Flower Power


Nico recalled his flight in the sun-chariot. Artemis was a much better driver than Thalia. He wondered if, as a Hunter, Artemis ever let her drive this. He hoped not. What would happen if you crashed the moon, though? It wasn't like things would catch fire, like it did with the sun-chariot. Maybe, if you were over the sea, you might cause really high tides. Or something. It looked fun, though, even if t might lack the danger of the Sun. He wondered if Artemis might let him have a go -

"Nico?" said Will, breaking into his thoughts.

"Mmm?"

"Isn't Lake Avernus a Roman shrine?"

"Yeah, primarily. It was where Aeneas entered the Underworld, but the Sibyl of Cumae lived on its shores. That's why Aeneas went there. It was sacred to the Greeks first, but it was more important to the Romans. Mostly because it was closer to Rome, I guess."

"Ah. Right. So, what do you reckon we'll find?"

"How am I supposed to know? As you say, Roman. But, I suppose, there'll be some kind of disturbance."

"How will we tell?" mused Will.

"Have you ever seen Avernus before?" asked Artemis.

Will shook his head. He looked round to the back seat. "Nico?"

"No. I've never needed a surface way into the Underworld."

"Well, then, you should probably look at it now," said Artemis. She twisted the wheel and the car tilted to the left. Will hit his head against the window.

"Oww…" he muttered, before losing his voice to the view. The lake was perfectly circular, and sat in the landscape like the eye of a bird, staring up at the sky. A few scraggy trees bordered it, but, apart from that, there was nothing on view but miles of desolate grassland.

Something seemed a bit odd, though.

"Is it meant to be pink?"

Artemis shook her head.

"That would be how we tell, then," said Will.


Artemis peered into the lake. "This pink stuff - it's -" She dipped her hand into the water and brought it out again to show them "- rose petals."

Will picked one out of her hand and held it up towards the sun. He rubbed it between his fingers. "Huh. A real, natural, rose petal. These must have come from thousands of roses. What a waste." He sighed.

"Well, it certainly wasn't a waste to whoever put them here," said Nico. "It's been enough to completely wipe my powers, and done gods know what else."

Artemis grimly crushed the petals in her hand. "At least it makes it fairly obvious who's been behind this particular event."

"You wouldn't think she'd have it in her," mused Will. "She always seems so cheerful."

"It is very unwise to underestimate Aphrodite." Artemis' eyes flicked towards Nico. "Or any of her family."

Nico studied his shoes.

"Aha!" said Will, grinning.

"What?" asked Nico, staring at him.

"We need to see Piper."

"In California?" said Nico.

Artemis folded her arms. "I'm not taking you all the way back across the country. You should have thought of this while we were there."

Will blushed. "Sorry… Forward planning maybe isn't my strong point - but I'm not sure how we'd have known about the Artemis connection without actually coming here."

"We could Iris-Message her?" suggested Nico.

Will patted his pockets. His face fell. "Have you got any money on you?"

Nico shook his head. The pair of them turned, pleadingly, to Artemis.

"I'm not standing you a loan," she said, shortly. "You're mortals - you might never pay it back. Then she gestured to her robe. "Besides, where exactly do you think I'd keep money in this, anyway?"

Sighing, the boys went to turn away -

"But I can get you a message." She snapped her fingers, and a bubble appeared in the air in front of them. "I'm a goddess, remember?" she said, looking at their surprised faces, "I don't have to pay."

"I knew there had to be some perks," quipped Will. He peered into the message. "Piper? Piper?"

A familiar face bobbed into view. She looked rather confused. "Will? Nico? Artemis!" She bowed, her head bumping into the message. Wide-eyed, she took in the scene before her. "What's the matter? And is it to do with Will's hair?"

"I need you to try something for me," said Nico.

"Should I ask why…?" said Piper.

The three of them by the lake exchanged glances. "Probably not," said Will, slowly. Artemis nodded very slightly. Nico turned back to the message.

"Piper, concentrate on the earth around you. Can you feel anything?"

She screwed up her face. "No…" Then she gasped. She put her hand to her stomach. "I feel really cold!" She stared at Nico. "What is that?"

"The absence of life," said Nico. "Try finding something dead and bringing it to the surface."

Wary, Piper tried to do as he said. She wasn't sure how, but -

A tiny skeleton flew across the message. "What was that?" exclaimed Will.

Piper bent down and picked something up. She showed it to them. It was a collection of tiny bones, from a mouse, or something. She gaped. "How did I do that?"

"There's been a bit of a situation. Somehow, it seems that you've got my powers," said Nico.

Piper blinked. "And have you got mine?" She smiled excitedly. "You can feel the love between other people -!"

"No," said Nico, cutting her off.

"Oh."

"It's just a one-way thing."

"Are you going to explain it, or -"

"I'm not. But it's nothing to worry about. Will and I will fix it really quickly."

"Try not to experiment, OK?" chipped in Will. "You might get worn out, or end up in Mongolia, and no-one will be able to help you. We'll contact you again when we reckon we've sorted it out."

"Bye!" said Nico, nodding slightly to Artemis, who ended the message. Piper's dissolving face looked thoroughly confused, and more than a bit offended at the brusque dismissal.

