Chapter Twenty Four - Paying Debts
"That... Sucked," Andromeda groaned.
We were back at the Waystation. Annabeth and Andromeda were slumped against each other on a sofa, I was upside down in a recliner and Grover was doing his best to figure out how to change Georgie's diaper on the fly - much to Emmie's amusement. Jo was at her bench tinkering with my refrigeration bag, and Brit was... somewhere. We hadn't actually seen the goddess since we got back.
"That really sucked," Annabeth agreed.
After taking out Brad and Chad, we had moved on to the main building in the scrapyard. The smell as we approached was enough of a warning of what waited inside. I'll spare you the gruesome details, but it was exactly as you might imagine a nest of cannibalistic monsters would look like.
Whether fortunate or not, there were no other humans inside, and we were able to destroy the nest with only minimal trouble. Unfortunately at one point or another in the ensuing brawl, each of us had wound up slipping in the gory refuse. Thankfully, Emmie and Jo had some spare, clean outfits for us to change into once we'd cleaned ourselves up.
"Kid, I don't know if this is the greatest first attempt at enchantment or the worst," Jo said, stepping away from her bench and holding up my refrigeration bag.
"O-oh?" I felt my heart sinking. I'd worked hard on it, and was fairly proud that I'd managed to get it to work on the first attempt. I quickly squirmed around in the chair until I was seated properly.
As if sensing my mood shifting, Jo's expression softened. "I didn't mean it like... This thing is incredible, Skipper. Really. So, why don't you walk me through the process behind what you did, and then I'll help you figure out how to streamline it in the future, okay?"
"Oh, okay. Well," I said, my throat sticking. "I wanted to make something that would keep food cold and still be portable. So I applied a temperature cooling enchantment on the bag, except I overshot it by a large margin. So, to balance it out, I applied a temperature warming enchantment over that. That succeeded in bringing the temperature to a proper level." Jo nodded, so I continued. "After that, I wanted to increase the amount of stuff that could fit in the bag. So I bent the space inside to be kind of like a cross between a torus and a morbius strip."
"A Möbius strip," Jo corrected. "And how did you power all of these enchantments?"
"Well, that was the tricky part," I said. "But then I remembered that gold is an excellent conductor of energy, as is blood. And with the already magical drachma on hand, I had plenty of both. So, I shaved down a couple of the coins, then added a drop or two of my own blood while twisting the shavings into a workable wire that I threaded into the bag itself.
"I then tied everything together with a self stabilizing power feed that meant the temperature regulating enchantments powered each other with the excess bleed off going into the expansion enchantment where it would follow the magical pathways and begin the loop again."
"There it is," Jo said, shaking her head with a smirk of fond amusement. "Blood magic and paradox loops. That's some seriously advanced stuff, and devilishly tricky to pull off for even some of my more experienced siblings. Not to mention if done improperly, you run into a very real risk of whatever you're working on exploding in your face. You went and threw all caution to the wind with a half-assed approach, and somehow managed to fumble your way into making a stable enchantment. That's why I said it was both the best and the worst first attempt. Most people who are just starting out will do something simple like making a glowing rock or something to that effect."
"So what should I have done to make it more efficient?" I asked.
"Let me show you," Jo said. "Go ahead and turn on those eyes of yours and we'll get started."
I blinked to activate my Sight only to almost be blinded by a powerful surge of light. Recoiling, I threw my hands up to block it out even as I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Ooh, sorry. Mind those peepers, Skipper," Brit said, having suddenly appeared. Her godly aura was no joke! "Can you still see?"
"I... I think so?" I said, blinking my eyes back to normal. My vision was definitely blurred around the edges, and there were bright spots but nothing worse than if I'd looked up at the sun for a moment. "Yeah. Yeah, I can see."
"Good," Brit clapped her hands together with a grin.
"You know, I'm curious about something," Andromeda said. "Why do you all call her 'Skipper' anyway?"
"It's a nickname she got from the other hunters," Emmie replied.
"They were teasing me about how dressed up I was when I joined them on a hunt," I explained with a resigned groan. "I... had a pink camo outfit."
"Barbie's little sister," Annabeth grinned. "Yeah, that makes sense."
"At least it wasn't Polly Pocket based on your height," Andromeda said.
"That was the second choice," Brit said with a grin. "She vetoed that, though."
I groaned as they all laughed. Suddenly Brit clapped her hands together, startling us all; "Right, I almost forgot! I just got back from checking up on a few things. Good job with that nest, by the way. And now that's all cleared up, there's no reason I can't give your little group some Divine Intervention." Andromeda, Annabeth and Grover all perked up at this declaration. "Now, I can't send you to Aspen, as that would be too close to Artie's corner and might be seen as her harboring you. I can at least get you as far as to Denver, though."
That would easily cut a thousand miles off our trip! I looked over to the others and we shared a grin.
"That's great," I said. "So, how are we getting there?"
Brit flashed a smile that reminded me of the light glinting off a hidden dagger as she answered; "Abelard and Heloise will carry you."
"Who?" Annabeth asked.
Andromeda looked like she was about to say something when she was interrupted by the griffons' screech. Guess they heard their mama call them. In a flurry of feathers and fur, the two griffons descended from their nest in the rafters above.
"Whoa!" Annabeth said, wide-eyed.
"Are they safe?" Grover asked, eyeing the two winged predators warily.
"They're a couple of flying apex predators, dude," I said. "So, yeah. Totally safe."
"Oh, um, wow," Andromeda stammered. "I, uh... Is it really okay? I mean... Technically we probably shouldn't fly. I mean Lord Zeus is already kind of upset and..."
"Oh, don't pay him any mind," Brit said, dismissing Andromeda's concern with a negligent wave of her hand. "He wouldn't dare attack these two, regardless of who's on them. You'll be just fine."
