Chapter XI: In Which What is Forbidden is Revealed
Reyna panted as she braced a hand against a tree. Her forty-eight hour punishment was barely halfway over. Lupa had caught her in the library, and after an intense questioning, had sent her to stay with her pack for forty eight hours.
The wolves in this pack had stopped, looking incredibly amused. She knew that they just stopped for her. She knew better than to tell them to stop laughing at her. They had the same body language as Lupa when she didn't want to talk.
Her throat was dirt dry and she was starving. No food or water unless the wolves stopped for it. Lupa must not want her to snoop around, because it was just her luck that the pack she was assigned to had eaten the night before.
Each Centuria had a certain pack, used for intense physical training, and punishment/torture. The wolves were above almost all of the campers at First Legion, except for the Praetors. They were on equal status with them. Though Reyna doubted it this time.
One of the older wolves nipped at her feet, telling that her few minutes of rest was over. She supressed a groan. She wondered where in California they were. The packs could leave camp at will, unlike the campers.
Her internal radar was practically shouting at her that she was directly north of the camp. She ignored the instinct to head that way. Young campers would go through a two, intense week training to gain the internal radar. It would help when the pack did the test to see if you had gained it. They would knock you out, and take you somewhere along the west coast. To pass, you would have to find your way back, intact and monster free. You couldn't enter camp if you failed.
Reyna remembered her first time, at the age of five. They had gotten her when she was asleep and left her near the Canadian border. For the first few hours, she was terrified. The only instinct that came through the panic was the internal radar telling her to head south.
She kept up with the wolves as she remembered the memory of it. It took her eleven days to get back to the camp. When she had returned, Lupa was impressed.
Later, when she became a Praetor, she found out why.
Lupa had thought she was weaker than the other Minerva children. So she sentenced her death. Lupa was rarely wrong.
An irrational thought peeked into her mind. I wish that there was a less dangerous camp, where the training and tests couldn't kill you. Almost immediately, she furiously berated herself. That type of camp didn't exist, besides from the human summer camps.
First Legion was the only demigod camp in the world.
It was the only place on Earth whose occupants had responsibilities that could save the world. Protect the gods and mortals from evil.
Even though the mortals didn't know it, their very existence was connected to the gods' existence. Western Civilization was what Lupa called it.
The pack stopped to rest for the day. Reyna sat down under the tree and closed her eyes, panting like one of them.
Her mind wandered without the concentration needed for endurance.
Maybe it was just her, but some things didn't add up. What happened at Olympus to make the minor gods and goddesses get their say? Jason didn't defeat Saturn, just his brother Crius and yet the war was over.
There was also the fact that their camp director, Mr B., had left a month earlier. Not that Reyna was complaining, Mr B. was strict and easily angered. Though he rarely made contact with the campers. Why did Mr B leave without a notice? Christian doesn't even know. Unless he's lying.
Another thing was about the Greeks. Originally, the gods were Greek. They surely didn't stay abstinent. What happened to those demigods?
Before she could think about it anymore, she was asleep.
Some fort of intuition woke Reyna up. The sun was setting and the wolves were sleeping.
It looked too peaceful.
Reyna started to reach for her shotgun before remembering she was being punishment. She quietly got up and stared at the environment. It was like those 'Find the Differences' pictures. What was wrong?
After a few minutes of just standing there, completely still, she found it. There were tiny piles of mud, almost unnoticeable. It was the same colour as the monster she killed.
A voice spoke in her mind. It seemed to come straight from the ground. Why question the only place you belong? Without Lupa, you would not be here.
Neither would Jason.
Reyna hesitated. Maybe the voice was right. After all, Lupa took them in when their mortal parents couldn't.
Something told her to ignore the voice, no matter how motherly and kind it sounded. If you figure out this, horrible things would happen. Your friends would die.
Reyna was too focused with the voice to notice that the piles of mud were crawling together. This life, you have, it's safe. Why risk intense punishment for a simple, unimportant mystery?
Why use that clever mind for something so insignificant?
That one sentence jolted Reyna. Something insignificant? That went against the code of Minerva. No detail was unimportant, no mystery too small, nothing was insignificant and every bit of information, from the preferred weapon to how you breath, was important.
Reyna staggered back, infuriated by the voice. Her head was burning, feeling sticky. "No, no, no, NO!"
She heard a snarl and a sploosh. Through her fingers, she saw the alpha wolf attack the blob of mud, the same size as the night she first saw it.
Suddenly, all of the other wolves started to attack. They might be cruel and distant but they were fiercely protective of the campers.
