A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
Percy never knew that the dagger occasionally carried by the girl he met by the pond would turn out to be a weapon of such mass destruction.
He dipped himself in the pond and let the water heal him. Surprisingly, the nymph-like girl had recognized him as a son of Poseidon almost immediately.
Crash!
Both Percy and the girl turned to see three hellhounds bound from the thicket. They stalked towards the two, fanning into a semicircle.
The message was clear: no one leaves. Alive.
Percy cursed. He had killed four hellhounds earlier and thought he had managed to get free from the rest of the pack. Clearly, the Fates did not hold him high in their regard.
"Stay behind me!" He yelled to the woman. He had to make sure the innocent stayed safe.
Percy lifted his hands and out from the pond two giant hands made of water caught two hellhounds and smashed them together. Unfortunately, that left the third hellhound free to leap with its claws fully extended.
Before Percy could dodge, the woman stood before him unexpectedly and lashed out with her hand. He caught sight of a bronze flash and the hellhound yelped.
Percy squeezed his hands and the water hands mimicked his motion. The two hellhounds evaporated into dust. Before the third hellhound could even leap again, Percy had summoned his sword and slashed the hellhound in its flank. With a yelp, the hellhound burst into a cloud of golden dust.
He could not even have the feeling of satisfaction of finally ending that vexing pack of hellhounds as his wounds reminded him he was not fully healed. His eyes closed and he felt himself falling towards the pond.
When Percy woke up, his wounds were neatly bandaged, and a small fire was lit nearby. A soft voice was singing by the fire.
The woman's name was Calypso.
"The same Calypso who kept Odysseus prisoner on her island of Ogygia?" Annabeth asked.
"No." Percy shook his head. "This Calypso was no sorceress, but a nature spirit."
As a child of the elder gods, Percy attracted the worst of the creatures. For a while, he completed quests with his fellow demigods and friends until the monsters became more unbearable and more of his companions became hurt.
Percy began taking on solo quests. Fewer people were injured this way. He thought that he would be okay with being alone, only to realize how lonely he felt at times.
As such, he relished Calypso's companionship when she helped him finish the quest of ridding the local city-state of the wild packs of hellhounds. Then, she continued on with the journey with him.
"Can nymphs travel around?"
"That's what I asked her. Calypso was a water nymph. She preferred being around water, so as long as there was a river or creek nearby to refresh herself occasionally, she would be fine."
And with a son of Poseidon with control over water, they were quite a pair of adventurers. Calypso also had some amount of magic control over water, and she fought with a small dagger. Percy did not know it then, but it was this dagger that he would be haunted for the rest of his lifetime.
Their third quest was set to investigate a series of flooding that left villages devastated. For a pair of questers who had control over water, this was the perfect quest.
The floods were so severe that some villagers had even disappeared, with not even their bodies being found. Now the floods were getting larger and larger and more people disappeared, so much that Percy questioned whether the floods were natural disasters or not.
Each village or town affected was along one great river. But there had been no substantial rain, and the villages had embankments already prepared, yet the river had managed to overcome the barriers.
Percy stared intensely at the river's waters.
"What's wrong?" Calypso asked.
Instead of answering, Percy focused on the waters and concentrated. A huge gush of water burst from the river. From the shape, a man emerged from the river, his skin as blue as his chiton. Water constantly dripped from the stranger as reeds decorated his arms like jewelry.
Out of the corner of Percy's eye, he spotted Calypso's expression. At best, her look could be described as complicated. Back then, he had thought it was because Calypso was confused why a river god was flooding the villages of his own accord. Now, Percy knew it was because she and the river gods were acquaintances.
What he didn't understand now was whether she was already complicit in the flooding and the disappearing villagers by then, or if she was dragged into it afterwards.
After that point, the flooding and the number of villagers stopped. But Percy was still suspicious that the potamoi did not realize that his river water was causing so much destruction. The potamoi blamed it on the dams constructed upstream for the flooding.
A week later, two of the vanished villagers' bodies were discovered. While on the outside the cause of death looked like drowning, Percy was skeptical.
He would have buried the bodies until he realized each body had a small wound over their chest, like they had been stabbed.
