[act four; chapter four - war councils and prophecies]
Chiron had insisted they talk about it in the morning, which was kind of like, Hey, your life's in mortal danger. Sleep tight! It was hard to fall asleep that night, especially with thoughts of her brother on her mind. Andromeda was worried, of course she was, but she also had a feeling Donnie wouldn't just straight up disappear for no reason. She knew her brother, she knew he wouldn't leave without a sign, she just had to be smart enough to find it. Just some sign. A sign.
"Gods, what kind of sign?" Andromeda groaned as she dropped down onto her bed. She could hear the laughter of her two brothers in the lower area of the cabin. She crawled off of her bed and looked over the edge of the loft that Beckandorf and Janaya had built for her about nine months ago, and peaked down at Castor and Pollux. They were playing a game of Monopoly, but she could tell they were laughing at her as she mumbled grumpily to herself. "I need help."
Pollux gasped dramatically, "My, my. Dear brother, was that our little sister asking for our help?"
Castor nodded his head with a hearty laugh and tilted his head up at Andromeda. "Is this you asking us to help our oh so loving sister?"
"I will hit you both."
"Oh, see, now I'm not so sure."
"Cassy!" Andromeda whined as she rolled onto her back and crossed her arms over her chest. "I hate you both."
"You love us." Pollux's voice drifted to her ears. She tilted her head to the side just in time to see her older brother climbing up the ladder to her loft. "What do you need help with?"
"Donnie's gone." She said quietly. "And I feel like—I feel like I'm missing a part of myself and I don't know what to do."
"So, you need help finding a sign?" Castor asked, following after his twin as they joined Andromeda.
"Mhm."
"You guys are inseparable." Pollux said, his voice quiet and gentle.
"Polly, every set of twins is." Castor said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But, Ro, you'll find Donnie. It's like a weird twin thing, like you can feel them or something, right?"
She nodded.
"Okay. You'll find him, just like he'd find you if you were missing or gone. Just like Pollux and I. You can't have one Dionysus twin without the other, and that goes for both sets."
Andromeda laughed and put her arms in the air with grabby hands. The two boys grinned at her and wrapped their arms around her, Pollux whispering in her ear, "We'll always come back to each other."
"Always?"
"Always."
—🧵—
The next morning, Chiron called a war council; everyone met in the sword arena, which she thought was pretty strange—trying to discuss the fate of the camp while Mrs. O'Leary chewed on a life- size squeaky pink rubber yak.
Chiron and Quintus stood at the front by the weapon racks. Clarisse and Annabeth sat next to each other and led the briefing, while Andromeda talked about preparing the camp for an invasion and the history of those who had entered the maze. Tyson and Grover sat as far away from each other as possible. Also present around the table: Juniper the tree nymph, Silena Beauregard, Travis and Connor Stoll, Beckendorf and Janaya, Lee Fletcher, even Argus, our hundred-eyed security chief. That's how they all knew it was serious. Argus hardly ever shows up unless something really major is going on. The whole time Annabeth spoke, he kept his hundred blue eyes trained on her so hard his whole body turned bloodshot.
"Luke must have known about the Labyrinth entrance," Annabeth said. "He knew everything about camp."
Juniper cleared her throat. "That's what I was trying to tell you last night. The cave entrance has been there a long time. Luke used to use it."
Silena Beauregard frowned. "You knew about the Labyrinth entrance, and you didn't say anything?"
Juniper's face turned green. "I didn't know it was important. Just a cave. I don't like yucky old caves."
"She has good taste," Grover said.
"I wouldn't have paid any attention except...well, it was Luke. Oh! And there was someone with him, she was very pretty." She blushed a little greener.
Andromeda crossed her arms over her chest, clenching her jaw at the mention of someone who she could only assume as Eliza Taylour.
Grover huffed. "Forget what I said about good taste."
"Interesting," Quintus polished his sword as he spoke. "And you believe this young man, Luke, would dare use the Labyrinth as an invasion route?"
