Yes I know. I'm horrible at updating. Shame on me.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE PJO OR KANE CHRONICLES SERIES.

SADIE KANE

I must admit, I was a bit bummed out when my brother and uncle basically kicked me out of the study so they could "talk privately". Come on! If they were talking about Nico di Angelo, then I should be included in their conversation. After all, only I met Nico, a thirteen-ish year old, self-proclaimed "pretty awesome" necromancer whom carried around a jet-black sword and an outrageously hideous dressing gown.

Outside the study door, I could the murmur of their voices. I snapped my fingers repeatedly, desperately trying to recall the hieroglyph for eavesdropping. My concentration broke when I heard someone call out my name.

I whipped around to see Zia, Carter's girlfriend, approaching me.

"Sadie," Zia repeated, "What are you doing?"

Zia's startling amber eyes regarded me suspiciously.

"Nothing much!" I replied cheerfully, "Anyway, do you happen to know the hieroglyph for eavesdropping?"

The other girl sighed. "Not again. You know what Sadie, come with me. Let's join the others for lunch."

"I already ate lunch," I informed.

Too late - Zia already made up her mind. She seized my right arm and began dragging me to the dining area.

"What is this? The eighth time I caught you trying to listen in on Carter's conversations?" Zia said to me as she pulled me forward, "You're lucky I've never caught you listening to my conversations with Carter."

"Hey, who said I eavesdrop on you and Carter?" I protested.

Zia sighed. "Sadie, it's really obvious. Either way, we should hurry before Khufu's eats all the tacos."

...

The dining area was rowdy, as usual. Alyssa, an earth elementalist, was feeding scones to Philip of Macedonia and Steve, our pet crocodiles (do crocodiles even eat scones?). A portion of the floor was covered in ice because of Felix, who was busy sliding around with his penguins. There was a minor scuffling occurring among Khufu and several initiates over the last few tacos. Cleo was nowhere to be seen. I guessed that she was in the library, her favourite place in the Brooklyn House.

While Zia went off to pull a howling Khufu off of Sean, I poured myself some juice and quickly downed it. I grabbed the seat next to my boyfriend Walt and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Hey," Walt greeted as he munched on a taco. "How was shoe shopping?"

"Great! I got new combat boots!" I showed off my new boots to Walt, who whistled appreciatively.

A thought occurred to me.

"Can we go talk in the hallway?" I asked Walt as he finished his taco, "I want to talk to you about something."

Without speaking, Walt followed me to the nearest empty hallway.

"I'm just wondering," I began casually, "Since you're hosting the god of funerals, you must know a bit about necromancers, am I right?"

Walt regarded me carefully. "Yes," he said slowly, "Sadie, where are going with this?"

"I have a small question," I told him, "Say, is it possible for necromancers to raise skeletal armies? I mean, I saw you do it, but that was with your Anubis's help."

Walt considered. "It suppose it is possible to raise up a skeletal army but only the best of the best magicians can perform such a task... However, without a god's help, it'll probably take a huge chunk of someone's life just to learn how to summon one dead individual and order it around. Don't get me wrong - it is possible for a very powerful necromancer to perform such a task. It'll take years to master it though."

"Years?" I repeated, astonished. "So someone my age shouldn't be able to raise the dead?"

Walt looked alarmed. "Sadie, are you planning on studying necromancy? I guess it's great to know you're interested, but necromancy?!"

"No! No!" I held my hands up. "I'm not interested in that creepy death magic at all! Uh, no offense." I huffed and pouted. "It's funny, though. I always thought that you'd be glad if I ever showed an interest in your... field of expertise."

He smiled dryly. "Let's just say that hosting Anubis influenced my opinion on it. He had the same job for the last three thousand years and I can tell that dealing with the dead gets old. Anyway, what's up with the necromancy question?"

"Today I met someone today - someone my age - who claimed to be a necromancer. A 'pretty awesome' one too, " I explained.

Walt tilted his head to the side. "Are you sure he wasn't lying. Or crazy?"

This time, I knew better. I spouted off the important details first. "His name is Nico di Angelo and he's a magician. He looks around my age, so thirteen-ish, and he's from Long Island, though Uncle Amos told me there's no Nome there. I met him in a clothing store - The Midnight Apparel. He carries around a pure-black double-edged sword. Apparently, Bast knows him too. Also, Nico has this strong deathly aura. And he gave me this." I lifted the flowery dressing gown.

Walt made a face at the sight of the hideous dressing gown. "Um, are you sure he wasn't crazy?" he repeated.

I sighed, exasperated. "I've already gone over this with Carter. As far as I know, Nico is not crazy, nor is he an ordinary mortal that wears too much death-scented perfume."

"What?"

"Nico is a magician! I'm quite sure of that fact!" I launched into a detailed account of my first meeting with Nico - our small conversation in the store, my demonstration of magic tricks, and Bast's appearance. Then I instructed Walt to place his hand on the flowery dressing gown for a moment. I could tell by his surprised expression that he could see the vision of the camp.

Afterwards, Walt looked more confused than he did in the beginning.

