I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Growing Dread
Christmas provided the chance for Chrysa to push away her cares and worries for a little while longer, but Boxing Day meant that it was time for Thalia and Rhanis to return to the Hunt, and time for Chrysa to start immersing herself in her job.
Thalia and Rhanis were sent off by Portkey to Artemis with promises to be safe. From there, Chrysa changed into Muggle garb and made her way to the Dorchester. She had a meeting to get to.
The Table Lumière at Alain Ducasse had been reserved for them for this meeting. It seated six, and was completely private from the other diners, though they were able to see them.
Chrysa was the last to arrive. Rhea, Zeus, Poseidon, Amphitrite, and Hades were already there. Hades rose from his chair to seat her. They all ordered their food and waited for the waiters to leave before getting down to business.
"What are the preliminary reports?" Zeus opened with, not bothering with any pleasantries.
Chrysa stuck her hand under the table and used the shadows cast by the tablecloth to summon the files from her office in the Underworld. She'd set Pseudea and Logos on all the papers she'd stolen from the Titan base she'd raided. They'd compiled everything for her over the past few days, though that was by no means the entirety of the information she had.
"As of eighteen months ago, Kronos had escaped Tartarus by unknown means, though the other Titans imprisoned there were still there. Koios, Krios, Hyperion, and Iapetus are all imprisoned in different parts of Tartarus, with different mechanisms in order to best prevent their various abilities. I'm planning another expedition within the month to ascertain whether or not they have broken their bonds. This will also give me the opportunity to set up alarms so we are aware of when they do break their bonds," she said grimly.
"It isn't safe for you to go that deep alone," Hades said worriedly. "The pit…"
"I know," Chrysa said. "Which is why I'm not going alone. My trophós agreed to go with me."
The others at the table collectively shuddered.
Chrysa rolled her eyes. "Nyx isn't that bad."
"She is that bad," Zeus grumbled. "You're just immune to how terrifying she actually is."
"She's willing to help?" Rhea asked. "I didn't think she'd be interested in this."
"She's a Protogenos," Chrysa shrugged. "She doesn't particularly care about this sort of thing. But she also never really cared for Kronos, and she likes me, even if I'm now half-mortal and fragile."
The others looked like they wanted to object to that, but Chrysa plowed on with her report.
"Before that happens, we'll be holding a meeting of the Dark Council in order to discuss allegiances with those there. That could…honestly go either way. Again, the Protogenoi don't actually care, but some of the younger set are also counted as gods – minor gods – and might be offended enough by their lack of respect. However, for some of the younger set, they could also simply not care," she continued.
"Is that even safe for you to go to this meeting, if there are people loyal to Kronos there?" Amphitrite asked worriedly.
"I'm the goddess of shadows, Trite," Chrysa said with a small smile and a shake of her head. "I'm the only one the Dark Council might listen to."
Everyone looked at Hades, who nodded grimly.
"They only tolerate me, and they only do it because she chose me as her consort, and she accepted me as the ruler of the Underworld," he said. "Leuke is the recognized leader of the Dark Council, especially if the Protogenoi aren't there. And even when they showed up, they left her in charge."
"They don't show up very often," Chrysa said. "Which is good, because the last time Tartarus and I were in the same room, bets were flying about whether or not I'd finally be given the chance to take down a Protogenos."
"You were so disappointed that you missed the chance to take out Father," Rhea said with a shake of her head. But if you had, Kronos would have married you, and you would have murdered him if your child got swallowed."
"Happily," Chrysa said. "But he isn't my type."
"He was," Amphitrite muttered, but it was loud enough that the rest of the table could hear it. Rhea snickered, but the brothers all grimaced.
"I mean, the sex was okay, but it was always a battle of dominance, which made it a bit…messy."
"You made a big enough hole in the ground that you created the Black Sea," Rhea pointed out. "You're the reason it was named the 'Black Sea.' That's more than a 'bit' messy."
"That only happened once!" Chrysa protested, though she could feel her cheeks darkening.
"Twice," Amphitrite said. "Don't forget about the Caspian Sea."
"Oh, and how many blue holes have you and your husband created?" Chrysa challenged.