"Definitely," Clarisse said. "If he could get an army of monsters inside Camp Half-Blood, just pop up in the middle of the woods without having to worry about our magical boundaries, we wouldn't stand a chance. He could wipe us out easy. He must've been planning this for months."
"He's been sending scouts into the maze," Annabeth said. "We know because...because we found one."
"Chris Rodriguez," Chiron said. He gave Quintus a meaningful look.
"Ah," Quintus said. "The one in the...Yes, I understand."
"The one in the what?" Percy asked.
Clarisse glared at him. "The point is, Luke has been looking for a way to navigate the maze. He's searching for Daedalus's workshop. And Eliza is helping him figure it out."
"The guy who created the maze."
"Yes," Annabeth said. "The greatest architect, the greatest inventor of all time. If the legends are true, his workshop is in the center of the Labyrinth. He's the only one who knew how to navigate the maze perfectly. If Luke managed to find the workshop and convince Daedalus to help him, Luke wouldn't have to fumble around searching for paths, or risk losing his army in the maze's traps. He could navigate anywhere he wanted—quickly and safely. First to Camp Half-Blood to wipe us out. Then...to Olympus."
The arena was silent except for Mrs. O'Leary's toy yak getting disemboweled: SQUEAK! SQUEAK!
Finally Beckendorf put his huge hands on the table. "Back up a sec, Annabeth, you said 'convince Daedalus'? Isn't Daedalus dead?"
Quintus grunted. "I would hope so. He lived, what, three thousand years ago? And even if he were alive, don't the old stories say he fled from the Labyrinth?"
Chiron clopped restlessly on his hooves. "That's the problem, my dear Quintus. No one knows. There are rumors...well, there are many disturbing rumors about Daedalus, but one is that he disappeared back into the Labyrinth toward the end of his life. He might still be there."
Andromeda had dreams before with many people, points of history that had happened thousands of years before, and at one point, she had seen Daedalus. He'd looked so frail, it was hard to believe he'd lasted another week, much less three thousand years. Yet there he was, alive and well and it made her wonder if he could still be down there.
"We need to go in," Annabeth announced. "We have to find the workshop before Luke does. If Daedalus is alive, we convince him to help us, not Luke. If Ariadne's string still exists, we make sure it never falls into Luke's hands."
Chiron's expression bristled and his eyes turned towards the only child of Dionysus present. "Ariadne's string. There is only one person here who has known Ariadne personally. Andromeda, is there anything that you know? Anything at all?"
She shrugged and rubbed between her eyebrows. "She's never talked about it. Well, she had, but not much. It brings up bad memories for her. She was abandoned by who she loved. Someone who she trusted and put all of her trust in. And Theseus betrayed her. So ask her, maybe, if she's seen the string? No, she has no idea. It's been thousands of years, and it's not like she would want to remember."
Chiron nodded his head grimly.
"Wait a second," Percy said. "If we're worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?"
"Great idea!" Grover said. "I'll get the dynamite!"
"It's not so easy, stupid," Clarisse growled. "We tried that at the entrance we found in Phoenix. It didn't go well."
Annabeth nodded. "The Labyrinth is magical architecture, Percy. It would take huge power to seal even one of its entrances. In Phoenix, Clarisse demolished a whole building with a wrecking ball, and the maze entrance just shifted a few feet. The best we can do is prevent Luke from learning to navigate the Labyrinth."
"We could fight," Lee Fletcher said. "We know where the entrance is now. We can set up a defensive line and wait for them. If an army tries to come through, they'll find us waiting with our bows."
"But there are thousands of monsters and demigods and...other creatures, Lee. We can't just fight them all off and expect everyone to come out of it untouched." Andromeda explained. "That's not how war works."
There was a certain look in her eyes, like a tortured look. Like something in her was shattered, something that was split from the part of her that they all knew. She looked lost in a way. It unsettled a few people in the circle.
