Chapter 12
We were able to by tickets for a bus that went as far down as Richmond, Virginia. In the bus station, I caught a few boys staring. Naturally, I gave them my signature glare, and walked on. We got on the bus, and to my surprise, I realized we hadn't encountered any monsters in this quest so far. We took a bundle of 4 seats, and were in a position to start talking or whatever, as soon as the bus moved. Nico and I sat together, and Lisa sat with Shannon. He put his arm around me and I leaned against him.
"No PDA!" taunted Shannon.
I immediately retorted, "I thought you were all for romance." Lisa was stifling a laugh.
"Not here!" I had to laugh at her retort. Her mission ever since she was claimed, was to let everyone at camp have romance. We occupied our time by playing a card game. Nico actually had a card set that made cheating impossible. In your face Lisa!
"Alright... here are all your cards, take a look," said Shannon, the appointed dealer. We were playing BS. Nico put down an ace, yay! I need a 2. Luckily, I had one. No one called it a bluff, so I guess that's bad. Before we knew it, we were in Richmond. The train stopped and we got a cab. We told the driver to take us to a motel or something. He dropped us off at a motel 7. We hopped out of the cab after Lisa kindly paid the poor soul who was driving. Nico and Shannon got into a fight about which was better, swords or arrows.
"Lets prioritize, Nico and Andy, you go get us a place to stay. Lisa and I will grab some food." Shannon took control.
"Why us?" We asked at the exact same time.
"Because you think alike and you two are either going to be sleeping together or are going to figure something out. Come on Shannon, we are going to get one of the most wonderful things in the world: FOOD!" Lisa I think, may have needed a little sugar.
"Lets go get 2 rooms and try not to make total fools of ourselves." Nico added with dread. I kissed him on the cheek.
We walked up to the front desk and the lady asked, "Can I help you?" Standard question.
"Yes, we'd like two rooms. Our camp sent us to Richmond to tour the city and they told us the tour took two days. We came here to get a couple rooms so we don't like, have to sleep in the streets or anything." Nico was being smart. Normally he wan't a sociable person, what was going on?
"Do you kids have the money to pay for these rooms and I need to know if you have any adult supervision?" Darn you logical mortal lady.
"Of course we have adult supervision. Ariel's older brother Michael is with us. He went with the other two girls in our group because 'we're the responsible ones.' I think its a load of-"
I cut him off, "Eric, do you really want to finish that?" I paused as Nico shook his head no. "Good, now I'm sorry about Eric, he doesn't think before he says stuff sometimes. Anyways, as he was saying, my older brother Michael, who is 19 and our camp counselor, is with the other two in our group."
"Uh-huh, your names aren't really Eric and Ariel, are they?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, everyone at camp calls me Ariel because I practically live underwater. No, my name is Rose, but his name is really Eric." This was a smart lady.
"Wait a minute, your that sword instructor who came to camp last winter!" Nico said with realization evident in his voice.
"Are you all on a quest? I'll let you guys head up. Oh, and next time deary," she winked at me, "don't call yourself a mermaid and say that you practically live underwater. Its very offensive to some folk. Here are the keys, and you can wait for your friends right here. I have this hotel kind of as a safe haven for demigods who go on quests and stuff. There's a border here, so you won't need to set up whatever camouflage you brought. What do you want me to call you, because you probably don't want to tell me your real names." When she said 'tell me your real names,' I could have hit the floor if Nico hadn't caught me.
"Please don't use charmspeak, I guess I'm allergic to it. Just call us how we introduce ourselves. Um.. I'm guessing that your a daughter of Aphrodite, based on how your eyes change color, just like my friend's back at camp. Call me Ariel, him," I gestured to Nico, "Eric. Call my blond friend who always wears a hunting jacket Ella-"
A voice interrupted me from behind, "And you can call me Anastasia. How are you Cheryl?" The woman smiled.
"I'm good Anastasia. Go on up with your friends. I gave you a four bed room, is that all right?"
"Its fine," I answered. We walked over to the elevator and went to our room on the fifth floor. We each walked over to a bed and plopped our stuff down. We were all cramped and tired. Who knew traveling could take so much out of a person?
'I don't know,' said a voice in my head. It continued, 'Daughter of the Sea god, you truly are magnificent in person.'
"Who are you," I asked suddenly standing up. No, fish was going to flirt with me.
'Oh, I forgot, you can't see me yet. Only children of Hades can detect me when I don't wish to be found.' Creepo!
I turned to Nico, "What can you sense in this room, besides us, I mean?"
"I don't sen... Whoa, that's a really potent aura. I think someone is using their demigod aura to hide something." Darn. I smelled salt. All eyes turned towards me. I looked at my feet and saw sandals instead of boots.
