Alexa had just gotten onto the steps of the Big House when a figure stepped out from the shadows. His elven features and the smirk on his face gave her a start, so much so she had actually started reaching for her charm bracelet before she took in the full picture. This wasn't Luke. For one thing he looked a good deal older. He was slim, like a track star, with salt and pepper hair, no scar, and his eyes were a dark, rich brown. He was dressed in a pair of black workout shorts with an orange tank top and a pair of black Air Jordans.
He smirked as he took in her hand movement.
"I come here on my break and your first instinct is to pull a sword on me? For shame, Miss Barber, for shame." He tutted.
"Sorry, sir…you just surprised me." she said, giving her head a dip in his direction. "Lord Hermes, I'm guessing?"
"Oh, drop the lord stuff, kid. Makes me feel ancient." Hermes chuckled. Alexa couldn't help but smile as well, not only at the absurdity of the statement, but at the infectious nature of the god's laugh. Hermes motioned with his hand. "Walk with me."
Alexa fell into step next to him and the pair made their way around the camp back towards the beach.
"Some of us saw the whole Tantalus debate. Quite a show. I didn't know a ghost's face could get so red!" Hermes chuckled again.
"Well…he kinda deserved it." Alexa chuckled sheepishly.
"Oh, without a doubt! I was there during the original supper. Nasty stuff. Demeter completely bought out Olympus's supply of mouthwash for a solid 5 years! I was running around like crazy trying to keep her satisfied!" Hermes shuddered.
"Did you at least get a good tip for it?" Alexa asked.
"Well of course, but I could do without the spearmint haze and the 'Never be clean!'s." Hermes shook his head and sighed. "Anyway, not why I'm here."
"Why are you here, then?" She asked. "I mean I'm happy to play host, but this doesn't exactly feel like a social call."
"It's not…it's about Luke." As soon as Hermes said those words Alexa felt a pit form in her stomach and a phantom pain in her eyes, as if she still had enchanted sand in her cornea.
"What about him?" She asked, grimacing slightly as she heard the harshness that had crept into her voice.
"The quest you just assigned…there's a pretty high likelihood that the kids will run into him at some point." Hermes explained. The pair walked in silence for a moment, transitioning from the grass from around the camp back to the white sand of the beach.
"I want you to tell them," Hermes finally said. "If they run into Luke, try to reason with him."
"I…uh…forgive me for saying this but…I don't think there is any reasoning with him." Alexa said as delicately as possible.
"I know." Hermes agreed sadly. "But even if the chances are low, that doesn't mean there's no chance at all."
"Lord Hermes…Luke hates Olympus. He hates us. He hates you. He said so himself, he wants to tear Olympus to the ground. Do you really think he'd listen?" Alexa glanced over at the god. Hermes let out a sigh, a deep and tired sound.
"Do you have any children, Alexa?" Hermes asked. The question caught her off guard and nearly caused her to miss a step.
"Uh…no," Alexa muttered, a little red stinging her cheeks. Her mind flashed back to some of the things she had done in the past year, and how many times she had nearly invited a guy back to her place to fight back her blues. The one thing she hated about Mnemosyne's gift was how it let her remember every single thing she had done or nearly done, no matter how drunk she got. "Closest I have is a nephew."
"Well, if your nephew were to do something as bad as my boy, could you immediately stop loving him?" Hermes asked. Alexa opened her mouth before her brain had fully caught up with the question. If Eddie had done what Luke had done…well she found it hard to even imagine Eddie speaking in full sentences, but if Eddie had betrayed his family…could she still love him? She couldn't see him doing that, but then again, he was just a baby. A baby who enjoyed Elmo and throat punching. How could he do anything like that? But, Alexa realized, that was part of the point. No one saw their loved ones as evil until there was a knife in their back.
"I…don't know." Alexa admitted.
"Most don't." Hermes agreed. "Particularly if it's a sudden thing. You're so blinded by love you have to be hit in the face with a ton of red flags before you can even consider that they've done anything."