"We will certainly set up defenses," Chiron agreed. "But I fear Clarisse and Andromeda are right. The magical borders have kept this camp safe for hundreds of years. If Luke manages to get a large army of monsters into the center of camp, bypassing our boundaries...we may not have the strength to defeat them."
Nobody looked real happy about that news. Chiron usually tried to be upbeat and optimistic. If he was predicting they couldn't hold off an attack, that wasn't good.
"We have to get to Daedalus's workshop first," Annabeth insisted. "Find Ariadne's string and prevent Luke from using it."
"But if nobody can navigate in there," Percy said, "what chance do we have?"
"I've been studying architecture for years," she said. "I know Daedalus's Labyrinth better than anybody."
"From reading about it."
"Well, yes."
"That's not enough."
"It has to be!"
"It isn't!"
"Are you going to help me or not?"
Andromeda looked down at her shoes when the two both looked at her, almost like they were trying to get her to pick a side. She shook her head as Janaya placed her hand on the redhead's shoulder, watching the two stare each other down.
Mrs. O'Leary's squeaky yak went EEK! As she ripped off its pink rubber head.
Chiron cleared his throat. "First things first. We need a quest. Someone must enter the Labyrinth, find the workshop of Daedalus, and prevent Luke from using the maze to invade this camp."
"We all know who should lead this," Clarisse said. "Annabeth."
There was a murmur of agreement. Andromeda knew Annabeth had been waiting for her own quest since she was a little kid, but she looked uncomfortable. Andromeda herself had been waiting for her own quest, but after a few years she decided maybe she wasn't fit for that leadership role. She was more like a right hand woman, someone who could back another person up if it was needed.
"You've done as much as I have, Clarisse," she said. "You should go, too."
Clarisse shook her head. "I'm not going back in there."
Travis Stoll laughed. "Don't tell me you're scared. Clarisse, chicken?"
Clarisse got to her feet, and it looked like she was going to pulverize Travis at first, but she said in a shaky voice: "You don't understand anything, punk. I'm never going in there again. Never!"
She stormed out of the arena.
Travis looked around sheepishly. "I didn't mean to—"
Chiron raised his hand. "The poor girl has had a difficult year. Now, do we have agreement that Annabeth should lead the quest?"
They all nodded except Quintus. He folded his arms and stared at the table, but Andromeda wasn't sure anyone else noticed until her amethyst eyes met a pair of sea green ones.
"Very well," Chiron turned to Annabeth. "My dear, it's your time to visit the Oracle. Assuming you return to us in one piece, we shall discuss what to do next."
—🧵—
Waiting for Annabeth was harder than visiting the Oracle herself, and she had a feeling that Percy felt the same way with all of his fidgeting.
They both heard it speak prophecies twice before. The first time had been in the dusty attic of the Big House, where the spirit of Delphi slept inside the body of a mummified hippie lady. The second time, the Oracle had come out for a little stroll in the woods. Percy still had nightmares about that.
As Percy paced the arena, waiting, Andromeda had brought out Mania and began to draw in the sand of the arena. Mrs. O'Leary ate her lunch, which consisted of a hundred pounds of ground beef and several dog biscuits the size of trash-can lids. Andromeda looked at the shapes that she had drawn. They were words of some sort, small shapes that looked similar to Greek but not.
Chiron was deep in conversation with Quintus and Argus. It looked to her like they were disagreeing about something. Quintus kept shaking his head.
On the other side of the arena, Tyson and the Stoll brothers were racing miniature bronze chariots that Tyson had made out of armor scraps.
Percy eventually gave up on pacing, wandered towards Andromeda, and left the arena. They stared across the fields at the Big House's attic window, dark and still. What was taking Annabeth so long?
"Percy, Andromeda," a girl whispered.
Juniper was standing in the bushes. It was weird how she almost turned invisible when she was surrounded by plants.
She gestured them over urgently. "You need to know: Luke and Eliza weren't the only ones I saw around that cave."
"What do you mean?"
