Sorry the chapter is so late! I became locked in a ferocious battle with end-of-year exams (all seven of 'em). Thanks to all who reviewed; you guys are truly amazing and inspiring, and I can't give enough thanks!

A whole bunch of you guessed right! Percy has, indeed, fallen in love with Rachel because of the love magic she carried with Aphrodite's diadem. Annabeth is Percy's real love, but how and if they ever get together is a pivotal plot path in the story. I tell you guys all of this because Percy is going to seem a little mushy due to the spell, and I really don't want anyone to assume the story has a caramelly fluff-center.

Who, or what, is pulling the strings? Read on to find out...

Chapter 10

Annabeth's Bonk On The Head Means Pain For Me

While the rest of us waited anxiously, Rachel made the lonely trek up to the attic which housed the Oracle. And, I have to admit, I was a nervous wreck.

I wasn't afraid that Rachel would lose her mind. She had boundless courage and an insightfulness that couldn't be compromised no matter the pressures, and I knew the true value of those attributes because they were the ones I valued most in my mom. No, I was more worried about what the Oracle would say about her future, which so far didn't seem to have a whole lot of prospects. Like the wisest person I'd ever met once told me, Knowledge isn't always good for you.

Everyone had their own individual way of dealing with the awkward wait. Annabeth tried to read the Odyssey for the six-thousandth time, but she was having limited success. I could tell because A: Her eyes weren't moving, and B: The book was upside-down, making legibility impossible for even the brainiest of demigods. Chiron read Party-Pony Grando, the centaur equivalent of People.

Most tense situations seemed to bounce off Tyson, but I suppose my own stressed aura was seeping into the air around his half of the couch (he literally took up a half), because he started to fidget and carve in-battle pictures into the coffee table. Tyson tended to be very in-tuned to my emotions at times, though his ways of dealing with said emotions were vastly different.

I tried to focus my attention on a wayward strand of hair that had rebelliously fallen in my face. It tickled my nose irritatingly, but rather than swiping it away like a normal person, I amused myself by trying to blow it back into place. I managed to kill five minutes like a pro.

Finally, after twenty minutes -actually, a rather short time for seeking the Oracle, but what else could be expected from an ADD teen?- we heard the banging of the attic door and stumbling footsteps. All four of us jumped up and reached the third floor landing before Rachel had even made it half-way down the steps leading from the attic. She staggered a few steps before falling into me, wide-eyed and ashen-faced. I held her as she leaned on me for support and gasped a few garbled words.

"Oracle… hippie mummy, in my head… swirls… I don't smoke, I-"

"Shhh…" I said soothingly, doubting for the first time as to whether or not her sanity had been maintained. After a few moments, however, she seemed to calm down. Her sickly pallor was quickly replaced with a deep blush as she realized how tightly she was hugging me. She stepped away, muttering thanks. I merely blinked as we all went downstairs to discuss a cryptic future. Normally, I would have been shy or embarrassed too, but the world was a strangely hazy place at that moment.

I noticed Annabeth was rubbing the bump on her head as we descended. As Rachel had rushed to hug me, I had seen, out of the corner of my eye, as Annabeth's arm slipped from where she had been leaning against a doorframe and observing the scene. Her head had bumped the frame slightly, and she had reemerged into view with her face positively steaming with anger. Towards the door, I imagine.

We seated ourselves in the parlor as Rachel recounted the prophesy perfectly, word-for-word. She spoke in a sad, sing-song voice that captured me almost to the extent that I didn't process what she was actually saying.

"Wander, will five, within the walls weaved of fear

Displaced, will be a friend of a friend you hold dear

At the silent heart, will you forever remain,

To seal broken seal where the undying feed of pain

And one lost, within waits…

To purge a single soul through the ever-wailing gates

Into where the last War of Nightmares culminates."

"Walls weaved of fear…" Chiron repeated to himself, as if tasting the words would make their meaning clearer.

"Does this mean a quest?" Annabeth asked. I hadn't even considered that as an option. Rachel had never had combat training and was in no way prepared for such an endeavor.

"Yes," Chiron replied solemnly, and he continued upon seeing the drop of my jaw and the beginnings of a protest. "But not for Rachel. Only a demigod can be granted a quest, and the Oracle, though even more difficult to decipher than usual, has most definitely described the path of such a journey. Rachel will stay by their side throughout."

"Who'll be granted the quest?" I asked, surprised by how obviously hopeful my voice sounded. I became distracted for a second by the pile of torn bits of a grapevine decorated doily that Annabeth was ripping apart. Her expression was oddly savage.

"I think that is rightfully Rachel's decision," Chiron said slowly, raising his eyebrows. We all stared at her, and she blushed at the attention.

"I pick Percy. He's already saved me once, and I trust that he could do so again."

I grinned at her, but that grin slipped off me face abruptly at what Annabeth did next. She stood abruptly, her chair screeching back, before stomping off towards the door. We stared as she stopped before the door, wheeled around, and stomped back to blow the doily bits in my face with a breath that would've put my hair in its place. She made it all the way to the porch the second time before returning to get her forgotten book, and then she finally stomped off the porch and into the night.

We all stared in stunned silence. All I could think about was the scientific possibility of a single bump upsetting a girl's sanity.

Then I wondered for the six-thousandth time if maybe all girls are just insane naturally…