Chiron had insisted that the discussion could - and would - wait until the morning. So instead, Thalia was left to a night of turning restlessly and demigod dreams beneath the towering golden statue of her father. Lovely.
When she did fall asleep, her mind took her first to the ruins of Mount Othrys, whose black granite and marble stood even grander and more imposingly than she had remembered. Torches cast flickering light onto the paved street.
On a raised dais before her, Luke sat in a throne, attended by empousae. Thalia quickly recognized one of them as the cheerleader who had attacked Percy, and now that empousa stood next to Luke, rubbing his shoulders sensually and whispering in his ear. Luke nodded once, then straightened from his slouch and pinned Thalia with his gaze.
Through Thalia's non-corporeal form stepped a hooded figure, and she realized with a shiver that Luke wasn't looking at her, but rather at the person who had just walked through her. It wasn't a pleasant sensation, even in dream, and Thalia hurriedly moved away.
"Ah, good of you to join us," Luke said. "Have you reconsidered my offer?"
"I remain… unconvinced," the figure said. "The Camp is not as you said it was. The daughter of Zeus, in particular, seems rather more dedicated than you had told me. It strikes me that you have, as I suspected, told me only what you feel to be true, rather than the whole truth."
Luke frowned. "I told you the only truth I know."
A chuckle came from the shadow under the figure's hood. "Do not think me a fool, young man, simply because I do not bow as easily to the whim of fascists as you do."
The son of Hermes growled, but he didn't protest the remark. Instead, he changed the subject. "What do you mean, about the daughter of Zeus?"
"She has much of the arrogance you implied, it is true. But it has become tempered. She thinks and acts in equal measure. I do not know that she will agree with your vision of her future." The voice of the strange figure was worryingly familiar, picking at the strings of Thalia's thoughts like a weaver at a loom, trying to fix a connection between two snarled threads.
"Nonsense," Luke snapped. "We will build a stronger future together. She simply has yet to realize her place in it as of yet." His vampire-donkey-cheerleader girlfriend-maidservant-thing rubbed his shoulders soothingly, and he relaxed slightly. "And what of our… other agent?"
The hooded man grunted. "There, you might have a better chance. Already, they are sympathetic to your cause, hoping to build their own vision - perhaps alongside yours. But I don't know how much use they'll be to you, even if they do turn. But I remind you - this is simply a business partnership. I am not your servant, nor do I enjoy being treated as such."
Luke shrugged. "You have yet to hold up your end of the deal. I expect you to help with my task - once you have, you will be treated much more as a partner. Until then, get out of my sight."
With that, the dream faded. Thalia was left wondering what the hell her place was supposed to be, and why in the world Luke thought she would want to join him.
Before she could wonder too much more, though, another dream arrived. This one was set in a marble building also, but much different. Here, it was more like a prison cell.
Large marble stones formed the walls, laid without mortar, and stacked nearly twenty feet high. The only ceiling was an expansive view of the stars above. Crates lay scattered about the room along with canvas bags, some spilling their contents onto the floor. Bronze woodworking tools, drafting tools and scrolls, strange mechanisms Thalia didn't understand - all left sprawled and scattered on a cold polished marble floor.
In one corner, a young boy huddled, shivering. He was dressed like an ancient Greek, a tunic and sandals giving little protection against the evident cold - or something he was afraid of. Opposite him stood a large set of oak double doors set into the wall, barred from the outside.
Then, the bar was lifted and the doors were thrown open by two armored guards, who dragged an older man between them. They flung him down to the ground in front of the boy, who gave a shout and ran over, heedless of the guards. The old man was in a sorry state, his nose bloodied and crooked and his robes torn and stained.
Through the doors strode a tall man with clean white robes and a thin golden circlet on his head. More gold loops decorated his long, pointed beard, and golden earrings adorned both ears. "You turned my Minotaur against me, Daedalus. Worse, my own daughter."
The old man coughed up blood, but managed a croaked answer. "You have done that yourself, Your Majesty. She could not suffer to live under your rule any longer, and nor should she have."
The king struck the man quickly with a well-placed kick to the side. The old man clearly had no fight left and simply collapsed to his side, retching. The boy wanted to stay by his side but when the king raised his fist he had no choice but to scramble back away, and the man flinched.