Reyna remembered an important detail. "Don't swallow the mud! It's poison!" She wasn't sure if the wolves heard her.
"Hit the purple bulge!" She shouted when the wolves were getting frustrated.
At first, she tried to help them but the alpha snapped his jaws at her. A clear warning to stay away.
The burning feeling in her head increased, she held her head. The voice came back, Little girl, I warn you. What you do now will result in death. Everyone you know will die, Jason, Gwen, and Dakota. ALL of them. The voice went from a motherly tone to a guttural growl.
Reyna fell to her knees. She didn't think anything, she just focused on breathing. Eventually, the voice went away and the pain stopped.
A wet nose nudged her. It was a young pup. He whined in concern.
She took a deep breath. "I-I'm fine. Did you kill it?" the pup looked at the alpha, which did not look happy.
The alpha howled and the wolves started to run, noticing that the monster was reforming quickly.
Before Reyna could blink, the alpha wolf picked her up by the cuff of her shirt and threw her across the back of another wolf.
Reyna clung to the coarse fur as the wolves sprinted away from the monster. Despite what her mind told her, she was terrified. The scent of the wolves comforted her a bit.
Even though it was against the rules to sleep, unless specified, she was asleep within the first few bounds.
Reyna woke up in her sleeper tent. She was still filthy and she had no knowledge of time.
Her first thought was to take a shower. She hated being filthy, it distracted the mind,
Grabbing her bag of toiletries and her grey towel. Outside, it was night, sometime around midnight. The camp was quiet.
The shower felt fantastic. All of the dirt, grime, blood and sweat washed away with the water.
The fear did not.
She would never admit it to anyone, not even to Jason or Gwen. This was the second time she was legitimately terrified. The only other time she was as scared as this, was when they were planning the battle plan for the attack on Mount Orthys. Jason had told her that he was going for the top level, alone.
Back then, she feared for his life and the world's. Now it might be her life and the world's instead.
What did Lupa and the voice did not want her to figure out?
Most importantly, how could she figure out this puzzle without being killed or punished?
The plan popped into her head as she passed the quiet Forum. The library's lights were off and Reyna couldn't see any patrolling wolves.
This was her chance. Should I take it or figure it out within the rules? Before she could even answer herself, Reyna was sneaking toward the Tricliniaria. There was a tunnel that led to the library.
She covered her wet hair with the towel and entered the passageway.
That was where her 'wolfy' instincts helped her. It was pitch black in the tunnel, and she listened to the echoes, silence and her breathing. Closing her eyes, she slowly walked along the shaft, pausing when she felt or heard someone on top of the tunnel.
At the end of the tunnel, Reyna waited exactly five minutes before opening the hatch.
The library was eerily quiet, like it knew something important was happening.
The balcony was too high to jump and Reyna didn't bring anything with her. She cursed. Rash decisions were the Mars Centuria's specialty.
Reyna didn't dare speak. How to get up there without immediate notice? Wait, I first need to know where I have to go. I don't want to waste time browsing and get caught.
She thought about the layout of the library. The Minerva Centuria had all of the blueprints of the battles, buildings and anything related to First Legion.
Not including the Civil War, that is. Reyna wasn't the first to notice but she was the first to question it.
Since America declared their desire of separation from England, the Roman gods, had resided there. George Washington was the son of Minerva, Benedict Arnold was the son of Invidia.
But there was little known information during the Civil War. Reyna wasn't even sure what started the Civil War, besides from the mortal version.
She looked up and scanned the shelves. She smiled to herself when she saw that there was a shelf with the dates during the Civil War, they were locked however, but Reyna would deal with that later.
Now, how to get there? The book stacks are too unstable being that high…Reyna slipped on her bag of toiletries and looked around some more.
There was no visible way, but Reyna believed that when there wasn't a visible way, there was a hidden way.
She felt the shelves they were allowed to access to see if there was a hidden passageway. At the fifth shelf, after she pulled out a leather book. There was a faded symbol, almost unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. It was a triangle. Why is this here? If it wasn't hidden, I'd say it was carved by someone here.
She ran her finger over the symbol. There wasn't any symbol like that in Latin or the Latin-based languages.
It glowed blue and she heard something drop behind the shelf. She backed up, wary. The shelf pulled back and revealed a dark hall.
Reyna mentally went through the blueprint of the library. That hall shouldn't he there, because on the other side of that wall, was the outside.
She hesitated. This isn't a good idea, going in there without a source of light. But this may be my only chance to see what happened during the Civil War.
She was also risking her status as Praetor. She had no idea how high the punishment would be if Lupa found out. For all she knew, she could be killed for doing this.
