Chapter 64
Piper
"Annabeth I love ya but the difference between shrimpzilla and bridezilla is that Percy would probably be angrier at Leo for throwing Greek fire down shrimpzilla at this point! You've got to lighten up, its all going to work out okay!"
"Oh he would not! I just.. why isn't he here yet?" Annabeth shouted.
"Calm down, your step mom said he was on his way. The aerials can do this in five minutes flat, its going to be okay."
We had been waiting at New Rome University, or what the nomaj's call Stanford, for about 10 minutes for Annabeth's father who was, two days before the wedding, to come in for his final fitting. Every few moments a different muggle boy would hit on us, only to be shot down by us telling them we were planning our wedding. It was surprising to me they approached us at all given the vibe Annabeth was giving off. Annabeth had gotten herself in a tither that had slowly built over several days and was to a breaking point. She had pretty much pissed off, or at least irritated, everyone that knew her but everyone was understanding that it was the stress talking, not her. I was only moments away from firing her and telling her to put together her own wedding on several occasions, but she had always recanted and apologized. In all, the wedding was coming together well. The flowers and decorations were done, the cake and celebration banquet was to be done by the ship's aerials the morning of the wedding, but we had already sampled everything and approved. The dress was amazing, a combination of three designers work, and the dresses for the maids of honor were based on Greek chiton only silvery gray with spaghetti straps instead of covering the shoulders. They were knee length, pleated from the chest down, and the idea, always a noble one and always hopeless, was that they could be reused by the wearer for something else. Brides maid dresses are never ever usable again, and in the end these looked nothing like a chiton.
Shortly before Annabeth attempted to use her nonexistant power to throw lightning and destroy cities, but after we got invited to three different mixers at muggle fraternities, Mr Chase showed up with her cousin Magnus in tow. He was visiting on the west coast for a few days, having learned about the wedding, and I'm not sure what it was all about but this led to a panicked meeting between Annabeth, Nico and Chiron in private. Afterwards, Annabeth calmed down from whatever she perceived the problem to be, invited, or rather demanded, that Magnus be added to the ushers and outfitted accordingly. He was bringing his own date, some girl named Samirah, which was good given that we were already short girls and the Weasley brothers and Seamus were genuine war heros now, with all the accompanying swagger. After the usual greetings, introductions and hugs, we rushed, with Annabeth leading us, through the door to the main hall in the Leodis and then to the study room which we had taken over for wedding prep.
I sic'ed the aerials on Mr Chase and while they did their magic Annabeth, Magnus and I chatted. Well, we did until Nico arrived.
"So how is everything Magnus? Its been awhile since Boston."
"Oh, much the same. How is my favorite cousin? I'm guessing good what with the wedding and all."
"If I don't kill her first" I laughed.
"Is she being a difficult bride? I've heard about those."
"Difficult? Nah! I can handle her. Whenever she starts to draw her sword I just tell her to put it away." I smiled.
Magnus looked confused, but I knew he knew of our demigod status so I wasn't sure why. Annabeth had told me he was a half blood too but had lived homeless for a long time so I assumed he was a loner, a half blood that never made it to either camp and had gone unclaimed so far. I didn't know, or care, who his godly parent was.
"Piper has the gift of charm speak, her commands carry the backing of Aphrodite, so only the truly strong can ignore them."
"Oh, that must be convenient." He said, just as Nico arrived.
"Oh! Hi Nico, this is Magnus, my cousin I was telling you about." Annabeth said, her voice revealing a great deal of apprehension.
"Hi Magnus, before the wedding, we need to talk." Nico said. This rather took me back as Nico just as a rule wasn't forward this way.
"Uh, why?" Magnus replied, clearly not intimidated.
"Woah, just talk. Annabeth told me about your situation and I wanted to help you navigate the Greco-Roman world."
"And how would you help me in a way Annabeth couldn't."
"Uh Magnus, Nico is our friend but.. is it okay to talk about this in front of Piper?" Annabeth asked.
"We have secrets now?" I asked giggling.
"You and I don't, my cousin does and I respect that." Annabeth snapped, the stress of the wedding showing.
"Yeah, she's one of us, I don't care." Magnus replied.
"Uh, okay, so Piper, Magnus's godly parent isn't Greek..."
"Oh you're Roman? That's okay, Jason and Thalia are like that too, only they are brother and sis..."
"No, he's not Roman either. He's Norse, his godly parent is Frey. Am I saying that right?"
"Yeah, Frey. And I'm an einherji, I live in Valhalla but sometimes travel Midgard and the other realms on Odin's business... or my cousin's wedding."
"What's that mean, einherji?" I asked.
"It means he is dead." Nico answered, "so you can see the problem."
"What problem? I blend in with the living just fine." He smiled.
"Yeah, you do, but not everyone is living and to them you kind of stand out. Thing is my father will probably be in attendance tomorrow, and there is is a good chance his servant Thanatos might be as well."
"You're father is who?"
"Hades. And last year he named me Lord of the Undead and Prince of Ghosts."
"Okay. Now I see the problem" Magnus said. "Should I sit this one out and stay home?"
"No, I was just going to suggest that when you can't be with Percy and Annabeth, or when Hades is with Percy and Annabeth, you hang out with Will and myself. If Hades or Thanatos is around I'll point them out to you and you will know who to avoid, and if trouble does arise, let me handle it. They are unlikely to kill me. Does your date know?"
"Samirah. She's my Valkyrie. And we're not dating, she's just a friend."
"Solves that problem. K' I don't see any issues. Its good to meet you Magnus, I'd love to share notes with you on the afterlife in your world versus our sometime" Nico smiled.
"Uh, yeah, I'd like that I guess. How did you die?"