"Maybe we shouldn't talk about this right now," Poseidon said hurriedly. "Or ever."
Rhea was outright laughing by that point.
"I'm just saying," Amphitrite continued, completely ignoring her husband.
"Back to the matter at hand, yes, I will be safe at the Dark Council. Everyone there is old enough. None of them would dare to attempt to kill me in the Underworld, especially with my trophós present," Chrysa said.
It was one thing to talk about her past exploits with her sister and Rhea. It was another thing to talk about them with her consort and her father present. Especially when the subject of those exploits had been their father…reincarnation was really confusing sometimes.
Zeus looked relieved at the change of subject.
"What will you do if the meeting doesn't go your way?" he asked. "If the younger set declare for Kronos?"
"I'll remind them what will happen if they dare to bring conflict into the Underworld," Chrysa shrugged, "and I'll remind them why it's a bad idea to go against me in the upper world. I won't kill them. Most of them are…fed up with how things are run up here. I would be as well, if I were one of them. They are not given the respect they deserve based on the power that they hold. I will remind them to keep the war out of the Underworld, and they will listen."
"What makes you so sure?" Poseidon asked. "You were killed in the Underworld before. In Elysium."
"By giants," Chrysa said. "Sons of Gaea and Tartarus, close enough to their father's power that they felt protected. And only one of them survived the attack, and he suffered greatly for it. The war won't go that far. There is no one else who has the right to rule the Underworld."
"Hades drew a lot for the Underworld," Poseidon pointed out.
"She wasn't talking about me," Hades said. "Leuke is the one the Dark Council recognizes as the ruler of the Underworld. I'm only tolerated because she chose me as her consort and accepted me as ruler of the Underworld. Leuke holds the right to rule as the heir of Nyx and Erebos. The only other person with a possible claim would be Melinoe, as she is our only immortal child."
"I never had any interest in ruling the Underworld," Chrysa said. "I'm the shadow, not the figurehead. I gladly passed the mantle over to Hades after the first war."
"Heirs are important," Amphitrite said. "The mermaids recognized me as the foster daughter of Nereus, the eldest son of Pontus and Thalassa, and therefore I was recognized as the Heir, which brought the merfolk under my husband's command without a fight."
"I forget that you're just babies sometimes," Chrysa – Leuke – said, shaking her head at the shocked look on the brothers' faces. Not Hades – Leuke had made damn sure that he knew exactly what he was getting into with her, back at the beginning, and exactly how tenuous his hold on her heirdom was.
"I'm nearly as old as you are now," Zeus said drily.
When Chrysa replied, her words weren't in English or Italian or even Ancient Greek. No, this language was much older. This was the language that her grandmother had crooned lullabies in, that her trophós still spoke to her in, that her name – her true name, was given in.
"Ego mímn āskō atones dļnghoes antí tū prāmos pneusīs, torsmņ-putlom. Nom nē sņtējēsi tewe wļdhējēs moghe eimi proti ghod-ke," she reprimanded. I remember long years before you first drew breath, thunder-child. Do not think your kingship can counter this.
"I have no idea what you just said," Zeus said bluntly.
"She just reminded you that we're much, much older than you," Rhea said. "We remember what things were like before it was so…crowded."
"Though, I must say," Chrysa said as waiter entered their illumined alcove with their first course, "I much prefer the cuisine now."
They were quiet as the waiters distributed their appetizers and refilled their wine.
"I'm going into hiding," Rhea said once the staff was gone. "I'll say goodbye to the girls first, but it's not safe for me to be around after what happened last time. I'm not like Leuke or Amphitrite – I'm not a warrior."
"You don't need to fight," Chrysa agreed. "As long as Kronos has a more tempting target, he won't bother going after you."
"You're the one in the most danger," Rhea warned.
"You can't catch a shadow," Chrysa said dismissively. "I know how to keep myself safe. We need to worry about the rest of the war. I'll check on the Titans in Tartarus. Athena will check those outside of it. Apollo and Artemis will hunt the greater monsters, the ones that would give the demigods trouble. The minor gods…they will need to be checked individually."
"I'll send Dionysus," Zeus said with a nod. "He'll relish the chance to leave the camp."