She glanced back at the arena. "I was trying to say something, but he was right there."
"Who?"
"The sword master," she said. "He was poking around the rocks."
Percy's stomach dropped. "Quintus? When?"
"I don't know: I don't pay attention to time. Maybe a week ago, when he first showed up."
"What was he doing? Did he go in?"
"I—I'm not sure. He's creepy, Percy. I didn't even see him come into the glade. Suddenly he was just there. You have to tell Grover it's too dangerous—"
"Juniper?" Grover called from inside the arena. "Where'd you go?"
Juniper sighed. "I'd better go in. Just remember what I said. Don't trust that man!"
She ran into the arena.
Andromeda turned towards Percy and raised a brow, "Um, what was that about?"
"Looks like we aren't the only ones suspicious of Quintus."
"There's just something so strange about him. And his name. Gods, it's right there on the tip of my tongue."
Percy stared at the Big House, feeling more uneasy than ever. If Quintus was up to something...he needed Annabeth's advice. She might know what to make of Juniper's news. But where the heck was she? Whatever was happening with the Oracle, it shouldn't be taking this long.
Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore.
It was against the rules, but then again, nobody was watching. He grabbed hold of Andromeda's hand and together they ran down the hill and headed across the fields.
—🧵—
The front parlor of the Big House was strangely quiet. Andromeda was holding onto both of Percy's hands and pulled him with her. They walked down the hallway, floorboards creaking under their feet. When they got to the base of the stairs, Percy hesitated, causing Andromeda to stop as well. Four floors above would be a little trap door leading to the attic. Annabeth would be up there somewhere. They both stood quietly and listened. But what they heard wasn't what they had expected.
Sobbing.
And it was coming from below them. They crept around the back of the stairs. The basement door was open. Percy peered past the redhead and inside only to see two figures in the far corner, sitting amid a bunch of stockpiled cases of ambrosia and strawberry preserves. One was Clarisse. The other was a teenage Hispanic guy in tattered camouflage pants and a dirty black T-shirt. His hair was greasy and matted. He was hugging his shoulders and sobbing. It was Chris Rodriguez, the half-blood who'd gone to work for Luke. Andromeda bit her lip and backed away, shaking her head as her eyes welled with tears. She pressed her hands over her ears as she backed herself behind Percy. He put his arms out behind him, signaling for her to come closer to him. She kept her hands pressed to her ears and pressed her forehead in between her shoulder blades.
"It's okay," Clarisse was telling him. "Try a little more nectar."
"You're an illusion, Mary!" Chris backed farther into the corner. "G-get away."
"My name's not Mary." Clarisse's voice was gentle but really sad. "My name is Clarisse. Remember. Please."
"It's dark!" Chris yelled. "So dark!"
"Come outside," Clarisse coaxed. "The sunlight will help you."
"A...a thousand skulls. The earth keeps healing him."
"Chris," Clarisse pleaded. It sounded like she was close to tears. "You have to get better. Please. Mr. D will be back soon. He's an expert in madness. Just hang on. Maybe I can get Dromeda and she can help you. She's also really good with this stuff, too."
Chris's eyes were like a cornered rat's—wild and desperate. "There's no way out, Mary. No way out."
Then he caught a glimpse of Percy and made a strangled, terrified sound. "The son of Poseidon! He's horrible!"
He backed away, hoping Clarisse hadn't seen him or Andromeda. He listened for her to come charging out and yell at him, but instead she just kept talking to Chris in a sad pleading voice, trying to get him to drink the nectar. Maybe she thought it was part of Chris's hallucination, but...son of Poseidon? Chris had been looking at him, and yet why did he get the feeling he hadn't been talking about him at all?
And Clarisse's tenderness—it had never even occurred to Percy that she might like someone; but the way she said Chris's name...She'd known him before he changed sides. She'd known him a lot better than he realized. And now he was shivering in a dark basement, afraid to come out, and mumbling about someone named Mary. No wonder Clarisse didn't want anything to do with the Labyrinth. What had happened to Chris in there?
