Daughter of the Sea

I wasn’t the only one awake, however. Zoë was as well. She was making her way to the entrance of the cabin. I hurried to follow her.

“Persephone?” she asked, bewildered.

“That’s me,” I said. “What are you doing up?”

She grumbled, but let me follow her out of the cabin. “I had a nightmare, just now. Why are you awake?”

“Me too,” I said. “About Annabeth.”

“Your friend.” We stepped out of the cabin, making our way towards the big house. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something. Or someone, more specifically.

“Grover!” I called.

Zoë whirled around. She spotted my friend as well. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

Grover blushed and stammered. “Well, I, you know, I-”

“Why were you just outside our cabin, Grover?” I asked.

He couldn’t look me in the eyes. Zoë sighed in exasperation. “Run along then, goat boy.”

Grover scampered off away.

“So, what happened in thy dream?” she asked me.

I told her about what had happened. When I was done, I asked her what happened in hers.

“Lady Artemis is in trouble,” she sighed.

“Whoa, what?” I said.

Zoë nodded solemnly.

“We’ve gotta help her!” I exclaimed. “How is she in trouble?”

“She has been taken,” Zoë said. “By whom, I don’t know.”

I tried to wrap my head around it. Artemis, one of the twelve Olympians, had been captured. Whoever did it must have been very powerful.

“Are we going to see Chiron, then?” I asked.

Zoë nodded. “To ask for permission to leave Camp. I intend to take the Hunters to help her.”

We made our way towards the Big House.

Argus was already standing on the porch as we approached, all one hundred of his eyes pointed towards us.

“Um, hi,” I said.

“We must see Chiron,” Zoë said, getting straight to the point.

Argus just shook his head at that. This just made Zoë mad. An argument ensued, which was one of the most confusing things I’d ever listened to. On one side was Zoë, who I think was talking English — it was just a version of English that was almost indecipherable to me. On the other side, was Argus, who said nothing, and instead made the occasional gesture when Zoë took a break from her rant.

Finally, after multiple minutes of this confusing back and forth, Chiron emerged. He was wearing a pajama shirt, like he’d just gotten out of bed. There were curlers in his horse tail, which would have been amusing if I wasn’t worried for both Artemis and Annabeth at the time.

Zoë immediately turned her attention to Chiron. “I would like permission to leave Camp!”

Chiron blinked. “My dear, I cannot. You are supposed to remain here until we get orders from Lady Artemis.”

Zoë yelled in frustration. “How are we supposed to receive orders from her when Lady Artemis is lost?!”

That took Chrison aback, but he quickly regained his composure. “Lost?”

“Taken!” Zoë shouted. “Captured! Take your pick. She can’t give us orders right now!”

Chiron took a few moments to reply. When he did, his voice was oddly calm. “My dear, whatever or whomever was able to capture Lady Artemis would be very powerful. I am not sure it would be such a good idea to face them.”

Zoë let out another frustrated yell. “We must save Lady Artemis!”

Another argument ensued, which was only slightly easier to parse than the one with Argus, mainly because Chiron actually spoke. Zoë, on the other hand, tended to speak even more old-fashioned when she was agitated, which meant I had no clue what she was saying.

Eventually, Zoë left in a huff. I gave Chiron and Argus an apologetic shrug, before turning to follow her back to our cabin.

---

I did manage to get more sleep that night — just barely, though. I was up before most of the other Hunters the next morning. Zoë was also awake; she’d had about as much difficulty falling back asleep as I did.

While we waited for the others to wake up, she came over to my bunk.

“Persephone,” she said. “I wish to compare notes with thee. About our dreams.”

“Oh. Alright.” I shifted so there was space for her to sit on my bunk. “Why don’t you sit down?”

She sat. “You first?”

“I already told you about my dream,” I said.

“A summary. I would like more details, please.”

I told her again, this time trying my best to provide as much detail as I could remember. She asked me several questions about the dark fog surrounding Luke and Annabeth. When I was finished, her face had gone pale.

“What is it?” I asked.