"Oh, I'm not dead. I just travel between the worlds on my father's business. I've spent more time there than Leo and Percy, and they both died. Oh, and probably Annabeth."
"You never told me you died!" Magnus shouted at Annabeth, just as her father reentered the room looking smashing in his tux.
"What? Died?" Professor Chase exclaimed.
"NO! I never died. Geez!" Annabeth cried out.
"You fell into the Greek version of hell for a couple weeks, that's as good as dead." Nico said.
"I got out alive! Don't upset my father! I was never dead!" Annabeth squealed, almost in tears.
"I'm... sorry, no I didn't mean to upset anyone, its just you and I are the only honorary members of the dead half blood club." Nico giggled, and candidly, his giggle was so creepy it caused nausea.
"Yeah, well we wouldn't want you to be lonely." Annabeth laughed.
"So you didn't die?" Professor Chase asked.
"Oh gods no. She and I are better than that. It's your son in law that keeps getting himself killed." Nico said.
"What?!" Professor Chase exclaimed.
"Whoa, only a couple times, he's better now." Nico grinned.
"He died twice?" asked the Professor, clearly wondering about Annabeth's choice of husbands.
"Not really. Well, its hard to say, maybe more depending on how you define it. One time we thought he was dead, when Saint Helens erupted, we had a funeral and everything, but he showed up alive in the middle of it. Once he drank poison in Seattle and dared Gaea to kill him, but she still needed him alive. Another time we fell into Tartarus, but we got out. Then last fall he slammed into an invisible wall and made it as far as Nico's father's house before Jennifer pulled him back, and a few months after that Frank nearly killed him by turning into a dragon and crushing him... you know, he doesn't have the healthiest lifestyle does he?"
"Are you sure he will be there for you?" Professor Chase blurted out before thinking.
"Oh daddy! Don't worry. If Percy dies it will be because he is protecting me."
"I was just worried about you, you know, financially as well. I know you're strong emotionally but"
"Thanks to Nico's father I'm as rich as Percy is. You don't have to worry about that either. And we're trying to retire and go to college. Hopefully the gods won't be calling on us as much. You don't have to worry about me daddy. I promise."
"You're rich?" Professor Chase asked, his voice showing surprise at this development.
"Very" Nico answered for her.
"Uh, think you could fly me back to Boston after the wedding?" Magus asked.
"Sure" Annabeth smiled.
"Uh, why don't we just take the door to Camp Half Blood and Jason and I will apparate you and Samirah back? Annabeth is expected to be busy after the wedding and reception." I said.
"Oh Percy won't mind" She said before Nico, Magnus and her father openly laughed at her.
"If he doesn't mind, then there would be no sense in getting married to begin with Annabeth." I explained as she blushed.
"Guys" her father said after we all finished snickering at her, "is there somewhere Annabeth and I could talk? I probably won't have the chance again before the service."
"Sure, I will get Magnus' tux measured and ready, Annabeth, why don't you take your father out to the pond? That's where everyone seems to have their heart to hearts. I'll send a patronus when we're ready."
"Uh, why do I need a tux?"
"Because you are going to help seat the Bride's family and guests and she has some picky relatives on her mother's side of the family." Nico answered, grinning.
Nico took off when Annabeth and her father went to have their heart to heart and I settled in to get Magnus into a tux in record time. The aerial servants had been slower than normal for a couple of weeks, so his final fitting would have to be the next day, hopefully before we gathered on board for the rehearsal and dinner. Once they had his measurements they went to work on putting it together and though we couldn't see them, we could see the fabric flying around as it had every time we had made something be it prom dresses, uniforms or wedding attire. Still, it was slower than it had been in the past and it occurred to me that Leo and Jennifer must have most of them busy on other projects, projects that in my opinion could wait until after the wedding. Still it took only a little over an hour and Magnus was ready. The measurements had been so exact that a further fitting wasn't necessary, which cleared up a bit of my schedule for the next day.
I almost had the patronus ready when Magnus stopped me.
"Don't tell them to come here, tell them we are on our way, I'd love to see more of this place." He smiled.
"Sure, and I'd love to be your tour guide, come on, grab something to drink and we'll go."and while he stared at me curiously I sent the warning patronus. "Oh, just say what you like and it will appear. That works here and in the dining hall and the picnic area." I told him.
"Uh, lime Gatorade?" He asked and moments later a large cold glass was at the table before him.
"I love magic!" Magnus said as he picked it up.
We got to the pond just as Annabeth and her father were finishing their tear fest and then had to explain to Magnus and Professor Chase that we were in parallel space so it was basically impossible to say where we were. While I was trying to explain, Annabeth had panic attack number 612, this one about the music. I reminded her that Will was in charge at the reception, and her mother had arranged for the muses to do the wedding march and other material for the wedding itself. We would probably have an original symphony except Apollo was, unbeknownst to us, about to be flung to earth in the body of a 15 year old.
We took Magnus and Professor Chase back to Stanford and then at my suggestion we stopped by to see Reyna, Frank, Neville and Hazel. When not in class or training Slytherins Neville was to be found not far from his love. Technically he was the English magical ambassador, a title Reyna had made up for him, but he, along with Snape and others were teaching the Fifth cohort how to do magic with wands. We had coffee while the Romans worked out, then Hazel of all people began demanding that we head out for a bachelorette party. Frank and Neville took off to round up the guys for a impromptu bachelor party as well. I confess I hoped a bachelorette party might calm Annabeth down. The only way I had seen to relax her was a few days before when Jennifer took her aside during one of her fits, about hors d'oeuvres, I think, and talked to her about architecture for a few hours. And I didn't know anything about architecture.
