ONE MONTH LATER

Mari was in the arts and crafts pavilion, sketching... something. She hummed as her pencil scratched over the paper. She wasn't sure what she was actually drawing, but when she let her mind wander her pencil did its own thing. She wasn't sure if that creeped her out or not.

"Excuse me?"

Technology wasn't really allowed at camp, since it was kind of one huge 'come eat me' signal to any nearby monster, but Chiron let the campers borrow his old record player when he wasn't using it. Luckily for everyone involved, Sammy had sent over a bunch of records with music that was actually good.

"Hey."

She frowned as she glanced at the sketchbook again. It was orange and had the camp symbol on it. It had cost her two drachmas, which she'd earned by taking an extra shift cleaning out the stables (she had deserved so much more than three drachmas for that, but whatever) and had pretty decent paper. As far as she could tell, she was drawing some kind of passageway. It actually resembled a paper straw, but she was pretty sure it was a passageway.

"Excuse me!"

"What? Oh, shit, sorry." Mari lifted the needle of the record player, abruptly cutting off Taylor Swift (which sucked, because the chorus had been about to start). She turned to face the owner of the voice.

It was Thalia.

"How long have you trying to get my attention?" Mari asked.

Thalia sat down next to her. "A few minutes. I heard you were the one who healed my muscles. I wanted to say thanks. So... thanks."

Thalia instantly got up to leave, but Mari grabbed her sketchbook and scrambled after her. "Wait!"

"What?" Thalia asked.

Mari fiddled with her pinkie finger as she spoke. "I just wanted to know... how old are you?"

Thalia frowned at her. "Why would it matter?"

Mari swallowed. Thalia's eyes were a really pale blue, but now they seemed so pale that they were glowing with electricity. Like they were a microwave about to fry her alive. "I just meant, did you age? When you were tree-ified."

"Why the Hades would I tell you that?" Thalia looked even angrier now. Her fingers started making little crackling sounds.

"No! No, I was only asking because I thought that if you didn't, it could help me figure out how old I am! Please, don't fry me!"

Thalia's eyes dimmed back to normal. Her fingers stopped sparking and she took a few deep breaths. "Chiron told me about you. You're the one who was on Circe's island for five years."

Mari nodded.

Thalia sat back down, sitting on her hands. "I'm sorry for nearly electrifying you."

What the fuck? Thalia had nearly electrocuted her? Mari had thought that she'd been angry, but she hadn't realised she was that close to death... Mari remembered Thalia was a daughter of a big three god. She hadn't exactly forgotten, but that fact seemed to be screaming in her face now. She wondered if Percy was as powerful as Thalia. She'd seen him manipulate water into a giant tidal wave to get back onto the Queen Anne's revenge, but he'd never actually been so angry as to nearly accidentally hurt anyone. Then again, maybe she didn't know him all that well. She got the feeling he could do a crap ton of damage if he wanted to. She wondered just how much self-control he maintained.

"It's okay." Mari mustered a small smile.

"To answer your question, Chiron said that I'd aged more slowly, while I was gone. But I don't know exactly how old I am now. Somewhere between, I think."

Mari's shoulders slumped. "Oh. I didn't age at all."

She guessed she'd been wrong. Thalia didn't have that in common with her. Well, that was what she got for hoping. Her hopes were crushed.

"But, Chiron thinks I didn't age mentally at all. My body aged a little, not much, but not my mind. I don't know what that does for you. If it helps. He had a theory about me, though, so you should probably ask him. He might have a theory about you."

Mari considered it. He hadn't said anything to her, when he'd written her mist powers down in that old book of his. But, she'd only been back at camp for a night then. She knew Chiron was incredibly smart, but nobody was that smart. Except possibly Athena.

Maybe it wouldn't hurt. Mari smiled at Thalia. "Thanks. You're right."

Thalia shrugged. "Well. Consider the advice my thank you gift for healing me."

Thalia left, and Mari sighed. Thalia had a point. Chiron might have a theory. If he did... well, he was probably at the big house by now. It was around twelve. Archery practice ended at eleven, which meant that, as far as Mari knew, Chiron didn't have anything else to do for the day. With that in mind, Mari set off.

