This chapter is a summation of all the previous events, and clarify some things (after the summary section in "Explanation"). The summary will be rather long, so I will put the numbers before each summation to indicate chapters.
Also, I tried to make them as short and concise as possible, the stuff about Isles (the sword seekers and sword heirs in ch.3?) are not included, because it is irrelevant to the story.
This took longer than I expected it to take.
Summary (spoilers duh.)
1.
The story begins as Artemis prepares to summon a guardian by orders from Zeus. The goddess doesn't have a reason to decline, since she had fallen into a trap, which almost wiped out the Hunt several months ago. Therefore, Zeus went to Hecate to acquire a method that would help protect Artemis in exchange for a favor. That method is naturally the guardian summoning spell.
The reader also learns that Hecate had tampered with the spell to summon the soulmate of the person, who casted the spell, as a payback to Zeus for "accidentally" killing one of her children with divine lightning because Hecate knows (through her supernatural means [it is un-explained in the chapter, but I will include an explanation somewhere when I have the time]) that the person, who will use the spell is Artemis.
In a flashback, the reader learns that when Artemis was younger she had a fascination with knights and princesses. We also learn that Leto, Artemis's mother, gifted her a candle called the Destinylit Candle for her birthday [Renaming to Parcae's Light] that lights up when the person that the candle is bound to, comes into contact with their soulmate.
Then, we come back to real time, where Artemis summons Perseus as the guardian, using her treasured candle as an offering requirement to complete the ritual, successfully summoning him after chanting some lines.
2.
Perseus's homeland, the Isle of the Watchers, taught him everything he knows that allowed him to become selected as a Guardian.
His face is obscured by Masking Mist to lessen the effects of discrimination, though there is a crescent symbol clearly shown on his forehead.
Also, despite the Mist, he appears to be disliked by this entirely all-female group anyways.
His first impression of this new world aren't that good. Though, there is little he could do about it.
As a Guardian, he decides to comply, and complete the chores assigned by his mistress.
3.
Early in the morning, Percy tackles his chores as the assigned "guardian".
A flashback shows the time that he unknowingly replicated his father's swordsmanship, which marked the beginning his arduous journey to becoming a fully-fledged guardian.
After summoning an entire banquet of food for the Hunt's breakfast, he suffers from a slight after-effect, deciding not to do that ever again.
Artemis finds him away from the camp, and realizes that he is a genuine person. So, she decides to teach him more about the world he was just dropped in.
4.
Percy notes the substantial differences between the people and landscape of his homeland and his new home. He then is approached by several girls, looking to pick a fight. Percy isn't trilled, but also doesn't back down from the provocation.
5.
Here, we learn about Eviane, who tries to stop the fight from happening, but ultimately is unsuccessful.
It's unknown whether they intended to kill him or not, but the Hunters rain arrows down on the male, though the male eludes an unnatural amount of poise.
Performing a swords dance, Percy enters a trace that is capable of freezing time, though he himself is unaware of it.
6.
We then go to Artemis, who pays a visit to her father in hopes of getting a different guardian.
Things don't go her way as Zeus has other ideas for the guardian, thinking that Artemis could get rid of her hatred of men, once and for all. While Artemis doesn't seem particularly against the idea, the fact that Zeus has been watching her causes her to storm out.
Zeus, disheartened by his daughter's behavior, consults with Hestia, who agrees to look after Artemis for him.
7.
Artemis returned to a campsite that looked battle ridden. She follows the traces of combat until she comes across Percy fighting a familiar war god.
Though, before she could say anything, Percy shifts his head to where a spear is launched directly in her face, with little time for Artemis to react.
Miraculous or not, Perseus manages to summon a tiny ball of water that somehow manages to split the spear, before it could hit Artemis. He then defeats the god with rage-induced strength.
As the person who put Artemis in danger, Perseus requests a punishment to which Artemis obliges to.
8.
Traveling towards punishment location, which was the top of a mountain, it begins to get dark, so Perseus decides to camp out for the night.