"Ah, so the man cares about his son, eh?" The king smirked. "Displease me, old man, and I will not punish you. I will punish the boy. Now I will leave you to your new workshop, to create me new wonders. Every maze needs its monster. You shall be mine."
The king spun on his heel and exited, flanked by his guards. Behind him, the boy sobbed as he lunged to his father's side. The bar on the doors was replaced and Thalia could hear chains being wrapped around something as well. Clearly no escape would come through the doors.
"Father, what will we do?" The boy cried. "They will kill you! They nearly have already!"
The man hacked up some more blood and attempted an encouraging smile. It wasn't a success. "Take heart, my boy," he managed. "We will find a way."
The boy continued to cry as his father pulled himself up on the wall. His sobs echoed in Thalia's ears as she awoke, haunting her.
She sat bolt upright in a cold sweat.
Her watch told her it was just past one in the morning. Her brain told her it was too early to be awake. Her muscles ached and her bones popped, begging for rest.
So naturally, she swung her legs over the side of her bed, scrambled for some clothes, and headed outside for a walk.
The night air was cold, despite the camp's temperature controls, and Thalia almost wished she'd brought her leather jacket. But even as she had the thought she ignored it. She'd been cold before. The cold was refreshing, invigorating, and the wind whipping around her drowned the boy's cries out in the rush of air. She was free to ignore her thoughts, the real world, and instead simply breathe. Nighttime walks had always been a comfort to her in her youth.
Her feet carried her aimlessly under the stars, and she soon found herself on the beach. A full moon hung low over the ocean's gentle waves, and her mind flashed for a moment to the offer Zoe had made, so many years ago. Spending an eternal life without boys, without drama, hunting and living and wandering under the moon… suddenly it didn't seem quite so bad.
But she would miss her friends.
Zoe had asked again, privately, on Olympus. Just after Zeus had spoken with her, the Huntress, along with Artemis, had pulled Thalia aside and made a new offer - Thalia could join the Hunters as Zoe's co-lieutenant of sorts. The Hunt had been expanding, and Artemis wanted to keep it in smaller units which could operate independently if needed - and Thalia would help effect this change, as well as run the Hunt and protect the wild. It was a tempting offer, certainly. Thalia didn't really know why she hadn't taken the opportunity.
Except, when she remembered dancing in a fancy dress and laughing on the six-hundredth floor, she kind of did know why. The Hunt would have been a great opportunity; near-immortality, an immortal's blessing, and a band of dedicated friends and family were all lovely benefits. But it wouldn't have felt right. There were things she'd miss about Camp, about the mortal world, things she didn't feel she could let go of.
About a hundred feet down the beach, a figure came into view in the moonlight. Laying back against a boulder, idly tossing pebbles into the surf, was one of those things.
Unbidden, her feet carried her to the boulder.
"Hey, Perce."
He didn't seem too surprised to see Thalia, but looked up anyways with a soft smile. "Hey, Thals." He tossed a rock into a particularly large wave and then shifted over slightly, offering her a seat in the sand next to him. "Couldn't sleep?"
"Dreams."
He nodded in understanding. Nothing more really needed to be said.
Thalia sat down in the sand and picked up a rock, bouncing it in her hand a few times. Somewhere in her mind jealousy niggled, reminding her of a red bikini and red hair - but now wasn't the time, and somehow it didn't seem like a big deal anymore. "What about you?" She asked. "Dreams? Or something else?"
Percy laid back awkwardly, shifting around. Thalia almost wanted to take back the question, but it was too late. Instead, she let it hang. After a minute, Percy answered. "My mom used to take me to Montauk, when I was a kid. That, and obviously, Poseidon's son and all… the beach is a good place for me. I can always relax."
Thalia nodded.
"Well," Percy said. "Do you want to talk about it?" Thalia shook her head, and Percy shrugged. "Just figured I'd offer."
The two sat in silence for a long time. The moon sank lower over the crests of the rising tide. In the water, dolphins played, leaping into and out of waves and breaching high into the air.
