Chapter 23: The Gift of Shadows
The fact that no other Firstborn stopped Pontos proved to be their second mistake.
Now, in a way, Pontos foresaw the danger of creating Atlantis, so he created a failsafe. Apparently, only those born from the blood of the Five creators will ever have the power to become an Atlantean. A blessing and curse to us descendants of the House of the Sea. While our powers will be stronger, more in tune with Enlightenment itself, and will only grow stronger with time, we will suffer from it. Always suffer from it.
- Poseidon's Notes, Page 31, On the creation of Atlantis.
Percy strained under the weight of his power, stretching his skill as much as he could. In front of him, the water stretched out into a long flat plate, bending slightly with the light.
"Just a bit more…" Bianca said, encouraging him. "Just a bit…"
Percy strained harder, his stomach contracting uncomfortably and nausea beginning to hit him.
"NOW!" Bianca yelled.
One of the river sisters, Phlegethon, moved one of the prisms in the room, sending a beam of light directly into the water, and a bright rainbow that covered the back wall of the room erupted.
"Acheron!"
"Oh, yes, child…" the sister said, tossing a few golden coins into the rainbow. "Office!"
The image in the rainbow changed into that of a dimly illuminated office, full of shadows that darkened the room.
"Nico!"
Nico strained, focusing on the shimmering image in front of him. The shadows around his feet began to bubble, tendrils reaching out to his leg, then to his knees, slowly reaching to his hips. On the other end of the rainbow, the shadows bubbled much more angrily. One moment they were those under the desk, then those under the bookcase. Nico grunted in pain, but slowly he began to sink into his shadow. Eventually, when he was fully engulfed, a pale hand began to climb out of the shadow of a statue in the other room. It was followed by another hand, and slowly, struggling, Nico climed out of the shadow. Paler than usual, sweat on his brow, but breathing heavily in relief.
"CUT IT!"
The rainbow collapsed, and Percy fell to the ground in exhaustion. Bianca caught him before he could hit the ground, rubbing his back in a soothing motion as his muscles shook in exhaustion. He turned to her after regaining some energy.
"Did it work?" he asked, just as the door to the side of the room opened and Styx and Lethe walked in with Nico slumped over their shoulders, a shaky smile on his face.
"H-harder than I thought but…it worked."
A collective cheer went over the room, Bianca slumping now and Percy catching her. The two shared a smile, a genuine smile, and the look they gave each other was full of pride. For each other.
"Yeah, yeah, get a room." Nico said, purposefully sitting himself between his sister and Percy, giving Percy a mock glare. "What now?"
"We must iron out the kinks." Bianca smiled, "We've found the perfect size, big enough so enough is visible for Nico to travel, and small enough so its sufficiently hidden from the enemy. Now Percy must learn to keep the rainbow active enough so Nico can come back. If my theory is correct, we've found a way for Nico to travel large distances."
"So, Olympus?"
"No…too far. New Rome as well. If something goes wrong…no, we must first try with some place much closer. The entrance to Underworld."
"Entrance to…" Nico's eyes lit up in understanding. "You want me to travel to the entrance to see how the monsters are getting in, don't you?"
"Yes and no. I want you to travel there to see how many more there are, and I want you to take Annabeth with you."
It finally clicked in Percy's mind.
"You want to break them before they get through…" he said, "Have Annabeth break down their attack patterns and how they will attack before they enter Underworld…"
"And be ready for when they do. Until now we've only worked reactionary because we don't have information, we're cut off. But if we know how many they have, who they're sending first…it could help us turn around this mess before we're forced into a siege."
"You're brilliant." Percy smiled, holding Bianca's face and bringing it to his. Nico paled as the two kissed directly in front of him.
"Oi!"
"Oh, I'm sorry Neeks." Percy said, kissing him on the side of the head, and making the younger boy furiously blush.
"Yeah I'm sorry Neeks." Bianca said, kissing him as well.
"I hate both of you…"
"So, what do we do?" Percy asked.
