Disclaimer: I do not own PJO, nor do I own Louise Cooper's Mermaid Curse series, from which I have borrowed the concept of the pearls.

Annabeth's POV

Percy was making fun of my motto of 'Always, always have a plan'. I had packed a few maps, a notebook, extra knives and matches, ambrosia and nectar, as well as extra clothes (Percy's not going to be laughing when his clothes get ruined). Even though I could zap these things out of nothingness, I still liked the feeling of knowing that these items were something within reach, something tangible.

Even after Percy and I had become gods, we still acted as though we were humans. The only thing we had gotten used to were our godly responsibilities; the rest was all still very new to us.

We walked towards to camp border hand in hand, the campers waving goodbye enthusiastically (while they loved Percy and he was a much better camp director than Mr. D, he had implemented a lot of tough training to ensure the campers were in shape).

"Ready?" Percy asked.

I raised my eyebrows. "I always am."

California was hot. The blistering heat beat down on our backs as we throttled as many deities as we could find for information on the folklore of Talora. No one knew anything.

"This is hopeless," Percy grunted as he threw the minor water deity back into the sea. I felt inclined to agree with him, but voicing out my fears would make my desperation too apparent. Gods did need rest from time to time, but instead of sleeping last night I had scourged the Internet and our personal library for clues on Athena's marginal advice. My search had been as fruitless as the one we were having now. The lack of sleep and constant failures were starting to get to me.

"Did you see that?" Percy said suddenly. I nodded. I had detected a movement in my peripheral vision. We slowly inched our way to a back alleyway.

"Well, well, how very perceptive of you young godlings to notice my presence." The woman who spoke looked beautiful, but there was something really disingenuous about her being. She sounded like she was in one of those high school cliques, and she was about to reveal the latest gossip.

She wound a finger around her silky black hair. "I hear you're looking for information about a certain immortal being by the name of-" and here she paused dramatically. "Talora."

We had seen it coming, but we still gasped. The woman smiled, showing teeth.

"Who are you?" I demanded. I was irked I hadn't figured it out already.

"Sweet Annabeth," she purred.

"Honestly, what is it with people who are not my boyfriend using terms of endearment to me?" I grumbled.

"You don't have to be disappointed that you don't know who I am. I'm not a major Greek deity. I am Pheme!" she said with a great amount of self-importance.

"Who?" Percy said intelligently. I wanted to elbow him. Years of meeting various deities apparently hadn't taught him to feign knowledge of them.

She only chuckled though. "I am the goddess of fame and renown, and I've also been told that I'm a tremendous gossip. Whatevsies, I say to that. Anyway, I love prying into the affairs of mortals and gods.

The goddess continued. "I will tell you the folklore of Talora, on one condition." She gave us a serious expression.

"What is it?" I asked, feeling dread. What was she going to ask us to do? Slay a monster? Collect golden apples? Ask another god to stop trespassing? We couldn't do many of those things anymore, given that we were no longer demigods. We might, I thought with dread, have to send out other heroes to do our dirty work for us. I did not want to have to resort to that.

"I want you to fix my iPhone (Not a promo)!" she decreed. "I need to catch up on the latest gossip."

"What? I can do that." I breathed a sigh of relief. I had it fixed in under a minute. A child of Hephaestus would have considered it not worth their time.

"Well?" Percy demanded. "Are you going to tell us what it is now?

"Yes. Ahem." She cleared her throat. "It was a dark and stormy night," she said, taking out a flashlight and shining it on her face, even though we were in broad daylight.

"Seriously?" I protested. "Can you stop with the dramatics? We just want the story."

"Alright." She sighed. "I just really wanted to do that. Jeez. Ok," she went on, more serious and businesslike. "You think the Greek gods are old? Well, Talora is a being much, much older than that. She's one of the primordial beings. There are others, but we won't get into that now. Talora presides over the sea. One of her symbols is the pearl. According to the folklore, she possesses a crown with nine pearls, each of a different color, but each, as brilliant as the next. The colors are red, orange, golden-"

"Green, blue, indigo, violet, silver and black," I recited softly. She looked mad that someone had taken over her precious storytelling. "Sorry," I said sheepishly.

"These pearls that were once part of the Talora's crown all have their own magic. However, the black and the silver pearl possess the greatest magic of all. When combined, these pearls have a power greater than you can imagine. They have the power to create or destroy entire universes. If it falls into the wrong hands, things will be… very bad."

Percy and I looked at each other. Our expressions were both grim. Did a vindictive and vengeful goddess count as the wrong hands? Um, j'yeah. Were things bad? Definitely. How were we going to continue on with our secret quest when we were obviously being not too discreet (if a goddess could find us so easily), make sure I don't turn into a mermaid permanently, and not let the pearls fall into the wrong hands? Also, what magic did each pearl possess?

I turned to Pheme earnestly. "Could you tell us where we should start looking for the pearls?"

She snorted. "If I knew where they were, I wouldn't be standing here right now. All I know is that the pearls are scattered all around the world, separated, each in the hands of a different guardian." She smiled, as though imagining what the world would look like with her as its dictator.

Her smile turned feral as she focused her gaze on my neck. "And it seems as though you don't have much time left."

I looked down. Sure enough, the two pearls at the side of my necklace turned from bone-white to a pale, milky blue.

So, this chapter was a little weird. Hope you enjoyed it anyway!

~ Nataliya118