Alexa turned slightly to watch Hermes. He had a stoic look on his face, but Alexa could sense the pain underneath. She got the feeling that the lord of travelers was in such a state right now that she could easily needle him into vaporizing her if she weren't careful. One part of her brain, likely the part that housed her ADHD, eagerly encouraged her to do just that for no other reason than the fireworks display her body would become in such an event. Alexa was quick to shut that thought down.
"Okay." Alexa finally said. "I'll tell the kids to extend the olive branch. Just…keep in mind I'm not going to be there."
"Well duh!" Hermes chuckled, his funk somewhat broken. "We've all seen how you get on boats!"
"You…have?" Alexa asked, her cheeks turning red.
"Of course! It was one of the funniest scenes in the cartoon! Calliope really hammed up what happened, nearly had you toppling overboard into the Styx!" Hermes grinned. Alexa groaned…just what she needed, her most embarrassing moments immortalized in cartoon form. She couldn't help but wonder if she'd end up getting paid royalties when this was all said and done.
"I know you can only send the message, but for some reason you all tend to take requests better when it comes from another mortal instead of the literal word of gods." Hermes said with a laugh.
"I think it's a familiarity thing. They get asked to do something by someone they see every day, it's easier to take." Alexa mused. "But I get your point…I'll ask."
"Good! And now that I got that out of the way…" He pulled out a PDA and a stylus with a pair of snakes writhing around it. "Sign by the x, please."
"Uhh…is this for the message?" She asked hesitantly, taking the stylus.
"He wissssshessss he got paid every time he talksssss." A male voice said in her mind, nearly making her drop the stylus.
"George!" Said a female voice. "Don't mind him, dear. He likessss hissssss jokesssss."
Alexa blinked down at the two snakes on the stylus. One snake blinked back placidly, the other hissed, stuck its forked tongue out and winked. Telepathic snakes, the world still found ways to surprise her.
"The signature is for the supplies." Hermes explained as she signed. With a grasping motion he pulled a dark blue backpack out of thin air and dropped it in front of Alexa. "Changes of clothes for three teenagers and a cyclops, Ambrosia, a thermos full of wind, don't worry it has a set of instructions and it's covered in warning labels, some extra extra strength multivitamins to make ya feel like yourself again, and of course both kinds of money."
"Wait, three? There's only two demigods and a cyclops on this trip." Alexa pointed out.
"Look at the footprints." Hermes said. Alexa did as instructed, looking back where they had come and the two sets of footprints in the sand.
"Not those. This isn't a metaphor about faith and perseverance!" Hermes scoffed. He punctuated his statement by pointing forward, at a smaller set of footprints heading over the sand dune, towards the beach. Alexa frowned.
"Someone's out after curfew…" She mused.
"A demigod after my own heart!" Hermes laughed. "Remember what I said, Miss Barber, and the best of luck going forward!" With that he winked and disappeared in a flutter of wings. Alexa scooped up the backpack and quietly followed the footprints.
The trail led over two sand dunes, bringing the German warship into view. Alexa slipped her hands into her pockets, glancing every so often at the Pommern, acting as if she were just inspecting the steel hulk. The end of the trail, she had realized, stopped in the middle of the beach, a good two feet from the surf. During one particular glance, she could just see another step or two materialize in the sand. The footprints seemed to turn suddenly, startled. Alexa made it a point of ignoring the prints, approaching the spot where they stood. Taking in their placement, she couldn't help but notice this spot was right in the ship's blind spot. You'd have to lean right over the deck railing to see anything there…not that there was anything visibly there. How clever.
Alexa stood, looking up at the ship for a long moment, inches from the last set of footprints…then with a quick motion she swept her leg out. She collided with something and half a second later an invisible body hit the ground at her feet, creating a disturbance in the sand. The blonde girl flickered into existence as the baseball cap was knocked from her head.
