AN: This chapter explains the changed prophecy. I got alot of flak for that, but you'll see in this chapter and in later places where it changes the original timeline or events.
When I got back to the table, Chiron, Grover, and Annabeth were still sitting there, silent.
When Chiron noticed me, he asked "What did the Oracle say?"
"It said that I would go west, and face a god who had turned. I would find what was stolen, and see them safely returned." I answered.
"Percy, what did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron said gravely. "This is important."
"If I'm going to reveal the entirety of my prophecy to you, Chiron, we'll need complete privacy." I replied.
Chiron wheeled back from the table, heading into the Big House. I followed silently, until we stopped in a small room with bronze on the walls with rolling lines of greek and latin script carved into the walls. From what I could tell, they were shielding the room from outside detection and penetration.
"Percy?" Chiron prompted.
"In the west, you will face the god who has turned from his family. You will find what was stolen and see them safely returned. In the end, one who calls you friend will betray as did the god. And in the end, you will fail to save what matters most." I recited.
Chiron's face twisted with worry, his eyes clouding in what was nearly physical pain. "Percy, the Oracle of Delphi rarely does not rhyme. In the three previous instances that I know of, the information she gave was so important that she could not afford to twist the words of the prophecy to rhyme them without causing the destruction of the Flame of the West."
I was shocked. "Are you saying whether or not Zeus gets his Bolt back could decide the fate of the gods?" I asked.
"Indeed, and much more. If the gods fall in civil war, then the Titans or Gigantes will rise again to take advantage of their deaths or periods of recuperation, and destroy humanity in the process. Monsters will flow unimpeded from Tartarus, and descend on the world to rend humanity's flesh from their bones. If it is the titans, some mortals will likely live, if only to be raised as snacks for their king. You will remember that it was not the Original Gods who he ate. The giants will destroy humanity entirely, and return this planet to it's time before the gods or humanity existed, when Gaea ruled over all of existence with her husband Ouranos. You will remember, she has a different husband now." Chiron explained. "We must consider carefully every definition of each word in the prophecy, both as Apollo knows them, as you know them, as they are recorded in the dictionary, and as they apply to you."
"Well, the first line is obvious. We need male gods who still have beings in existence they consider family. The second is kind of obvious as well. I will find and return the Master Bolt safely, but what does the Oracle mean by them?" I mused. "I will be betrayed by someone who considers me both his friend and his family. And to me, what matters most is my mom."
"The first line is unsolvable at this point in time. There are simply to many beings who fit the line and are considered gods themselves. Something or someone else has been stolen besides the Bolt, and your quest will result in them being returned. We can narrow down the people who consider you friend and family easily, by asking around the camp. The Oracle does not specify that this person is male, and so we must be aware of female possibilities as well. As did the god could refer to this secondary traitor being a male, a god, both, or that he betrays you in the same way the god does by turning against someone who they consider family. And if you are correct, and that what mattes most refers to what matters most to you, then your mother will remain missing or dead until the conclusion of this prophecy. If your mother was stolen, then she will most likely also be safely returned, as the previous lines of a prophecy frequently appear to overpower later lines, even if the later lines are absolute statements." Chiron contemplated, rubbing his chin and beard.
"Anyways," I said abruptly. "The prophecy doesn't really matter. I will succeed in my quest, she practically outright said so. That is the important part, and the ambiguousness of the rest of the prophecy will reveal itself in time. I will proceed west, like she said, and wait. If nothing occurs before the ten days, I will return to Camp as soon as possible, and if I fail, then we must be prepared for a war. Either inter-Olympian or with whoever else is orchestrating this, if it isn't a god."
"You are correct. If I may, I have not known many of Poseidon's children who can use logic like that." Chiron said.
"Let's just say that the sea is ever changing. Of course, the default state is mostly calm and carefree, but you know how my father's wrath can be. And you should know by now that the sea can be a cold, hard, unforgiving thing, just like logic." I replied.
Back at the table, Chiron explained that his suspicions had to do with Hades being guilty of the theft, and that the entrance to the Underworld was always in the furthest point west, which, right now, was Los Angeles. I formally selected Grover and Annabeth as my companions, mostly because we would be traveling overland for Grover, and Annabeth because she was familiar with Greek Myth, much more than me, and she was a better tactician than me. I hadn't really done much with water yet, but I was our sword and trident powerhouse.
We returned to our cabins to back, and when I was done, having taken five minutes to grab everything, I was contemplating my previous spoils. I decided to leave them. I summoned High Tide to examine it, and somehow fumbled it. The center prong struck the hellhound fang as it hit the floor, pulverising it under the bronze. The rightmost one hit the minotaur horn that had practically jumped off the wall, obliterating it.
"Di Immortales!" I cursed.
When I inspected the trident, the prongs appeared slimy, and when I touched it, it felt like dog drool.
"Be careful, a hellhound's saliva has a pain-inducing venom that activates on contact with blood." I remembered Chiron saying.
"Did my trident just copy a hellhound's venom?" I wondered. "What is this thing capable of?"
In total, I had one set of spare clothing, one small toiletries bag, a backpack Grover had found for me, my knives, and High Tide. I thought about taking the training bow I'd been using, but decided against it. I got a roll of mortal cash and a sack of golden drachmas on loan from the camp store, and the infirmary provided me and Annabeth each a ziploc of ambrosia and a small metal canteen of nectar.
Annabeth had her invisibility hat, one spare set of clothing, a much smaller roll of mortal cash and a larger bag of drachmas, both of which were given to her by her cabin. She had an architecture book and her long bronze knife that she'd used while trying to teach me to use the pair I had. I was sure we would set off a metal detector somewhere.