He heard a creak from above—like the attic door opening—and he wrapped his arms around Andromeda ran for the front door, whispering in her ear, "It's okay. It'll be okay."
—🧵—
"My dear," Chiron said. "You made it."
Annabeth looked at Percy and Andromeda first. He couldn't tell if she was trying to warn them, or if the look in her eyes was just plain fear. Then she focused on Quintus. "I got the prophecy. I will lead the quest to find Daedalus's workshop."
Nobody cheered. Really, everyone all liked Annabeth, and they wanted her to have a quest, but this one seemed insanely dangerous. After what Percy had seen of Chris Rodriguez and how Andromeda reacted to it, he didn't even want to think about Annabeth descending into that weird maze again.
Chiron scraped a hoof on the dirt floor. "What did the prophecy say exactly, my dear? The wording is important."
Annabeth took a deep breath. "I, ah...well, it said, you shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze..."
They all waited.
"The dead, the traitor, and the lost ones raise."
Grover perked up. "The lost one! That must mean Pan! That's great!"
"With the dead and the traitor," Percy added. "Not so great."
"And?" Chiron asked. "What is the rest?"
"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand," Annabeth said, glancing at Andromeda sadly, "daughter of Madness' chaos will withstand, the child of Athena's final stand."
Everyone looked around uncomfortably. Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, and a final stand didn't sound good.
"Hey...we shouldn't jump to conclusions," Silena said. "Annabeth isn't the only child of Athena, right? And-and Andy, I mean, we don't know what that means, chaos and all."
"But who's this ghost king?" Beckendorf asked.
No one answered.
"Are there more lines?" Chiron asked. "The prophecy does not sound complete."
Annabeth hesitated. "I don't remember exactly."
Chiron raised an eyebrow. Annabeth was known for her memory. She never forgot something she heard.
Annabeth shifted on her bench. "Something about...Destroy with a hero's final breath."
"And?" Chiron asked.
She stood. "Look, the point is, I have to go in. I'll find the workshop and stop Luke. And...I need help." She turned to Percy. "Will you come?"
He didn't even hesitate. "I'm in."
She smiled for the first time in days, and that made it all worthwhile. "Andy? I need you. You more than anyone else."
The red haired girl nodded and made a face in Annabeth's direction. "That's not even a question Annabeth. Of course I'm coming with you, you really didn't think I'd let you and Fish Face go down there without me?"
The blonde laughed, "Grover, you too? The wild god is waiting."
Grover seemed to forget how much he hated the underground. The line about the "lost one" had completely energized him. "I'll pack extra recyclables for snacks!"
"And Tyson," Annabeth said. "I'll need you too."
"Yay! Blow-things-up time!" Tyson clapped so hard he woke up Mrs. O'Leary, who was dozing in the corner.
"Wait, Annabeth," Chiron said. "This goes against the ancient laws. A hero is allowed only two companions."
"I need them all," she insisted. "Chiron, it's important."
"Annabeth." Chiron flicked his tail nervously. "Consider well. You would be breaking the ancient laws, and there are always consequences. Last winter, five went on a quest to save Artemis. Only three came back. Think on that. Three is a sacred number. There are three fates, three furies, three Olympian sons of Kronos. It is a good strong number that stands against many dangers. Four...this is risky."
Annabeth took a deep breath. "I know. But we have to. Please."
Anyone could tell that Chiron didn't exactly like it. Quintus was studying them, like he was trying to decide which of them would come back alive.
Chiron sighed. "Very well. Let us adjourn. The members of the quest must prepare themselves. Tomorrow at dawn, we send you into the Labyrinth."
—🧵—
If you have never seen the inside of the Athena cabin, Janaya will explain it to you.
It was a silvery building, nothing fancy, with plain white curtains and a carved stone owl over the doorway. The owl's onyx eyes seemed to follow her as she walked closer.
