KEEFE
The poor woman. From the rage that I'm feeling from Percy, I'm assuming this is Sally Jackson. No one deserves to go through this pain. I jolt as Percy's fury begins to break through into another level. He's starting to go berserk, so I quickly make my way over to him and grab his wrist.
Immediately, I'm on the ground, flat on my back, gasping for breath. Percy glares at me, then seems to realize who I am. "Oh my gods! Sorry, Keefe! I'm so sorry!" He helps me up. "I was just… lost in thought, so when someone disturbed me, I-I judo flipped them." He grins sheepishly. "Sorry."
I scoff. "Lost in thought. Suuuuure. Not contemplating revenge on the people who hurt your mother?"
His eyes darken and he turns back to the scene in the middle of the room. His mother has stopped screaming. She is lying in the middle of the semicircle, panting. Bronte says, "Sally, for your noncompliance, you have been stripped of your ability. You will be banished to the Lost Cities if you don't repent."
Sally looks up from the floor, her blue eyes shining proudly. "Never."
All the Councillors wave their hands, and she disappears in a flash of light. Percy looks like he's about to scream, so I punch him in the arm. This time I'm not judo flipped, but he does punch me back, albeit playfully.
The flash from Sally's banishment continues to grow until it overwhelms the scene. Then, we are all flashed out of the memory.
Percy grabs a crystal vase and throws it into a wall. The vase shatters and falls to the ground. He growls at himself. "I need to calm down." He dissolves into vapor.
We all just stare at the place where Percy used to be. Alden shakes his head. "That vase was quite expensive."
I snort. "We literally have an endless supply of money. And also, if Percy hadn't that vase, he would have destroyed something else instead."
Alden pales. "Perhaps you are right. Back to the matter at hand, Percy's mother was banished, and then the memory was put in the caches."
Dex narrows his eyes. "But why was she banished? I got the part about refusing to have a child as an experiment, but would that threaten the future of all elves?"
Alden sighs. "I don't know. But we should use Sally's name on Bronte's cache. Sophie, can you call him here?"
Suddenly, Percy rematerializes in the middle of the room. "Okay. I'm fine now. Talked to some fish. What are we doing?"
"We're going to try and make some progress on another Councillor's cache. He's coming in about a minute."
Percy sits down. "Cool."
Just then, Bronte flashes in. He faces Sophie. "What did you need, Miss Foster?"
"I called because we have a lead on your cache. We think a name-"
"You."
Percy is standing now, his eyes swirling with rage. "You were there. You helped them hurt my mother." The air is starting to get very humid, and the ground seems to be shaking slightly.
Bronte raises his hands in surrender. "I don't even know who you are. Or… what you are."
Percy glares at him. "Don't lie to me! You know exactly what I'm talking about. Unless you've tortured other elves over the years?"
Sophie rests her hand on his arm, and I ignore the familiar gurgle of jealousy in my gut. "He actually might not know. The entire Council might have erased it from their minds."
Percy's eyes bore into Bronte's, seeming to pierce his very soul. Finally, he sits down with a snort and waves his hand for him to continue.
Sophie starts talking instead. "So, the key word you could use might be Sally Jackson. Or maybe Perseus Achilles Jackson. Try both."
Bronte nods, then snaps his fingers. The cache falls into his hand. "Sally Jackson." The light bursts into the room and we get sucked into another memory.
SOPHIE
The scene in front of us is once again in the Councillor's meeting room. Bronte is sitting in the middle of the table, but I can also see him in one of the corners.
The Bronte at the table speaks. "Since Sally didn't help us, we need to do it ourselves. We need to make sure humans are not a threat."
I can hear Percy in the nook next to me growling. "I'll show you humans being a threat. I fricking hate elves."
I sigh and turn back to the memory. Typical Percy.
Another elf, a tall woman with a pale complexion and brown hair in a braid, speaks up. "There is a family secret that I have, passed down through generations. It was kept because we believed it too dangerous to be told to anyone else. But we might need to use it now. It is used to trap a group of people, or animals, or any other species. It needs specific ingredients."
A man with striking indigo eyes tilts his head. "What ingredients, Larissa?"
She purses her lips. "One prized item from each of the intelligent species. That includes the humans. And then the current Councillors must infuse it with some of their ability."
A woman with curly black hair shakes her head. "That is not possible. Can you imagine ogres or dwarves helping us?"
