WARNING
This part contains veeeeery minor Magnus Chase spoilers. The only thing it spoils are the abilities of Magnus and Alex. I didn't label where the spoilers were, as I did not see them as too big of a deal to spoil. But to anyone who hasn't read Magnus Chase, please let me know if you would prefer that I labeled where the spoilers were so you could read past them, or if that detail isn't a big deal to spoil and you don't care if I label it or not. If it's a problem I will be sure to label it! ❤️
ONE WEEK AGO
A camper, a Satyr, and a huntress waited outside of a closed door. All of which looked beyond anxious. Though they were different in appearance, different in camps, and titles, their concerns were very much the same.
The man who had been referred to as Chiron stepped into the hallway. The trio had obviously been waiting for him, as when he stepped up the tension grew twice as thick.
"Can we--" Reyna, the camper with the purple shirt gestured towards the door.
Chiron nodded. "She's awake. I'm sorry, things are a bit behind in the infirmary without Will Solace. He's one of Apollo's best healers."
They didn't hesitate to open the door. Thalia, the huntress sat beside the bed. Reyna took the other side. Grover stood at the end.
"Hey, Rachel," Grover said. "How are you feeling?"
She shrugged.
"I've been better. Just tired. Though, my problems aren't exactly of great concern at the moment.
Reyna took notice of the notepad setting on Rachel's beside table. It was opened to a page that had a variety of nonsensical phrases and sketches all over it. The only thing Reyna made sense of was the familiar lines that Rachel had spoken the previous night at the campfire.
"Mother has angered magic, she's gone back on her word.
Half-Bloods are welcomed to a new, magical world.
The man in black is a villain, gone weak
Immortality is what he will seek
Light and dark listen in; not part of the plan.
Extinguished to a new, foreign land.
Seven half-bloods shall appear at the sight.
To wood or metal, they shall fight.
An oath is broken, and minds are changed.
All that is certain, is that things will never be the same."
It was the prophecy, the newest prophecy.
"What's all this?" Reyna asked. Rachel looked over the pages with Reyna, looked at the spot Reyna pointed to.
"Last night I woke up quite late after I passed out; sorry about that by the way. I had a dream, it was rather strange. I could only assume this was a vision. Before it could slip my mind, I jotted down all I had remembered in my sketch book."
On the paper, surrounding the words of the prophecy were various doodles and words. One doodle looked like a black horse. Another was a dark, cloaked figure. His face wasn't shown, his arm was extended towards a cage. In his hand was a brown stick with a vibrant, green light escaping the tip. In the cage was a woman, no doubt. Her face too was hidden, but instead of a cloak it was masked by her dark hair. She appeared to be begging the man for mercy. One may think it was hard to get all of that out of a drawing, but the person who doubted the talent of Rachel Elizabeth Dare had obviously never seen her work before. It was truly extraordinary how she managed to make such small doodles tell such deep, mysterious stories.
Some words jotted down on the paper were barely readable. Though she had talent in art, Rachel's penmanship was lacking legibility.
One word, however, was very pointedly written. It was underlined. Grover pointed to the top of the paper.
"What does that say? Hog-Hogwatts?" Grover asked.
"Hand it hear, you idiot." Thalia scanned the paper. "It obviously says Hogwash!"
Rachel sighed. "You people are impossible. It says Hogwarts!"
"Hogwhat?" Grover questioned.
Thalia's face recoiled in disgust.
"I hope I misheard. A Hog? Warts? Those are two disguising things. I didn't realize we were being sent on a quest based around Dionysus."
Rachel face-palmed. "You three have an hour for me to explain this paper to you, to get packed, and to leave. I hope you can shut up long enough for me to do so."
Thalia and Grover looked like they wanted to argue back, but Reyna gave them a look of warning. It was a look that said, "if you two idiots say anything else illogical I swear, Rachel won't be the only one in the infirmary."
Because Thalia and Grover knew what's best for them, they shut their mouths.
"It took me awhile to decipher all of this, but I have most of the prophecy decoded. It took some help from Ella and some of the Athena campers of course, but we managed as much as we could." Rachel handed them a list.
"This list is basically a layout of your quest. Once you read the decoding, it should make a lot more sense. But, I don't have time to explain every individual line to you. That would be because we haven't even got all of it figured out yet! The point is, we don't have much time to sit around and play guess the Prophecy! Take my notes, and any time I end up with a vision, I'll send an Iris message as soon as possible."
Rachel took a moment to gather herself.
"Sorry, I'm just a bit sleep deprived."
"It's okay. Just tell us the mission. We'll go out and do fine, and you'll get some rest Rachel. It'll all be fine." Reyna assured. Rachel was obviously quite anxious about the mission. The others were as well, but they couldn't back down now. Their friends were missing and they weren't going to be that way for much longer.
"Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Frank, Hazel, Piper, Jason, Nico, and Will are missing. We may not know exactly what this Prophecy means, but that isn't of your concern right now. The only thing on your guys's agenda is figuring out a way to London, and quick."
Each member of the trio's eyes widened greatly.
"London? Wait--WHAT?" Grover exclaimed.
Rachel snatched her notepad from Grover.
"Yes, London. I had a vision last night. An old British man was discussing a place called Hogwarts, he said: "Hogwarts is where the boy must go. It's what's safest for him. We can find him a place to stay in London. Tomorrow, he can be taken to King's Cross station for the express, and I will find a suitable family to lead him to platform 9 3/4."
"I think Dare's losing it," Grover whispered to Thalia. She elbowed him.
"London. Got it, and what will we be doing in London?"
Rachel's face reddened with frustration.
"Okay. So, I don't know exactly where you'll go. If this 9 3/4 place was relevant, I doubt our friends are there anymore. Your best bet is to get a head start by going there. Search for any information on this Hogwarts place that you can find. Once I get my next vision, I'll send an iris message. I understand it isn't a particularly solid plan, but it's all we've got."
Reyna nodded.
"I would prefer something well thought out, strategized. However, I see that the possibility of anything in this quest making much more sense isn't very likely."
Thalia nodded in agreement.
"I'll call on Mrs. O' Leary. She can take us there." Thalia suggested.
"Be safe and hurry," Rachel said. "Good luck. We haven't much time."
Miles and miles away, somewhere in London.
Present day
AUTHOR'S POV
Reyna was getting frustrated. Rachel had told them to go to London. She's said she had some vision about a place called Hogwarts where the demigods might be. Reyna, Thalia, and Grover had hopped onto Mrs. O'Leary and traveled to London. So far, they'd accomplished nothing but losing their food supply.
Thalia was annoyed. She should have been with the hunters, but instead she was with a satyr and a Roman demigod hunting for her missing brother.
Grover was starving. Not only for food, but for information. He hadn't gotten around to visiting Annabeth and Percy in awhile, he'd been so busy. The week he decided to come by camp, they were both missing. He felt guilty.
"Guys," Grover complained. "Maybe we could walk around town again. Maybe we could ask some strangers about Hogwarts."
"It isn't safe," Thalia replied. "Ask one wrong person, and we can wind up dead in an alley."
"I love that positive thinking, Thalia," Reyna mumbled. "Come on guys, we need some rest."
They set up camp on the countryside. Their shelter was a large tree beside a stream. It wasn't much, but it was the bet they could do.
"I did not miss this about quests." Thalia grumbled. "Never a nice bed, lack of food, and being stuck with a satyr."
"Hey! Bah, you know you've missed me Thalia." Grover pleaded.
Thalia sighed. "Whatever."
"Ugh, my stomach is growling. It's awful. This is awful. I just want to see Percy and Annabeth." Grover lay beside the stream, tracing the water with his finger.
"I want to see them too, and Jason." Thalia added. She stared at the stars, wondering is Artemis could give them some guidance.
"Frank, Hazel, Jason, Percy, Annabeth..." Reyna sighed. "Gods, we need to find them. We must find them all."
As Grover traced the water, it began to ripple. Maybe it was a fish, he thought. Perhaps nature would provide, and they could have a decent meal of fish if they could manage to make a fire. He took his finger away.
Curiously enough, the water continued to ripple. More and more, until a face appeared.
"Bah!" Grover bleated. "What in Hades?"
"Wait, wait! Is it working, can you see me?" A boy asked. It was an Iris message.
"I didn't do that!" Grover pointed to the stream. "Not my fault! Um, who is this?" Reyna and Thalia gathered around the Iris message.
"Who are you?" The boy asked what the three were wondering.
"I'm Grover, this is--" Thalia interrupted Grover by punching him.
"Ouch!"
"Come on! You guys can't just give him our information, we don't even know if he's trustable! He could be the person who's hiding them from us. He could be the enemy here, and we have no way of knowing! He could be a villain." Thalia hissed.
"Uh, I'm right here. Ouch. I've been called a lot of unfortunate names, and let me say, being called a villain hurts a bit more than being called bean town." The boy grumbled.
"What's he talking about? What's a bean town?" Grover grabbed his stomach. "Ugh, beans sound good right now..."
"Look, I don't know how to work this whole Iris messaging thing, and I doubt it will continue for long. When Iris figures out some Norse demigod is using her messaging system, I doubt she'll be pleased."
"Norse demigod?" Reyna spoke up. She stared the boy for a moment and shook her head. "Jason told me about something he'd heard from Percy and Annabeth...something about the Norse gods. He told me a story about Annabeth's cousin, what was his name...gods, Magnus! Are you Magnus?"
