Laws of Nature Spirits

"Your sister?!" I rushed to the nymphs, cradling Rose in my arms. "Didn't she fade?"

"Fade?" Hestia asked. "Nymphs don't fade. Just like a mortal can't fade."

"But," Nimba said, in tears, "we saw. We saw her flee. She swam too far from the island and disappeared. Her cloud too."

"My dear," Hestia said, brushing her hand over Nimba's cheek. "How much have they brainwashed you? Fading is restricted only to the divine. You do not have the needs we do. A deity will fade only when no one believes in them anymore. When everyone forgets them. Or if their domain is reduced to nothing. It is the greatest fear for many of us.

"But you, a nymph, have no need to worry over such things. Your life is not tied to those who believe in you. Not a person could know you exist, and yet you would still live. The same cannot be said for me."

"Then… what happened to her?" I nodded to Sierra. "It's not like she could just teleport… Could she?"

She frowned. "I imagine you are not far off. Perhaps a safeguard to ensure nobody escapes. Wander too far, and you are brought back to your cell, or something of the sort."

Nimba simply held Sierra tighter to her chest. All the while, Ashe brushed her hair away from her forehead.

"Whatever happened," Ashe said, "however it happened, doesn't matter. She's back, and that means…" Her eyes drifted to me.

One more person I have to take to my bed.

"This won't be easy for her," Nimba said. "She always fought back. Always struggled. She will see you as more of the same. There won't be enough time."

"We'll figure it out," I said. "In the meantime, we need to get back to everyone else."

"I can take care of that," Hestia said. "Your friends needed to leave the house. It is not safe any longer."

She raised her hands and closed her eyes.

"If you would please, step around me and take my hands."

Ashe hesitated, but took her outstretched hand, resting her other on Nimba's shoulder.

Thŷella, who up to this point seemed to hide in the shadows, stepped towards us cautiously.

"It's okay," I said. "Out of all the Olympians, Hestia would be the very last to hurt you."

My words seemed to offer her some comfort. She reached out for me with a nervous smile on her face.

But my hands were still full.

"Um, here," I stepped towards her. "Put your hand on my shoulder."

Once more, she reached out, blindly waving her hand to and fro before managing to touch my shoulder, which went numb on contact.

I sidestepped my way to Hestia, who welcomed me with a gentle, but amused, expression. Thŷella followed, clutching my shoulder like it was her lifeline.

"Off we go," Hestia said.

The moment her warm hand touched my shoulder, my vision blurred in smoke and flame, and the whole room vanished with it.

The sound of waves lapped at the shore. Trees rustled in the afternoon breeze. Gentle warmth from the sun's rays danced across my skin, playing nicely with the sand crunching under my back.

By the time I realized I could open my eyes, I was already on my back. Who exactly was pinning me down was anybody's guess. It took a few moments for me to blink the flashing lights from my eyes, but I eventually managed.

As my vision cleared, streams of sunlight filtered through the golden locks of hair from the gorgeous woman above me. Annabeth pinned my shoulders to the ground, a wicked smile on her face. While I attempted to take in my surroundings, she merely kept me on the ground, her grey eyes gleaming.

"Took you long enough," she said.

"Sorry." I grinned. "I'll be sure to call in late the next time we fight a god."

She returned my grin. "Just shut up and kiss me, Seaweed Brain."

I kissed her.

While we occupied each other, someone nearby cleared their throat.

"Are we interrupting?"

My eyes shifted to meet Thalia's, who seemed incapable of hiding her smirk. For someone who wound up on the wrong side of a phoenix explosion, she looked pretty good. Not like I speak from experience or anything.

"If you want a turn, just say so."

"Tempting," she replied with a laugh. "But given the present company, that might be in poor taste."

Only then did I realize Hestia was standing off to the side of us. Hiding a slight smile of her own, she ran her flaming fingers over Reyna's injured back.

"Don't stand on ceremony for my account," she said. "You've earned a reward for what you've done. I believe they would agree."

She gestured with her free hand to the several dozen nymphs standing a slight ways from us. They chatted amongst themselves in hushed whispers and quiet sobs. Clearly, the gravity of being free was starting to settle in.

"You got everyone out?"

Her eyes flicked to another group of individuals. Calypso and Palírroia curled up with one another under the shade of a tree, exhaustion having long since taken over. Drew stood nearby, her hands wrapped in gauze. Hazel wasn't too far off, her arm now put into a proper sling.

All around us, each and every person on the island was accounted for. Though some were clearly in better shape than others, everyone was still alive.

"So you mind telling me what you did to my phoenix?"

My eyes returned to Thalia, who was balancing Cinder on her finger.

