Hpov
Seeing as Ashton spent so much time at my house over the years, stumbling across him asleep somewhere wasn't exactly abnormal for me. Plenty of times I'd walked down stairs to see him knocked out on the couch or in the guest room after a practice or video game night with Charlie. The whole 'being underwater' part, however, was new.
I paced the perimeter of the pool, not entirely sure what I was supposed to be doing at this point.
He was in the center of the room, two or three feet under the surface of the water, seeming to have either jumped or fallen from the ledge set several stories up the cave walls. I'd come in on the ground level and had been terrified when I'd seen him, thinking he might have drowned but it became apparent pretty quickly that whatever was happening to him wasn't life threatening.
Soft beams of light surrounded him, weaving between each other in gentle currents, seeming to have caught him in some sort of trance. Images flashed in and out of existence among them, like some sort of weird, supernatural film reel.
He didn't seem to be hurt however, or in any immediate danger and I continued to look around the room.
It was spacious with high cavern ceilings that had clearly been hollowed out by something other than natural causes, patterns of owls and Greek letters swirling so high, it almost made me dizzy to look at.
The water extended to the far end of the room, cutting me off from the opposing side. Under it's surface, gemstones inlaid into the bottom of the pool constructed a mosaic set into a familiar design. The symbol of my mother.
Centered above it, dangling about ten feet in the air from a rusting chain, was a polished, old fashion key, it's design ornate and glowing in the distinct way that only one metal could.
Celestial bronze.
'Gods…' I thought irritated.
It was infuriatingly close, but I knew proximity did me no good here.
I continued to pace, looking from between Ashton, around the room and back to the key, just thinking.
I had several injuries from what had to have been a dozen close calls against what felt like every monster currently roaming whichever hemisphere I was in. It hadn't been fun running through a series of tunnels and ruins with legendary creatures on my heels, each of them with some sort of score to settle. Though, considering most of them had probably spent the last few thousand years either killing or being killed by demigods, I sort of understood the hostility.
I ignored the instinct to clean my cuts and scratches in the water, and continued to squint at the pool, still uncertain.
This had to be the last of the trials. Fire in Egypt, air in the tunnels, and now water here. This couldn't be a coincidence could it? Or some kind of trick?
Maybe that was why Ashton was stuck.
But if Ashton and I were both here, where did that put James?
It was too much to think Ashton and I had ended up in the same place, only to have the Interrealm dump him somewhere else.
I glanced over my shoulder, feeling as if something about the situation was wrong.
He should have been here. It's where the trials had driven us, like some sort of mythological magic herding of demigod sheep.
"Alright." I said with a sigh, glaring at my mother's symbol. "What do you want from me?"
Unsurprisingly, there was no response.
"Right." I said feeling a flash of bitterness go through me. "Thanks for the help mom."
There didn't seem to be anything for it, so, with an odd mix of determination and resignation, I slipped my bag off my shoulders, removed my sword and it's sheath from my belt, then stepped into the water.
I'd expected it to be cold like the rest of the cave, but it wasn't. It was, however, far deeper than it appeared. I'd stepped off the stone bank expecting to find myself up to my calf in the pool, but felt my stomach lurch as I shot down under the surface, suddenly feeling as if I was not in a small underground well, but a vast ocean as slowly, I drifted further and further down.
Then, out of nowhere, a flood of images flitted in and out of the space around me, like a video on fast forward.
The day I'd met Ashton, the day I met James. Christmas with my family abroad and the birthday where Charlie and I had gotten our first gifts from our mother. A long weekend at the beach, where Annie and Charlie had gone to the boardwalk while Ashton and I furiously built walls and dug trenches, attempting to defend our monster size sand castle from the encroaching tide.
James, snatching me just before I topped into a channel of lava…
The images swirled faster as I continued to sink, growing more vibrant and intense. Not all were memories now.
Sitting in a college arena with thousands of other spectators, Ashton smiling at me as he set up for a free throw, Charlie elbowing the player that had fouled him when the ref wasn't looking. Sitting at one of the senior lunch tables at school, trying to help Ashton cram for a test while Charlie and his teammates acted like idiots around us. Charlie, under a banner that said 21, his arm around Ashton's shoulder, who was clearly the DD, singing loudly and off key with the crowd around the table to whatever the bar was playing over the sound system. Annie next to him, looking a little amused, but also a little embarrassed.
Walking along an unfamiliar river, my hand in Ashton's, watching as the Naiads poked their heads out of their water curiously…
I opened my eyes.
Somehow, I wasn't surprised to find myself not in the bottom of the pool of water, but in a wide room of white stone. There were no exits, and the air had a shimmering quality to it, like a pearl. Around me, my hair drifted in slow motions, as if it somehow was still underwater. Nevertheless, I could breathe.
