PERCY
"He's too powerful!" "How?" "So many abilities." And on and on and on.
Holy Hephaestus, they sound just like the Olympian Council. Next thing you know, they'll be voting on whether or not to kill me! Finally I yell, "Everybody, shut up!"
I can tell right away that I accidentally used charmspeak. My voice sounds richer than usual, like a wave flowing over a reef. I can see the elves nodding, agreeing with me without a second thought. Elves are stupid and gullible. Except one of them.
Tam glares at me. "Stop it! Whatever you're doing, quit!"
I act innocent and baffled. "I'm not doing anything." I add a little more charmspeak to my voice. If that convinces him, we're all doomed.
Tam looks confused. "You're not doing anything?" Then he starts to bob his head. "You're not doing anything."
I look up at the sky, exasperated. "We're all doomed."
The elves shake out of their stupor. "What was that?"
"That was charmspeak. It's kind of like super-persuasion. And if you were convinced by that little bit of charmspeak, we're all doomed."
Sophie looks disgruntled. "I'm going to call Mr. Forkle. He needs to know who you are."
I nod, slightly suspicious. It'll be fine. I don't know why, but I trust these kids, and if these kids trust Forkman, I'll trust him to.
Sophie brings out a strange device that kind of looks like a phone. She says, "Show me Mr. Forkle," and I wonder if it's like an IM. She tells it to come over, and a voice comes out of it saying, "Coming, Miss Foster."
Two people come into the room, a man and a woman. They gape at me. "Sophie, is this the one that was bleeding?" Sophie nods.
I sigh. Is that seriously how she introduces people? 'This is the person who bleeds.' 'This is the person who dances in their underpants.' Like, seriously.
I step forward. "Hi. I'm Percy. Percy Jackson. Technically my real name is Perseus, but the only people who call me Perseus are the ones who want to kill me, so if you call me that, I'll assume you want to kill me and then try to kill you first."
They look shocked. What, have they never heard of humor before? "I'm joking."
They relax. The fragile looking woman steps forward. "I'm Edaline."
I give her a once over. She looks like a fragile beauty, but I can sense power and determination. Also sadness. She and her husband have experienced death before.
"I'm Grady." He is more openly powerful, but he is wary of himself like I am. He knows what it's like to be too powerful, and he doesn't want to hurt the people he loves.
I nod at them. "Nice to meet you."
They nod back. Then Grady opens his mouth. "So, we heard what you were saying about your powers. Is that true? You have all of those? How did you get them all?"
"I can't tell you that. I physically cannot tell you." Something churns in me. You could. Just break the oath. You can't die. I shake my head.
Edaline looks confused. "And you healed so quickly. Most people would take at least a week to heal from that damage."
"Did I forget to tell everyone that water heals me?"
"Um… yes."
"Well, water heals me."
Suddenly, an old, wrinkly man appears in the middle of the room. He just shimmers into existence. I scream.
SOPHIE
I laugh as Percy yells. He literally has a sword that turns into a pen, and he's scared of light leaping?
He turns and glares at me. "Not my fault I haven't been around magical people for my entire life."
I raise my hands in surrender. "I just got here fiveish years ago? I haven't been here for my entire life."
"Fine."
I remember why I brought Mr. Forkle here in the first place. I transmit to him 'Could you read Percy's mind please? I promised him I wouldn't if he could beat Sandor in a spar.'
He looks slightly shocked. 'He beat Sandor in a spar?'
'Yep.'
He gives me an almost indiscernible nod. Then he turns around and concentrates.
Percy turns towards Dex. "So, is this Mr. Forkman?"
Dex snorts. "Yeah, this is Mr. Forkle."
Percy shrugs unapologetically. Then, he stiffens. He faces me, fury blazing in his eyes. "You."
That's all he says. Terrifying in its delivery, how quiet and yet how extremely powerful it is. "Get out."
What? Where should I get out of? Is he…? He can't possibly be feeling Mr. Forkle in his head. Even I can't do that.
"You promised you would get out of my head. You promised if I won, you wouldn't invade my privacy. You have three seconds. Three. Two. One." He pulls out a dagger and launches himself at me. Suddenly he stops in midair.