Perseus unknowingly meets Hestia, who has a comfortable and safe aura, gifting him with the peace of mind to sleep.
9.
Perseus wakes up after a good night's sleep to not find the mysterious woman from the night prior. He tries to imitate the feeling of summoning water, but fails.
The scene cuts to Aphrodite, who feels the birth of a special kind of love: soulmates, as she tries to find out more about this newly formed "couple".
10.
Returning back to Artemis, she is with Apollo in his clinic as an unconscious Ares lay in a hospital bed. Artemis could tell that Apollo has been overworked, so she tries to help him a little bit; but, she instantly regrets it.
We also learn that Percy has reached his punishment location.
After he descends the mountain, he comes across a water spring along with a naiad. She is rather suspicious of his prescence, because from her persepective her spring is a secret area, where it is almost impossible to stumble upon it by chance.
Perseus doesn't know this and he mistakes her as a goddess. She realizes that he really did get here by accident, and she sends him on his way, after cleaning him with her water manipulation, since he was still dirty from the day prior.
She tells him her name, Ixia, when he is almost out of earshot.
11.
Perseus returns to the Hunt, where he is still unwelcomed.
Artemis then appears, leading him to a secluded area, so that she could test him. Though, this reason is unknown to him, until he experiences it. Perseus manages to endure it, but he passes out.
12.
When Perseus comes to, he finds himself on a strange bed suspended in the air (a hammock), feeling completely fine except for a sense of hunger. Though, he is quickly proven wrong went a feels a terrible pain that renders him completely immobile after he gets up, knocking him to the ground. He couldn't even open his eyes, or call for help.
After being left there for some time, somebody comes and nurses him for a little while. They encourage him to rest, since it is late.
13.
The scene moves to Aphrodite, who, surprisingly, is reading a book, though it looked more like she was looking for something about soulmates with the massive pile of books by her side.
The love goddess eventually finds what she was looking for, and calls Eros. The pair whisper amongst each other, eventually settling on a plan that Artemis seems to be the last part of.
Eros then goes and convinces Artemis to give him a strand of her hair by making a vow never to interfere in her love life.
14.
Artemis brings Perseus to their practice range, where some of the girls are practicing. Perseus inadvertedly challenges their expertise, and has to prove his words or else he'd look like a blabbering fool.
While remembering his mother's advice, he manages to hit three bullseyes in a row. All of them hitting the same exact spot, earning the admiration of the few girls that were there.
Perseus is then left there to help with their practice.
15.
After leaving Perseus to help the girls, Artemis goes to her secret sanctuary. She reflects on the event with Perseus and Ares, and finds it strange how she wasn't able to dodge the spear in the first place. She also notices that her guardian appears in her thoughts more often, and finds herself frequently glancing at him.
Artemis tries to clear her mind, but ultimately she could not. So, she returns to camp, watching from a distance as Perseus attempts to teach the girls archery.
Many hours later, Perseus calls it a day to the dissappointment of some. As he walks back to his tent, Artemis appears in front of him, and tells him to follow.
She leads him to her tent, and reveals the reason why she brought him there which was to teach him more about the world.
16.
We get a glimpse of what Eros and Aphrodite are doing, and it seems like a dangerous ritual that uses divinity to find the pair of soulmates.
Aphrodite manages to complete the ritual after much effort, though she is completely out of it, stunned as she find out someone familiar had found a soulmate.
Eros finds her behavior unnatural, calling Apollo to help.
Briefly cutting to Artemis, several weeks later.
Artemis has added teaching Perseus about the world in her daily routine, and learning that his biological clock makes him fall asleep fairly early. While a slightly concerning development emerges, she finds herself peeking at him while he sleeps.
17.
Back to Aphrodite, she learns that Artemis has a soulmate, which causes her to start planning how to observe Artemis relationship, since it has been proven difficult for her to do so in the past.
But before she does that, she has the need to tell Eros.
