Annabeth gave her tea and swirl before taking a long sip. She was sitting in a comfortable chair - well, as comfortable as it can get when Sadie Kane has decided that she wants to sit in the same chair. It was weirdly enough pretty comfortable to be squashed together, though. Carter sat in the chair to the left of them, Zia in the chair to the right. In front of them stood a small coffee table, with on the other side the magician they had saved from the underground catacomb a week ago.

Her eyes were tired - not strange, when you considered that she had been locked under the earth for years. 'I understand we are waiting for Amos,' She said, while soothing her skirt. Annabeth coughed.

'Eh... Sorry for the early question, but how do you know that Amos is the new head magician in charge? Wasn't the... other guy still leading the first nome when you dissappeared?' she asked.

The woman gave her a very thin smile. 'Oh, I managed to get some information of the upper world while I was in there. Magic doesn't like to be contained, and while I could not break out of the prison I could make my life there... more comfortable.' She shivered.

Annabeth looked at her cup. 'Hm. Sorry, you must be tired.' The magician smiled slightly wider. 'Well...'

Amos came barging into the room. 'Hello! Sorry, I am a little late, there were some problems in the nome on Honolulu... Kids, Anaïs, have you already got to know each other?'

'Of course,' Sadie answered, which wasn't really true, but everybody else just nodded. Amos sat down in the last of the chairs surrounding the coffee table.

'So. Magic. How it works. Anaïs, who is the most powerful magician ever,' Amos said, before sighing deeply.

'Yeah, you don't really have the dramatic,' Annabeth commented. Amos rolled his eyes.

Carter went on: 'Maybe... maybe we first should know why we are all collected here, because I am not really sure...'

'We wanted to know what Anaïs can do and what we can learn from that, right?' Sadie mentioned. Zia shook her head and almost dropped her coffee cup out of her hands. 'No, of course not, I was told we were here to discuss how this was going to affect the rest of the magic world!'

It was quiet for some time, until Annabeth coughed. 'Hm. I was told something completely different from both of those things, but maybe Amos over here would care to explain what we are really supposed to do here?' She asked, while turning her attention towards Amos. He swallowed.

'Eh... I was planning on doing all of those things...' He shook his head and leaned forwards. Anaïs shivered. 'What it may be what you want to do, could you please go quicker? I... I do not feel very good yet.' Amos' eyes darted through the room.

Annabeth stood up. 'If we do not have a plan, it might be better to go back tomorrow and make sure we know what we are doing.' She put her cup down. Amos slowly nodded. Carter, Sadie and Zia all muttered an agreement. 'Goodbye, Ma'am,' Annabeth said to Anaïs. The magician nodded, while Annabeth walked out of the room.

She didn't get very far, though. While she was walking towards the magical portal that should, if it wasn't broken, bring her back to Brooklyn House, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She shivered and quickly turned around, with her hand moving towards her knife. She stopped the last movement when she noticed it was Anaïs.

'Sorry. Reflex.' The magician gave her a quick nod.

'That's alright.' It went quiet for some time, before Anaïs continued: 'You aren't a magician, right?'

'No, eh, I am a greek demigod.'

'I know. Daughter of Athena.'

Annabeth opened her mouth. Than closed of again. Than opened it again 'Yes. Yes that is right.' She blinked. 'Hm, I assume your senses are pretty evolved?' The daughter of Athena guessed. Anaïs hung her head a little.

'Yes, my senses are highly evolved. Yet, they numbed down while I was under the earth.' Annabeth raised her eyebrows. She wondered what Anaïs senses would be like if she hadn't been stuck under the earth for years.

'Eh... is there something else you wanted to ask?' Annabeth muttered after a bit of an awkward pause. Anaïs shook her head. 'No. I'll see you back tomorrow, I think.' Annabeth bowed her head a little.

'Goodbye.' She turned around and tried to walk into the pod.

'Wait...' she heard behind her. Yet, Annabeth couldn't walk back anymore. he transport back to Brooklyn House had already begun.