"I'm going to say that yes is my safest answer, assuming you aren't speaking in a more philosophical way. Am I really Magnus Chase? Who am I, honestly? Who are we all? Ouch!" Magnus jumped, suddenly. He glared behind him. "Not cool, Alex."
What appeared to be a small bird had been hovering behind him. It must have pecked at his neck.
The next moment, the bird turned into a figure standing behind him, a person.
The green-haired person shrugged.
"What, you were being annoying. I thought I'd save them the effort of trying to sit through one of your failed attempts at making a joke." Alex walked away, out of view in the iris message. Magnus still stared in the direction that Alex walked off.
"Hey, I make jokes to ease the tension in situations where I feel threatened. These three look like they can tear me apart, limb by limb." Magnus shrugged, sheepishly.
Alex's voice was distant now, but could still be heard.
"You make jokes because you're awkward and bad at reading social situations."
Magnus looked like he wanted to argue, but he only rolled his eyes and looked back at us.
"Sorry about Alex. Where were we? Ah, yes. My mysterious letter. Not to mention the owl that won't leave my house. It dropped off the letter, strange thing for an owl to do, and now it won't leave! It's aggressive too. In addition to this owl's pecking, Alex thinks it's funny to turn into a bird and bite at me. Not cool--I'm going off on a tangent, aren't I?"
Reyna thought for a moment.
"An owl, you said?" She looked at both Thalia and Grover.
"A sign of Athena, maybe?" Thalia said what Reyna had been thinking.
"It makes sense!" Grover exclaimed. "Maybe Athena will help us, we could call on her for help!"
Reyna and Thalia exchanged glances.
"It can't be that easy, and I'm not calling on the gods for help with the problem they've caused, and have shown little concern for." Reyna shook her head. "Remember what Chiron said at the start of the week, at the campfire? He had said all of those strange attacks on the mortals had torches left behind. Torches are a symbol of Hecate. When the attacks suddenly stopped, our friends went missing. My theory is that Hecate was trying to warn somebody about something big--Hecate wouldn't cause all of this trouble, I couldn't believe that she'd be the goddess who took our friends." Reyna thought aloud.
"Their memories are changed, that much is obvious. Tell me Reyna, what goddess comes to mind when you hear about someone's memories being changed?" Grover suggested.
"Hera." The three of them said in unison.
"Exactly," Grover continued. "What if this is happening because Hera angered Hecate? Hecate wouldn't directly fight Hera, Hera's too powerful. She must have known Hera was about to do something questionable, so she wanted to warn her before she went after her."
Thalia and Reyna stared at Grover in interest. Magnus, though confused, decided it wasn't the best time to speak up and question what in Hellium any of them were talking about.
"Interesting theory, Underwood. But where exactly did that idea come from? It seems well thought out. Let's think, what evidence do we have that proves your theory to be even remotely correct?" Thalia questioned.
"The first line of the prophecy says: mother has angered magic, she's gone back on her word. Hera, being mother, Hecate, being magic!" Grover insisted.
Reyna pondered the lines of the prophecy.
"Half-bloods are welcomed to a new, magical world. That was the second line of the prophecy. It means that wherever our friends were sent, it's someplace involving magic. Hecate must not have wanted the demigods interfering with whatever this world is, but Hera's favorite hobby is meddling. She weaseled her way into this world, whatever it was, because Hera is obsessed with power. She must've used our friends as sort of test subjects for this world." Reyna explained.
"The prophecy said 'seven half-blood shall enter the sight,' but we were confused because there are nine missing...the prophecy also said, 'light and dark listen in, not part of the plan, extinguished to a new, foreign land.' What if Nico Di Angelo and Will Solace are the light and dark that listened in? They must have heard the plan somehow, and were zapped away to this land with the others. They're children of Hades and Apollo. Hades is the god of the underworld, dark. Apollo is the god of the sun, light! It makes sense." Thalia continued. "Grover Underwood, I thought I'd be dead before I ever even considered saying this to you, but you're a genius. It makes sense! Gods, it makes sense."
"You're welcome." Grover beamed.
"What about the 'villain gone weak...seeking immortality.' The prophecy spoke of this. Any ideas?" Thalia asked. Both Thalia and Reyna stared at Grover, expectantly.
"It doesn't make sense that Hecate would've just run away from all of this. The torches suddenly stopped showing, I think maybe Hera sent someone after her so she'd be out of the way of whatever Hera was planning. This villain seeking immortality must've caught Hecate somehow."
Grover took a bow after that explanation.
"Okay, I get that this might be a life-or-death situation for you guys and your world, but does someone mind filling me in on all of this? Annabeth only explained the basics of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses to me, she basically said they're all power hungry fools except for Hestia. So far in your explanations, I only understand about 20% of what you're saying. Also, I heard the word prophecy, and let me tell you, I am not a fan of prophecies. That word is sort of taboo for my friends and I."