"Remind me to cultivate you as a friend…" said Artemis.

"Huh?" said Nico, turning round. He ran his hand through his hair. "I'm a bit preoccupied."

"I suppose that we've just got to take all of these petals out of the water," mused Will. He looked at Nico and Artemis. "This is going to take us a while."

"Correction," said Artemis. "It's going to take you two a while." She stepped back towards the car.

"But - you can't just leave us!" said Will.

"I'm not hanging around picking flowers out of a lake. I'm a goddess, dear nephew. I have things to do. Also, I can't be hanging around with two boys for too long. It just wouldn't do, even if you are no threat to my Hunters."

"Oh, Will's a threat," said Nico. "They'd likely challenge him to an archery contest, and he'd accidentally hit one of them. Or his own foot."

"Speaking of feet…" muttered Will, stamping on one of Nico's.

Artemis laughed. Then she leaned forwards, dropping her voice: "I'm going to have a little check on all the other gods. So don't worry, I'll still be working for the cause." She looked up at the sky. "Besides, the Moon can't be out in the day too long. The mortals come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories about the world ending."

"It might be," pointed out Nico.

"It hasn't yet." Artemis shrugged. "We'll have to see."

"What if we need you?" Will nodded at Nico. "What if this doesn't work and he still can't shadow travel? And we're stuck in Florida?"

"Your father, Will, will be happy to assist."

"Really?" asked Will, eyebrows going up.

"Mmm. He likes you. And Nico."

"Really?" It was the turn of Nico's eyebrows to meet his fringe.

"Yep. Never shuts up about the pair of you." She rolled her eyes. "It's insufferable." She opened the car door. "I'll be in touch. If you really need to contact me, I'll tell Iris to let your messages through, so you can get to me directly." She got in and closed the door. "See you around, boys!" She frowned and ran her tongue around her mouth. "I don't say that very often."


Will and Nico watched the tail-lights disappear off into the clouds. "Does that mean that we can't IM gods normally?" said Will, a thought running through his head.

"I guess not. They must have some kind of call-blocker. Otherwise they'd have loads of messages from their kids."

"I know. Then they'd have to, like, actually interact with them, and talk to us, and not just leave it all up to how we get on in life."

"Ooh, a bit of slipping from third to first person there, Sunshine. Someone has a problem with their dad."

"Like you don't."

"I don't. Genuinely. He's great."

Will sighed. "I know. He is. I wish he -"

"Do you?" asked Nico.

Will smiled wanly. "I suppose not. But I do wish mine was a bit more like yours." He sighed. "So, how are we going to clear this up?"

"Got any powers that you can use? I'm all out, at the minute."

"I don't think so," said Will. "I'm more of a back-up demigod.

"I knew I should have brought Jason with me instead of you." Nico cocked an eyebrow at Will. "You're just totally useless."

"Huh. Well, then you have a good time clearing everything up on your own, then." Will sat down on the lakeside and folded his arms.

Nico looked at all the petals. He looked at Will. He looked back at the petals. He groaned to himself. "Will…" he wheedled. "I didn't mean it."

Will didn't even blink, staring straight ahead. His blue eyes seemed rather cold.

"Please?" said Nico. "It was just a joke! You like jokes."

Will's jaw tightened.

"I can tell you another joke, if you like?" Nico kneeled down next to Will. "What kind of wind will we get today? Beans and onions!"*

Will looked at him impassively. Not even a hint of a smile. Though that could be due to the joke. Nico squeezed his eyes shut. He had to think of something…

When he opened them again to see exactly the same blankness gazing back at him, he hesitated for a moment, and then laughed. In the intervening time, Will's face had changed, his lips puckered forwards. So that was what he wanted.

Nico obliged.

And he was happy for doing so. And while doing so. Though, after a while, he began to worry that he hadn't taken a big enough breath when they'd started, and -

Will broke away. Nico took a gulp of air. He glared at his boyfriend. "You know that that probably just increased Aphrodite's power? Like, a kiss as some kind of sacrifice, or something."

Will shrugged. "A small price to pay for your redemption."

"Shut up. You put on that whole act for a kiss. And you say I'm the needy one!"

Will blushed. "Maybe…"

"Now, we have some cleaning up to do. Any ideas?"

"A big net?"

"And where are we going to get one of those? From the magic net shop?"

"Well, we're resourceful young men. Maybe we could make one."

"Really."

"Yeah!" Will grinned. "Come on, once upon a time people hunted mammoths and came up with all kinds of cool stuff just by using their surroundings. We can do that!"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because you and me, we're totally outdoors-y."

Will patted the air with the tips of his fingers. "We can do it!"

"Yeah, maybe if you didn't turn your nose up at a bit of dirt."

"That's just good hygiene, Nico. Now, I reckon if we tied a few big branches together -"

"With what?"

"Um. Uh." Will looked around desperately. "We'll find something! We've got to!"

Nico sighed. This was going to take a while.


*Genuine Ancient Greek joke.


Sorry for the little delay. I'm not quite sure when the next one will be up, but probably in the next couple of weeks.