In front of me was a man sitting in a throne carved out of quarts, veins of silver and gold running through the glossy stone. Despite the bright, hazy quality of light, two torches were set into the pillars on either side of him.
"Welcome my child." He said with interest. "It's been many years since a mortal has been before me."
The man could have been anywhere from forty to sixty, with a dark beard turning gray, and short hair to match. He wore a simple chiton and plain sandals, but a banded gold circlet was placed on his head, and the cuffs around his wrists were made of celestial bronze.
"I'm not a child." I said my tone flat. I knew who this man was, it was obvious, but what was less obvious was why I was alone. "Where is Ashton?"
"Your friend is fine," Codrus said raising a hand lightly, gesturing towards something to my left.
I turned and saw the misty quality of the light had gone translucent, Ashton drifting in the water, his eyes closed. The silver turned to gold as the images continued to swirl around him, suspended in a current of light.
Camp, the arena, Charlie… me.
"The water can have a somewhat of a hypnotic effect on mortals, even demigods." The king said as I turned back to him and frowned.
"So why didn't it work on me?"
I couldn't have said why I knew I was no longer under the effects of whatever magic that was going on here, and that the man in front of me wasn't the product some bizarre Mist induced vision. I just knew.
"You have a very organized mind Harper Davis." He said calmly. "The magic of the water causes a sort of internal reflection of oneself, of hopes and desires. Hidden truths a person might not have wanted to examine. Motivations one might not have been honest with themselves or others. They all come to the surface when submerged in its depths. But you're not one to lie to yourself, are you?" He asked grinning slightly. "About who you are, or what you want. Despite what they might or might not let others believe, if one is honest with themselves, well," he spread his hands wide and smiled, as if to suggest the logic of his reasoning was the most obvious thing in the world. "There's not much they need to reflect upon, is there?"
I didn't answer. There didn't seem to be much of a reason to. I had a feeling he knew what had been in the back of my mind from the moment I'd realized what James had done. What I hadn't told anyone. Hadn't wanted to think about too much, but deep down, knew I had already decided.
"You know what needs to be done." He said lightly. "And you know it must be done by you."
He reached forward, extending his palm, a glittering light glinting into existence, taking form into a familiar shape.
"Should I take that as an endorsement?" I asked and his smile grew as he sat back in his chair. The Keeper's Key hovering in the space between us.
"Would it matter if it was?"
"No." I said honestly, stepping forward.
"I didn't think it would." He said but despite this, there was a hint of approval in his tone that told me, had he had a choice in the situation, he would have chosen the same.
"You look like her you know." He said unexpected and I frowned.
"Like who?"
Another smile.
"Your mother."
I wasn't sure what to say to this, so I didn't say anything.
I reached forward, intending to take a hold of the key, then hesitated.
I glanced around me, into the hazy light that seemed to stretch on forever.
"How do I get out of here?" I asked turning back to the King, but before he could respond, there was a loud sound that shattered the peaceful silence as something heavy came crashing into the room
I whirled in shock to see a boy, unconscious, like Ashton had been, and drifting. But unlike Ashton, he was sinking fast, and there was nothing peaceful about the images that flickered into existence and surrounded him. The mist roiled, snaking around his figure saturated with cold ebony shadows, and violent shades of red. Monsters snatched at him, there was the sound of a girl screaming in terror, and his body was jerking. Wracked with violent spasms which I soon realized was terror.
It was James. And he was drowning.
"No." I said horrified, my heart pounding as I started to run. It felt like it was in slow motion."N-"
But I couldn't finish the word. As I'd moved, the darkness around James had shot towards me, pulling me in.
Cold water flooded into my mouth as the stone vanished from under me as well as the air. Suddenly, I was surrounded by the images that had been tormenting James. Rivers of fire, howling spirits spiraling around me like a whirlpool of horror, meanwhile, the girl kept screaming.
I was freezing and kicking madly, my clothes water logged and weighing me down.
I reached for James who was still sinking, his limbs jerking wildly his eyes wide now as he tried to find the surface. My lungs burned as I dove after him, to try and pull him out of the visions that were dragging us both down.
The next thirty seconds were a chaos of confusion and panic as I managed to grab James and pull him to the surface.
Gasping for air, I dragged him, hacking and coughing up water, as he tried desperately to pull himself free.
"Lucy!" he shouted in what was obviously blind panic. "Get off me! Lucy! Luc-!"
"James!" I shouted releasing him onto the bank. "James calm down, it's me!"
"What? Harper?" he asked breathing fast, his eyes wide as they met mine. "What happened? Where-"
"I don't know. But whatever it was, whatever you saw, it wasn't real." I said glancing into the pool to see Ashton still floating peacefully, his dreams, or whatever they were, untroubled by whatever had happened to James.
