The four friends walked over to the Victorian neighborhood of the Athena cabins. Each house had a brass plaque etched with the name of a god or goddess, but Sawyer found it and pointed out the cabin without even seeing the plaque.
"There it is," he said, pointing to the intersection of two paths.

Percy saw that the Mythos campers had set their cabin up like a small bookstore. The place was awash with reading materials, whether cloth-bound, hardcover, or scrolls, not to mention plenty of loose papers everywhere. Campers milled about, reading, writing, or browsing the shelves and piles for a particular topic. Those who did speak used hushed tones, as if a normal volume was some sort of disrespect.
"Joanna!" Annabeth called. A couple "scholars" gave her dirty looks for disturbing their peace.

"Here!" squeaked a voice from the back corner. Scrolls and papers tumbled aside as a short girl with straight mousy-brown hair squirmed into view. She blinked at them from behind horn-rimmed glasses.
"What are you doing here?" she directed her question at Percy.

"We need to do some research for Sawyer's prophecy," he answered, looking around. A boy about Sawyer's age sat at a writing desk, scribbling furiously. In another corner, two girls sat side by side, reading apparently the same book, turning pages at the same moment.

Joanna paused to sweep her low-hanging bangs out of her face, leaving a gray streak of ink on her forehead. "Oh, that? We've been at it for days already. What do you want to know?"
Annabeth stepped forward and assumed command of the situation.
"What can you tell us about Arete's Shield?"

Joanna pursed her lips. "Hmm, I think—Polly!"

A bespectacled blond traipsed down the stairs and joined the group. Percy recognized her as the one who had been talking to Annabeth on that first day.
"What do you have on the Shield?" Joanna asked her.

"Arete's shield?" Polly clarified. "Right here." She pulled a sheaf of papers out of the pile in her hand and gave it to Joanna. The brunette led her guests to a desk in the middle of the cabin. Like all the other surfaces in the building, it was covered in papers, scrolls, and open books, but Joanna cleared the desk with one sweep of her arm. The whole pile landed in disorderly heaps on the floor that made neat-freak Drea frown, but Joana tossed her hand. "We clean up shop every day. It's not like we'd just leave the mess there. It's part of the philosophical process."

Percy noticed that five or six deep-thinkers had already meandered in their direction and, almost compulsively, began to straighten the papers, roll the scrolls, and stack the books. Joanna looked on in approval.
"We view this space as a physical manifestation of our minds," she explained. "As we straighten and sort the materials, we're straightening out our thoughts, too: Clean space, clean mind."

Percy and Annabeth shared a glance, but Joanna didn't notice and kept talking as she spread the file on the desk.

"Okay, so the Shield originally belonged to Queen Arete of Phaeacia, wife of King Alcinous, who has been a great friend to all Olympian Heroes. According to the legend, she had a shield made of pure celestial bronze, which could protect all that stood behind it. Some speculate that this is how the Phaeacians lived in such peace: no one wanted to pit their army against a nation rendered impenetrable by a single shield."

"If you ask me," Polly chimed in, "If the prophecy mentions this Shield, then something terrible must be coming down the pike!"
Joanna nailed her with a stinkeye. "That's assuming we've interpreted the rest of the prophecy correctly. Any progress on the identity of the Betrayer and the Master?"

Polly snorted. "Betrayal is as regular as breathing among the gods! We're compiling a list of the likeliest suspects, and once we have that, we'll have to go through and whittle them down by—"
Percy waved his hands impatiently. "Yeah, yeah; we'll get back to that later. Let's keep focused on the Shield for a moment. Has anyone figured out if it still exists?"
Joanna drew back defensively. "Of course it exists!"

"Where can we find it?" Sawyer asked eagerly, then backed off, "That is, if we needed to go searching for it, to fulfill the prophecy."
Joanna scanned over certain pages in the file. "Rumors have been flying ever since the Phaeacian kingdom fell. The last report of a sighting spoke of it's being lost at the bottom of the Aegean Sea during a pitched battle between two Greek warships."
"Great!" Annabeth scoffed. "There goes that idea!"

Joanna shrugged and began gathering the papers. Percy noticed that by now the other Mythos campers had completely cleared the space around the desk. The afternoon sun was just dipping into the evening latitude, and all around them, campers were closing books and rolling scrolls and capping inkwells.
"I'm just giving you the information we have right now. We might have more for you tomorrow—just know that what you do with the information we give you is your own problem."
The four friends walked out into the golden late-afternoon sun.

As he dropped off to sleep that night, Percy once again found himself swirling through the same dream.

The sound of metal striking metal as a waterfall thundered over a cliff, the hourglass sitting on top of the mountain as sand shifted from the top into the base, and the ticking of the clock as the numbers counted down.

715:32:28

715:32:04

715:31:52


The next day, Percy waited till after breakfast to return to the Mythos bookstore.
Joanna was shelving books when he approached her.

"Hey," he said.

She whirled around quickly, clutching the books to her chest. "Oh, it's just you. What do you need?" She set the books in a neat pile on a nearby table.

Percy shrugged. "I was just wondering about some more of the prophecy."

Joanna nodded, "Such as who the Betrayer might be?"

"No, actually, I have a theory about the master's second face."

Joanna raised an eyebrow appreciatively. "Oh? And what would that be?"

Percy glanced around before answering. "Do you know if Master Chiron has a twin?"

Joanna's eyes widened. "Master—Oh!" She smirked, "You think the term 'master' is literal?"

"I do."

"And so, naturally, the second face must be a twin." Her tone was laced with skepticism.

"What else could it be?"

Joanna shrugged, "I don't know; a doppelgänger? Or maybe a personality break?"

"Seriously?" Now it was Percy's turn to be skeptical. "Can you imagine Chiron having a personality break?"

Joanna pursed her lips. "Well, now that you mention it, he has been kind of... shifty, lately."

Percy nodded, "That's why I think he's got something going on, something he would rather not tell us..."

"Like an evil twin?" Joanna grinned.

"What if the second face and the betrayer are one and the same? What if Chiron was betrayed by a sibling long ago, and it's now being revealed because of the prophecy?"

Joanna nodded slowly. "That does kind of make sense," she mused. "Except for one thing."

"What's that?"

"We've done the research, Percy." Joanna swept a lock of hair out of her face. "Chiron has no immediate family. Cousins, yes; but no siblings, and certainly not a brother."

Percy huffed and glanced at the books on the shelf next to him. He saw the book "Sign Language for Beginners" and immediately thought of Aurelia. He'd completely forgotten about her in the last couple days. He pulled out the book while Joanna sorted a few others.
While it was true that Chiron had told him not to speak with Aurelia... Thoughts of her still bothered him. What was so significant about her that made everyone afraid? Had she somehow betrayed the camp... Or did she know who did? Percy knew he would not be able to leave without figuring this out.
"Can I borrow this?" he asked Joanna, showing her the book.
She nodded, "Of course. Just bring it back when you're done."
Percy nodded. "Will do; thanks!"

He spent the rest of the day learning signs and waiting for his opportunity. It never came. Percy realized that evening that Aurelia was most likely avoiding him on purpose, considering the backlash from the last time they'd interacted.
By the end of the day, Percy was familiar enough with signs to be able to understand the things Aurelia said. She'd already proven that she wasn't deaf, that was a relief. Percy wondered about the possibility of some kind of embarrassing or painful speech impediment. Then again, why would everyone insist on calling her creepy? Percy could see only one way to find out. He would look for her after breakfast the next day.