"What's the condition of the under-sea battle?" Chrysa asked.
"It hasn't quite broken out yet," Poseidon admitted. "We're expecting it to by summer, maybe a bit later."
"It was a blow to their plans when Oceanus decided on neutrality once more," Rhea said.
"Father was considering joining Kronos, but my sister was quite persuasive in her arguments against it," Amphitrite said with a smile towards Chrysa.
"I am not sure if it was my arguments or his fear of me that was the true clincher," Chrysa said. "But either way, Oceanus and Tethys will remain out of this war."
"Mnemosyne and Themis are remaining neutral, as is Phoebe," Rhea reported. "But Theia…Theia lost her husband and two of her children. I don't know what she will do."
Poseidon frowned.
"Helios and Selene faded."
"No," Chrysa said softly. "They didn't."
Poseidon's brow furrowed. Amphitrite also looked confused, though she focused on Chrysa and her eyes widened.
"They planned a rebellion against the rule of the gods, between the Titanomachy and the Gigantomachy," Zeus said bluntly. "They were the leaders, so I sent Leuke to cut off the head of the snake."
"I never even realized…" Poseidon said.
"You weren't meant to," Chrysa said bluntly. "That's the point of sending me as opposed to Ares or one of the others." She began passing out the folders that her attendants had compiled.
"This is all the information I've acquired so far, by means of duplication charms when I took out a Titanic base. Some of it is…disturbing, to say the least. It at least gives us information that Kronos has been preparing for this much longer than we knew," Chrysa said.
They were all quiet for several minutes as they flipped through their pages, interspersed with bites of their appetizers.
"This is…concerning," Amphitrite finally said.
"Indeed," Rhea nodded. "They have a greater knowledge of living demigods than we do."
"The current methods of leaving satyrs or in-the-know mortal parents to bring demigods to camp clearly aren't working," Chrysa said. "When our enemies know more about our children than we do, there is definitely a problem."
Zeus sighed.
"I see that now. Overhauling the system will have to wait until after the war. We don't have time to do it now. We cannot afford the uproar that it would cause."
"We can't ignore this," Poseidon pointed out.
"We're not," Zeus snapped. "We're postponing it. Let's get back to the rest of this. We have a lot to go through, and we only have this table for a few hours."
The rest of the meeting was overtaken with minutiae and arguing. Unfortunately, Zeus kept overruling them and changing the subject whenever they pointed out something that he didn't like.
Chrysa wasn't happy about it. This was a war council, not a party planning committee. Ignoring them did no one any good. This was an enemy Leuke had known for millennia. She kept quiet though. Zeus would figure out soon enough that he should listen to her.
And if he didn't?
Well, the Titans weren't the only ones who found Leuke terrifying.
The meeting ended with only broad plans made. Some of the missions they'd determined would be passed on to Chiron for Camp Half-Blood to complete; others would be handed out among the Olympians.
The next day, Chrysa and Zeus met again, though this time they were alone and no one knew where they were. As a god, Zeus could be in multiple places at once. Chrysa had utilized the Time-Turner she'd acquired several years before to go back in time a few hours so that her children, godchildren, and parents wouldn't know they were missing.
"Do you have names for me?" Chrysa asked as she sat down on the bench next to him.
They were in Vingis park in Vilnius, Lithuania, also known as a place no one would think to look for them in. Neither of them looked like their usual selves. Chrysa currently had dark blonde hair and her green eyes were darkened to brown. The bulky coat, pants, scarf, and gloves she wore for the cold weather disguised her further, especially as they were scruffy enough to make her look like she was a struggling college student. The Vilnius University knit cap on her head completed the look. Her father had a similar hair color. His eyes were still blue, but had darkened enough that they weren't as piercing and obvious as usual. He wore similarly bulky clothing, though his was all of better make than hers, though not enough to make him seem extremely wealthy. To better fit in with there surroundings, they were speaking Lithuanian, which Chrysa only knew for situations like this.
"Several," Zeus said.
He passed her a thick black binder. She flipped it open to find several dozen papers, all covered in page protectors. Each respective 'file' was separated by dividers. There were at least thirty of them.