"Aw, what the Hades!" I exclaimed. I looked up and I thought I saw something, right above me flicker. I quickly averted my eyesight and grabbed my knives. I realized I was wearing a greek style tunic. ADHD side of my brain going off on detail, sorry. I threw the knives up at where I saw the creature and prayed that I nailed it.
A voice snarled, "You are much smarter than I gave you credit for, Daughter of Neptune. I wondered why you were with the Greeks and the spawn of my husband, so I bided my time. Now, If you plan to finish your quest alive, by the name of my husband, get your knives away from me!"
"Who the Hades are you?" Nico asked. Shannon paled.
It was barely a whisper, so only I could hear her, "Psyche."
"Yes, spawn of my husband, I am Psyche. Now, release me!" I walked over to the woman, and pulled the knife that was pinning her to the wall away.
"Good. Now, would you like to know why I have come?" She radiated beauty. I felt nauseous standing next to her.
"Why?" I managed to make out. She waved her hand and I was back in my regular clothes.
"I need to tell you some information, about your quest." She responded.
Chapter 13
"What? Um... Andy are you OK? You look like your gonna puke," Lisa asked. I think Psyche liked her the best so far.
"No, I'm fine. I'll live." was all I could force out.
"Oh dear, you're allergic, aren't you?" I knew what she meant. I nodded, that was the best I could do to answer her question. Her presence radiated the kind of sickening sweetness that I feel whenever I hear charm-speak. Psyche continued, "Then I'll try to make this as quick as possible. The gods are angry with love."
"That's stupid, how can anyone be angry with love?" Nico commented.
"Why must you offend most of the Gods today? Love is Eros and Aphrodite. The gods are angry because there are many power couples that should not get along. Eros and Hephaestus shouldn't get along because he is the child of Hephaestus' wife and brother, yet Shannon and Leo have strong feelings for each other. No children of the big three are supposed to even be friends, especially children of Hades. To even suggest that a child of Hades and a child of Poseidon would form a power couple, well, that is almost treason on Zeus. Lisa's future is a clouded one. We are sure though, that whomever she ends up, again, with will form a dangerous power couple. And last but not least in this long list of examples, Percy and Annabeth..." I didn't hear anything else she said because the sweetness was too overpowering. My senses blocked out and I could barely keep myself sitting up.
My head was spinning and I felt like my throat was on fire. We decided that we should call this the Psyche incident. Shannon met her crazy step-mom and I got sick of her presence. All in all, a rather uneventful godly visit. I felt a small blast of coolness which I assumed was the others trying break my sort of trance. I felt a small thumb on my forehead, pushing down. I immediately felt better. My breathing was easier, my head mostly stopped spinning, and my stomach calmed down. I could feel someone trying to give me some liquid that I thought was water. It tasted like water (water does have a taste, its just really hard to taste it). I choked on the liquid. My vision cleared and saw Nico leaning over me.
I managed to croak, "Deja vu..." He chuckled.
"Come on, you need some water," he told me.
"Didn't you just give me water?" I asked. He looked confused.
Nico shook his head. "No," I heard Lisa say. "He gave you nectar, more than he should have, I might add. You need water to cool down. Notice how Nico is the closest to you, and he isn't touching you. No doubt he's burning up too, you're basically radiating heat." I wasn't burning up, I was freezing.
"But its so cold! Did you guys turn down the heat or something, I mean, its absolutely freezing!" Shannon looked really hot and flustered, so I guess I really was giving off some heat. "Ok, I'm giving off heat, then why isn't Nico affected?"
He replied, "I'm naturally pale. Do you really think I can turn red that easily? I've gone through Tartarus and drunk from the Phlegeton river. There is no way a little bit of heat is going to kill me." I chuckled and tried to stand up. Nico pushed me back down, but pulled away fast.
"I think I'll try to stop Shannon from exploding," Lisa said. They exited the room.
"Well, If you're not going to get me water, then I'll get it myself." He rolled hid eyes.
"Respect your elders... and your boyfriend." He got up. "Yes, I will bring you water," Nico responded. He left the room for a second and I took the chance to get up. The room started spinning and I had a pounding headache. I felt a cooling sensation and a hissing sound all around me. I felt rejuvenated and realized the room was freezing cold. I felt wet. I held up my hand and saw it glistening with water. I turned to find Nico standing behind me smirking and with a glass in his hand. I'm pretty sure my expression was murderous. How the Hades did one minute, I feel absolutely awful, and the next, better that I ever had in my life?
"What the he-" I started.
He clicked his tongue, "language Andy, language."
"Alright, what was that for?" I asked, in the sweetest tone I could muster.
He grinned evilly, "How are you not cold now?" I was going to kill him.