When she arrived at the big house Chiron opened the door before she had even finished raising her hand to knock.

"How did you know someone would be there?" Mari asked him.

Chiron smiled. "I have knowledge from thousands of years, child. I know whenever anybody is about to enter the big house."

"Really?" Mari asked.

Chiron chuckled and shook his head. "No. I saw you coming from the open window."

She followed him in and he poured her a glass of lemonade. "What was it you needed?"

"I talked to Thalia." Mari took a sip.

He looked surprised. "Oh? What about?"

"My age. I asked her if she hadn't aged, either, and she a little, but only her body, not her mind. But she also thought you might have some ideas about how old I actually am."

Chiron paused, trotting over to where she was sat. "I'm sorry. I should have brought this up with you. I simply forgot. I've been very preoccupied, what with everything that's changed in the past few months."

Mari swallowed. So, he did have a theory. "How old do you think I am?"

Chiron smiled sadly before beginning to speak. "I suppose I should explain first. When Thalia's anima was in the tree, she was completely unaware of the process. But, you were aware the entire time you were on Circe's island. Normally, that would lead me to believe that your brain had completely progressed at the rate anybody else's would. However, there is another factor." He paused, glancing at her as if wanting permission to continue.

"What factor?"

"Circe was forcing you to learn a completely new type of mist manipulation. That is an equivalent to learning how to breathe a new type of air. A completely unknown skill such as that would require a... flexible mind."

"What does that mean?" Mari asked.

Chiron held up a hand. "Patience, child. It's not easy to explain. We are obviously able to learn new things throughout life, but we are more able to learn, say, fluent languages, at a younger age because we have more synaptic connections in our brains. Circe would have wanted to halt as much physical ageing as possible to keep that excess of synaptic connections; that's why you lived for fifteen years but you have the body of a ten year old. Are you following me?"

Mari nodded.

Chiron continued, "Unfortunately for Circe, you had a conscious experience, and she is not powerful enough to stop mental ageing entirely for someone with a conscious experience. So, the most likely event is that even though she halted your physical aging, all she could mange with your mental aging was to significantly slow it down. Your body stopped but your mind grew slowly, while Thalia's mind stopped but her body grew slowly; you're alike and opposite at once."

Mari frowned. Circe had said that she completely stopped Mari ageing. "But Circe told me-"

"Circe told you what she wished to be true. I have never met the immortal sorceress, but I have heard the stories. Child, power-hungry people aren't always truthful about how much power they really have." Chiron put his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

Circe... Circe had lied. She lied about her power. If she lied about her power, she could have lied about other things, too. What if Blaze being a guinea pig wasn't really all her fault?

No, that was still her fault. Nobody had forced her to go back and try to save Amelia, too.

Mari swallowed. "How old am I, then?" she asked.

Chiron frowned. "I am not entirely sure. If I had to guess, I would estimate around that you're around thirteen mentally, maybe slightly younger. Circe is still able to slow ageing to a significant amount."

Thirteen. Maybe.

It still didn't feel right.

Neither did ten. Or fifteen. Maybe nothing would ever feel right. Ten physically, thirteen mentally, fifteen chronologically (were demigods allowed to say chronologically? Should she go with time-ally? No, that wasn't a word). Maybe her entire age was out of whack. She didn't fit with herself. Not anymore.

"Thanks. I'm just... going to go..."

Chiron didn't say anything as she left. To be fair to him there wasn't really all that much to say.

Mari went back to training after that. She'd skipped winged horseback riding to stay in the arts and crafts pavilion, but now that was over so she might as well go to monster assault techniques class. It was led by the Travis and Connor Stoll, from the Hermes cabin.

They greeted her with identical mischievous smiles, which both amused her and set her on edge. The thing about the Stolls, she'd realised, was that they were incredibly hard to read. Both of them had identical facial expressions, and you could never quite tell which was their 'Hi, great seeing you' expression, and which was their 'I just put shaving cream under your blanket and have an Iris Message set up in your cabin to see your reaction' expression.

