Chapter 10

Legendary Literary

They sat down at the table. „Anybody wanna drink somthing?", John asked. Greg grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and sat down next to Jason, who had a glass of water.

Ben didn't want to drink anything. He didn't feel good, but he was curious to hear about the rest of his family as his mother never really told him.

He at least already knew John as he already visited them. All he remembered from John coming over is that as soon as he went to bed he could hear his mom and John arguing loudly. Since that they never got visited again.

„How's your mother?", John asked. Ben looked down, a tear ran down his cheek. John seemed to know what happened after seeing Ben's reaction. „Damn!" He smashed the glass he was holding. „I told her she should've-" He looked over to Greg, then back to Ben. „Anyway, I am so sorry." John took a deep breath. „I have a guest room, but only with two beds inside. I can get a camping bed though if you don't mind. I'll show you your room."

They went up to a guest room, but as Ben, Nico, Jason and John entered he locked the door and sat down on one of the beds.

„What did you mean with you told her?", Nico asked.

„First of all", John ignored Nico's question. „Who are you two and what are you doing in Miami"

„I am Jason Grace and this is Nico di Angelo.", Jason said. „We are visiting someone in Miami."

„Come on, Jason.", John sighed. „I know you are Demigods. So what are you doing in Miami."

„Erebos is rising.", Nico finally said. „We need to stop him."

John stood up. „No, no, no…" He walked to the door, unlocked it and went across the hallway to a room which probably was his office. He opened the door and went in. The room was huge, the walls covered in bookshelfs. A wooden desk in the middle of the room was flooded by papers and books. John opened a laptop and tipped quickly.

„What is happening?", Nico asked, looking at all the old books. John closed his laptop and sat down, again taking a few deep breaths. „Who are your immortal parents?", he asked.

„I am the son of Zeus", Jason replied. „Nico is the son of Hades and Ben is the son of Erebos."

„Ok", John looked up. This was the first time Ben could properly see John. He wore jeans and a Polo Shirt. He took of his glasses and went through his blonde hair. He looked at them with gray and stormy eyes, which reminded Ben of Annabeth. „Time to properly introduce myself.", John said. „I am Professor Johnathan Dimson, I teach Greek mythology in the university here in Charleston. And I am a son of Athena."

„So Athena and Greg, they-", Jason stuttered.

„Oh heck no!", John laughed. „I am adopted. My father died when I was 3."

„Oh-"

„Anyway", John continued. „To come back to Nico's question: The last time I visited Ben and his mother I told her to get Ben to the camp as soon as possible. She said it was too early. I told her after the seven Demigods killed Gaea it was nothing but a question of time until Erebos would rise and until Ben was discovered. Then I tried to call Chiron- but there was a problem, I couldn't call or E-Mail or anything. I didn't know where the camp was as I never was there. I decided to wait. I would love to get to know the people who killed Gaea. That what I heard was insane. They could really help us right now."

„Well", Jason said. „Leo was the one who actually killed her, but I sure helped"

John's eyes widened. „You were part of the seven?"

Jason nodded.

„Still", John said. „Gaea is nothing against Erebos. You could compare it to this: Imagine fighting a kitten. Then a full grown tiger. And you're half dead."

Later, when they were sleeping Ben had a nightmare. He was in a big cave. He saw Jason walking towards Ben but suddenly he got sucked into the wall. The scenery changed. He saw himself, Nico and John standing in a city, facing a giant creature. Jason was on the floor next to them, bleeding from his head. Ben awoke, breathing heavily. He looked over to Nico, who slept in the bed next to his, and Jason, who slept on the camping bed John got for them. He decided to get up and walked down in the living room. He grabbed a picture from a woman in her mid twenties who was clearly preagnant. She had black hair and light brown skin. His mother. He sat down on the couch and held the picture in his hand.

The next morning John made breakfast. Greg was still asleep, so they could talk about what to do next. „I have something in my office in the university I need to show you.", John told them. „You mentioned you have never been to Camp Half-Blood.", Nico said. „How did you suvive this long?"

„I never had any god-like powerst hat could have attracted monsters", John replied. „Of course, I got attacked a few times but not by anything too big."

Jason bit off a part of his pancake. „What did you want to show us at your office anyway?"

„I found a book. It's written in Latin and at least 2500 years old."

As they arrived at a big building which John told them was the university they got out of the car and walked to his office.

„Good morning, Professor Dimson!" They turned around to a girl, around twenty smiling at them. She had red hair and pale skin. „Hello", John greeted back. He walked into his office and closed the door behind Ben, who was the last to come in.

„Actually", John said. „I found a second book recently on a trip to Rome. We do not have evidence yet that the second book is from the same time period, but it has the same look and a similar writing style. Sadly, it takes ages until I can read anything in these books as I'm really bad at Latin." He smiled. „Well, today's your lucky day because Jason is a roman Demigod, meaning he can read Latin as we can ancient greek." John put the book on a table and put on gloves. He gave Jason a pair of gloves as well and opened the first page.

„I can't read anything.", Jason said, looking at a almost fully burnt and mostly black page.

„Yes, we assume the books were covered in dirt, mud and scrap while the place they were in was burnt down. All I found were half a dozen pages pretty much in the middle of the book. I wasn't allowed to open the second book yet as it is being replicated currently."

John turned a bunch of pages very slowly and carefully until he reached a page that was not fully burnt. „This part I actually translated and, well, to say the least it's not really happy."

Jason started reading in his mind. He looked up, his face suddenly went pale. „This is the prophecy that sent us to Miami."

„You mean the one they reconstruced with Ella in Camp Jupiter?", Nico asked. „The one Ella read from the Sibylin Books?"

„The Sibylin Books?", John asked. „They were burnt several thousand years ago, weren't they?"

„I never thought I'd say this." Jason said. „But Octavian might was right. He thought the Sibylin Books could've survived the fire."

„And this book is quite a bit burnt.", Nico said. „So we might have an original Sibylin book."

„So you guys are telling me", John looked surprised. „that I have one, maybe even two of the most legendary books from roman times."