"I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that I can raise or lower your body temperature. Did you know that the human body is made of 90% water?" He looked scared when I said that. For extra measure I made a ball of water come from the bathroom and made it boil. Nico was still smirking. His smirk faded and he actually looked scared for a second. I was smiling now.
"Let's not act without thinking here," and he let out a nervous laugh. "You really don't want to hurt me, do you?" I laughed.
"You actually think I'd hurt you? Yeah right, and I'm a pacifist." That was very sarcastic. Nico knew I was a violent person.
"Well Ms. Pacifist, would you stop threatening me?" He asked. So many controversies in that question.
"Eh, I think you like it when she threatens you," Shannon said from behind me. I spun around to find Lisa and Shannon, standing in the doorway.
"I think that's actually, the most response I've ever gotten to an empty threat." I volunteered. Shannon laughed, but Lisa was strangely quiet. "Whats wrong," I asked.
She walked into the room and sat at the round four person table. She spoke up, "We have a big problem, and its pretty much my fault." The rest of us sat at the table with her.
"What's all your fault?" Nico asked.
Lisa continued, "Uh, well, there kind of thissmallarmyofmonsterswaitingforusoutside." She was speaking really fast but I could understand her.
"What?" Shannon and Nico said at the same time.
I rolled my eyes, "Lisa, why is it just your fault that there's a small army of monsters out there?"
She sighed before enlightening me. "I'm not a normal demigod. I intentionally avoid the term half-blood, because I'm not a half-blood."
"No way!" Nico exclaimed, "You're not-"
"Yes, I am Nico. I'm the closest person to a god that's ever existed, that's still mortal I mean. You see, I'm kinda illegal."
"Aren't we all? I'm supposed to be dead, Andy was created against the big three pact, and Shannon, well frankly, Cupid's not supposed to have children either, Psyche gets really mad at him." I glared at Nico. This was not the time to be cracking jokes.
"No, I mean I'm older than anyone here," she said.
"How-" Nico started.
"I'm immortal, yes. I'm not a goddess though, otherwise I wouldn't even bother with you. Sorry, that came out wrong. What I mean is, I've lived for thousands of years, up on Olympus. Its a curse, I thought it was a blessing at first. I can alter my form to what I've been, but never anything above sixteen. This is all my fault. Now I know why we haven't been attacked yet. The kind of monsters I attract are smarter, they band together. I hate it. I never seem to catch a break. Well, that's what happens when you deal with half-bloods all the time. Sorry, I'm ranting here. Well, here's my story." This should be good.
"You guys know Heracles? Well, my grandmother married him. Yeah, um my grandmother is Hebe, goddess of youth. My grandmother was conceived before he became a god though, so she was only 3/4 god. Anyways, she went and fell in love with Dionysus, and they had was my mother. My mom and Hermes fell in love, and well, I'm here, aren't I? Like I said, I'm much older than any of you. Heracles doesn't even know about me, neither does Hebe. Dionysus couldn't care less, and my dad, well, he can't interfere, so I've basically been on my own for my whole life. Only recently have I been up to Olympus to train. Athena likes me because I'm smart. She was the one who convinced the gods to let me get better training. When I was a baby, my mom had brought to Chiron for training. He probably doesn't remember me either. I was raised, then I went to go help my... friend, in Rome." She was smiling.
"What happened?" I asked. I was very curious. This was really cool and terrible at the same time.
Her face went stone cold, "I married him. He let everyone think we had a stillborn son and that I died in child birth. He kicked me out onto the streets. I was sold into slavery. Later, he was murdered by his best friend." Nico chocked on the water he was drinking. Lisa continued, "So. now you basically have my life's story. Fall in love with someone, and be betrayed. I suppose that's what I should get. I angered Eros when I was really eight, ha, he was totally humiliated. Ever since Julius betrayed me, I've been cursed. And of course, Autolycus, being the wonderful brother he is, somehow managed to curse me with being immortal. He was made a god, so yeah, he's not the most popular-" I cut her off.
"You knew these people!" I exclaimed. She had her hand on her forehead and looked like she was trying to keep from crying or exploding.
"Your lying. Caesar's first wife's name was Cornelia." Nico concluded, "Her name wasn't Lisa."
She let out a half hearted laugh that scared me. "Do you mind? I seriously hate that name, and that man. I was sixteen for Zeus's sake! Fine, I was lying about being kicked out on the streets. He imprisoned me when he found out I was a greek. I was crucified as a peasant widow who couldn't pay her taxes. I just hung there for two or three months. You know, I was married to him in '84, I was crucified in '69. I wanted so badly, just to die. Some woman saw me one day, with my eyes open crying out and cursing the gods. Apparently, she went by every day and had thought I was dead. I thought I knew what love was like when I married him, but he took advantage of me. I was overjoyed and sad when he was murdered. I went to the palace, and Brutus had me arrested again. At least this time I wasn't crucified, I was sold into slavery. Yes, and then, a couple hundred years later, I fell in love again. And the cycle repeats itself. Fall in love, guy betrays you, hardships, and finally the guy is murdered, every time. Pretty much every guy in my life dies sooner or later. Whether its a friend or something more..." I believed her story. However improbable it was, her story was true.