"Not my fault. You can thank Keto for that. Speaking of which…"

"Don't worry yourself," Hestia said. "She'll recover in time. Though she wasn't exactly fond of my being here, she won't cause any problems. That said, she wasn't keen on accepting any aid. Killing her own husband hurt her more than she cares to admit." Her eyes narrowed knowingly.

"Well," I said, finally standing up, "at least our prayers finally got out. Who knows how things would have gone if you hadn't shown up?"

"Prayers? It wasn't any prayer that brought me here."

"But…"

"Zeus returned from his tryst earlier than expected, so I went to fetch you. As I arrived, something prevented me from reaching you. For nearly an hour, I probed the island, never finding a way in. However, after enough time, whatever was keeping me out melted away. From there, it was only a matter of asking around and tracking you. Believe it or not, your scent is rather hard to mask."

"Truly an understatement," a new voice said. "Thou art in great need of a shower."

Zoë stepped forward, leaning on Bianca.

"I don't know," Silena said. "From what I remember, you were awfully fond of—"

"Silena!" Zoë snapped, her face reddening.

A grin was all Silena offered in reply.

"In any case," I said, shaking my head, "we need to get the nymphs off of this island."

"They aren't the only ones," Annabeth said. "After talking with the others, it seems like we all need to leave. An entrance to the labyrinth? Percy, this isn't something we can ignore."

"One problem at a time," I said. "The most pressing matter is getting them out of here and back to the real world."

"The real world?" Annabeth sighed in exasperation. "You just don't get it, but nevermind. You're right though. We need to get them out of here."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Silena said. "If their life forces are all here, they can't just up and leave. They're stuck here."

"Actually," Zoë said, "that may not be completely true."

All attention turned to her.

Bianca helped settle her against a palm tree.

"Oftentimes, the Hunt would recruit nymphs. They have just as much right to be a member as any other woman. But as thou said, the matter of life sources was a concern. So lady Artemis developed a… spell. A ritual of sorts, to compact the life source of a nymph into an amulet they can wear. It's only temporary, but it gives nymphs a few days to relocate."

Thalia grimaced. "It's a pain when we're in an active hunt. Without a direct connection to nature, the nymphs will start to wither away after too long. It's… not a pretty sight."

I practically jumped with excitement. "But there is a way! We can get them out of here!"

"Of course," Annabeth said. "That would also explain how Phorcys would be able to sell them to begin with. There wouldn't be much point to selling nymphs as slaves if they just die after a couple days. He must have found a way to do the ritual. Or at least his followers did."

My attention returned to Zoë. "Do you know how to do the ritual?"

She merely smirked. "I must have witnessed it hundreds of times. Yes, I can complete it, but I will need some materials, and… we will need to locate all of the life sources."

Annabeth groaned. "Why did I know you were going to say that? What materials?"

"Most important is obsidian. Lots of it. We need enough for each nymph to have an amulet of their own."

"I can take care of that," Hestia said. "Hephaestus owes me a few favors, so I can gather plenty from him. But first—" she stood, satisfied with her work on Reyna "— if you would be so kind as to remove your clothes."

I choked. "What?!"

My eyes bounced between all of the other girls, who returned equally perplexed, if not outright scandalized expressions.

"Your wounds," Hestia said. "Your nymph may have prevented you from dying in agony, but you are nowhere near completely healed. Let me tend to them."

Bianca coughed. "So, uh, I'm just gonna go…"

"Help me up," Zoë said, her face completely scarlet.

"Don't mind me," Silena said with a grin. "I could do with a pleasant view after today."

Thalia sighed before standing up with a groan. "Come here. I'll help get that off."

Annabeth snorted. "Nice try, but I don't think he needs help disrobing."

Of course, she followed this by grabbing the pins at my shoulders and sliding them down my arms.

Stunned by how quickly everything was moving, my eyes locked with Hestia. Though she did her absolute best to hide it, especially with her deeply bronzed skin tone, the golden blush spreading from her face to her neck was impossible to miss.

"Uhhh…" I said intelligently. "Wait, there isn't any…!"

The chiton fell away, revealing the distinct lack of clothing underneath.

Annabeth scrambled to pull the chiton back up, but the damage was done. Hestia looked ready to practically faint.

Silena hummed with satisfaction. "Looking good. Maybe the hero of the day wouldn't mind a little reward for his hard work later tonight?"

"Silena!" Annabeth hissed. "Not in front of—"

"It's okay," Hestia said, her cheeks bright gold. "Just lie down and I can get to work."

In an effort to not make the situation any more awkward, I decided to just listen. So without another word, I turned around to—

"Holy shit!"

"What?!"