"Are you all right?" Percy asked, seeing Calypso's pale face. The bodies were a truly gruesome sight. "Don't come closer." He warned her.
Soon after this, Calypso gravely told Percy that she had to return to her original source of water for a while. She had sensed her family was calling her back. Perhaps something was wrong with her home. She would help investigate the flooding from her sisters and send word. Without any further explanation, she had dove into the river and disappeared.
By the time he realized that it was her dagger that had caused the deaths, it was too late.
Just when he thought the flooding had calmed down, unnatural flooding occurred elsewhere in three other small villages, wiping almost half of the towns out. Percy managed to trace down a different branch of the river that connected the three villages. Then, he was hit with the most devastating news in his life.
While he was investigating the three villages, Percy's hometown, Amnisos, was completely destroyed by the first river. Water covered everything, swamping the fertile fields and houses. Here and there, a cottage completely collapsed. He rescued who he could, all the while fearing for his family's life.
The house that he had grown up in was rubble, the roof collapsed inwards. Hidden in the corner and barely able to survive was his little sister Estelle, still but a child of three years. No matter how much he anxiously rummaged through the rest of the demolished ruins, not a single trace of his mother's and stepfather's bodies were to be found. It appeared his mother's last act was to desperately place Estelle on the highest shelf she could reach when the roof collapsed.
Estelle was old enough to let Percy know the flooding occurred without warning. No large amount of rain had occurred in the days prior. The flooding was sudden, with water that rushed through the outskirts of town and smashed through the encircling walls. Hardly anyone had time to prepare before they were caught in the flood.
After ensuring that Estelle was safe on his back, Percy investigated the rest of the flooding. It was then he saw her. Calypso. In her hands was the dagger she usually carried.
"Calypso!" He shouted out. Why was she here? Was she back from returning from whatever her task was?
But her face looked frightened at his approach. She fled the scene and morphed into the waters. When Percy arrived at the spot she had vanished at.
The body of his mother, with a single stab wound over her heart.
It took half a year to track her down. Those months were hell as Percy wondered why Calypso could do such a thing. It must have been a mistake, wasn't it?
He prayed to the gods for help all along the way, even finding a temple of Athena where the goddess reluctantly revealed to the son of her rival that the dagger was Soul-Eater, the Blade of Souls.
And near that temple, he found Calypso.
There was a fierce battle where she had summoned sea serpents from a water portal. He was aware that there seemed to be someone else directing her, whoever her Master was. The Blade of Souls was being prepared for someone–something–powerful, perhaps as powerful as a god or even more so.
It was a fearsome fight. Percy had lost his sword and could not summon it when the flood waters kept his weapon deliberately from him.
When his back was turned, Percy felt the hairs on his neck stand up. He whirled around, just in time to catch Calypso's wrist before she could stab him.
"Why?" Percy asked her, his tears hardly able to mask his pain and fury.
She could only whisper, "I'm sorry, Percy. This was the only way."
Percy's physical strength overpowered her easily. He only meant to wrestle the dagger out of her hand when the blade suddenly turned inward. Calypso gasped as the blade pierced her chest.
For a moment, Calypso's blue eyes widened. Percy saw his own shocked reflection in them.
Without warning, the blade exploded. The blast diameter was so large, Percy was knocked unconscious.
When he woke up, he had been made a god. On Mt. Olympus, Poseidon had gently informed him that he had unknowingly saved the lives of hundreds of people from stopping the flooding and whatever the water portal was, and perhaps totaling a thousand or more if the unnatural disasters had continued. However, the blast from the Blade of Souls had almost completely disintegrated him.
The Olympian gods had judged him worthy, and to preserve his life, they turned him into a god without his input.
But, there were still too many questions left unanswered. How did Calypso come to have this dagger? Who was she acting for? And why? If he could, he wanted to grab her by the shoulders and scream for the answers.
The dagger was gone. What was left of Calypso was a few golden pink pearls left in mud that had once adorned her hair. When he tracked down her pool, the source of her life, the pond had long dried up, almost as though it had dried up even before he had met her.
It was only then he was certain that Calypso was gone from the world, destroyed by the Blade of Souls.
