Jason wasn't sure who had taken the first step forward but suddenly all of the demigods had drawn their weapons and were moving towards Eris.

"Hey!" Annabeth yelled, dropping her sword. "Stop that! You're controlling us! You want us to fight you."

Eris cackled and disappeared into thin air. She reappeared a few feet away, leaning against a bookshelf of cookery books. She rolled her eyes. "Dear me, I thought you were the intelligent one. Of course I don't want you to fight me – I just want you to fight. Do you know how easy it would be for me to turn you all against each other? I am sure you children do not want to challenge me."

"Who even are you?" Piper demanded. She was still new this world and keeping up with all the gods and monsters was almost impossible.

"W-who am I?" Eris spluttered, outraged, "What do they teach you at these camps of yours? I am the goddess of all chaos, strife and discord. I am the power behind some of the greatest battles history has ever seen! The Trojan War? I caused it. With this!"

From the folds of her chiton, she retrieved a golden apple. It wasn't a golden apple like the kind you can buy at Wal-Mart fruit stand, but a real apple made from solid gold. It was so absurd that Percy almost laughed. "With this apple, I created enough chaos to drive the gods of Olympus and caused the bloodiest war in Greek history! All chaos stems from me. That fool Ares claims to be the god of war but all wars are caused by discord and I am the mother of discord! Without me –"

"We'd have world peace?" Percy offered, his head tilted cockily to the side.

"Bah, peace!" Eris spat, "Peace is nothing! What does peace bring about? Nothing but boredom."

"So you did this to cause chaos on the ship?" Jason asked. "Why? What do you get out of this?"

"Chaos, Son of Jupiter," Eris grinned evilly, "And discord. What more could I want?"

"I don't know," Percy shrugged, "Some friends maybe? A life?"

Piper put up a hand to silence him but then awkwardly dropped it; it wasn't really her boyfriend talking.

"You insolent boy," Eris snapped, "I have the power to turn your whole ship against each other. I could make you run yourselves to the rocks! I could ensure that you fail in your quest! You think you are better than me, mortals?"

Percy bit back another comeback when he felt Annabeth's elbow dig into his ribs. Shut up, she mouthed. He rolled his eyes in response.

"You weak demigods stand no chance against the havoc I can wreak," Eris said, beginning to pace amongst stacks of fallen books. Annabeth flinched at the sound of the books' spines cracking and pages ripping beneath her feet. "You think you could beat me? Fine, I will set you a challenge."

Jason wasn't an idiot. If this woman said she was behind the Trojan War, there was no way they could defeat her easily. He began to protest but Eris cut him off.

"Do you boys want to return to your own bodies? Then listen, and listen well. The son of the god of the sky and the son of the god of the sea can never work together in harmony. Your fathers have been trying for centuries now and they have failed. And they are gods! Only one of you can succeed in the fight against Gaia – the prophecy foretells it. But which one shall it be?" Eris tossed her golden apple into the air and it vanished. "The first of you to find my golden apple is the strongest, the one who shall endure. Find it by sundown and you will return to your own bodies and you will know which of you is superior. Fail and your bodies will be stuck in this chaos forever."

Without another word, Eris was gone.