She bit her lip, staring at the ground. “If it is what I think it is… your friend is lucky to still be alive after that.”

“What do you think it is?” I asked.

She looked me dead in the eyes and said, very seriously, “the sky.”

“The what?”

She rolled her eyes. “Annabeth has been forced to hold up the sky. For what purpose, I am unsure.”

“O-Ok,” I stuttered. “Wait, like the titan, Atlas?”

Zoë flinched when I said that name. “Obviously, he has been freed from his burden. This is bad. Very bad.”

“And Luke did it,” I said. “He knew Annabeth would take it from him afterwards. He willingly took it to free Atlas, and then he manipulated her into taking it from him.” I cursed in Ancient Greek. “I’m going to shoot him full of so many arrows…”

Zoë hesitantly nodded. “I agree. That does seem to be what happened, according to thy dream.”

“And your dream? How did they catch Artemis?”

Zoë took a moment to compose herself. “A golden net. Made by Hephaestus. Anything other than that would have failed against Lady Artemis.”

“Where did they find her? Maybe that will give us a clue what the monster was that she was hunting down.”

“Just across the Sound,” Zoë said. “On the shore. She was facing the water. I believe she was preparing to go in.”

“So she’s chasing some sort of sea monster?” I asked.

“It’s not that surprising,” Zoë replied. “Many of the most dangerous monsters make their home in the seas.”

“Who was there to catch her?” I asked.

“The manticore,” Zoë said, a scowl appearing on his face. “I had hoped we’d dealt with him, but apparently not. He was with some other monsters and a few of those hired mortals like we saw at the cliff. They caught her by surprise. The manticore mentioned that general again. That would be Atlas, actually.”

“So they’re connected then,” I said.

“Of course,” Zoë replied. “Though I have no idea what the general could possibly be planning.”

---

Once the other Hunters were all awake, Zoë explained our dreams to the others. None of them were happy about it. Aspen actually burst into tears at the news. Many of the others seemed unsure how to handle it entirely. The older Hunters — Phoebe, Iphigenia, Anastasia — worked to help reassure the others.

There was a tangible somber mood in the air as we made our way to the pavilion for breakfast. I spotted Piper and Nico at the Hermes table with the Stolls. Nico gave his sister a wave. Bianca hesitantly returned the wave.

Us Hunters were on edge for the entire day. We took over the archery range for the entire morning. We weren’t really practicing, just trying to blow off steam. I pictured the bullseye as being Luke’s smirking face. I didn’t miss once.

During lunch, I ate quickly before leaving with a couple of the others — Iphigenia and Alice. As we made our way back to our cabins, I spotted Grover sitting by himself near the strawberry fields. I told Iphigenia and Alice to keep going without me before running over to talk to Grover.

“Grover!” I called.

He looked up at me, his eyes wide. “Percy?”

I sat next to him. “What are you doing here?”

Grover shrugged. “Just wanted some quiet. What’s up, Percy?”

I sighed. “So, you remember last night.”

Grover bleated nervously. “Look, Percy, I’m sorry about-”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” I said. “The reason Zoë and I were awake last night. We each had a nightmare.”

“Oh,” Grover said. “I knew that, actually.”

I sighed. “Did you follow us?”

Grover nodded sheepishly. “I’m sorry-”

“It’s fine,” I said. “Just… Please don’t do it again. Anyway, I guess you already know that Lady Artemis has been captured.” Grover nodded. “Zoë got to see it happen. I saw Anmabeth though. And Luke.”

“Tell me,” Grover said.

I told him what had happened in my dream, then told him about what Zoë suspected had happened.

“So Annabeth is holding up the sky?” Grover said. “That’s… she can’t do that for long.”

I shook my head. “No. I don’t think they plan on letting her just die, though. Someone does need to hold up the sky, after all.”

Grover nodded. “Well yeah, obviously.”

We lapsed into an awkward silence after that.

“Percy,” Grover said finally. “There’s something I think you should see. Thalia found this in Annabeth’s bag.” Grover handed me a brochure for the Hunters of Artemis.

