AN: Hey guys sorry about the long wait I had a lot on my plate and I've got some exciting news! As of November 1st my book, The Kumari Chronicles: realm of magic, that I've spent years writing is finally out for sale. I also put out another shorter book filled with three short stories called the lost tales of the Kumari Verse: Volume one. Getting to this point has taken a lot of time and effort and I thank all of you for being so patient with me. As a reward I'm going to try and get at least two more chapters out for this story before the year is over.

Chapter 58

Percy POV

Nico and I had met with Bianca as planned and then shadow traveled to a small suburban home. I found the idea that this place would somehow help me survive the river Styx rather unlikely, that is until Nico explained that this is where Luke's mother lived.

After speaking with her I felt I understood Luke a bit better. Being stuck at home with a parent that isn't completely coherent and seemingly abandoned by your other parent had to have been hard. And then reaching camp only to find out that said parent was likely to never see you for more than a few minutes at a time must've just felt like a knife straight to the chest.

Not for the first time I felt like I had been unusually blessed by my parents. I had been able to see them often even if it was a great risk to my father. There were many times when I asked myself why I was so blessed when other demigods were not but that didn't matter right now.

Now I felt we had stumbled upon the secret to swimming in the river Styx. For reasons unknown to me many things of the godly world had an order to them that needed to happen like a tradition that had to be upheld otherwise it would not work. Such things like how both the Titan council and then the Olympian Council both had 12 members, nevermore never less. Or like how the primordial god of the sky was overthrown by his six sons and then the titan of time was overthrown by his six children. There seemed to be a pattern to it all and the pattern must be followed for things to work properly.

In this case I needed to follow in Achilles footsteps to a T which meant I needed to get my mothers permission to swim in the river.

"Are you ready for the jump?" Nico asked

"As ready as I'll ever be." I replied. Shadow travel was honestly one of the coolest things I'd ever experienced. Like I was riding a roller coaster in the dark and could only feel the turns as we took them.

After a brief moment we were deposited in an alleyway not far from my mom's apartment but still a longer walk than I would have liked.

"Couldn't we have just gone straight there?" I asked as we walked.

"It's not exactly easy to control where we show up when traveling like that." Bianca said while Nico just gave me an exhausted glare.

"We almost never show up exactly where we want to and going somewhere above ground level is harder. Underground tunnels are the easiest but given that the subway system is so common here that probably wouldn't be a great idea." She said

I nodded in understanding and decided it was best that I not say any more. Besides there were other things I needed to worry about, like how I was going to convince my mom to let me swim. I know she's technically a clear sighted mortal but there were times I found myself questioning that notion.

Oftentimes she seemed to know more about what was happening than she let on. Usually it was occasional slips that could be passed off as Annabeth or I having brought it up previously and forgotten about it. However, the more I thought about it the more inconsistencies I noticed.

I didn't think my mother was working for the titans, not with how close her and dad were but clearly they were keeping things from me and I needed to know what that was.

Reaching the door I let the three of us inside.

"Mom" I called into the silence. When no one replied I called again with the same result.

"Could she be working late or something?" Bianca asked.

"I don't think so" I said slowly "if she was working then the lights wouldn't be on and I wouldn't be able to smell coffee."

"Maybe she's taking a nap." Nico offered " I know I could use one."

Walking a bit further in I found my mother sitting on the couch with a book in her hands and a mug of coffee on the end table next to her.

At first glance one might have guessed she was simply deeply immersed in her book but I wasn't so sure. She looked tense as if she was ready to fight at a moment's notice and her eyes, while focused on the page, weren't moving. It was like she had been frozen in time.

"Mom," I said again, stepping towards her.

"Hmm" was her response, barely even moving save for her breathing.

"Are you okay?" I asked, more than a little worried about her behavior.

"I'm fine Percy, there's just…a lot of things that I'm dealing with right now." She replied.

Still something felt off so I squinted, trying to see if there was some kind of foreign aura affecting her. I'd seen it before with Ares and a handful of times at camp I'd been able to see the aura of a curse on a camper.

The effort proved fruitless however as my mother appeared the same as she always had.

Sighing, I took a seat in a chair next to the couch.

"Mom, I need to ask you something."

"And what's that?" She asked, seemingly distracted by her book.

"May I swim in the river Styx?" I asked.

"Yes of course."

"I know it might be dan - did you just say yes?" I nearly yelled.

"Yes, water should make you stronger so I see no reason why you should not go for a swim if you feel you need it." She said calmly, never once looking up from her book.

I was honestly stunned at how easily she agreed to it. I thought for sure it would be a long conversation bordering on argument level before my mother would even think of agreeing to this. But as I stared at her I realized that she wasn't fully here with me. I didn't understand how or why but something else held her focus and that was why she gave me her permission.

I wanted to stay and find out what was going on but I decided now wasn't the time. I'd gotten what I needed and it wouldn't do me any good to screw it up now. I sent a quick prayer to my father asking him to keep an eye on her and then the three of us left.

"Is she going to be okay?" Nico asked.

"Honestly I don't know, I've never seen her like this."

"It kinda looks like what happened to Luke's mother." Bianca said as we left the apartment.

"It's not, whatever happened to her was caused by an external source, I could see the remnants of whatever it was lingering on her. As for my mother I can't find anything like that which hopefully means she'll be fine so long as we can stop the titans. Now you think one of you could transport us to the underworld?"

"Not a chance after all the jumps we've made we both need rest." Bianca said. "Besides, our father has a thing about people popping in and out of the underworld whenever they want. We can do it because we're his kids but trying to bring others with us would certainly draw attention and considering you most likely want to avoid that we'll need to use one of the other doors."

"Please tell me we don't have to go all the way to California." I whined not wanting to go on yet another crazy cross country trip.

Nico shook his head "There's supposed to be one in Central Park. That one was made by some musician who wanted his wife back."

"His name was Orpheus Nico and she was his fiancé not his wife." Bianca corrected.

"Does it even matter? He created a permanent door to our father's realm with just his musical talent."

Deciding to stay out of it I let them argue/lead the way until we reached a rather unremarkable hillside in the park.

"All right so how do we get in?" I asked.

"We need music to open it but first I need a nap." Nico said laying out on the grass. An action that was quickly followed by his sister.

"Really?" I deadpanned.

"Yes really!" Bianca snapped "We've been jumping all over the place for the last two days with little rest so yes we need a nap!"

"But why didn't you say so back at my home, you know? You could have slept in an actual bed."

The two children of the underworld fixed me with a glare that screamed frustration as realization dawned on them.

"Nothing we can do about it now. I'm too tired to go back." Nico said, closing his eyes.

I spared them a glance before looking out to the horizon. Something was coming, I could feel it and it was coming fast. The Olympians, minus my father, were currently fighting Typhon halfway across the country and if they couldn't stop him we had a week at best before the storm giant arrived. If Kronos was as smart as I thought he was he'd be attacking as soon as possible.

This needed to work because if it didn't there wasn't time for anything else.