Chapter 10: The beginning of the end.
I will leave this here then, and I will try to write more on the next pages. In the worst case that I fail to decipher this problem, I beg whoever is reading this to deliver this notebook to Athena. Perhaps she will be able to make sense of my ramblings.
Poseidon's Notes, Page 1.
He saw Bianca sitting by herself, seemingly playing with her food. Percy approached, and Bianca looked up towards him and sent him a smile.
He smiled back, although still feeling rather uncomfortable with his encounter with the Drew girl.
"Percy!" she said, "I take it your classes with Annabeth and Nico went well?"
"Would've gone better if we didn't encounter Drew." Nico said, "Percy nearly stole my chance to kill the girl myself."
"What happened?" Bianca suddenly asked seriously.
"She tried to seduce me or something. She wanted a book from me, beats me why, but she was rather…convincing."
Truth be told, Percy was starting to get worried. Already two people had made a try to get the book, two people from two different Houses at that. Why were they so interested in what his father had written?
Bianca, on the other hand, merely snorted.
"That's Drew Tanaka for you." She said. "I only like two of Love's girls, Piper and Silena. The rest are just as trash as Drew. Bootlickers, attention suckers, and…other suckers…things…" Bianca blushed.
"I get it." Percy smirked, "Someone being able to literally grab you by the balls doesn't sound pleasant. Hopefully I can avoid them from now on."
"Good." Bianca said.
"Thalia and Jason are still a no-show?" Nico asked Bianca, and she shook her head.
"Last I heard Thalia was talking to Chiron, and Jason had been called by Zeus for something." She looked at Percy, and he couldn't help but feel that his problems were only increasing.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Percy asked.
Bianca smirked.
"Well, I asked around and it turns out news of your arrival has already spread. The Pantheon tried to get their hands of you, but surprisingly Dionysus stopped them."
"Who's that?" Percy asked.
"He's the director of Olympus." Bianca said.
"Wait I thought that was Chiron?"
"Chiron is in charge of training, and all that. It's Dionysus who's in charge of the administration part. He's not fond of Hunters, he rather dislikes them if not despises them. So it was a big shocker to see him stand against Zeus and stop him from simply walking in here and taking you."
"Damn." Nico said, "Last time Dionysus did that was…never. Not even for the members of his house."
"He's a house Leader?" Percy asked, and both children of Hades nodded.
"Lord Dionysus, Leader of the House of Madness. He is the person who took you out when you lost control in the Arena." Bianca said, "Another house that you better be careful with. Although they only have two members, Castor and Pollux, I'd really put in the hours to befriend them."
Percy nodded. If the House of Love could manipulate his emotions, he didn't want to know what the House of Madness could do. The memory of those screams…
"So what does that mean?" Percy asked.
"Oh, this is the most juicy part." Bianca licked her lips, "It turns out that when the voting came to decide if they should capture you, it wasn't only Dionysus who stood up for you. It turns out that four others defied Zeus. That hasn't happened in a long, long time. Usually his status and strength allows him to get away with pretty much anything, so it is rather surprising that five out of twelve are disagreeing with him."
"Its still a majority against me, isn't it?" Percy asked dejectedly.
"You're sad about that?" Nico snorted, "Dude, five out of twelve great houses do not want to kill you immediately, they rather want to leave you alone or even help you. The Pantheon has not been this divided since, well, I don't remember! And besides, it is against the laws Zeus himself created to capture a Hunter and try him for treason without a complete unanimous voting."
"Look at you, little Neeks." Bianca said, "It turns out you do listen to my teachings."
"shut it…" Nico glared.
"So what does that mean for me?" Percy decided to bring the conversation back.
"It means we have room to play with." Bianca said excitedly, "The Pantheon is divided, your arrival has made the highest organ in Olympus shrug their shoulders and admit they have no idea what to do with you. This is an opportunity to make alliances and even establish yourself as a main player of the Game."
"Why would he do that, though?" Nico asked from his seat. "I mean, this is all good that there are people out there who don't hate Percy for what his father did, but why does he need to play? Surely staying out of it will be safer?"
Bianca and Percy shared a look. Percy had to give it to Nico, he had a solid point. However, there was something that he needed to figure out. Whatever his father had discovered, whatever his reasons for leaving, he had left behind a warning. The first line of that warning said that Amphitrite's son or daughter should never assume control and take Poseidon's place. Percy needed to know more, he needed to understand.
"No," Percy said. "Guys, I need to tell you something." Percy looked around him, noticing that everyone else was a little too preoccupied with their lunch to pay attention. He slipped the book out of his pocket, and Nico seemed taken aback. "I don't know why or how, but this was in my room when I entered it for the first time. Apparently its notes my father took about something. He mentions the words Titans and Prophecies."
Bianca's eyes nearly bulged out of her skull, and she grew pale, incredibly pale. Even the air around them seemed to grow colder, and Bianca was staring at the book in both awe and complete and utter terror.
