A lot of his magic is based on Rowena and the Plum Sisters, I loved the Hex bags... it feels like a good medium for his lack of raw power.
Argus drove them out of the countryside and into western Long Island. All the while, Aaron was monitoring the magic of Riptide, Percy's magical blade. "This is amazing, it is so powerful and it has an immensely strong, divine essence. This holds god power, Percy, true god power. I am guessing, but it should augment your power. By a lot actually, focus your powers, channel them to a greater whole. Chiron did you a severe favor handing you this."
Percy beamed. "That is awesome, thank your Chiron!"
"Right! Annabeth, can I see your hat?" To his shock, the girl hesitantly handed him her hat. He smiled when it touched his skin, and he immediately he knew how it worked. "Wow, I can replicate this, I can sort of taste the spell... it's hard to describe, but recent exposure to more magic has helped me with that sort of thing. Invisbilis, if I said that with enough focus I would be invisible. Thank you, love."
She nodded as he handed him back the hat, which she carefully put into her pocket. "It's okay, my mom gave it me for my twelfth birthday."
"It is a fantastic gift, if you are as smart as they say, you are going to be a real threat." That made her blush.
After about ten or so more minutes, Percy turned and said. "So far so good, Ten miles and not a single monster."
She gave him an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."
"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?"
"I don't hate you."
"Could've fooled me."
She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."
"Why?"
She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."
"They must really like olives."
"Oh, forget it."
"Now, if she'd invented pizza—that I could understand."
"I said, forget it!"
"Enough you two!" They both froze at Aaron's command. "Annabeth, you are not your mother. Posiden's gift was just as good, and there was a cost to losing it trust me. If you separate water and Salt, you get quite a bit of good things for medicine, food and magic. As for the girlfriend in temple thing, your mother's reaction was just plain evil so she is no better than Poseidon. Lastly, why worship Athens when they were profoundly abusive to women? They were all but slaves, starved on the second floor?"
Annabeth gaped, clearly not used to being challenged. Her face changed, however, and he saw fear in her eyes, tears prickling. After a moment she said, whispered. "We are taught... young, to never question my mother... that she is the best at everything. That she is always right." She did not say she was scared, but the tone was there and it set both Aaron and Percy on edge.
Aaron actually started to shake. 'Athena is abusive, who would have guessed... literally anyone that knew anything about that bitch. Persephone, if you can over this girl and her family even a sliver of hope, please do that...' He wasn't sure how that worked, but he hoped that his patron would and could do something...
:::
Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time they got into Manhattan, it was sunset.
Argus dropped them at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?
Aaron grabbed Percy's arm as he tore it down. "He won't harm you, ever again Percy. I will personally deliver him to my Patron before he gets the chance."
Percy smiled, warm as a quilt, clearly not used to being put first. "Thank you..."
Argus unloaded their bags, made sure they got their bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch them as he pulled out of the parking lot.
Grover, Aaron noticed, walked over to Percy who was looking down the street. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"
"Were you reading my mind or something?"
"Just your emotions." He shrugged. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"
"Your mom married Gabe for you," Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura…. Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."
"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"
"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."
Aaron grabbed Grover's arm, squeezing hard enough to make him yelp. "Gabe was and is profoundly abusive, Sally chose to get with him instead of putting Percy in a fully safe place. She endangered him for herself, that much Percy admitted to me. That is on her, entirely, he owes no acceptance towards her for that."
Percy gaped, eyes filled with anger and appreciation. "I... I..."
"Percy, you told me she had Camp's number, she chose to get with your Stepfather instead of saving you that agony. No one, no child, deserves that. You deserved infinitely better."
Percy turned away, smiling with eyes wet. "Do you really think so?"
"Always, my friend."
After a while, they got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Well, Aaron, who was used to the streets, didn't, but the others did. He grabbed a spell bag, one that would paralyze his attackers for a small moment, Fool's prison it was called, his strongest offensive spell. Annabeth was unbelievable. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever.
The game ended when Percy tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.
Finally, the bus came. As they stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air.
"What is it?" Percy asked alongside Aaron, though Aaron's tone was far darker.
"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."
After a few minutes they finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. Aaron would not let them stored their bags, saying it was not safe to run off without them.
As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto Percy's knee. "Percy."
An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and Aaron shuddered as waves of immense dark magic filled his heart.
"Holy hell, what is she? I have never felt so much darkness?"
Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise, they looked exactly like her.
They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.
The bus pulled out of the station, and they headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," Percy said. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime." Clearly he knew what they were, so that left only the Furies to Aaron's mind. They had discussed his earlier adventures with them.
"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."
"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"
"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."
"They don't open," Grover moaned.
"A back exit?" she suggested.
There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, they were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.
"They won't attack us with witnesses around," Percy said. "Will they?"
"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."
"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"
She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof ... ?"
They hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet.
Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."
"So do I," said the second sister.
"So do I," said the third sister.
They all started coming down the aisle.
"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."
"What?"
"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."
"But you guys—"
"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."
"I can't just leave you."
"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"
Aaron would have agreed, readying his spell for attack, but he heard Persephone's mind brush across his own. 'Talk to them, my love.' He stood, and moved towards the center of the bus, waving his hand he said. "Nubes colligens, sermonem larva!" He shuddered as a chunk of lifeforce was torn from him, gathering around the bus making the pure mortals go blank-faced as the mist gathered and blocked out the conversation that was about to happen.
The Furies stopped before him... and bowed softly. The leader spoke with an ancient tone. "Child, Champion of my Mistress, we heard of your defense of our lord. Passionate and honorable, we know you to be an ally. We have not come to fight, not anymore. We have decided, through our master, to speak to you instead as the leader of your group. Your quest."
Behind him, he felt the others' fear and shock. "I am listening, sisters."
"The Masterbolt was not all that was stolen, but the Helm of Darkness as well. If Jackson is telling the truth about the Masterbolt, that he never touched it... then we believe his innocence."
"Good... so what now?"
"Our oracles, spirits of power and sight, foresee that you may find the Helm on this quest. We ask that you move forward, and find the path to the Underworld. We were told that you were to enter the woods after this, and so we will stop the bus and you will go down into the woods. Go, with the blessing of our master and know that you are on the right path." She clicked her fingers and the bus stopped. She turned to him for a moment. "You will be rewarded for your defense of our Lord, dear boy. And never forget that as a Champion of Persephone, you hold rights that others lack... now go, go fulfill your destiny."
She and her sisters vanished then, in a swirl of shadows and Mist.
Turning, he gestured to the others. "Let's go."
They all nodded and rushed out of the bus and into the woods. Percy stopped him and said. "That spell, you told me about it before, it masks conversations with the Mist, right?"
"Yup... now quiet, I need to focus on my breathing, that spell was exhausting... "
They hurried on, glad it was not raining since he had Percy swear his innocence to the gods.
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
This was a joy to write.
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.