Sea Green Eyes

The Sun and the Star - Part Two

Nico's thoughts were interrupted though when Sally returned from the kitchen after putting Estelle down in her playpen, with a plate of blue sugar cookies.

"You know," she said, setting them down on the dining-room table, "I could make cookies in any other colour. But it's mostly habit at this point."

"Thank you, but we don't want to put you to any trouble," said Will. He glanced at Nico. "Do we?"

"No ..." said Nico, though he considered Sally's cookies a really great kind of trouble. "I just wanted to contact Percy and Cress, and I thought, well, this might be the best place to do it from."

"Contact him?" asked Sally, taking the empty chair across from them. "About what?"

As best as he could, Nico briefly summarized the story of Bob and the prophecy.

Sally turned down a corner of her mouth. "You're not thinking of asking Percy and Cress to go with you, are you? Because they just got settled at college, and this is the closest thing to normal they've –"

"Not at all," Nico cut her off. "I promise."

"Good." Sally crossed her arms over her chest. "Because I would never want Percy or Cressida to have to face that place again. You shouldn't go either, dear, no matter who is in danger."

"It's different for me," Nico assured her. "As the son of Hades, I know my way around. But Will ..."

Will leaned back, understanding dawning on his face. "Oh, I get it. You want me to talk to Percy. So he can discourage me from going?"

"No," Nico protested honestly. "I want Cressida to talk you out of going."

"Nico!"

"Alright! I know you're nervous about it. And you worry I'm underselling the danger. So I thought it might help to hear from someone who isn't related to Hades and who still survived Tartarus."

"Barely," Sally murmured. "Percy doesn't tell me the details of everything he's been through. I think he believes he's protecting me. But I do know that his worst nightmares are about Tartarus. Cressida's too. That poor girl. It breaks my heart, everything she's been through. And to think she had to endure a lot of it completely alone."

Will gulped. "Wow, this is already helping so much ..."

Nico tried to push down his rising frustration. "Will, just talk to them, ok?"

Will managed a smile. "Alright, fine. Even if we did just see them less than a week...Wait, how exactly are we contacting them – Iris-message?"

Nico turned to Sally. "I was hoping you might know their schedules? I don't want to send them a glowing hologram when they're in the middle of a lecture or something."

Sally smirked. "I'm not saying I have their college schedules memorized, but this time of day, West Coast time, I imagine they're both at their apartment ... hopefully studying for their English exam."

"Perfect." Nico pulled a golden drachma out of his pocket. "Next question, Ms. Jackson. Do you have a standard way of sending him Iris messages? Like, so I don't have to spray water all over your apartment?"

"Very thoughtful," said Sally. "I have just the thing. Come on." She gathered up Estelle and led them down the hallway, Nico and Will both grabbing some cookies on the way.

They ended up in Percy's old bedroom which really wasn't his anymore as Nico thought about how much it had changed from the first time he'd stepped foot in it to now.

"Here we are," said Sally, gesturing to a contraption on Percy's dresser.

Will laughed with delight. "That's actually kind of brilliant. Wait, let me guess, Cressida rigged this up? Or was it Annabeth?"