Percy POV

'Dad, what are you doing here?'

'Yes, that was spying'

Dionysus rolled his eyes but didn't comment on that. Which was weird considering that he just spied on us in a from of a bug. And Katie Gardner ate him up. I loved having gods around, always a great laugh.

'Percy needs to go to Chiron. There was a prophecy about you.' About me?

'What do you mean? Does… our friend upstairs know?' Dionysus' eyebrows shot upwards and smiled.

'No, Percy, our friend upstairs doesn't know any Styx about you.' he stood up and started to walk around. 'Poseidon organazied a prophecy. Herophile, his daughter made-up a prophecy about you.'

'For what?'

'For you to go on a quest.'

A pregnant silence fell. For what I knew quests were a sentence to death or you went insane. Or you came back in two pieces.

'A quest?'

Dionysus nodded solemnly.

'He won't go anywhere without us!' suddenly said Castor. 'Indeed, no Percy, no us!' agreed Pollux.

'Guys you really don't have to, it's a bad idea.'

'No, Percy we swore on the river Styx…'

But the god between us interrupted. 'You swore that you would not say a thing to strangers. Not that you would go to quests with him. You're staying at camp. Capiche?'

Pollux and Castor wanted to protest but godly rage was crawling out of Dionysus, so they decided against it.

'For what is the quest?'

Dionysus sat down and sighed. 'Zeus lost his toy; you need to return it. If you don't, he'll kill you. The end.'

'W-what?'

'Zeus's lightning bold. Scary weapon. Was stolen. You return it.'

'What do you mean I need to return it?'

He sighed again and rolled his eyes.

'Do you know what Zeus's lightning bolt is?'

'Yes'

'Basically, last winter solstice, the thing was stolen. Zeus says Poseidon has it. But Poseidon couldn't steal it, so Chiron assumes Hades. You need to go to the Underworld to retrieve the thing.'

That is where Castor and Pollux again started protesting.

'The Underworld?'

'Are you crazy?'

'Do you want him to die?'

'What is this? A how-fast-can-this-child-die TV reality program?'

'He isn't going.'

'No fucking way.'

I screamed over their voices. 'I am going!'

They fell silent.

'Percy, you can't.'

But I knew what I needed to say. 'Rhodes already warned me that I sooner or later needed to go on a quest. This was inevitable.'

I didn't want to say that I wanted to go to the Underworld solely because of my mom. That would be selfish. But that is what I wanted. To see her warm eyes and feel her warm skin, her heart beating. A spark of hope burned in me.

'We are going with you.' I shook my head. They could die on the quest. They couldn't die. They won't. I won't let them.

'No, you won't. Besides, Grover already volunteered for if I had a quest. So that makes the two of us.'

Dionysus nodded. I thought that he valued his children more over his adoptive one. Though I can't blame him for that.

'Annabelle Charleston also wants to go.' He said it with a grief tone in his voice.

Andromeda POV

Ahura's room was huge. I never saw such a big room for one person. Let alone a woman. The fact that the men let her do it made her godly in my eyes. Makes sense considering she was half-god. Oh wait, me too. But I didn't feel like one.

Ahura had gold in her hair, a peplos in the color of fine wine, green piercing eyes and cherry blossom lips. She smelt clean and walked as if she was walking on a cloud.

I, in contrary, smelt like dirt, had leaves, and probably bugs in my hair. I wouldn't be surprised if my father was the god of ugliness and uselessness. Someone like that would love to court Dadda. Dadda was always dressed good, and sometimes I wondered if he was blessed by the lady of the doves. Ahura maybe was. She never looked at me, at least tried too. Maybe she didn't want to look at something as pathetic as me.

And her room was divine too. It was painted a soft lavender; I imagine how many flowers needed to be wasted for this. Beautiful pictures of waves and trees on the wall, painted with black ink. A golden shield and spear near the wall, Hestia's hearth, a lyre, some pottery, herbs on the wall and wood for the hearth.

Her kline (bedframe) had a golden frame, with engraved patterns. Her stromata (blanket/wrapping blanket) was huge and sown with fine embroidery.

In other words: Ahura was incredibly rich. But I didn't understand how she only had one room and how she had so much money. As if sensing my question, she answered.

'Apollo did this for me.' she spoke the god's name as if it was an insult. She even grimaced after saying this as if the name left a bad taste in her mouth.

'You sleep on the palette, and right now,' she turned around to look at me, but backed up in a second, 'we need to get miss Andromeda of Unknown cleaned up.'

