This is late, and I have no real excuse. I wanted to write this, but my head went through three drafts before settling on one, and when I typed it out I went a whole new direction right from the start. Most of this is not in my notes and real draft for this chapter. I kinda rewrote the whole thing to have a new start and end and process through. I'm happy with it, even if it fell just a bit below the preferred 5000 word line minimum.
I wanted to get this out sooner but I just couldn't get it to sound the way I wanted to. This is what came to be.
Now, usually, Child of Magic would be the next to update, and I do promise to those who read it too, that next chapter will come. I have the idea for how that will go already in my notes. I just need to write the draft. But that won't happen.
I have a story idea in my head (actually quite a few but I'm highlighting one a lot recently) and I wrote the notes for what would be the first chapter of that story. I want to just write that chapter and leave it sitting, as I did with my most recent new story, just for a while to let the premise sit and for me to go through these stories. I don't want to be working on 10 at once. But for the rest of this week, I won't be writing so I can work on my class projects of code editing, art, and sign language due these next few days, and for the next three-ish weeks, write out the first chapter of a new story.
I am, as I write this note, putting on Twitter the photo I took of my notes, just so you can see the length I have waiting to develop. Each line is a new note of a general idea of what to write, which I will go in depth in the writing. Here it is: /PhantosOfHorror/status/983951291977154560. Going off how long I usually write, depending on the cuts and parts each chapter holds and how much content I put in each part, I might be just short of this story's word count so far, including this chapter. I probably shouldn't write so much in one sitting but I'm a masochist and I have made it my choice to suffer, very willingly so. Schedule will return to normal following its showing, though I do want to practice and better my art in between the writing, so updates might be spaced further apart. Planning on doing some character art and environment art for these stories so it's more clear what images and looks I'm trying to get across. Give everyone reference to these worlds and characters. Could be helpful. Could look like shit if I don't do a good enough job. Who know?
Also, side note, I got Your Name, the anime movie, for an Easter gift, though I was expecting it for my birthday. Hit my hand against the counter once I saw it, in excitement. Gonna spend my Saturday watching that movie in a dark room. Gotta push through this week first.
Anyways, welcome to the ninth chapter. Do enjoy your stay, Mr. Wick.
When J woke up, it was always too early. His body had a sense of expectation, acting and sending through his nerves a feeling that got his body to react as need be. Waking up many minutes before his alarm, throwing his hands about to block or redirect an attack sent his way, jumping out of the way of cars sent flying his way. The gods told him it was his sixth sense of a warrior, a body always on ready to react when it needed to. Percy said it was just J living on the edge of hating everything and wanting to attack.
He got rightfully hit for that.
And the getting up was just as unceremonious as the waking up. J wouldn't leave his bed immediately. When he woke, he'd sit up, turn, and wait on the edge of his bed. Not specifically for anything, no; he just sat and stared at the wall in silence. His alarm would click him out of his gaze with the wooden walls and he would click his phone silent in response and turn away from it again.
A buzzing from its place on the floor would bring his attention back to it from the corner of his eyes. He tilted the device on its side, reading the message from the god he had partnered with giving him an hour before he returned home, and with him a group of demigods to begin their plans. He dropped it back into place on the boards beside his mattress and stood up beside it. He stretched his body, cracking his spine and elbows against his wrists before crouching back down and lifting boards from the floor to make room for his baskets of clothing. He dressed silently and planted in place into his jeans and flannel, and walked out into the hall with equal silence and phone in hand.
Down the halls he went, passing door after door after door after door after door after door after door until he had passed through the labyrinth of the home and arrived to the already occupied kitchenette. He passed the table in the center, delivering a tap to Hailey's head angled down in a book and bowl. The girl hummed through the cereal in her mouth but kept her eyes trained down in her material leaving J to carry on in his walk to the cabinets.
"Is that the same book from yesterday or did you move on to the next one?" he called back over to her, shuffling through their boxes of food to make his own breakfast. The girl made an audible gulp from her cushion on the floow and from the flipping of a page.
"New one. Started it last night. Finished the other one in the morning before we trained."
J dropped three boxes of cereal on the counter in front of him and moved to another cabinet for a bowl. He opted for one of the white and blue ceramic ones. "Same series?"
