Chapter 3
Leo
I had hoped to arrive before everyone woke and not have everyone make a big deal of my return. I knew there would be questions of where I had been, and don't get me wrong, it was great that everyone was there, but landing in front of the whole camp, with a bronze demon riding a chicken statue to greet me was just weird, even by my standards. When we slid off Festus and Jason, then the rest of the crew, threw their arms around me, well, okay, I sort of expected that but hoped it would wait until breakfast.
But when Chiron kneeled before my girlfriend and Poseidon froze time, well, that I didn't see coming. Calypso had insisted on not using her name, but rather "Jennifer." I figured she didn't want anyone to know she had broken free from the island, but I was about to find out she had her own reasons.
Poseidon was just there, filling a space that had been empty before, and everything stopped moving, well, everything except Chiron, Percy, Calypso and myself.
"Arise Chiron. I have taken those out of time that need to be, but only for a moment. Calypso, your release was promised to my son, and that promise is now honored. The oceans that were your prison's wall shall hold and guard you no more. Your aid to the heros in the last war have earned your release and a return to the pantheon of Olympus, but, and I speak for my brother in this, if it is your intent is to walk among the mortals, you will remember the pact."
"Walk among the mortals? Whats he talking about?" I asked Chiron, only to have Percy answer.
"Your girl friend is the daughter of a Titan, and that makes her a diety."
I had truly never considered this. I was dating a diety. It didn't matter to me, I fell in love with her when she was an annoying girl on an island that could make killer stew and sew. Leo Valdez, boyfriend of a goddess. Nice.
"I understand." Calypso replied.
"Wait, what do you understand, what's this pact?" I asked. If it meant something horrible was going to happen to Calypso I didn't want it on my conscious.
"I'm sorry, I should have told you. It is why I have taken the common name 'Jennifer.' I must be seen as just another person or demi god. It means that no mortals may know who I am, otherwise they would lose faith by the existence of proof. See Leo, if you believe in something it is because you know it in your heart. But if something is proven to exist, your dragon, the moon, the ocean, well, you no longer need faith. And without faith, there is no belief. It is belief that keeps the pantheon going. That is why the mist exists, to hide proof so that faith may continue."
"So, what do you have to do?" I asked.
"Well, not much. I never really use power anyway."
"You should be claimed as a half blood to fit in here. It would honor me to adopt you, if you would allow. "
"That would be, yes, I would like that." Calypso smiled.
"A moment ago you apologized to a mortal. Is that something you can do?"
"Yes, I mean, I was a prisoner so long, well, everyone I met was an equal after a while. We were all stranded."
" Percy, Chiron and Leo and the crew of the coming quest must likewise hold your secret in confidence."
"We can do that, we can totally do that!" I nearly shouted.
"Can do what?" Annabeth asked as she hugged my neck.
"Huh? What? Are you hearing things?" I looked around and everything was moving again, but Poseidon had just seemingly appeared, now with two women with him. The field froze again as everyone kneeled. Well, Percy, he finally did.
"Greetings heros of Olympus and of Rome. Your success on the recent quest, and in the war, has been noted and shall be heralded in song and poem to the generations that follow. Today you need not fear a new prophecy, Apollo remains silent, and will until his voice is needed. So Zeus has ordered." Poseidon said.
"In the interim the Gods require of you a mission, a simple task which you should find a holiday from your past quests. The child of Hades, Nico, has already begun. He is to be joined by the Seven of the great prophecy, as well as the Praetor of the Romans, Jennifer, the claimed daughter of Poseidon, and the Oracle Rachel Dare." Athena continued.
The third God then spoke. "In the north of the last old world lay a land where the Greeks never stood and the Romans were driven out a thousand years ago. There of all the pantheon, only I, Hecate, have had a following. My students there are not like our children. Their gift is the ability to learn magic and the ways of the mist, but only through the manipulation of it by tools that are themselves imbued with magic. The land is roamed by monsters both good and evil, familiar and foreign to you. Therein will be one who should not die so young, and one who is hunted and is in need of your protection. For the next year or two you will guard and protect he and his friends as you travel as if a wizard or witch like them, learning their ways and teaching your own. Your mortal parents are being notified via the mist. You shall leave tomorrow morning, Poseidon will provide the way, and next Saturn's Day be at Kings Cross Station in London, England, platform 9 3/4s to ride to the school you shall attend with them next year. Chiron, the details are at your home." Hecate concluded and the three began to glow.
Now, when the gods glow it means they are about to cut out, and for a moment will be in their true form. You can't look at a god in their true form without going insane or dying, so the guys at Camp Half Blood know to avert your eyes, which we all did as the blinding flash washed over us. I glanced at Piper who was looking past me. I turned, without looking towards the flash, and saw Calypso staring right at it. And now, Piper knew.
