"I would like to teach him seiðr," the Trickser said, his eyes not twinkling with mischief for once.

"What?" Mom asked, stepping in front of me protectively.

Loki sighed in mock exasperation.

"You see, mother, when I was young, you taught me seiðr, as you were the very best there was. Now I have exceeded you at this role and therefore it is my duty to teach this young út-lænninge the art of the Norse trade."

"No," Mom said, "I will not allow my son to be put into unnecessary danger."

"Umm, Mom-" I started, but Loki cut me off.

"It is more dangerous if he does not know. Does shielding a lamb's eyes stop it from getting hunted by the wolf?"

Mom's blue eyes flashed. I had never seen her so protective.

"Percy-"

"Sally," Paul said gently, touching her shoulder, " don't let him affect you like this. Percy can choose for himself. That's what you want, right?"

Mom bit her lip in annoyance.

"Percy?"

I met her pleading, deep blue eyes, filled with centuries of wisdom and knowledge. They held a tinge of sadness, but also pride and protection, like I was off to kindergarten for the first time.

"Umm," I said, faltering, "look, when I was with Apollo, these nosoi came after us and, and..."

I trailed off and Loki gave Mom a triumphant smirk.

"He would do anything to protect his friends."

Mom's eyes were set in pure determination as she sent me a sorrowful look.

"You don't have to do this, Perce," she said.

I shook my head.

"I want to. I want to learn how to use my powers."

Mom nodded, forcing a weak smile.

"That's understandable."

Loki turned to me, bright smile on his face.

"Let's do this," he said, his forest green eyes twinkling once again with mischief.

"The basics of seiðr comes from learning to trick the eye," Loki said, muttering some ancient words until his glossy black hair melted into blonde and his eyes turned a deep cinnamon brown.

"It's still me, obviously, "Loki said as he turned back into his regular form, "your brain knows that in its subconscious but your eyes disagree."

"I think I get that," I said, "it's like how we can't judge anyone by their appearance because they could be anybody."

"Woah, I don't do deep messages, kid," Loki said, putting his hands up in mock surrender.

I laughed.

"So how do I do this again?"

"Close your eyes," Loki instructed and I obeyed slipping into the darkness of my mind.

"Clear all thoughts from your brain. You need to put full concentration for this."

"Your telling a kid with ADHD to concentrate. Ha," I mumbled, but tried my best to stop the random thoughts from slipping into my brain.

"Now focus your energy. Imagine you are gathering it all into a big blue ball."

I did as he said.

"Now picture what you want to do. For this time, I want you to imagine someone you know and love dearly."

Strangely, the person who came to mind was Nico. Huh. I can work with that.

"Now imagine that energy melting into you, slowly painting over you, turning into whoever you chose."

A felt a blanket of warmth hover over me.

Suddenly, there was a big bang and I jumped, breaking my concentration.

"Well that's never happened before," Loki said, looking at me strangly.

"What?"

"It seems like you know how to harness your energy to create outward explosions. That has never happened before. How interesting," he mused, his eyes taking on a faraway look.

"With this power, you could do practically anything," Loki said, like he couldn't care less.

"Okay?"

"But first, rest," he said, patting my shoulder, "we have much work to do."