"Same series."
"Did you at least get some sleep last night? You look to be a few chapters in already." J spared the girl and her book a glance as he shuffled to the fridge.
"For your information, I did get sleep last night. I don't need you hitting me awake in training. And yeah, I'm already five chapters in. It's a bit of a short read, but she writes these so well. I've only got one more book to go after this before I'm left waiting for her next installment."
The sound of two things plopping down at the end of the table turned Hailey's attention out of her book to the man sitting down a ways away from her with a bowl twice as big as hers, filled with milk and various cereals. "I'm glad you're enjoying it then."
Their eyes met for a short moment, brown staring into blue. The teen girl gave a smile to the man who would return with a small one of her own. "Thank you for buying it for me."
"Perseus can't have you living in boredom. Neither of us can." J took a spoonful of a bite from his breakfast from the utensil the size of his mouth. "When is the next book supposed to come out?"
"Six months." Hailey sighed into her own bowl and spoon-sized serving, bookmarking her last page and setting the book beside. "Last one only came out last season, so she still needs her time to write and publish the next one."
"Sounds like a long wait." J regarded her with a lean over his bowl in her direction, letting an eyebrow pull him forward. "What do you plan on doing until then?"
"The task force thing father's working on." She met his eyebrow with her own, still seated feet apart. "What else do you think I would be doing?"
"You don't want more books?"
"I don't want you treating me like I'm a child of Athena. You two have made it clear enough that I can't be."
"And thank fuck for that." J returned to his bowl with a smile behind his spoon and Hailey snorted a laugh behind her hand to keep herself from dropping her face into the bowl of food in front of her. "Speaking of parentage, your father will be here in…" J took a look at his phone and the clock on it. "45 minutes with the demigods who agreed to join him and be selected. I suggest you hurry up and make yourself presentable for our guests." He gestured to her pajamas with the back of his spoon's handle.
In turn the girl moved to gulf down the rest of her food, and tried speaking at the same time. Her question was gargled and distorted by oats and milk but J understood it nonetheless.
"He didn't say exactly how many people he was bringing along, but he did say a small group, so don't expect an army at our doorstep."
"Only small?" The teen had managed to work the food and drink down her throat before she spoke properly again. "I thought we were hoping for a large."
"We were hoping for a moderate, but we can make do with a small. Might be easier for us to manage in the long run. Now hurry and clean up before Perseus arrives."
Hailey nodded, darting from her place on the floor and putting her bowl away to clean, before darting in the opposite direction and bolting out of the room. The small knock on his head from her book didn't disrupt J from his breakfast, nor his thoughts as she ran out the room to get ready.
Six months until that book would come out. J wondered if she wondered if she would still be living with them by the time those months passed. J wondered it too. But he wouldn't question her on that thought. Or the others. Or the nightmares. Or her powers.
He knew enough about those already. He could wait a while longer to find out the rest.
J stood stiff in the sand, staring at the ground out in front of him, void of any other life. The wind brushed past slowly, kicking small dirt clouds about in a silence to match the man's. The towering pillars of bark and bamboo that cluttered the land and sky beyond the walls shivered in the breeze, knocking each other for warmth and attention in the cold morning. The sky was nearing ten, but J knew the god would be returning home on a body that felt like nine the day before. But he waited in the wind for them to draw closer.
And then the trees stopped their quivering, and the dust settled in its crowds covering the ground and the wind disappeared as light took its place. J kept his eyes on the light as it took form, solid and real, and molded itself into one human body, and then another, and then another, and then many more before the light peeled off the skin and clothing of the crowd. The peeling white disintegrated into the ground below and the air above and left bodies struggling to stand without their casings supporting them. A few tumbled with their stomachs from the travel. A few stood still in pain bouncing in their head and eyes as the bright light of the sun seemed to annoy them. One stood unnerved in the crowd, looking to the home and the man in flannel waiting for him to approach.
Percy smiled as he stepped around the demigods and towards his companion, who kept his feet in place as the upper half of his body lowered forward. "Welcome home, my lord," J greeted the god, who in response patted him on the shoulder and pulled him back up to a straight stance.
"You need to stop bowing that often," he told the longer haired man. "I get it; I'm a god. But you and I both know that doesn't mean shit between us."