She knocked on the door, but nobody answered. She stepped in and caught her breath as she did everytime she went inside. The place was a workshop for brainiac kids. The bunks were all pushed against one wall as if sleeping didn't matter very much. Most of the room was filled with workbenches and tables and sets of tools and weapons. The back of the room was a huge library crammed with old scrolls and leather-bound books and paperbacks. There was an architect's drafting table with a bunch of rulers and protractors, and some 3-D models of buildings. Huge old war maps were plastered to the ceiling. Sets of armor hung under the windows, their bronze plates glinting in the sun.
Annabeth stood in the back of the room, rifling through old scrolls. Janaya knocked her fist against the wall three times.
She turned with a start. "Oh...hi. Didn't hear you."
"You okay?" The daughter of Hephaestus signed.
She frowned at the scroll in her hands. "Just trying to do some research. Daedalus's Labyrinth is so huge. None of the stories agree about anything. The maps just lead from nowhere to nowhere."
"You'll figure it out," she promised. "You're smart like that."
Her hair had come loose and was hanging in a tangled blond curtain all around her face. Her gray eyes looked almost black.
"I've wanted to lead a quest since I was seven," she said, looking over her shoulder.
"You're going to do awesome."
She looked at Janaya gratefully, but then stared down at all the books and scrolls she'd pulled from the shelves. "I'm worried, Naya. Maybe I shouldn't have asked Percy or Andromeda to do this. Or Tyson or Grover."
"Hey, they're your friends. They wouldn't miss it."
"But..." She stopped herself.
"What is it?" Janaya asked. "The prophecy?"
"I'm sure it's fine," she said in a small voice, looking up with her hard, cloudy eyes.
"What was the last line?"
Then she did something that really surprised the dark haired girl. She blinked back tears and put out her arms.
Janaya stepped forward and hugged her. Butterflies started turning her stomach into a mosh pit.
The girl cupped the back of the blonde's neck and squeezed gently three times. It was their thing, touching each other three times in some pattern. She was suddenly aware of everything in the room. She felt like she could read the tiniest print on any book on the shelves and she hated reading with a passion. Annabeth's hair smelled like lemon soap. She was shivering.
"Chiron might be right," she muttered, pulling away enough that the two could communicate properly. "I'm breaking the rules. But I don't know what else to do. I need them, and I need you. It just feels right."
"Then don't worry about it," Janaya managed. "You've had plenty of problems before, and you solved them. Because you're smart."
"This is different. I don't want anything happening to...any of you."
Behind them, somebody cleared his throat.
It was one of Annabeth's half-brothers, Malcolm. His face was bright red.
"Um, sorry," he said. "Archery practice is starting, Annabeth. Chiron said to come find you."
Janaya stepped away from Annabeth. "We were just looking at maps," She signed stupidly.
Malcolm stared at the girl. "Okay."
"Tell Chiron I'll be right there," Annabeth said, and Malcom left in a hurry.
Annabeth rubbed her eyes. "You go ahead, Naya. I'd better get ready for archery."
She nodded, feeling more confused than she ever had in her life. She wanted to run from the cabin...but then again she didn't. She wasn't great at creating connections with people...but even more at maintaining them.
"Annabeth?" Janaya said. "About your prophecy. The line about a hero's last breath—"
"You're wondering which hero? I don't know."
"No. Something else. I was thinking the last line usually rhymes with the one before it. Was it something about—did it end in the word death?"
Annabeth stared down at her scrolls. "You'd better go. I have to, uh, get ready for the quest. Um, thanks Naya." She pressed a kiss to the girl's cheek.
Janaya left her there, staring at maps that led from nowhere to nowhere; but she couldn't shake the feeling that one of the demigods going on the quest wasn't going to come back alive.
Janaya + Annabeth = perfection
I love their relationship so much and I live portraying how supportive Naha is even if she has some problems with relationships, something which I will try to go into at some point. It's nothing crazy or super sad, but any trauma is sad and I hope I do it justice.
Anywho, I really hope you liked this chapter!