━━ chapter thirteen
three blind mice
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━━They found the blind dude with the harpies. It wasn't that hard. Fiona just followed the screeching, the feel of someone who was alive who shouldn't be, and the flock of the harpies in the air, dragging the others along with her. Now, you're probably wondering how she knew there would be harpies, well, don't you know the story? Phineus was a seer and a terrible man when he could still see, so, naturally, the gods blinded him and cursed the harpies to steal his food from him forevermore. Make sense? Cool, because Fiona isn't explaining it again.
She was in a bit of a mood. One, dying and coming back just made her grumpy only to know that by the end of this, she'd be dead anyway. Two, she was getting seriously mixed signals from Percy (like, he offers her to rest her head on his arm and promise for the water to not hurt her, and then completely just friend-zoned her with a yeah, you remind me of the only girl I remember from my past━because, like, if that wasn't a sign to back off, then she doesn't know what━only for him to then just lean on her that whole time he was sick, and then rest his head on her shoulder), and third, she's annoyed that him giving her mix signals was affecting her so much! She was Roman! Legacy of Victoria. She was Fiona Midgrass, daughter of Pluto, and Fiona Midgrass does not get bothered over mixed signals from some boy.
Fiona led them to a parking lot with nothing in it but a picnic table on a square of cracked asphalt, marbled with weeds. On the picnic table, was a pile high with food from all the different food trucks around them. There was a guy in a bathrobe with it all, brandishing a wheed whacker around at the harpies that tried to swoop down and take his food. He was obviously blind, with milky white eyes, but that didn't stop him from hitting his mark.
"Back, dirty chickens!" he bellowed.
Fiona didn't like harpies━they were annoying. But these harpies, they were thin as twigs. Their human faces had sunken eyes and hollow cheeks, and their bodies were covered in moulting feathers. Their wings were tipped with tiny, shrivelled hands, and wore ragged burlap sacks for dresses. As they dived for the food, they seemed more desperate than angry. Fiona felt sorry for them. The victory Phineus was getting was not a victory he should be proud of, starving these creatures who have no choice. She narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth as the old man swung his wheed whacker and grazed one of the harpies' wings. The harpy helped in pain and fluttered off, dropping yellow feathers as she flew.
Another harpy circled higher than the rest. She looked younger and smaller than the others, with bright red feathers. She eyed the others below her carefully for an opening, and when Phineus's back was turned, she tucked her wings in and made a wild dive for the table. She grabbed a burrito in her clawed feet, but, before she could escape, the blind man swung his weed whacker and smacked her in the back so hard that Percy winced. The harpy yelped, dropped the burrito and flew off.
Fiona wanted to punch this man across the face. He had just gotten a cowards victory, hitting that harpy in the back. She pulled out her dagger and went to go at him, but Hazel held her back and Percy shouted, "Hey, stop it!"
The harpies took it the wrong way. They glanced over at them and immediately fled. Most of them fluttered away and perched in the trees. The red-feathered one, however, with the hurt back, flew unsteadily down Glisan Street and out of sight.
"Ha!" the blind old man yelled in triumph and killed the power on his weed whacker. He grinned vacantly in Percy's direction. "Thank you, strangers! Your help is most appreciated."
Fiona wished she could stab this guy. She wondered whether he would erupt into black flames like the karpoi had, because that would give her some great satisfaction. But with a look from Percy to tell her to stay calm, she sighed and crossed her arms. They needed Phineas's help, even if he's a weed whacker cruel old man who won the coward's way. Gods, he reminded her of Octavian.
"Um, whatever," Percy approached the blind seer, keeping one eye on the weed whacker. "I'm Percy Jackson. This is━"
"Demigods!" cried the old ma. "I can always smell demigods."
Fiona bit back from saying: oh, past your own smell? Wow, impressive. Hazel frowned, "Do we smell that bad?"
The old man laughed. "Of course not, my dear. But you'd be surprised how sharp my other senses became once I was blinded. I'm Phineas. And you━wait, don't tell me━"
He reached for Percy's face and poked him in the eyes.
"Ow!" Percy let out.
"Son of Neptune!" Phineas exclaimed. "I thought I smelled the ocean on you, Percy Jackson. I am also a son of Neptune, you know."
"Hey ... yeah. Okay," Percy rubbed his eyes. Fiona hoped that when Percy grew old he wouldn't end up like this idiot.
