Chương 916: 24
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I appreciated Hypnos' timing seeing how he got rid of King Minos, but I didn't fully let down my guard.
"What're you doing here?"
Hypnos smiled, his face blurring in the small act. "Well, as a small show of support for the first child I claimed in decades, I thought I'd drop by and cheer you on."
We all stared at the fuzzy-faced god. Not even Percy made a smartass comment.
"No really, why are you here?" I asked again, not buying his pleasantries.
"Now, now, is that any way to speak to your father?" Hypnos stepped close and poked my forehead. Immediately, I felt tension and exhaustion melt off my body, and a sense of rejuvenation replaced the tiredness. It was as if I'd just woken up from a solid night of good sleep. I felt good, like I could run a marathon.
I blinked rapidly at the warm sensation and buzz of energy. "Wow."
"That should help with sleep deprivation. And for you, daughter of Athena, I will grant you a gift I'm sure you'll find useful," Hypnos turned to Annabeth.
Annabeth's eyebrows shot up at the sudden show of goodwill. "What is it?"
Hypnos held out a hand and a blue butterfly materialized out of thin air. The small insect fluttered onto the god's palm, crystallizing into a glassy form.
"There are very few devices of truly navigating the Labyrinth as they can only be created by those who understand the maze, which is only Daedalus. It's out of my power to help you so directly, but I can give you a way of at least finding something which may lead you to the one you seek."
Annabeth gingerly received the small glass butterfly with starry eyes. "This is incredible, Lord Hypnos, thank you so much," she nearly gushed.
"Just say a specific name or place and the butterfly will guide you," Hypnos instructed. "Be careful of ghosts and watch your back."
Did he mean that last part to me? The spot under my right shoulder blade tingled when Hypnos tilted his head my way. The god dispersed into a cloud of blue butterflies, blocking our vision for a few seconds. Tyson flailed his arms with a gleeful giggle like a child in amazement while Grover let out a startled yelp at the onslaught of insects flying around.
Amidst the explosion of butterflies, one landed on my shoulder.
"You have the queen's permission," it whispered in my ear.
Seconds later, the butterflies all scattered away into different directions, disappearing into the darkness of the Labyrinth halls. Hypnos's visit literally felt like a breeze since he didn't even stay with us longer than fifteen minutes. Our group waited in order to process what had just happened. A god, my father of all beings -oh God, that's so weird-, dropped by as a show of support and gave us a little GPS present.
As far as godly visitations go, this was pretty mild, I thought. Nothing too crazy.
I was more concerned with the butterfly's advice about the 'queen'. Hypnos' cryptic parting words were always indecipherable until the last moment, so as much it felt nice to have his support, I wasn't looking forward to what was to come.
Percy blurted out, "That was your dad?"
"He seemed nice," Grover offered politely.
Tyson agreed enthusiastically. "Yes! The butterflies were very pretty!"
I cracked a small smile at the innocent nature of Tyson's compliment. "Yeah, the butterflies are pretty."
"He's a lifesaver," Annabeth grinned as she held out the blue glass butterfly with both hands. "We can use this to track down Daedalus."
"That's really… convenient," Percy said cautiously. Grover and Annabeth seemed to commiserate with Percy's suspicion judging by their mirrored grimaces since they probably had their fair share of deals with deities turning tables.
Annabeth sighed and then glanced at me with pursed lips. "This butterfly is our only hope right now. The only question is, what do we ask it to look for?"
The five of us enjoyed a good measure of silence, brainstorming a place or person who could give us a chance of getting closer to Daedalus.
"Anyone have any ideas?"
"Can't we try saying 'Daedalus' old workplace'?" Percy suggested first, but the suggestion got shot down quickly.
"It has to be specific," Annabeth reminded him. "I was thinking about Hephaestus. I'm sure a god like him would've been interested in Daedalus, maybe he might have some information to help us."
Tyson clapped his hands excitedly. "I want to see Hephaestus! He is an amazing blacksmith and craftsman, us Cyclopes look up to him."
Annabeth turned to me and Grover for more opinions.
"Hephaestus is a good pick," I easily agreed while my mind raced at the possibility of completing this quest faster than anticipated. Right now, I wracked my brain whether or not we'd have a chance of crossing paths with Luke and his army by heading straight toward Hephaestus. I'd much rather finish the quest and head back to camp than to face off with Luke in the Labyrinth.
Grover, however, didn't agree but had a very guilty look. "I was actually thinking about Pan," he admitted with some shame.
I raised my brows at the satyr's suggestion and I wasn't the only one who was taken aback by the unexpected answer.
