Deep as the Sea
Foreign Shores
It wasn't hard to convince everyone that sending an envoy to the vampires would be unwise. It was harder to convince them that openly siding with the White Council would also be unwise at this point in time—though it was also agreed that it wouldn't hurt if they helped them subtly. While sending soldiers to help them would be reckless, it was true that they had a great deal of information about the Red Courts movements. Percy eventually decided that it wouldn't hurt if they sent a warning to the White Council about some of the Red Courts recent activities, sending Conner and Travis as the messengers and ordering them not to say precisely who it was from, yet—and also not to steal anything or do anything mischievous.
If they ended up siding with the Council, he'd remember to take them both along with him on the first meeting to make it obvious that they'd been to ones to help them. That was also the reason he sent the two in person, rather than dropping an anonymous tip.
However…the fact remained that if they refused to openly contact the White Council and wanted nothing to do with the vampires, then they were only left with the Fairies.
Which, unfortunately, raised the issue of how to reach them.
Without a doubt, the Nevernever had been their biggest—and most unnerving—discovery. Not only had they missed hordes of monsters, wizards, and who knows what else—they had missed an entire plane of existence. What exact the Nevernever was, they weren't sure. What they did know was that it was the realm of the supernatural and that it was separate but connected to Earth. They knew—or had heard, at least—that it didn't always obey natural laws and that it was a fluid sort of place.
But most interesting of all, it was a place that could be travelled to and from. According to the vampires Drew had interrogated, opening gateways anywhere you wanted was something only magic users could do—but he'd also said they weren't the only ones able to crossover. Monsters could cross over the boundary in locations closely related to them, though it was difficult. It was how most monsters crossed over in the first place.
That had been very useful—profitable—information. However…it was a bit unnerving to learn that they were similar to monsters.
But not as unnerving as actually doing it.
Percy stood by the window of his Cabin. All the windows in the Poseidon Cabin faced the sea, even in the real world, but…
This was definitely not any sea on Earth.
Crossing over had been a strange experience—here in the Cabin dedicated to his father, it had been easy. Too easy. It had like closing his eyes in one world and opening them in another—and now that he'd done it, it felt like he could slip between worlds at any moment.
Worse—a part of him didn't think that was such a bad thing. Half of him felt more at home in this world then his own, like he was a child coming home. It felt like he'd been a fish in the desert and had just found his way back to the sea. It was like that part of him had always been suffocating and now it could breathe again—like there was a discomfort and pain that had been there for so long that he didn't even notice any more, but now it was gone.
And yet…no matter how much this place felt like home to one half…the other half just didn't belong. He'd simply traded one discomfort for another.
Maybe that was just what it meant to be a demigod. He didn't fully belong in either world.
Still, if this was what the Nevernever was like, there could be a problem. He'd volunteered to be the first to try entering the Nevernever, to make sure it was safe. And as he stared out the window, he wasn't sure what to report back.
Safe…?
No. This place couldn't be called safe. Maybe other areas were, but the one the Poseidon Cabin led to one was dangerous. In this world, his Cabin stood proudly atop the waves of an endless ocean. The light reflecting off its surface gave it an illusion of peace and beauty, but Percy wasn't fooled. The ocean could be beautiful, but peaceful was never a word that could describe it.
Not mortal oceans and especially not this one.
They were in water, so Percy just knew—there were things moving beneath the surface. Giant creatures like squid or octopi, large enough to stretch miles in the deep, and flowing, monstrous serpents. Endless creatures that were like shrimp in comparison, living, breeding and devouring each other in the depths. Amorphous creatures that had no more shape then water itself, flowing together and splitting apart, and countless fish that had no place on earth. There were creatures the size of islands and as small as insects. Things that might have looked a bit like people or a bit like fish or a bit like nothing much at all. He could feel everything in the sea beneath him and knew one thing for sure—a mile of this ocean had more life in it then any city on Earth.
He could feel no bottom to it, nor any shores. It was deep enough to swallow worlds and vast enough to be without exit or end. An ocean that wrapped around the world…that belief probably stemmed from this place. It was bottomless, endless, and without pity or remorse—and it called out to him like it was a living being. Like a mother to a child.