"I had a dream too," Percy said finally. "Annabeth, falling, Luke dragging her down. I… keep having it." He paused. One hand pointed out at the waves and an especially large one rose, roaring towards the beach and slamming down with force. Its foamy end nearly tickled Thalia's feet. "Every time, we can't save her, and I just have to watch as she gets crushed on the rocks."
Thalia's mind flashed to the sight of Annabeth, limp and broken in Poseidon's arms.
"Sometimes, it's the fight with Thorn. She fell then, too, and it was my fault then, too." Percy's voice shook slightly. "I just…"
Thalia wrapped one arm around Percy's shoulders awkwardly. It was all she could think to do - there was nothing she could say.
Percy shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to unload on you like that. It's, uh, it's not your fault. Not your problem." He sounded miserable, eyes downcast. His shoulders were collapsed forwards and his posture was terrible as he shrunk inwards to make himself as small as possible.
"When Luke and I found Annabeth, I didn't sleep for a week," Thalia admitted quietly. "She was so innocent, so small. I wasn't much bigger, to be honest, but I had to be. For her. So I was. But I was so hell-bent on protecting her that… Every time I tried to sleep I would think about a monster nearby, or a cop, or gods knew what. So I just didn't sleep."
Percy turned to face her, listening intently.
"Obviously, it didn't work out, and when I did finally pass out, it nearly got us all killed," Thalia said. "So, my point is: you can't defend everyone all the time, Perce. Annabeth… she made her own decisions with Thorn and with Luke. You have to let her do that. You can't blame yourself for it."
Percy nodded weakly. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. "But, I mean… still."
"I know," Thalia said.
The two sat in silence for a long time and watched the waves break in the darkness.
In the morning, Thalia was dog tired by the time she showed up at the war council. For some reason, Chiron had called it in the swordfighting arena, but once Thalia saw the pink squeaky yak being devoured by Mrs. O'Leary, it made a lot more sense.
Gathered around in clumps and bunches were most of the camp counselors. Argus, Chiron and Quintus were in a small group near the entrance, while Grover was hanging out with Percy and Annabeth and, begrudgingly, Tyson. Juniper hugged Grover's arm closely. Once everybody had arrived, Clarisse led the briefing, with Annabeth chiming in for technical support.
"Luke must have known about the entrance from his time in Camp," Annabeth concluded. "He knew… about everything there is to know about Camp." Thalia shifted a little at the slight note of pride in Annabeth's voice. Percy made a sour face at the ground.
Juniper cleared her throat. "Luke, uh… Luke used to use it, when he was still here. I wouldn't have taken any notice, but, well… It was Luke, so," she blushed. "But I never went in because it was a yucky old cave."
Grover huffed, but Thalia ignored it. "Alright, so we've established that Luke knows it exists. What next? Would he use it?"
Clarisse jumped in. "Definitely. If he could get an army into the center of Camp, we wouldn't stand a chance. No boundaries to protect us, no warning. He must have been planning this for months. And he's been sending scouts into the maze - I found one."
"Chris Rodriguez," Chiron said with a meaningful glance to Quintus.
"Ah, yes, the one in-" the gray-haired man cut himself off. "Ah, yes."
"The point being," said Clarisse, "that Luke is trying to navigate the maze. If he can find the workshop of Daedalus, then we're screwed. With Daedalus's help, Luke could make the maze work for him. Work against us."
Beckendorf coughed. "I may not be a hundred percent up on my history, but… isn't Daedalus, y'know, dead?"
Quintus grunted. "I certainly hope so. Living for three thousand years in a maze, that's a curse I wouldn't want to bear. Besides, don't the legends say he fled the Labyrinth? So this Luke fellow could be looking in the wrong place."
Percy jumped in. "And we can't just blow up the entrance, either, because of the magic of the Labyrinth." Annabeth sent him a proud look at that and he smiled back - Thalia ignored the jealous stab she felt and instead paid attention to what Percy was saying. "If we did, it would just move to another place - one we wouldn't know about and couldn't defend. So I think the best thing to do is to defend the entrance as best we can and hope that Daedalus doesn't help Luke in the meantime."
