Did I say I'll be back in a week? Its been nearly four. I'm not the best when it comes to keeping my word it seems. Oh well onwards.

I stood there, not making a move. Staring dead ahead in her eyes, I could see the familiar aura of power that all gods and Titans carried. She was a Titaness, there was no doubt about that. When I had decided to come here, a Titaness living inside the ruins of Othrys was the last thing I expected. Still, there was no way I could back down. I had faced Titans before, this would be no different. Although, admittedly all of them were dudes who, with their towering height and savage expressions didn't exactly give friendly vibes. Attacking them was pretty easy since they usually made the choice for me by attacking first. She didn't though, she just stood there with her arms still crossed and a smile upon her face. I did not say anything and the silence after her declaration descended into minutes. There was also the fact that despite her declaration I still had no idea of who she was. Now that I thought about it, other than Rhea and Calypso I did not have much knowledge of any other female Titans. But then they mostly stayed away from the fighting and learning about them wasn't much important, to me at least.

I was getting uncomfortable with our stare down contest and before my brain could process my words, they had left my lips. "Who are you again?" I blurted out with a confused expression on my face.

The smile left her face as she let her arms fall to her side. She sighed and shook her head, "I should have expected it."

She walked towards me, "You can drop the sword. I have no interest in fighting you or anyone else for that matter."

I held my ground, still holding riptide in front of me, "Why should I believe you?"

"Because you have no other choice." She stopped a few meters from me, "You would've bolted the moment you saw me if you did."

I frowned. I couldn't fault her logic, "I am still not dropping my sword."

"Why not? It's not like it'll be any use against me."

I chuckled inwardly at that, I never was the arrogant type but if only she knew the Titans I had fought against and lived she woudn't be so sure, "Would you like to find out?"

A scowl appeared on her face replacing her previous friendly expression, "Why are you here and what do you want?" Yep, she had dropped the nice person act "I don't want to waste my time on demigods who think they're too good for everyone else."

"So you finally decided to stop feigning being all nice and smiley?" I smirked hoping to throw her off her game. All immortals were very prideful and acting all high and mighty was usually enough to infuriate them. Which was good, since an enraged opponent did not think clearly. On the other hand, it could be a problem if the enraged opponent happened to be a Titan or someone powerful as their brute strength could sometime be effective. I was counting on my experience to drag me out of that hole.

Sure enough, my guess was right. Her face went through a myriad of expression before settling on indignation and outrage. "Why you little demigod, I'll show you why you shouldn't mess with your betters." She screeched as she held out her arm and a ball of pure energy began forming in her palm.

Quickly getting into a defensive position, I activated my shield and hid behind it waiting for the blow to come so I could start a counter attack. The blow did not come and all I could hear was very loud and controlled breathing. I tilted my head a little to take a peek from the safety of my shield. Mnemosyne was still standing there, her arms were hovering by her side again and she had her eyes closed while taking deep breaths as if to calm herself. I stared at her completely bewildered.

My expression must have been pretty funny because after a moment she stopped and opened her eyes and burst into a fit of giggles upon seeing. That did the trick. My jaw fell open and my shield dropped down on the floor. Seeing my disbelieving stare seemed to encourage her.

I closed my jaw, "What just happened?"

She stopped her impromptu giggles and covered her mouth, "Haven't seen a beautiful lady laugh before?"

"Never a Titaness." I answered dumbly. I was still in a bit of a shock. All I had ever associated with Titans was creepy smiles and freaky laughs. Never had I expected one to giggle like a schoolgirl. Shaking my head quickly, I tried to get a grip on myself. Now that the moment of surprise was over, I quickly picked up my shield from the floor and held it on my side. It could've been a trick to throw off my focus just as I intended to do with her. Moreover, it looked like she succeeded in it too.

"I am sorry, we got off to a wrong start." Her previous smile returned, "I don't wish to cause you any harm, so let's not fight."

She was now seriously freaking me out. I could never even think of a dream where a Titan had said 'I am sorry', granted she said it in a slightly different context but still it was something I had thought impossible. I remained stoic this time though, "I'll only believe you if you swear on Styx."

She sighed, "Very well. I swear on Styx that I don't intend to cause you harm in any way." Thunder rumbled in the sky, signifying the sealing of the oath. I relaxed a bit after hearing that and retracted my shield and sword. I was still on alert though, just because she had sworn on Styx was no guarantee that she would fulfill it. I had seen immortals break these oaths before after all.

I turned my focus to her. Gone was the livid expression that she had just as she was about to attack me. Instead, she was smiling widely showing some teeth, swaying from side to side and nearly jumping up and down as in excitement, holding her hands under her chin as she looked at me. I didn't like that look. It was the same look a child has when he is given a new toy to play with. No one spoke. The air quickly turned awkward with me having no idea of what I was supposed to do and Mnemosyne staring at me.