"No…" Bianca said, "The Prophecy…it's real?"
"What prophecy?" Nico asked.
"Later." Percy said, "The important thing is this." Percy opened the book on the first page, pointing to a specific passage. "I have a lot of unresolved issues with my father, and maybe the only reason I hold onto this is because I want to understand why he did what he did. But I also know when to spot a red flag. Look, he mentions this twice. 'The Seastone Chair must never be held by one with the Blood of Titans', and he implies that Amphitrite, my grandfather's second wife, was blood related to some guy named Oceanus and Saturn."
"AH!" Bianca yelled and fell backwards. Her eyes were as wide as saucers. "It can't be!"
"Bianca!" Nico yelled, and rushed to his sister who was visibly shaking.
"Bianca!" Percy said, "What does this mean?" he then noticed that more than a few people were staring at them. He scowled and flared his rush, and they immediately turned around and got back to whatever they were doing. I'm getting better at that, he thought.
"Percy…" Bianca said softly as they helped her sit down on the chair. She was still shaking, but she seemed to have found her voice.
"What's wrong Bianca." Percy asked.
"Percy, you must listen to me very carefully." She said, "There are rumours of strange things happening, of dangerous people going into hiding and terrible monsters being released. The Prophecy is something that only a very close group of people know about, the Three Great Houses included. My father told me that Poseidon, before he left, was obsessed with it to the point where he developed a deep rivalry with his former friend Athena.
"Athena managed to crack the Prophecy, or at least develop the most sensible reading. My father said that it implied that Poseidon was the responsible, directly or indirectly, of a world where the Titans were reborn."
"What are they, Bianca? Nico also seemed to grow uncomfortable, and you nearly fainted when I mentioned them. Who is this…Saturn?"
"Don't say his name." she hissed.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Percy said, "who is he-who-must-not-be-named?"
She scowled at him but took a deep breath.
"He is the worst monster of them all, Percy. A man so evil he enslaved an entire continent to serve him, he believed that those who were Enlightened were supposed to inherit the earth, and everyone else should serve them. He had a group of followers he called The Titans, and under him they did terrible and horrifying things. They were eventually defeated by the Olympians, the founders of Olympus. But even then, they barely won, and some even say that more than a few Titans managed to escape."
"so what does it mean?" Percy asked.
"They…created an artifact. An artifact that had the potential to steal Enlightenment from others, simply strip them away, rip a part of their soul out just like that. It's said that it was the Titan's final plan to control the world, and if a few managed to escape it means that there are people out there that know its existence. I think the only reason there is no mass-chaos is because too little people know about the Titans and how incredibly destructive they can be, which also means that not many can put together the dots, and less people know about the existence of the Artifact. Yet if they truly are returning, then…"
"We're fucked." Nico said. Bianca nodded, and Percy had to force himself not to lose his emotions.
"W-what does my father have to do with this?"
"I don't know specifics." Bianca said, "but I know enough that Athena implied that Poseidon was responsible in her readings, and like I said, Father also said that Poseidon was obsessed with finding the pieces of the prophecy to avoid it. The existence of that book means one of two things, he either discovered something, left the book somewhere for someone to find and went into hiding, or…"
Percy knew what the other option was.
"Or he's dead." He said simply, not understanding why he felt suddenly nervous at the possibility.
"Percy, if Poseidon lost then…" Nico said.
"We don't know what the book says yet, Nico." Percy said, "I intend to read it, then either burn it or shred it. Already Clarisse and Drew have gone after it, it clearly holds something that they want."
"What?" Bianca said.
"Clarisse sent three kids this morning, Annabeth caught them trying to enter my room. Drew tried to seduce it out of me." Percy said.
"This makes things complicated." Bianca said, "I know that my father knew about the book, he mentioned in passing that Poseidon wrote down his thoughts about his quests for the Prophecy quite often. If father knows, then Zeus might know too. Aphrodite and Ares are two of Zeus' supporters, they voted with him when he asked to bring you in."
"You think Zeus is after it?" Percy asked, "Why would he do such thing?"
"I don't know. He's obsessed with finding your father, Percy, and he can either use that book to do so or to yell to the four winds how he was right, and Poseidon is a traitor. Zeus is a wildcard, yet since he's the only person who has enough information to connect the dots about the Titans and the things that are happening, I believe that he very well may believe that the answer lies inside that book."
"What are my options then?" Percy asked.
"Poseidon mentioned that 'The Seastone chair must never be held by one with the Blood of Titans' Clearly, he failed to get that message across. Beats me why though…"Nico said.
Bianca nodded.
"A coup." She seemed to grow excited at the possibility. "We need to get Triton out of the chair."
"Are you fucking crazy?" Nico asked loudly, then lowered his voice. "Are you telling me that you want to start a freakin' civil war within the Pantheon?"