The solution, to Thalia, was obvious. Of course a defense was necessary - but the best defense was a good offense, and Thalia prided herself on her offense. It would also allow them to kill two birds with one stone - if they could reach Daedalus before Luke, they could turn him to their side. If they couldn't, they could help Grover search for Pan - and maybe gain a strategic advantage somewhere in the maze also.
"We need to find Daedalus."
The entire arena fell silent. Mrs. O'Leary stopped playing with her yak.
After a moment, Percy nodded firmly. "I'm in."
Clarisse shook her head frantically. "No, no, no. You don't understand what that maze does to you. Chris… he was a babbling mess after just a few days. Being down there for longer, on a quest?" She looked physically ill, and Thalia almost went over to comfort her before realizing that not only did she not especially want to, but Clarisse probably wouldn't appreciate the gesture either. "No. It's not happening."
"We don't have much choice," Thalia pointed out. "Luke already has a huge head start, and if he can manage to lead an army through the Labyrinth, we're not realistically going to be able to put up a fight. Our best bet is to beat him to the punch." She paused to collect her thoughts and her breath. "We have to find Daedalus first, convince him to help us."
"But if nobody can navigate in there," Percy asked, "How can we find Daedalus? And even if we do, how can we get him to help us?"
"I can navigate," Annabeth said. "I've read about the maze for years. I know how it works."
"You're in no shape to go on a quest," Percy pointed out. "And besides that, reading about a magical maze doesn't help. It's not enough."
"It has to be."
"It won't be. And you may be physically healthy but you still need to rest."
"I'm doing fine!" Annabeth protested.
Thalia, and the rest of the assembly, were watching the byplay like a tennis match.
"Run across the arena, then," Percy challenged. "Prove it. If you can match Clarisse right now - across the arena and back - then you can come with us on the quest."
"Us?" Thalia jumped in. Percy blushed a little, but nodded.
"It makes sense. We're the strongest demigods in Camp - no offense," he said with an apologetic glance to the other counselors, "and we have the most experience fighting Luke."
Thalia conceded the point.
"Are you sure you want to be going underground?" Clarisse asked. "Daughter of the sky god and all. Seems like a bad place for you to be."
Annabeth's indignant splutters finally brought the conversation back around to her before Thalia could respond. "I do not- I don't need to prove that I'm okay!"
Percy coughed and pointed to her hair, streaked with gray. "When I held the sky, for five minutes tops, it took me out for more than a week. You held it for hours." Thalia nodded in agreement.
"Fine!" With that, Annabeth took off at a dead sprint across the maybe fifty-yard span of the arena. Clarisse, who was supposed to be racing her, leaned against the stone wall of the arena beneath its seating.
"Clarisse does have a point about the underground," Percy muttered to Thalia. "You won't have a lot of your power - and I can't do magic in the cave. Is there… something we can do about that?"
Thalia shrugged. Annabeth, flagging only slightly, tagged the opposite wall of the arena - and as she turned, her knee buckled. Clarisse jogged over to help her up. "Point taken, girly?" Asked the daughter of Ares without any animosity.
Annabeth swore, but accepted the help.
"Besides," Thalia pointed out when Annabeth returned. "You're our best strategist. We'll need you to help plan the defense."
Before any of the arguments could continue, Chiron stepped in firmly. "First things first, we need a quest. Unfortunately, Thalia is right - we cannot expect to survive a full assault by Luke's forces. Someone must enter the Labyrinth, find the workshop of Daedalus, and protect the Camp from invasion." The centaur paused. "But I am uncertain as to who should lead this. While Clarisse has the most direct knowledge of the maze, I do not wish to force her to return to it given her negative experiences. And as we have seen, Annabeth, my dear, you are in no shape to be leading a quest, despite your superior understanding of the theories of the maze."
Not even Annabeth dared to fight Chiron on that.
After a pause where everybody chewed it over, Grover spoke up for the first time. "Chiron, if I may, I'd like to go on the quest. Or if not on the quest, at least accompany them somewhat. The Labyrinth may be our last, best chance to find Pan - my last chance." The satyr shrugged. "Frankly, Chiron, I think it's the only way we'll find him."
"Percy should lead the quest," suggested Annabeth. "He's the son of the earthshaker - so he should still have useful powers. He's also… one of the only people here who might stand a chance fighting Luke," she said with slightly less confidence.
