We were summoned to the Big House.

All things considered, it couldn't be anything good, I mean, I'm shocked Percy and I were still alive. Surely with the law being that the Big Three couldn't have kids, did that mean we would have to be sacrificed to the other two big gods in order to satisfy them? I severely hoped not, and I ran a few plans in my head to get Percy out of here if needs be. I'd rope Grover in, he owed us, and I'd try and make an earthquake that would rattle people's heads off their shoulders if they dared try and touch my baby brother. Still, it was rude to not answer a summons, especially when they came from a god like Mr D, so Percy and I followed Grover and silently wondered what was to be our fate. I really hope we don't become barbeque. My concerns weren't exactly settled when we reached the house and Mr D spoke, because he sounded like he was still mulling over the option of sacrifice. "Well, well, our little celebrities." Definitely wanted to kill us. "Come closer, and don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortals, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father." I couldn't help it, I smirked and snorted as I saw a faint burst of light in the vagueness of my sight which was a little better today. I could almost make out Chiron sitting back in his wheelchair, though every time I tried to focus on something my vision became worse, so I gave up. Mr D clearly was unaffected by the angry spark from the heavens which must have gone up, because he dismissed it with a blasé attitude before he then focused on my brother and I. "If I had my way, I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp; to keep you little brats safe from harm." Thank god for Chiron, I knew he was my favourite teacher of all time. Just please don't let Mr D turn us into cinders because that would really suck, and I don't want to then be tossed down into Hades' grasp as a defenceless and blind soul.

"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr D."

"Nonsense, they wouldn't feel a thing." Mr D assured Chiron, and I shifted uncomfortable and considered just making a run for it with Percy, because clearly this god was none too thrilled about us being alive. "Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself. I'm thinking of turning you two into dolphins instead, sending you back to your father." Again Chiron warned Mr D against any kind of action that involved the reshaping of any of our molecules. I continued to hold my breath, because I didn't trust the word of a god. "Oh alright. There's one more option, but it's deadly foolishness. I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy and girl are still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose and his sister into a squid. Do you understand?" I started to think that maybe being a dolphin wouldn't be such a bad thing. Better than a squid, anyway. "And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do." Listening closely I heard Mr D shuffle at what must have been his playing cards before then snapping his fingers. After that I then caught the scent of grapes in the air, making me frown.

"Is that grapes I smell?"

"Yes, Mr D has left us in order to go as he said to the emergency meeting on Olympus." Chiron informed me kindly, then inviting us to sit as well as Grover. Percy naturally pulled out one of the chairs for me and nudged me towards it so I sat down first and pulled it in underneath me, finding myself sat beside Chiron. "Tell me, Percy, what did you make of the hellhound?" I winced slightly as I recalled the sound of its snarl and the rankness of its breath, and Percy seemed to have a similar opinion to the memory as he shifted uncomfortable, my sharp ears picking up on the movement.

"It scared me," he admitted much to my surprise. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead."

"You'll meet much worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done." My head turned sharply towards Chiron as I frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" I demanded to know as Percy also asked what Chiron meant by done with something.

"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?" A sinking feeling started in my gut, pulling it all the way to my toes as the word 'quest' was mentioned. This did not bode well, I mean I'd heard from the other campers that quests hadn't been handed out in ages because of how badly the last one had gone, which had been Luke's. Quests were dangerous for half-bloods like us, because the moment we stepped outside that barrier, we were beacons for all kinds of monsters because of how we smelled to them, and since Percy and I were kids of one of the Big Three, we'd smell like burgers and hotdogs sizzling on a stand to everything out there. Percy nervously pointed out that Chiron hadn't even told him what the quest was, though I was already refusing it in my head. There's no way Percy's going. At all. "Well, that's the hard part, the details." Thunder rolled overhead and glanced up instinctively, feeling myself shudder.

"Poseidon and Zeus, they're fighting over something valuable…something that was stolen, aren't they?" I wasn't the only one who looked at Percy in surprise, both Grover and Chiron starting as we all stared at him. I hadn't a clue what anyone was talking about, because as far as I knew, the gods were just particularly pissed off recently. Sure there had been some freaky weather, but I didn't know anything about anything being stolen, and clearly Chiron hadn't expected Percy to know even that much as he asked how Percy knew. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth and she'd overheard something about a theft. And…I've also been having these dreams." Okay, I'm back to thinking my brother was insane.

"I knew it!" Grover practically crowed and I wanted to hit him with something to make him shut up, Chiron telling him to pipe down in a rather serious tone that we rarely heard from him. "But it's his quest! It must be!"

"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron countered, making me even more confused than before. Oracle? What the heck is going on?! "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt." The image of lightning striking me from the sky hit me all at once and I flinched, pressing my eyes shut and grasping at the table to steady myself, making Percy reach out to me with worry but I quickly shook it off, telling him I was fine. Still looking at me with worry, Percy then turned back to Chiron as I also lifted my head.

"You mean the gods are fighting because a lightning bolt has been stolen? They're throwing the world into chaos because of some lost property?" This only further solidified my belief that the gods were petty, selfish, overly dramatic and rather stupid though I kept these opinions to myself this time around.

