plague bringer - a heroes of olympus insert

𝗑𝗑𝗂. 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗐𝖺𝗌𝗇'𝗍 𝗉𝖺𝗋𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗍𝗈𝗎𝗋

Aria had never been scared of the dark, but normally the dark wasn't forty feet tall. It also didn't have black wings, a whip made out of stars, and a shadowy chariot pulled by vampire horses.

Nyx was almost too much to take in. Looming over the chasm, she was a churning figure of ash and smoke, as big as the Athena Parthenos statue, but very much alive. Her dress was void black, mixed with the colors of a space nebula, as if galaxies were being born in her bodice. Her face was hard to see except for the pinpoints of her eyes, which shone like a star. When her wings beat, waves of darkness rolled over the cliffs, making Aria feel heavy and sleepy, her eyesight dim.

The goddess's chariot was made of the same material as Nico di Angelo's sword—Stygian iron—and pulled by two massive horses, all black except for their pointed silver fangs. The beasts' legs floated in the abyss, turning from solid to smoke as they moved. The horses snarled and bared their fangs at Aria. The goddess lashed her whip—a thin streak of stars like diamond barbs—and the horses reared back.

"No, Shade," the goddess said. "Down, Shadow. This little prize is not for you."

Aria determined the death mist must not have been very good camouflage, since Nyx could obviously see her. "Uh, so you won't let them eat me?" she asked the goddess. "They really want to eat me."

Nyx's eyes burned. "Of course not. I would not let my horses eat you, any more than I would let Akhlys kill you. Such a fine prize, I will kill myself!"

Aria was glad for her gift of cracking jokes in terrible situations. Her instincts told her to take the initiative, or this would be a very short conversation. "Oh, don't kill yourself!" she cried. "I'm not that scary."

The goddess lowered her whip. "What? No, I didn't mean—"

"Well, I'd hope not!" Aria forced a laugh. "I wouldn't want to scare you."

The vampire horses looked confused. They reared and snorted and knocked their dark heads together. Nyx pulled back on the reins. "Do you know who I am?" she demanded.

"Well, you're Night, I suppose," said Aria, slightly tilting her head. "I mean, I can tell because you're dark and everything, though the brochure didn't say much about you."

Nyx's eyes winked out for a moment. "What brochure?"

Aria patted her pockets. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me! Where did it go?" She hoped she wasn't making things worse with this strategy... though honestly, she didn't see how things could be worse. "Anyway," she said, "I guess the brochure didn't say much, because you weren't spotlighted on the tour. We got to see the River Phlegethon, the Cocytus, the arai, the poison glade of Akhlys, even some random Titans and giants, but Nyx...hmm, no, you weren't really featured."

"Featured? Spotlighted?"

"Yeah," Aria said, getting more confident in her plan. "I came down here for the Tartarus tour—like, exotic destinations, you know? The Underworld is overdone. Mount Olympus is a tourist trap, so I booked the Tartarus excursion. But no one even mentioned we'd run into Nyx. Huh. Oh, well. Guess they didn't think you were important."

"Not important!" Nyx cracked her whip. Her horses bucked and snapped their silvery fangs. Waves of darkness rolled out of the chasm, turning Aria's insides to jelly, but she couldn't show her fear. She forced down her instincts which were screaming to fight her. This was a goddess beyond anything she had ever faced.

Nyx was older than any Olympian or Titan or giant, older even than Gaea. She couldn't be defeated by a demigod—at least not a demigod using force.

Aria made herself look at the goddess's massive dark face. "Well, how many other demigods have come to see you on the tour?" she asked innocently.