"We rest. Nico and you need to recover strength. Annabeth is on the tower, observing the battle with Cocytus, but as soon as she finishes we can ask what she has learned. Keep this up a couple of days and we'll be able to spring our plan by the end of the week."
"You assume we have enough time…" the door opened to reveal a grim looking Annabeth. She looked shaken, as well as tired. She had been observing the latest battle, and from what Percy had heard it had been a long one. He itched to join it, but he also was thankful that he was able to rest. He had seen too much blood already, which still made him queasy.
After his first kill he had frozen, and it was only a combination of Orpheus' enlightenment and Zagreus' words that allowed him to continue.
"I don't like that look…" Nico said.
"We're loosing." Annabeth said, sitting in front of the sisters and the group, who eyed her with concern, "We managed to turn it around after I realized that the monsters do have a pattern: scorched earth tactics. They will keep coming until they destroy everything. Its chaotic, but once you understand that you can start to see where they will attack next, the places where they can destroy."
"If we know that then why are we loosing?"
"Because they replace their monsters quicker than we can repair our defenses. They attack things they can destroy. Our watchtowers, our walls, and slowly they crawl at the city itself. We can repair it after every wave, sure, but we cant repair it quick enough. My estimations is that by the end of the week they will be knocking into the keep itself, and that is assuming that everything remains the same…"
"I sense something even worse…" Nico put his face in his hands.
"I've asked Minos to give me a reading on the average power of those monsters. We discovered something terrifying. The monsters from the first few waves were much weaker than the current monsters, and also smarter, even if its in their mindlessness. I fear that there's an actual intelligence behind them, either someone leading them or someone creating them as Lord Hades suspects, and that intelligence is getting smarter with their methods."
"What are you trying to say, Annabeth?"
"Its not…normal. The wanton destruction, the growth in intelligence, and the spike in power…if they wanted to simply destroy underworld and kill all of us they wouldn't be stopping between raids, they would send us wave after wave and overwhelm us, instead they're chipping at us slowly. Its smart, actually. They want to bleed us, but for the love of me I can't understand why…"
A cold feeling crawled up Percy's spine. He remembered Hades' mission, something that had been resting at the back of his mind.
"When the time comes, I need you to enter Tartarus, reach the deepest level, and find the Scythe", Hades had said, could it be possible that the monster were after that after all? He was about to voice his concerns, but he also remembered the other thing Hades had told him. Bianca and Nico couldn't know.
"Anyway, we need to hurry. How goes your plan?"
"We had a successful trial, but it took too much energy from Nico. Percy is spent, but that happens when you've been using your enlightenment nonstop for four hours…" Bianca hesitated,"I guess its time to reveal the second half of the plan to you, I want you—"
"To go with Nico, yes, I gathered that." Annabeth sighed, "Nico and I are of a similar height, and seeing where the monsters come from will grant us a huge amount of information. Do you know exactly where we want to go?"
"The house of Night. Its an ancient temple, well, more like ruins now, but its far enough away from the entrance to Orpheus' tunnel that I'm pretty confident it won't be overrun by monsters. It's also well located, if you end up being spotted, you can hide in its ruins and take down the monsters from there. Nothing short of a full assault will take you down, or at least that's what Achilles said."
"It could work. Who else knows about this temple?"
"Its common knowledge among some hunter circles, especially those who visit underworld. It serves as a solid shelter, and a good location for scouting. My hope was that Percy would be able to make a rainbow though his own rainbow so you could try and communicate with Olympus."
"That's going to hurt…" Percy said, wincing at the thought of having to spend that much energy. He wasn't even sure if it was possible, but if Bianca was mentioning it, it must've been.
"Yeah, well, we don't have time for that apparently. Lets just focus on trying to get you two to the temple. You will have three hours, and then Percy will open a rainbow again for you two to come back. That should give you enough time to scout out their forces."
"Sounds good." Annabeth hesitated, playing with a strand of curly blonde hair, "I…I discovered something, but I am unsure of what it means."
"Oh?" Asked Bianca.