As she looked for the symbol to close the hall, she spotted a candle, with a new wick and one match. She sent a thank you prayer to her mother.
The hallway led to a set of stairs; past that was another passage, but it had collapsed. The candle flickered as she quickly climbed up the stairs.
It led to another wall. Reyna clenched her teeth and turned around before realizing that the small source of moonlight from the way she came was gone.
She was trapped, in gods know where.
Reyna took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. The candle would at least give her a few hours of light. And she had about six hours until someone would realize that she was missing.
She felt the walls, looking for the triangle symbol. When it wasn't there, she searched the floors.
The ceiling was too high for Reyna to reach but the triangle symbol was there. If she jumped, she could barely touch it.
On the fifth try, risking her source of light going out, she finally touched the symbol. It glowed blue and the wall in front of her moved, revealing the top floors of the library.
There was a problem though. The windows of the library showed that the sun was beginning to rise. That meant it was five in the morning. She went in the library at one. She surely didn't lose track of time. What happened?
Reyna didn't have time to figure it out, at least not here. She started to grab books; she was counting on the position of the shelves. During the day, shadows fell across the shelves, making it really hard to see if there were any books missing. At night however, you could clearly see the shelves.
Once her toiletries bag was full of books, she climbed over the railing. The hallway she came through had closed the moment she left it.
Her tailbone and legs grumbled in pain as she landed on the hard tile floor. No time to recover, she scrambled for the tunnel she came in as the sun rose higher.
She closed the entrance of the tunnel. Her only goal now was to get back to her tent without being caught.
Hazel watched as two very distraught campers rushed in through the gate. She scowled as she walked to them.
"What were you two doing?" She questioned them. "What's your Centuria?"
"We-we snuck out of the camp, wanting to see if we could fight a monster on our own." The boy flinched under Hazel's glare. "A-and Max thought he heard something in the bushes. S-so he ran ahead."
The other boy continued for his friend. "When we caught up with him, he was trying to fight…" the two were clearly disturbed by something.
"What did the monster look like?" Hazel prompted, slowly losing her patience.
"It looked like a pile of mud on steroids. It had a purple bulge of nerves near the middle." That sounds like the monster Reyna fought with. But I thought she killed that one.
"What happened to Max?" She asked.
"Well, he rushed the monster and…and…it swallowed him whole." Maybe that's why they're disturbed, they saw their first death.
"What are your names?"
"Josh and Dant, from the Iris Centuria." They looked very afraid.
Hazel snapped her fingers at them. "Go back to physical training. Jeremy and I will deal with you later." Both of them eagerly rushed off.
First, she was gonna have to talk to Reyna.
She walked into Reyna's sleeper tent. It was bigger than the other sleeper tents. There were piles of books and papers on the floors and tables. But besides that, the tent was pretty clean.
Reyna jumped when Hazel entered without knocking. Anyone could enter a sleeper tent, though it was polite to knock. "H-Hazel! What are you doing here?" she stuffed something under her pillow.
Hazel raised an eyebrow but she didn't ask, instead she said. "You didn't kill the monster that night did you?"
Reyna was insulted. "I did! Poisonous mud splattered everywhere!"
"Then why was a camper eaten by the very same monster? Unless they would reform that fast, which is impossible."
"What? A camper, eaten? That must mean there are more monsters." Reyna quickly explained what happened when she was with the wolves and her theory.
"But that would only count for one disappearance; we decided that all of the others were because of Saturn's influence." Hazel pointed out.
"That was before the battle at Mount Orthys. But very few disappearances happened after that. But last month, even more campers went missing, in the worst weather. I encountered that monster during a rainstorm. From what I can guess, something very powerful is waking up."
"How would that explain the monster the two Iris campers encountered in the middle of the day?"
Reyna thought about this for a moment. "When I told the voice that I would find out what was happening, it was very mad-"
"No duh." Hazel snorted but Reyna continued.
"And if the monsters are coming out in the day, which would probably mean that the owner of the voice was really serious about wanting whatever is happening to be a secret."
Hazel nodded. "Right. What does this have to do with Percy?"
Reyna sighed, "I've yet to figure that out. Seeing what he could possibly left is going to be a definite help."
Hazel played with her braid. "I found the tunnel you asked for, with what you're doing and the severity that could possibly happen, I suggest that we go tonight."
"We?" Reyna raised an eyebrow.
"I hope you just didn't assume I would let you use my tunnels without me." Hazel replied.
Reyna shook her head. "No, I didn't…" She did. One problem about the Minerva Centuria. They always think by themselves. You need gears in order for a clock to work.
