"A penny for them," Aphrodite said, laying a drachma on the countertop. After so many years had gone by, Will wished he was surprised. Could she be anymore irritating?

"Really," he said, looking her over. "You're supposed to be Erin Kellyman? That says everything."

"Were you were expecting Tom Hiddleston in a Versace suit? Or perhaps Lupita Nyongo?"

"Well, Drew Barrymore was actually here last week so... Anyway what do you want?"

"I have a quest for you."

"Uh-huh. I'm thirty-five and so not interested." She was pretending they were not in a busy hospital wing and he was ready for his shift to be over.

"You would reject Aphrodite? Not the wisest thing, some might say."

"I thought I found you once, but I was wrong and now I don't really care. Take that how you want," he told her off.

"Married to the career, are you now," she teased.

"Yes," he said.

"Interesting that you chose pediatrics. So telling..."

"And Flea was in Back to the Future. What are you getting at?"

"Walk with me," she told him. He looked at the drachma still sitting there. There was a stack of charts that he still needed to fill out right beside it. He decided to leave them both and see what this was really about.

"You decided not to continue your doctorate?"

"No. I took a few semesters before I figured out that becoming an RN was better suited for a healer. Look, I have to check on the kids in 42b."

Aphrodite opened the door to one of the therapeutic gardens, as if Will had never said anything. He was prepared for the reality shift but it was disconcerting nonetheless.

"Lycoris, in Latin," Persephone was explaining, apparently to the flowers themselves. "Delphinium," she added, her hand drifting to the next patch.

Will watched her. "Lady Persephone, why am I here?"

"Don't you remember? You rode on a cloud," she replied with a coy smile.

"I remember going to work this morning like any day but I guess it wasn't any day. That doesn't answer the question though."

"There was a distraught family member in the waiting room. That's all that matters," she told him. "I couldn't choose one and not the other," she said, referring to the flowers again.

He remembered their conversation before Tartarus. "You don't have to be so abstruse. I know I'm dead. Why can't you just tell me why I'm in your garden of all places?"

"Is there some place you'd rather be? Even if you remain here I can make it happen for you. You forget, I am Queen of this realm."

"Fine, larkspur- sorry, Delphinium- is what grew from the ashes. It was how the satyrs honored him for helping them in the strawberry fields. Except I figured that out already."

"Have you?"

"I'm not a kid, Persephone. I'm- I was thirty-five. I'm not interested in what ever game this is."

"Perhaps not so wise after all."

Will stopped talking for a minute. She had a point. "There's a reason why you are the one Judging me."

"That was our last conversation. I knew that you would return here. Thirty-five, isn't that still young for a mortal?"

"It was long enough."

"Hmmm...we hear rumors but nothing concrete." She glanced sideways at him, mischievously.

"Hey I was fifteen and it was totally a romantic gesture, alright?"

"Still, tell me more, what did you do afterwards?"

"I only made it through the first year of medical school. I switched to the RN program because it suited my interests more."

"Do you regret changing your career path?"

"No. I found something else that was better for me. It's just how life goes."

"I wouldn't know anymore. I found it convenient that someone would distinguish me from Koré."

"That's not a rumor. The amount of new campers have been decreasing every year. Look, I get that they are getting what they deserve for ignoring us so long but why would you join Kronos?"

Persephone just laughed. "That's cute. You think I work for him." She laughed again. "My uncle is just too old and stubborn most of the the time. He needs a good smack upside the head every now and then. My mother is not pleased with him either."

She ran her hand over the larkspur, inviting him to look closer. The flowers themselves were blue and pink and purple and white while the leaves were lined with silver veins. "They are mistakenly associated with the hyacinth and Apollo," she told him.

"So I'll ask you again why did you bring me here?"

Without warning she grabbed his hand and ran a knife across it. She squeezed his blood into the soil and did the same with her own hand. Red blood and gold ichor mixed together. He pulled away from her.

I am still alive, he realized, looking at the blood. He tried to remember how he had gotten here.

"How long have I been here," he wondered aloud.

The air crackled with dark energy and for a moment Will couldn't react. He felt naive again.

"Persephone," Nico said.

Will didn't know how to look at him. "You have some nerve," he seethed at Persephone.

"Are you going to let me leave now," he asked her.

"You know your father forbids it," she reminded him.

"But I'm not afraid. I'll risk punishment."