…

As not expected, Ahura was a clean freak. We went the baths and she insisted to a few slaves that they needed more hot rocks in the already hot bath. I didn't like the way she treated the slaves. Athens, my hometown, often got criticized for their treatment towards slaves. We were too soft. But here, in Korinthos, Ahura treated them harsh.

Well, harsh for my Athenian standards. I heard some women talking that Ahura was too kind. I decided that I didn't like

Korinthos. And besides, Athens had the Parthenon. So much cooler than Korinthos (no I wasn't biased).

Up next Ahura started scrubbing me with ashes, sand, and clay. After that I met the pumice. I didn't like the Vulcanic rock, but to my surprise all the dirt got away as magic. After more hot baths Ahura took me to the milk baths (that was a thing?) and after that she started rubbing olive oil in my skin. That felt familiar and nostalgic. I wanted to go to Athens again. To see my beautiful city, to talk to the smart minds. But I knew I couldn't go back. Not without my father there. Not without Theodore.

War took them away from me. And now, the daughter of the goddess of war was scrubbing me. I felt like a traitor.

After Ahura scrubbed me with the strigil, I felt my skin red, and it burned.

'Here we go.' She smiled when I looked at myself in the mirror. 'You look good.'

I didn't want compliments from her, but I mumbled a "thank you". She took that and smiled. 'Now let's go.' Suddenly a slave walked to us and gave Ahura a piece of fabric. It was the color of my chiton. Wait. It was my chiton.

'I asked them to wash it for you. Don't think that you would want to get rid of that.' I nodded and smiled. At least I got to keep that.

'And now let's go home. After that to the stoa, I still need to do the groceries for today.' She started to put clothes on. 'After that, under the cover of Nyx, we'll go to the House of Hades. No one needs to see us.'

Ahura POV

Andromeda was pretty. What? What are you looking at me like that? That isn't my opinion, that is a fact. I wanted to be mad at her but couldn't bring myself to it. She was so immensely clueless and looked so lost that even when she mentioned my patron and even unwillingly forced me to say his name, I didn't get mad. I think I am a hero.

Even with dirt on her face, leaves in her hair and mud on her chiton, she looked perfect. I didn't meet her gaze because I was afraid, she would see my blushing face. That couldn't be happening. I had a reputation to uphold.

Maybe (just maybe) I went to the baths just to look at her. What, you can't blame me. She is pretty, okay?

I wanted her to have the best experience, so I asked the slaves to be a bit faster, even if it was a bit harsh. Immediately I saw disappointment in Andromeda's eyes. I didn't like that. She needed to like me. That was a matter of life and death. I waited a year for the motherfucker, so yes, it would be dissapointing if they didn't like me.

So, after the hot bath we went to the milk baths. Andromeda just floated around the bath. In the milk baths it was a bit cooler. Maybe because I didn't have to see Andromeda's legs. No, they just had their temperature down, I am sure of it.

After that I started scrubbing her and let me tell you something, I thought I had a fewer. Her skin was so soft and so hot that I thought that I would just faint right there. Her skin was like a cloud, soft and it had no scars.

Because the person in the body hadn't experienced war first-hand. She didn't have to fight. I cursed my mother. War was a curse that seemed to follow me alongside with Apo- …my patron. We don't say his name around here.

But Andromeda was so untouched that I wanted to close her eyes and protect her ears, so she wouldn't have to experience any of that. So that she would never meet her ladyship with the name war. But I knew that couldn't be possible. The House of Hades called us, and that meant something.

After the bath we went to the stoa, and I bought some olives and dried fish. The men didn't look weird at me. They knew who I was. I was half-goddess, and better to respect me. I knew that this wasn't the reality of many women.

At home we ate olives with honey and the fish. I mixed the wine with water, and we drank. Andromeda, as a I noticed, ate incredibly clean. No crumbs, no spills on her chiton, nothing. As if she was Miss Graceful. I felt barbaric* next to her. Like she was a beautiful swan eating with an ugly duckling out of pity.

After dinner we both cleaned everything up and I discovered that Andromeda could clean everything up in a matter of seconds. I always struggled with it.

Like I said: a swan and a duckling. Great.

After that, we both went into the cold dark night. To the House of Hades.

You could enter the house via a long tunnel, the tunnel had all sorts of frescos and engravings on it. People dying, people crying. Misery.

Near the house the cold wind hit my face.

'Are you ready?'

I looked at her. She shook her head but went in.

She was braver than I was.

I followed her.