"I wouldn't take this so lightly, Lily. I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second grade play. I'm talking about a two foot long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives." Oh, so something a little more than just some stolen property. That actually sounded rather serious, and I dreaded to think what would happen if it ended up in the wrong hands. Which in fact, it probably already was, and that just made the situation worse. "Zeus's master bolt," Chiron continued, "the symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"And it's missing?"

"Stolen."

"By who?"

"By whom," Chiron corrected, which I think was more a force of habit than anything. "By you, Percy." Now I dropped my hands upon the table.

"That's ridiculous. Percy's never stolen a thing in his life. Well…almost never, but my point is, up until little under two weeks ago, we had no idea this kind of world existed. How the hell is Percy of all people supposed to have stolen a master lightning bolt? He can't even get up in the morning without tripping over something!" Percy wasn't too happy about bringing that up, but I just shot him a look which told him not to argue with me on this one.

"This is what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' and 'air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters', et cetera." Idiots. The gods were idiots. "Afterwards, Zeus realised his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly – that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it." Percy interrupted to say that he did no such thing, but Chiron cut across him. "Patience and listen, child. Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you two as his children. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."

"Then Zeus is a moron." My blunt statement caused the sky to boom and quake like never before, but I just let the sound rush over me as Chiron barked sharply, warning me to watch my tongue. "I mean, why didn't I steal the bolt?"

"Well, no offence Lily, but you know…you're not exactly a threat." Grover pointed out so I scowled at him.

"It was a rhetorical question, Grover! I know I'd have no chance stealing a lightning bolt in a place I'd never seen before, or ever will see, but that's part of my point. Neither of us would have any clue about how to get to Olympus, and I'm pretty sure someone would have noticed a lone kid like Percy stumbling around up there." I could hear Grover nervously tapping his hooves upon the ground and champing at his teeth.

"Zeus has every reason to be suspicious of his brother, after all he has attempted to usurp Zeus before." Chiron noted then seemed to expect an answer when he reminded Percy it was question number thirty eight on his exam, which to me was ridiculous because now was not exactly the time to be bringing up past tests. To his credit, Percy remembered some of the details about a golden net and a few of the gods banding together in order to trap Zeus and give him a reality check, as it were. Though unfortunately, this meant that Zeus never really trusted our dad again after that, and now that all this had gone down, and we turned up, it seemed to have been the straw that broke the donkey's back, and Zeus was mad. Percy stated that he and I were just kids, meaning that it would be impossible for us to steal anything in Olympus, let alone a master bolt of mass destruction.

"Percy, if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War Two, that he's father not only one by two mortal heroes who might be used as a weapon against you…wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?" More like a twist in his brain, because Zeus clearly had a few screws loose if he believed two scrawny kids who had never before now believed the Greek myths were real could actually steal his lightning bolt. Grover did have a point though, if I were a paranoid all powerful god, I think I'd be pretty suspicious of my brother if he'd tried to toss me off my throne in the past. These gods could really hold grudges, couldn't they?

"But we didn't do anything. Poseidon – our dad – he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"

"Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style, but the sea god is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?" Being Percy, the only word he could offer was bad. "Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilisation tuned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight." As my brother said, bad. "And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath, and Lily would be close behind." Out from under the cover of the porch, I heard the light pattering of rain as I tasted the moisture in the air, opening my mouth slightly against the dreary pattering of the rain that fell over the camp which may have been for the first time in centuries.

"So I have to find the stupid bolt, and return it to Zeus." My brother sounded angry, and I couldn't blame him. Because our dad had claimed us, he'd made the entire situation worse. He should have just carried on ignoring our existence, because now we were being dragged into his argument with his brother because he couldn't man up enough to talk it out and make Zeus see reason. Stubborn jerk.

"What better peace offering than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?" Chiron reasoned and although diplomatically it made sense, I was firmly against it because it meant my brother would be walking into danger and could possibly even die. Gritting my teeth, I reached out and grasped hold of Percy's hand and I stared at him fearfully as he asked where the bolt was if Poseidon didn't have it. "I believe I know. Part of a prophecy I had years ago…well, some of the lines make sense to me, now." Although Chiron's suggestion that he might have a clue should have been hopeful, his voice was bleak and seemed to dispel any sense of encouragement. "But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?"

"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge." I turned my head back and forth between Chiron and Percy, gripping his hand even harder than before.

"Percy wait, there must be another way…" But there wasn't, and we both knew it. Percy accepted the quest, flatly reasoning that it had to be better than being turned into a dolphin. So Percy was directed into the Big House all the way to the attic in order to receive his fate, and I practically threw back my chair in my haste to stand up and storm away, feeling utterly useless. And angry. God I was angry. I hated Poseidon all the more for getting Percy mixed up in this mess, because after twelve years of ignoring his son, apparently he suddenly needed him, all because he didn't have the humility to bow his head and swear to Zeus that he hadn't taken a stupid lightning bolt. Rain continued to drizzle down upon us as Chiron and Grover both called out my name but I ignored them. There was nothing that I could do at all. If I went with Percy, I'd probably end up getting us both killed. Was this all I could do? Sit in camp and not make trouble? Was I destined to forever be nothing more than a nuisance and a liability even to my brother, when I should be the one protecting him and going on this quest to make sure that the world didn't erupt into chaos because apparently the gods were too childish not to answer every problem with a fight? I sorely hoped not, because that made me feel worse than ever before, and as I continued to fear and panic over Percy's safety, I twisted my bracelet around my wrist so much I thought it might break.