Then moving back to Artemis, she tells Perseus to go with Eviane's group to eliminate a massive pack of hellhounds.
Perseus tells her group this, and he learns that Eviane doesn't have much control over her group. In fact, the real leader of the group seems to be someone with a nasty personality called Alexie. She belittles Eviane, and refuses to go with Perseus. The other girls also agree with her sentiment. So, Perseus decides to go alone since it was an order from Artemis, and Eviane trails behind him.
It is here where we learn of another member of this particular group of girls, Sofia, who is a more reserved person hanging out with group of snarky girls.
18.
They eventually reach the place where the hellhounds are located. Eviane and Perseus observe from a distance. The pack seemed to be organized by an intelligent hellhound that behaved more a person than a monster, which they dubbed the "king".
They spot two hounds on a patrol, and Perseus takes the chance to guage their strength.
She witnesses how easily he took them out, and is astonished, thinking that they maybe can do this.
19.
Together, they hatch a plan and excute it. Perseus lures the hounds to a mud pool, while Eviane support him from the treetops, eventually wittling their numbers to where there was only the "king".
20.
The "king" doesn't attack them for some odd reason, and the pair discuss on whether or not to capture it, eventually resulting in Perseus unceremoniously dusting it.
21.
Some time later.
Aphrodite is seen with a pair of binoculars, "observing" Artemis in the clouds. The binoculars she has is specially made with a built-it love number display, good for those love enthusiasts, though her pair seems to be malfunctioning.
The love goddess leaves, letting the pair of supposed lovers have some alone time.
The atmosphere seems rather good.
Perseus asks Artemis if she had eaten yet, and naturally the goddess says "no", since gods don't need to eat. But Perseus didn't appear to know this, and makes a simple soup for her.
The fragrant scent of the soup draws in the other girls one by one, until it results into a massive gathering, where Perseus is automatically delegated the role of chef.
22.
Artemis awakes from slumber, confused, because sleep is not something she does. She detects a figure outside her tent. Figuring that it might be the suspect, she goes to make a move, only to find out that it was Perseus.
It looks like he had been up all night, guarding her tent, and she had accidentally woken him up.
She askes him a series of questions for him to "clear" his innocence. During the conversation, he falls asleep, and Artemis carries him to his tent.
23.
The scene goes to Aphrodite's perspective of the previous night.
While Aphrodite comes back, she finds what should've been a lovey dovey scene, transformed into a Hunt party of sorts. The love goddess is confused how this happens, and notes that she doesn't recognize Artemis's soulmate.
While immersed in her thoughts, Aphrodite notices that Artemis has seen her, so she chooses to disappear from the vincinity.
Then, we skip back to the present where an unknown huntress complains to Artemis about the male.
Seeing that Artemis is unresponsive, she starts to fear that she had somehow angered Artemis, leading her to prostrate.
Though in reality, Artemis was busy thinking about something else, and wasn't paying attention to the girl in front of her.
24.
Artemis goes to visit Leto, where they have a bonding moment. Artemis also tells her mother about the guardian the most recent events, including why Zeus forced her to summon the guardian in the first place.
Their conversation is cut short when Leto notices a stranger's prescence near her home.
That stranger was Perseus, though he doesn't know how he got there in the first place.
Artemis takes this opportunity to introduce Perseus and her mother to each other. Leto seems to know why there is a crescent symbol on Perseus forehead, but she doesn't seem to want to explain it, much to Artemis's confusion.
25.
Weeks later, Artemis and Perseus are together hunting a drakon.
By this time, Artemis has taught Perseus much about the Greek world, and he understands the distinction between "normal" and Greek world "normal".
They work together to slay a drakon, and it seems that their teamwork is more than effective.
26.
The Hunt is about to go on a trip to the city.
While the Hunt waits, Eviane is swinging a wooden sword, while Perseus instructs her and the other girls watch.
Artemis arrives and the group scatters, leaving Perseus and Artemis alone, though they are quickly called back as it is time to go to the city.