Percy closed his eyes and let himself slide back between worlds.
"Ah!" Annabeth said behind him, sounding surprised. "That didn't take long—"
He ignored her, striding out of the Cabin. To him, the boundary between worlds was no more than a spider web in there—and he could still hear the world-ocean calling out to him from the other side like he was its wayward son.
And it would be a lie to say he didn't want to answer.
But all of that faded away to moment he stepped out of the Cabin, as if walls had risen up all around him. He tried to slide again, but he couldn't—it was like trying to step through a doorway that didn't exist.
"Percy?" Annabeth asked, sounding concerned. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," He assured her, already missing the sea. "I just wanted to see if I could do it out here, too."
"And?"
He shrugged.
"Nothing. What happened on this side?"
Annabeth blinked once, before narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
"You vanished and then reappeared a second later. That was pretty fast—did you see something on the other side?"
Yes, he thought.
"It was several minutes for me," He said instead. "Odd, but we expected it."
"Can we reach Faerie from here?"
The thought scared him. If it was just him, it might be okay—he was sure that he was as much a part of that sea as anything in the water, but even then he'd be wary of what lurked beneath the waves. But if he had to take someone else?
They'd be swallowed up by the waves themselves. More than even the Bermuda Triangle, he felt that place was truly a 'Sea of Monsters.' Even the ocean itself had seemed alive.
"No," He said. "We'll need to find some other way."
XxXXxX
After Percy confirmed that they could survive in the Nevernever, he hesitantly asked the other Counselors to check their own Cabins, to make sure they were 'secure.'
If they were anything like his Cabin, then they didn't need to worry about invaders from that side of things, but it also meant they wouldn't have much luck using them to get to Faerie. Indeed, they all quickly confirmed his suspicion that taking that route just wasn't gonna happen. The sheer amount of defenses around each of the Cabins made Percy wonder if they were natural at all, or if their parents had specifically placed the defenses there.
On the Brightside, it did mean that they had a new emergency escape plan. If things became bad enough in the mortal realm, they could all cross over in the sanctity of their Cabins—though going anywhere after that might be risky.
With their first plan to reach Faerie shot down, they attempted to pursue other routes. Percy lead the expedition—which seemed to be his given role at this point, as the one most likely to survive if something went wrong—and confirmed his suspicion.
'What belongs to the sea returns to the sea.'
He could crossover effortlessly as long as he was in the sea—something he tested by simply heading for the one nearby. However, no matter where shifted from, he always ended up in that place. Worse, unlike with his Cabin, when he crossed over in the sea, he ended up in the sea, floating adrift in some random place. As they'd heard, distance in the Real World didn't correlate precisely with distance in the Nevernever. He had tried a number of places moving both down the beach and further from shore, and each time had ended up in some random place at the sea.
In the waters of the mortal realm, he had perfect bearings, and knew his exact location in terms of both longitude and latitude instinctively. In that strange world-ocean, his senses didn't work quite the same way—probably, he suspected, because longitude and latitude simply didn't, or even couldn't, apply to it—but he was still able to tell where he was instinctively, and where that was in relation to the other places he'd been, simply by 'comparing' the two places in his head and wondering how far apart they were.
From what the Red Court's agents had divulged, he assumed this was due to the way places in one world linked to 'similar' places in another. Which led to several questions, such as what would happen if he attempted to cross over at the bottom of the ocean, or in the Mariana Trench, or in other extreme places in the ocean.
Probably something bad. If just crossing over in water took him to a Sea of Monsters, he didn't want to know where the deepest place in the ocean would take him. He should probably avoid the Bermuda Triangle, too.
However, despite how intriguing his discoveries may have been and what possibilities they may have raise, it quickly became obvious that his ability to enter the Nevernever wasn't going to help them get to Faerie.
"Maybe if we tried something besides the sea," Annabeth said, frowning thoughtfully. She'd apparently taken their so-far-failed attempts as a personal affront and challenge. "Maybe if you tried crossing over in fresh water, as opposed to salt?"
Percy shrugged.
"It'd probably just take me somewhere associated with fresh water."
Annabeth snapped her fingers.
"Exactly! Maybe if you crossed over in a lake or river, you'd end up in a lake or river in Faerie."
