𝙩𝙪 𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨 - p. jackson [₂]

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒙𝒙𝒙.

―✧―

"𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐕𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐋?"

theo felt leo's panic settle into a calm rage as his rube goldberg machine mind created some sort of overcomplicated plan to get their things back.

"lanert," theo chanted as an answer, allowing a blue-red cloud of magic cover the two of them.

theo felt himself being sucked into a small dot, then being stretched out as the spell teleported them in a big piazza.

bikes and vespas clogged the surrounding streets, but the square itself was empty except for pigeons and a few old men drinking espresso. none of the locals seemed to notice the huge greek warship hovering over the piazza, or the fact that theo and leo had just teleported in.

"the ballista fired the first dwarf in that direction, i think," leo said, trying to re-imagine the scenario. "come on."

they waded through a lake of pigeons, then maneuvered down a side street of clothing stores and gelato shops — making theo crave some. the sidewalks were lined with white columns covered in graffiti. a few panhandlers asked for change

theo saw leo pat his belt, as if his magic tool belt would reappear. beneath the rage, a bit of worry was forming.

"we'll find it," theo promised. "if i have to make a whole new spell to get those dwarf men to hand it over, i will."

leo took theo's hand in his own, but made no comment.

theo had only created a single spell before. it was when leo and jason were under medea's spell, trying to kill each other. somehow, he'd combined a few spells from the map (his spellbook's formal name) and created one to break medea's mind control. he was pretty proud of himself for that.

"why are greeks obsessed with naked people?" theo averted his eyes from the neptune statue.

"ah, jeez." leo averted his eyes as he saw it.

the sea god stood on a big marble column in the middle of a fountain that wasn't working (which seemed kind of ironic). on either side of neptune, little winged cupids were sitting, kind of chillin', like, what's up? neptune himself (avoid the groin) was throwing his hip to one side in an elvis presley move. he gripped his trident loosely in his right hand and stretched his left handout like he was blessing theo, or possibly attempting to levitate him.

"some kind of clue?" leo wondered.

"maybe, maybe not. there's statues of naked gods everywhere." theo tilted his head at the statue, his eyes glowing blue as he muttered another incantation, "exponee."

as the spell took hold, he felt movement in the statue, mechanical things like gears and pistons.

"uh, leo," theo muttered, "i think you'd have a field day with the workings of the fountain.