She briefly thumbed through it.
"Are any more urgent than the others?" she asked.
"I am unsure. All that we are aware is that they are all working with the enemy in one form or another. We cannot risk anything less than definitive action. In addition to taking care of that, I also need you to investigate each of them for information on their activities and their associates that are also involved or may become involved," Zeus told her.
"How do you want them investigated?" Chrysa asked.
Zeus looked at her firmly, and she knew that it wasn't his daughter he was talking to. No, he was talking to his Hound.
That was who Leuke was. Zeus' Hound, his Brachet. Sometimes, when they thought she couldn't hear them, they would call her his Bitch. Before she was Zeus', she was Kronos' with the same names.
"By any means necessary," Zeus said.
Leuke smiled coldly. That was the carte blanche to do whatever she wished so long as she accomplished her mission – not that she wouldn't anyway, but it was nice to have permission. It meant she had to spend less time either asking forgiveness (unlikely) or tiptoeing around since she was in Zeus' bad books later.
"Timeframe?" she asked.
"I want a priority ranking as soon as possible. If you can take care of who you see as the highest-value targets at the time, do so. From there a more definitive timeframe can be given. It must be done before summer begins, preferably before you relocate at the equinox."
They both paused the conversation as a woman jogged by with her dog. Amusingly enough, it looked to be a female basset hound.
"It has to be done without evidence," Zeus cautioned.
"Of course," Leuke said. "But I assume you still want…them…to know it's me?"
"That's up to you," Zeus said. "Just don't let anything be traced back to you."
Leuke resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"I'm not an amateur."
"I know," Zeus said, "but you are my daughter, so it had to be said."
Chrysa blinked at him.
"Thank you for your concern, but I assure you I am more than capable of making sure theis goes off perfectly. Do you want this done before or after my trip?"
"Priority list and priority ones before," Zeus said. "The rest can wait."
"Yes, sir," Chrysa said. She stood up, and a wave of her hand had a shadow stealing the black binder away to the hidden safe in her Underworld office. She gestured towards the exit to the park. "I have two hours before I can return. Lunch?"
"I can't," Zeus said apologetically. "My wife is supposed to be meeting me shortly, and she will notice if my main essence is not present."
Chrysa nodded.
"Very well. I'll go read my new book then. I might even be able to rank a few persons from it before I head home."
She'd need the time to let her instincts as Leuke resettle. She didn't want her children to accidentally meet the cold-blooded killer she knew she could be.
Chrysa turned and walked away from the bench, not going toward the entrance to the park, but further in, until she was surrounded by enough trees that it was easy to step into shadow without anyone seeing her.
She reappeared in her office, the green-flamed torches lighting as soon as they detected her presence in the room. She wandered around her desk, reached out towards the back wall and slid her hand through solid stone until she could grab the binder her father had just given her. A hint of power, and it was just as intangible as her hand, so she grabbed it and pulled it through the wall. Her flesh and the binder rematerialized once they were out in the open of her office.
She sat down at her desk, thankful once more for the mortals that had discovered how to make desk chairs so comfortable and ergonomic. She really needed to make sure that whoever it was went to Elysium simply for saving her from back pain. She opened the binder and began reading through it.
On the outside, very few of the men and women included seemed suspicious. Some were businessmen, some were politicians, some were legal 'fixers.' It didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. It would affect her planning, but not their deaths, nor their afterlives. Anyone killed by her blade (or bullet or bare hands or anything else) would automatically be branded with the traitor's mark, so long as she did not actively try to avoid it.
That had only happened a few times. Usually she was good enough at what she did to avoid collateral damage, but the few times she'd had to end innocents who had interfered with her assignments, she had made sure they weren't condemned for their relative/employer/random acquaintance's actions. Assuming they were true innocents, she would then ensure that they went to Elysium, not simply the grayness of Asphodel.
Once she had finished reading through the binder – fifty-seven names, Kronos' reach was long – she closed her eyes and connected with her shadows. It was time to find out what they knew.
When she came back to herself, fifty-seven names' worth of secrets and routines embedded in her head, she found Hades there staring at her.
"The children are worried," he told her. "You left Grimmauld Place hours ago."