"Or maybe somewhere a lot worse," He said, grimacing. "At least in the sea, I now know roughly where I'm going to end up—if a river could really take me anywhere…"
Annabeth hummed in agreement, waving a finger at him.
"Good point." She pursued her lips for a moment. "Then what if you tried crossing over in, say, a water park? If similar places are linked, that would probably take you somewhere positive."
She looked away, muttering to herself.
"But would it take you to Faerie…? What type of body of water would be associated with fairies…I know there are some; King Arthur had the Lady of the Lake…"
"Was she a fairy?" Percy asked. "Or something else?"
He received a vague gesture in reply.
"It depends on the source." She replied absently.
Deciding he should intervene before his girlfriend decided to ship him off to England to search for a mythical lake, Percy stood.
"For now, let's just assume that finding a way there through water will be troublesome at best and try something else instead. If we run out of options, you can tell me to go jump in a lake." He promised.
XxXXxX
For supposedly being the area in the Nevernever closest to Earth, they were having a surprisingly hard time reaching Faerie.
"Maybe the Demeter Cabin?" Annabeth suggested. "Their mother is the Goddess of Seasons—how can they not be associated with either Winter or Summer."
Percy shrugged.
"Maybe they are—but apparently their Cabin is a fortress on the other side. I have a hard time believing it can compare to an endless sea of monsters waiting to eat you, but Katie seems to think so."
"Has she figured out where else she can crossover?"
Percy nodded.
"The Forest worked, just like you thought, but…I don't think our forest was the best choice for that. We've been playing war games in it since forever and it's already full of man-eating monsters on this side."
Annabeth's eyes widened.
"Is Katie okay?"
"She's fine," Percy assured her. "I don't know what happened though—she crossed over, jumped back here, and told me she was going back to her Cabin."
Annabeth winced.
"I…should go apologize to her. I didn't think it would be that bad—we all have happy memories of the forest."
"Maybe some happy memories," Percy said, shaking his head. "But we play Capture the Flag there and there's always a winner, but there's also always a loser, too. Any happy memories of people winning would be equally matched by the memories of the ones who got beat. Plus all the battles and competitions and desire to win—and then there's the fear from when you run across a hoard of giant ants or a hellhound or something. I'd imagine the fact that animals are constantly hunting and killing each other in it probably doesn't help."
Annabeth nodded reluctantly, raising a hand to her head and rubbing her temples.
"Are you okay?" He asked, concerned.
"No!" She snapped, glaring at him, before wincing again. "I'm sorry. But no, I'm not okay—this whole thing is giving me a headache. I can't believe we're stumped by something like this! Not by an enemy or a puzzle or something—we just can't even get through the damn door!"
Percy moved to sit next to her, covering one of her hands with his.
"Do you want to go get some sleep?" He suggested. "I can watch over our failed attempts for a while—let's give Katie a break, though."
She sighed, all but shrinking in on herself.
"Yeah," She replied to both. "Some sleep would probably do me some good. What are you going to do, though?"
Percy smiled at her.
"I figured I'd just throw myself at the problem again and again until the Universe realized it had no choice but to give in to my unreasonable demands or else watch me destroy myself."
Annabeth laughed at that, which made his smile widen.
"Good luck with that, Seaweed Brain." She said, winking as she left.
Percy watched her go in silence, his mind already on other things.
They were running out of options. Crossing over in random places in the hopes of striking gold wasn't working—it was a big, big world and apparently an even bigger Nevernever. It could take them forever to find a way there if they were restricted to places similar to them—and they didn't have time for that, with war potentially on the horizon.
If they wanted to get to Faerie, they were going to need to try something else. And he thought he might even know what.
Rising from his seat, he went to find Travis and Conner.
He had to go check if some things ran in the family.
XxXXxX
"Hey guys, can I have a minute?" He said, stopping them. They were both heading towards the Demeter Cabin, probably in twisted concern for Katie. They'd had a rivalry ever since they had redecorated the glass roof of the Demeter Cabin, but Conner and Travis were nice enough to want to make her feel better if she was down.