"Trust me, we aren't a fan of prophecies either. Not. At. All." Grover bleated.
"Look, we don't have time to give you some Greek and Roman mythology lesson." Thalia spat. "Just answer this, do you trust us? And give us a reason to trust you."
"Uh, I suppose I trust you guys. I have a decent judge of character." He shrugged. "You can trust me because I think I'd be a valuable asset to your team. I have healing magic, plus I also have information on the next place you need to go. It's all in this letter, Annabeth mentioned some place called St. Mungos, and some other place called Hogwarts. Which should we try first?"
"We?" Thalia scoffed. "We should trust you because you can heal? Come on, we have ambrosia and nectar."
"Yeah, but I can heal other with less of a possibly of the person spontaneously combusting. Annabeth told me that's what happens if someone drinks too much of that nectar stuff and eats too much of that ambrosia nonsense. When you have me on your team, you're much less likely to blow up."
"Magnus, you're the person who nearly blew up the toaster last week." Alex stated in the background.
"Not helping!" Magnus replied, he shrugged sheepishly to us.
"Fine. Fine! What do we have to lose? We've been trying to find this Hogwarts place for three days, and we've gained no new information. All we know is that it's somewhere in London, maybe." Grover said. "Maybe you could join our team. We need some more comic relief, that job is sometimes too much for me. Right now, I'm too hungry to provide comic relief at the moment."
Thalia buried her head in her hands.
"Whatever. Reyna, this is your call. I'm with Grover here, what do we have to lose?"
Reyna stared at Magnus for a moment.
"You do look a lot like Annabeth..."
"It's a cousin thing." Magnus smiled.
"Okay, okay! Fine. You can join our quest. Though I am hesitant, more than three on a quest is considered to be bad luck."
"No offense, Reyna, but I don't think our luck here could get any worse." Thalia shrugged. "What the Hades, let's do it. We'll send Mrs. O' Leary to get Magnus and Alex, and then we can plan exactly how we're going to find this St. Mungos place."
"Woah, woah, woah. Magnus and Alex?" Magnus beamed. "You want Alex too?"
Magnus dragged Alex back into view. Alex stared through the hologram, wide-eyed.
"Please don't tell me I misheard this idiot." Alex mumbled. Magnus looked offended, but also looked like he knew better than to speak up. He just rolled his eyes and scoffed, fighting back a hint of a smile. "You're asking me to go on a quest with you guys?"
"You're a shapeshifter, I noticed. One of our missing friends is as well. If we find him, it'd be a shame if you weren't there to meet him. You don't have to, we understand. Quests can be quite dangerous--" Alex interrupted Reyna.
"Yes, finally! Things have been so boring up here. I'll totally go! Let me pack some things." Alex rushed out of view, Magnus sighed.
"I don't know how much Annabeth told you about our world, but I'd guess that she's explained that we're dead, immortal in Valhalla. When we leave Valhalla, we can't die. If we do, well, that won't be good. I know I may not seem like the most intimidating guy, and Alex can easily fight well. But here's a warning: if Alex gets so much as a paper cut on this quest, I have a Taylor Swift singing sword that will have no problem busting out Look What You Made Me Do while he turns you three into demigod bits."
"This is why I've sworn off men. They think they have to be stupidly bold." Thalia mumbled.
"You and me both, sister." Reyna added.
Grover looked relieved. "You said demigod bits. Hah! Jokes on you, funny boy. I'm not a demigod!"
"Satyrs are not excluded from this, Jack here believes in equality. I've taught him well. If Alex gets hurt in this, I'll make sure that the three of you are equally punished." Magnus winked. "Kidding. I won't kill you guys if you don't kill us. Deal?"
"Sounds like a solid plan." Thalia whistled, Mrs. O' Leary shot awake beside her. "Magnus Chase, this is Mrs. O' Leary. She will shadow traveling you and Alex to us. Are you familiar with shadow traveling, did Annabeth explain it at all?"
"She explained something about an angry Italian boy who could teleport through shadows. What was his name, Nicholas?" Magnus asked.
Reyna laughed.
"Close enough, I guess you're ready. Thalia, do your thing."
Thalia jumped on top of the hound. In an instant, they were gone.
"I guess I can cross using the same travel plan as an angry Italian boy off of my bucket list." Magnus mumbled. "Uh, I'll see you guys I guess."
"Wait!" Grover shouted. "Please bring food! We ran out and I'm dying!"
Reyna ended the Iris message.
"Ugh," Grover fell back in the grass. "I hope he heard. I'm starving!"
Reyna lay down beside Grover in the grass. She was exhausted, but felt a slight bit relieved. They were finally going somewhere. Finally, it felt like their quest was beginning.