2

Astral Wikipedia

Chronos left this huge mess that he expected me to clean up. The Seven were asking questions like there was no tomorrow, and I had a headache that was starting to split.

"You guys," I groaned. My annoyance with these relentless queries had thrown my shy-girl persona into the Adriatic Sea. "I don't even understand what Chronos was talking about."

"He said that you were a prophet of Apollo," Frank stated. "What did he mean by that?"

I held up my hands in surrender and took a step back towards the quarterdeck. "I don't know," I admitted. "I have a few theories, but other than that, you're going to have to trust me that I don't know."

Jason, being the levelheaded son of Jupiter, requested, "Then at least tell us your theories. We can discuss them in the mess hall."

Everyone agreed on that note, but the son of Hades didn't seem like he would let anything go. His inky eyes glanced at me as if I'd murdered his sister (bad comment, I know), but he held something back. For now, I focused on following Jason below to the first level of the ship.

Coach Hedge muttered something about going to his cabin to watch the games. I wondered if he was going to Iris Message his wind spirit wife Millie about the up-coming battle between the camps, and for her to get to safety.

The mess hall typically looked like a regular dining area, with a highly elongated table (refectory table) adorned with empty silver platters and a few goblets that seemed to be half empty (half full…). The walls of the mess hall seemed to show live video feed from Camp Half-Blood. It almost made me feel right at home, but it also made me feel a little homesick.

Jason took a seat at the head of the table as the others gathered in their seats around him. Nico stood off to the side, and it made me feel distressed to sit at the other head of the table.

All six pairs of eyes stared at me, some more demanding than others. They were all confused to a degree, and I didn't like leaving on such an unclear point of action. So, I took a breath and looked everyone in the eye (even Nico).

"I'll answer one question at a time," I reasoned. "I swear upon the River Styx that I'll answer your questions with as much accuracy as I can."

Even if there was no thunder to symbolize the tied oath upon the wife of Pallas, something deep in my gut told me that the deal was knotted. And the others felt it too.

Leo leaned forward, his elbows perched on top of the table and forearms crossed. "Okay. Well, first of all, what was Kronos talking about when he mentioned that his planned worked?"

"Chronos, not Kronos," I corrected.

"Whatever, they sound the same."

Using my knuckles to tap on my thigh, I nodded. "Sorry," I said automatically. "Well, anyway, I'm not really sure what Chronos meant, but I have a theory…" I rubbed my right plica semilunaris, that little moon-shaped nook where eye boogers come from. "There's this thing called astral-traveling, where you subconsciously leave your physical body. In other words, when he mentioned giving out a call and me answering, I assume it was because of the astral thing."

In my peripheral vision, I saw Nico shift his weight, unfolding his arms.

"Astral-traveling," he said, his voice ringing like a low measure. "What is that?"

"It's, um…" I had to think about this. Was it possible for me to compare it to shadow-traveling? "It's similar to—" I waved my hands towards the shadows of the Seven. "—shadow-traveling… in a way. The only difference is that astral-traveling is an out-of-body experience, and has nothing to do with shadows."

Hazel raised a dark eyebrow. "Out-of-body experience?" she repeated.

"It's what I said before," I explained. "Where you subconsciously leave your physical body."

Jason leaned forward. "So it's like dreaming, but you're awake in your dream and can… see yourself?" He seemed unsure of his response, but I nodded, trying to see his point.

"Something like that." My bare feet tapped the titled floor. "When that happens, your, uh, spiritual self then enters the astral plane—"

"What's that?" Piper asked.

When I glanced around at everyone's faces again, they were into this new information. Nico still looked like he wasn't sure, but the question about this traveling thing led me to believe that he was interested…

I chewed on the dried skin of my lower lip, swallowing the dead skin. "Uh, well, the astral plane—or the astral world—is a place of planetary spheres, crossed by the soul in its astral body on the way to being born and after death."

Now their attention was on me, and my definitions were getting far from their questions.

"At any rate, it's like another dimension, but you're never far from your own body or else you'll be lost in the plane." I took a small breath and continued. "Thus, to sum all of that up, Chronos was probably talking about his plan on purpose and the Akashic records might have picked it up."

"That sounds familiar," Frank said, rubbing his chin. "Akashic records… yeah, I think I might have heard about it from my grandma."

I nodded. "There's no scientific evidence for the Akashic records, but it's encoded in the astral plane. All sounds are recorded since the beginning of time… oh, my gosh…" I ran a hand through my short cropped hair as the realization crashed hard on me.

It felt as it my mind was overloading on information, and I'd sat myself down before to have a physiological debate. That time of night when you've spent the entire time surfing the web or typing away on your computer or sketching that one masterpiece you know will make you smile every time you look at it—the headache that settles in and the pulsing that pushes against your temples. That was how I felt at this moment.

"You look like you've just figured out the meaning of life," Leo commented, raising his eyebrows.

I pointed my finger randomly on the table surface in front of me. "I don't know, but here," I said tapping the place where my index finger was, "is Chronos, and here is where we mortals are." I traced my finger down towards the edge of the table. "In between is the astral plane, and in that plane is the Akashic record. When talking about his plan, it was recorded and stored within the aether."

"Okay," Jason dragged. "Then how did you get here? Leo and Nico found you out on the deck and brought you to the sickbay. We thought you were working for Gaea or something."

