After Nico and I took a break to sit on the island a bit longer, we both shadow travelled back to camp right on time to find Percy and Annabeth kissing beside the Poseidon cabin. Nico grimaced and turned to leave, which I placed myself in between the couple and the boy to block his view. Silently, I led his shoulder out of view from the couple, in which he tensed. Once out in the open and out of earshot, I cringed.
"I don't know how those 2 find the time to worry about their relationship status. From my experience, fighting for your life with someone on your side isn't exactly bonding time." Nico went quiet, and nodded slowly. Noting his reaction, I changed the subject.
"So how's the construction on the Hades cabin going?" his mood brightened a little, and he began leading me to the construction site.
"Good as it can be when it's all skeletons building it." From a distance, we watched as a team of undead skeletons jerked their limbs to build the cabin. Most of the materials were black, and red velvet lay on a rack to the side. A large chest of jewels and metals were resting off to the side, and they glistened in the bare light.
"Looking nice. Is this the same look that Hades' palace has?" Nico almost smiled at the mention of his father's palace, which I rejoiced in. From what I heard when the demigods went to Olympus, Nico and Hades were on good terms, and from the defensiveness of his son, Hades was clearly showing that he loved Nico.
"Yeah. Though, I don't think I should add the gardens that Persephone has sprinkled around the place." I nodded, understanding. I saw the skeletons emerging with wheelbarrows of different materials, one of which was just a flaming box of Greek fire. Nico noticed it too, and his aura fluxed around the scene. The skeletons moved to more safely keep the fire from burning through the entire camp, and then proceeded in the construction.
"You have a room there, right?"
"Yeah, why?" I smirked and grinned devilishly at him.
"This place likely won't be done for a little bit. Why don't we stay with your dad? I can visit the Underworld with the Ghost King as my tour guide." I nudged him, and he shoved me lightly back.
"If you want to, then sure. I don't know how lenient my father will be with letting you stay, though..."
"I spoke with him after you left Olympus for a bit. I know he doesn't hate me, at the very least. Plus, I don't need much hospitality. Access to a bathroom and a surface big enough to lay down on, and I'm good." I remembered some of the foster homes would throw me onto the street as punishment sometimes, or leave me out on a balcony or in a yard through the night. Sometimes a punishment would be locking me in a room with no bed, or replacing my room with only a mattress to weaken me. Fun times.
"Okay." He began to nod, but stopped to consider his actions. "Wait- is your brother gonna freak out that you're leaving? Is Apollo gonna be mad?" He was nervous about my half siblings in the Apollo cabin, and the god himself, which was understandable.
"If they do, that's their fault. I'm a minor god, if Apollo wants to pick an unnecessary fight with you, he'll face me before anyone else." Nico stared at my blunt threat, and I sighed. "Look, I know they're my siblings, and I'm an Apollo kid, but I'm still a child of the night." He smiled to me, squeezing my arm just where there weren't any stitches left.
"Well, at least tell them you'll be gone for a bit." I considered his logic, and found it very wise to follow it. Turning to the first living being I could sense around us, I laid my eyes on Mrs. O-Leary. Hell-hounds were cute.
"Hey, girl. If anyone here at camp asks where Nico and I are, we're just chilling at Hades' palace, okay?" The gigantic dog panted and almost smiled as I pat its head. She literally nodded, and then tried to lick my shoulder stump. "Good girl. Take care of Percy, okay?" At the sound of her owner's name, she stood up, tail wagging ferociously.
Nico and I shadow travelled to Hades' thrown room, right as the lord of the Underworld was done sighing. "Nico? Why are you here, and why is Isorreth with you?" The god's voice was booming, but there was no anger or distrust, only blank curiosity.
"While your cabin is under construction, I was going to stay here, Father. Would that be alright? Se- Isorreth offered to accompany me, and wanted to visit your realm." Nico stood perfectly like a soldier and kept a steady and unreadable tone with his father. I stood tall as well, focusing on the overpowering feeling of so much darkness. Hades looked to me, seemingly surprised.
"What do you need in my realm, Isorreth?" I turned to him, probably more relaxed than I should have been.
"I was granted access to all 4 realms, and I'm still figuring out the whole 'being a god' thing. May as well get to know the realm that I'll likely be most powerful in. I will say, Hades, I much prefer this to Olympus already." I could feel so much darkness around me, it surged around me and my aura was loving it. Hades look pleased at my response and waved his hand. A few skeleton guards began approaching, and Nico looked to them blankly. Because of his powers, Nico could communicate telepathically and verbally with skeletons.
Looking back to his son, he nodded and his expression softened ever so slightly, "Nico, you may stay in your room, as always. Isorreth, you are welcome to stay while he is here; I will have an extra bed placed in Nico's room for you."
"Oh, I'm honoured Hades, but I can just sleep on a couch or a cot. No need for the hassle." The pale god watched me, studying my intentions to see if I cracked under his pressure. I didn't. There was nothing I had to hide.
"Very well, μικρό φεγγάρι. I expect you to abide by my laws, and don't cause any trouble." I blinked in surprise when he called me μικρό φεγγάρι. It was Greek for little moon. Well then. "Nico," he turned to his son, "I expect you to inform your friend of the laws of my realm. As always, the servants will supply anything you need. Now leave me be." He waved his hand, and Nico tugged on the shirt hanging over my shoulder stump to lead me away. The palace was beautiful, and I already elaborated on how much I loved the feeling of the Underworld.