She summons her chariot, which is in the form of a fancy coach bus, and soon realizes that it is Perseus's first time seeing a bus from the look he was giving her.
As they get on the bus, Perseus doesn't expect that it was going to move, resulting in an awkward situation with Artemis.
27.
They still sit next to each other.
Artemis proactively gets closer to him, semi-unaware of her own feelings, while Perseus seems are oblivious to her advances.
As they become comfortable with each other's prescence, they don't realize that they've already reached the city as the others were waiting on them, and they part for now.
At the hotel, Artemis allows the girls to freely roam as Perseus stays back.
Artemis realizes that Perseus was going to stay with her, decides to take him to a coffee shop for a date.
28.
Still in the city, a fortune teller calls out to the pair, offering a card reading. They decide to go in the small shop, only because Perseus was intrigued.
All seems to be well, but then she flips over a card with a hourglass and a reaper.
Artemis is extremely unhappy with the insinuation, and pulls Perseus out of the store.
Then, they are no longer in the city, but instead at one of their campsites.
A parrot comes with a large box of letters for Artemis, which she ignores.
The parrot is well known for spreading scandals across the Greek world, and begins to prod at Artemis and Perseus's relationship.
Perseus scares away the bird, because he thinks that it is spitting out nonscence.
29.
We go to Apollo's clinic where Ares regains conciousness, though it appears that he has lost a bit of his memories. However, his poor personality remains.
Then, the scene moves to Artemis and Leto, where Artemis ask her mother about love.
She also describes a situation where one of the huntresses may or may not be interested in a male.
Leto plays along and gives advice for that "huntress".
30.
Back at the camp.
Eviane interrupts Percy in his training, causing him to launch an attack for surprise attack practice.
After their spar, Eviane notes that she could finally see his face, and they talk about the Masking Mist.
Some time passes and Eviane gets hungry, so Perseus makes food.
As he finishes making enough food for the rest of the Hunt, Artemis comes by and takes him away.
They spend some alone time together, admiring nature.
31.
Perseus thinks about Artemis strange recent behavior.
While thinking, Artemis appears as if on cue, and asks him what he's thinking about.
He confesses his true thoughts, and together they find out that their feelings are mutual. She tells him to call her by her name.
32.
Artemis had a dream that she couldn't remember. It seemed that her body's reaction was rather strange.
Again, she notices somebody coming in, and it's Perseus, carrying breakfast.
The goddess instantly feels that something is wrong when he calls her 'Mistress', and her instinct was correct.
Someone had taken over his body.
First, since they didn't know the extent of their relationship, Artemis threatened to obliterate his existance, though in reality she obscured his vision, knocking him out by overloading him with divinity. It required immense concentration and percise divinity control in a short amount of time.
33.
Time seems to be rewound to when Artemis wakes up, and she formulates a plan to subdue him quickly. When it comes time to excute her plan, it goes smoothly.
When Perseus is "normal", she tells him about what happened, and plans to visit Leto and then Apollo.
34.
On their way to Leto's house, for some odd reason, Artemis suddenly became more prevalant in Perseus's thoughts, and whenever he looked at her there would be a strange feeling, similar to but not exactly like a sickness. Perhaps, he thought, the feeling was love.
At Leto's house, Artemis tells Leto about her concerns, and it seems as though possession is going to happen again.
Hestia appears and helps Leto with the issue with Perseus while Artemis waits outside the room.
Leto does the ritual while Hestia covers them with a barrier. Perseus's demeanor to change into a meek person. The two question the persona, but doesn't get much information before the possession ends.
35.
Leto goes to her daughter after finishing up the ritual, noting that she had never seen Artemis be so worried about someone. It is clear to the titaness that Artemis was in love, and she wasn't opposed to it.
Therefore, it was only right for Leto to support her with all of her heart, which includes giving her some liquid courage.
Artemis and the now "normal" Perseus were in Leto's living getting too intimate for this summarization.
36.
NOT SAFE TO SUMMARIZE.
37.