"I mentioned how the monsters are getting smarter. That's true. But I…I don't know, compared to those first days, I feel like there's less of them."
"That's good. Means we're slowly taking them down." Nico chirped, an inquisitive eyebrow raised.
"That's what you would think, but…I don't know. Some monsters arrive with injuries. Cuts, blood, grime, the sorts. Its almost as if they were fighting before they entered underworld. I'm worried what it could mean."
"They're fighting each other? Well, even better. Less trouble for us."
"I just wanted to mention it. Might be good, might be bad, but my previous point stands. We won't make it to the end of the week at the current rate."
"Then we must work faster." said Nico, "Lady Phlegethon…"
"Are you sure you wish to ask that of me, child?" the woman with fiery red hair said from her place in the room. She sat with the three other sisters, each one eerily similar to the other, with the main difference in their hair. Lady Lethe had silvery white hair, thinning and light that waved around her with the slightest breeze. Lady Acheron's was a deep blue, short, and there always seemed to be a sadness hiding behind her eyes. The lady Cocytus' instead was an icy blue, and her eyes, while still filled with sadness, hid also a strange glee.
The final sister, the Lady Styx, seldom left the side of Lord Hades, Percy had come to find out, and it was for the better. Nico and Bianca had urged him to be very careful to the things one said to Lady Styx, especially if there were promises or oaths involved.
"I shall pay the price, I understand it." Nico said with resolution.
"Nico—"
Bianca was cut off by Percy. "I shall do the same."
"Percy, you don't know what you're asking!"
"Bianca, Nico does, and it clearly will help us. You heard Annabeth, we don't have time! I will pay whatever price is needed if it gets us out of here."
Bianca stared at Percy with concern as well as admiration. It was something that Percy had grown fond off, and accustomed to. The denizens of Underworld shared that look every time Percy was in their presence, and he had to admit to himself that it felt good to be admired.
"If the child knows what he wants, it shall be done." Phlegethon said, staring at Percy with deep red eyes. "Like all my sisters, Perseus Jackson, my Enlightenment allows for me to take something from you, specifically exhaustion, injury and pain. In exchange, I shall ask for something as well. I want your pain."
"Well that doesn't sound too bad…" Percy said, ignoring the concerned looks from Annabeth, Nico, and Bianca.
"HA!" Phlegethon laughed, "I won't take pain from you child, I will inflict it. I will cause it. I shall heal you so you can keep suffering, and in the process you will hurt. With that in mind, do you wish to proceed?" She raised a pale hand, extending it as if asking for a handshake.
Percy actually hesitated. Could he? Could he willingly put himself in pain in order to remove all exhaustion? To help Bianca?
I will protect her.
Yes. Yes he would.
He grasped the hand, and suddenly everything turned cold. Then, from the pit of his stomach, crawling up from his very soul, pain exploded. Hot, angry, red pain, as if he was boiling from the inside out.
Percy screamed as his soul burned, his body burned, his bones, his muscles, his blood. Everything burned so hot that it turned cold once again, and then hot, and then cold. Just as he thought he was going to die, just as the pain began to crawl into his mind, threatening his sanity, it was gone. He fell back into Bianca's arms, his body convulsing slightly.
"PERCY! Talk to me, please, talk to me!" Bianca said.
"I…" his mind began to clear, the pain dissapeared, and Percy, for the first time in a long time, felt good. "Woah…I feel…"
"I have healed more than I thought, Perseus Jackson, injuries that go back before your arrival into Underworld. I should have expected that. I apologize," Phlegethon said, her mask of calmness suddenly breaking, "The deeper the wounds, the more they hurt, and trust me, seaborn, your wounds run deep. Sadly, there's only so much I can heal. They will return, slowly. I cannot close wounds forever. Keep that in mind."
"I…thank you, Lady Phlegethon." Percy said. He felt good, and he felt free. He would deal with the rest when they came.
"Lordling, shall you deal with me?" Phlegethon turned to Nico, her mask of composure back in place.
Nico began to scream.