Realizing how slightly selfish he sounded, Grover became flustered, weakly joking, "Oh, uh, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, looking for Pan won't help us find Daedalus, right? Hephaestus is a better pick!"
Everyone visibly slumped over when they realized how much Hypnos' gift could help Grover. It was currently Grover's best shot of finding Pan, but Hypnos gave the butterfly to Annabeth so the satyr didn't have the right to use it for his own goals.
"Grover, is it really alright?" Percy pressed. "We know how much you want to find Pan and you don't have much time left."
The satyr shook his head and gave Annabeth a wobbly smile. "Yeah, let's find the god instead. I'll try asking Hephaestus about Pan."
"Thanks, Grover," Annabeth said sincerely. "I'm sure Hephaestus would know something about Pan."
Holding the butterfly up in her hand, Annabeth cleared her throat and said confidently, "Guide us to Hephaestus."
The crystalized blue butterfly didn't move for a solid second before melting into its organic form. It fluttered gracefully out of Annabeth's palm, leaving a trail of glitter as it led us out of the large mosaic room and into the left corridor.
The tunnel stretched on and on with no side exits, distracting passages, or turns which gave us some hope that the butterfly was giving us a safe path to the god. The butterfly halted midair when we ran into a huge boulder that completely blocked our path. At Percy's prompting, Tyson slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Grover warily watched dust trickle down from the stone ceiling.
"Don't bring the roof down, please," the satyr said nervously.
The boulder gave way with a loud grinding noise. Tyson pushed it forward to give us and the butterfly space to pass through and then he returned the rock back to its original spot. We quickly returned our attention to the sparkling butterfly that had trailed away, but metal bars blocked our path.
"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars. Through the bars, rows of cells circled in a ring around a dark courtyard with at least three stories of metal doors and catwalks.
"We're going to lose the butterfly," Percy said. He pointed down to where we could only see a faint twinkling dust trace towards the door at the most bottom floor. A dull red 'exit' sign glowed above the rusty door in the darkness.
"Wait, I know this place." Annabeth frowned. "This is Alcatraz, the prison island in San Francisco. Tyson, can you break-"
"Shh," whispered Grover. "Listen."
Somewhere above us, deep sobbing echoed throughout the building. There was another sound too, a raspy voice growling but it didn't sound like a human voice. The words were strange, like rocks tumbling against each other in a blender.
Tyson's one eye widened. "Can't be."
Against our quiet warnings, Tyson grabbed two bars in front of us and bent them wide enough for him to slip through. We scrambled after him, Annabeth and I drew blades to keep our rear guarded. The very few dim fluorescent lights flickering above didn't help much with visibility, but at least it gave us a cover of darkness.
We screeched to stop when Percy and Grover pushed us away from the edge of the catwalk and into an unlocked cell. I followed Percy's line of sight above us and did a hard swallow. Right across us on the other side of the courtyard, a monster stood on the balcony and it was the worst one I'd ever encountered in my life.
I'd seen a lot of monsters in the past year because of my time with Luke on the Princess Andromeda, so I was exposed to a solid range of all sorts. Small ones that looked harmless but were super deadly, big ones that were extremely menacing but all muscle, grotesque ones that were horrible to look at, but I'd never imagined I'd see one so ancient and so terrifying.
It had the body type of a centaur, with a woman's body waist up but with the body of a dragon. The dragon part was more than twenty feet long with black scales, enormous claws that looked toxic, and a razor sharp barbed tail. The legs had vipers sprouting out of it as did the woman's hair. Heads of animal predators morphed and shifted at the waist like a constantly transforming furry belt.
Kampê.
Usually a demigod could get an idea of how to defeat a monster, but when I saw Kampê, my mind drew a clean blank. Even an army of demigods would have a hard time taking her down.
I kept a tight grip on Tyson's shoulder to keep the Cyclops from leaning too far out of the shadows. Luckily, Kampê's focus wasn't on us but on something in the cell in front of her. After listening to the indecipherable conversation, Tyson managed to start translating and I tensed when his voice mimicked the horrible rasp of the female monster.
"You will work for the master or suffer," Tyson translated Kampê's echoing words across the courtyard.
Annabeth shuddered next to me. "I hate it when he does that," she muttered.
"I will not serve," Tyson said in a deep, wounded voice.
Tyson switched voices several times, but we got the gist of the dynamic: Kampê was trying to force the prisoner into joining the Titans in the second war. My tight jaw unclenched only when Kampê finished her threats and jumped off the balcony, soaring across the courtyard above us and disappearing around a corner. Hot sulfurous wind blasted our faces as she flew over and I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding in.
