Chapter Thirty-Three
Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riordan, nor do I own Star Holder Commander's character, Walker. I do own all of the other OCs mentioned.
Adrienne's POV
"Umnnng." I moan. Everything hurt. Every bone, muscle, and fiber of my being was screaming in agony. My eyelids felt like they were glued shut, but I forced them open anyway.
Instead of seeing the bright blue sky and the grassy hill I had been on with everyone, I found myself staring up at large, pointy stalactites. I immediately knew where I was.
"Oh, so you're finally awake,"
I sit up, with difficulty, and look around. I was in the throne room. The obsidian tiled floors with golden buttercups inlaid in them, the giant window overlooking the craggy cliffs speckled with caves, and also the view of the River Lethe. It was all so familiar.
"Hades?"
"Yes, my granddaughter. You've gotten yourself in a bit of trouble, haven't you?"
I was sitting right in front of the platform with the two thrones set on it. I didn't know who had placed me there, but I definitely wasn't going to try and move. It would hurt too much.
"How did I?"
"How did you get here? Well, I'll be happy to explain, after I have a chat with your father,"
It was then that I noticed a shimmering rainbow next to the bony throne. Hades gets to his feet and saunters over to it. The rainbow solidifies, and dad's weary face appears in the center of it. I couldn't see Hades's face, but his shoulders had tensed up slightly. My guess was that he wasn't making a very happy face.
"Dad, I need to ask of you—"
"Oh no, no. You will not ask any favors of me. I'm in the middle of sorting out some other things right now, which pertain to you, mind you. Any godsforsaken mess you've gotten yourself into this time, I'm not helping you with. You are a 36 year old man, and you can handle your own problems without crying to daddy every time you get a scraped knee," Even from here I could tell he was glowering at dad, "But, I do know that you haven't been here for the past month, and I've had to put those damned skeletons to work in Punishment. Whatever you're dealing with right now, you better pray to some gods that it's important, because I'm just about sick of having to deal with those boneheaded idiots—" Dad cut him off before Hades could continue with his rant.
Even sitting here on the floor, I could see dad's face redden slightly. "Oh, it is important. I don't have to pray to any gods to know that. Dad, it's Kyra," At that, my stomach dropped.
Not many gods loved mortals, or their own children sometimes, but if Hades loved anyone, it was my mom. Sometimes I think that she reminded him of Bianca, dad's older sister who died when she was twelve.
When Hades heard that, his shoulders slumped and I thought he just might jump through the rainbow to try and get to dad. "What do you mean? What's happened?"
"She's sick, really sick. Her soul has been fading for nearly a month now,"
"What caused it?"
"Some kind of hybrid. It bit her without her knowing, and she nearly passed out when the venom entered her blood stream. She drank some nectar in time, so she didn't die, but some of the stuff remained in her system apparently, and it's now eating away at her,"
Hades sighs, his hand rubbing over his chin and lips. "I'll have someone dig through the archives, but I doubt we could find anything here. You should try Apollo. If he can't determine what the venom is and tell you what will heal it, he'll definitely heal her himself. I've never seen a god love their child more than Apollo loves her, he'd do absolutely anything in his realm of power for her,"
"Thank you, dad. And ah, what were those things that you're sorting out? The ones that pertain to me?"
I could hear Hades snicker, and then raise his hand. "Goodbye, my son." He runs his hand through the rainbow and it fades away. He turns back around to face me, a hollow look in his dark eyes. "Now, on to why you're here."
When Hades had finished explaining, I felt like dying, as if I hadn't felt like that already. Of course, dying was a very real possibility at the moment, if my soul decided to stop fighting for its life.
Apparently that fall had caused more trauma than expected. Hades said I had landed on a sharp rock, and it had pierced the middle of my back, and chipped into the backbone. He said that if I woke up, I might be paralyzed. It had also broken my left leg, and a couple of my ribs. A small portion of my soul had come down here after the fall, so my body was still in Maine on the hill, a silent battle raging on inside.
"So I'm just stuck here until I wake up? If I wake up?"
"Pretty much,"
"And there's nothing I can do to speed up the process?"
"Well, Eriene, the goddess of peace, swears on the Styx that meditation can help. You can try if you think it would, but I highly doubt it will work,"
I hear something beep and he sighs impatiently. He takes a cell phone out of his pocket and reads through the text that had just come in.
"Gods, I have to go. The blasted skeleton servants filling in for your father down in Punishment have screwed up, again. I'll be back in a while. If you need anything, you know how to summon the maid,"
He steps off the platform and walks past me, touching my head as he made his way to the large ebony doors. I hear them open, then close again. There was a small 'whoosh' sound and then nothing.
After what dad had said about mom, and how her health was rapidly declining, I was more worried about her than I was for myself. And they obviously weren't in Maine anymore, locked up in Osiris's castle. But I didn't hear Mike anywhere through that conversation.
Usually if one of us makes a call through IM, he wants to be right there with you and talk to the person you're trying to call. That just made my feeling of dread even worse. I had to wake up and get back to the others. We had to contact them somehow and figure out just what was going on. Whatever it was, it wasn't any type of good.
I take a deep breath and remember what Hades had said about the goddess Eriene, and how she claimed meditation could help with my situation. Grabbing my right leg, the one I assumed had been broken because it hurt the most, I cross it with my other so I was sitting in an Indian position. I place my hands on my knees and close my eyes, trying to focus on my breathing, and keeping it steady. Breathing in and out, and not thinking about anything else. Keeping absolutely everything out of my mind so as not to disturb my peace of mind.
I don't know how long I had been doing it, but I began to hear someone's muffled voice. They sounded upset; saddened, frustrated, desperate maybe.
I slowly open my eyes, feeling like there was a misty veil covering my face and making me feel sleepy. I finally blink away the sleepiness and slowly sit up, looking around. I was back on the hill, with Tristan, Jade, Keegan, and James surrounding me.
A/N:
So, that's what happened to Addie after the fall...And yes, the "boneheaded idiots" thing talking about the skeletons was an intended pun, if you were wondering. And I might have said this when I was writing about Hades when Kyra was a teenager, but I'll say it again. I know, he's OOC, but I honestly think that he is kind to the people he loves. It's just that when he's around Percy or some other adolescent demigod who he doesn't much care for, he gets a little...pissy, I guess you'd say?
Well, things are starting to get better. I apologize for being so damn gloomy the last couple of weeks. It's just when suckish things happen to me or people I love, I can't get out of that funk for a while. And then on top of all of that from the past couple of weeks, I was also stressing out about working the festival all weekend. But, turns out, my boss had everything covered, so I didn't have to work all weekend! Which was a relief, because I needed a break from work before going back to regular hours tomorrow. I haven't even set a foot inside the studio since last Thursday.
So, I got to actually attend the festival and look at all the art booths for the first time in my life. I went on Saturday, but the friend I went with didn't see it as an inspiration-seeking opportunity like I did, she saw it as more of a social event, which fucking sucked. So I didn't get to see and take pictures of everything I wanted to, so I went back yesterday and saw everything else I wanted to.
M/A:
"'Little girl, little girl, your life is calling
The charlatans and saints of your abandon
Little one, little one, the sky is falling
Your lifeboat of deception is now sailing
In the wake all the way no rhyme or reason
Your bloodshot eyes will show your heart of treason'"
~ ¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl) by Green Day
XOXO,
Mrs-diAngelo25