They had actually tried to do the shaving cream thing, as well. Mari had caught only avoided it because of her instincts. She'd ended up waking Clarisse with her with an hour of screaming at the brothers. To her immense surprise, Clarisse had, instead of beating her into the floor of her own cabin, started screaming at the Stolls with her. Mari was grateful, though she also suspected Clarisse was just happy to have an opportunity to insult the Stolls.

Regardless, the two were incredibly unnerving.

After that, it was canoe racing with the naiads, then capture the flag (Mari's team lost because half of them were ambushed whist searching). After dinner, Mari was alone. With just her thoughts. She realised pretty quickly that she really, really didn't want to be alone with her thoughts.

Drew had left a week after her siblings. Annabeth showed up occasionally, and they'd talked a couple times, but not that much. She didn't really have any friends, and she hated it.

The setting sun was filtering through one of the windows, making a little rainbow as it lit up a patch of wooden floor. There were three drachmas on her bedside table. Fifteen minutes of conversation. She could IM Lee. He'd known her since before Circe. She could IM Michael for the same reason.

She didn't want to have to explain herself to them. She didn't know why. It hurt too much. She wasn't even sure if either of them wanted her IMing them at random moments. They hadn't said they'd be okay with it, after all...

Will had.

He'd said she could IM him, if she wanted. What was the time difference in Texas, again?

Mari hoped it wasn't something stupid, like five hours.

Silently praying to whichever god was in charge of good timing that she wasn't actually about to interrupt her brother's algebra class, she grabbed a drachma and tossed it across the room and into the light.

"Oh Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me William Solace in Texas...uh, somewhere in Texas."

The rainbow started changing into a familiar-looking veil of mist, but instead of showing Will, it stayed a swirling fog.

"Please provide further locational detail."

Ugh! This was so frustrating! Iris was a goddess. She probably knew exactly who Mari was trying to contact. Mari was willing to bet that she just wanted the free drachma and was trying to get out of actually sending the message. She'd keep that drachma, too. She'd kept every drachma Mari had ever thrown into a rainbow when trying to contact Chiron, back when Circe was still keeping her prisoner. Calling her a fraud wasn't going to get Mari anywhere, though.

Where did Will live in Texas, exactly? He'd said it was the capitol city. She was pretty sure it was the capitol city. What was it called? It definitely began with an A.

"Think, think..."

The iris message was already starting to fade.

"Austin, Texas! Oh, Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me William Solace, in Austin, Texas."

The iris message fizzed into existence again, slower than it ever had before. It seemed like Iris was annoyed that she skipped out on the free change. Mari was sure she'd get over it. And then, to her astonishment, something was actually happening.

Will was sitting at what must have been his bedroom desk, frowning as he attempted to write something down.

"Will?" she asked.

He glanced up and grinned at her. Then he frowned. "Hi. Are you okay? You look sad."

Mari hadn't expected him to pick up on that. "I just wanted to talk."

Will nodded, setting down his pencil. "Honestly, you have great timing. I was absolutely stuck on my homework."

"What's your homework?" Mari asked.

Will grimaced. "Have you ever tried to factorise equations?"

"Forget I said anything," Mari replied.

They talked for a few minutes about how they'd both been doing (apparently Will had started developing a new medicine for empousai burns after nearly giving his mother a heart attack fighting one, and he'd won his school's science award) before the conversation got a little more serious.

"What's wrong, Mari?" Will asked her.

Mari frowned. "What do you mean?"

Will side-eyed her. "When you IM'd me, you looked really upset. And then you acted like it was all fine, but you didn't seem fine. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Damn. Her brother was perceptive. Maybe she should have IM'd Michael or Lee.

"I'm seriously alright. I just... Drew is gone and I don't really have anyone to hang out with, okay?"

The IM started to fade, and Mari chucked another drachma to keep it going. Will jumped. "Jeez, it felt like you were throwing that at me for a second."

"Sorry," Mari murmured.