Phineas turned to Hazel. "And here ... Oh my, the smell of gold and deep earth. Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. And here we have your sister━yes, but I smell death on you, my dear. Death. You'd do well to keep that dagger away from me, Fiona Midgrass, daughter of Pluto ..." he sniffed again, "... and a legacy of Victoria! Oh, so it's you."
Fiona frowned, immediately going to the defence. "What do you mean?"
But he ignored her and turned to Frank, "And you━the son of Mars. But there's more to your story, Frank Zhang━"
"Ancient blood," Frank muttered. "Prince of Pylos. Blah, blah, blah."
"Periclymenus, exactly! Oh, he was a nice fellow. I loved the Argonauts!"
Frank's mouth fell opened. "W━wait. Perry who?"
"Don't worry," Phineas grinned. "I know about your family. That story about your great-grandfather? He didn't really destroy the camp. Now, what an interesting group. Are you hungry?"
Fiona frowned, glancing over at Frank who looked like he had been run over by a truck. His great-grandfather was Shen Lun? Phineas moved onto other matters, however. He waved his hand at the picnic table, and as hungry as Fiona was, she would much prefer to have those stupid 'chocolate' muffins back at R.O.F.L. rather than eat with those poor bird ladies suffering as they watched. No, she wasn't that much of a horrible person.
"Look, I'm confused," Percy held a hand up. "We need some information. We were told━"
"━that the harpies were keeping my food away from me," Phineas finished, "and, if you helped me, I'd help you."
"Something like that."
The old man laughed. "That's old news. Do I look like I'm missing any meals?" he patted his pot-belly, and Fiona's nails were digging into the skin of her palm.
"You hold a coward's victory," she couldn't help but snap, and Phineas's milky white eyes landed on her.
"Things have changed, Fiona Midgrass," he told her, not as cheerful as he had been before. "When I first got the gift of prophecy, aeons ago, it's true Jupiter cursed me. He sent the harpies to steal my good. You see, I had a bit of a big mouth. I gave away too many secrets that the gods wanted to keep. For instance, you, my darling angel, are anything but. I'm the coward? Perhaps you should have a look at yourself. Surely you have never gone the cowards way out to win a battle, perhaps that's why you can't seem to win any anymore. Not only that, but you are meant to be dead, Prosperpina stopped watering your tree in the Underworld two days ago, and yet here you are." Fiona knew the others were looking at her with mixed expressions: confusion, alarm, sympathy, but she ignored them. She was glad that Phineas decided to continue his speech to Hazel, declaring her supposed to be dead like Fiona, and then Frank, which caught Fiona's attention, "━Your life depends on a burnt stick."
It was her turn to stare at him, alarmed. Frank wouldn't meet her gaze. Percy frowned, "What are you talking about?"
"And you," Phineas rounded onto Percy, "well, now, you don't even know who you are! I could tell you, of course, but ... ha! What fun would that be? And Brigid O'Shaughnessy shot Miles Archer in The Matlese Falcon. And Darth Vader is actually Luke's father. And the winner of the next Super Bowl will be━"
"Got it," Frank muttered, he, Hazel and Fiona all quite shaken.
Fiona's hands flew up to her necklace, and she was back to fiddling with the pendant. Hazel gripped her sword, tempted to hit the man. "So you talked too much, and the gods curse you. What did they stop?"
"Oh, they didn't!" he raised his brows like, can you believe it? "I had to make a deal with the Argonauts. They wanted information, too, you see. I told them to kill the harpies, and I'd cooperate. Well, they drove those nasty creatures away, but Iris wouldn't let them kill the harpies. An outrage! So this time, when my patron brought me back to life━"
"Your patron?" Frank asked.
Phineas gave him a wicked grin. "Why, Gaea, of course. Who do you think opened the Doors of Death? Your girlfriend here and her sister understand. Isn't Gaea your patron, too?"
Fiona gritted her teeth. "No," she snapped while Hazel drew her sword. "I'm not his━I don't━Gaea is not my patron!"
Phineas was just amused at their reactions. "Fine, if you want to be noble and stick with the losing side, that's your business. But Gaea is waking. She's already rewritten the rules of life and death! I'm alive again, and in exchange for my help━a prophecy here, a prophecy there━I get my fondest wish. The tables have turned, so to speak. Now I can eat all I want, all day long, and the harpies have to watch and starve━" he revved his weed whacker, and the poor harpies wailed in the trees, "They're cursed!" he cried with glee. "They can only eat food from my table, and they can't leave Portland. Since the Doors of Death are open, they can't even die. It's beautiful!"
