An image shimmered.
"Thank gods, the IM worked"
Percy could hear the voice coming from it. He knew that voice. "Thalia" he sighed in relief. He had wondered what happened to her.
"Percy! Where are you? Where's Artemis?" she asked.
"I'm fine. Don't worry, Hestia teleported me in one of our cottages, I think. How's Nico?" Percy asked
"Napping in the igloos. He was unconscious and bleeding. Pisto was pissed because he had red stripes and he looked like a high breed of a tigress"
"His master is bleeding and all he cares about is his fur?" Percy asked raising an eyebrow. Thalia laughed, but her mood changes serious again.
"Where's Artemis?" Thalia asked. Percy shifted uncomfortably.
"Why, is anything wrong in the campsites?"
"No, they're still fighting, but sooner or later their gonna notice Artemis's absence...well, at least you aren't a jackalope right now. GODS, how the hell am I going to explain all of this! Good thing, Nico wasn't there yet. Wait. Did Artemis see your face? Your cloaks were tattered"
Percy thought about it. "I don't think so. Hestia says that the Olympians are having a meeting…I don't know what it's about. Hestia didn't tell me"
"It's probably about you kelp head. This is a disaster. What the hell are we supposed to do? What the hell am I supposed to do? Oh gods, this is all my faul—"
"Thalia!"
"What am I gonna do? Artemis is gonna hate m—"
"Thalia" Percy groaned
"Im gonna get kick ou—"
"Thalia, would you ju—"
"Or maybe this is a sign. Maybe I should quit or something? And I'll go join the othe—"
"THALIA! We could just explain that it was all just a misunderstandi—"
"And then what, Percy? Pretend? Again? And then slip up, make some excuse? Until when? I hate lying to my sisters. And I especially hate lying to Artemis. Let's just get this ov—"
"But what about the hunt? You love the hunt"
"And I love our family, Percy. Plus, I love hunting, but they could do without me. Phoebe can lead; Annabeth can be second in command. I only joined hundreds of years ago because of that damned prophecy—"
"I never got to thank you for passing a prophecy that almost got me killed, by the way"
"—and I'm grateful for them taking me in, but—"
"I'm not gonna make you chose, Thals. I promised Artemis that I wasn't going to make anyone chose"
"You're not making anyone chose, Per—"
There was a scream in the IM.
"GAH! PISTO WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO EAT ME?!"
Thalia turned around and Percy could see her background. Nico had awakened and a red stripped Lion was chasing him.
"Don't decide anything yet, Thalia" Percy says stirring them back to the conversation
"But Perc—"
Percy will have none of it. "I want to talk to Nico"
"Kelp Hea—"
"Nico, Thals. Now." Percy says.
Thalia huffed in frustration. "Fine!" and stomped away.
"Please deposit one drachma to continue this IM for the next five minutes"
Before Percy could lift himself out of his bed and get a drachma, an image appeared. Nico had already deposited one.
"Hey, bro. Thalia told me. Can I say that you guys were like—stupid much?" Nico says mockingly.
"Shut up," Percy groaned.
"I know, I know, this is serious. Should we go ask for my father's help and summon hundreds of monsters and fake our own deaths already? That's still an option" Nico says with a shrug
"Yeah, and risk letting the Olympians know that Hades also knows about our existence from the start? No way. They wouldn't stand for it. It's bad enough that Hestia, who's still not an Olympian, is in on our secret, but your father declining to be the 13th Olympian and all, that can't be good"
"I guess that'd be bad. So what're we gonna do? You can't just expect Artemis to be all mushy-I-forgive-you-and-I'll-go-back-to-almost-tru sting-you just because you explained it was a misunderstanding. Plus, because of this little incident, the Hunters will mistrust us again. I dunno what's Ares planning but he said we had to gain their trust"
"Wait. How much secrets have the Pack told the Hunt?" Percy asked.
"Hmm? From what J told me before Pisto decided to eat my head, they're kinda misleading the Hunters and instead of telling them our actual secrets, all their telling them is their personal lives."
Percy let out of laugh, "their mistrustful as ever, huh?"
Nico grinned, "What did you expect? Well, they do know about our Three Pillars"
"It should be alright. I've already slipped up and told Artemis about our Duty, Dignity, and Respect since that night before the CTF at camp"
"YOU DID?!"
Oops. Percy had slipped. "Er.."
"When?!" Percy and his slippery mouth. He told him about it plus his conversation with Thalia earlier.
Nico sighs. "Dude, what the hell are we gonna do?"
"We're gonna get out priority straight" Percy decided
"Huh"
"Treis Tracitum, Nico. Treis Tracitum" Percy says. Oh. Nico understood. Their prioties. Treis Tracitum. That's latin for The Three Secrets.
Nico understood and has realized again the importance of all of this. This was no game. Those Three Secrets must be kept secret. Not even everyone in the Pack knew about this. The Three Secrets that started everything.
"What are you going to do with the Artemis situation?" Nico asked. Percy told him. Nico's eyes widened. "Dude, you are doing the opposite of Primus. That's IDIOTIC!" Nico was right. He was going to break Primus—the First of the Secrets. But he needed to do it.
"Nico, I want you to do two things," Percy said seriously.
"But—"
"Tell B to go to them and warn them that they need to be extra careful"
"But—"
"Nico, they need to be careful. They are the Deftrus—our Second Secret. And they must stay that way. No matter what happens, we won't let them get dragged into this."
"Perc—"
"Secondly, I want you to recheck the scrolls"
"The Scrolls?" Nico was caught off guard. Why would he need to do that?
"Yes, track the scroll's essence down. Make sure we completely destroyed them. Got it? I want you to recheck and recheck until you're sure that the only way anyone else will know what's in them is if they open our skull and cut our brains into half"
"Alright, Percy. But it's been hundreds of years. Why check now? Tertius has always been the easiest Secret to keep"
"I'm just making sure. I'll have to check on Hypnos and Morpheus later to make sure they strengthen the dream and sleep barrier on Thalia and your heads. And the third thing, make sure Thalia doesn't do anything rash"
"But Percy, she hates it—"
"Nico"
"Fine" Nico muttered. "But if this all back fires, I'm blaming you. This is crazy, Percy!" Nico says which makes Percy laugh. Nico groans. "I don't even know why I follow you" he mutters
"It's because you're my little brother, now, hurry up and go do what I've told you to do!" Percy says and Nico salutes and slashes the IM away. The last thing Percy saw was a small smile from Nico that came from Percy calling him his little brother.
Now, time to go on with the plan. Hopefully, he won't be a jackalope after this.