They arrived at the Blofis residence a few hours later. It was early morning now, so Charlie was confident that they would be awake.

He raised his hand to knock on the door. Supposedly, this was his father's childhood home. He knocked on the door and waited.

Just as he was about to knock again, the door opened and an old, kind-looking woman looked at them. She had grey hair and wrinkles, but her eyes sparkled with life.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Um, hi… are you Sally Blofis?" Charlie asked. The woman nodded. "Good. My name is Charlie and this is my sister, Sophia. We're here about your son."

Sally's face dropped. "Oh! Have you found him yet?" she asked, her eyes starting to get hopeful.

He hesitated. "Um, no. not yet. We need a way to get to him. We were wondering if you could tell us where Estelle Blofis lives."

Sally looked confused. "She doesn't know where he is. Why would you want to know where she is?"

Charlie looked at Sophia. "We just wanna be sure."

Sally hesitated, but when she looked at Sophia's hopeful face, she gave in. "alright, give me a minute." she retreated back inside and Charlie heard her shuffling around.

Sophie turned to him. "Tell me again why we're getting grandma involved in this."

Charlie sighed. "Because we need the information. I don't want her involved in this any more than is necessary."

"Why not just tell her the truth?"

"Because dad would kill me. He loves his mom almost as much as he loves ours."

"What about aunt Estelle?"

"She's just below both of them. He is statistically less likely to kill me this way. Hopefully."

"Awesome."

They stood there for another minute before Sally returned with a piece of paper. "Here is the address of Estelle's college. I hope it helps."

"Thank you. So do I." Sophia gave her a small smile and they left.

After walking for a while, Sophia asked the question that she had been avoiding. "How are we gonna get there? We can't take a plane, you don't have a license yet, and we don't have a whole lot of money."

"I know, I know. How far away is the college?"

She looked at the paper. "It's in New Jersey."

Charlie sighed. "There is no way we're walking there." he thought for a moment. "Let's just take a bus and hope for the best."

And off they went, with the watcher not far behind.
-

They arrived at the college a few hours later. New Jersey College was fairly large, so it was somewhat difficult to find someone who could tell them where Estelle was.

They eventually just started asking around. After getting some directions, they found her outside the education building. They walked up to her and called out. She had salt and pepper hair, with sea-green eyes, very similar to their own.

When she saw them, her face fell. "More demigods? I told some other groups that I don't know where my brother is. I barely even know him." she said that last part quietly, with a bitter tone.

Charlie decided to take the lead. "We know, we just need transportation."

She blinked. "What do you mean?"

"We need some sort of transportation to San Francisco. And we can't use a plane."

She blinked again. "Why?"

Charlie and Sophia shared a look. "I'm a daughter of Poseidon," Sophia told her

She nodded in understanding. "Alright, but you might have to risk it. I'm sure Zeus will forgive you this one time because you probably have a time limit, am I right?"

Charlie was stunned. "Yeah, we do. How did you know that?"

Estelle rolled her eyes. "You have a location, you must have a time limit. That's just how these quests work."

Charlie blinked. "I guess. Our time limit is two weeks. That was yesterday though, so more like thirteen days."

She nodded. "Yeah, you probably won't make it in time. You need to take a plane if you wanna get there in time."

Charlie was silent for a minute, deliberating what to do. Finally, he relented. "Fine, but we need money to buy tickets."

"Alright, this should do it," she said, taking some money out of her wallet. "There's an airport not far from here. You should be able to make it to San Francisco by the day after tomorrow."

"Thank you. We'll get your brother back. I promise." he turned to leave but Estelle stopped him.

"Why do you wanna get him back so bad? Is it fame? Glory? What?" She looked at him with eyes that seemed to see everything.

He hesitated. "Um… let's just say we have a vested interest in getting them back."

She didn't look convinced. She looked like she was gonna say more, but Sophia spoke up before she could. "We better get going. Don't want to miss our flight." Charlie quickly voiced his agreement, and they left, much to Estelle's confusion.
-

They arrived at the airport about 20 minutes later. They had to walk because the bus had already left. They bought tickets for the first flight to San Francisco and sat down in a waiting area.

Their flight wasn't for a couple of hours so they had some time to kill. As they sat, Charlie got lost in his thoughts. He was worried about the flight because Zeus might notice them, he was worried about actually getting to their intended destination because it might result in their deaths, and he was worried about his parents who were in danger.

After an hour, he briefly left his thoughts and he realized that his hair was standing on end. Danger, or at least an unwanted presence. He nudged Sophia, who had nodded off.

"Sophia!" he whispered.

"Hm? What?" she asked, groggy and cranky.

"I think we're being watched," he said quietly.

She sat up straight immediately. "Where from?"

"Don't know," he replied, looking around in what he hoped was a discreet manner.

After a moment he found it. "Over there," he told her, nodding his head to a figure in a long coat and hat.

She nodded, trying to appear normal. "How long do you think she's been following us?"

He thought about it. "At least since Sally's. I thought I felt someone following us, but couldn't see anyone and, obviously, they didn't attack."

She nodded. "How do you wanna play this?"

He thought about it. "Snack break. If they're still following, we move somewhere more… discreet."

She nodded again. "Let's go."

They got up and walked to a pretzel stand and ordered a couple of pretzels. As they were paying, Charlie looked behind him and saw the watcher was still following them.

They got their pretzels and walked away. "She's still following us. We'll go around a corner and split up. You go high, I'll stay low." Charlie whispered. Sophia nodded her assent and they continued walking.

They turned a corner and discarded the pretzels. As much as he hated to do it, he was hungry, it was necessary in order to do what he wanted. He continued walking, but Sophia broke away and headed towards someplace where she could climb.

After waiting a minute to make sure Sophia was in position, he turned into a small alcove and hid in the corner. He pulled out Torrent and got ready to uncap it.

It didn't take long for the watcher to move into the alcove. She, he could see now that it was a she, looked around. "Where did he go?" he heard her mutter.

He uncapped his sword and put it at her neck. "Right behind you." She froze. "Don't move." He instructed.

"Mhm," she grunted.

"Who are you? And why are you following me?" he asked in a dangerous voice. His father had taught him how to be incredibly intimidating.

"I wanted to make sure you didn't get yourselves killed," she answered quietly. He blinked. He was not expecting that.

"Turn around," he instructed. He moved his sword from her neck and stepped back.

She did as she was told. "Remove your hat," he told her. She did. Charlie's eyes widened.

"Prescilla?"