I have to strain my ears to hear anything now. The sound is getting fainter and fainter, until finally a flash of light takes us out of the memory.
Percy looks like he wants to smash another vase, but he takes a deep breath. "Why do you guys all hate on us humans? What did we ever do to you?" Then he inhales sharply. "I guess-I guess I'm not exactly human, am I?"
I cock my head. "What do you mean?"
He groans and looks up at the sky. "Just a moment, guys. Imma talk to myself a little bit. He starts ranting in Greek. "Hey, Big Guys! Can you release me from my oath?" Thunder rumbles. "PLEASE! I am so annoyed at having to explain everything away." The thunder is slightly quieter now. "Yes, yes. Thank you very much, oh High and Mighty Drama King." Thunder booms across the sky, and lighting crashes to the ground. Percy only laughs.
He turns back towards us. "So the people who made me make an oath about not telling you guys everything just released me from it, so gather around everybody, it's story time!"
He takes a deep breath. "Have you ever heard of the Greek gods?"
I nod, then see that some of my friends are nodding and others are just confused. "Seriously? I'm sure they taught you this in history."
The ones who were confused start to nod. "Right, right! I remember now! I wasn't really listening but it's fine," Keefe says.
"They're real."
I blink. Once, twice. Wait. What.
Percy winces. "Okay, guys, Don't go into shock, please. I can't get you out without splashing you, and you wouldn't like that."
We all erupt in a babble of conversation. "The gods are real?" "The Greek gods?" "The ones we were supposed to learn about but didn't pay attention to because they didn't seem important?"
Percy rolls his eyes, then steps in front of Keefe. Lighting bursts from the sky, striking Percy. I scream, but he comes out unscathed. "Partial immortality. Keefe, don't insult them. They hate that, especially when you're their pet project."
Biana looks insulted. "Pet project?"
"The gods probably created you guys 'cause they were bored and had nothing to do. I'm the son of Poseidon, god of the Seas, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Can we get back on topic please? That is, the weird spell thing that the elfy lady talked about?"
Sandor nods. "The weird spell thing, as you say, seems to be the best way to do it. We can capture them, and none of them will be hurt or die. Perfect for still being able to get information out of them."
Bronte nods, a contemplative frown on his face. "I will have to inform the Council of this development. Please bring the items to us once you have collected them all." He light leaps away.
Dex frowns. "But how are we going to get all of the objects?"
Percy smiles, slightly sarcastically. "I got some of the humans' prized possession right here." He pulls out his wallet and throws out a ten. "Take it."
Stina picks it up. "What is it?"
"Money."
Stina looks confused. "Humans' prized possession is money? Why?"
Percy looks incredulous. "You guys don't know anything about humans, do you? Humans, we need money to survive. Money gets us food, water, shelter. But money is important because the more you have, the more power you have as well."
"Huh. Weird."
Percy shakes his head. "What about elves? What is the elves' most prized possession?"
I smile. "You're about to meet them." 'SILVENY! SILVENY!'
Silveny's voice fills my head. 'SOPHIE? SOPHIE NEED HELP?'
'No, not really. I need you to come here. Can you visit one of my friends? He's new. His name is Percy Jackson.'
Silveny sounds surprised. 'PERCY? LORD? SON OF THE SEA GOD? COMING, SOPHIE! VISIT! VISIT! VISIT!"
I turn to Percy. "Do you know why Silveny would call you Lord?"
Percy pales. "Schist. Schist, schist, schist. Is this prized possession either a horse or a sea animal?"
Suddenly, the sky cracks open. Silveny, Greyfall, Wynn, and Luna fly down into the pasture. They all bow in front of Percy who is holding his head in pain. "So…loud." he pants.
I smirk. I guess Percy has never heard such loud animals before.
'LORD! LORD!'
"Please, just call me Percy. I suppose you want donuts, then?"
'DONUTS? DONUTS?'
Fitz looks confused. "How is he speaking to them? Is it a demigod power, or something?"
Percy rolls his eyes. "It's a son of Poseidon thing. My dad created horses, so they all treat me like royalty, and it's super annoying." he says over the cries of, 'LORD! LORD!'
"So, why are these guys the most prized possession of the elves again?"
"They're the last of their kind," Bronte answers.
Percy stares into Wynn and Luna's eyes. "I know how you feel, little ones." He smiles sadly as tears begin to pour down his cheeks. "I'm sorry." The sky begins to rain.