"H-h-horrible," Grover whimpered. "I've never smelled any monster that strong."
"That was… I can't believe we saw that," I choked.
"What was that?" Percy asked worriedly. Grover and I shivered, still trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we walked into the lair of Kampê.
"Cyclopes' worst nightmare," Tyson answered for us in the most serious tone I'd heard him speak. "Kampê."
Annabeth, our resident encyclopedia, gave Percy the backstory of the monster and its history with the Cyclopes and Hekatonkheires, also known as the Hundred-Handed Ones. Tyson also eagerly joined in on describing the Hundred-Handed Ones, which explained why he had blindly rushed into the prison courtyard in the first place. In the meantime, I pinched a small piece of ambrosia from my bag to calm my shaky nerves and offered a little to Grover who took it gratefully. To satyrs, ambrosia and nectar was more like a relaxant drug instead of actual food as it didn't heal them the same way it does for demigods.
"So, Kampê is back," Percy said. "And she's on the side of Titans."
"We could check out the cell before Kampê comes back," Annabeth said.
"What about the butterfly?" Grover asked.
"It's not going anywhere, it can wait a couple more minutes," she said. Grover made a face at that as he obviously wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. I was more concerned that Annabeth was willing to risk our safety, but if I had to take a stab of a guess, I think Annabeth has a soft spot for Tyson. She wanted to indulge him in meeting his childhood hero.
Come to think of it, this quest involves meeting childhood heroes, I thought with interest. Annabeth and Daedalus, Grover and Pan, now Tyson and Briares. What about Percy?
Meeting Briares was a memorable experience yet underwhelming in that he looked nothing like what the stories described him. He wasn't as tall as the sky, he had barely any muscle, and his pale skin stuck out in the dark, shabby cell. He was only the size of a frail adult man and wore a loincloth, but the hundred arms sticking out of his chest took away any 'normalness'. The arms were the most fascinating part of him, tangled together like spaghetti yet moving as if they each had a mind of their own. His morose face was the most depressing part about him.
I watched Tyson fail to comfort Briares and it was disheartening to see the young Cyclops gradually realize how nothing would get through the older being.
"We should leave," I said quietly. "She might come back any moment."
Tyson shook his head. "But what about Briares? He can help us."
"Not when he's like that," I gestured to the cell. "Also, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to get him out of here."
Percy and Tyson gaped at me with horrified expressions as if I suggested to abandon an abused kitten.
"Jade!" Percy hissed.
I shook off their dismay. "Hear me out, I'm all for getting a Hundred-Handed one on our side, but that means Kampê will have nothing to jail, so you know what she's probably going to do? She'll join the front lines of Kronos' Army to drag Briares back here, which means we will have to fight her later. Can you imagine camp having to face that thing?"
Grover gulped at the notion of facing Kampê on campgrounds while Percy bit back any more retorts at my explanation. Percy seemed especially conflicted at the choice of releasing a prisoner at the cost of a terrible monster joining the fighting ranks of Kronos' forces. Tyson continued to gaze longingly at Briares across the cell bars. Annabeth's brows furrowed as she followed the logic of my reasoning.
"That's true," she said with unease. "Kampê is originally the jailer of Tartarus, so she'll leave this place if there's nothing left to jail."
If Kampê is here, then an entrance to Tartarus must be near.
"We're not leaving Briares here," Percy insisted.
"Then you incur Kampê's wrath," I said.
Percy gestured to the sobbing hundred-handed man in the cell. "Who's side are you on?"
"The side that doesn't want to fight Kampê in the future," I shot back.
I let a short sigh of frustration when his fierce sea-green eyes didn't waver. Percy-boy wasn't going to budge on this issue; this was his hubris showing his undying loyalty for his friends. Percy wanted to save Briares for Tyson's sake, but that just meant releasing Kampê into the open world. I wasn't risking letting that monster step outside and letting camp suffer for it.
Percy-boy and I looked to Annabeth for the final verdict. This was her quest to lead, so it should be her call.
Annabeth contemplated it then slowly said, "Let's save Briares and take care of Kampê, too. I have a plan."
Grover groaned at her decision while Tyson cheered and Percy brightened. I shook my head since I wasn't too happy about facing Kampê, but if Annabeth had a plan, then things should work out.
Annabeth usually had good plans.
"Hey, Annabeth? I'm not saying that I hate you, but if you were on fire right now and I had a glass of water, I'd drink the water."
"Would a glass of water even be enough to put out an entire body on fire?"
"Percy-boy, shut up. You're not the one who's about to serenade the jailer of Tartarus."