However, I was still dumbfounded at how Hades used a nickname for me. And out of all things, I would have expected something like nightmare, matchstick, hell-hound, or ANYTHING other than little moon. "What did he call you in Greek?" I almost burst out laughing, but refrained from it as we continued down the hallways.
"You have a pretty formal relationship with him, right? You called him Father and all." Nico nodded, confused at my question. Most demigods were nowhere as close with their godly parent as Nico was with Hades, and most of their relationship was out of respect.
"Um... yes?"
"He called me μικρό φεγγάρι, Nico! μικρό φεγγάρι!" I could barely hold myself together as he held the door to his room open for me.
"I don't speak Greek, Jack-o-lantern." I stopped in my confusion to look around his room. It was a luxury, that's for sure. Everything look like it would have cost more than my value in diamonds, had it been on the surface. There was a king sized bed, a doorway to an equally large bathroom, cabinets, dressers, and shelves lining the walls. As well, a couch facing a fire place was off to the side. It looked more comfortable than any bed I had seen apart from Nico's.
"Holy shit, I forgot he's the god of riches." Nico elbowed me, which I scowled at.
"What does it mean, Seth?" I remembered that he didn't know, and broke out laughing again.
"Little moon. It means little moon, Angel." I laughed as his shock appeared.
"Oh." he was now just as confused and surprised as I was. "I guess he likes you." We shared pleasant smiles, and he nudged my arm stump a little. "That's good. C'mon, I'll show you around." He gestured around the spacious room, and I watched in awe. The couch looked more comfortable than my beds at any of the foster homes, and was larger than the loft bed I slept on in training.
"So, Underworld rules?" I knew that the Underworld was a busy place of rules and dangers, so I wanted to clarify what I could and could not do before trying to break said rules. Only slightly, though.
"Don't go near a river unless you know which one it is. The Phlegethon will feel like you're being burned, and the Lethe could wipe your memories. There are different parts, like the Fields of Asphodel, Fields of Punishment, and Elysium. That's where the dead go. You don't have necromancy powers, right? Or anything with the dead?" He was straight to the point and informative, just as I preferred. Nodding, I thought to myself.
"Not that I know of. I could see Kronos' soul, but I don't know if it was just me, or everybody," I said. The soul looked like light, just an orb of swirling emotion and power. I was a bit busy to check if everyone else could see the angry red ball, but I definitely saw it myself.
His eyes widened, then flashing with worry for a split second. "Others shouldn't be able to see a soul... was there anything linking the soul to dark energy?" Thinking back, I remembered that the soul was merely the yolk in a shell of darkness, not doing anything but containing it.
"It was surrounded in the energy, but that's it. He could control the dark form, but it would have slipped out of the shell if I let it." He calculated the words in his mind for a moment, then sighed.
"Let's hope it was your dark force powers. Dealing with the dead can get... complicated." He looked away, pulling out a clothe to wipe his sword down. Gods, his sword was so cool. With my ADHD mind, the thought of the Ghost King's sword reminded me of Percy's pen, which reminded me to give Zeus an earful about treating Nico as an equal to Percy. But that was for another time.
"You have to be careful here. My father can manipulate the shadows and the ground, meaning that if he wanted, he could change the shape of it all in a heartbeat. It's how he keeps stray hell-hounds away from the palace. He just keeps the palace at the same distance, no matter how far they go." His eyes darkened with a fiery pride that made me smile.
"And you break rocks, right?" I smirked smugly. Despite what most of the campers may think, Nico had a much bigger variety of powers than just shadows and dead people. He rolled his eyes as I broke his monologue.
"Yeah. Can't your dad heal anything? And you..." I rolled my eyes back at him.
"I get it, I get it. Music heals me, literally. Heritable powers get messy when we're mortal, 'kay?" He smirked and nodded. We just smiled to ourselves for a moment, then I remembered to ask him something. "How do your powers work with the shadows and dark force? I know you can shadow travel and stuff, but can you control dark force?" He looked to his hands, thinking to himself. When he took longer to respond, I continued.
"You know that you have a dark source inside of you, right?" I could always feel the darkness around me, and I felt it when around Nico. It's likely due to being a son of Hades, and what allowed him to shadow travel. As well, the reason I always threw bits of energy at him was because he could actually catch them. Everyone else, dark force turned to light energy when it touched them in low concentrations, like that day in the dinning pavilion with the explosion of dark force.
He looked to me, shocked but also curious. Slowly, he met my gaze, "You can feel it?" I only nodded in response. I mean, I am the god of dark energy. I was curious as to his powers and relation to the dark force. Because of my Apollo side, my human form was simply a layer covering up a source of everlasting light. Nico thought it to be my life force having taken on a physical form, which would make sense. However, the Nyx side of me still had immense control over dark energy, thus my dark form. That source came from within the light, but Nico somehow had the same source of darkness.
"I don't know. I told you about that one time with the wall, but I've never been able to summon dark energy on command." He looked away. Not knowing the extent of his powers must have been a difficult hurdle. It was something that kids of the big 3 tended to deal with: an abundance of many diverse powers pulled from beings of their father's entire realm. My powers had limits: power over dark energy and night vision from Nyx, then musical talent and self-healing abilities from Apollo. Hades, on the other hand, was the god of the Underworld and riches, so his children could range anywhere from powers over the dead, to powers of monsters or anything else related to Tartarus.
"On command?" I questioned. He nodded, but frowned.
"Sometimes when I'm mad, I mess with the shadows. It makes the dark force inside of me feel... darker? If that makes sense. The shadows have a low concentration of dark force, so it doesn't do much usually, but they surround me and keep everything away." He seemed to be lost in a memory as I nodded. So he can feel the shadows.