"It's our only choice." Bianca said, "it's the first of Poseidon's warnings, meaning he clearly knew something we didn't. The longer Triton is on the Seastone Chair, the higher the chance that what Poseidon knew comes to pass." She then turned to Percy. "Now, even if we go through with a coup, we need allies.
"These are the houses that voted against Zeus: House of Madness, House of the Sun, House of Fires, House of Thieves, and House of Harvests. If I were you, I'd try and befriend a few important people in those houses."
"Who should I watch out for?" Percy asked nervously. He was never good at making friends.
"Hmm…" Bianca seemed to think for a moment, "For the House of Madness is easy, there's only two, Castor and Pollux. Castor is a little more open though, so I'd start with him. You already know Will from the House of the Sun, I'd get to know Michael Yew or Lee Fletcher, but I think Will has enough pull over their house that he might be the safer bet. The house of Fires is simple too, Beckendorf. Nothing happens there that Beckendorf doesn't know, and he's also very friendly. I heard him asking for you earlier.
"It's the last two you need to worry about." Bianca said. "The house of the Harvest is a complicated one. They never seem to agree on anything, less on a leader. I'd go for Katie Gardner, though, she has always been friendly. But be careful, I heard that many of the people in that house are not behind Lady Demeter's decision to defy Zeus, they fear him too much."
"Alright. That doesn't sound too hard, what about—"
The doors to the cafeteria opened, and a group of seven demigods entered, led by a tall blonde boy with a scar running down his face.
"Fuck." Bianca said from behind him. Percy didn't understand Bianca's comment, but he wished he had turned as he saw Annabeth rushing towards the boy, hugging him, and kissing him deeply.
"Nico." Percy asked, feigning ignorance. "Who's that?"
"That." Nico said, "Is Luke Castellan, the Heir confirmed of the House of Thieves."
"Is he Annabeth's boyfriend?"
"Has been for the past two years." Nico said.
"Is he powerful?" Percy asked, keeping his eyes glued on the man who seemed to draw the crowd towards him.
"Powerful?" Nico scoffed, "Percy, that right there is the only person aside from the children of the Great Houses to have been granted the rank of Demigod."
"He is also the only person outside the Pantheon who has forged a Symbol of Power." Bianca said with a small voice. "Percy…if we do not consider anyone from the Pantheon…Luke is the most powerful Hunter alive."
Luke Castellan's eyes seemed to find him through the crowd of Hunters that had approached him. Blue eyes, sharp and cunning, yet something flashed within them when his eyes met Percy's. For some reason, Percy felt a tingling sensation on the back of his head. He recognized it; yet he refused to believe it. For he knew what it was. For the first time, Percy found himself intimidated.
The end of Part I.
We arrive at the end of Part I of Hunters of Olympus. Next week only 1 chapter will be published, one of the three interludes, and it will be so for 3 weeks, meaning that Part II will begin at the end of July. Sorry folks.
This was a short chapter, the shortest one aside from the prologue, and I think its perfect to finish the first leg of the story. Luke Castellan is one of those characters that, for me, deserves to be fleshed out more and how he impacts Percy, so he will be in this story, albeit in a different way than your average master/apprentice trope. Also, as I mentioned last week, this first book will not be Percabeth, as you can see by the plot, however Annabeth's relationship with Luke will not be something just in the background but will have actual consequences on the world, or I intend it to be so.
As of now, we have sort of introduced the topic of Enlightenment in the story, and one of the major plot conflicts of the story: The Seastone Chair. For those who like politics, I am sorry to say that the politics of the Hunters is something I intend to develop much later in the future, hopefully book 2, but the Seastone chair is something critical to this book as you will begin to realize during Part II and its Epigraphs (the sentences before the start of the chapter). Word on the Epigraphs, the entire Trilogy (I expect it to be a trilogy of books) will have three Epigraphs. Book 1 will be the Diary of Poseidon, Book 2 the Diary of Hades, and Book 3 the Diary of Zeus. Each of these Diaries will add something to the overall story. I can say now that Poseidon's Diary is about Enlightenment and the Prophecy, how they interact together. Hades' is about Symbols of Power and how to create them, and Zeus' is...well...let's hope that I can say 'wait and see'. Little ideas that I have, sorry if I spoiled that for you, but you know that in these A/N I like to discuss plans :)
Part II right now is going through a bit of revision, hence why it will take 3 weeks before Chapter 11 is published, but don't fret I think I can make this deadline. Think.
Also, I'm thinking on opening a spot for a beta reader or two, so mention in the comments if you'd be interested, however know that as a Beta you will experience the story very differently as you will have direct inside knowledge of things and the chapters you will read will most likely be different than those I publish. Furthermore, you will know things waaaay before they happen, maybe even be an entire 10 chapters ahead of publication, so consider it well.
Anyways, next week we have interlude I. Followed by Interlude's II and III, and then chapter 11, hype yourselves up!
Have a good day, night, or afternoon! Love each other, treat each other with respect, and as always;
Happy Reading.
-CML