I whirled around only to be met by the blanched stares of everyone in front of me.

"Percy," Annabeth said, her voice tight. "Lie down. Now."

I frowned, but complied. "Is it that bad?"

"Dude," Thalia said, "you look like Freddy Krueger after getting mauled by a pack of hellhounds. How are you even sane right now?"

In my only slightly panicked state, I glanced towards Palírroia. Still unconscious, she clung to Calypso's sleeping form like it was her lifeline. I doubt I'd ever be able to repay her for what she did.

"We can worry about that later," Hestia said. "For now, I need one of you to fetch me some water. This could dehydrate him quite a bit."

"What are you…" Thalia paled. "Are you seriously about to heal his burns by setting him on fire?"

Hestia merely returned a coy smirk back to her.

"Right… Well, I've seen weirder."

With all of that cleared up, Hestia knelt beside me and raised her hands just a couple inches over my back.

"You are going to feel this."

In a flash, my vision blurred. Somebody was screaming. It might have been me. My body shuddered under the intensity of Hestia's flames.

Then everything went black.

As I came to, the back and forth jabs of a heated argument were clearly underway.

"It's not as simple as that, and you know it!"

"Why not? What more do we have to risk?"

I groaned and sat up, still completely naked, but that seemed like a minor detail at this point.

"How long have I been out?"

Annabeth turned from Katie, of all people, and gave me a strained smile. "Only a few minutes. You feeling better?"

"I should hope so," Hestia said behind me. "Demigods are already quite resilient. Percy, even more so."

"Thanks." I shook off the last bit of my dazed feeling. "Well, I don't feel like my skin is stretching every time I move, so I'll take that as a good sign. How does it look?"

"Fairly pink still," Piper said, handing me back my chiton, "but the scarring is almost nonexistent at this point. It looks like you owe Hestia your thanks."

"Wouldn't be the first time." I gave a meaningful glance to the goddess in question.

"Please," she waved dismissively, "no thanks necessary."

She was still hiding a bit of a blush, but not nearly as blatant as the one from before. It might have helped that I was putting my clothes back on.

"So what are you all arguing about?"

"I'm trying to be practical," Katie said, throwing her hands up. "You already were running down the clock. Now you have less time than ever to sleep with everyone. Not to mention we have to account for another nymph."

"Um, yeah…" I scratched the back of my head. "That might be a bit of a problem."

"Maybe, but that doesn't justify stripping them of their autonomy and fucking them all in a single go!" Annabeth snapped.

"I could help him keep it up the whole time," Katie argued. "What's more important: preventing the curse or letting everyone have the first time of their dreams?"

"How many do we have left?" I asked, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Well, assuming that foreplay doesn't count…" Annabeth gave a cursory glance to Hestia.

The goddess pulled her shawl over her head and turned away. "I'm not an expert in this, but… I would argue the safest option is to fully… consummate the moment."

"Figures," Thalia snorted. "Looks like you're gonna be busy the next couple days, Kelp Head."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Anyways," Annabeth cut in, "that leaves Zoë, Drew, Hazel, Bianca, and Khione. Not to mention the new nymph."

"You might want to add another to that," I said grimly. "Thŷella. I, uh… Well, it ended with the foreplay when we were last together."

"Dammit, Percy!" Annabeth groaned. "How'd you only go halfway with a nymph? Aren't they, like, completely devoted to you?"

"Maybe now, but not a week ago. And they aren't—"

"Doesn't matter," Katie said. "What does matter is you currently have seven partners to go, and less than two or three days to get through them all. There isn't enough time to be picky."

"Perhaps it would be better to discuss this at another time," Hestia said, her face glowing under her shawl. "We have an audience in the throne room to attend. And though many words could describe the others, especially Zeus, 'patient' is not one of them."

"Fuck," Thalia spat. "Okay. You guys go. I'm the only one other than Zoë who knows the ritual. We'll stay behind and get things situated."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Besides—" she nudged Cinder with her finger "—I don't think it'll be a good idea to bring a miniature nuke into the middle of the Oympian throne room."

Can't argue with that logic.

"Okay. Let's get everyone ready."

"Fantastic." Thalia rubbed her hands together before shouting toward the group of nymphs. "Zoë! Let's do a quick head count. You and I have some hunter magic to work."

"Hey! What about me?" Bianca pouted.

Thalia smirked. "In the short time you've been back, have we even done the ritual once?"

Bianca went to argue, but stopped herself, pondered for a moment, then sighed in defeat. "No."

"Exactly. Besides, you've still got a tender ankle, and we need to get this done quickly."

"Fine!" She threw up her hands. "Just trying to be useful."

