Wisdom's Daughter

Chapter 9: I Finally Know

A few hours later, it was curfew time. (Avani and Crea teamed up to establish some ground rules on the ship: no one out of the bunks after eight, no fighting unless in the practice room, and other boring restrictions that made life less fun.)

We had about fifteen hours left on our flight due to a huge delay when a snowstorm (Khione's work, no doubt) hit us. Kai, Mateo, and Crea would be on watch duty, Kai holding Nairos, Mateo holding an oddly-shaped wrench (a doohickey, he called it), and Crea armed with a frying pan and a wicked sharp gardening tool.

"I like proving the use of simple house objects," she had explained to me before I went below decks. I sure hope I never have to be on the receiving end of her proving their use.

I walked into my bunk and looked around. This had been Bira's bunk when my grandparents were on their quest to defeat Tartarus and his monsters. Bira is a daughter of Councillor Tritania, and a powerful water sorceress.

My walls were a simple pale grey, and my ceiling... it was a customisable screen, and it was the best part. It was black— but if you focused really hard, the centre lit up with a galaxy and thousands of tiny stars.

Back home in Greece, my dad, my sister, and I had painted our bedroom ceiling just like my bunk's. We would lie down on my bed and point out the constellations, my dad telling us stories about each star and impersonating Councillors and demigods in their legends. We would laugh so much every night until Leia and I fell asleep.

I smiled, remembering all the fun we had together. He used to tell me I was very special and that someday, I would change the world. He always said that he would be right by my side and he would help me change the world, drop by drop.

I sat bolt upright. Drop by drop. I had always thought that was some sort of metaphor...

Realisation dawned on me. The experiment that caused my father's death was a potion focused on ice. He had known what the prophecy meant long before it happened, that the child of the owl in the prophecy was me.

He'd been trying to create a potion to melt magical ice, likely the very same ice that now froze Eryna. He had wanted to make more of the potion to send with me. To make my job easier.

With thoughts of my dad whirling in my head, I fell asleep.

Closing our eyes means one thing for demigods: dreams.

I was standing in a dank, almost empty room. There were several ice statues all around me. I heard a sigh from behind.

I turned, placing my hand on the Sword of Wisdom for comfort and support.

"Who's there?" my dream-self yelled.

"What am I to do?" the voice wondered. Khione, I realised. That cold, sharp tone was unmistakable.

"What do you want?" I growled.

She appeared out of the shadows. "Why am I so torn up about this? She's an enemy... She is in the way of my plans. I don't want her to experience so much pain, I don't know why."

I yelled and slashed at her, but my sword went through her. I realised then that our dreams had somehow connected, but only I could see and hear her in the dream. To her, I was invisible.

A strange energy emanated from her. It seemed to pulse and throb like a heartbeat. She looked around at her sculptures.

I started to see flashes of faces contorted in pain. With every pulse of energy, I felt bloodlust and rage building within me. Except...those weren't my feelings. They were Khione's. I felt an awful emptiness and pain. It was the absence of love, and the weight of regret.

As I looked closer at the statues, I noticed their petrified faces. They all looked like people I was close to: Kai, Avani, Amara, Dylan-

"They-they're people. They are alive in the ice! You froze them!" I whispered in shock.

And that was when I received a massive hit. The image was so clear.

My father.

The sheer despair on his face as he screamed my name was so bleak that I flinched and had to look away. Ice enveloped and crushed him. I felt a strange mixture of triumphant rage, reluctance, and...guilt? I looked at Khione in disbelief.

Khione looked pensive, then she smiled. "I know how she feels about me. And yet...she's so powerful! If only I could get her to join me— wait."

She whipped around wildly. "I know you're there, Diana!"

And even as Khione sneered in her usual fashion, I had no choice but to feel the very weight of who she was: an immortal being, but still a person with fears and pain, a person who made bad decisions.

She was just like any one of us.

And that was something I could not accept. An evil murderer should not get away with having a backstory and reasons for her existence.

The energy warped and coiled around us. In that moment, we both realised that the pulsing energy had connected our emotions. She could feel what I was feeling too.

Her mouth twisted in manic delight. "Deny all of this and you'll end up just like me, Diana. Alone. Misunderstood. Unloved."

I yelled and slashed at Khione once more as she laughed, even though she couldn't see me. The dream dissolved and I woke in a shock. My father's dying scream was still echoing in my ears.

I thought back on all the dreams I had after my father died. The blue fire. The ice potion. The cold laughter. Khione had killed my father. She was the reason I had sobbed for months with seemingly no end. I raced through the hallway to Avani's bunk, where I knew she would be.

I burst through the door and ran into her arms, crying.

"Hey, what's wrong? Is everything okay? Is everyone okay?" Avani asked.

"Khione," I sobbed, "she killed Dad."

My grandmother's face turned pale. A tear trickled down her face. "Oh, baby. It's okay, honey. Adonis—Adonis is okay. He's at peace now, somewhere in Elysium. You're okay."

She walked me back to my bunk quietly (there were still rules to follow) and we sat down on my bed. Soon I was lying down as she stroked my hair, murmuring words of consolation until I drifted into a fitful sleep.