Reyna looked at her watch, "It's almost time for my training. I've got to go." She got up. "See you around midnight?"
Hazel nodded. "Try not to get in trouble until then."
Five more hours, Reyna thought as she picked out her dinner. After she had her talk with Hazel, the day went by normally as it could. She had interviewed the two campers and a part of her theory was confirmed.
Something was waking up, that was for sure. But what exactly, and why?
After she had returned to her sleeper tent, she forced herself to get some sleep and wait for spare time.
Some of the books were the journals of demigods. The way of the writing was a bit difficult to decipher but she eventually figured out they were talking about other demigods. Was the war Roman vs. Roman?
That didn't make sense to Reyna. She'd been thinking about it ever since.
She sacrificed a portion of her meal to her mother and sent a prayer. Please help me solve this.
She sat down and began to eat, not really tasting the food.
It was unusual for Romans to fight each other, a battle that got large enough to mimic mortal history. What was the reasoning for the conflict? Reyna knew it wasn't as basic as slavery, it went deeper than that. Maybe a Centuria rivalry? Neptune and Minerva could be possible.
She doubted this. I'm gonna have to read more. You can't make Water and Honey Melons with just water.
Someone sat down in front of her. The faint smell of rotting fish intercepted her olfactory receptors. She wrinkled her nose and looked up. It was Dakota.
"Why do you smell?" She asked, taking a drink from her goblet.
Dakota groaned. "I showered seven times and I still smell? I'm going to ask Kim for help."
Reyna couldn't help but snicker. "So I'm guessing you captured Nereus?"
Dakota nodded, looking disgruntled. "I did, it took six hours to do so and I'm very surprised that my disappearance wasn't noticed."
Reyna couldn't help but smile. "What did he say?"
Dakota paused. "This is what he exactly did. Nereus grumbled about no one leaving him alone and asking obvious question. Then he pointed to the ground and said 'It ain't gonna get more obvious than that.' After that, he swam away."
"He pointed to the ground? How could the ground be waking up?" Reyna mumbled to herself. As far as her knowledge went, there was no deity that controlled the earth. Besides Pluto and Neptune but this was far more powerful than two of the Big Three gods.
"It's obviously not Pluto or Neptune." Dakota said, reading Reyna's face. She nodded in agreement.
"Could it be another Titan? The Titan Ops could be angry that her husband failed."
Dakota shook his head. "From what we've learned during the war, she wasn't involved in it. So I doubt that she could be angry over something she wasn't part of."
She wrinkled her nose, "What do you know about the Civil War?"
He blinked, "The Civil War? Nothing besides the mortal version of it. Why?"
Reyna played with the uneaten portion of her food. "I think this has something to do with it."
"Why?"
Reyna shrugged. "Right now, I don't have enough information. I might have a more solid theory by the end of this week."
Dakota looked surprised. "This week? That's a long time, even for you."
Reyna scowled. "I know, but this is could literally mean life or death. I'm not going to rush it."
"So, are you going to spend your sleepless nights getting more information?"
She smirked. "Something like that."
The moonlight made the fort look eerie, at least to Reyna. She wasn't a fan of the dark or any of its relatives.
She had been waiting for Hazel for at least five minutes. She was about to give up and go on her own when she heard the long grass shuffle.
Before she could even think, she had Carpe Scientia out and her finger trigger-ready.
Hazel swallowed, even though she didn't like the idea of a modern weapon to fight monsters, she really didn't want to be shot. "Nervous are we?"
Reyna lowered the barrel. "I'm not fond of the dark, that's all."
"Don't let Todd hear you say that. That guy is the master of fear, besides his father."
Reyna shuddered, "Don't remind me."
Hazel motion for Reyna to follow her. "Come on, the faster we do this, the faster I can sleep."
Reyna swung her shotgun across her back and followed Hazel to the Minerva Caput Tabernaculum. Hazel reached down and appeared to be searching for something.
"How many tunnels are there?" Reyna was curious. She had heard rumours about them, including the one where there was a tunnel that led straight to San Francisco.
"Enough to keep my Centuria excavating for a couple of centuries." Was Hazel's curt reply. She pulled at a silver, dirt encrusted handle and an opening the size of a manhole appeared.
Hazel slipped in the hole. "Come on."
Reyna hesitated for a minute before following.
"What do you think of Percy?" she asked as she followed Hazel.
Hazel kept a hand on the dirt wall while she walked. It was really easy to miss an entrance to another tunnel. "I don't like what I don't know. I don't trust him, especially with that Celestial Bronze sword."
