Since I had been to an aquarium before I roughly remembered what they were supposed to feel, smell and sound like. This time, however, I was on edge wand hyper aware of everything around me like never before. Everything was a potential threat. Especially the suspicious tour guide who had walked right up to us in the first place, though she sounded rather chipper and cheerful for a monster. "Right this way. It's a wonderful exhibit. You won't be disappointed. So rare we get VIPs." Percy asked the woman if she meant demigods when she said VIPs, though she gave no answer but I did hear a very tiny giggle. Maybe she thought it was a dumb questions. "So over here is the cold-water experience, with your penguins and beluga whales and whatnot. And over there…well, those are some fish, obviously." Having now stepped inside the aquarium, I was suddenly bombarded with sounds and voices that came from every direction. It hit me so suddenly that I had grabbed onto the nearest person in order to steady myself and was grateful that Frank was so sturdy. He spoke my name in a confusing and questioning tone but seemed to register that I was uneasy about something so lifted his hand in order to help straighten me up and support me as I adjusted, working to tune out all the thousands of voices that called out until they were little more than soft whisperings in the back of my mind like a tiny orchestra of sounds.
"Thanks Frank."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, the fish are just really chatty. Come on, let's not get left behind." Thankfully Percy hadn't seen that little episode, otherwise he'd be fussing over me all over again. I appreciated that Frank didn't pester or start to coddle me, merely made sure that I was able to stand on my own before making a point of walking next to me so that I could use his shoulder again if I needed, though he did ask about what I meant with the fish. "Oh, I can hear sea creatures like Percy and I can hear horses."
"That's cool, can't Percy hear them too?"
"He probably could if he concentrated, though he's always been a bit of a scatterbrain so maybe not. It's not like they speak, like Blackjack and Snowstorm, but rather…I don't know, I get impressions from them, or maybe I just know how to speak their languages." Now I could hear Frank grinning.
"You speak goldfish?" To this I elbowed him in the side, making him laugh a little which was nice because beforehand he had always been so stiff around me. I think Frank was just naturally incredibly shy. Our tour guide – who was apparently named Kate according to Percy – showed us around though she seemed to know nothing about the actual fish. We passed through what I deemed to be a shop, judging from the sounds of kids demanding sweets and toys from their parents as well as the voices of the fish being more muted. Kate told us to take what we wanted from the clearance section and Frank paused for a short moment before beginning to grab things and stuff them into his backpack as I listened. He seemed to go for clothes, mostly. Percy questioned what he was doing, because it didn't seem right to just take stuff, but Frank wasn't going to pass up the offer of free things. "She said I could. Besides, I need more clothes. I didn't pack for a long trip!" He must have grabbed some other things too, because he started to ask what one thing was, and I was probably more shocked than anyone that Percy could answer.
"Chinese handcuffs." Clearly Annabeth had been rubbing off on him. I turned my head away from them both and listened to Coach Hedge sniffing at something.
"Coach, you better not be sniffing out the toys and thinking about eating them."
"But they look tasty!"
"I don't need images of you biting off a penguin's head in my imagination. Move along, we'll find you something less cute to snack on." Ushering him away from the toys, Kate called for us to come along so we continued following her despite the fact that this probably wasn't the most sensible thing to do since we had no idea where she was taking us. We entered what I could only assume was some kind of tunnel, because the space felt long and narrow but I could sense the water around us, surrounding me on all sides with the voices and crooning of fish and sea creatures coming from all directions. I couldn't help but pause and press my hand against the side of the tunnel whereby I immediately sensed the fish begin to gather, chattering excitedly and whispering to one another about the child of Poseidon they could see. Then they told me to run. Run whilst I still could. This dampened the moment a little so I pulled my hand away, frowning slightly before turning my attention back towards Kate. We really didn't have any choice but to follow. If Phorcys was here then we needed to find him. So despite the warning from the fish, I carried on forwards.
Next we came to an open area with a giant tank where I could not sense the whale sharks behind the glass, making me move over and once again press my hand against the window. There were two that I could sense in there and both started to move towards me, drawn to where I was standing and I allowed their voices to drift into my mind. They were so gentle that I wanted to dive right into the water to swim with them, to float by their side and listen to their quiet lulling voices that seemed to almost sing in harmony with one another. They were singing to me, saying hello. I smiled and hummed back, trying to communicate with them and they seemed to understand. At least, that's the impression I got. In just a few moments I seemed to know everything about these two whale sharks and as I listened to their soft singing, I pitied them for being trapped. They held no memory of the ocean, having known nothing but this tank for as long as they could remember so they did not pine for the open seas because they did not know anything different. How could a creature who had lived its life in captivity ever know it was trapped? I wanted to tell them all about the sea, but I felt that if I gave them an image of a vast ocean that they could never explore would be more cruel then kind, so instead I wished them a long and peaceful life together before drawing away.
