Chapter 17, Act I - The Lotus Eaters and Santa Monica.

It wasn't long before we were standing outside of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. I hadn't warned them what this place was, but I knew there was something I had to do here. I didn't only want to increase the power of Percy. "Ding!"

Quest Added!

Find the di Angelo kids, teach them about their heritage, and get out with enough time to get to Santa Monica, get to the Underworld, confront Hades, and beat Ares' ass!

The System informed me of a mental intrusion being blocked, and we walked through the front door of the cursed hotel.

Finding the two kids wasn't hard. I found a whole Mythomagic area, and from there, finding Hades' kids wasn't hard. "Bianca. Nico. Can I borrow the two of you? Your father sends his regards." I figured that last statement might grab Bianca's attention, if anything.

I brought them to my room, as I got a separate one from our resident Golden Trio, and I sat down, gesturing to the couch. The two kids sat down, and I leaned forward. "Nico, pay attention, please. Your father sent me. And yes, Bianca, your father's alive. He's a very busy man." I told the two of them.

"Is it time for us to leave?" Bianca asked nervously, fiddling with her green cap. "Not yet. But I will admit one thing. Your father did not send me, but I do know who your father is, and where he is, as well as why he's been absent." I told them. "Why couldn't he be here?" Nico asked.

"This is going to take a while. Bianca, I want you to suspend disbelief for this." I started telling them about the gods, and revealed to them that they're children of a god. "Which god?" Nico asked excitedly. "Woah, hold on, Neeks. How do we know you're telling the truth?" Bianca asked, skepticism written in her eyes.

To be fair, she probably believed in God. She was a little kid, raised in Italy during the reign of Hitler. Her mother likely raised them under some other religion, rather than pagan, to assure their safety. To answer her question, I conjured a wisp of blue magic in my hand, and from that wisp came a blue fire, crackling to life.

Bianca's eyes widened, but she shut up. "I'm a child of Hecate, the goddess of magic. I'm on an urgent quest with a son of Poseidon, a daughter of Athena, and a satyr to find something important. But we have enough time to stop here, and tell you of your father." I explained.

"Your father is Hades, the god of the dead."

I spent the next hour giving them some basic warnings about their powers, and taught them the basics of their powers, minus shadow travel. I told them about shadow travel, but made them promise not to use it until their father got them out of there. As much as I'd like to let them out, I can't. Not until the Sea of Monsters arc is over, but by then, Alecto would have taken them out, more than likely.

I had been writing a guide for the two of them, summarizing what I said, and even touching on things I might've missed, whenever I had spare time on this quest. I passed it to Bianca, and rose from my chair. "Now, I should take my leave. But I will warn the two of you. Things are going to be very different when you reenter the mortal world." I warned them.

They left the room, and I flicked off the lights in the room, letting me shadow travel to where I figured Grover would be.

"Die, human! Die, silly, polluting, nasty person!" Grover cackled, pointing a fake rifle at two familiar figures. "I take it the two of you realized?" I asked Percy and Annabeth. Percy nodded. "Great. Let's go. Grover, we're leaving." I told him, grabbing him by the arm, tugging him after me.

Sweet revenge for all the times I was dragged around during my first year of camp.

As we neared the exit, the Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?" He asked us hopefully. "Thanks." I said, swiping them before Grover could, and I shoved them in my inventory.

Mental intrusion blocked!

I continued charging out the door, and the bellhop kept yelling after us. We all barged out the doors, Grover in tow, and he shook his head, the spell breaking. I looked around. It was getting stormier than it was before we entered. That wasn't a great sign.

Percy charged over to the nearest newspaper stand to find the date. "Guys! It's June 17th. We don't have too much more time." He called out. I scowled, turning back to the Lotus. As soon as I knew the di Angelos were out, I'd be burning that place to the ground. The Lotus Eaters let us go way too easily. They're waiting for something, and I won't let them live to see whatever they're waiting for.

Annabeth, by some miracle, loaded us into a Vegas taxi. "Los Angeles, please." Annabeth told the cabbie. The cabbie chewed on his cigar and gave us a long look, sizing us up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front." He laughed, almost tauntingly.

"Do you accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked him. I smirked internally. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first." He shrugged, taking Annabeth's Lotus card, and swiped it reluctantly.