Reyna tilted her head. "What do you mean? What's wrong with his sword?"
"It's pure Celestial Bronze. It's very hard to get the temperature right. It's more stable than Imperial Gold but our furnaces are too hot for Celestial Bronze, it just burns in high quantities."
Reyna nodded as Hazel continued. "It would take a miracle from Vulcan to make a sword just from Celestial Bronze."
Hazel pulled at a rock and another entrance appeared. Reyna could smell the salty beach breeze.
"It smells like the beach."
"Thanks for the notice, Sherlock." Hazel rolled her eyes and walked into the tunnel.
After a couple of minutes of walking and waiting as Hazel kept track of where they were, they had arrived at the entrance of the Neptune Caput Tabernaculum.
It smelled so strongly like the beach, Reyna had to make sure they were still at First Legion.
Reyna felt like she was underwater. The only source of light came from the pool on the left side of the tent. "Wow."
She started to look around. She didn't expect to find much; all Percy had was the stuff in his pocket and what First Legion supplied him.
"What's this?" Hazel asked as she found a case on the bookshelf. It gave a faint gold glow.
Hazel opened it. There was Riptide, basking in a combination of salt and fresh water. "Why did he leave it here?"
Reyna looked at the case. "I don't know. It looks fine to me."
"I would like to take it with me, so to see how it was made." Hazel mumbled, deep in thought.
"I wouldn't touch it-"Reyna started but she was too late.
As soon as Hazel touched it, the tent seemed to notice intruders. The blue green glow of the light turned dark grey, making it difficult to see.
Water began to rush in the tent from everywhere. Within moments, the tent was filled to the brim with water.
Hazel swam to the entrance of the tunnel. She scrambled to find the handle.
Reyna completely forgot about the defences of each Caput Tabernaculum. It varied with each god and goddess. For Minerva, there was a couple of 'tests'. For example, sometimes you had to weave a certain pattern or figure out a map of a city, in a matter of minutes.
She wasn't surprised that Neptune's defence was to completely submerge the tent in water. The pressure was increasing as well.
Hazel pulled at the handle but the pressure of the water counteracted with her force. It only moved when Reyna pulled on it as well.
The water pulled Hazel and Reyna, slamming them into the wall. Reyna had a hard time knowing how long they were underwater. Thirty seconds? A minute? Her lungs were starting to burn.
Both of them were blindly feeling the wall for the handle. The water and dirt combination clouded the water even more. Hazel tried to ignore the panic of being completely submerged in water.
They both pulled at the rock, kicking their feet to propel themselves backwards.
The water rushed out of the entrance, starting to flood the other tunnels. Reyna and Hazel gasped for breath. They only rested for a few moments before Hazel realized that at the rate of the water rushing out of the tunnel, all of the tunnels and eventually the Armamentarium.
She stood up. "Reyna! Help me close the door! The water is going to flood everything!"
Reyna looked at her, momentarily confused before helping Hazel push the door closed against the rushing water.
The mud squished as the girls slumped against the now closed doors. They were wet, and covered in mud.
"Great, how am I going to explain to my campers why there is mud underground?" Hazel complained.
"Mud is better than flooded tunnels." Reyna muttered. She didn't learn anything. Either Percy was smarter than she previously thought or he is as innocent as he appears.
"You shut up. Who knows how much water is in the tunnels now."
"Think positive, Haze."
"I swear on my father's name, if you don't shut up, you'll find an angry automaton in your bed."
Reyna decided to close her mouth. For some reason, despite not gaining any information, she felt really good, like she discovered something important.
But first, she was gonna need a shower to get the mud off her.
"Be patient, young one. Your time will come very soon."
"B-but we've been here for four days and he still isn't ready. We need to leave now-"
"Have patience. The boy had been through a lot. Have you decided yet?"
"Not yet…"
"Well, you best make a choice fast. It will affect your future and his."
"I know."
Hello my beloved reader. How's life? What did you think of this chapter? Or the ending?
From my very rough estimate, we're about halfway through First Legion.
Guess what? I have a beta, my very first beta. iscreamdrizzle. So far, she has been a awesome beta. Go check out her story. It's better than mine.
For those readers who asked what was the website where I saw Rick live, it was www . rick and james live . com, though I believe it was only for that day. The official Facebook page of PJO keeps me updated on stuff like that. (Maybe one of the few perks of being a Facebook addict.)
Review Question: Are YOU a Facebook addict? If not, what website are you addicted to? (Besides beloved Fanfiction of course.) If you are not addicted to any websites, can you swim? I can't swim...
Reviews make lovely presents for my inbox, remember that!