"Fuck you, I'll bow if I want to." Percy gave a good laugh to J's quiet smile of commentary. But a sigh brushed it away and pulled his eyes to the crowd of demigods the newly appointed deity had gathered to his home. "By small, I thought you at least meant something larger than this. With all the children of the Greek and Roman gods running about back in America, I'd think of you to at least grab twice as much and call it bare minimum."
Percy let his own smile drop as he turned around to the campers working to compose themselves. "Barely anyone could come to being with. Most of the other campers at Half-Blood had other, more important lives to attend to, at least to them. And most of those at Jupiter are already sucked into a life they don't have the time to work away from. Too many families and children to attend to." Percy gave an once-over to the seventeen he had accompany him home. "It's small but we can make this work. We don't have much of a choice otherwise."
"The magicians can't help?" Percy shook his head solemnly.
"The Olympians can't accept their help. They still fight with the gods belonging to them, so it's up to us and what we have on hand to settle this out."
"We can only talk to the Olympian gods?" J looked out to the trees back in their slow dance with the breeze. "That's quite the restriction."
"It is, but we should be fine already. We won't need to demand them of more. We've gone through hard. We can manage through harder." Percy took a step forward, raising an arm just higher than his head. "Attention, everyone. If I could have your attention please."
The small crowd of demigods worked their attention onto the god, coming over their light sickness and giving J a good look at their faces, and noticing among them the children of Zeus and Hades standing by a few other familiars. Percy lowered his arm only slightly, just enough to put the shadow of his hand over his eyes and look to the sky.
"Apologies for the sun. It's currently ten in the morning right now, and I know for most of you the day is ending on your bodies, so after a meeting you can all rest if you really need to. We'll let the next few days fix your bodies to be more with the clock here while we train."
"How the hell is it 10 a.m. already?" one from the crowd brought up, and J had no trouble in recognizing the face of the daughter of war.
He stepped forward with the answer. "Welcome to Japan." The lightness of his voice did nothing to control the shock of the faces before him, both at his presence and his announcement of the country they were currently standing in.
"Wait what?" Thalia stepped forward, one of her many powers making up her expression at the revelation. "You mean to tell me we're in Japan right now?"
Percy could only start with an uneven chuckle. "Yeah, sorry about that. Forgot this place is over half a day ahead on the clock. We didn't have the time, or the idea, to find a place to set up in the states, so we're kinda settling for this place. And don't worry; there's enough space here for everyone." Percy gestured to the building entrance behind him, stretched far with a wall out either way. "The building stretches farther back than it looks."
"Holy crap." One of the demigods J didn't recognize was spinning on his feet, look around to just how vast and open the dusty training grounds around them were. "This place is huge. How big is it?"
"In total with the land here and the rest of the building, it's 20 acres of living space and about another 5 outside of the walls." Neither Percy nor his champion looked interested in mentioning the size of their land but it was a size enough to send the son of Hades stumbling over his own feet trying to spin around in his own shock.
The young man beside Nico helped him stabilize on his own two feet, and the prince of the Underworld gave a nod to the blond holding him up. "You own all this?"
"Yep," Percy answered with a jump of his head.
As he did with his feet, Nico stumbled over the words he needed to say. "And—you—how did you get 25 acres of land in Japan?"
"Family troubles." Percy gave a side of a glare to J and his half-assed answer before continuing it himself.
"It was a gift from a family we helped. They were experiencing problems of their own—took us what, two months to sort everything out?—so we helped out and they gave us this place. We didn't exactly have a home beforehand, since we were so much on the move so they let us take this place over, since they haven't had much use of it in recent…years. It's been ours for about two years now?" Percy turned his neck and head over to his companion for confirmation, and got the nod he needed. "Yeah, two years. We've barely made use of all of it, and there should be enough rooms inside for everyone to have their own rooms to sleep in, and then some. They're individual living spaces, don't worry, but they won't be like the bunks back in Manhattan. We've…modified the inside a bit to be how we want it to be. Should be comfortable enough for anyone."
"A family…just gave you 25 acres of land and home for helping them." Percy and J took their attention to the young woman beside the daughter of Ares, gesturing with a hand of her own to the building behind the two men as her eyes like a kaleidoscope shone in the confusion that decorated her face. "They had all this land and they weren't making use of it. Were you helping a royal family?"