Or so she thought. Instead of stepping out in Brooklyn, she was transferred to... a cold place. A very cold place, with... snow? Annabeth raised her eyebrows again. It was september. There shouldn't be snow yet. She stood up. Her hand moved towards her knife. She shivered. She wasn't properly clothed for snow, she was clothed for the Egyptian weather. She looked around. She just saw snow, some bushes and trees. Taiga.

Behind her, she heard a soft humming. She turned around and saw that Anaïs had followed her. She had her wand out. She pointed at Annabeth and muttered something. Annabeth had no idea what she said, but it gave her warm clothes, so she didn't complain. '...thanks. Where are we?' She asked.

'Siberia, I believe, but I am not sure,' Anaïs answered, before giving herself some warmer clothes as well.

Annabeth scanned the area again. She felt that there was something wrong.

'We need to get out of here,' Annabeth whispered. Anaïs turned to the portal, which was slowly fading - apparently, someone had noticed that it brought you to the wrong place and hadn't bothered to check if anybody had already gone through it. Anaïs put her hands on her hips. 'That won't be difficult. I can make another opening through duat to bring us back to Egypt.' Annabeth looked at her. The woman was shivering, even though she was wearing a coat warm enough to last -10 degrees celsius. She shook her head.

'I think... you might still be ill from being under the ground for days. Maybe you should first get some rest.' Anaïs got out her wand. 'Where should I rest in this barren taiga? I will have to at least try and get us back.' Annabeth didn't answer. Her expression got more serious when she saw that Anaïs' hands were trembling while she was trying to cast a spell.

Of course it didn't work. Travelling through Duat is something only highly trained magicians even attempt to do, and you certainly can't do it when you are weakened by being in a cave for fifteen years. Anaïs almost fell to her knees - Annabeth caught her at the last moment. The daughter of Athena got her back on her legs and put the magicians' arm around her shoulders. 'Come. You'll have to rest,' she told her. She looked around. Anaïs was right; the place was barren and empty. Annabeth took a deep breath. In the distance were a few trees; she might be able to make something there.

It was a bad shelter, but there was at least a bit of running water near the group of trees. Annabeth put her hands into her pockets for a moment, trying to think of find a way to scoop the water up so they could drink it, and was delighted to find a small cup which was apparently standard with the survival clothes spell.

'Do you know if it is safe to drink this?' Annabeth asked. She held up the cup of water. It didn't really matter what the answer was - she knew she had to drink it anyway. Anaïs looked like she was too weak to even summon in a piece of peppermint. Anaïs shrugged. 'You can never tell.' Annabeth stared at the water, before drinking it. 'Getting dehydrated will not help us getting back.'

Annabeth stared up at the sun. 'I think we have about seven hours before the sun goes down.' She took a deep breath. 'I... don't really know what to do. I guess we should just wait for Amos to realise what went wrong and come find us, but that could take some time. The first nome is more disorganised than Zeus's desk now and then.' She turned towards Anaïs, who opened her mouth to say something back, which was disturbed when they heard a loud noise in the background.

She pulled out her knife again, this time deciding to just hold on to it. In the distance, a wall of snow had flown into the air and was know tumbling back to the ground. For a moment, she debated what to do. The next moment, she felt Anaïs hand on her shoulder. Annabeth looked at her. 'You can't walk for that long.'

'And you cannot check that out alone.'

A few minutes later, they were walking around a hole in the snowy ground. Anaïs straightened her shoulders. 'Someone is doing something that Amos and his people would not approve of.'

'So a magical crime.'

'You could call it that.'

'Hm. The real question is, why is someone making things explode so far away from civilisation? I mean, there aren't any nomes around here, right?' As soon as Annabeth had said it, she wasn't fully sure of it anymore. Anaïs shrugged.

'Before I was imprisoned, no. Yet, the places of nomes change around quite often. It could be that one of the Russian nome changed their position.' She clutched her sides. Annabeth slid her arm around Anaïs' waist in order to help her stay up.

She looked around once again. 'I would be happy if we were rescued from this place,' she whispered.

After fifteen minutes of surveying the hole some more and starting to get a little desperate for food, water, and shelter, Annabeth heard something in the background. 'Wait. That sounds like a snow scooter, or something.'