"Maybe he's a god in disguise," Walt suggested, "There are stories about this - gods appearing to prominent mortals, bearing gifts."

"But why would a god appear to me as a scrawny boy in a clothing store?" I asked.

Walt shrugged. "Gods are weird."

I leaned against a wall and huffed, "Honestly, meeting Nico raised more questions than answers. I still don't really know who he is!"

"We might have an answer for that," a boy's voice said.

Walt and I turned our heads in unison. At the end of the hallway, Carter waved us over.

"I'm guessing you told Walt about your new friend," Carter said to me.

"Yes," I answered, "And he did not scold me at all, unlike a certain brother of mine."

Carter rolled his eyes. I expected a snappy reply but instead, Carter told us, "Uncle Amos wants to see both of you in the study."

...

Throughout Carter's story about a Camper Boy called Percy, I kept on thinking to myself, I cannot believe Carter did not tell me this earlier. Admittedly, I was rather disappointed. I thought we shared a close sibling bond to the point that if Carter discovered any dangerous, sword-wielding teenagers in our area, he'd tell me as soon as possible. But no.

Then Uncle Amos explained that there was a high possibility that Nico was somehow connected to this Percy bloke. He revealed to us of the existence of the Greek world. That part was completely overwhelming. I couldn't believe that another supposedly mythological world, with its own monstrous problems, co-existed with ours.

When Uncle Amos was done, Walt and I were staring at him in disbelief. For a few minutes, Walt and I just sat there, stunned.

Eventually, I had to say something. "Let me get this straight. Greek demigods exist? And you think Nico is one?"

"Yes, and your description of Nico suggests that he's a particularly powerful one," Uncle Amos responded, "It's very interesting. The Greek and Egyptian gods themselves are entirely different entities. Our worlds haven't overlapped in a very long time, which is a good thing."

"I don't mean to be rude, but why are you telling us this?" Walt asked, "If the Greek world really is that dangerous, then wouldn't it be better if we don't know about it? I was always told that sometimes it's safer if people knew less."

"Usually, my answer to that question would be a stone-cold 'yes'," Uncle Amos answered, "But obviously there is some divine interference happening here. It is no coincidence that two powerful demigods like Percy and Nico would encounter two powerful magicians like Carter and Sadie."

"What are we going to do about it?" I asked, "If you really think that the gods are involved, then they probably expect us to talk to the Greeks or something along those lines."

Carter chimed in, "That's exactly what we're planning to do. We're planning to talk to Nico. Since he knows Bast, he must have been aware of the Egyptian world beforehand. There's something fishy about him and we intend to know what it is."

Before I could open my mouth, Walt spoke. "I understand how talking to the Greeks is important," he began carefully, "But I don't see where I play into this. I mean, as far as I can remember, I've never ran into a random person carrying a fancy sword."

Uncle Amos smiled, a bit darkly. "Well, judging by Sadie's description of Nico, specifically the black sword, the boy is most likely a child of the Underworld. A child of Hades."

Was it just me, or did the room's temperature drop ten degrees at the utterance of the Greek Underworld god's name?

"And Walt is the one and only host of Anubis," I finished. "Are you saying that there's some sort of connection between Hades and Anubis?"

The room's temperature seemed to plummet again.

"Sadie, it's probably better if you don't drop names," Carter warned.

"OK fine." I rephrased my question. "Are you saying that there's our friends from Down Under are somehow related? I know they're both death gods-"

"Our Egyptian friend from Down Under is the god of funerals," Carter corrected, "And our Greek friend is the god of, um, Down Under in general. The Greeks have another deity that is the god of death."

I rolled my eyes and diverted my attention back to Uncle Amos. "Either way, but didn't you say earlier that the Egyptian and Greek gods are completely separate?"

"The gods themselves are separate. Their domains - not quite so," Uncle Amos clarified, "Our worlds are alongside each other, meaning both the Egyptian and Greek gods watch over the same universe."

"But that would mean it's possible that there's a Greek god in Olympus watching me right now," I pointed out.

Uncle Amos nodded. "It is possible. Both set of gods watch over the same living beings, as well as the same departed souls." He abruptly stood up and began perusing the dusty scrollshelf of the study.

"I've read some scrolls", Uncle Amos said while he studied an ancient-looking piece of papyrus, "That talk about how individuals connected with the afterlife, no matter which world they belong in, are also connected amongst themselves. The same shadows, the same dead, the same ghosts are under their control."

Walt's face fell. I gazed at him curiously. He knew what Uncle Amos was talking about, didn't he?

"Aah." Uncle Amos returned to the table with a particularly dusty scroll. "Walt, have you ever tried ghost-messaging?"

Thanks for reading! Again, sorry for the wait!

To any Australian readers - I'm sorry. I know that the temperature in Australian can get pretty hot and indeed, it has an abundance of mineral resources. Still, I wasn't trying to say that Australia = the Underworld.

By the way, who here has read House of Hades already? I might have to change up a certain character's personality...

Feel free to voice any questions, comments or predictions in the reviews!