I love you.

My mother plans ahead. My Spidey Sense only triggered against shit that will kill me.

Time to make a god mad.

"My victory will be short lived," I agreed as I unsheathed Damocles from my necklace. The bone sword with its silver gold rippled edges was a comforting weight in the palm of my hand. I could do this.

I grinned cheekily. "Your defeat won't be."

 

[RollingFire]

You understand that you've ruined all other Percy Jackson stories for me, right?

Literally nothing else will sate me anymore. Every time I try, I'm like, "Damn this isn't as good as UoS."

This is my heroin.