The pair leaves Leto's and takes shelter in a cave, where they confess again, and then proceed to get caught getting intimate by Alexie.
38.
Before Alexie walked in on the two lovebirds, she was secretly practicing archery, trying to imitate what Perseus was teaching the other girls.
This leads to a flashback from Alexie's POV.
She initally didn't like Perseus, and it irked her that Artemis let a male teach the Hunt how to shoot a bow and arrow.
She couldn't believe that a male was better than her or any of the others.
To prove her point, she secretly tailed him, ending up at his secret (not-so-secret) training spot.
And so, she essentially stalked him while he was training, every day. Seeing his consistant routine, she changed her mind, but she continued to watch him, telling herself that one day she would catch him lacking. Though at that point, she was convinced that it was impossible.
Until one day, he actually didn't show up, leaving her stumped, and resulting in the current situation.
Obviously, Alexie had many questions, but asked moderately, since she had unveiled a secret that she shouldn't know. And she convinced Artemis to keep her silence if Perseus taught her personally.
39.
Fluff chapter.
Artemis and Diana have a short discussion about soulmates.
40.
Perseus feels as though they are being watched by someone. He realizes that he's right when a dot in the sky grows larger. It turns out to be a man that seems displeased at him, even though it was their first time meeting. Perseus then learns that this is Artemis's father.
Artemis and Zeus seem to be arguing over something unknown to him, and he is stuck in between the father-daugther pair's argument.
41.
Perseus, still stuck between the two, thinks about Artemis. Eventually, he is let free, and goes to train with Alexie as part of the agreement. During this, Artemis shows up, giving Alexie a sense of danger.
42.
After they finish training, strange things begin to happen to Perseus, mysterious injuries begin to appear with seemingly no source. Artemis tells Alexie to leave, and Artemis uses the emergency ointment that was given to her by Apollo, causing him to quickly appear to see what was happening.
Upon seeing the state of the matter, they end up at Apollo's clinic, Artemis tells her brother why she got into a relationship.
43.
Apollo tries to see what is wrong with Perseus, but he is unable to determine what exactly it is. He makes a plan to talk to Athena, and see what her opinion is.
44.
Perseus appears in a dark space, where he is told that his guardianship has been revoked by a man covered in Mist.
Perseus, however, doesn't believe that he had done any wrong, willing to fight the man for his opinion.
With much difficulty, Perseus tries to reach the man, though it is revealed that the man is his old master.
And the entire thing was a test to see if he stood up for his values.
The scene then cuts to Jayda and Sofia.
Jayda is in a tree, and Sofia tries to coax her down. Unlike the other girls in the group, Jayda has a young mind and is akin to a child than a huntress. Sofia manages to calm Jayda down and get her down from the tree.
45.
Back at Apollo's clinic.
Apollo mulls in his thoughts as he watches over the sleeping duo, Perseus and Artemis, until one of them woke up.
That person was Perseus. And, Apollo gets a general sense of his personality as he watches Perseus try to fix Artemis's bad sleeping posture.
When Perseus notices Apollo, the god asks him a few check-up questions, before kicking them out of his clinic.
46.
Perseus leaves the clinic with Artemis on his back as he thinks about the blonde man, who he didn't know the name to, and what had recently happened to him.
It then cuts to a small spring with rushing fog above the water's surface.
Inside of the spring is a familiar naiad, Ixia. She hears people coming closer to her spring and decides to hide.
Ixia hears someone mutter, "I think it's around here..." suggesting that they knew the location of her spring.
The newcomer knows the name of her spring, the Dreaming Pool, and of her existence, hinting that they are not just visiting. That person turns out to be Sofia, along with Jayda.
Sofia purposely brought Jayda to the Dreaming Pool to do something.
47.
The story then moves back to Artemis, who is pretending to be asleep. While Percy was taking her back to the Hunt, Ares appears and challenges him to a fight.
Artemis, however, doesn't pay any attention to the fight.