The group murmured in agreement, but Percy shook his head. "No. I, uh… I'm happy to go, but I don't think I have the leadership ability for it," he said, shamefaced. "I really fucked up over the winter, a lot. If I fuck up again, it could mean we all die."
Thalia wanted to encourage him, to tell him that everybody made mistakes, that he was clearly learning from them, but Clarisse spoke up before she could. "Ah, shut up, punk. You could easily lead this quest." Percy shook his head, but Clarisse pressed on. "Look. We need someone who can keep their head, who can beat Luke, and who has leadership experience. That's you and Thalia. And she's got the whole 'sky child in cave' thing to deal with."
Point made rather conclusively, Clarisse looked to Chiron for support.
"All in favor of Percy leading the quest?" Chiron asked, which was weird. But the democratic process seemed to work well enough, because the centaur nodded. "Then it is decided, if that's okay with you, my boy. For what it's worth - I have full faith in you."
Percy shrugged. "Somebody's gotta do it."
On that note, the war council adjourned.
When Percy returned from the Oracle, he didn't look especially enthusiastic.
Of course, Thalia wasn't either - Juniper had just told her in a hushed conversation that Quintus had been using the same entrance to the Labyrinth that Luke had. That was a particularly nasty discovery when considered in the light of Quintus's recent arrival to Camp. Was he just another double agent, working in service to Luke? To Kronos?
Thalia growled to herself. She hadn't been at Camp for very long, proportionally speaking - she wore only one bead on her necklace, while Percy had two and Annabeth had six - but already it had come to be a home to her, filled with family and friends and allies. The thought of it being corrupted further, from the inside, by someone like Quintus…
"Hey, you good?" Percy asked. Thalia blinked. "You haven't been paying attention at all, have you?" He chuckled.
She shrugged. They were on the porch of the Big House, sitting in rocking chairs. Percy had magically summoned some food for the two of them, and Thalia couldn't help the spike of jealousy that had shot through her when two perfectly formed burgers had materialized out of purple flames, accompanied by blueberry lemonade.
"Look, I know you don't like caves, or mazes, or anything related, and your parentage means you might not be super comfortable down there," he began. "But if this quest is going to work, I need to have the best with me. That's you."
Thalia couldn't help but blush slightly at the praise. "Of course I'll go. Luke betrayed me too. He's got… a lot to pay for."
"Good," Percy said. "I was thinking Grover and Tyson also."
Thalia blinked. "Four people? Percy… you know what they say about the power of threes. Four is, well, pushing it."
"I know," Percy said. "But Fate is a funny thing. And I think that if Grover is on his own quest, maybe that'll be good enough."
"So what was the prophecy?" She prodded.
He shrugged. "Well… It was weird.
Delve in the darkness of the endless Maze,
The Dead, the Traitor, and the Lost One raise."
Percy's voice faltered for a second, but he continued.
"The Architect must take a final stand,
Children of the sea be lost from the land.
Destroy with a hero's final breaths,
And lose a love to a fate worse than death."
Percy shrugged. "So, obviously, we have to go into the Labyrinth and apparently find Pan. The rest of it, well… doesn't look so good."
Thalia nodded. "You're telling me. Who's the architect? Who's the lo-" she blushed. "I mean, uh, who's the traitor?" Percy shrugged, mood dour, and stared off into the woods. "Well, have you asked Grover and Tyson yet?"
"No," he said. "But I checked with Chiron and he thought it would be okay - well, as much as Chiron thinks fucking with the ancient laws is okay. We're leaving tomorrow at dawn."
On her way back to the Zeus cabin for the night Thalia decided to stop by the Athena cabin and see how Annabeth was faring. The stone owl over the doorway seemed to watch the daughter of Zeus approach the simple gray building, and she felt a little unnerved as she walked through the door into what was basically a massive library, workshop, and dorm room all at once. Bunk beds were folded up into the ceiling with fancy mechanisms, and off to the side a variety of machining setups were arranged in an orderly grid.