She was about to flip out. Lisa started cursing in Latin, "Fatuus, nihil boni aliquis excusationem. Tartaro potuit mori pro omnibus ego cura." (Idiotic, no good, excuse for a person. He could die in Tartarus for all I care.)
I responded, "Numquid non ipse mortui iam?" (Isn't he already dead?) She blushed deep red, either really mad at me for pointing out that flaw in her plan, or just plain mad.
"Lets get some rest, and Andy I want to speak with you," Nico broke our near fight. I was really thankful.
We headed over to the corner. Nico was half in the shadows and he looked frightening. He asked, "How do you know Latin?"
"I just did, ok? I'm not greek, I'm roman. That much is obvious. And before you ask me about Lisa's story, I trust her. If I had to pick someone I most trusted on this quest it would probably be her. No offense, but you sometimes give up a little too fast. With Lisa, I know exactly when she's going to give up, and that's on her deathbed. Metaphorically I mean. We just found out she can't die."
Lisa shouted from the other side of the room, "I can die, trust me its painful every time. Hey, quick question, uh, what have we eaten today besides a granola bar?"
Shannon laughed, "I don't think we've eaten anything all day."
"You're kidding! I mean I can understand me not knowing I didn't eat anything, but-" I interrupted Nico.
"Choose your next words very wisely Nico."
"Uh, never mind... Do you guys want some food?" he asked. Nico really needs to watch what he says.
"I'll go get the food this time Nico. Last time, we had to pack up camp by ourselves." I started to walk out the door when I thought I heard Nico trying to follow me. "And you really shouldn't follow me Nico, I know what you all will eat."
I thought I heard him say, "you are good," before I shut the door.
I turned and said, "Yes, and you really shouldn't mutter things under your breathe unless you want me hear them." As I walked out the door I swear I saw him blushing furiously. I walked out the door and headed down to the lobby. I headed up to the food bar. I put together a salad for Lisa, and grabbed some grilled chicken sandwiches for Nico, Shannon, and myself. It happens to be all of our favorites. I walked into the room to find Shannon and Lisa giggling in a corner, and Nico clutching his head and hid in the opposite corner.
I walked over to Lisa and Shannon, and asked, "Salad and chicken sandwich take it or leave it." They started giggling gain. "Stop that, its giving me a headache." Their giggling burst into full out laughter. I sighed and walked over to Nico.
"I can't stand it. Too happy!" He was trying to crack a joke, not funny Nico.
"Hey, they're my friends. And maybe you should eat your favorite... A grilled chicken sandwich," I taunted. He sat up straight like a begging puppy. I rolled my eyes and tossed him the sandwich. I walked over to the small fire burning, and broke off a part of my sandwich and threw it in. A piece came in behind me and I looked behind me to see Nico smirking.
"You're not the only one with good aim," he taunted. I stuck my tongue out at him, and he said, "real mature," I took a seat next to him.
"Its not whether I'm mature, more of, if I'm sane," I countered. I swear he smiled for a split second.
He replied, "Did you really want an answer to that?" Evil.
"No she doesn't," Lisa yelled from across the room.
I yelled back, "Do you mind? We're trying to have a conversation over here!"
"Hey, does this mean that you're roman?" Shannon across the room.
I responded, "Ok, totally off topic and yeah, I'm pretty sure Percy's greek and I'm roman. I meant that as a classification, not an insult." I added the last part because I had a feeling that was normally an insult, like when people say someone's black or white. It can be a classification or an insult.
"Just as long as you don't get to cocky," Lisa added. I stuck my tongue out at her too.
"And if you call me a graceus, I swear that I will make you apologize if its meant as an insult." Nico, never force someone to apologize.
"So that must be why you warmed right up to Jason, Hazel, and Frank!" Shannon exclaimed.
I quickly retorted, "I noticed you and Leo seemed to be very close." She blushed a crimson red.
"Yeah, I don't get it. You could barely stand it when Andy was overheating, but you're totally fine around Leo, who can stinking burst into flames at will!" Lisa was almost ready to make me laugh.
"I think we should get a little sleep. We can continue this discussion in the morning." I walked over to the twin bed that had my stuff on it, as did Nico and Lisa. Shannon was already on her bed.
Lisa yelled, "I got the lights!" She snapped and the room went dark. I could hear someone chuckling, and I assumed it was Lisa.
"Nice!" I swear I heard Shannon mutter. With that, everything was blocked out, and I fell into a frightful dream.