I took it. “In Annabeth’s bag?”

Grover nodded.

I flicked through it. It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know about being a Hunter. “So, Annabeth was interested, huh?” I said. “Then why was Thalia so mad about-”

“Wouldn’t Annabeth have told you if she was interested?”

“Maybe she wasn’t sure?” I said.

“Percy,” Grover said, “be honest. Do you want Annabeth to join?”

I nodded. “Yeah! I’d love for her to join, actually.”

---

Of course, I quickly started feeling guilty over Annabeth being captured again. Heidi noticed during our afternoon activities and told me to go take a break.

As I was passing the big house, an idea struck me.

I wanted to help Annabeth. Artemis was missing. Surely this was ground for a quest, right? I could potentially go ask the oracle.

My mind made up, I made my way into the big house. I encountered no one as I climbed up the four flights of stairs and up the ladder into the attic.

It was just as dark and gloomy as I remembered. It was still filled with various trophies and other paraphernalia: bent, rusted swords, chipped shields, bits of monsters severed during fights, even some taxidermies. Sitting on a three legged stool next to the dusty window was the oracle’s mummy. She was just like I’d remembered her — an old, shriveled up hippie lady. I stepped closer, but nothing happened. I’d expected green smoke to start billowing out of her, but was met with nothing but dust floating around in the light streaming through the window.

“Hey,” I said. “Um, how are things?”

That sounded stupid.

I probably looked stupid, talking to a corpse, but I knew the oracle’s spirit was in there. I could feel it — sleeping, powerful, ancient.

“I have a question,” I said, trying to keep my voice from wavering. “About Annabeth and Artemis. I’d like to know how to help them.”

No response.

I waited a bit more, before sighing. “It was worth a shot. Thanks for nothing. I’ll figure this out myself.”

I turned to leave, and ran straight into a table filled with random knick-knacks. A couple items got knocked to the ground — a broken sword hilt, a jar full of pickled… something, that fortunately didn’t break, and… a familiar pink scarf. I picked up the length of fabric, and tried to read the tag attached to it. Fortunately, it was written in ancient Greek.

Scarf of Aphrodite

Recovered at Waterland, Denver, CO, by Annabeth Chase and Perseus Persephone Jackson

Why was this still here? I’d assumed Annabeth had thrown it away all those years ago, or just left it behind in the waterpark, but here it was. Evidently, Aphrodite had never come to claim it. I put it down on the table, ignoring the way it brought my confusing mess of feelings about my best friend to the surface.

---

I had managed to convince Zoë to put me on border patrol duty. She had a plan to get the flag, and I figured it would be a good one. She had initially asked me to help guard the flag with Bianca, but I pointed out that I’d probably be able to defend the creek really well, being the daughter of Poseidon and all.

I stood in the water, stretching out my senses, searching for people crossing the creek. I sensed Zoë and some other Hunters off to my left somewhere, making their way across. I sensed another group, led by Phoebe, crossing off to my right. The plan was that the two groups would converge on the flag from either side, attempting to overwhelm whatever guards were on the flag.

There was a third group of Hunters, led by Iphigenia, stationed throughout our side of the woods, ready to ambush any campers that tried to get at our flag. My job was to signal if I sensed any Campers crossing the creek outside of my field of view, and to stop anyone I could see directly.

That worked well. I sensed both groups sent towards us as they crossed the creek. I signaled that they had crossed on both sides. I knew Phoebe’s group would be doubling back to ambush the group to my right, while the rest of our defenders would be ambushing the group to my left.

There was just one flaw with our plan.

Piper.

I saw her coming, and got ready to intercept her. She was alone, which struck me as odd.

“Hey, Percy,” she said casually. She was wearing a standard set of armor, nothing I hadn’t seen on many other new campers before. Her kaleidoscopic eyes glittered beneath her helmet. “Figured I’d find you here. This is the closest thing to your turf in the whole battlefield.”