Metal lathes, mills, CNC machines, toolboxes, and drafting tables were all in their proper place. Various inventions and drawings were scattered in various states of completion on workbenches, books and reference notebooks stacked five or six deep next to them. At the end of the cabin were the library stacks, and at a desk surrounded by a dozen scrolls in ancient Greek, Annabeth sat and chewed on a pen.
"Knock knock," Thalia said with a smile when Annabeth failed to look up. "Anybody home?"
The daughter of Athena turned with a start. "Oh, Thalia! Hi. Didn't hear you." Gray eyes focused slowly on Thalia, then darted around for a second, as though searching for someone else. "Percy didn't come?"
Thalia shoved down the spike of irritation that shot through her at that and shook her head. "No, he's doing some planning with Chiron and Quintus. I thought I'd stop by and see what your inevitable research had turned up." Annabeth smiled, probably because Thalia had known exactly what her oldest friend would get up to.
"It's just so… huge," Annabeth admitted. "None of the stories agree, and the maps lead absolutely nowhere. I was hoping to give some guidance or… something, for Percy and whoever he ends up taking with him, if he refuses to take me. Some tips. Literally anything more than the bare minimum I've already told him." She paused her rambling and looked up at Thalia. "Hey, who is he taking, anyways?"
Thalia grimaced. She hadn't really wanted to break it to Annabeth like this, but she didn't have much choice. "Grover, Tyson… and me."
Predictably, Annabeth nearly exploded. "Four? Is he crazy? Why are you letting him do this? Anything more than three is-"
"Against the ancient laws, I know," Thalia cut in gently. "But think about this winter. We took five, and it turned out… mostly okay."
"Percy literally died, Thalia! He fucking died!" Annabeth was on the verge of tears now, voice trembling with impotent rage. "I can't lose the two of you. I just… can't."
Thalia stepped forwards and bundled her friend into a tight hug. "I know, Annie. I know. But… I have to go." Annabeth limply punched Thalia's shoulder, but Thalia was far stronger than Annabeth, even before the blonde had been weakened by her ordeal under the sky and the magical coma from trying to save Luke. "We'll look after each other, Annie. I'll take care of him. He'll watch out for me." Thalia felt a growing wet spot on her neck where Annabeth's face was buried. "We'll figure it out. We have to. To protect Camp."
Annabeth continued crying into Thalia's shoulder, and her next words came out muffled because of it. "I've wanted to lead a quest since I was nine fucking years old," she said. "This should have been mine."
Thalia didn't really know what to say to that, so she simply didn't respond.
"I'm sorry," Annabeth sniffed, pulling back. "That's not fair - to you or Percy or me. I understand why I can't, I just can't help but feel like something… something won't go well."
"The prophecy seems to agree with you," Thalia muttered, then filled Annabeth in. Once she had finished, Annabeth chewed her lip and sat back onto a chair. While her friend pondered the prophecy, Thalia pondered her friend - was Annabeth doing okay? She wasn't usually the type to break down over something like this, or at least, she hadn't been when Thalia had known her. Maybe it was just a symptom of her recent coma? That she had missed out on so much, and now felt like she was going to miss out on a chance to help save the world, had to rankle.
"Well some of that is pretty obvious - the 'Architect' is Daedalus," Annabeth said finally. "But the rest… well, it doesn't sound good." She looked at where Thalia still stood, hands in her jean pockets, and frowned. "You'll… you'll be careful."
Thalia nodded. Then, she remembered her dream. "Hey, Annie," she said. "I, uh, I had a dream. About Luke." Annabeth's expression shifted, and she nodded. "I think… I think there's a spy in Camp. Maybe more than one. Could you… keep an eye out?"
Annabeth nodded. "You can trust me."
Howdy.
I hated writing this chapter. To be honest, I'm still not super happy with it. I like the scene at night after Thalia's dreams with Percy, and I am fairly happy with the little changes I made to the prophecy to make it not the old one and leave myself some wiggle room, but not 100%. At least it's 4900 words and puts us right at the start of the quest - things should get more interesting, to read and to write, pretty quickly.
I figured I'd put it up, get some thoughts on it, see what you guys think. Sometimes you just have to finish things even if you don't like them.
Anyways - let me know what you thought. I might just come back and rewrite it eventually. Hopefully it's not as bad as I think and y'all like it.
See you when I see you.