Will sighed. "I'm sorry, too. I probably should have IM'd you before as well, I've just been so busy with school and I tend to get really focused on things when I'm invested that I just forget about everything else. I know, it must suck being at camp without anyone. But, on the plus side, my Mom said I could visit at Christmas! I'm pretty sure Austin and Michael might be able to make it out, too."

Mari felt a little better at that. If only Christmas wasn't so far away.

A voice called, "Will, honey? It doesn't sound like you're doing homework. Do I need to come up there and take your stethoscope away?"

Will facepalmed. "Sorry, Mom! I'm just talking to my sister!"

"Well, can you please say goodbye? I know it sucks, but you're already on probation at school."

The way she phrased it made Will's 'school' sound more like a prison. What kind of school had probation, anyway? And what kind of school would put her brother on it? Will was great, but she didn't think he'd broken a single rule in his life without cause.

"Okay, Mom!"

"Why are you on probation at school? You didn't mention that."

Will scowled. "I didn't even do anything. I just had a little run in with a hellhound which had been using the mist to make one of my classmates think it was her missing dog. I'm pretty sure the hellhound ate the dog, by the way. She thought I was beating up her dog. It was her word against mine and she didn't have any proof but I'm still on probation."

"That sounds pretty awful." Mari shuddered.

Will nodded. "Yeah, I don't think I'll be at that school much longer anyway. Everyone keeps giving me nasty looks."

Mari wondered if she was actually missing out on that much at all being stuck at camp. If going to school meant constantly getting into trouble for shit that wasn't her fault, for actually trying to save another kid, she was very cool with missing it.

"That's bollocks," she told Will.

He cringed. "Mari, please, stop swearing. Please."

"Sorry! It just slipped out!" She wasn't even lying about that. It was like saying the word 'the'. It would be hard for anybody to stop saying the word 'the', right?

Will shook his head. "It's fine. You're lucky my Mom didn't hear you, though. I have to go. Homework. We can IM again tomorrow, if you want."

Mari shook her head, frowning. "I only have one drachma left."

Will grinned. "It's cool. I have forty."

Mari gaped. Forty? If she had forty drachmas, she could buy so many sketchbooks! A small voice told her that clothes were probably more important, since her wardrobe consisted of five shirts and all of Drew's hand-me-downs. She ignored the voice.

"Well, unlike the rest of you, I actually saved up my camp credit. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Will swiped through the air on his side to end the IM.

Mari did feel a lot better. Now she had tomorrow to look forward to.

ONE MONTH LATER

Mari had been at camp for four months now, including the summer session. Two months since her siblings left.

True to his word, Will had IM'd her every night. Mari had cleaned out the stables every weekend for more drachmas so she could contribute, but Will still only had 18 drachmas left.

Something a little more unexpected was Annabeth coming to talk to her. She had returned briefly that autumn to visit Thalia, who hadn't spoken to Mari since the advice about her age. Annabeth handed Mari a little package, wrapped in silver paper.

"What's this for?" Mari asked.

"Well, you did help us escape. And I thought you might like something small, to honor Athena."

It was a silver key-ring, with an owl on it. Mari didn't often think about the fact she was a legacy, but apparently Annabeth remembered. It was nice. Mari didn't actually have anything to put the key ring on, so she just put the circular bit on her thumb and used it as a ring. "Thanks."

Thalia hadn't tried to talk to Mari again, but she'd left a few weeks after Annabeth's visit to join her at some boarding school.

Mari felt like a normal camper, who had been there for years. Which was why it was very strange when Clarisse La Rue ran over to her halfway through breakfast and told them Chiron wanted to speak to both of them.

"Why?" Mari picked up a slice of bread to bring with them if she was going to have to miss her most important meal of the day (maybe she was spending too much time talking to Will).

Clarisse scoffed. "Does it look like I have a clue? Let's just get this over with. I want to get back to training."

Both of them trudged up to the big house. On the way, Clarisse 'accidentally' tripped her up. She apologised, but Mari didn't think she sounded all that sorry.

"There you both are. I'm sorry to drag you from your activities like this, but this is important."

