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I stared at the circle and geometric patterns. I took an experimental swing of my sword and met something solid. I studied the problem for a moment and tried to think rationally. I pressed a hand up against the invisible wall and felt a buzz like electricity. Like Thalia about to cast a lightning bolt on me. I pulled my hand back just in case.
Now I was a son of Poseidon. And as a general rule of thumb children of the sea don't like being restrained. My first instinct was to try something crazy like stabbing my sword into the ground and screaming myself hoarse. Pulling the sea towards me and doing something drastic. I couldn't feel the ocean. Couldn't feel Lake Michigan trapped as I was within the circle. It was unnerving to know that there was water nearby but I couldn't feel it. I was totally cut off. Any water would have to come from me. Which tended to be an overall painful process.
"Perseus Jackson." I looked up. There was a man in a duster with a long walking stick. I took him in. Noticed the pendant around his neck. A star. "You've caused quite the disturbance in my little town."
"You're going to find out how disturbing I can be." I shot back. Maybe it was a bad habit but I tended to run my mouth in bad situations. "This is a neat trick. But don't believe for a second it can hold me out forever." I pointed down at the circle for emphasis.
"Oh I think it will. It's designed to hold in powerful demigods and monsters. Which you count as. So hold onto your snark."
I growled. I'd blown up a volcano once. Sure it nearly killed me but I caused some pretty big earthquakes and unleashed Typhon. Hephaestus once told me I didn't know my own strength. But blowing this up? In a crowded metropolitan area? I could kill somebody. I stared up at the rafters in the abandoned warehouse I was in. Sure it didn't look crowded but I started throwing around any real power and half of Chicago could fall into the bay. I needed to play this straight.
"Well, Perseus?"
"Percy," I corrected. "Mortals call me Percy. Only my dad and big bad monsters call me Perseus. And you don't look like a monster."
"What do I look like?" The guy asked.
"Some guy. Some guy who, when I get out of here, is in for a serious beating. What are you? A clear sighted mortal?"
"I suppose you could say that. I'm a professional wizard."
"You know my name. What's yours?" I half asked half demanded.
"You seriously think I'm about to give you my name?" He wondered. I suppose it had been a long shot. Names had power. Names from one's own lips only more so. You could do all sorts of things to someone if you knew their name.
"Well what do you want Mr. Man? Before I blow this little ring out and walk out of here."
"If you could do that you already would have."
"Or I just don't want to. Maybe I'm considering the collateral damage."
"Maybe," he agreed with a grin. I wanted to knock it off his smug face. He looked thirty-ish. But all sorts of things could look however they wanted. I once ran into a group of vampires looking like high school cheerleaders. Empousa they were called. "I'll let you out if you answer my questions. Sound fair? Then you can get the fuck out of my city."
"Can't. Got a job to do."
"Yeah let's start with that. Why are you here?"
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I've had some messed up dreams.
Dreams about the past. Dreams about the future. Dreams about other people's pasts. Dreams about other people's future.
It was a demigod thing. Or if it wasn't a demigod thing it was a son of Poseidon thing. I think I've heard of other sons of Poseidon who could do that type of thing.
I could do it too.
The point is that dreams come and go. And I was in the midst of a doozy. I was in the woods. It was temperate. There was fog. I could feel the humidity even through the dream. It gave me strength and mobility. Water was like that for a son of Poseidon. I didn't have Riptide. Or even a body. So I suppose it made sense that I didn't have Riptide. But there was water in the air and that was enough to give me some power. Make me feel strong. Even incorporeal.
There was a suited man. Or not a man. I recognized him. He'd given me a gift once. It was a terrible, awful gift. I'd regifted it to Hestia when the opportunity arose. Then I stopped thinking about it promptly. But the man evidently remained. Or not man. Titan. He was Prometheus. The lord titan of fire and forethought. I didn't even think his name particularly hard as I drifted nearby. Names had power. Mortals threw them around pretty easily but I knew the power of a good name. I'd racked up a couple of names for myself in my time.
He looked at me in the dream.
I stared back.
"Perseus," he greeted. He pronounced it almost correctly. Almost the way my mother would. I shuddered at the almost perfect pronunciation of my name. Names, like I said, had power. I didn't let that unnerve me. Lots of people almost had a perfect bearing on my name. Lots of big bads. I went up against the titan lord of time and he had a better pronunciation of my name.