Having been distracted by the sharks themselves I had missed most of the conversation between Kate and the others until I heard Frank speak up. "The only whale sharks in captivity in the world. That's kind of amazing." He said though I fired a dark look in Kate's direction.
"That's kind of cruel." I corrected, because it was cruel. Creatures like these should be in their natural habitat, not stuck circling a fish tank for their entire lives just so people could come and stare at them before moving on. Kate completely dismissed what I had said.
"Yes, and these are small. You should see some of my other babies out in the wild."
"Your babies?" Now Frank sounded nervous, gulping loudly. Clearly I wasn't the only person who had had enough of this crappy tour, because Percy came right out and asked Kate about Phorcys and whether Kate knew him.
"Know him? He's my brother. That's where we're going, sillies. The real exhibits are right through here." I dreaded to find out what other exhibits could be hidden away only for supposed VIP customers, but at least we now knew we were in the right place. I stood still for a while, uncertain of what was going on until Percy lightly pulled at my hand to lead me in the direction of a wall which had suddenly lost its solidness, letting me pass straight through it into open space when I had been sure that only a few seconds ago there had been no exit. I really hate this place. Still, I couldn't help but be curious about what kind of exhibits a couple of ancient gods had put together, so I allowed my sight to return and looked up in order to see for myself. Now I'll admit, I was transfixed by the giant jellyfish that floated overhead, all of them brightly coloured and moving like clouds through water. The only thing that ruined the image was the fact that one of them was currently snacking on its meal. "You see? Forget the whale sharks! And there's much more." After that, everything went downhill. Everywhere I looked I saw more and more tanks with creatures that caused a red fire to burn hotly within me out of pure, indignant rage. Especially when I saw the hippocampi, because they definitely shouldn't be trapped here. To see these usually playful and wonderful creatures trapped in a tank which was honestly too small for their size and needs, I wanted to shatter the glass right there and then.
"This is wrong!" I hissed sharply, pressing my hand against the glass but none of the hippocampi answered me. It were as if their minds had completely faded away. "So wrong. They should be free, not trapped here!" When I turned around, I almost screamed the place down. There were a pair of Nereids in another tank, also trapped like the hippocampi, being displayed like prizes for people to see and admire but they too had lost their spirit which meant that they looked nothing like the Nereids I knew. My hand immediately went to the pearls around my wrist, physically restraining myself from grabbing Amaryllis and just levelling the entire place.
"How can you keep them here?"
"I know." Kate gave a long and wistful sigh that did not possess a single ounce of sadness for their condition and treatment. "They aren't very interesting. We tried to teach them some tricks, but with no luck, I'm afraid. I think you'll like this tank over here much better." I did not. There were sea serpents and a giant squid as well as Telkhines that were kept under sedation just so that they didn't break free of their own tank. The more I saw the more I hated the place and already I was concocting a plan to come back here and liberate all of these poor creatures and somehow get them back into the ocean. I don't care if I have to beg the Hephaestus cabin to build me a flying tank, I wanted these creatures out into the ocean where they naturally belonged. Even the sea serpents. Percy was getting just as agitated as I was, especially after Kate noted that we should already know all the information she was tossing around because we were Poseidon's children. He demanded to know who she was and whether or not Kate stood for something, however this seemed to confuse Kate until she looked down at her own nametag and laughed. "Kate? Oh…no, it's…"
"Hello!" I whirled around at the sound of a sudden voice coming through the loudspeakers, only to almost vomit when I saw this grotesque little creature who I couldn't decide was more human than crab. Either way, he was hideous and I immediately closed my eyes and went back to being blind just so that I didn't have to look at his face. "Visitors! Welcome to Phorcys's Follies!" This introduction was followed by a plain silence, where I guess something was meant to happen because Phorcys – at least I'm assuming the mutant crab was Phorcys – started to grumble. "Curse it. Telkhines, that's your cue! I wave my hands, and you leap energetically in your tank, do a synchronised double spin and land in pyramid formation. We practiced this!" My brow furrowed darkly.
"Maybe energetic isn't exactly on the table for them since you keep them sedated." I suggested dryly, though my comment seemed to come as a surprised to Phorcys who turned his attention to me.