On the other hand, they were also the type to try and make her feel better by pulling pranks on her or something, so Percy didn't feel particularly bad about stopping them. As someone who got along well with both, he'd convey the sentiment to Katie later and warn her to be careful the next few days.
"But we were just—" Travis—different from his brother only in height—began, before stopping at either his brother's nudge or Percy's blank stare. "I mean…what do you need, boss?"
Percy took a step forward, leaning in. He wasn't really saying anything that needed to be a secret, but when dealing with Conner and Travis, the best way to get their attention was to make it seem like you're doing something you shouldn't—or, in this case, saying something you shouldn't.
Sure enough, they both leaned in, plans for Katie forgotten for the moment.
"I need you to do something for the camp." He began. Their faces became serious in an instant—fun-loving and mischievous as they might have been, he'd punch anyone who doubted their bravery or loyalty in the face. "You're probably aware by now that our attempts to reach Faerie are…well, let's be honest—failing miserably."
Both flashed identical crooked smiles and nodded.
"Well, I think you're the solution," Percy said. "Follow me."
Percy led them down to the woods, quickly finding a place that brought back a lot of memories for him—not many of them good.
It was a simple Creek that flowed through the forest, but it was the Creek where he'd broken Clarisse's spear in Capture the flag four years ago—and more importantly, it was a place where a prophecy had been fulfilled.
'You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.'
Percy wandered around the edge of the creek for a minute, trying to remember exactly where it had been, before spotting something that brought it all back with perfect clarity.
He took a few steps forward before stopping in his tracks.
"Travis, can you check something for me?" He asked, already knowing the answer. "Stand right there."
He pointed to a spot right across from him and Travis moved into position, frowning slightly.
"Here?" He asked.
"A few steps back…there, perfect. Do you feel like you can crossover, here?"
Travis stood silently for a few seconds before shaking his head.
"I got nothing. Why?"
"Four years ago, this is where Luke betrayed me," Percy said, staring at the ground. "He snapped his fingers and burnt this hole in the ground."
He gestured to the hole that had drawn his attention earlier.
"A Pit Scorpion crawled out and nearly killed me—but before that, Luke had stood where you're standing right now, slashed his sword, and disappeared. At the time, I chalked that up to Kronos—well, I did later, at least. At the time, I was preoccupied with the lethal scorpion. But now I wonder…"
Both twins frowned.
"You think Luke knew how to reach the Nevernever?" Conner asked. "How?"
Percy shrugged.
"Maybe Kronos told him? He probably would have known." He suggested. "I'm getting the feeling our parents knew, too."
Conner nodded at that.
"But what do you want us to do?" He asked.
"Luke did it, somehow." Percy said. "I want to see if you can too."
"I still can't feel anything," Travis said. "But I'll give it a shot."
He closed his eyes for several seconds and then opened them. He frowned when he saw Percy, but silently closed his eyes again. The process repeated several times, but they only thing that changed was how annoyed Travis was.
"Let me try," Conner butt in before Travis could snap. "Maybe you're not doing it right."
That was the wrong thing to say. Even Percy could see that.
"Excuse me?" Travis demaned.
Conner shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.
"I'm just saying maybe you should let me try. I mean, I did crossover first in the Cabin and all."
Travis' eyes widened before narrowing.
"Oh, no you did not." He said, each word coming out powerfully. "I crossed over first."
"How would you know? You had your eyes closed!"
"So did you!"
Conner snorted.
"Whatever. Just move out of the way and I'll show you how it's done." He said, shoving his brother. He didn't even get a chance to close his eyes before his brother shoved him back, however.
"No, I think I felt something that last time," Travis said. "I've almost got it, so step back and get out of my way."
"Hey," Conner said, stepping closer to his brother. "I'm not trying to start a fight—but you had your chance. So why don't you just back off?"
He raised a hand to push Travis again, but his brother caught his arm. Both opened their mouths to say something, and Percy decided enough was enough.
"That's enough, both of you!" He said, taking a step forward to end their argument. "Let's just call it quits; it was nothing but a thought I had anyway—"
But his step faltered along with his voice as the two of them faded away like ghosts.
"—Guys?" He asked the empty air, eyes widening.
He barely had a chance to realize what had just happened when the two of them reappeared before him, flat on their asses. Both were sweating, when they hadn't been before.