"Well…technically." Percy smiled in his cryptic answer and turned on his feet to face the building he called home. "Come inside and see the place for yourself. We've got quite a few things to talk about before I'll let you all sleep the rest of the day." He took forward to the doors slid open in advance, with J following not too far behind him and the demigods following in two groups behind them.
Percy looked over his shoulder an inch to the man walking closer behind him. "Where's Hailey? Still sleeping?"
"No, she's wide awake. I had her set up the room for the explaining while I waited outside for your return. She's probably waiting in there for us already. Been enough time since then."
"Ah. How did training go the past two days?"
"She's getting better. She still lacks in speed but her form and usage of her weapons has improved vastly."
Percy gave a small nod, flicking his eyes to the crowd of demigods and friends walking behind as the halls and doors took their attention from the two men. "Do you think she'll be ready to fight with us?"
"Why else have we been training her?"
Percy let his step stutter and wait until J had caught up to his side and he could walk again beside the other man. "I'm aware of that, but it doesn't mean she'll have what it takes to keep herself in the fight by then."
"Then we'll have to make sure she is by then." The god spared another glare over to the man beside him as they turned a corner. "We can't put her in danger. It's why we did this in the first place. If you want her to be safe then we have no other option than to teach her to defend herself for herself. If that means we train her harder, than we train her harder. We don't have another option, so let's put that aside right now and focus on the problem at hand and that is making your friends aware of what they are here to do."
Perseus took his feet to a stop, and J a step and two afterwards. The crowd of demigods behind the two paused their following as the two did their leading, leaving the god alone in his stare at the back of J's head. The man he looked to turned halfway to the god, not sparing a glance to the corner of his eye to meet the look sent his way. Percy stood a moment longer in his position to stare at his companion before he too turned and placed his hands on the doors beside him, sliding them apart to make way to the room behind them.
Almost immediately he came face-to-face with a teen girl near a foot shorter than him, dressed as casually as J was, hand out in front of her as though she tried to open the doors before he did. The two stood pause staring each other down (technically up for one of them) before the girl darted forward into a hug and into the god. The god snorted a chuckle and dropped his own arms around the girl, giving her back a pat of a greeting and pushing forward, shifting her beside him and back into the room.
J stepped after them, and with him the rest of the demigods, into the boxed room with nothing but circles of green and red spread across the floor. Percy had taken the girl to the far wall of the room, standing by her side with an arm draped over her shoulders, speaking to her in hushed words that wouldn't reach the ears of the others. J took the job of ushering the demigods into the room and closing the doors behind them.
Clarisse clicked her tongue audibly as she looked around the room, to the wooden and paper walls in every which direction, and the wooden ceiling holding a few small lamp to keep the room lit. "This seriously your meeting room, Prissy? Bit bland if you ask me."
The god in question gave the teen beside him a small pat on her shoulder as he turned back to his friends and the demigods standing about in the room. His mouth curved only millimeters upwards into a smile to the daughter of the war god. "Yes, this is a very minimalistic room. Be that as it may, it is much more private friendly than the rooms elsewhere in this building, and that the gods could offer. J."
"Chinmoku!" The man back at the door announced his word loudly, and in addition to drawing attention back over to himself, switched the lights off, sending the room into darkness before a separate source illuminated their surroundings. Eyes were drawn down to the circles beneath their feet emanating hollow pillars of light up and down the room.
"What you are seeing now is a spell of privacy." Heads turned to the voice of Perseus, face illuminated dramatically from below, void of a soft expression he switched for a hard look. "No one outside of this room can hear us or peer in on us from wherever in the world they may be. Even right outside, all noise we make will be audible only to ourselves. What we need to tell all of you is something of importance, that of which is not allowed to leave this room." The god let his sight drag across the room to the various demigods looking at him in a swirl of confusion and fear, evident even in the eyes of his older friends. "You are all here because you chose to be, and because you own godly parents have agreed to your attendance. You've been trusted by Olympus itself to be here. You have been trusted with learning of what is kept from the rest of the camps and the rest of the world, par that which is already involved. What I must share with you cannot leave this room, and can never be discussed again. The gods know of this, but you may not talk with them about it either. This is the only time we will ever talk about this, and from here on you must hold this information in your head and never speak aloud the names I share with you." Percy moved his gaze to the back of the room, connecting sight with the eyes of J staring hard back at him. "Does anyone object and wish to leave now?"
