Nico
Nico hated council meetings. Every cabin counselor behaved like a kid, picking up fights, joking, and pranking each other. People often thought why he blended in the shadows. If they had to go through this crap everyday, they would want to melt themselves too. He saw Lou Ellen start a fire on Sherman Yang's crotch, and Miriam stealing Cecil's new watch. He sighed, wishing Chiron would come quickly knowing he would be able to talk some sense into these brats. Presently, he was occupied with treating Rachel's post Oracle hangover. Will was with him too. Nico wished he could leave too and go to them but he was instructed to call the meeting and wait. He rolled his eyes.
They were just saying goodbye to Lester aka Apollo when this prophecy came spiralling out of Dear Rachel. After they had called on Chiron, he told them to bring everyone in to discuss it. Nico would have debated whether it was necessary to share it with everyone, but there was something in Chiron's expression that stopped him from doing so. And hence here he was, trying to nurse his headache while dealing with these imbeciles. Skeletons were much easier.
Sherman Yang was about to pulverize Lou Ellen when the door opened and Chiron trotted in with Rachel and Will. All three of them looked so beat up, he almost felt sorry for dumping all this onto Chiron. Then Will caught his eye and smiled. Nico felt himself smiling back, his headache disappearing. He stopped himself before he started showing all his dentures and making a fool of himself.
Chiron sat on his wheelchair, his legs disappearing under him. Will eased Rachel into the sofa and came up to stand beside Nico. Chiron tapped the table in front of him and the room quieted down. He sighed.
"There has been a new...development. Will and Nico have received a new prophecy from Rachel and so we all are here to discuss it. " He took a deep breath and motioned Nico to take the reigns.
Nico took a deep breath and recited,
"Dark chasm rises on the longest dayThe Earth starts to swallow the sunReach the place where the wronged stayFree from chains, the slaved EridianWhen Wisdom shines the light on FireThen the lost one Death acquire"
There was a deathly silence in the room, because of the words 'Death', 'Dark', 'slaved' but the most pained expression was of our Centaur.
Finally, Malcolm Pace, Athena's Head Counselor, said, "The longest day is of course the Summer Solstice that is on June 21st, so we can assume that some dark chasm will rise on that day"
"The only dark chasm I know is the Underworld", said Sherman Yang
"So underworld is going to rise on Summer Day, seems like a Batman movie", said Drew Tanaka, the temporary Head Counselor of Aphrodite Cabin.
"Actually", Nico interrupted, "Underworld is not called the Dark Chasm and I assure you my father doesn't intend to do any rising whatsoever. However... " He stopped, looking at Chiron, waiting for some confirmation as to what he was thinking was somewhere in his mind too.
Chiron met his eye and nodded. Nico shivered and held Will's hand, asking for strength. Will squeezed back, firm and assuring like always.
He continued, "There's one place that we call the Dark Chasm, or the Dark Pit. The one where all monsters go and return from. The pit of hell for the worst of all monsters, Tartarus. "
"Okay, that's like third super powerful being rising in around 7 years. That's crazy ", said Conner Stoll.
"Maybe but if you think about it, Annabeth told me last year that when they were in Tartarus near the Doors of Death, Tartarus itself assumed a human form to come and kill them. All that had happened at that time must have stirred it.", Will answered.
"And in the light of recent Triumvirate issues we have been handling, it had all the time to regenerate and revive. And it's going to be fully up in approximately a month", said Nico.
" What about the other parts of the prophecy, like this Eridian thing you have to free, what's that?", said Butch Walker, Head Counselor of Iris Cabin.
Chiron took a deep breath and said, " I believe a story is in order. I cannot be entirely sure but I think the Eridian mentioned here is not a what, it's a who. Almost four years back, Zeus found out about a son of Ares and Aphrodite who was a demigod." Seeing our bewildered expressions, he hastly added, "I don't know how two gods sired a demigod but that's what he was and because of being associated with two gods, he had lots of power. His existence was kept as a secret from Zeus until he found out about it and got very angry. He sentenced the boy to a vicious prison and took away all his powers. No one knows where he is or what kind of punishment he is getting but it is definitely deadly. If I am not wrong, as per this new prophecy, we have to free this demigod from Zeus' prison."
Nico was shocked. Like everyone else, he knew meddling in Zeus' affairs will most definitely lead to DBT(Death By Thunderbolt) but he was outraged at how unfair the punishment was. It wasn't the kid's fault that he was born out of two gods, but he was made to suffer. Sometimes he got so mad at gods, he could transform 10 men into skeletons, or maybe a huge ass skeleton with a MasterBolt will do.
"So this means that we need to find where this Eridian person is, free him, and bring him back here, without getting killed by Zeus or Tartarus or any other free - willed monster", summarised Will.
"Aptly told. But what about the last two lines? Wisdom shines light on fire? And the lost one death acquire? I am not so keen on making death acquire anyone.", said Nico.
"We can discuss that afterwards. However, it is true that a quest is needed. The real question is, who is willing to go? "
"The prophecy shows itself in front of those for whom it is meant", said Rachel. " Since it was made in front of Nico and Will, they have to undertake this quest. "
Will sighed and nodded. Nico held his hand tighter.
"You need three people for a quest.", said Chiron.
" If I may." Malcolm said, "The prophecy says that Wisdom shines light, that means one child of Athena needs to be in this quest"
"Lucky you, guys. I arrived at the correct time". We turned at the voice, standing on the door of the room was our number one daughter of Athena, Annabeth Chase.