"Were the two of you lovers, Lord Perseus?" Annabeth hesitantly asked.
"No," Percy answered her softly. "We were simply friends. Or so I thought we were."
He had thought they were friends all the way until she had caused the death of his family and villagers. Perhaps, if she had not betrayed him, his adoration for her might have turned into something more.
But that was in the past.
Annabeth looked worriedly at the Blade of Souls as if it could explode at any moment.
"Fret not about that dagger. It seems that it has lost all its magic since then." Percy tried to assure her.
She didn't look convinced. "But does that mean the blade will suck out the soul of any person it touches?"
"No. Back then, certain conditions had to be met. But I do not know what kind of conditions they were." Calypso knew, but she had died before letting anyone know. That was probably for the best.
Annabeth stared out at the sea. "It must have been tough for you, feeling betrayed like that. I can understand even more why you did not trust me."
"I do apologize for that." Percy said. "I admit…I have found it hard for me to trust someone other than myself. Although these days…" He laughed bitterly. "I find it difficult to believe in myself."
They were silent for a while, watching the stars become brighter and brighter.
"I trust in you." Annabeth said, quietly.
"What?"
"I trust in you." She repeated. Her gray eyes were steadfast. "I know that it will take time, but I hope…one day that you can trust in me."
Her voice and eyes were brimming with so much sincerity, Percy wanted to convince himself to believe in her right away. But she was right. It would take time.
"Your words are heartening to hear. Thank you. Now go to sleep, Wise Girl. We have a long journey ahead of us."
When Annabeth fell asleep, part of Percy's consciousness went back to under the sea.
Without letting anyone know, he approached the vault where the Blade of Souls was held. The vault was empty, with layers of enchantment surrounding the vault as though it had been untouched.
Yet somehow, Annabeth had summoned the dagger. When he went back to the ship, Annabeth was still asleep.
Making sure that she would not wake up, Percy gently probed her with a bit of godly aura. Nothing to be sensed from her. Could she be…
No. There was nothing similar about the two, neither in appearance or character, except for perhaps their courage.
Annabeth's soul burned bright, while Calypso was a gentle spirit, or at least that's what he had thought before she had tried to stab him in the back.
"I do hope you don't betray me, daughter of Athena." Percy said, quietly.
The demigod's brows furrowed, but still in a deep sleep.
Percy touched his leather cord necklace in thought. He pulled the blanket over Annabeth and then stared out at the stars.
Annabeth had that dream of running away with monsters chasing after her, someone tugging at her arms to have her keep running. Then some voice in a temple telling her a sacrifice was needed, before the nightmare finished off with someone stabbing her in the heart.
She blamed the previous night's conversation on the Blade of Souls, although she had the first part of the dream before she knew about Perseus' history with Soul-Eater. Now, she was anxious that the dagger was cursed or could explode at any moment.
"Wake up, Wise Girl. The day has already gone by the time you rouse from bed."
Annabeth picked herself up. Yesterday's fight had taken quite the energy from her, and the sea god and her had talked late into the night.
Her ears pricked at the sound of shouts and laughter.
The ship had come to a stop at a dock. Before her lay a town much, much bigger than Pegai. People were beginning to come out to the docks, their laughter and cheering evident.
"Where are we?"
"Amnisos." The sea god's face seemed to be brighter, happier than Annabeth had ever seen him. "My birthplace from when I was a demigod."
A/N: Mythology can get so convoluted at times. There were two Calypsos in Greek myths.
I've gotten a lot of reviews and DMs about when Pampered will be updated over the past few months, and the answer is I honestly have no idea lol. Now that I'm working in the hospital, I don't have time to do much anything other than study, eat, and sleep. Bride of the Sea Gods is being updated with chapters I wrote over winter break, and any free time I have will most likely be little chunks on the weekends. I'm sorry, ya'll, I am only human. T.T
And I totally understand, there have been many times as a reader where I find unfinished stories and I wish the author would come back and update. But have no fear, I will not write a rushed ending for Pampered! Pampered is one of my project babies, and I don't like writing subpar stories. I at least will try to get them to mediocre quality lol.
Thanks for reading and reviewing. Hope you all enjoy this, and see you all next chapter!