Anaïs strengthened her grip on Annabeth's' waist. 'That's because it is a snow scooter. Right over there,' she said, before pointing at a snow scooter that was coming at them at a speed that wasn't even wise to hold when you were in the great nothing they were in now.

It stopped right in front of them. A man pushed the visor of his helmet up. 'What do you two think you are doing!?' The man asked. Annabeth straightened her back. 'You are no regular mortal, I sense. There was a mistake in the first nome. We shouldn't have been sent here. You can contact Amos about it. Actually, it would be quite nice if you contacted Amos about it, so he can get us out of here.' The man looked at her. His eyes trailed of to Anaïs. When he saw her, he looked surprised. 'Wait. Aren't you...'

'Anaïs, fifteen years under the earth, recently found back,' she answered. The man seemed to think for a moment, before getting a wand and a phone out of his pocket. 'I'll call someone in. I can only drive one of you back to the nome at once, so the other will have to wait for them. Scratch that, I'll wait over here until they arrive.'

He did. Annabeth shifted her feet. 'Hm. So magicians can use cellphones too, these days?' The man nodded.

'Yes. Very glad with the invention of cellphones that don't attract monsters,' he answered. Annabeth nodded in agreement. 'Absolutely. During the great fight in Manhattan, we still had to fix some things on our own, until we collectively decided that there were so many monsters that it didn't matter anymore.'

'The fight of Manhattan? So you are Greek, then?'

'Yeah.'

'We don't get a lot of greeks demigods around here. Einherjar, now and then, more often the children of old Russian gods, but not a lot of Greek people.' Annabeth didn't really know what to answer to that.

'...well, I am here.' She felt a little relief when she heard the sounds of a second snow scooter in the distance.

A small fifteen minutes later, they were back in the forty-ninth nome, in Siberia. The man - who's name was Dimitri - explained that there were three nomes in Russia. Annabeth felt like she shouldn't have been surprised. Russia was a big country - of course there would be multiple nomes. As soon as they answered the center where the magicians lived, Dimitri got back on the phone in order to contact Amos. Anaïs and Annabeth were led to the living room by another magician, who gave them both a cup of hot tea (Annabeth suspected there was some alcohol in it, but she didn't ask). Soon enough, the woman noticed that there were only five magicians currently living in the forty-ninth nome, which was smaller than they had expected.

Dimitri came back with the message that Amos had started the procedures to make a new portal to Siberia. Annabeth sank back into the couch - that probably meant that she and Anaïs would either be picked up within a few minutes or a few days. The same woman who had given them tea was now examining Anaïs.

'You are still weak from the imprisonment, I suppose?'

'Yes.' Anaïs sounded like she was about done talking about that. Annabeth stood up.

'Alright, but what about the hole? Do things like that happen more often?' She asked, to all of the local magicians collected in the room at once. Dimitri shrugged. 'Sometimes. More often these days. Both the people in the forty-eight and the fiftieth nome have no idea what it is, either. We have even contacted the sixteenth nome in Mongolia, but they don't know what is happening either.' Annabeth took a moment to read the room. All of the magicians really looked like they had no idea why magic was acting up. Annabeth felt something tickling inside of her. Like she wanted to fix the issue right here and now.

She stopped herself. This was an issue for the Egyptian magic society - not the greek department. If she were to try and help out, there was a big chance she would only make things more incomprehensible...

'...I am planning on asking Amos to contact your camp leader, though. It doesn't feel like pure Egyptian magic...' Dimitri continued. Annabeth turned towards him. In the hallway, she heard something - probably Amos stepping out of a new portal.

'I think we need to leave,' She mumbled.

'What?'

'I think Amos has arrived. If everything you just said... if you really get into contact with Chiron... you'll hear from me.' Dimitri gave her a weak smile and nodded. He shook Annabeth's hand. Annabeth put her hand out to Anaïs to help her up, so that they could quickly join Amos as soon as he stepped through the door.

'Hey, Amos?'

'Annabeth?'

'If you ever get the message to maybe contact Chiron about Greek help with weird magic in Siberia, I'll volunteer.'

'That doesn't sound very voluntary.'

'It isn't.'

Amos looked at her. 'The mortals have it better, don't you think?'

Annabeth nodded. 'Yeah. I fully agree.'