"I had something that needed taking care of," Chrysa replied. "It was safer to do it here. You, Seph, and Hecate are the only ones who can get through the wards on my door."
"Was the information you needed really so urgent that you couldn't tell your children goodbye?" Hades asked with a raised eyebrow. "They said you went to the bathroom and didn't come back."
"It was," Chrysa said. She didn't elaborate.
Hades nodded to the binder still on her lap.
"Does it have to do with that?"
"It does."
Hades studied her closed-off expression for a moment. She hated it when he did that. He could read her better than anyone, even when she relied on Leuke's coldness to mask her emotions.
"A new job from your father?" he asked.
"Several," Chrysa said shortly. She flicked her wrist to summon the Elder Wand to her hand, then tapped it on the binder, mentally transferring the information she'd learned on each of her targets into the binder. Then she stood, walked back over to the back wall, and shoved the binder through to the safe once more.
She withdrew her hand, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She felt Hades wrap his arms around her.
"You do not walk alone, my love," he said into her ear.
Chrysa looked over her shoulder to look into his eyes.
"But I do, my love," she said. "When it comes to these things, I always walk alone. It's the only way to protect you all."
"I am a god, love," Hades reminded. "I do not need your protection."
"Your body may not, but your mind does," Chrysa said softly, pressing a fleeting kiss to his lips. "I am made for this. You are not. You are accustomed to much of it, but you are not so cold as I, my beloved, no matter how others may see you. You rule death, but I bring it."
"You are shadow, Leuke Chrysocomê," Hades said firmly. "The secret-holder. A spy can easily become an assassin, but it is not who you are. You are not what you do."
"I am a goddess, am I not?" Chrysa said. "I am what I do, and I do what I am. It is our nature."
Hades sighed.
"You say that I am more than the dead that I rule, am I not?"
"Of course," she said, offended that he would think otherwise.
"Then likewise are you more than the shadows and shadows that you rule," Hades said firmly.
Chrysa smiled tiredly at him.
"Thank you, love," she said. "I…I needed that. Once I embrace the coldness, it's hard to let it go again. I didn't want our children to see that part of me, so I came here."
"They'll have to know someday," Hades pointed out.
"Not yet," Chrysa said. "Not now. They're still children. They can find out that most of the immortal world – our pantheon or not – is rightfully terrified by me. Word has probably spread amongst everyone that I'm alive again now. I should probably drop by India and visit Chaya, or Mexico for Tezcatlipoca."
"Don't forget Nótt and Hodr," Hades reminded. "They're in Boston now, I think. At least that's where the Valhalla entrance is currently."
Chrysa perked up.
"Do you think Odin would try to murder me again if I, ah, visited?" she asked, intrigued.
Hades patted her shoulder.
"Let's not potentially start an inter-pantheon war until after we've dealt with the current one," he suggested.
"Fine," Chrysa said with a mock pout.
Hades smiled at her.
"Go back to the children, love. The work can at least wait until you're back in the US."
"I'll try," Chrysa said with a sigh. She kissed Hades once more, then shadowed back to Grimmauld Place.
"Sorry about that," she announced as she moved into the family room where her family was. "There was some business I had to take care of."
"What kind of business?" Nico asked.
She tapped his nose.
"Godly business. But I'm back for now, though it's always possible for me to get called away again. I only managed to get the 22nd through the 25th completely off."
"We were just about to introduce Nico and Bianca to Wizarding Monopoly," Sirius said with a large grin. "Do you want to play?"
Wizarding Monopoly was an invention of George Weasley, though Chrysa had inspired it. It was similar to Muggle Monopoly, but they were playing for properties like Hogwarts and Hogsmeade as opposed to Broadway and Park Place; the bank was Gringotts and losing too miserably could result in enslavement by the goblins; and the board and other players could start shooting spells at you depending on the card they drew. The pieces had been changed to a pointy hat, a cauldron, an owl, a train engine, a cat, a toad, a wand, and a broomstick.
"I call the broomstick," Chrysa said, plopping down on the floor next to the board. "And I'm going to cream all of you."
"Bring it on," Sirius challenged.