"Beautiful?" Fiona protested. "They're living creatures! You're winning by cheating!"
"They're monsters!" Phinaes said. "And cheating? Those feather-brained demonds tormented me for years! It's karma!"
"But it was their duty," Percy glowered at him, and Fiona saw that his glare was slightly scary━no, she takes back, it's very scary. "Jupiter ordered them to."
"Oh, I'm mad at Jupiter, too," Phineas agreed. "In time, Gaea will see that the gods are properly punished. Horrible job they've done, ruling the world. But, for now, I'm enjoying Portland. The mortals take no notice of me. They think I'm just a craszy old man shooing away pigeons!"
Hazel advanced. "You're awful!" she cried. "You belong in the Fields of Punishment!"
He sneered. "One dead person to another, girlie? I wouldn't be talking. You started this whole thing! If it weren't for you, Alcyoneus wouldn't be alive!"
Fiona went to have another go at him, but Hazel pulled her back, despite the insult. "Hazel?" Frank frowned at her, his eyes as wide as quarters. "What's he talking about?"
"Ha!" the seer grinne. "You'll find out soon enough, Frank Zhang. Then we'll see if you're still sweet on your girlfriend. But that's not what you're here about, is it? You want me to find Thanatos. He's being kept at Alcyoneus's lair. I can tell you where that is. Of course, I can. But you'll hve to do me a favour."
"Forget it!" snapped Fiona. "You're working for the enemy. I should send you back to the Underworld myself."
"Ah, yes, you could," Phineaus smiled, "with that fancy power of yours, daughter of Pluto, but I doubt I'd stay dead for long. You see, Gaea has shown me the easy way back. Might take a little longer this time, but I shall return. And with Thanatos in chains there's no one to keep me down! Besides, if you kill me, you won't get my secrets."
Fiona wanted to. It was so tempting, but he was right. They needed him if they wanted to save Camp Jupiter. So, with heavy breaths, she stepped back, scowling. Percy gritted his teeth, "What's the favour?"
Licking his lips greedily, Phineas said, "There's one harpy who's quicker than the rest."
"The red one."
"I'm blind! I don't know colours! At any rate, she's the only one I have trouble with. She's wily, that one. Always does her own thing, never roots with the others. She gave me these━" he pointed at the scars on his forehead. "Bring her to me. I want her tied up where I can keep an eye on her ... ah, so to speak. Harpies hate being tied up. It causes them extreme pain. Yes, I'll enjoy that. Maybe I'll even feed her so that she lasts longer."
Percy glanced at Fiona, Hazel and Frank. They all had a silent agrement. They would never help this man. But on the other hand, they needed his information. They needed to come up with a plan B.
"Oh, go talk among yourselves," Phineas said breezily. "I don't care. Just remember that without my help your quest will fail. And everyone you love in the world will die. Now, off with you! Bring me a harpy!"
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━━Fiona didn't want to talk about what Phineas had said. While Hazel glumy got into the story of how she had come back from the Underworld thanks to Nico, she walked in silence. The others didn't look too surprised, but Fiona knew that Hazel was scared that if they knew the whole story, they would leave her and think she was a terrible person.
Off in her thoughts, Fiona paid little attention to the conversation they held, which might be a bad thing, but she couldn't help it. What Phineas said, she couldn't help but let it weigh down on her shoulders. Surely you have gone the cowards way to win a battle. No, she didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to remember the shame she felt that day Jason left, and all of her victories fell to nothing━the argument she had with her grandmother. Her grandmother had called her a coward too, a sly girl who didn't deserve the victory she held at the Battle at Mount Tam. That had been a coward's victory.
And after that argument, the only victory Fiona had was that night at the War Games, and then she had died after it. Maybe Phineas was right. Maybe Victoria had cursed her for her mistakes.
Just like how if they win on this quest, Fiona will die again.
"Hey," Percy fell in step with her, his voice soft. Fiona pursed her lips, fiddling with her pugio. "You all right?"
"I'm fine," Fiona muttered, surging through the light drizzle.
"It's okay if your not," he told her. "You've been through a rough two days, Fiona━"
"I said I'm fine," she didn't mean to snap, but she really didn't want to talk right now. Narrowing her gaze at Percy, she dared him to continue. He clenched his jaw, but didn't say anything else, though she knew he wanted to.