I said nothing and looked around. We were alone. Somewhere in the American South at a guess. But that was just a guess. I wasn't at sea so I didn't have perfect bearings. He sat by a log. He started a fire with a gesture and murmur between us in a little pit. He motioned for me to join him. I did. I was willing to bet monsters and gods and titans could do some pretty nasty things to my dream self but I wasn't out of defenses. There was water in the air. So I sat.
"Prometheus. You out here running?" I asked. When the titan lord of time was reduced to dust along with his armies I guessed that Prometheus had had to run.
"I am afraid of what your masters will do to me. When they catch me. And they shall. I shall be doomed to some fresh torment for joining Kronos's side during the war. Some punishment to last another couple thousand years. Or forever."
"They aren't my masters."
"No?" He asked poignantly. "You do Zeus's bidding."
"Not really. I tend to piss him off. My mouth gets me into trouble. My existence on the whole makes Zeus mad. I could put in a good word for you. Make your punishment light. Maybe less. I have some pull." I'd do it too. I meant it. I could probably do that sort of thing. A few Olympians owed me. Others hated me, some like Demeter seemed ambivalent but I could probably leverage something. Prometheus hadn't directly fought. He'd merely tempted me to give in. Which I suppose wasn't much of a difference really but he hadn't hunted my friends. And it really did seem like he cared for mankind. In his own distant and alien way.
"You'd never manage it." He smiled. "You'll hunt me."
"I might. A rogue titan is bad news."
"You'll drag me in chains to Olympus." His smile never left.
"You did some pretty scary stuff to me." I shot back. It was possible that he was right. That I'd hound him. He was on Kronos's side. Not ours. I wasn't sure how to hunt something like a full fledged titan but I'd been sent after monsters before.
"I suppose that's true enough. I offered you the chance to give up hope. Who knows how that would have impacted all of mankind."
"Badly. I imagine." I agreed. "You didn't have to do that. You could have been on our side or stayed neutral. I can't imagine that all the freed titans rejoined Kronos."
"Most did. It seemed like he would win. And besides. I wanted revenge. Zeus punished me for helping mankind." He gently touched the scars on his face.
"So I'll put in a good word for you. Come in quietly. Surrender yourself. Give up hope." I shot back.
"It's not in my nature. My nature is to push boundaries."
"I bet." I sighed. My own nature was to not be held down or back. I also tended to push boundaries even when I probably shouldn't. I felt the water pressure in the air around us. I couldn't make myself take true shape. "It doesn't have to be that way." I think I felt genuinely bad for the guy. Maybe that was his plan. Make me feel bad and I wouldn't report this dream to Chiron. Maybe that was his play. It wouldn't work. I'd mention it. Chiron would let me leave. I'd find this guy. Scatter him. Imprison him. I owed it to her to see Olympus's enemies defeated in their entirety. And hell. I was mad. I'd killed every demigod on that bridge when she'd died in a fit of rage. Some had tried to run from me. But I'd slaughtered them all. Achilles had done something like that once but I couldn't blame it on the curse. It had been me. All me. And I was still mad enough to want to see justice done.
"Yes it does." He was smiling a lot. Like a lot. He leaned back on his log and wrapped his arms behind his head and looked relaxed.
I leaned in and opened my 'mouth' to say something. He snapped his fingers. I woke up. I snarled in my bed in my cabin. Being forced to wake up hadn't been a pleasant experience. Sort of like my whole body had been funneled through a too small tube. I didn't like it. I didn't like waking up in general. Let alone being forced.
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I reported the dream to Chiron the next morning. A titan was still at large somewhere in the Americas. He took careful note and listened to me explain the dream at breakfast. He nodded slowly, taking in my words. I finished and he looked down at me. Mr. D wasn't around. For one reason or another. I didn't read much into that. He issued me a mission. Not a quest. A mission. The difference was subtle but they both suck usually. The difference was we wouldn't consult the oracle. So no prophecy, no three members. Three, I understood, was a magically significant number. Lots of things came in threes.
Instead this would just be me. It all would fall on me to find Prometheus. I had my resources and tools. I had Mrs. O'Leary and I had Blackjack. But I'd need something more. Something to actually track Prometheus with. All I had was a loose idea of somewhere in the American South East. It wasn't much to start. I needed a favor. I'd need to find Hestia to pull it off. I'd have to ask for the Pithos back. Not forever but for a bit. It might still have Prometheus's scent on it for Mrs. O'Leary to track. I checked the hearth of the camp. No dice. Hestia wasn't there.
I sighed. I'd have to visit Olympus.