"How many times must I explain it? Minos will not forgive you for the humiliation."

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not worried about it?"

"Enough, Nico. You cannot leave my garden."

"What are you trying to prove," Will asked her.

Nico seemed to notice him the first time. "Maybe you can talk some sense into her." Will forced himself to look. Nico was exactly the same as Will remembered him even though he had moved on with his life. He almost lost his nerve.

"I should know you." Nico looked from him to Persephone. "Something happened?"

"Nico, it's Will Solace," he explained.

There was a long stretch of silence. "I remember. You got old."

Today Will learned ghosts could still cry. He took Nico's hand. "Look, I don't understand what is going on with this Minos but if she's worried about it enough to bring me here-"

"She does this. She's done it before when she wanted us to find my dad's sword."

"Wait what?"

"She once sent Percy, Thalia and me to get it back from Ethan Nakamura. That was when Iapetus fell into the river and we started calling him Bob."

Will glared at Persephone, "That's convenient."

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Have you done any other quests for her?"

"That was the only one." Nico was suddenly ten years old again. "Will, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to forget you."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I made it here too."

Persephone sat down beside Will. She took out a cloth and unfolded it, revealing a few squares of ambrosia.

"Delphinium, huh?" Will ended up taking a piece from her. He looked around the garden and pointed to a tree he didn't recognize. It had large red and gold blossoms. "What's that one's story?"

"Her name was Sayuri and she died in the fallout at Kyoto. Her mother was Terpsichore but it doesn't actually matter because the muses always everything personally."

"And that one," he said, pointing at another tree with golden wood. The branches went in every direction. Silver green leaves appeared sporadically among the wicked thorns.

"That one was Jake. He died saving a tyrant from a madman. But before that, he defeated an army of monsters with nothing but a frisbee and a dachshund at his disposal. He lived in the Hermes cabin."

"Are they all like that?"

"Not every monster belongs in Tartarus. You should know," she said, looking at Nico. "He's been trying to help."

"When you don't keep me trapped in the larkspur." Nico was sixteen again now.

"What happened," Will asked him.

"I'm not sure. It was over with before I knew what was happening. And then my sister brought me back to Persephone. I want to know about everyone else. What are they doing now?"

"Well, Percy didn't do so well at New Rome but he graduated from Berkeley once he figured things out a little better. Annabeth studied finance and accounting. She works for the IRS now."

"And Piper?"

"She does social work for the reservation. Clarisse helped Meg rebuild the tower and now they run a safe place for inner-city kids in the Metro. Some rich old lady died in Alabama and no one can figure out why she left her entire estate to Chiarra."

"I guess being related to Tyche has it's benefits."

"Austin runs a record store in New Hampshire. Kayla moved back home and married a lawyer. She has a side business selling homemade bread and cakes out of her kitchen.

Leo actually went back to Ogygia and built a theme park called Davy Jones Locker."

"He did not."

"No he really did but it didn't bring Calypso back."

"What about the Wakefields? Oh and the Victor twins? What have they been up to?"

"Ellis Wakefield enlisted in the Coast Guard and Holly got herself in some trouble. She's serving somewhere in Maine last I heard. The others didn't make it."

"What about you?"

What was there to say? Will shrugged. "I kept the infirmary alive until I graduated and handed it over to the next demigod. I took up nursing and became an RN. I'm not sure I would have considered it if I hadn't known you."

"Everyone moved on without me."

"Or we moved on because of you."

"What good did any of it ever do me? I can't even tell if Zeus killed me in retaliation or if was Hades trying to save face." They both looked at Persephone.

She revealed nothing. Instead, she cut some bamboo halfway up the stalk. "This one is Rain. She still lives in Maracoor but if I don't cut her back every now and then, she'll take over the entire garden."

"What about this one," Will asked her.

"Feverfew. It grows everywhere above ground but most humans think of it as a weed but it's really an herb, although a fair few understand it's medicinal uses. It can be used in lieu of cough syrup. I'm not sure why it's here either."

"I never understood the holistic approach," Will admitted, breaking the ambrosia into smaller pieces.

"Yarrow is good for cuts and scrapes. Menthol for bruises and swelling. There was a time when a woman would be burned alive for this knowledge."

"You'd probably want to know that those same women turned Salem into a tourist destination."

"Naturally."

Sorry to let everyone down but they went out with a bing.