In the end, Nico and Bianca ended up teaming up and bankrupting all of them within the first hour, and then spent the next five furiously driving each other towards bankruptcy. Chrysa declared it a draw when they were down to ten Galleons each and still fighting furiously.
They went back to New York on New Year's, timing it just right so that they rang in the New Year in London before Portkeying to New York, bundling up in several layers with warming charms on top, and then heading out to Times Square. Chrysa had reservations at an exclusive Wizarding platform above Times Square – invisible to the No-Maj citizens, but with a perfect view of the ball drop. Spells ensured that they could hear the entirety of the Rockin' New Year's Eve concert. Bianca and Nico started to droop not long after they got there, but half-doses of Pepper-Up Potion for each of them ensured that they were able to last the rest of the night and still went to sleep afterwards.
After the New Year, Chrysa had to dive straight into registering both children for school. She made sure that they were set up to go to the same school Percy was at – though they were in lower grades. Nico was in fifth while Bianca was in seventh.
It took a bit of trial and error, but she was eventually able to figure out how to set up timers to go off when she was in the shadow world so that she'd know that it was time to leave and return home to greet her children when they came home from school.
A week after school began, she left them in Sally's care and traveled to the Underworld.
Nyx was waiting for her at the entrance to Tartarus.
"Are you ready for this, thrémma?" Nyx asked. There was no worry in her voice. Night did not worry. But there was the faintest hint of…concern?...for Chrysa's well-being.
"Even the Pit cannot touch a shadow, especially when the shadow is accompanied by Night herself," Chrysa said, hoping her voice held all the confidence that she didn't entirely feel.
Nyx nodded, and they headed down into the depths.
Unlike mortals who were attempting to survive Tartarus, neither of them needed to drink from the Phlegethon to heal from the hardships of Tartarus. Nyx was a primordial, and while Chrysa's body was mortal, she held the power of a goddess, and that protected her from Tartarus, even though the Primordial himself didn't like her that much.
Leuke might have been willing to fight Tartarus when he ventured from his pit to the Dark Council meetings, but not even she would dare to attempt to fight a protogenos within his domain. That was the height of foolishness. No, it was much better if she and Tartarus stayed far, far away from each other.
Thankfully, Nyx was enough of a safeguard to keep Tartarus away from her during this little adventure.
Their first stop was the cage that Kronos had escaped eighteen months before. It no longer existed. Tartarus had consumed it.
Iapetus was still firmly in his cage, and started screaming obscenities at them when they came by. He'd always been hot-tempered, though Leuke had preferred him to all of his brothers but her father. His temper cooled faster than the others, and he was more forgiving than all the rest.
Krios and Hyperion's chains were both weaker than they should be, so Chrysa made sure to strengthen them before moving on. It wouldn't hold them forever, but the longer they stayed in Tartarus, the better.
Koios was gone.
Chrysa cursed the entire way out of Tartarus, pausing only to bid her tróphos farewell. She stepped into the shadows and appeared in Hades' dining room a moment later.
Her sense of timing was apparently off – no surprise, time was always weird in Tartarus – so he and Persephone weren't present. She checked the bedroom on her way to his office – no one was there either. Her third guess was correct: Hades was doing paperwork in his office.
"I'm back," she announced before collapsing into a chair.
He put his paperwork aside.
"It's been two and a half weeks," he told her. "Nico's birthday is tomorrow. Report?"
"Iapetus, Krios, and Hyperion are still chained," she told him. "Krios' and Hyperion's were weaker than they should be. I attempted to strengthen them, but I don't know how long they'll hold. Koios was gone."
Hades cursed as well.
"That will make things more difficult for us."
"Indeed," Chrysa nodded.
"Are you heading to Olympus next?"
"Briefly," Chrysa sighed. "Father needs to know. But then I'm going home. I need to rest, and I refuse to sleep through Nico's birthday. It's the first birthday since I was Maria di Angelo. Everyone's coming for it. Assuming you can make it."
"No promises," Hades said, "but I'll try. Will you be leaving them again soon?"
"I'm going to try to take care of everything during the school day, but I'll talk to Sally about watching them if I need to be gone longer," Chrysa said.
She leaned over his desk and kissed him briefly.