Instead, he nodded forwards, "I've got an idea," he pointed up the street. "The red-feathered harpy went that way. Let's see if we can get her to talk to us."
Hazel looked at the food he had taken from Phineas in his hands, "You're going to use that as bait?"
"More like a peace offering," said Percy. "Come on. Just try to keep the other harpies from stealing this stuff, okay?"
He uncovered the Thai noodles and unwrapped the cinnamon burrito. Almost immeditely, the harpies fluttered after them. Fiona, Hazel and Frank, with their weapons, kept them back. Finally, they found her, circling above a stretch of parkland that ran for several blocks between rows of old stone buildings. They found a park bench to sit on, next to a big bronze statue of an elephant.
"Looks like Hannibal," murmured Hazel.
"Except it's Chinese," said Frank. "My grandmother has one of those," he flinched. "I mean, hers isn't twelve feet tall. But she imports stuff ... from China. We're Chinese," he looked at Percy and Hazel, who were trying hard not to laugh, and Fiona, who managed a sparkle of amusement in her dark eyes. "Could I just die from embarrassment now?"
Fiona resisted the urge to ask whether she could join him. She doesn't think her dark humour would be appreciated right now. Not exactly the right time.
"Don't worry about it, man," Percy nudged him with a small grin. "Let's see if we can make friends with the harpy."
Making friends with a harpy was a lot harder than they expected. They managed to get her thin self down towards them, eyeing the food in Percy's hands nervously. They learnt her name was Ella, and she didn't like cheese. But she liked cinammon, because as soon as she saw the burrito, she lunged quicker than Fiona could blink and snatched it away. They thought they would be getting somewhere, until the other harpies tried to take her cinammon burrito away, and succeeded, even after Fiona, Percy, Hazel and Frank shooed them away.
Fiona watched Ella the Harpy shake and tremble with scratches on her wings. She would have been pretty if she wasn't so thin, with bright red hair and beautiful, bright eyes. Perched on top of the elephant statue, Fiona took a careful step closer to her, and touched the harpy's foot with her fingers. She was scared she'd flinch and fly off, but she stayed.
"I'm so sorry," said Fiona in a gentle voice she barely used. Not many people knew this side of Fiona, not even Fiona knew this side of her very well. But she just felt the same need to protect Ella the Harpy like she felt the need to protect Hazel and Nico. She was an outsider, exactly like Fiona━picked on, shoved around, ignored. "Are you okay?"
Ella poked her head out of her wings. She was still trembling, and Fiona could see the bleeding gash on her back from where Phineas had hit her. She watched Fiona with a inquisitive gaze, as if to see whether she was a threat or not. Then, she started to pick at her feathers, pulling out tufts of plummage. "S━small Ella," she stammered angrily. "W━weak Ella. No cinnamon for Ella. Only cheese."
Frank glared across the street, where the other harpies were sitting in a maple tree, tearing the burrito to shreds. "We'll get you something else," he promised.
Percy set down the Thai noodles, coming to a stance next to Fiona. "Ella," he said, "we want to be your friends. We can get you more food, but━"
"Friends," Ella said. "'Ten seasons. 1994 to 2004," she glanced sideways at Percy, then looked in the air and started reciting to the clouds. "'A half-blood of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against all odds'. Sixteen. You're sixteen. Page sixteen, Mastering the Art of French Cookingi. 'Ingredients: Bacon, Butter'."
Percy looked like someone had just slapped him across the face. He stared at Ella, and Fiona was scared he would start getting memory sickness (as Iris had called it) all over gain. "Ella ... what was that you said?"
"'Bacon'," she caught a raindrop out of the air. "'Butter'."
"No, before that. Those lines ... I know those lines."
Fiona frowned at him. Next to her, Hazel shivered. "It does sound familiar, like ... I don't know, like a prophecy. Maybe it's something she heard Phineas say?"
At the name Phineas, Ella squawked in terror and flew away. "Wait!" Hazel called after her. "I didn't mean━oh, gods, I'm stupid!"
"It's all right," Frank pointed, "Look."
Fiona followed his gaze. Ella was making her way to the top of a three-storey building before scuttling out of sight over the roof.
"You think that's her nest?" Frank squinted at the sign on the building. "Multnomah County Library?"
Percy nodded. "Let's see if it's open."
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a/n: heyyylooooooooooooooo