The Winged Warrior

Chapter 2

"Soooooo..." I said, running a frustrated hand through my messy hair, "You're saying that when I gain a power, I can never lose it?"

"Yes." said a man I hadn't looked at properly until then. He was blonde, muscly and reminded me of a certain, prophecy-involved, haiku-spewing god that was one of my favourites.

"Apollo?" I asked.

"No." He laughed, flashing brilliantly white teeth in my direction. "Though you're not the first to ask me that. I am Aether, primordial of light and the coolest dude on this council."

"Ok, you're actually freakishly like Apollo." I said, staring at him in mild panic. "Are you sure he isn't possessing you or something?"

"No, he's literally always like this." someone muttered, and everyone around the table laughed.

It was odd. I had always imagined the primordials, the supreme beings, as serious, old and immensely powerful. But right now, all I was getting was friendliness, even from gods I thought were evil.

After all the laughter had died away, Thesis spoke up again. "You will have four main primordials training you. Me, Aether," He waved, "Tartarus," He smiled, "and Oceanus."

I looked around. Oceanus was a large, jolly looking man sitting to my right, giving me the thumbs-up.

Thesis was still talking. "I will be teaching you skills to do with harnessing the four elements, powers of creation, and magic in general. Aether will be teaching you more advanced hand-to-hand combat. We know you are excellent already, but I think you will both benefit from each other's fighting styles. Tartarus will be teaching you about all the universe, giving you knowledge to use in battle. Oceanus, was of course the natural choice to teach you to enhance your powers over water. But first, of course, we need to discuss something else."

I gave her an aprehensive look.

"We have... a king of sorts. A ruler. The supreme being. We cannot teach you to harness your powers before they are given. Our king is Chaos, the void."

A ripple seemed to spread around the table as many of the primordials shivered.

"Chaos will grant you the powers of the universe. But first, we must inform you of an important fact. The warrior chosen by the primordials can choose two warriors to bring back from the dead to be his second and third in command."

I immediately knew who I wanted. "Can I have Nico di Angelo and Luke Castellan please."

"Of course."

Thesis waved her hand. Of course, she was the primordial of life, she could probably give it to anyone.

A swirling portal appeared. Luke and Nico fell out of it, landing flat on their faces on the floor. Behind them, the portal was closing, but through it I could see green grass and palm trees. Elysium. I smiled and ran over to them as they were picking themselves off the floor.

Nico got up first, and caught sight of me. "PERCY!" He yelled, running at me and engulfing me in a hug that nearly knocked me flat.

Luke stood behind him. He hadn't aged at all, and I knew that we were now the same age. He looked surprised, but nervous.

"Hey man." I said comfortingly. "We all forgave you, you know that?"

He smiled toothily and ran at me, hugging me even harder than Nico and sobbing into my shoulder.

"Hey hey hey!" I said. "Why are you crying, you numbskull? I brought you two back to life!"

After a quick explaination of what had happened to me, helped along by Nico at times, and an introduction to the primordials, Luke was shaking with anger and loathing.