"See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," Hades said.
Chrysa stepped into another shadow and out on Olympus. She stumbled as she exited.
Hera raised an eyebrow at her.
"If you're tired enough to stumble, you shouldn't shadow-travel again," she told her.
"I know," Chrysa said with a sigh. "I'll call a cab to take me home. Or I'll put on a Disillusionment charm and just fly."
"I'll arrange something," Hera said. "My husband is in Ganymede's rooms, so you should probably just yell loudly if you don't want to see something you can't unsee."
The woman swept away, gold robes flying out behind her. Chrysa watched her go before turning the other direction and heading for the rooms allotted to Zeus' cupbearer. She banged on the door loudly and yelled, "Father! It's Chrysa! I need to talk to you!"
She heard muffled cursing from behind the door. She suppressed a smirk.
Her father opened the door a moment later. He hadn't bothered getting dressed properly; he'd merely put on a bathrobe. Over his shoulder, she could see Ganymede on the bed, covered by a sheet.
"What?" her father said.
"I just got back from Tartarus," Chrysa reminded. "Kronos' cage is completely gone. Iapetus is still chained. Krios' and Hyperion's bonds were weakening. Koios is gone."
Zeus cursed again.
"Are you going to track him down?"
"Yes," Chrysa said. "No matter how long it takes."
Zeus nodded shortly.
"Let me know if you need anything. And let me know when you're done."
"I will," Chrysa said. "Go back to…that. I'm going home to sleep. Tomorrow's my son's birthday, so please don't have any emergencies I'm needed for."
"I will attempt not to," Zeus said drily before closing the door in her face.
Chrysa found a pegasus waiting at the foot of the steps to the palace.
"Are you here for me?" she asked.
The pegasus bobbed its head up and down.
"Did Queen Hera tell you where I live?"
She bobbed her head again.
"May I mount?" Chrysa asked.
The pegasus nodded a third time.
Chrysa mounted with the ease of many hours of practice – mostly done on her breaks from Hogwarts when she'd been living with Sirius and Remus. The Blacks owned a castle that had a pegasus stable. She'd gone riding there many times. She'd also ridden as Maria, growing up as she did.
She'd never been fond of riding when she was Leuke. It was always too slow for her.
She was back home only minutes later, thanks to the pegasus' speed.
"Thank you for your assistance," Chrysa said as she dismounted.
The pegasus whinnied before wheeling about and flying back toward Olympus.
Chrysa made her way downstairs and into her bedroom. She didn't even bother to change before collapsing into bed.
She was woken up a few hours later by her children coming home. They obviously caught sight of her jacket thrown over the couch, as Nico yelled, "Mamma!" and sprinted into her room, followed closely by Bianca.
The next day, Sirius, Remus, Teddy, James, Albus, and Lily all arrived by Portkey for Nico's birthday. It was a Wednesday, so it was only a small party, but they were planning on going to an amusement park over the weekend with Nico and some of his friends from school. For Nico's birthday itself, it was just a family party, with dinner, cake, presents, balloons – the works.
For dinner, Chrysa made all of Nico's favorite foods in proper Italian style.
"Buon compleanno, tesoro," she told him when his face lit up at seeing the food.
"Grazie, Mamma," he replied happily.
They'd made it through dinner and Nico had just blown out the candles on his cake when there was a tapping at the window. Teddy scrambled out of his chair and opened the window to allow in a barn owl, who had a letter grasped in its talons. The owl flew straight to Nico and dropped the letter in his lap.
Chrysa's eyes widened. It couldn't be…
Her son looked down at the parchment envelope.
"Nico di Angelo," he read. "It even has my bedroom on it, Mamma!"
Chrysa smiled widely at him. Sirius and Remus were doing the same. Teddy was practically bouncing in his chair.
"Open it, tesoro," Chrysa encouraged.
Nico opened the envelope and pulled out the pieces of parchment inside.
"Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," he read out. "Mr. di Angelo, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We expect your owl no later than July 31. I'm…I'm a wizard?" he asked, looking up at Chrysa.
Sirius and Teddy both started cheering.