"How about you spread your legs and lie on your back for the next thirty minutes?" Katie mumbled.

I gave her a disapproving shake of my head, but said nothing on the matter.

Fortunately, most of us were ready to go. Those who weren't couldn't exactly fend for themselves.

"So who's carrying Reyna?" Katie asked.

Piper snorted. "Been there, done that. Wouldn't recommend. She's not beefy, but she's dense."

"Makes you wonder what she was like in bed," Silena remarked. "Percy, which of you were on top?"

"Does it matter?" Drew said. "And honestly, do we need to take them with us? It's not like they're going to offer a testimony."

"So what? We just leave them out on the beach?"

"Safer than bringing a bunch of unconscious girls to a group of the biggest sex maniacs on the planet."

Annabeth snorted. "I don't know. There's a Hindu god who could make Zeus and Aphrodite look celibate in comparison."

I paused. "Not even going to ask. Drew has a point though. They'll be safe here. At least for a couple hours."

"And what happened the last time we thought that would be the case?" Piper raised an eyebrow.

It took a considerable amount of effort to not bend to that point.

"Don't worry," Hestia said. "I'll watch over them."

A few girls frowned.

"Um… How?" Piper asked. "Are you not attending? You're the only reason anyone would listen to us!"

"Oh, my dear. How little you still know."

Her image flickered. The area around her grew cloudy and unfocused for a few seconds. As our sight of her cleared, Hestia grinned. In fact, both of her did.

I groaned. "I'm never going to get used to that."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at me inquisitively, but I returned her expression with one that left a very clear message.

Don't ask.

"Technically, I don't need to do it like this," Hestia said as her duplicate strode over to Calypso and Palírroia. "But if it will give you some peace of mind, I'll bear with it. Now, is everyone ready to go?"

"Wait!"

Nimba scampered up to me and threw her arms around my shoulders. Her big bright eyes were puffy with tears, and yet she smiled brighter than Apollo could ever hope to achieve.

"Thank you, Master. Thank you so much."

I couldn't even begin to reply before she jumped up and kissed me. Her frenetic energy was oddly endearing, and her rainy scent was quite pleasing after the long day. But while she wrapped her arms and legs around me, I couldn't help but worry that she had other plans in mind.

"I... have to... go," I said in between her kisses. "But you're welcome."

After a couple more seconds, she settled down and let go of me. "You're coming back, right?"

"Of course." I gave her one last peck on the forehead. "In the meantime, keep an eye on everyone. Be strong for Sierra. Rose as well. They need you."

She bowed her head bashfully, but clasped her arms before her and swayed back and forth. "Yes, Master. You can count on me."

With that, she returned to the group of nymphs, who were all listening intently to some instructions from Thalia and Zoë.

Annabeth strolled up next to me, her eyes bright with mirth. "Told you so," she said with a wide grin. "Absolutely devoted."

Even I couldn't keep a straight face at that. "Maybe."

"You've earned it." She took my hand. "Now come on. We've got an audience to keep."

We returned to Hestia, who welcomed us with open arms, quite literally.

"Everyone, hold onto each other. This could be a bit much."

Once more, the deep red flicker of her flames crawled over us. The scent of smoke filled the air as the world collapsed on itself. For the briefest of moments, I half wondered how many times I would be set on fire.

A/N - A shorter chapter than we're used to, but compact nonetheless. Tons to address, tons to solve. Nothing quite like juggling twenty problems all at once. We all know what's coming up next. What exactly will this meeting have in store for our heroes? And the nymphs! Finally, they can enjoy the taste of freedom. Well, most of them anyways. Though I don't think Percy's will be too disappointed with having to stay with him. Save for our newest member. When will Sierra wake up? How will she react when she does? How will Rose react when she realizes the person she thought she lost has been alive this whole time? Only time will tell.

So, I think it's long since overdo for me to announce this, but... As was made pretty clear by this chapter especially, we're adding another goddess into our foray. Like Artemis, she won't be sticking around forever, but that doesn't mean she can't have the time of her life while she's still here. After taking a poll, and with a landslide result in favor over, with the odds greater than four to one, I am happy to announce Hestia will end up taking a tumble in the sack with Percy. Hope you all enjoy what she brings to the table. Especially because she'll be bringing much more than her body in due time.

I think that just about wraps everything up. Our next chapter will finally see justice served to the two goddesses responsible for this whole mess. What will they get? Tartarus? Mortality? What could you possibly do to some of the most powerful beings in the world? Check in next time and find out.

In the meantime, why don't you leave your thoughts? Any ideas for what may be in store for the future? Critiques? Questions? Concerns? Leave your thoughts in the reviews. This is Ronin signing off.