Percy raised his hands in defense and backed away. He joined the rest of the group gathered on the bottom floor where they had yards of metal chains, big boulders, and metal bars ripped out of the cell walls. Briares stood reluctantly next to Tyson as he was supposed to help us with the plan of attack. It took a while to convince Briares to help us, but Percy cheated on the guy with a game of rock-paper-scissors by using a 'gun'.
The idea was to distract Kampê with loud sound and big vibrations since she was a reptilian by nature. Grover was going to play the woodland spell that sprung plants from the ground to tangle Kampê's legs while Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Briares distracted her and chucked boulders at her head. As for me, I was supposed to sing until my guts fall out and knock Kampê's nightlights out in the process. We stripped a sheet of wet wipe into several strands, rolling them into little balls for makeshift earplugs so that no one would fall asleep or become deaf in the impending fight.
"We'll talk about the metaphorical cup of water later, Jade," Annabeth called out from below.
I sighed as I watched them retreat under the shadows into hiding and left me alone on the top catwalk.
If Hypnos could make one of the Big Three fall asleep, then maybe I could do the same to Kampê, I considered, but then I huffed at the optimistic thought. Yeah right, who am I kidding. The gap between me and Kampê is way bigger than the one between Hypnos and Zeus. I'm going to die. Why did I even agree to this?
Feeling total regret, I bent over the metal railing, calling out, "Annabeth, I'd like to make a formal protest."
Her voice echoed in the large courtyard. "Denied. Put your earplugs in now."
I nodded and backed away from the rail. "Okay. Then I will start a riot," I grumbled to myself as I did what she said. The earplugs muffled my hearing, so I concentrated on my vision and sense of touch.
It wasn't long until I spotted a shadow come out of a tunnel and enter the courtyard. Kampê slithered in without noticing the group hiding on the first floor and gradually walked up the metal stairway to the second floor to meet Briares' empty cell. The vipers on her legs and hair kept snapping at the air, some of them even sprayed venom that scorched the metal catwalk.
Once she stepped within clear shot of Tyson and Briares, the first wave of boulders vaulted her way. She screamed in that rocky, ancient language of hers, dodging the first rock, but the second one clipped her sharply on the forehead. Percy banged his sword against his watch shield, making an irritating metal racket, and Annabeth struck the metal chains against the cell bars. The noise was so deafening and loud, ringing in the wide courtyard, that I could almost feel the vibrations in the air. The crazy ruckus seemed to have an effect on Kampê because she clutched her head as if in pain as she attempted to fight off the onslaught of raining boulders and occasional ripped metal bars. Underneath the dampened sound of gigantic rocks crashing into concrete, Kampê screeching, the walls shaking, and metal clanging, I could distantly hear the high pitch of reed pipes. Persistent green vines and roots broke through the cracks in the concrete and wrestled with Kampê's legs.
And through the chaos, I sang with my entire chest. I imagined my voice echoing throughout the concrete chamber and reverberating with the Mist. With several quick snaps, the magical smoky haze shifted in the air, suffocating Kampê.
"Young man came from hunting faint, tired and weary
What does ail my Lord, my dearie?
Oh, brother dear, let my bed be made
For I feel the gripe of the woody nightshade-"
This song wasn't so much a lullaby as it was more a prayer to fend off the devil.
Seemed fitting.
Kampê whirled around, trying to find the source of the spell. Her yellow eyes narrowed up to me standing above her. Her wings unfolded and lifted her off the second floor balcony. Kampê shot up into the air and towards my direction. Obviously, she had her priorities straight.
Yikes-
I rolled right. Kampê crashed into the prison cell behind me, her movements sluggish and clumsy under the sleep-inducing Mist. Luckily, she wasn't moving as fast, but now her entire focus was on killing me.
"Men need a man would die as soon
Out of the light of a mage's moon-"
Even though my lungs burned from the running, I kept singing.
"But it's not by bone, but yet by blade
Can break the magic that the devil made-"
Her tail lashed out, whipping me off the catwalk and into open air. Air whistled past my ears as I plummeted down to the courtyard floor.
I saw Annabeth and Percy screaming my name from the corner of my eye before I crash landed.
I hit the cement ground with a hard crack and skid a few yards. No broken bones or torn skin, thanks to the curse -thank God-, but the force knocked the air out of me. I choked on my attempts to breathe as I squinted with blurry eyes and saw Tyson fend off Kampê. Grover tried to drag me away from the fight, but I slapped away his hands as I struggled to stand up. The landing cut off the song, dispelling the ongoing magic. The Mist was slowly dissipating without my singing, so I had to keep going or else all the effort of hypnotizing I'd put in so far was going to be for nothing. Then we would be in bigger trouble.