"Holy shit—" Travis said, breathing hard. "Did you see that thing!?"
He sounded more excited than scared, however.
"See what?" Percy asked.
The two of them jumped at his voice, looking at him before relaxing.
Conner scrambled to his feet.
"Percy," He said, smiling. "We did it."
XxXXxX
After proving it was possible by the creek, Percy had them practice in the Poseidon Cabin, simply so he could switch between worlds and watch from both sides. He was a bit disappointed to find that it wasn't any different from watching them disappear in the real world, but crushed the feeling as thoughts occurred to him.
Hermes was the God of Messengers, Travelers, and Crossing Boundaries. If he thought about it like that, then it wasn't odd that their children could cross between worlds. There were still some problems that needed to be solved, however.
Now that they had a way to get someone there, where did they need to go to reach Faerie? Now that travel into it was possible, would they be able to navigate the Nevernever, entering and exiting in different places? Was there a way to see if their target location was safe or not without crossing over?
But, most importantly of all, were the Hermes Cabin the only ones able to crossover, or could they take others with them?
In the end, the fact still remained that they wanted to send a delegation into Faerie, preferably one led by him. The Hermes Cabin's loyalty and skill could not be denied, but he'd still feel a lot better if he could send others in with them, just in case something went wrong.
Also, Annabeth had said that, as their leader, not appearing in person could be considered insulting, but that was a strictly secondary issue.
"Okay, guys," He said, clapping his hands as they shifted back to the mortal realm. "I'm gonna need you guys to practice this a lot—it still looks like it's taking a lot of energy. Try and get to the point where you can do it easily if you're in danger or if you're alone. Start training your Cabin as well, once you think you've got it down."
Conner muttered something under his breath that Percy chose to take as an agreement.
"Also…" He continued. "Besides disappearing, Luke did something else—he opened a hole somewhere and that pit scorpion crawled out. I'm gonna need you guys to see if you can do anything like that."
"You want us to summon scorpions?" Travis asked, raising an eyebrow.
Percy rolled his eyes.
"No—I want you to open a hole," He said. "To the Nevernever."
The twins looked at each other, unsure.
"Can you do that?" Conner asked.
"Sure," Percy replied. "That's what wizards do."
Supposedly.
None of them had ever seen anyone do something like that, but there was no point in mentioning that.
"Besides, Luke must have summoned that scorpion from somewhere." Percy continued. "This isn't that different."
They both looked at him skeptically.
"Percy, we saw that hole—even if we can do the same thing, you're not going to fit through that. Unless we're going to send mice into the Nevernever, there's not much point to it."
"Well, naturally, it's supposed to be a big hole. Big enough for people to pass through."
"And how are we supposed to do that, if we even can?" Conner asked. "If it was possible to get people through the Neverner that way, Luke could have led an army into the Camp, but he didn't."
Percy had no answer to that—it was a good point and one he'd already thought of. If Luke really could use the Nevernever, why didn't he use it to his advantage more?
He had several possible explanations, but the truth was that he didn't know the answer.
"Maybe he didn't know the way in?" He suggested.
The twins snorted derisively.
"We're the son of the God of Travelers," Travis said. "If a path exists, we can find it. It's not that."
Percy raised an eyebrow, filling that away. If they weren't exaggerating…
"We know how dangerous the area around the camp is," Percy continued. "Maybe he just couldn't find a safe way in? Or a practical way? Or maybe our parents put some defenses on the camp? Or maybe he just couldn't do it alone? It doesn't matter. Maybe you're right and it's not possible—that's fine; we'll find some other way. I'm not asking you for a miracle. I'm not even asking for you to succeed. I'm just asking you to try."
Percy shrugged awkwardly as they both stared at him.
They glanced at each other once and then nodded.
"Okay, boss; why not? We'll give it a shot." Travis said, nodding along with his brother.
"Thanks," Percy returned. "If you don't get any results, then I'll apologize for wasting your time."
Glancing outside, he noticed that it was already getting dark,
"But you're both probably exhausted. Why don't we call it quits for today and you can try tomorrow when you're rested. Let's get something to eat before it's too late." He said, standing to leave.