It was always something important, wasn't it? And usually that important thing wasn't good.

Chiron ushered them both inside, glancing behind him as he closed the door.

Dionysus was waiting for them both, along with another woman, with dark curly hair and a dark purple chiton. If Mari looked at the dress more closely, it seemed like the fabric itself was moving, forming different paths over and around each other. Like it was alive, somehow.

Clarisse fell into an instant bow. Realising that this person was probably a goddess, Mari did the same.

"Lady Ariadne, thankyou for being here today." Chiron made a bow of his own.

Ariadne? She was the goddess of Labyrinths, right? Suddenly, the shifting dress made a lot more sense...

The goddess smiled. "Well, if these two are the heroes, I thought it best to see for myself if they're up to the task. And I wouldn't pass up an excuse to see my husband. You two may stand."

Mari and Clarisse stood up, and Mari glanced at Dionysus. She had done a spectacular job at avoiding him since he tried turning her into a dolphin, but it seemed her lucky streak was up. He didn't seem that thrilled about her or Clarisse being there, either.

Though, if she looked at him, he seemed to have cleaned up a little. He still looked very hungover, but something was neater. His shirt was buttoned all the way, and his hair was perfectly styled. Mari glanced back at Ariadne, and suddenly realised why. She had to hold back a laugh, since that could get her incinerated.

"Well, there they are. This is Claribel." He gestured to Clarisse. "She's probably decent enough for the job. That one is Margaux." He pointed at Mari. "I don't think she's worth the trouble, but it's not up to me."

Mari swallowed.

Chiron pinched the bridge of his nose. "Lord Dionysus, we both know that this might be our only chance. We must-"

"Excuse me!" Clarisse interrupted. Mari whipped her head around. Was she trying to get them both killed? Clarisse continued without looking at her, even though Mari noticed she'd shifted a little in front of her. "I mean no disrespect, but could someone please explain to us what's going on?"

Mari didn't think she'd ever heard Clarisse say the word please before. It felt wrong.

Dionysus's eyes flared, but Ariadne laid a hand on his shoulder. "Of course. You'll be doing me a very great favour. You should know what it is before you agree."

"Agree to what?" Mari's voice was a little faint, and her chest hurt. A lot.

Ariadne sat down next to her husband, and started very intently at both of them. "There has been a disturbance. In the Labyrinth." Her eyes narrowed as she said that, and Mari took an involuntary step back. Something about her... it reminded her of when Circe got mad.

The Labyrinth? Mari racked her brains to her classes. What did she know about it? It was a huge mess of pathways, and it was... uncontrollable.

Ariadne continued. "Luke Castellan has begun sending demigods from his army into it. He's searching for something ... very dangerous."

Mari felt sick. She didn't know why, but she did know it was probably her instincts.

Ariadne pressed her hands into her knees, her lips a thin line. "They are searching for my string."

Mari almost laughed. Seriously. Despite the severity of the situation. A string? There was a huge fuss about a length of yarn? (It probably was more important than yarn, but that didn't stop Mari from imagining it.)

"Is something funny?" Ariadne glared at her.

Mari stood rigidly. "No. No, Lady Ariadne."

Inside, her mind was going CirceCirceCirce. Her palms were sweaty and she felt a little faint.

Ariadne crossed her arms. "No, please, if you are amused, don't let me stop you for sharing why."

However dangerous, Mari obeyed Ariadne's command automatically. She was very used to following orders from powerful goddesses, after all. "You said 'string', and the first thing I thought of was a ball of yarn, Lady Ci-Ariadne."

She clamped her hands over her mouth. Dionysus looked like he was shimmering with a strange purple energy. He raised his hand, rage in his eyes. Mari closed her eyes, preparing to die.

A very hiccupy laugh filled the room.

Mari snapped her eyes open and wondered if Dionysus was making her hallucinate. Ariadne was clapping her hands together like a child. Her face was red and her cheeks were scrunched up.

"Oh, I like her! I suppose it is a strange way of phrasing it, Marion Carter."