Raising an eyebrow, I gave the Son of Rome a skeptical look, and I swore I saw most faces get misty-eyed. "With the Akashic records, it's only sound. It's possible I might have heard it while I was asleep." I realized that I wasn't answering his question and apologized. "What I mean to say is that, Chronos probably thought I was a mortal who could see through the Mist and decided to mess with you guys, so he almost certainly brought me here for that reason..."

All eyes were still on me, and my face heated up like a furnace. Nico, the flipping son of Hades, and anti-socialist of the Argo II took his seat beside Hazel. He had his hands clasped on the table before him, his Stygian iron sword dangling at his side.

"Are you…" Leo started, but Frank finished his question.

"… a descendent of Athena?"

They seriously thought I was a Greek legacy of Athena? I mean, I didn't even have blonde hair or grey eyes, I was a brunette with blue eyes.

I cleared my throat. "No," I said simply. "Why would you think that?"

"You've got this demeanor about you," Piper said. "It gives you off as serious looking. Besides, you don't have to have blonde hair and grey eyes in order to be a child of Athena."

Nodding, I remembered that I read something over Wikipedia that not all Athena campers had those features. "True, but that doesn't defeat the fact that I'm not an Athena child, instead, some mortal who happened to be blessed by Apollo as a prophet."

My personality clarified the fact that I was actually comfortable here, and I was started to get paranoid because of that. What if I got too comfortable and never wanted to go back? Would I even be able to go back?

"But," Hazel interjected, her golden eyes blazing, "what's your reason for being here? Your intention or claim?"

I shrugged and said that one sentence I love, oh so dearly. "I don't know."

Apparently our meeting ended there, because a large explosion rocked the ship, cause most of everyone to topple out of their seats. I grabbed onto the edge of the table, but my chair tipped underneath me, causing me to land flat on my butt. Leo and Frank ended in the same fate.

"Quod non valent," Jason cursed in Latin. I didn't know how I understood that, but I did, and now I really wanted some Unisom. To just sleep my way thru everything.

The ship lurched like it was hit by an iceberg, and plates and goblets went gliding off the table. Nico stumbled back against the wall, hitting his head. He must have hit it hard, because he slid to the ground.

"Nico!" Hazel got up, stumbling as the Argo II pitched in the other direction, trying to reach her half-brother.

Frank tried to stand. "What—?"

"Look!" Jason pointed at the port-side wall. The images of Camp Half-Blood were flickering and changing into something I vaguely remembered.

"Totally uncool," Leo murmured.

I agreed. It was stated in the books that the enchantments on the walls couldn't show anything other than scenes from camp, but that was proven wrong when this huge, distorted face showed up on the wall. It had crooked yellowing teeth, a very unkempt beard, a warty nose, and two uneven eyes. It looked as though the thing was trying to eat its way into the mess hall.

The other walls changed as well, showing what was going on above deck. Since Piper was down here, like she wasn't supposed to be, no one was tied up against the control console.

The face receded from the port-wall, and my brain did a backflip, because I knew what these things were. Cercopes… they were these mischievous forest creatures who lived in Thermopylae (or on Euboea… I don't know), but roamed the world.

There were two of them, Passalus and Acmon, I remembered.

One of them started stuffing things into a burlap bag—Piper's dagger (she must have left it there when we were all up there), Leo's Wii controllers. And then, much to the son of Hephaestus's shock, he pried the Archimedes sphere right out of the command console.

"Hijo de puta," Leo mumbled under his breath. I wasn't good at Spanish (because I took French in high school), but I guessed that it wasn't a very nice phrase.

Nico groaned at his place on the ground. Hazel carefully stood him up, and he didn't look like he suffered from any fatal injury.

"Are those monkey's?" Franks asked, standing up. He felt for his bow and quiver, sighing when he felt them safely crossed over his chest.

Hazel shook her head. "I don't think so. They looked like dwarfs to me."

"They're Cercopes," I specified. Using the table's edge to steady myself, I stood up to my full short height.

"And they're stealing my stuff!" Leo jogged out of the room and towards the stairs. Jason and Franks followed Repair Boy to the top deck, their weapons ready.

Piper leaned against one of the chairs, pulling herself up. Hazel walked Nico and sat him down, checking the back of his head to make sure he was all right. She was a motherly-type half-blood which I hadn't noticed in the books before.

From the images on the walls, it looked like Frank, Leo, and Jason were already on the deck. Nothing at the moment looked good.

Something goes wrong. Maybe it's the fact that one of the Cercopes was messing with a flash-bang grenade or that his brother was dressed horribly.

Jason mouth-yelled something. Duck! was my guess, and all three demigods hit the deck just as an explosion goes off, rocking the ship again.

This time, at least, no one fell down or was hit in the head by any platters.

As soon as one of the dwarf brothers took Leo's magical tool belt, they left the ship. One being propelled and the other doing a backflip over the edge. It was a sight to see, but things were missing.

Hazel stayed in the mess hall with Nico, despite his protests, as Piper and I climbed the stairs to the deck.

"What did you call them?" she asked as we were halfway up.

Ugh, I don't like answering questions, but I did anyway. "Cercopes, the dwarf creatures."

"Do you know why they're here?"

Shrugging and holding onto the rail as we scaled, I said, "They like shiny stuff."

The helm and quarterdeck came into view. Coach Hedge was swinging his basketball bat around, yelling, "Die, you monkey-dwarf measles!" He almost hit Jason in the back of the head as he and Leo were talking near the edge. Frank stood aimlessly beside them, but was listening on their conversation.

"You feeling good enough to control the winds?" Leo asked. "I need a lift."

Jason frowned. "Sure, but—"

"Good… we've got some monkey dudes to catch."