Perseus, meanwhile, is forced into combat. He is able to hold his own, but it is clear that Ares is much stronger than him. Therefore, he makes a plan to trap Ares in the ground by quickly making the dirt into mud, then he'd take all of the water out, drying the ground, and solidifying Ares in.
Percy gets purposely knocked down to the ground, where he pulls off his plan when Ares gets close, finishing up the fight as he leaves with Artemis.
48.
Meanwhile at the Dreaming Pool, Jayda has gone missing yet again, but Sofia didn't appear to be in any rush to go find her as if she already knew where she was.
While Ixia was having an existential crisis, another person had unexpectedly come into the boundaries of the Dreaming Pool.
This time it was Alexie, seeming rather lost.
Her appearance was rather inconvenient for Sofia and Ixia, so Sofia tried to distract her while Ixia seemed in a hurry to finish something.
49.
Percy and Artemis arrive at basecamp, though it seems like nobody is around, which was rather odd for the time of day.
After hearing a loud banging noise from the cafeteria tent, Percy goes to investigate with Artemis on his back.
He is careful while approaching the tent, but he learns that it's only Eviane. The other girls went to look for Jayda, who had gone missing.
50.
Some time later, Perseus finds Artemis, alone on a hill, appearing rather lonely.
He wants to know what happened, but she doesn't tell him anything. Perseus thinks that there might be something wrong with their relationship.
Artemis also feels that something is wrong, but not in terms of their relationship. So to prove it to him, Artemis gets proactive and pushes him down.
51.
Some fluff between Percy and Artemis.
Apollo goes to Aphrodite to get some explanations about Artemis being in "love", but doesn't get the answer he was looking for. He gets something along the lines of 'natural law', so he goes to find Athena.
52.
Several days later, the Hunt prepares to go to Camp Half-Blood, CHB for short, for their annual visit, though the girls seem to be excited about something.
It cuts to Artemis and an unfamiliar female, who is revealed to be Percy.
She names his female form, Halle, then showcases him to the rest of the Hunt.
53.
The Hunt get on Artemis's chariot, which is in the form of a bus, ane make their way to CHB.
In Artemis's inner thoughts, the girls brought up the topic to turn Percy into a girl as a prank. Their reasoning was that they weren't comfortable being attended by a male to Camp Half-Blood. But, the reason that she agreed was that she hoped that the girls would be more accepting of him, before she revealed their relationship; and that she needed space away from him for a little bit.
While Percy is receiving a lot of attention from the other girls, most notably from Jayda who is clinging onto her.
Eviane pulls him away to a private room, and teaches him some things about being a girl.
54.
In a library, Apollo looks for Athena. He resorts to yelling, even though Athena made a rule against yelling, which works and successfully catches her attention.
He learns some more details about Artemis's relationship, and he also realizes that the person in front of him is not who he thinks it is.
55.
Athena tells Apollo the entire story of Artemis's relationship from start to finish, and then goes silent.
The atmosphere begins to get tense, but Apollo gets worried for nothing.
The goddess points out something that Apollo doesn't notice about the books on the shelves. The titles. They are more like dates of time rather than titles.
When Apollo tried to remember the what the current date was, he was hit with a headache, and he couldn't remember.
He looked though the books. They seemed to be about Artemis's life, different from what he remembered.
The Athena look-a-like "accidentally" leaked that she was the middleman, and so Apollo demands some answers.
She tells him that they are, in fact, inside of a dream, Artemis's dream, which was facilitated by Zeus and Hecate. She also tells him the basics of creating dreams, which have their own naunces with how she can influence them.
That meant Artemis herself wanted to fall in love with someone, and Apollo believed that it was impossible.
And since Apollo was now aware of that the entire thing was a dream, there was no way Artemis didn't know, which only meant that she was keeping herself here.
56.
She remained in the library. A new book in her hand, its title kept shifting into different numbers, making it unreadable.
Then, a stack of books appeared. She began to read their contents, which all seemed to follow a similar romantic trend of the same two people falling in love in different ways.
