The Truths Spoken In The Sea Of Lies

Daedalus

Daedalus, we meet,

Learning to soar in the wind,

Oh, we hate this.

***

"This way!" Rachel yelled.

"Why should we follow you?" Annabeth demanded. "You led us straight into that death trap!"

"It was the way you needed to go," Rachel said. "And so is this. Come on!"

Annabeth didn't look happy about it, but she ran along. Rachel seemed to know exactly where she was going. She whipped around corners and didn't even hesitate at crossroads.

Once she said, "Duck!" and they all crouched as a huge axe swung over their heads.

Then they kept going as if nothing had happened.

They lost track of how many turns they made. They didn't stop to rest until they came to a room the size of a gymnasium with old marble columns holding up the roof.

They were so exhausted they made camp right there in the huge room.

Annabeth found some scrap wood and they started a fire. Shadows danced off the columns rising around them like trees.

Rhea was training with her trident with Aidoneus a bit away from the two girls to not hurt them by accident.

"Something was wrong with Luke," Annabeth muttered, poking at the fire with her knife. "Did you notice the way he was acting?"

"Explain wrong," Rhea said as she raised up her right knee and leaned back as if to knee an invisible individual in the face, which was impossible because Aidoneus was just too tall. "Because everything is wrong with that boy." She straightened her back and stretched.

"Make sure to stretch your muscles as much as you can, any wrong move can lead to your back, breaking," Aidoneus said his hand on Rhea's back. "Now go again."

"He looked...nervous. He told his monsters to spare me. He wanted to tell me something." Annabeth said.

"Ow, my back!" Rhea hissed as she stayed leaning back.

Aidoneus corrected the position of her raised leg. "Try to keep your balance as much as you can."

Rhea sighed. "Maybe he wanted to confess his undying flame."

"You're impossible," Annabeth grumbled. She sheathed her dagger and looked at Rachel. "So which way now, Sacagawea?"

Rachel didn't respond right away. She'd become quieter since the arena. Now, whenever Annabeth made a sarcastic comment, Rachel hardly bothered to answer. She'd burned the tip of a stick in the fire and was using it to draw ash figures on the floor, images of the monsters they'd seen.

With a few strokes, she caught the likeness of a dracaena perfectly.

"We'll follow the path," she said. "The brightness on the floor."

"The brightness that led us straight into a trap?" Annabeth asked.

"Annabeth stop, she's doing the best she can."

Annabeth stood. "The fire's getting low. I'll go look for some more scraps while you guys talk strategy, also." She turned to Rhea. "Whatever you are doing is making you look like a clown!" And with that, she marched off into the shadows.