I wondered what she was up to. Other than a single sheathed knife on her hip, she seemed to be completely unarmed, and she wasn’t making any moves to grab her weapon anyway.

“Um, yeah. It makes sense, I can sense anyone trying to cross, ya know?”

Piper nodded. “So Thalia said. Apparently, you’d been quite notorious during games over the summer.”

I had been. It didn’t mean my team never lost, it just made defending a lot easier.

I drew Riptide, preparing to fight. Piper didn’t bother drawing her sword. “Oh, come on, Percy. You don’t want to fight me. You can just let me pass. It’s ok.”

I didn’t want to fight her, that was right. I lowered my sword.

“Alright,” I said. I figured it would be ok. After all, she was untrained and only had a single knife. Bianca would be able to defend against her no problem. I let her pass. She gave me a heart-melting smile as she made her way through the creek. I heard her run through the trees, making her way towards where our flag was.

I could sense Phoebe’s group still engaged in combat with whatever group of campers she’d ambushed. I pushed my focus towards them, trying to see if I could use the water to give Phoebe an advantage, when I heard a shout from the campers’ side of the woods. I looked towards it and saw Zoë, flanked by Camille and Celyn, running towards me, flag in hand, pursued by the Stolls. One brother had arrows sticking up out of his helmet like antennas.

I shouted, and a wave crashed towards the two brothers, pushing them backwards.

I heard another shout, and turned around just in time to see Piper sprinting back towards the creek, our flag in her hand.

Zoë was closer though, and I grabbed her with the water, pulling her closer to our side.

“Percy, our flag!” She shouted.

I turned back to Piper, who was moving much faster than she had been a moment ago. She was nearly at the creek. I shouted again, and sent another wave towards her, trying to push her back.

“PERCY, STOP!” Piper shouted.

I did.

I don’t know why I did.

Zoë splashed across the creek, scrambling up the banks onto our side, just as Piper made it to the banks. There was a brief wrestling match between the two girls, before Zoë managed to push Piper to the ground, claiming the victory for the Hunters.

We all cheered, as the other Hunters and campers all converged on where we were in the creek. Piper let out a sigh of frustration.

“Was worth a shot,” Piper said. “I still don’t get why you keep doing what I say.” She pointed at me. “It’s weird!”

“I don’t know either!” I shouted back at her.

Behind me, I heard Thalia groan. “I should’ve known,” she said. I turned to face her. “Of course you’d be here. You kept doing this all last summer.”

“It’s what I’m good at!” I said.

Thalia sighed.

Chiron trotted up to our group from the direction of Camp. “The Hunters win!” he said without much enthusiasm. “For the fifty-sixth time in a row.”

What a winstreak.

Thalia growled at me. “This is all your fault, Jackson.”

“My fault?” I asked. “Thalia, you would have been ambushed whether or not I’d been guarding the creek. I just gave enough advanced warning. We won, just accept it.”

Thalia didn’t seem to want to accept it. She pushed me, and a shock ran through my body. There was an audible gasp from the assembled crowd.

“What the fuck!” I exclaimed.

Thalia’s eyes widened. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to-”

I growled in anger at her, and a wave exploded out of the creek, dowsing her with water.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m sorry too. Didn’t mean to get you all wet.”

Thalia was huffing angrily. She hefted her spear at me. “You wanna fucking go, Seaweed Brain?”

I scowled at her. That nickname had grown on me — but only when Annabeth said it. Coming from Thalia, it felt wrong.

“Bring it on, Pinecone Face!”

“Enough!” Chiron shouted, but the two of us weren’t listening.

I readied my bow, nocking an arrow, pointed directly at Thalia. It wouldn’t kill her, the arrows we were using for the game had blunt tips, but it would still hurt.

As I let my arrow fly, Thalia shouted, and lifted her spear. Lightning shot down from the sky, connecting with her spear, then rocketing towards me. With a shout of pain, it hit me directly in the chest, sending me sprawling to the ground. My arrow hit Thalia in the shoulder, and she yelped in pain, dropping her spear.

“Thalia! Stop!” Chiron shouted.