He was shaking, clearly preoccupied with whatever he'd been forced to see, and there was an awkward pause in which, it seemed to occur to the both of us, that this was the first chance we'd had to speak to each other since this whole nightmare began.
He glanced at the water, seeming to have realized something, then looked back at me.
"Did you just… save me?" he asked hesitantly, sounding shocked.
I didn't answer at first, not entirely certain I understood the situation myself at the moment, but eventually, I nodded.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
I could have lied and said that it was the right thing to do or tried to use it as a way to extort information out of him, or demand answers, guilt and shame him for everything he'd done but I couldn't. I didn't have it in me.
I simply looked at him remembering a reality I'd seen more than once now. In a different life.
"It didn't have to be like this." I said feeling a wave of bitterness wash over me, not just at what James had done, but at everything.
My mother, for abandoning me, Charlie, for having no faith in me, James, for putting me in this position, even Ashton a little, for waiting until the absolute destruction of my entire life to upend our entire relationship, giving me exactly what I'd wanted for so long, at the worst possible time.
It wasn't fair. None of this was fair.
"We could have been friends."
"Harper-" he started, but he never got to finish whatever it was he wanted to say.
A low rumbling had started, shaking the room sending ripples all along the water.
We looked at each other, then around the cavern as rocks on the ground began to tremble.
"We need to get out of here." James said, his eyes going wide.
Cracks were appearing on the ceiling, the stone threatening to break as the ripples along the water began to church, it's still surface now a mass of choppy waves.
The chain that held the key was swaying now, bouncing with the room as it vibrated, and I watched in horror as slowly, it started pulling up towards the ceiling.
"Harper, we've got to go." He said grabbing my arm and pulling me towards an exit, but I tore myself out of his grip.
"Ashton!" I said pointing towards him.
He was still suspended in the water, the beams of light dying rapidly around him.
James, looked conflicted glancing towards the exit before swearing and following me towards the waters edge.
"We have to get him out of there!" I shouted looking over my shoulder but James had skidded to a halt several feet from the water, his face pale.
It was clear that he didn't want to go back in.
"Harper, I don't think-"
But I didn't have the time to argue with him about it.
Stones the size of flat screens were shattering from the ceiling, hurtling down into the water and it was clear that the room was about to collapse.
I jumped, crashing through the surface and swimming as fast as I could to Ashton who was still suspended in some sort of trance, but drifting slowly towards the bottom of the basin.
I felt the magic trying to take a hold of me, images flooding in and out of my consciousness but I forced them back, trying to focus on the Ashton in front of me, separate from my memories.
Taking a deep breath, I ducked my head under the surface of the water feeling my lungs burn and I pointed myself downward after him, diving deeper and deeper, hoping not to be blindsided by the debris that was sinking along side us.
Panic gripped me as the pull of the magic grew stronger the longer I was surrounded by it, I found myself getting confused, dizzy as I tried to press on.
My fingers curled around Ashton's shirt as I tried to haul him to the surface, my body screaming for oxygen as I kicked and kicked, and just as I thought I was going to pass out from the lack of air…
I broke the surface, gasping and spluttering, but managing to keep a hold of Ash. I dragged him to the bank, exhausted and not sure I'd be able to get him out of the water, when a hand reached down and pulled him easily onto the shore.
I felt a surge of relief go through me as I realized that James might not have been willing to go into the water, but he hadn't left either Ashton or I to die.
"Is he alright?" I asked weakly, exhausted but able to pull myself out of the water without James's support.
"He's breathing." He said glancing at Ashton. "But-"
But I didn't hear what he said. A surge of adrenaline went through me as I remembered the key, and I looked around wildly to see it was still rising up to the ceiling, it's chain flailing wildly as it was battered by falling rocks and the trembling of the cave.
"No." I said getting to my feet.
Gods this couldn't be happening. Not when we were so close.
"Harper, we have to go."
"Just give me a second." I said.
"Harper!"
"Just as second…" I muttered looking around wildly for a set of steps, a ladder, anything. "I need to think."
"Harper we-"
He grabbed my arm, clearly meaning to pull me away from the water, but I pushed him off. Ashton was stirring now, sitting up, putting his hand to his head, and as he did, I saw that after all this time, he still had his quiver.
Without hesitating, I grabbed a hand full of arrows and snatched his bow that had been slack in his hand.
"What are you doing?" James shouted as if he thought I were insane, but ignored him.
I whirled and aimed for the chain squinting at it, trying to get a decent line of sight.