"…And what if we succeed, but can't make the gate big enough?" Conner asked.
Percy glanced at him and chuckled.
"If that's the only problem, then don't worry about it—you have my permission to dedicate the entire Hermes Cabin to this goal, if you feel it's needed."
XxXXxX
Percy yawned as Annabeth sat down beside him at the dining pavilion. Technically, each Cabin had its own table and campers weren't supposed to sit anywhere else—but there were advantages to being the Hero and Architect of Olympus. Besides which, like all of the Gods, Dionysus was still absent, so the only one maintaining the rule was Chiron, who didn't really care where the campers sat as long as they behaved.
Percy smiled tiredly at her.
"Good morning," He said, absently playing with his food. At the beginning of each meal, every camper sacrificed a portion of their best food to their parents, but since he was on such good terms with his father and Hestia, who received a portion of each offering, he sacrificed nearly half of his meal each time. The Nymph's always gave him a lot of food anyway, so it didn't matter.
"Did you do something yesterday?" She asked, one eyebrow raised. She shot a pointed look at his fork and, receiving the wordless message, he stopped what he was doing and put it down, already done eating.
"Why? Did something happen?" He asked, all signs of sleepiness disappearing as he assumed the worst—which was usually a fairly safe assumption for him.
"No one's seen anyone from the Hermes Cabin since last night. They aren't in their Cabin or anywhere around camp and people are starting to get worried."
"And instead, you assumed it was all my fault?" He complained. Annabeth nodded immediately. "That hurts, Wise Girl—really, it does."
But then he smiled, ruining any attempt to appear angry.
"But yeah, I did do something." He admitted, standing up. "And I think I know where they are, too."
"You seem happy," Annabeth noted.
"If they're all gone, then that's probably a good sign." He stated, causing Annabeth to look at him strangely. "I was working with Conner and Travis on the Faerie problem yesterday, because I had an idea. We made some progress and I told them that they could recruit the entire Hermes Cabin if they thought they needed to."
Annabeth frowned at him for a moment before widening her eyes.
"You mean…you found a way?" She asked. "How?"
Percy shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable but not wanting to lie.
"I, ah…remembered something Luke showed me once," He said.
The 'before trying to kill him' went unsaid, but Annabeth heard it regardless—it was the type of thing that could be broadly applied to just about everything involving him and Luke.
"Oh," Annabeth said, suddenly looking awkward.
Even now, Luke was still an uncomfortable topic, not just between him and Annabeth, but throughout the whole camp. Generally, most people just avoided talking about it whenever possible. Percy didn't really care, except when talking to Annabeth, because it was always a touchy issue with her.
The rest of the trip was made in silence—and not their usual 'there's no need to say anything' silence, but an actual, awkward silence. Percy led her down to the Creek he and the twins had trained by earlier, silently deciding against saying anything about why they'd chosen this spot.
And just as he'd suspected, they were there. Scattered throughout the area, standing in groups of two or three, children of Hermes were either fading in and out of existence or standing completely still in silent circles.
Travis and Conner noticed them immediately and quickly approached, skin soaked with sweat, but proud, crooked smiles on their lips.
"Percy, watch this." Conner said before they could say a word.
He and Travis both lifted a hand, holding them less than a foot apart. Immediately, their expressions shifted to ones of intense concentration—and it immediately became clear why.
It was like looking at a TV screen. At first, the space between their hands looked like static as the colors and shades of the forest became to deepen or fade randomly. Then, it began to shift and swirl with strange colors, as if trying to show something that was completely out of focus—but in seconds, the 'image' began to sharpen.
It had taken nearly twenty seconds, but between their hands, there was a window into another world.
—No.
Not a window.
Percy stretched out his hand, his fingers passing through the opening easily. There was no surface, so without a doubt, this was definitely a hole into the Nevernever. It was too small to be a gateway—yet—but that didn't matter.
Because they had done it.
Percy smiled openly at the twins.
"This morning, it was the size of a golf ball," Travis said proudly. "But we're getting better every time. All of us are. We may not be able to do it by ourselves yet, but…give us some time and we'll open a gate."
"Our fieldtrip to fairyland is a go." Conner added with a smirk.