"It seems so, tesoro," Chrysa said with a smile. "Now I suppose your decision must be whether you want to go to magic school or stay here and be homeschooled, and whether or not you want to go to school here in the US or whether you want me to transfer you to Hogwarts, where I went to school."
"Come to Hogwarts!" Teddy exclaimed. "You'll be in my year! It'll be so much fun! Pleeeeease!"
"Teddy," Remus reprimanded. "It's Nico's choice. Don't bug him about it."
"I'll…I'll think about it," Nico said, though there was a dazed smile on his face.
The rest of the party went by quickly. Despite Remus' best efforts, Chrysa was relatively sure that Teddy had managed to pester Nico about coming to Hogwarts again. The rest of Nico's presents didn't compare to the fact that he had the opportunity to go to magic school.
The rest of the week went by similarly. On Saturday, Chrysa and Hades escorted Nico, Bianca, and four of Nico's friends to a year-round amusement park nearby. It was mostly eight hours of chasing after six hyperactive children pumped up on sugar as they ran around the park. Chrysa laughed at how exhausted her consort became. Persephone called her once he'd returned to the Underworld, cackling about he'd collapsed on a couch and stayed there.
As soon as her children left on Monday, Chrysa armed herself and started on her high-priority list.
She'd identified fifteen of the fifty-seven names that needed near-immediate attention. The difficult part wasn't killing them – the difficult part was making it look like an accident. Well, it would be difficult if she wasn't experienced. She was very experienced at being creative.
Of the fifteen, one got E. coli, one drove his luxury car off a cliff, a third was shot by his mistress after she found out about the other mistress. Number four had a freak accident with a chain saw, number five drowned in the hot tub, number six fell down concrete stairs due to her six-inch heels and broke her neck, and number seven went skydiving and had a parachute failure. The next one discovered he had an allergy to caviar after he ate it. Number nine died of a previously-undiscovered brain tumor. Number ten, eleven, and twelve died in drunk driving accidents nearly simultaneously. Thankfully, they all lived on different continents, so it was unlikely anyone but their mutual employers would notice. Number thirteen's husband caught her having an affair with number fourteen, and then proceeded to stab them both several times. Number fifteen had the unfortunate luck to have his death planned while Chrysa was watching Saturday morning cartoons with Nico, and therefore had a grand piano fall on his head Looney Tunes-style.
They all died within the first week of February. By Valentine's Day, Chrysa was down to twenty-four targets. By the end of the month, the original fifty-seven were dead, and Zeus provided her with thirty more. These were simultaneously easier and more difficult: these were godlings. Their defenses were stronger than the mortals, and they were harder to find, but they were easier to kill. She didn't have to bother with accidents. She simply used her favorite knife – or sometimes one of her other weapons, if she was bored – to end them.
Occasionally she'd use her darker talents to retrieve information from them before their deaths. No one knew everything, but each of them knew something. Leuke knew how to put those pieces together, and she knew how to use them to search for more pieces. Slowly, but surely, she figured out the enemy's plans.
Of course, Kronos had realized that she was hunting, so he started changing things up on her. However, he wasn't used to having to hide things from Leuke, his Left Hand, his assassin, and so didn't do nearly as good a job as he thought.
By the time she headed back to her summer home – the Underworld – she was feeling much better about the coming war. She even planned to take a week off to get her children used to Underworld living. They weren't quite capable of shadow-traveling on their own yet, but Makaria and Zagreus had been more than willing to take their baby brother and sister to school if need be.
Melinoe still hadn't met them. She seemed to be avoiding them just as much as she avoided Chrysa.
However, not that her children were safely in the Underworld, Chrysa knew that she'd soon have to start taking the longer information-gathering jobs Zeus was pushing for. They were necessary, and she was the best-poised to do them. She couldn't put it off for much longer.
AN: Fun fact: I nearly named both this chapter and the recently posted chapter of my Arrowverse story, "A Bolt of Light" 'Darkness Rising.' Hope you all enjoy! As for Battle of the Labyrinth...I'm getting there! Unfortunately, my plans for BotL are less concrete than my plans for every other story in this series, so...we'll see how it goes. It might take a bit longer for the next chapter, so sorry in advance for the wait.