Not a hand rose. Not a voice spoke out. Percy's question was met with a silenced no as the demigods sealed their fate by choice. "Good. Pay attention. We'll never be in this room again. Take to heart and mind what I tell you, never forget, and be ready." The god of power heaved a sigh as his shoulders relaxed as much as he could let them. "Let's start where we must. You're not here to train and live in a more advanced way for a better life. You're here to fight Erebus."
The air in the room shifted with the many feet that did backwards. The faces stared at him, each lost for words as they took in the name of the primordial god. But Percy continued.
"As Gaea was when we fought against her, Erebus is locked away, unable to surface the world unless certain…criteria is met. For the past few years, J and I have been following and stopping many attempts to quicken his escape and grant his permission to the world. But our actions haven't been able to stop everything. Many followers and monsters under his control are still working to free him, and we still need to stop it. You're here to help us do so."
"They're trying to awaken Erebus?" Nico was the first to step up out of his shock, still surrounded by those struggling to do so, if the cold sweat trickling from them was to be of any indication.
"No." J stepped forward in his words, the light illuminating his chin as he took over. "Erebus has always been awake. He's just trapped. Locked away and thrown away, in a very hard place to find. But it has been found, and many right now are working on breaking the seals that keep him trapped."
"Fuck" was the first word Thalia was able to speak as her shock weakened. "Another primordial god? How are we supposed to fight a war against that?"
"We can't." Percy brought the blue sparks of Thalia's eyes back in his direction, along with many others who decided to turn back to him. "If we go to war against Erebus, we will lose. There's no hope in winning that battle. So fighting him isn't our plan—"
"Killing him before a war can start is." J let his head drop and his hair around it sway down. "We plan on destroying any and all attempt to release him from his prison and then reinforce that cage more than it already was. And that is why all of you are here."
"We can't do everything. If we could, we would be doing it right now. But there is too much ground to cover and not enough heads to rely on without alerting the enemy of how many really do know the truth. We do not know how Erebus and his minions would react if we were to let both camps know of the threat lying beneath their feet, nor do we want to take that risk." Percy let a breath escape his nose. "If you can stomach it, we need your help to keep this god down and destroy his hope in ever getting up again. Do you think you can do that?"
No one said a word of confirmation, but one by one they took their time to straighten their posture, turning to the new god in front of them as their faces of worry and fear turned to that of more confidence still dripping in concern and sweat. Their heads nodded their agreement, eyes meeting with Perseus' and getting it across to him their commitment. He nodded in approval. "Good. Welcome to the team."
J stopped Perseus in the hall, leaving Hailey as she led the other demigods into the larger kitchen for a shared meal. The god of power looked to his companion who looked up to him with a squint in his eyes.
"Are we not telling them of the new Chaos?" he asked the god in charge. The deity under question grew his chest with a breath.
"No. Not yet. Not until we understand what he or she or it is." Percy looked to the light emanating from the room round the corner. "We can't just place him under a guess of a definition, especially if we're making this out to be worse than it is. We're lucky none of them argued to leave or just broke down then and there."
"Then they're strong enough. Shame there wasn't more to bring over." J let his face follow Percy's and fold into a sneer. "Do you think they couldn't handle the idea of a god with more power than maybe even Erebus?"
"Could we handle him if it's true? We don't know what's holding him back. We don't know where to start looking to figure out who this 'Chaos' even is or what they're capable of. What are we supposed to do with that?"
Instead of J jumping back in with a response, a ding from his pocket caught his attention. He dug the phone from his jeans and looked to the screen shining a message on his face before looking back to the god. "We could ask them." He handed the phone to the god, who took it and read the text before him. "They want to meet again. Tomorrow. Same time, same place. Should you or I go?"
"I'll go." Percy handed the phone back to his partner. "You and Hailey can get the demigods familiar with their own rooms and the rest of this stay. I'll see what I can get out of Sir and his crew. And maybe we can win."