"You think so? I hadn't thought of that." Frank and Percy both very wisely grabbed hold of both my arms because I was fully prepared to use my cane to beat the crap out of Phorcys right there and then. Coach Hedge was less deterred and in fact seemed to be the only person in the room unfazed by the cruel treatment of these creatures and living beings as I heard him compliment Phorcys on his outfit, though by the way I heard him sniff at it I guess he was considering it as a snack more than a wardrobe choice. "Thank you! I am Phorcys."
"Why does your suit say Porky?" This was clearly a sore subject that Frank probably shouldn't have brought up because Phorycs cursed again and blamed the mislabelled nametags on the uniform company, Kate also supplying that she had told them her name was Keto but instead they had sent her a nametag that said Kate instead, hence the mix up in names. Quite honestly these two sounded ridiculous for old sea gods or monsters, whatever they were, and I remained thoroughly unimpressed when Phorcys attempted to start the next part of his stupid show by introducing us to the giant squid, who clearly had a bad case of stage fright.
"Curse it! Keto, training the squid was your job. Juggling, I said. Maybe a bit of flesh rending for the finale. Is that too much to ask?" I got the feeling Phorcys cursed a lot.
"He's shy. Besides, each of his tentacles has sixty-two razor-like barbs that have to be sharpened daily." Keto excused before her voice became clearer as she turned back towards us. "Did you know the monstrous squid is the only beast known to eat demi-gods whole, armour and all, without getting indigestion? It's true!" The siblings argued once again, Phorcys protesting that no one was here to be lectured about monsters despite Keto's protests, and as they bickered I leaned towards where I sensed Percy so that I could whisper to him under my breath as Phorcys made his next announcement for the show.
"We don't argue like that, do we?"
"Gods I hope not." He whispered back as I sensed him lean towards me. "Let's make a promise never to become like them, okay sis?"
"Deal." Raising my fist, I felt Percy bump his against mine to seal the deal which I had a feeling we would have no problems keeping. If ever we turn out like a crab-like psycho and a total monster nerd arguing with one another on a daily basis, I think I would just let the giant squid eat me. With a hiss of smoke I could then smell a strong scent of doughnuts in the air which only make me hungry. Those Monster Doughnuts were admittedly amazing and the best I'd ever had. I wouldn't mind getting some more at the concession stand as Phorcys advised us that they were available after the show. I wonder how long they kept? I'd love to get some for Tyson, I know they're one of his favourites too, especially the chocolate frosted ones.
"But you've spent your hard-earned denarii and drachmae to get the VIP tour and so you shall! Come with me!"
"Um, hold it." Percy finally interrupted and I was glad he did, because otherwise I might very well reach the point where I bring out Amaryllis and just vaporise both Phorcys and his sister so that I could liberate their captives and prisoners. Having paused in his clattering walk, I listened as Phorcys turned back to my brother with a query of what he wanted. "You're a sea god, aren't you? Son of Gaia?" This was apparently not a great thing to start with as Phorcys gave a longwinded sigh that sounded a little edgy and annoyed to me.
"Five thousand years, and I'm still known as Gaia's little boy. Never mind that I'm one of the oldest sea gods in existence. Older than your upstart father, by the way. I'm god of the hidden depths! Lord of water terrors! Father of a thousand monsters! But, no…nobody even knows me. I make one little mistake, supporting the Titans in their war, and I'm exiled from the ocean – to Atlanta, of all places."
"We thought the Olympians said Atlantis. Their idea of a joke, I guess, sending us here instead." Keto added though I held not one ounce of sympathy for either of them. Percy asked Keto if she too was a goddess, and this seemed to brighten her up. "Keto, yes! Goddess of sea monsters, naturally! Whales, sharks, squids and other giant sea life, but my heart always belonged to the monsters. Did you know that young sea serpents can regurgitate the flesh of their victims and keep themselves fed for up to six years on the same meal? It's true!" I get the feeling this would be a terrible time to tell Keto that I'd killed several sea serpents with the Siren, because then I would probably become the next meal of one of her sea monsters. Coach Hedge, being the insane goat that he was, found that last fact to be utterly fascinating and even asked Keto how a killer squid tore the flesh from its victims like he was looking for professional advice on how to do it himself. Next time, we're leaving the goat on the boat. Keto sounded enthralled to have someone take an interest but Phorcys cut them off before they could diverge into the gory details, something I was mildly grateful for.