...
Back to the Hunt, who are still traveling to Camp Half-Blood on Artemis's chariot.
Sofia goes to tell Percy, who is currently a girl, that Artemis called for him.
Meanwhile, Apollo teleports into the chariot to see Artemis.
He brings out the "real" Artemis. Her auburn hair turning black as night. Apollo then learns a secret that his sister had never told anyone else, until now.
That she just wanted to be with her soulmate.
The real why she had stayed in this dream was, because it was the only place where her soulmate existed.
Much to her dismay, the person she didn't want to reveal it to, heard everything.
57.
Artemis couldn't bear to look at him, finding comfort from her brother.
Artemis considered staying in the dream forever, because she had already waited for so long.
She began to feel sleepy.
The surroundings began to devolve into a dark close, though Artemis didn't seem to think that it was a problem as she began to close her eyes.
As she is seemingly about to close her eyes completely, she gets pinched, assumedly by Apollo, so she goes to punch him, only to hit air, his figure was quickly dissappeared, pointing in Percy's direction as his final action.
He is back to his original self, which wasn't her doing, but he seemed to be frozen. The ominious creature behind him, might've been the reason.
It looked like an alien creature made of pure darkness with many tenacles.
But after careful examination, it didn't seem as menacing as it initally did.
And, she learned that it was able to control the distorted space, after she asked it to unfreeze Percy, allowing them to connect for the last time.
After learning the method to escape the dream which required her to kill Percy, Artemis reluctantly does it.
Explanations (spoilers duh.)
(If anyone has any questions, I will update this section, accordingly.)
- What was the premise of this arc?
The entire thing was a dream [not sure if I hinted this properly but I hope some people caught on the idea of dreams and sleep throughout the story, there are a lot of scenes about/talking about sleep]. I did say that I had no idea what I was writing about, but that wasn't completely true.
It's dream that the real Artemis kept herself in. You can differentiate them from her hair color, black is the real and auburn being the dream version.
Now, why was she able to dream inside of a dream? The logic behind it is that: if you are aware of something normal, you're more likely to accept it when it happens.
As the reader, it doesn't make sense for someone to be dreaming inside of a dream, but to Artemis, auburn-hair, she doesn't know that fact. So while it may be weird for her to be dreaming as a god, it isn't completely out of the realm of possibility, in her mind. She doesn't know everything about being a god, nor do I know everything about how a human works.
I don't know if the concept of sleep is explained by Rick Riordan, but the way I explained it is that gods don't sleep. They can function without sleeping. To sleep, they need assistance from someone else, Hypnos. So, it is normal for them not to sleep. When it DOES happen, they just think it's normal, similar how people sleep because they are tired, gods just attribute it to Hypnos making them sleep for whatever reason.
In C.46 and in the Dreaming Pool (another hint) scenes, the rushing clouds and fog are properties of the world being in a dream. Alexie, you might've noticed, didn't say anything in particular about it, because she thinks it's natural. Ixia, on the other hand, notices the weird fog, but doesn't know why exactly it's weird.
Also, the "cycles" referred to in C.55 refer to: cycles of sleep/sleep cycles.
- About Athena, who appears in C.54, the library:
This is not the "real" Athena, as you may know. The person here is actually Hypnos. Her ability to create/influence dreams should've also hinted at that fact.
The reason why Hypnos is in the form of Athena is because [this is not explained in the story] Hypnos can explain their actions through Athena's identity. Because when you think of Athena, you assume that she basically knows anything. She can probably tell you the most obscere fact, and make it sound like common knowledge. So, Hypnos, when they're in a dream, would, in my story, cosplay Athena. If someone sees Athena do something completely inexplicable or explain something, they'd wouldn't think twice about it and think, 'Oh, it's just Athena doing Athena things.'
- So where is the real Athena?
The real Athena is Sofia, which is hinted at by the fact that she knows how to get to Dreaming Pool and knows how to "use" it.
- Will this have a happy ending?
I like happy endings.