"Thank you," I said. "Really, thank you. This means a lot."
"Just don't go getting yourself killed," Brit said, ruffling my hair. "Do that, and the others will never forgive you."
"Yeah, yeah," I grinned.
"Before you go, I want you to take this," Jo said, handing me a strange looking necklace that she pulled from one of the pockets of her tool belt. It was a bronze disc, slightly larger than my hand, with a Greek style key pattern engraved around the face and a glowing green gemstone encased in the center.
"Oh, this is so cool," I said, taking the necklace with a grin. "What is it?"
"It's a short range teleportation device of my own creation," Jo said. "With a range of only about a mile, give or take, it will get you out of a tight spot. It's reusable, too and it will recharge on it's own, but it will take around twenty hours to do so. The distortion field will also take along anything in a small radius around you, so you should be able to take your friends along if you stick close."
"Okay, that is beyond cool," I beamed. "This thing is bad ass!"
Jo grinned, ruffling my hair. "I figured you'd appreciate it."
"How does it work?" I asked, pulling it on over my head.
"Just press the stone," Jo said. "And make sure you hang onto that, you hear me? It's one of a kind."
"You can count on me," I said. "Thank you."
"Alright you," Brit said, getting my attention. "Time's still ticking. You lot better get moving. And remember what I said. Don't you dare die, Skipper."
"I don't plan on it," I said. "And, Brit? Thanks."
"What are friends for?"
And with that, we were once again on our way West.
Andromeda had been reluctant to climb on to Abelard's back, so Annabeth had taken the initiative to get her seated. That left Grover with me on Heloise. Unfortunately, Andromeda hadn't gotten over her apprehension and had let out a shriek to the heavens that sounded like someone was being murdered. Heloise handled the sky like she was born to it, and I guess she kind of was. To be honest, the griffons were absolutely remarkable examples of their species, and intuitively rode the air currents to avoid any errant turbulence. The sky above us was clear and the setting sun behind us made for a pleasantly smooth ride all around. Unless you were Andromeda, apparently.
Thankfully, she seemed to have calmed down since then. I glanced over to check on her and let out a soft groan. She had not calmed down. Her posture was rigid, her muscles tense and her eyes were clenched shut. I could see her lips moving as if in silent prayer to any deity that would listen. Fortunately, Annabeth seemed to be doing her best to keep Andromeda as calm as possible. The fact that she hadn't fallen off the griffon while flailing in fright was likely due in no small part to the brainy blonde's intervention.
I felt a little bad about it, honestly. This came about because of my plan to go to Brit. If we'd gone the other route, we'd probably be bored out of our minds but at least Andromeda wouldn't be close to suffering a heart attack. I resolved to do something nice for her in order to make it up.
"Penny, what the heck are we doing here?" Andromeda hissed as we walked into the lobby of the upscale hotel.
The sun had fully set by the time Abelard and Heloise flew us into Denver, and it had taken Andromeda at least a half hour to regain her land legs. In that time, I recalled what Silena had mentioned to me before we'd left camp, and decided to have a quick glance around the city from a griffon-eye view.
As I'd suspected, a number of hotels in the area seemed to gleam with a pink hue that signified to me that those would probably be the best bet for a Dove Suite. The closest one to our drop-off point happened to be a luxury High Rise. Thankfully the clothes we'd gotten from the Waystation were of better quality than our orange camp shirts and jeans, so we didn't raise too many eyebrows from the doorman walking in.
"You'll see," I said, grinning as we approached the check-in desk.
"Can I help you?" The receptionist asked.
"Uh, yes," I said. "Um, I'd like to check in under a reservation for..." I felt my brain go blank for a moment, and then; "A reservation for Panabaker. Stephanie Panabaker." I leaned forward, sliding a golden drachma across the counter and whispered, "In the Dove Suite."
"Penny, what...?" Annabeth started to say, then stopped with a frown.
The receptionist's eyes seemed to go a little fuzzy for a moment, before she smiled again - typing away at the computer in front of her; "Ah, yes. Here it is," She said, passing me a key card. "You'll want to take the special elevator to the left. Enjoy your stay, miss Panabaker."
"Thank you," I said. "I'm sure I will. Come on, guys, let's go."
The elevator had only a single button, and after a long ride up, the doors opened to a short hallway with a single door at the end. Inside, the room was massive. In truth, it would be more accurate to call it an apartment or a small house - in any case, it was larger than uncle Joe's place.
One of the walls was completely glass, providing an unobstructed view of the city skyline. In the main area, there was a kitchenette and mini bar and a depressed floor seating area. One door off the main area led to the bathroom - fully appointed with gold fixtures and marble everything else, a bathtub that could easily fit all four of us if we were of the mind (none of us were. Gross!) and a waterfall shower. The other two doors led to the bedrooms.
"No," Andromeda said. "No, no. Penelope, what the heck? We can't... This place is... They're going to throw us out!"
"It's fine," I said. "Seriously, don't worry about it."
Andromeda made a strangled, choking whine and looked to Annabeth for help with pleading eyes.
"Clear out the minibar and grab the soaps and shampoo bottles," Annabeth said. "If they do throw us out, at least we wont go empty handed."
"That's your take away?" Andromeda gaped. "You're letting Luke's influence show."
"Says the girl who cracked a safe the other day?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.
"Touché," Andromeda mumbled. "Still... Wait, what are you doing?"
"I was going to order some room service?" I said, picking up the phone to do just that. "Unless you guys wanted to try out the restaurant downstairs?"
She grabbed the phone from my hand and slammed it back down on the receiver, "No."
"But..."
"No."
I sighed. It was going to be a long night.