"Stop! You're ruining the show! Now, witness our Nereid gladiators fight to the death!" Thankfully the Nereids seemed to have no interest in fighting one another as I heard no sound of swords beginning to clash, Phorycs once again cursing. You'd think he'd be able to figure out by now that his show was never going to work when he kept creatures, monsters and beings locked up when they were supposed to be out in the open wilds.
"Don't mind Porky. He's such a windbag. Come with me, my fine satyr. I'll show you full-colour diagrams of the monsters' hunting habits." And that was how we lost our supposed 'guardian' satyr, who willingly followed the goddess of sea monsters where for all he knew she was planning on feeding him to something. In truth, I doubt Coach Hedge would have minded, he'd have fought whatever monster to the death just for the sake of it. He really wasn't anything like other satyrs I knew. Grover grew nervous just thinking about monsters. Phorcys must have seen the nervous expressions on our faces, as he spoke to us brightly in reassurance which actually only made us feel worse.
"Oh, it's fine! Keto might be a little boring, but she'll take good care of your friend. And, honestly, the best part of the tour is still to come!"
"I seriously doubt it." I muttered under my breath, but if Phorcys heard me then the made no comment about it as Percy gave me a little nudge with his elbow which told me to shut up if I didn't want to aggravate the ancient sea god who apparently had been around a lot longer than our dad. Honestly? I'd love to bring dad here then just sit back and watch as he tore the place apart out of pure outrage. Now that would be a show I'd pay to see.
"So…Dionysus sent us here." Percy began though Frank corrected him that it was technically Bacchus. "Right. The wing god. Whatever. Bacchus said you might know what your mom Gaia is up to, and these twin giant brothers of yours – Ephialtes and Otis. And if you happen to know anything about this Mark of Athena…"
"Bacchus thought I would help you?" Judging from the tone of surprise, I think we can safely guess that Phorcys wasn't going to be exactly forthcoming with the information we needed. Percy seemed to have everything under control, though, I mean by this point he was quite the expert at tricking and talking down monsters.
"Well, yeah. I mean, you're Phorcys. Everybody talks about you." This piqued Phorcys's interest.
"They do?" I didn't need Percy to pass the hint to play along, so I forced the sweetest smile onto my face and talked with a voice full of sugar and honey.
"Of course they do! I mean, you're Phorcys! I'm a huge fan, being an ancient sea god of monsters and hidden depths…it's totally my thing. I'm a daughter of Poseidon after all, how can I not be your fan? I've been trying to keep my cool this whole time but I don't think I can hide it any longer." I garbled whilst fanning my face like I was hot from blushing, even giggling a little as both Frank and Percy just stared at me. I could feel their disgusted looks so I stepped on one of their toes to remind them that we had a job to do here and there was no way I was going to do all the work making a fool of myself. "When I first heard about you, I knew I just had to meet you to see if what people say about you was true."
"People talk about me? What do they say?" Cue in Frank, with a little nudge to start him talking.
"Well, you have great pyrotechnics. And a good announcer's voice. And, um, a disco ball…"
"It's true!" I struggle to understand how the disco ball thing was what made Phorcys happiest but if he's rolling with the façade then I wasn't going to question it. I continued to smile and nod my head in agreement like owning a disco ball was the coolest thing in the world. "I also have the largest collection of captive sea monsters in the world!"
"Oh! So brave." I fluttered my hand at my face again, swooning slightly as Phorcys chuckled and clicked what I assumed were his massive crabby pincers together.
"And you know stuff. Like about the twins and what they're up to."
"The twins!" With this outburst I heard something go off like fireworks or something, emphasising Phorycs's tone. "Yes, I know all about Ephialtes and Otis. Those wannabes! They never fitted in with the other giants. Too puny – and those snakes for feet." Both Percy and I repeated that last part, disconcerted to think that soon we would have to face a pair of giants with snakes for feet of all things. I was starting to think Medusa had the right idea about snakes. "Yes, yes, they knew they couldn't get by on their strength, so they decided to go for drama – illusions, stage tricks, that sort of thing. You see, Gaia shaped her giant children with specific enemies in mind. Each giant was born to kill a certain god. Ephialtes and Otis…well, together they were sort of the anti-Dionysus." Huh. Well I'll be. In that case I'm not too fussed on destroying those giants if they could give old Mr D a run for his money. Maybe a healthy butt-kicking might make him a little nicer to demigods if it meant we'd save the day for him. Though I doubted it.
"So…they want to replace all wine with cranberry juice or something?"
