Chapter 03

Perched on the side of an ethereal mountain rising from the clouds, higher than even the birds dared to fly, the city of the gods glittered like a jewel in the light of the early afternoon. No matter how many times I visited, the view always managed to take my breath away. Next to me, I heard my brother gasp as we stepped through the elevator doors.

"What do you think?" I asked, turning to grin at him. He was staring, eyes wide and slack-jawed, at the thousand foot drop below our feet.

"Is this safe?" He asked.

"Yeah," I nodded. "It's safe. If you fall, one of the aurai will catch you."

"But don't go throwing yourself off to test it," Kate warned. "They like it when the mortals piss themselves in fear."

With a great amount of caution on Percy's part, we managed to cross the bridge to Olympus with no problem. Percy was about to say something when he was suddenly hit on the side of the head by a flying acorn.

"What the...?" He blinked, looking around.

"It was the welcoming committee," I giggled, pointing out a pair of nymphs who quickly ducked out of sight.

"They do that to everyone," Andromeda said.

"Sucks when what they throw at you get stuck in your hair, though," Andros muttered. "At least this time it was just an acorn."

"I think that's just a 'you and Andromeda' problem," Annabeth grinned and Andromeda stuck her tongue out.

"So, Kate, which way do we go? I'll be honest, the only palace-slash-temple I know the way to is Zeu... er... Grandpa's at the top," I said. "I tend to mainly stick around the marketplace when I'm up here."

"Actually, are you absolutely sure it's okay for all of us to be up here?" Andromeda asked, glancing nervously around. "Penny bringing up Lord Zeu...er... him... Well, I know my... godly parent... isn't really welcome up here, so I have to imagine that goes double for his kids?"

"Well, I admit the political stuff is beyond me," Kate said with a shrug. "But, don't worry about it too much. Hephaestus won't give two shits about any of that - in fact, he might be tickled to be stickin' it to his old man. And besides, his lovely wife will be thrilled to have some kids around to dote on."

"Aphrodite?" Percy guessed.

"Nah, he an' Aphrodite haven't been a couple for ages," Kate grinned. "Between you, me and the acorn? I'd say he's happier for it. I meant Aglaea. As for directions - well, that's a little trickier. Lucky for you, we don't worry about that. We'll be taking a cart ride."

"A cart? You mean the ones that are pulled by...?" Annabeth stammered.

"Yup," Kate said, and with that declaration, the golden woman issued a sharp whistle as if she was summoning a New York yellow cab.

A moment later, the rapid sound of heavy footsteps signaled the approach of a very large cyclops pulling a massive cart behind him. Annabeth reeled back as he came barrelling right at us, stopping just short of running us over.

"'allo, there," the cyclops greeted. "Th' name's Xaclys, an' I'll be yer courier t'day. Jus' climb on up an' I'll get ya where ya need t' be."

"What's that accent?" I asked, as everyone climbed into the cart.

"Completely fabricated," Xaclys grinned. "I've been tryin' t' get into theater, an' I need a good hook. You like it?"

"It's definitely..." I hesitated. "Unique. Don't all cyclopes have vocal mimicry?"

"Yeah," Xaclys nodded, suddenly sounding like a little girl. "But I want to go with something no one's ever heard before. You can't just mimic a great performance, you have to deliver it yourself."

"Good point," I said.

"Get in here, Penny," Andromeda interrupted.

"I'm coming," I said, nodding to the cyclops and climbing in after my friends.

Annabeth was seated as far to the back of the cart as humanly possible, with Andromeda holding her hand in the seat next to her. She looked... tense. Like she was fighting against the urge to kill someone or something.

"Are you alright?" I asked, dumbly. Annabeth just clenched her jaw and glared right past me.

"She doesn't like cyclopes," Andromeda spoke up.

"Doesn't like...?"

"Where're ya off to?" Xaclys asked, interrupting in his made-up accent once again.

"Hephaestus' place," Kate said.

"You got it," came the simple reply.

The cart gave a sudden jolt, and then we were moving. I had to hand it to Xaclys, the ride was really smooth. Next to me, Percy was staring out at the city passing us by. It was already after noon, so the market place was beyond packed with foot traffic. Minor gods and nature spirits haggled over prices of goods while the melodies of various wind and stringed instruments drifted through the air in chaotic harmony. Soon, however, we turned down a side avenue that I had never ventured down before. The marketplace gave way to open fields and stunning cliffside vistas where the clouds rolled like water below.