I decided to break the ice and cleared my throat, "So what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" She raised her eyebrow, "I think the better question is what you are doing here?"

I tensed. I still had no idea how I was supposed to act in front of her. Were we allies or were we enemies? I decided to be as vague as possible, "I have some questions that need answering."

"And you thought that you'll get your answers here?"

"Well." I pointed towards all the scriptures kept in the shelves, "There seem to be a lot of texts around here, so yes."

"Hmm… Tell me what you are searching for and I might be able to help you." She said.

"Why would you help me? Didn't you just try to kill me a little ago?"

Her face turned into a frown and a little indignation crept into her expression, "I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't been so rude." She crossed her arms, "Besides, it's not like you were harmed so don't hold it against me."

"Okay although that still doesn't explain why you'd help me. Titans aren't exactly known for their generous nature." I crossed my arms too, "So don't hold it against me either if I am a little skeptical."

She closed the distance between us rapidly, "Because I am bored. Try living for thousands of years alone in a deserted fortress with only a single liveable room. I haven't even talked to a living person since the war ended." She grabbed my left hand with both her hands, "So whether you like it or not, you are going to stay here for quite some time and talk with me. It's been ages since I had a decent conversation."

I was shocked and alarmed when she grabbed my hand. But then that turned into confusion as she tugged my hand and started leading me between the shelves lining the area. In my confusion, my feet began walking on their own and promptly fell in stride behind Mnemosyne as she hummed happily and skipped ahead.

Forcing my mouth to act I asked, "Where are we going?"

"To sit down and have a talk." She replied without looking back.

My lips stretched into a thin line, "I don't have time for small talks. I'd rather not extend my stay here. This place gives me an uncanny sense of unease. I just want to find my answers and get out of here as quickly as possible."

Mnemosyne stopped and turned around releasing my hand, "Well then go ahead."

"What?" I asked, surprised.

"I said go ahead. Search all you want for your answers. I won't stop you." She replied, "But I think if you want to spend as little time in Othrys as possible, you'll be hard pressed. It is a big place after all and you don't even know where to begin your search."

I visibly deflated at that, "What should I do then?"

"Well, as I said I could help you." She replied with a laugh, "I have been here for thousands of years. I remember every nook and corner of this place. If you could tell me what topic you want to search for I could easily point you in the right direction."

I perked up at that.

"But." She continued, "I'll only help you if you spend some time with me first. Even though I love staying here among all these texts, I can get terribly dull and boring without someone to talk to. So which way do you want to do it?"

I looked around the place. It really was quite vast and would take me a lot of time to even reach the right section. Even though I didn't like it, Mnemosyne would save me a lot of time even if all she'd do were point me in the right direction. I sighed, "All right. We'll do it your way."

"I knew you'd see the sense in my offer." She giggled as she grabbed my hand and led me again.

Now that we walking through the place I got a good idea of the size of the room. It was simply enormous. We had been walking for nearly five minutes in silence and after taking as many twists and turns as we did, I had lost my sense of direction. I was somewhat glad I decided to accept Mnemosyne's offer. It would have taken me weeks to scour the whole place all by myself. Besides how bad could a simple talk be?

Mnemosyne continued to lead the way. I was still a little dubious of her but I was unable to find any deception in her behavior. She didn't look like much when it came to evilness. But then I remembered how she nearly tried to blast me to pieces just a few minutes ago. Looks can be deceptive after all. Still, she swore an oath on Styx. That was better than what I would be able to get from any Titan.

As we were walking I rummaged my brain for a little history lesson when it came to the original female Titans. I had no idea if she was one of the original six but I was assuming that she was as I had even less knowledge about the second generational Titans. There wasn't much spoken about them or maybe I just didn't remember it. All I knew was Rhea's part in raising Zeus, other than that most of the female Titans were neutral during the first war due to Rhea convincing them not to support Kronos. Some still supported the Titans though. I had no idea who they were, but I was hoping she wasn't one of them. Judging from her conduct though, it seemed unlikely.

In the meantime, I decided to question her about our destination, "Are we there yet?"

"We are nearly there. Just a little more distance." She replied in an excited tone.

Well at least someone is thrilled. I thought dryly.

I honestly did not know what to make of her. Her mood swings only made it more difficult to put her into a category. She was all smiles in the beginning, then threatened to kill me and then reverted to her original behavior. It was difficult to put her into the bad guy category like the other Titans but I couldn't exactly put her into the good Titaness category like Calypso either.

