Maelstrom

Twenty-Four

Dale didn't know what else to do.

She screamed.

As she did, the ghost woman lowered her hands and disappeared into mist. The rattling stopped as she disappeared, but Dale's room still looked like it'd lost a fight with a tornado.

The door to her suite flew open and Mark ran inside. "Dale?"

"I'm here," Dale found her voice, pushing away from where she'd been thrown against the wall.

Mark looked from her to the wreckage that was her room. "What happened? I heard you scream."

"There..." Dale took a deep breath. "There was a ghost."

Mark raised his eyebrows, his lips pursed. "A ghost?"

"Yes," Dale snapped. She resisted a shiver at the thought, moving to clean up the detritus the woman had left. "I've been seeing her for a while now."

"And you didn't tell me?" Mark asked. Upon the scathing look Dale gave him, he relented. "What did she want?"

Dale drew out a breath, dropping a handful of papers back onto her bed. "I don't know. She wouldn't speak. But she seemed to summon this weird song that I feel like I know but I can't remember it." She turned back to Mark but faltered upon seeing his attention locked elsewhere. "Mark?"

"Uh, I think we found what she wanted." Mark pointed at the bay of windows.

Dale followed his gaze and froze upon what she saw. There, scratched into the windows as if by a thousand claws, were the Latin words: EXPECTO AUCTOR.

I await a champion.

~~

"Come on!" Mark exclaimed as they raced from Dale's suit.

"Mark, slow down!" Dale yelled as she chased after him. "This is crazy—"

Mark skidded to a stop, spinning around to point a finger in Dale's face. "No, what's crazy is that you're being haunted and don't want to stop it! The ghost lady left you a message, for crying out loud!"

"Mark," Dale gave him a stern look. "We have more important things to worry about than my personal paranormal activity. Remember the whole war we're fighting?"

Mark waved a hand. "Nothing's going to be happening anytime soon. Menoetius and his allies need time to allocate their forces before they think of launching another attack, and besides, we know what they want. So long as we have Tessa and they don't, we're in good hands." He folded his arms, smug. "So can you please trust me on this?"

Dale glared at him, but Mark was persistent to a fault. "What's your plan?"

Mark beamed and started back down the corridor. As they walked, they passed demigods recuperating in the halls and in their rooms, darting from room to room, polishing weaponry and armor and stuffing food into their faces.

"We happen to have a mutual ally who might be able to help us with this," Mark said.

Dale raised her eyebrows at Mark. "Oh, so that's what we're calling her?"

Mark's cheeks burned. "I'm not calling her anything."

"Uh-huh."

"Shut up."

They continued down the hall until they reached the last room on the floor. Fumes of incense and orchids emanated from behind the ajar door. Mark knocked gently, "Adhara? Are you in here?"