I was standing in the dark.
And I mean pitch black, no light, whatsoever.
And then there was this deep purple glow right in front of me, as my eyes adjusted. I realized I was looking at a woman, her skin glowing a soft shade of lavender.
"I hope you don't mind the dark, " she said, a warm smile playing across her lips, " It makes me feel at home."
I stuttered and stammered over my words, she was absolutely beautiful.
"It's... it's o-okay." I managed.
She looked me up and down with dark purple eyes that flickered with a black flame. Her hair was extremely long, flowing down behind her in shades of silky black and violet like a dark cloud of smoke., her dress held the same illusion, like it was handcrafted from dark purple clouds and wrapped around her body.
"Aria," she said," I need you to do something for me," I nodded slowly, she smiled again, "I need you to find a pair of demigods for me. Matthew Walker and Joshua Kovalchik. They are very powerful and need to be protected. I'm trusting you with this task."
"But how am I supposed to do that?"
"You'll find a way, you always do." She smiled, but looked to the ground slightly when a dark wave swept over her face. "Except, this time you won't have your guardian to look after you."
"Guardian?"
"Jennifer Lockwood." A knot formed in my stomach.
"Jenny? My social worker? She died when I was a kid."
"You guardian. And she's been with you since she left, only in hiding, keeping you safe in secrecy for the past 11 years."
It took a few seconds for that to sink in. I mean, it made sense. There were so many times when I'd made it out of trouble when I really shouldn't have; last year, I accidentally ran into Medusa's layer, but somehow a statue fell and landed on her, giving me time to get out. Or the year before that, I was corned by a Cyclops, and by some sort of luck the lights went out and I managed to sneak out. There's been so many times when things looked horrible, but I somehow got out. Well I guess it wasn't luck. It was Jenny. But not anymore.
"What happened to her?" I asked, "Why can't she help me this time?"
The woman sighed and waved a hand. Suddenly to my left was a bright screen of purple clouds floating in the air. There were images on the screen... Jenny... my social worker - guardian - humming in her kitchen. Someone was sitting at her table. A man... except , he had two faces. and I mean two faces. One on either side of his head. Jenny had a hard time looking at either one. The man sipped his tea on either side and said,
"Ms Lockwood, It's better off if you trust me, and just give the half-blood over to us. She's not worth risking your life over every day!" Jenny's face turned to stone. The man's other face chimed in,
"Forget him. Keep the girl, and keep her safe. You know how much she's worth!"
"Oh shut up," the other face interrupted," She's going to die anyway. You heard the prophecy."
The second face scowled and took another sip of tea.
"It might not mean her. Prophecies are confusing... it could mean someone else."
"I'm protecting her," Jenny said, pounding her fist on the table, "It is my duty as her guardian. I would rather die than see her taken by Hades."
The man's faces both looked surprised.
"Very well then." They said in unison. Then the two-faced man snapped his fingers, and Jenny was gone.
The screen disappeared and I turned back to the smoke lady, who looked at me mournfully.
"I'm sorry, dear. Jennifer meant a great deal to you and meboth. But she did her job well, she kept you safe for eleven years. She... she deserves Elsyium..."
the last part she said mostly to herself, trailing off and looking down. Her eyes were close to tears, full of guilt and regret. The black flame was sad and dull.
"Go now, my child, and find Matthew, son of Hephaestus, and Joshua, son of Apollo. They are only the beginning of your quest."
And then she was gone, and it was just me, standing in the doorway of the Hermes cabin, with a killer headache and a hell of a lot of questions for our activities director.