Mnemosyne came to a stop so suddenly that I nearly bumped into her. Stopping at the last minute, I saw her standing in front of a simple brown door. She pushed it open and led me inside. It was a moderately sized room, there was a fireplace burning with Greek fire, which was also the only source of light in the room. A round table was placed in the middle surrounded by chairs with cushions on them, which I figured, must be the equivalent of a sofa, the room was colored green which was enhanced by the Greek fire burning in the fireplace and vases filled with flowers decorated the room. All in all, it was very homely dampened a little only by the eeriness of Greek fire. It was not what I expected but then I had never been shown around the living room of a Titaness before.

Mnemosyne quickly had me in one of the chairs and plopped herself into another one directly across me. We both sat there for a minute while I was looking around the room. After I was seemingly done, she probed, "So what do you think of it? Any different than the creepy Othrys?"

"It's a nice place, very homely although the Greek fire kind of dampens that spirit." I answered honestly.

She snapped her fingers and the Greek fire was replaced by ordinary red fire. I shrugged, "Never mind what I said."

"Let's start our talks with something to drink." She waved her hand and two bronze goblets filled with wine appeared out of thin air in front of me. Mnemosyne picked one of them from the table and took a sip. I didn't bother picking it up, "I don't drink."

While it was true that I was still underage it wasn't like the Greeks had an age limit on drinking. I had no inhibition with a little drinking and I did have my fair share since I came here. However, there was no way I was risking a slip of tongue by drinking in front of her. Better safe than sorry. From the look she gave me, I figured she reached the same conclusion but thankfully, she didn't push me. She put down her own goblet on the table and it quickly refilled itself.

She sighed and leaned back, "Well, you know my name, you haven't told me yours."

"My name is Perseus."

"Just Perseus?" She asked.

I nodded, "Just Perseus."

She shrugged and moved on, "So you are a demigod?" Her eyes sparkled, "Are all demigods like you?"

I tilted my head in confusion, "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, nothing. You are the first demigod I have seen so I was just wondering what others would be like." She replied.

"Wait, if I am the first demigod you have seen then how did you know I was one to begin with?"

She giggled, "Just because I have never seen one doesn't mean I don't know what a demigod is. I could tell by just looking at you that you weren't a common mortal but you weren't a god either, which only left one choice."

I raised an eyebrow, "So you were just guessing when you called me a demigod."

"My guess was correct though wasn't it?" She replied without skipping a beat.

I leaned back into my chair, "Yes it was."

"So, how's the outside world?" She questioned.

"What do you mean?" I asked back, "Have you never been outside Othrys?"

"Unfortunately no." She answered in a dejected tone.

"Why not? Were you punished by the gods to be confined here forever?" I asked, remembering how Calypso was forced to say on an island the same way. It was during times like these when I questioned myself if was on the right side. Were the gods any better than the Titans? Sure, they didn't throw down every Titan into Tartarus but some of their actions were just as bad. Sometimes, it felt like they were just the lesser of two evils.

"Punished by the gods?" She laughed, "No, they didn't force me to stay here. I stay here out of my own choice."

I was a little stunned on hearing that, "You do? But you said you've been here for thousands of years. Are you on a self-imposed exile or something?

"I am here only because of all those archives. Without me here, they would start deteriorating and crumble down like the rest of this place."

"Wow." I breathed, "That's some commitment you have."

"Of course." She replied, obviously pleased, "I am the one who created writing. I wouldn't be a very great patron if I let all that knowledge go to waste now would I?"

"So tell me about yourself and the outside world. It has been ages since I was able to just go out and take a stroll. How has the world changed?" Mnemosyne asked.

So I told her. I told her about the current state of the outside world to the best of my knowledge and answered her questions about the many new discoveries. It was obvious she was shocked how far humans had come. They weren't much more than pest during the time of Titans after all. I deflected most of the question she directed regarding me. I told her the usual sob story of a common demigod and that I was a son of Poseidon. Other than that, I was hesitant to tell her about specific events or objects in details. She eventually picked up on it and stopped asking me questions regarding myself and started asking about my life as a demigod. I was more than happy to go on a tirade about all the injustice and problems being a demigod entailed. In fact, I got a little too engrossed in it. All the pent up anger and frustration that I had built up in time ever since I was told the great prophecy quickly came to surface. At one point, I even got up and raged while pacing back and forth in the room. Eventually, my little rant ended and I got back into the chair, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath to calm. Opening my eyes, I comprehended where I was and blushed in embarrassment when I realized what I had been doing. I just drowned all my frustration on a Titaness I barely know who even tried to kill me a few seconds ago.

Mnemosyne meanwhile had been sitting in her chair all the while listening to me patiently. She had a look of understanding and sympathy on her face when I ended my little session. Getting up from her seat she quickly came over and sat beside me. Raising her arm she patted me on my back in a comforting manner, "It's okay. I understand how you feel."