"Nothing like that! Ephialtes and Otis always wanted to do things better, flashier, more spectacular! Oh, of course they wanted to kill Dionysus. But first they wanted to humiliate him by making his revelries look tame!" Now Frank questioned what Phorcys meant by this, asking if they planned on using fireworks and disco balls only for Phorcys to give a rather horrible sounding snigger. "Exactly! I taught the twins everything they know, or at least I tried to. They never listened. Their first big trick? They tried to reach Olympus by piling mountains on top of one another. It was just an illusion, of course. I told them it was ridiculous. 'You should start small,' I said. 'Sawing each other in half, pulling gorgons out of a hat. That sort of thing. And matching sequined outfits. Twins need those!'"
"My, what a shame they didn't listen to you." I sympathised though it made me physically sick to do so. "I agree, completely ridiculous. Piling up mountains to reach Olympus? Please. Totally old school. Do they still do the same old tricks where they are now? Where was that again…?"
"Oh, they're preparing for their doomsday show in Rome," Phorcys happily supplied as I smiled at him again. "It's one of Mother's silly ideas. They're keeping some prisoner in a large bronze jar." My gut suddenly felt like I'd swallowed ice water. Nico. They must have Nico in that jar. "You're a son of Ares, aren't you? You've got that smell. The twins imprisoned your father the same way, once." Initially Frank automatically corrected Phorcys that he was technically a child of Mars and not Ares before registering what he had said about his dad being trapped in a jar by twin giants. "Yes, another stupid stunt. How can you show off your prisoner if he's in a bronze jar? No entertainment value. Not like my lovely specimens!" For a moment we were silent, processing the information that Phorcys was practically spoon feeding us. I rubbed my head, feeling a little unsteady as my thoughts began to slow down. I didn't like it here. It was too unnatural and the treatment of the creatures weighed against me, their addled minds somehow affecting mine and I sensed Percy was experiencing the same thing I was. Frank tentatively offered me his shoulder to lean against.
"You said this-this doomsday show was Gaia's idea?" My brother questioned, trying to get more information out of the old crab before he could catch onto what we were doing.
"Well…Mother's plans always have lots of layers. The earth has layers! I suppose that makes sense." Unhelpful, really, and pretty obvious, so Percy prompted Phorycs to reveal more. "Oh, she's put out a general bounty on some group of demigods. She doesn't really care who kills them, as long as they're killed. Well, I take that back. She was very specific that two must be sparred. One boy and one girl. Tartarus knows why. At any rate, the twins have their little show planned, hoping it will lure these demigods to Rome. I suppose the prisoner in the far is a friend of theirs or some such. That, or perhaps they think this group of demigods will be foolish enough to come into their territory searching for the Mark of Athena."
"So foolish." I agreed though I spoke rather dreamily, struggling to focus on everything Phorycs was saying. I was already pinching myself to wake myself up and the sharp pain did help a little, allowing me to shake off the lethargic feeling somewhat. "Wow, you really do know everything. You're amazing Phorcys, I feel like I could ask you questions all day and you'd always know the answer. Here's one, why would it be foolish for a random group of demigods to go looking for the Mark of Athena? I'll be impressed if you know this one!"
"Oh that's easy, daughter of Poseidon. Because they'd never make it to Rome alive! Especially without the map in Charleston. It would be a futile effort." Now that part I did register, though Frank seemed to take it a little too directly and raised his voice as if to try and help us understand that he'd realised that Phorcys had given us a really important clue.
"Yes, the MAP IN CHARLESTON!" Frank really was a sweetheart, but at the same time, he was sometimes a little simple. I almost smacked my face like they do in the cartoons whenever someone says or does something stupid. Gods bless him, please don't let this mean that Phorcys catches onto what we were doing. For the moment, I think we got away with it.
"But enough of the boring educational stuff! You've paid for the VIP treatment. Won't you please let me finish the tour? The three denarii and drachmae entrance fee is non-refundable, you know." With a promise that we could ask questions afterwards, we agreed to see the rest of the show, though I stayed blind because I didn't want to see any other locked up and lifeless sea creatures. Phorcys called for us to follow him, though he specifically said to 'walk this way' which Frank took a little too literally, it seemed, as Percy had to tell him it was a figure of speech. Simple, but sweet. The kind of guy I wanted to protect and shield like I did Percy. In fact, Frank reminded me in some ways of Tyson with his simple logic and manner of thinking. I led the way forwards, marking the sounds of Phorycs in order to guide my path whilst taking a deep breath so that I could prepared for whatever came next, because honestly? I fully expected there to be a trap at the end of this.