Grover had his fake feet, pants, and a green hat to pass as human. He had his crutches, which gave me an idea that I reminded myself to ask him about later. He had a set of reed pipes that he had previously admitted to not knowing how to play very well, and a bright orange backpack stuffed with one change of clothes and then tons of crushed soda cans and apples to snack on.
After that episode of strangeness, we met up at Thalia's tree, where Argus was waiting to take us in the camp van to NYC. Right as we were about to step out of the barrier, Luke came running up behind us, a pair of basketball shoes in his hand.
"Hey!" He called. "I just wanted to say good luck to you all, and to give you this, Percy." He held out the pair of shoes. "They're an old gift from my dad and helped me alot on my quest. "Maia!" He called. The very normal shoes both sprouted a pair of what looked like pure white bird's wings from the ankles, straining to take flight. He repeated the incantation, retracting the wings.
"Thanks, Luke." I accepted the shoes, which somehow made me feel dread in my stomach like I was a mortal sailor approaching a whirlpool, for some reason.
Chiron made a noise in the back of his throat, getting my attention.
"I won't be able to use these, will I?" I asked him.
"No. Luke meant well, but for a son of Poseidon to fly in any way but under their own power or on a pegasus is practically asking for your uncle to knock you out of the sky." he sighed.
"Under my own power?" I wondered.
"There was one of your brothers, in the past, who could do nearly nothing with his abilities but manipulate the water vapor in the air. He would call it to him, making sure to keep it aerated enough that his powers still called it water vapor, wrapped himself in it, and used it to carry himself into the air. He could not go very high, or very far in one go, nor could he lift anything but himself, and he had to be unarmored." Chiron elaborated.
"Oh, that sounds useful." I answered.
"Indeed. I have not seen a son try since, but you could possibly do the same if you had enough strength over water, and not necessarily water vapor. Anyway, I have something for you as well." He drew a familiar pen from inside his jacket.
"Is this...?" I trailed off, uncapping the pen to reveal the sword I'd used to slay Mrs. Dodds.
"That is a gift from your father. I have held onto it for many years, since before the pact the Big Three made after one of his sons died because of an unbalanced blade. They had a similar issue as you, and they died because they fought with an unmatched blade. He told me to give it to the next child of his that came to camp, and three weeks after that, the pact was made. His existing children at the time had paired blades, and so I kept it for many years, waiting for the pact to either not be needed or to be broken by your father. It is yours now." Chiron explained.
I saw a name inscribed on the blade, near the hilt. "Anaklusmos. The Riptide." I read.
"Use it only in emergencies, and only against monsters. It will not harm mortals anyways, so to try and use it on one will lead to issues." Chiron continued.
"How could this very sharp piece of metal not hurt humans?" I asked.
"Before your father gave it to me, it had a very long and unpleasant history that we will not go into. The beginning of that history starts in the forges of the Cyclopes under the sea, where it was shaped and forged. The blade was tempered in the heart of Mt. Etna by those Cyclopes, and cooled in water from the River Lethe. It will kill nearly any monster or creature native to the underworld in one hit, unless they are extremely strong. To put it simply, mortals will not be harmed by the blade because they aren't important enough." Chiron explained.
"Yay! Another overpowered weapon!" I said as I recapped the pen and slid it into my pocket.
"And you can not lose it. Drop it, throw it, have it forcefully taken from you, nothing but a god could prevent it from returning to your pocket in pen form unless you willingly gave it to someone for them to use it as their new permanent weapon." Chiron explained.
"Oh, good, I won't lose any of my weapons." I said in relief.
"What do you mean by that, child?" Chiron asked curiously.
"Well, my trident does the exact same thing. Returns to my pocket in pen form, I mean. It also appears in my hand when I have need of a weapon. And my knives have water in the handles, so if I have any hydrokinesis at all, I should be able to call them back to me, but without the teleportation." I explained.
"That's good. Another thing I should warn you of is that as a demigod, you can be harmed by both celestial and mortal weaponry." He commented.
"Fantastic." I grumbled before asking my next question. "Chiron, the gods are immortal as long as the Flame of the West burns, right?"
"Yes, child. That is true." He answered.
"But they existed before the Flame, didn't they?" I continued.
"That is also true. Before the Flame was lit, the gods existed under their own strength. During the beginning of the Fifth Age, the one we are in now, the age of the Olympian Gods, and of the West, Prometheus, who is widely considered by mortals the good Titan gave to humans their first fire. Zeus branded him a radical thinker and he was severely punished. Over time, the gods warmed up to mortals and the Flame of the West was ignited. After an unknown period of time, they became inexplicably linked to it and to their mortal followers. They may not admit it, but the gods are weaker now than they were during the height of Ancient Greece and Rome. Their influences on architecture and things, as Mr. D explained to you, give them power, and so do the sacrifices and prayers we give them, but when they had cults of mortal followers they had much more power." Chiron gave me a much more detailed explanation than I thought he would.
"So what was the time before the Gods like, then?" I asked.
"Even I am not old enough to remember that, child. But there were actually four ages before the current one, and the most recent was The Age of Titans, and their king, Kronos, who called the period The Golden Age, which was all propaganda. Humans during that time were only appreciated as slaves and snacks, and they lived ignorant of all information." He answered. "It was a very dark time and let us hope that humanity and the world never return to the shadows of our past."
"That sounds good. I should probably go, in order to prevent that." I replied.
"Yes, go on." He gestured down to the van, where Argus, Annabeth, and Grover stood waiting.
I began to walk down the hill, before turning back to Chiron with one last question. "What if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword or some such?"
"Mist is a very powerful thing, Percy. Ask Annabeth more about it." He answered.
Argus started the van and we began the drive into NY. When I turned and looked back at the camp, hoping to catch on last glance of Thalia's tree, I saw Chiron standing in full horse-form with his bow raised over his head in a farewell salute.