The Mysterious Room, Hogwarts

Thalia

"The Big Banana?" Thalia repeated. Annabeth laughed.

"Remember Magnus?" she asked Percy. Percy nodded, confused. "But-"

"Who's Maggie?" Leo interrupted, looking back and forth between them.

"My cousin. Magnus. He went on a quest in a boat too. Oh, and he's a Norse demigod," Annabeth explained.

"Norse- Whatever. Go on," Will beckoned.

"Anyways, he went on a quest in a big, yellow boat," Annabeth informed.

"Yellow?" Leo ridiculed.

"There were eight of them, and two of them were dead. Magnus and Alex," Annabeth continued. "So the rest are six."

"Dea-" Percy started but was cut off by Annabeth.

"He failed what he promised Aegir, the Norse giant of the sea," she continued.

"Oh," Will was shell-shocked. "But now we can't get in," he reminded everyone. They tried to study the encrypted inscriptions (Try saying that five times fast!). None of them knew what to make of it.

"We're doomed," Leo sighed.

"Wait. It looks sort of Ancient Greek. Maybe a different dialect..." Annabeth paused, looking at the strange and twisted lines.

"Or a secret code?" Leo was hyped. "I could build-"

"No time," Jason cut in. "Hmmm, is there any logic to this? Repeating letters?"

"Yes..." Annabeth said, slowly.

"Then it could be steganography," Jason suggested. "Or cryptography."

"Both wouldn't help now, since we don't know what it says," Annabeth replied.

"Oh." Jason was stumped.

"Wait, what is... stegosaur-what?" Percy asked, looking between them.

"Wait... I recognize some of them... except their back-oh!" Annabeth exclaimed. "Mirror writing!" Jason nodded enthusiastically.

"Right, so then..." he paused. "Piper, can I borrow a mirror?"

"Hmm? Oh... okay," Piper was befuddled as she handed her mirror over. Annabeth started translating.

"In the lone forests of death,

A crown, hidden. A girl, unrest.

She takes her last breath,

Revenge," Annabeth finished. For a second, not a sound was emitted. Then-

"Wow. That's..." Leo gestured.

"Right... so...?" Percy asked. The others shrugged.

"What does that even mean? Where even is the lone forests of death?" Thalia asked.

Nico

Nico rushed through the shadows, a giant hellhound pursuing him. He had been in rather good moods, until he bumped into the giant mastiff that was now hunting him. Nico emerged, hoping the dog didn't sense where he left. The hellhound didn't. Good, Nico thought. He looked around.

There were rows upon rows of bookshelves, so he seemed to be in a library.

"Hey!" someone called. Nico turned around.