A distant part of her was surprised Ariadne knew their names, even though Dionysus didn't care enough to tell her.

Ariadne glanced at her husband and narrowed her eyes. "My love, there's no need to push the poor girl into insanity. Relax. She meant no harm."

Dionysus grumbled something under his breath and Ariadne rolled her eyes. He reluctantly stopped glowing, though he continued to glare at Mari.

Mari decided that she actually liked Ariadne a lot more than Circe.

Ariadne took a few steadying breaths before continuing. "As I was saying, my string has been stolen. The string I am referring to, is the same thread I originally created to help guide a certain hero" - contrary to her previous good humour, Ariadne spat out the word hero like it was one of Polyphemus's sheep treats - "through the Labyrinth. He betrayed me, but now I am a goddess and he is dead, so I suppose it all worked out in the end. The point is, I believed the string to be lost, up until a few months ago. Luke Castellan sent a son of Hermes, Chris Rodriguez, to retrieve it."

Mari wouldn't have noticed this if she hadn't been looking in every possible direction other than Dionysus's, but Clarisse went still. "Chris Rodriguez? Are you sure?" she asked Ariadne.

Ariadne scoffed. "You think I, the goddess of Labyrinths and pathways, would be be unsure?" Her voice was scathing.

Clarisse shook her head. "No, of course not, Lady Ariadne. I-I was just shocked that Luke would send Chris. He has horrible claustrophobia."

"It's foolish to think someone who could betray the whole camp would care much about his brother having claustrophobia," Ariadne said.

"Chris... Chris was claimed by Hermes?" Clarisse asked.

Mari frowned. She didn't even realise that this Chris dude was related to Luke, and apparently neither did Clarisse. And if Luke was Chris's brother and could treat him that way, how would he be treating the other demigods who left with him? How would he be treating Mason?

"What do you need me to do?" Clarisse asked.

Ariadne smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile like the one she'd given Mari. It was like when Dionysus looked at people and made them go insane. But this time, Mari saw dark pathways, and felt walls slowly closing in on her. It was like the worst type of trap. The whole world was outside of her, but she was going to be buried alive, forever. Suddenly Mari understood a little more why this Chris guy was claustrophobic.

"I need you both to go into the Labyrinth, and find my string before Luke does. Normally, a quest would have three questers, but this needs to be as secret as possible. The more we can keep this, how do you mortals say it, on the down-low, the more likely it is that we avoid others trying to find Ariadne's string for themselves."

Clarisse nodded. "I'll do it."

Mari frowned. "May I please ask something?"

Dionysus said "No" at the same time as Ariadne said "Of course."

Ariadne glared at her husband, who sighed and took a very large sip of Diet Coke. "Oh, fine," he said. "Whatever."

"I understand why Clarisse is going on the quest, but why do you need me?" Mari asked.

Ariadne nodded. "I suppose if you're going to be risking your life, you may as well know why. I'll let Chiron explain, since it's all based on his theory."

Chiron picked up where the goddess left off. "Thankyou, Lady Ariadne. I was thinking about my theory of your age. It seemed an awfully large use of power without a reason, but it was still the only conclusion I could draw as to why she slowed your mental development. So, there must have been a reason. When Lady Ariadne came to me with this, I realised. Did Circe ever teach you how to use the mist for the purpose of navigation?"

A hazy memory came to Mari. She didn't even know why she'd forgotten it. Circe had liked playing tricks on her, though. Making her forget where she'd been, who she'd talked to. Maybe she just liked having that much power over people who couldn't do anything about it.

She couldn't remember the details, but she recalled Circe's voice, telling her to focus, and the pain of being punished when she couldn't. And she remembered a heavy, heavy nosebleed. Spreading the mist all around the island until her head felt like it was about to explode. And... putting her instincts into this mist. She wasn't sure how she'd done it, but she had. And she figured out how to leave Circe's island, the quickest way possible. That must have been why Circe took her memory.

"Yes." Mari gasped. "Yes, I think she did."

Chiron nodded, his expression grave. "Well, that settles it then."