He swivels his head, his eyes landing on Grady's face. "You," he breathes again, not in anger, but in joy and disbelief, "You're like me. But you can control it." He inhales deeply, then says, "I'll talk to you later, now let me go." Grady shakes his head. Percy's eyes harden. "Let me go." Grady's eyes glaze over and he releases control of Percy's body.
Percy lands on the floor and walks up to me. "Tell me you're not reading my mind."
"I'm not reading your mind."
He nods, then looks around the room. His hurricane eyes land on Mr Forkle, and in a flash, he's next to him. "Get out of my head."
"Mr. Jackson, I am not reading your mind."
Percy's eyes look like they could drown all of Eternalia by letting out the storm inside them. "The only way you could know my last name is if you were a monster or if you are reading my mind. Also, as you probably know, I can tell if someone is lying to me. So you are going to get out of my head right now, or I will flood this house."
"Fine. I'm leaving."
Percy raises his eyebrow. "You realize I can still feel you in my head." When Mr Forkle's face relaxes, Percy's eyes go back to their normal sea green.
He turns to Grady. "You do what I do. You… control people, but you know how to control the power. For me, sometimes, it just comes out. When I feel threatened or mad. Can you help me?"
Grady looks like he's struggling. "Yes, I can help you. But why should I?"
Percy's eyes darken a bit. "I-I don't want to hurt people. The way I do it hurts." He shudders. "I can still hear the screams." He sits down and puts his head in his hands.
Edaline's eyes soften, and she puts a hand on Grady's shoulder. When he looks up at her, she nods. Grady sighs, then walks over to Percy and puts a hand on his back.
I want to yell, "Don't!" but it's too late. Percy jerks up, and his eyes begin to glow with a dark light. Grady stiffens, then removes his hand from the small of Percy's back. He stands ramrod straight, then starts to whimper. I can see from his eyes that he's in pain.
"PERCY!" I yell. He jolts as if waking from a trance. He looks at Grady and releases his control. He turns away and puts his head back in his hands. I can see his shoulders shake as he begins to cry. "Monster," he whispers, "I'm a monster."
"Don't touch the small of his back," I say to Grady. "Whenever anyone does, that happens."
Grady nods, scrutinizing Percy. "Hey." Percy looks up. "Percy, I'll train you. You need to know how to not freak out like that."
"Yeah, I know."
I cut in. "And maybe when we get Keefe back, you can teach him Beguiling."
He looks at me. "Who's Keefe, and what Beguiling?"
I blush. "Beguiling is like charmspeak. It's an ability. Keefe is one of our friends. He was captured by the Neverseen and we need to get him back."
"What?" Percy's voice is quiet but I can hear the danger in it. "One of your friends was captured? How long ago was this?"
I think. "Maybe four months? He is giving us valuable information on the enemy whenever I check in on him."
A pipe in the ceiling explodes. "YOU LEFT YOUR FRIEND WITH THE ENEMY FOR FOUR MONTHS?"
"Um… yes? Why are you so mad about this?"
"WHY THE HADES ARE YOU NOT? You can't just leave a teammate with the enemy! Even if they give you valuable information. Do you know how terrifying it is to be living among people who want to kill you? How the Hades is he still alive?"
"He's fine. His mom needs him alive."
"His mother? He was betrayed by his mother? How are none of you worried about this? Forget me! The first thing we're doing is saving Keefe!"
I stare in shock at this boy. Why is he so worked up about someone he's never met? Keefe is perfectly fine, happy with his pranks. Yet he is standing there, pain and rage in his eyes, as if he knows what Keefe is going through.
"Okay. We'll bring him back. But we need a plan."
Percy rolls his eyes. "You're just like someone I… knew. I don't do plans. I show up, make up a plan on the spot, then go with it. If the plan changes in the middle, go with it. If something goes wrong, go with it. Just go with the flow." He laughs as if he made a joke. "So when do we leave?"
Mr. Forkle groans. "You and Keefe are going to get along just fine."
He smirks. I groan. "They even smirk the same! This is going to be awful."