We rounded a corner and got our first glimpse of my dad's place. Perched on the edge of the world, overlooking the vast ocean of clouds below, the home of Hephaestus was not as flashy as some of the other palaces we'd passed, nor as sprawling. In fact, it looked more like a modern mansion than an ancient Greek castle. It was two stories tall, with floor to ceiling windows and white marble walls. Doric order columns framed the exterior - five on the short sides and ten in front and back - with wide steps leading up to the entrance.

The cart pulled to a stop just outside the portico, and we all climbed out as Kate tipped the courier. As we were walking up the steps, the door opened and a girl wearing a leather work apron over her clothes came rushing out. She looked like she was no older than twelve or thirteen years old with long, straight black hair that was pulled back into a tight bun, dark eyes and a light, golden tan complexion.

"Lonnie," Kate greeted. "What's up? The boss man getting impatient?"

"Nah, the lady has him preoccupied," the newly named Lonnie grinned. "I came out to let you know your boy toy is waiting for you at the station."

"That was today? Oh..." Kate shot a look at me. "I should really stay, and..."

"Hey, don't let me stop you," I said. "I'm pretty sure I'd be breaking Cabin Ten etiquette if I kept someone from seeing their crush."

"Go get changed," Lonnie urged. "I'll take the kids from here."

"Kids?" Annabeth mouthed to Andromeda.

"I owe you one," Kate said, rushing inside.

"You owe me twelve!" Lonnie called after her, then turned to regard our group. "Well, hi there. I'm Wulan, but everyone calls me Lonnie." Andromeda and her brother shared a look and a barely suppressed shudder, causing Lonnie to chuckle lightly. "You two must be Hades' kids. I'll just clear the air right now, yes. I'm dead. No, I'm not one of the 'earth bound'. I've chosen my afterlife."

"How's that work?" Annabeth asked.

"Well, it started out as one of Aphrodite's ideas of a joke," Lonnie said. "Get people to start sacrificing young maidens to calm the angry volcano god. Of course the fact that these sacrifices were timed around her liaisons with a certain god of war were purely coincidental. As it turned out, the god of volcanoes had no idea what to do with the sudden appearance of an inexperienced girl who'd been told she was supposed to marry him."

"Married?" I blinked.

"Well, that's what my elder told me," Lonnie shrugged. "The excuses changed depending on time and place, really. I was just the first one to show up. Can you imagine it? I had just been thrown into a raging volcano only to suddenly find myself in a strange room with even stranger tools and devices scattered around. The heat inside was almost as bad as the heat of the volcano, so that must mean the volcano god was real and this was his home, right?

"And then I saw him - a mountain of a man with bulging muscles, a wild beard and a tangled mane of hair. Let me tell you, I was so scared I started shaking. At least, at first. Eventually, I got bored and started wandering around. Honestly, at first I don't think he even realized I was there until I started handing him tools that he was asking for. It actually took nearly an hour for him to look up from his project. "

"You mentioned you were the first. There are others?" Andromeda asked.

"Yeah," Lonnie nodded. "There's been more than a few across the centuries. Not all of them are suited for sticking around though. Hermes would come by to take the ones that wanted what they considered a 'proper' afterlife. Artemis claimed a few for her hunt as well. Right now, there's just the three of us staying full time in the forges. The others swap between here and the station. Thankfully, the tradition's died out in recent years - though Kate showing up had us questioning that."

"Wait," I said. "Kate's dead too?"

"Is that what that feeling was?" Andros muttered with a slight shiver.

"Yeah. It's actually kind of hilarious, the way she tells it. You didn't think she was just some fancy gold auton, did you?" Lonnie smirked. "Nope, that was just a fancy suit that lets us walk out and about among the mortals. A bit less fancy than those gilded music boxes the old man made for his step-brother, perhaps. But they do their job."

Andromeda and Andros both made strangled, choking sounds. Percy and Annabeth started rubbing their backs to help them breathe.

"Are you okay?" I asked once they got their breathing under control. "What was that about?"

"She caught me off guard with her casual dismissal of the Celedones," Andromeda said. "Apollo is... fanatically proud of them. "

"He's tried to woo them on more than one occasion, too," Lonnie said with a smirk. "Thankfully, dear old Hephaestus didn't bother giving them the full equipment package. Didn't seem to think those parts were necessary for singing and playing music. I'm fairly certain the only reason they haven't been customized is that it would technically count as after market add-ons, and those cost extra. Not to mention it'd void the warranty."

"What about the bodies he made for you to use?" I couldn't help but ask.

"That'd be telling," Lonnie said with a wink. I chuckled, then started laughing as I noticed the gobsmacked and scandalized expressions on everyone else's faces. I found it reassuring that my siblings back at camp had come by their sense of humor honestly, if Lonnie and Kate's own sense of humor was any indication of what working around my dad was like. "Now, come on in and make yourself at home."