I got to my feet, letting out a groan. I stretched out my will, and the entire creek rose up into the air — millions of gallons of water at my command.

“Percy!” Chiron shouted, but I wasn’t listening.

“Percy! Stop!” Piper shouted again. “Thalia, stop!”

Both of us turned to the girl. The water crashed back down into the creekbed, splashing everyone.

“That worked?” Piper said incredulously. “Ok, this is really weird.”

Chiron looked uneasy, but one of the campers stepped forward. Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite.

“Not weird at all, just rare,” she said calmly, as if Thalia and I hadn’t been trying our best to kill each other just now. “You have a rare gift, Piper,” she said. “You can charmspeak.”

I had no clue what this was, and apparently neither did Piper.

“What does that mean?” Piper asked. “Is this like a My Little Pony thing? I’ve never seen the show.”

Silena giggled at Piper’s comment. “No. It’s a child of Aphrodite thing.”

Piper’s eyes widened. “Me? Aphrodite? No way.”

Silena sighed. “Anyone else would need to work for years for this talent. Children of Aphrodite are the only ones it comes naturally to.”

Piper shook her head. “Look, maybe it’s something el-”

She was cut off by a flash of bright red light. It enveloped her for several seconds, before fading away.

When it was gone, Piper looked different. Not much different, but different. Her hair, which had previously been shorter, was now much longer and done up in a braid that ran down her back. She was still wearing her armor, but where it had been a bit dull before, it now sparkled in the light of the sunset in a rainbow of colors. She was wearing makeup now — sparkly pink eyeshadow, dark eyeliner, and lip gloss. She looked shocked. “Um…”

“Daughter of Ares?” A confused voice said.

“No,” Silena said.

Then, just to drive the point home, the armor shimmered, and suddenly it was decorated with images of doves.

“It is determined, then,” Chiron said, folding his front legs to bow to her. “Hail, Piper McLean, Daughter of Aphrodite, Lady of Doves, Goddess of Love and Beauty.”

“But, she’s in armor,” another confused camper said. “That’s more of a war god thing, right?”

“My mother is a war goddess,” Silena said, backing up her newly discovered half-sister. “That little bit of her history was lost once she left Sparta. But it’s still a part of her nature. I was also claimed like this. Armored, that is.”

“That settles it, then,” I said.

Piper shook her head. “I- I don’t-” she huffed. “Fine. You know what, could be worse. At least I didn’t get stuck in a dress. I like the armor.”

And then, as if things weren’t crazy enough already, I spotted something off in the woods, approaching, shrouded in green mist.

What was she doing out here?

The Oracle of Delphi came to a stop in the snow next to the creek. She was an unsettling sight. She looked bad in the gloom of the attic, but in the light from the setting sun, she was downright gruesome. I’ll spare you all the details, but if I’d been hungry, I’d have completely lost my appetite.

And then I heard her voice in my head. Evidently everyone else did as well, as they all turned to her.

I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.

The Oracle turned its dead-eyed gaze on me, and I shivered. Fortunately, she moved on, turning to face Zoë. Approach, seeker, and ask.

Zoë looked at me nervously, and I gave her an encouraging nod. She swallowed, then held her head high. “What must I do to help my Lady?”

The Oracle opened its mouth, and more green mist (as if there wasn’t enough in the clearing already) poured out. It formed into the vague outline of a mountaintop, with a young girl - Artemis - kneeling at the peak, chained to the rocks, her arms raised like Annabeth’s had been in my dream. Her face was screwed up in an expression of agony. Then the Oracle spoke again.

Five shall go west to the goddess in chains

One shall leave them in the land without rain

The bane of Olympus shows the trail

Campers and Hunters combined prevail

The Titan’s Curse, one must withstand

And one may fall to her parent’s hand

And, with that, the Oracle slumped to the ground. The green mist filling the clearing swirled back towards it, retreating into the mummy’s mouth, which clamped shut. The clearing was filled with eerie silence as we stared at the withered corpse lying on the ground.