"Settles what?" It wasn't Mari who asked that, but Clarisse. Her voice was surprisingly sharp.

"Luke can't have always known that Ariadne's string was traceable. If he didn't, he would have needed an alternative. An alternative that preferably only he knew about, that he could bring out whenever he needed. That way, whilst we were all running around trying to figure out how to find and track Ariadne's string, he could already be travelling through the Labyrinth to attack us... using you."

Oh, fuck.

"No, that... can't be it..." Mari trailed off. Something hit the floor, and Mari realised that it was her Banana. It was also very squished, so she must have been clenching her fists.

"Sit down, smartass. You look about five seconds away from falling on your face, and I'm not carrying you back." Clarisse pushed her onto the couch by her shoulders.

Clarisse turned to Chiron. "If Luke wants to use her to navigate the Labyrinth, are you sure she should even go on the quest? That could just mean they try even harder to find us."

Chiron pinched the bridge of his nose. "I am aware. But, child, how do you expect to be able to navigate the Labyrinth on your own?"

"I'll manage. I don't need some kid slowing me down," Clarisse grumbled.

"It could be a lot more dangerous without her," Ariadne pointed out. "If my string is out there, I want as little chance as possible of it falling into the hands of the enemy."

"How much more dangerous?" Mari asked.

Dionysus grinned. "Very much more."

"I'll go. If it helps, that is," Mari agreed.

It was probably the least she could do. Clarisse didn't exactly rescue her, per say, but she did help her get back to camp. She owed Clarisse. And, if she could give Luke the metaphorical middle finger along the way, then, well, that was a happy bonus. Maybe he'd even pass along the message to Circe.

Clarisse didn't seem as optimistic. She gave Mari a very, very annoyed glare.

Ariadne either didn't notice the tension or decided to ignore it. She clapped her hands together, and gave her husband a kiss on the cheek.

"Well, I should be going then. I'd love to stay, but I'm afraid that Lord Zeus doesn't want Dionysus to forget that this is a punishment for him. I was only supposed to be here for this, anyway. Good luck." She nodded at Mari and Clarisse.

Dionysus sat up. "Ariadne, what about Madeline over there? Don't you think you should ask her a little about how this whole Labyrinth navigation thing works?"

Ariadne only offered him a very sad smile, cupping his chin with her hand. "I hope I'll see you soon, my love."

A soft lavender glow began forming around the goddess, and Mari and Clarisse both squeezed their eyes shut and looked away. When they looked again, Dionysus was back to his normal level of hungover, and Ariadne was gone.

Chiron ushered them both out of the big house, which was good timing, since as soon as the front door shut, an angry yell and a glass shattering against a wall could be heard. Mari had never liked the guy (he had threatened to turn her into a dolphin, after all) but in that moment, she did kind of feel sorry for Mr D.

"You two should start packing, and get some rest. If everything goes to plan you'll be leaving in three days time." Without another word, Chiron trotted back into the big house.

Clarisse grabbed Mari by the collar of her shirt and pushed her to the ground before walking away.

"What the Hades was that for?!" Mari scrambled up and followed after the older girl.

Clarisse turned around to face her, and her cheeks were red.

"Oh, what was that for? How about the fact that you have no business going on a quest when you've been here all of three months, yet you barged in on it anyway?!"

Mari was taken aback. She'd thought she was being helpful, that wasn't fair, was it? She'd just been trying to help.

"I was asked to go, same as you! I was just trying to be useful!"

Clarisse laughed, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that it was a mocking laugh.

"You want to be useful? Fine. Then don't ask stupid questions and stay out of my way. I'll see you in three days, smartass."

The smartass comment didn't sound causal anymore. It sounded very angry.

Clarisse marched back down the hill without another word, leaving Mari behind.

Mari went back to her own empty cabin and sighed, glancing at the seven drachmas in a little pile on her desk. Just last night, she'd been laughing with her brother about how the drachmas looked like a mini replica of the leaning tower of Pisa.

She was going to rest. She really was. But, she probably had to call Will first.

It looked like she might not be in camp for Christmas, after all.