"Word to the wise, if you're going to sneak around on the beach, you may want to do something about the tracks you're leaving behind you." Alexa snorted, reaching down to help Annabeth to her feet.
"Am I in trouble?" Annabeth asked, wincing slightly as she was dragged upright.
"Depends, what exactly were you doing?" Alexa asked, putting on the Head Counselor voice.
"Nothing!" Annabeth said defensively. Alexa raised an eyebrow. Annabeth cracked just a second later. "I was checking the ship for strategic weak points…I was going to bring them to Clarisse's attention in the morning before they left."
It was strange for Alexa to suddenly be in this position. She still felt like a kid herself, it felt like she should be the one making the excuses for some hairbrained scheme, not listening to them. How would Chiron handle this?
"You're worried about them, huh?" Alexa said gently. Annabeth's eyes hardened and she glanced away.
"Of course I am. I don't want this quest to fail." Annabeth answered. Alexa couldn't help but notice she didn't exactly state why she felt so strongly about the quest. She shelved that little suspicion away for later. Now wasn't the time to make Annabeth confront any feelings she wasn't ready for. She had to play this next part perfectly, best not to muck it up with sentiment.
"Yeah…they have a lot of muscle in their group, not a lot of forethought." She paused, glancing up at the ghostly steel hull. "Maybe the ghosts can fill in that role though. I mean they have this whole ship locked up tight…I bet they even got the port side ladder watched and that's the side facing the sound."
She waited to see if Annabeth got it. She could see the wheels starting to turn in the demigod's head, but it didn't really look like she had gotten the hint.
"I mean…it's probably the least watched out of all the ways on deck. But I doubt they'd leave it completely unguarded. Can you imagine? Two ghostly guards, bored out of their mind, but still sitting there at attention. I bet they would've resorted to a card tournament or something by now just to relieve the boredom. I hope they rotate the guards every now and then otherwise they'd never notice anything! Even a bit of extra water on deck." Alexa said casually. Now the wheels were starting to go.
"Are you saying…?" Annabeth asked.
"Hmm? Oh nothing. Just thinking out loud." Alexa mused. She lowered the pack of supplies to the ground as she spoke.
"I think, if someone were to get in, they'd probably find the best place to hide in the cargo hull, since the dead hardly need cargo." She added, keeping with the light, thoughtful tones.
"I…see…" Annabeth agreed, a slight conspiratorial edge creeping into her voice. "That sort of person might just have to stay there a few days, until the ship was far away from camp."
"Oh yeah. I'd say at least a day before someone like that revealed themselves. " Alexa agreed.
Alexa hesitated, given the subject matter of her next sentence, Annabeth could very easily take this badly. But she had made a promise, and if Annabeth was part of the crew then she had to know.
"I think…this quest is going to take them places. If I had to put money on it, I'd say Luke is counting on this quest going forward just as much as anyone…" She paused to glance at Annabeth. The daughter of Athena had gone stiff, blinking rapidly at the mention of Luke's name. She was still mentally present, though, so Alexa kept going. "If I had one request from the ones going on the quest, I'd ask them to talk to Luke if they see him. For all our sakes, but mostly his father's. No one wants to see their kid go down that path."
Annabeth bit her lip and nodded. Alexa didn't know how much her comment about Hermes had given away, or if Annabeth had suspected she had talked with the god. But the message was delivered, even if she somehow couldn't tell the others in the morning, one person on that ship would have Hermes's request.
"Get to bed, Annabeth. I'll be sending some harpies this way to check on things. Be sure you're tucked in by then." Alexa said, once again putting on the authoritative voice.
"Uh…okay…goodnight, Alexa." Annabeth said, her brain sluggishly kicking back into gear. With the bag off her shoulders, Alexa turned and began heading back to Camp. Behind her she heard a shuffle in the sand, followed by a soft splash. Alexa smirked, certain that if she looked back, she'd see no camper or backpack and a new set of footprints heading straight for the ship.