I didn't believe it when what came up next to the dollar sign was the infinity symbol. I figured it had to be some large, yet finite amount on that card. That thing could crash the economy quickly.

The cigar fell from the cabbie's mouth. "Where to in Los Angeles...uh, your Highness?" He asked, dumbfounded. "The Santa Monica Pier." She responded. I noticed she sat up a little straighter at the 'Your Highness' comment. She really doesn't even try to hide her pride, does she? To be fair, though, she is technically a princess?

After all, her grandfather is Zeus. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change." I paled when those words left her mouth.

You see, I avoided fast-moving cars if I could help it. Planes, trains, things like that? I don't mind them going that fast. But seeing a car's speedometer stay unwaveringly above ninety-five miles per hour would give me some problems. How could someone trust themself going that fast in Vegas?

With planes, they at least get training to handle speeds like that safely, because it's normal. With cars? That's not normal, and thus, not safe. The Golden Trio started talking, and I tried to stay quiet when Percy spoke about his dream. "Well, we know our enemy. But this invisible person..." Annabeth muttered.

"His voice feels familiar, like I should know it." Percy said. Annabeth narrowed her eyes, but quickly masked her emotions. "Niko? You can detect magic, right?" She asked calmly. Well shit. My interference let her get all the facts too early. She had time to process, and now she's considering everything.

She didn't have the chance in the books, and now she had that chance. I nodded carefully. "Grover, put on your actual shoes. Give me the flying shoes." The car was deathly quiet, and Percy was looking between myself and Annabeth, confused.

Grover took them off, passing them to Annabeth, looking somewhere between shocked and confused. "Do your thing. Is there something wrong with them?" She said, passing them to me. I didn't even have to check for enchantments to answer her question, but just to humor her, I closed my eyes, checking the shoes.

There was the enchantment to drag the wearer to Tartarus, which I knew. What I didn't know, though, was that there was a loyalty enchantment. It made the wearer loyal to one person. Luke Castellan. To top that off, there was an enchantment to boost negative emotions, as we saw in the Lotus Casino with the human hunter game.

I opened my eyes, and looked Annabeth in the eyes. "Do you want the answer that makes you feel better, or the truth?" I asked. I knew I had a choice, to tell them or not. This would absolutely stop any "truce" from happening between myself and Kronos, and put me back in the danger zone.

"The truth." She said, her voice cracking a little. "These shoes were enchanted to drag the intended wearer to Tartarus. Likely to give Zeus' bolt to our enemy, since Percy was supposed to wear them. There's a loyalty enchantment, making the wearer loyal to the person who enchanted it. There's also an enchantment boosting negative emotions, explaining why Grover was so... unhinged, back in the casino." I explained.

Annabeth laughed, almost in disbelief. She knew who gave us the shoes. She knows that he probably knew what was on them. Then she started crying. "It's not possible. He promised to be family." She croaked. She looked up to me. "This is some cruel joke, right?" She demanded, her eyes portraying how hurt she really was by this.

"Annabeth, I can show you when we get to the Underworld. I'll let these out, and see if they'll do as intended." A look of understanding passed over Percy's face. "Luke." He said solemnly, looking at me for confirmation.

I could only nod. I placed my hand on the crying girl's back, rubbing circles as I activated Serenity Inducement, hoping it would help her. I mean, I really don't know how to handle someone crying aside from using Serenity Inducement. She sniffled. "I just...I can't believe he'd..." She stumbled on her words.

"He never did like the gods, Annabeth. I know you care for him. I know that this information won't change anything. But the Fates dealt him his cards, and he's using them. If you want to sit out for the rest of this quest, take the sidelines, that's fine. I can try and convince my mother to take you in until this is over. There's no shame in it. Things like this always hurt, and I'm sorry you have to suffer the consequences of his actions like this." I told her, in an attempt to comfort her.

She shook her head. "I can't back out now." She said, wiping her eyes. Serenity Inducement seemed to do its work well, thankfully. "I'd feel terrible for leaving you three behind." She decided. I was surprised at her choice of words. I half expected some prideful remark, empty words of how we'd be lost without her, because she took her Athenian pride very seriously.