I took the elevator up. I didn't take Blackjack or Mrs. O'Leary to Olympus. And usually I made it a general rule not to visit Olympus unless summoned. But I was on a mission.
I walked past spirits in the gardens. I wasn't a gardener but the gardens were beautiful again despite the damage wrought by Kronos.
Then I saw her.
I hadn't been sure I'd ever see her again. In fact I was rather certain I wouldn't.
Her brown eyes glowed at me. "Hello Percy," she giggled at my face.
"Calypso I…" I stammered off. Her brown hair was luscious and full.
She giggled at me again. Then she waited. Just waited. Nothing innocuous in that. She just waited. Waited for me to get it together.
"I didn't know I'd ever see you again…" I confessed.
"You set me free. Remember? You made the gods swear an oath." She reminded me gently. "I'm very grateful to you for that."
"What are you doing here?" I blurted.
She laughed gently again. "I got a job working in Persephone's gardens. What brings you to Olympus? Hmm?" She curved the sound upwards from her throat.
"The titan Prometheus is still at large. Someone has to bring him in."
"And that someone is you?"
"And that someone is me," I agreed.
"The hero of Olympus. You turned down godhood for the sake of victims like me. Zeus wasn't pleased. Hephaestus told me."
"You still talk with him?"
"At times," she answered vaguely. "Zeus will force you to accept godhood given the opportunity. He doesn't like how powerful you are as a mortal. With all your freedom. He would rather you played by the ancient laws."
I sighed wearily. "I'll keep that in mind."
"You want to die?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I get to die. They aren't quite the same thing," I corrected lightly. Though in part I suppose I wanted to die. To be with her again. I thought about asking Nico what he could do but that wasn't fair. That wasn't fair on all three of us.
I didn't even know what happened to her soul. I buried her body but…
Calypso leaned in and swayed on empty air. I flinched away from her. I didn't really even mean to. I also didn't completely want to.
"You met someone? After you left my island?" She pressed.
"I knew her before… but yeah. I suppose I did. Then I lost her. In the war."
"Allow yourself to heal. It's all any of us can do." The titaness smiled at me softly and just a little sadly.
It was no new advice. I'd heard it from Chiron, my mother, and others.
I was still battling with my loss. Athena once warned me of my fatal flaw. That I'd let the world burn to save a friend. But I saved the world and lost my friend. Now it felt like I had nothing.
I knew that wasn't true. I had a family and friends. I even had Calypso. But life felt so tiresome without her in it. Annabeth. Be mine. Annabeth. She'd want me to go on.
I said my farewells to Calypso and made my way to the throne room. Hestia was there by the fire. She turned to look at me and smiled. I gave her a gentle smile in return and walked over to her.
"Need something? Perseus?" She quirked her lips.
"I need the jar. It may still have Prometheus's scent to it. I need to track him down."
"It can be yours again. If you're willing to pay the price required. The pithos will tempt you." Her eyes glowed with a healthy fire. It was comforting to gaze in on.
"I'm ready," I vowed. "I'm less tempted to give up hope now than before."
"But not completely," the little goddess observed.
"I don't know if 'completely' is possible. At least for me. Maybe for someone stronger that's the case but not me."
"There aren't people stronger than you, Perseus," she murmured. She summoned the box to her fingers in a flash of embers. She handed it to me. I took it from her.
"Wiser, then," I corrected lowly.
She smiled at me softly. "You know your weaknesses and your strengths. You're wiser than you know. Otherwise I wouldn't give you the pithos."
"Let's hope all of that is enough," I murmured.
"Enough to do what exactly?"
"Well ideally make my friends and family happy."
"Your family is happy. Your mother is proud of you. I'm proud of you as well."
"Thank you," I said and meant it. She was the littlest Olympian. But her heart was the greatest. I suppose she would know. I should really see my mother again. I missed her. She did so much for me. So much I could never pay back. But I wanted to try. I wanted to give her a good night's sleep. I knew she worried about me so much. Still. She worried still. Even with the war over. I suppose I was still fighting some of those same enemies. But that wasn't the point. "I want Prometheus to have a light punishment. It's not like he fought."
Hestia nodded. "I'll see what I can do. Zeus can be cruel to his enemies. Hades is more compassionate. If something can be done I shall endeavor it. But I make you no promises."
"Thank you, Lady Hestia." I bowed to her deeply. She nodded her head at me in acceptance.
I turned and walked out of the throne room. I left Olympus behind me.
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-WG