Twiddling with my thumb, I looked at her rather nervously still in mortification over my actions, "How do you understand?"

She smiled, "Well, Kronos wasn't always as he is today. He was quite a good ruler in his earlier days. It was only during his latter days when he changed for the worse and became a complete tyrant. Believe me, I know how it feels to be ordered around and forced to do things under a threat while having no choice of your own. A lot of other beings were under the same predicament during the latter reigns of Kronos. There were only two choices- you do either as you're told or you face the consequences. It was why many of us decided to not support Kronos during the war."

Kronos as a good ruler? That was like imagining Athena squealing like a schoolgirl while playing with flowers. It was something that just didn't happen. My face must've been disbelieving because Mnemosyne asked, "You don't believe me?"

"It is difficult to imagine Kronos as a benevolent ruler." I replied holding back my tongue. I wanted to add a lot of adjectives to truly describe Kronos for what he was but I figured it might not be the smartest thing to do even if she was being nice.

She shrugged, "It is now, but it wasn't always so."

Silence again descended but this time I felt the need to quickly break it, "Thank you for listening to me." I said, "I needed to get that out of my chest."

"No problem. It was quite entertaining." She giggled, "See, my idea of talk helped both of us. Now that you've kept your part of the bargain, it is time I kept mine. Tell me what you need to know about and I'll direct you to it."

"Right." I nodded. Frankly, I had completely forgotten the very reason we were even having this talk in the first place. However, now was the time when I needed to choose my words carefully. I couldn't afford to actually give away what I was searching for, so I needed to ask for a wide range of subject which also included what I needed to avoid suspicion. "I need to know everything about the first generational Titans." I answered as it was a wide enough topic to avoided suspicion about what I really wanted. It would take me a little a more time than if I had directly asked for everything about Kronos but it would do.

She raised an amused eyebrow, "Planning on fighting my brothers?"

Without waiting for my reply, she got up and beckoned me to follow. I quickly got up and followed her out of the room. This time, it didn't take us long. We came upon our destination within a minute or so when Mnemosyne stopped in front of one of the shelves. "Well, here we are."

I tilted my head, "So where is it?"

She chuckled, "Where is what?"

"The text." I replied confused.

This time it was a full-blown laugh, "You did not think that you'd get all that information in a single text did you?"

"Eh…." In retrospect, it was stupid but that was exactly what I thought.

"You did." She burst into another bout of giggles. This was getting annoying and it certainly didn't improve my self-confidence. "You're a silly one if you thought that you'd be able to put everything about them in a single text. What you seek is in this." She pointed to the bookshelf we were standing in front of.

My eyes were ready to pop out. I had to go through all that? Moving my head up and down over the cursed thing, my hopes of getting out of here were quickly dashed. It was even bigger than the others. This shelf was at least twelve feet tall and nearly the same in breadth. Moreover, it was completely stacked with texts and manuscripts. I moaned internally. Couldn't they have used a little of their Titan magic and maybe made a magical book which included everything along with an index instead of writing it down in a million pages?

Mnemosyne seemed to be enjoying my dumbfounded expression, "Well, I'll leave you to your devices then." She said cheerfully and skipped away. I was half-tempted to call her out to help me.

I sighed and looked over the imposing bookshelf again. it looked positively evil and seemed to be mocking me as if daring me to make a move.

"Well Percy, you dug this one yourself."

This chapter is mainly filler. But it was a total pain to write. This is my third attempt at writing it after I scrapped the first two drafts. I knew what I wanted to write but I was just unable to type it on the screen. Mnemosyne characterization was the main point of conflict for me. I didn't know whether to make her serious or sad or playful or what. In the end, I tried to put all three attributes in her. I'm still not completely satisfied with the way it turned out.

Yes I know I said there'll be some answers given out in this chapter but frankly it went on too long. I was supposed to reach this point in 2k words and explain stuff in other 2k words. But the conversation dragged on a little too much and it quickly reached my standard 4k so I decided to end it here. Percy will finally get some answers in the next chapter.

And to clear up some things from the reviews. Just because Percy is in the past doesn't mean that he can't use modern terminology. He was raised in the 21st century, whenever he'll think about measurement or unit, his first thoughts will align with modern terms such as inches or centimeters. Yes, no one else will understand them, but he was thinking about them internally not making conversation with someone so it is okay. Also, I've wrapped up some mistakes and replaced British units with American. Hehe…. It's a habit. I'm not American after all.

Also, I've got Grammarly (The free version, cause I'm broke), so hopefully there'll be less…ish mistakes. Microsoft Word errors check sucks.

SB