"You've grown, Annabeth. The Annabeth I knew would insist on Luke being innocent, and even if offered to stay on the sidelines, she'd give some remark on how we'd be lost without your superior knowledge. And you know what? We would be lost. I may be smart, but you're levelheaded, and handle things better than myself or Percy ever could." I sent Percy an apologetic glance, and Annabeth smiled.

"I don't know about you, but that Annabeth seems like she preferred some stupid boy over her unyielding wit." She said weakly, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

The rest of the drive went smoothly. By sunset, we were at the beach in Santa Monica. We stepped out of the cab, and we walked towards the surf. Percy, however, went deeper. I felt a pull, like a strange tug in my gut, almost like a fishing rod hooked me by the belly button, and was pulling me with Percy.

"What are you two doing?" Annabeth called out. "We'll be right back." I promised her. Percy gave me a weird glance, pretty clearly saying 'Dude, you can't breathe underwater. You're gonna drown.' The look I sent back just said 'So what?'

My hydrokinesis, as limited as it may be sometimes, fortunately allowed me to make a bubble around me, that I could navigate alongside Percy. Percy walked, and I floated by him, and it felt like maybe ten minutes passed before we were interrupted. It was hard to see, but fortunately, my magic allowed me to feel around me.

There was some kind of shark rubbing against Percy. It offered its fin, and he grabbed on. The two of them sped away, and a dolphin came up to my bubble. It chattered, sending an almost human grin at me, before it started pushing me towards our destination. I was rolling around in my bubble like a guinea pig who tripped while running on one of those wheel things.

It was honestly embarrassing. The water cleared up, the further we went, and finally, we arrived, and I saw Percy busting out in laughter at the sight of me and my dolphin friend. "Percy Jackson. Nikomedes Arcus-Lupin." I internally groaned at the second usage of my full name this entire quest. I tried so hard to keep it secret, and for what? What kind of scrying powers do these fuckers have, to where they can just know my full name?

A Nereid emerged from the chasm in front of us, and she smiled at us. First at Percy, then at me.

"The two of you have come far. Well done. Lord Poseidon sends his regards, and his thanks, Nikomedes. He has seen how you've hastened this quest, and has promised a reward once this has finished." She informed me. Percy bowed, a little hesitantly.

"You're the woman who spoke to me in the Mississippi River." Percy said dumbly. I don't blame him. This Nereid looked strikingly similar to his mother. I'm not sure what this says about Poseidon, and I'm not sure I wanted to know.

"Yes, child. I am a Nereid, a spirit of the sea. It was not easy to appear so far upriver, but the naiads, my freshwater cousins, helped sustain my life force. They honor Lord Poseidon, though they do not serve in his court." She told him. "You serve in Poseidon's court?" I asked curiously. She nodded, smiling at me.

"It has been many years since a child of the sea god was born. We have watched you with great interest, Percy Jackson." She said warmly. I glanced at Percy, and he seemed to make a connection in his mind. "If my father is so interested in me, why isn't he here? Why doesn't he speak to me?" Percy asked, a little coldly.

"Ma'am, if I may?" I asked. She nodded, and I turned to Percy. "Perce, your dad's been busy, between the accusations from Zeus, not to mention his own kingdom. Then there are laws that even gods have to follow, too. We're never really told them, but gods aren't supposed to interfere in our day-to-day lives. I swear, as someone who's met him, he wishes regularly he could meet his son. He cares, and it hurts him, knowing he left you and Sally alone." I told Percy, a little sadly.

I couldn't help but understand Poseidon's pain. I was tossed into another universe, and I left my friends behind. I left them alone, and I'd give anything to have them back.

The Nereid opened her palm, revealing three pearls. "Why only three?" Percy asked. "We have four questers."

"I believe Nikomedes has business to tend to with the Lord of the Dead. He has transportation by other means, as well. As for the three of you, you will need the pearls." She gave him an honestly boring lecture about his future. I zoned out of it entirely.

"What will happen?" Percy asked, snapping me out of it. "That depends on the need." She tells him. "But remember: what belongs to the sea will always return to the sea."

"What about the warning? What gifts?" He asked her. "I believe your friend has already provided you the answers you seek. Go with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all. Hades feeds on doubt and hopelessness. He will trick you if he can, make you mistrust your own judgment. Once you are in his realm, he will never willingly let you leave. Keep faith. Good luck, Percy Jackson." She told him, disappearing in a burst of green mist.