The Daughter of Chaos (A PJO FF)

➄

I didn't notice how tired I really was until I laid down on my bed. Sure, I knew that I'd walked in freezing cold temperatures across New York State, fought a giant scorpion, and healed my girlfriend's broken ribs, but still.

But of course naive little me had forgotten that since I was a demigod, I had visions instead of dreams. No unicorns leaping over rainbows carrying pots of gold in the sunset for me. Or whatever people dream about. No, I got glimpses of the present from another part of the world or the future. When it wasn't one of those, it was something even creepier which 99% of the time was not what I wanted to see.

This particular visit I received while sleeping didn't exactly calm my nerves about the upcoming quest.

I opened my eyes and found myself standing in front of a woman with short brown hair. The hood of her pure black robe shadowed her face so I could only see her glowing eyes. They were hollow, like she'd felt so many emotions in the past that they'd all just formed to make one great big ball of emptiness and depression. Even looking at them made me feel bad for her.

In front of her was a lavender colored crystal ball, like the ones that fortune tellers always had in weird carnival booths. It was the only source of light in the gloomy place I'd landed. Inside swirled hundreds of images, all including people and things I knew. It seemed like all of my memories had been documented and kept in that one tiny sphere.

The woman stared at me long enough to make me uncomfortable and then spoke in a hoarse voice, "Aziza Cardona, correct?"

I nodded quickly, not wanting to get on her bad side. Whoever she was, she was either incredibly goth or incredibly powerful, both of which scared me.

"I've been watching you." She looked down at the crystal ball, the brightness somehow not reflection off of her face. Horror movie much?

She looked back up and must've seen the terrified expression on my face, for she laughed. "Scared already? That certainly didn't take long."

I cleared my throat. "I don't mean to be disrespectful, ma'am, but who are you?"

Her eyes showed amusement. "I see. That silly little camp of yours must not have a cabin designated for me. That seems to be where all of your knowledge comes from these days."

I bit back a snarky comeback. Who knew what this lady could do if I got on her nerves? Unless I wanted to become Aziza-pot pie, I didn't want to take any chances.

"I am Shadow, goddess of trickery, fake innocence, and silver tongue."

I tried to look like I knew who that was but failed miserably.

Shadow made a tsk-tsk sound with her tongue. "They never teach you who the important people are anymore."

"Pardon me again," I blurted out, "but why exactly am I here?"

Shadow's eyes sparkled with excitement, which made me take a step backwards. "I thought you'd never ask." She tapped the glowing globe in front of her and it displayed a picture of Camp Half-Blood from a bird-eye view. "I heard about the quest you and your comrades are starting. Very exciting, is it not? Except for the fact that you have no idea where to go or even who you're looking for."

"Well actually, we know that we're looking for Chaos."

Shadow scoffed. "You really think that he's just going to be waiting for you in SoHo at some coffee shop to make it easy for you?"

"I mean yeah, I was kinda hoping..."

She glared at me with her pale brown eyes.

"Right. He's not. Message received."

She turned back to her crystal ball. "Well, I am here to help you with just that." The crystal ball flashed to a different image: a pale woman with long dark hair and glam makeup.

"This is the goddess you should be searching for. Her name is Kore, minor goddess of lust, affairs, and forbidden love, daughter of Aphrodite and Hades."

"Ew, my mom did the nasty with Hades?!" I made a face, trying not to think about how that meant Eve and I shared a sibling. Knowing my mother, it was probably multiple siblings. (Love you mom <3)

"Hush child!" Shadow growled. "My point is she's the only one who can help you find Chaos. She's his right-hand man. According to my resources, she's currently hiding in one of the deepest parts of the Underworld, almost on par with Tartarus. The only entrance known is in Omaha, Nebraska."

"Nebraska? Out of all the places in America, why Nebraska?"

"Don't ask me, I stopped talking to the Olympians ages ago. They're just a cult of hippies who have problems with reproduction. It could possibly be because no one would expect it though."

The girl had a point. The entrance to Olympus was the Empire State Building, the entrance to the Underworld in LA. It was all very predictable. If you wanted somewhere to hide, why not hide in the most boring and underrated place?

"You just stalk everyone, don't you?" I asked.

"Watch your tone, young lady. I could snap my fingers right now and you'd be burning at a stake."

I shut my mouth, not really thrilled about the idea of dying from a nightmare with a creepy lady watching me.

"Any questions?" Shadow's eyes signaled that she wasn't in the mood to ask any, but I ignored it and asked what had been on my mind since I first appeared there.

"Just one- why are you helping me? I'm guessing since you called the gods hippies and from just the overall vibe of your, uh, office, you're on Chaos' side. Why would you give me advice? And why should I trust it? You're literally the goddess of trickery."

Shadow's gaze hardened and I knew I'd messed up. "Because it's the only help you're gonna get sweetheart. Even the Olympians are trying to stay out of this one. Unless you plan on wasting your precious time by going up there to convince them otherwise, from now on, you're on your own. Plus, if you hadn't known where to go, it wouldn't have been a very fun show to watch, now would it? So either be thankful that anyone told you anything at all and take it..." Her hand flew from the lavender orb to her throwing knives faster than I could blink. I was 100% sure she was about to throw it at my head, but instead she plunged it into the wood of her desk , right next to my memories. "Or leave it."

I stared at the table in horror, thinking of how dead I would be if it was my head.

"You have 5 days until Kore moves to her next location. Being on the dark side, she needs to stay on her feet so Team Daddy Issues doesn't catch on to her. If you miss her, that's that. I'm not going to help you again."

I started to panic. Only 5 days to get to Nebraska? I'd have to be Annabeth Chase to pull that off. And I didn't want to be an architect at all.

Shadow's eyes creased as if she was smiling under her cloak of darkness. She was amused by my anxiety and stress. Typical.

"Enjoy your quest, Love Child. It might be the only one you'll ever face." With that, she lifted the end of her robe and swooped it in front of her crystal ball, leaving me in complete darkness.

Someone slapped me across the face and I had a feeling it wasn't Shadow. I blinked and just as quickly as I'd appeared there, Shadow and her depressing fortune-teller themed office was gone. Instead I was staring at Eve, who was sitting on top of me and who (I guessed) had just slapped me. She smirked. "Good, you're awake. Took you long enough."

"Oh shut up. We both know that if we didn't have to go on a quest I'd be the one slapping you awake right now."

She rolled her eyes, failing to hide a smile as she stood up and pulled me up with her. Seeing Eve in the morning was definitely a nice change of scenery compared to Shadow's soul-stalking eyes.

I knew I'd have to tell the crew about my dream. As suspicious as the dark minor goddess had been, she was right about one thing; it was a lead and unless another goddess decided to pay me a visit, it was the only one that we would get.

Why did I get the feeling this quest wasn't going to be as easy as I wanted it to be?