It was almost to the ceiling now, receding into the destruction and gloom and I couldn't manage to get a good lock on the moving target. It wouldn't get into focus as it kept bouncing around in the chaos. Frustrated, I tore off my glasses, adjusted my aim, and let the arrow loose.
It sailed through the air and I felt a shock of total disbelief as the arrow struck the chain, sparks flying as it collided, then cut through.
I'd hit it…
I'd actually hit the target I was aiming for…
The key plummeted towards the water and I was about to dive back in, only to have two sets of hands grab me.
"Bambi, are you insane?" Ashton asked.
He might have just woken up, but it was clear Ashton was conscious enough to try and stop me from jumping into something he thought was suicide.
"Let me go!" I shouted furiously.
"We have to get out of here!" James yelled. "Before this whole place collapses!"
I'd managed to get a hand free however, and had reached out desperately for the key knowing it was too far away.
I couldn't let it end like this. Not when I was so close. I just couldn't. Somehow I just knew that if I didn't take it now, the key would be lost forever.
Suddenly, a shock wave went through the cavern as, seemingly at random, the key that had looked as if it had been about to strike the surface of the water glowed blindingly bright, and changed direction.
Time seemed to freeze, waves gone still and rocks suspended in mid air as with a streak of gold, the key darted like a fiery comet across the cavern and into my out stretched hand.
"Holy Hades."
It was James, his voice was soft uncertain, as if he wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to what was happening.
The key was warm, almost hot, and it was vibrating. I felt my eyes go wide as I looked at it, feeling shocks racing up my arm as slowly, it too was enveloped in the soft golden glow.
"Harper?" Ashton asked anxiously as it crept further and further up my arm, the vibrations growing stronger as the key seemed to radiate power and energy. "Harper are you-"
He reached for me, his hand closing around my wrist, only to have another shock wave hit the cave.
Like thunder, there was a loud 'crack' that shook the room and I felt Ashton's hand ripped from mine as he and James were blasted back, but when I turned to see if they were alright, I felt a sharp pain crack through my skull.
A whirl of pages and diagrams obscured my vision, poetry, textbooks, diaries, scrolls, more manuscripts than could have been read in a thousand lifetimes and yet somehow, I realized, I knew them all.
Blinded by the information and the searing pain in my mind, I fell to my knees cradling my head in my hands as century by century, information was uploaded to my brain, in a stream of literature that I was almost convinced was endless.
But it did end.
When it did, I found myself on all fours, shaking, blinking back tears of pain only to see a hand extended towards me, clearly to help me up.
I took it, at first thinking it was Ashton's, but realizing quickly that the man who'd helped me up was one I didn't recognize.
"Come now my dear." He said softly. "There's no need to look so afraid. After all, you are one of us."
Like Codrus, he was in a chiton, but didn't seem to be a royal. He looked younger than the king, with dark curly hair and a softer nature which shone through the smile he was directing at me.
I glanced around to see that once again, the cave had vanished around me, only to be replaced by some plane of misty existence and I watched, amazed, as I saw hundreds of people spanning across what seemed to be every age, gender, and race, smiling back at me, all from different culture and time periods, all with a bronze key, in cooperated into their appearance.
It seemed to have personalized for each one of it's Keepers from Celtic knots to Chinese characters, or inlaid with precious gems.
I looked down at the key in my hands, and saw, incredulously, that it too had transformed. An ornate outline of an owl had been fashioned into the bow of the key and I stared at it, realizing fully for the first time what it meant. What had just happened.
"I didn't realize it would hurt." I said softly rubbing my head and looking around at all of the previous Keepers smiling at me.
"Sometimes knowledge hurts my love." Said a sympathetic voice.
I looked over my shoulder to a tall woman in a Victorian dress, a small key bound around her throat by violet silk.
"But it is up to you what you use it for."
"So what do I do now?" I asked looking at the group at large.
"That's up to you, isn't it?"
The girl was tiny, probably no more than seven or eight and peeking out from a tall South American man, who jumped, apparently unaware that she had been there.
"The library has been closed for centuries," the first man said, reclaiming my attention. "Either though the will of the keepers who felt the world was not ready for its return or through the vision of the fates. Waiting for the next generation of inquisitive minds to stumble upon its secrets, and bring them back once again to the modern world."
"That's up to me?" I asked incredulously, letting out a hollow laugh.
I hadn't even graduated high school yet, this seemed like a terrible plan.
There was a rumble of laughter among the Keepers as if they'd understood my trepidation and again, the man smiled at me.
"Harper Davis, like the Keepers before you, you faced the trials and were found worthy."
A slight breeze was picking up over the area now, swirling the mist, and one by one, it hiding the Keepers from sight.
"We entrust the library into your capable hands."
The voice was echoing now as the wind picked up, the mist getting thicker until my vision was obscured.
"Protect it."