Kampê's barbed tail swung again our way. I shoved Grover and caught the tail in my arms, the protruding scales scraped harmlessly against my skin. With a grip I didn't possess before, I wrangled with the tail to slow down her movements. Tyson took advantage of the moment to pound the monster with more boulders and even swung a big piece of metal like a metal bat at her head. The last blow definitely killed brain cells.
"And it's not my fire, but was forged in flame
Can drown the sorrows of a huntsman's pain-"
Even though it was slowly lulling her, Kampê was still fighting against my voice. Panic bubbled up inside me as I realized that my singing wasn't going to work. Usually monsters would drop halfway through my song, but Kampê's willpower as an ancient being overpowered the magic of a demigod.
Distractions aren't enough, we need something that'll cripple her mind, even if it's just for a second-
Then an idea hit me. The vial of River Lethe water.
Letting go of the tail, I grabbed the glass vial out of the Void and frantically waved for Percy's attention. He gave me a look of pure bewilderment as I wildly mimed him waterbending the small pool of milky water out of the tube and straight to Kampê's head. But he quickly understood my nonverbal request.
With a flick of a hand, the white liquid broke the cork seal and streaked through the air.
The River Lethe water sprayed across Kampê's face and the monster staggered. Her snarling face suddenly faltered, like she forgot what she was doing. She stopped swiping at Tyson and the vipers on her head and legs became subdued. Annabeth gestured for Tyson to fall back and for Briares to stop throwing rocks once it was evident that Kampê was no longer fighting back.
"This young man he died fair soon
By the light of a hunter'e moon-"
I sang even louder to the point of yelling, unsure of the water's effectiveness, but the break in her mind was just enough to push through the song.
''Twas not by bone, nor yet by blade
Of the berries of the woody nightshade-"
I cautiously stepped closer, making eye contact with her reptilian slit eyes which further hypnotized her into sleep. Kampê was now swaying like a tamed cobra listening to a snake charmer, her yellow eyes dimming and the animals across her body and the predators at her hip began yawning heavily. The Mist swirled into a dense cloud that crept around her huge body, wrapping her like a cocoon.
"Oh Father dear lie and be safe
From the path that the devil made."
Kampê's yellow lamp eyes finally closed at the closing line.
None of us dared to make a sound as we watched Kampê curled up and peacefully sleeping in front of us. Just minutes ago, she was spitting acid everywhere and thrashing all over the place, but now she looked like she was off in dreamland.
I checked the Mist to see if it would hold without me fueling it. Sensing the independent nature of the Mist clouding Kampê's psyche, I let out a shaky breath and took out my earplugs. The rest of the group copied me when I waved them over.
"The spell should hold for some time," I told them as confirmation that we did it.
"Jade!" Annabeth sprinted towards me, patting me all over, checking my bones. "You need ambrosia-"
Percy grabbed me by the shoulders, demanding, "How're you not hurt? You fell! And then the tail hit you! And what was that milky looking thing?!"
"I'm fine," I swatted their concern hands off me. "My dad's blessing saved me. That milky water was from the River Lethe."
Grover nearly shouted behind me, "The River Lethe?! That stuff is dangerous-"
"Shhhh," Tyson hushed them. "Kampê is sleeping. We should leave, follow the pretty butterfly."
Annabeth snapped to attention. "R-right, let's go, guys. We can talk once we're in a safer place."
Amazingly, the glittering butterfly was still there at the exit door on the bottom floor, completely unbothered by the earlier fight. It moved when we got closer and pushed past the door, which led us to a room full of waterfalls. The floor was one big pit, ringed by a slippery stone walkway. Water tumbled from huge pipes on all four walls down to the bottomless pit. The butterfly avoided the splashes of the water and went into the corridor on the right, but before we could keep following, Briares slumped against the wall. He scooped water with a dozen hands and washed his face.
I imagined it was the first time he'd gotten a decent wash in a long, long time.
"This pit goes straight to Tartarus," he murmured. "With the Titans waking, Tartarus has been stirring."
As if on cue, the pit released a low rumble. The hairs on my arms stood up at the sound.
It's calling for me.
"You make it sound like it's alive," Percy said.
"Tartarus is alive, demigod. It is more than a place." Briares' answer was chilling. As he spoke, a grey smoke rose out of the pit in small curls. Vague forms and faces appeared in and out of the haze, whispering in the rocky language similar to Kampê. Seeing how no one else seemed to notice the weird smoke, I guessed that I was the only one seeing things.
"Let's keep going," I said, trying not to sound like I'm pleading.
We settled in a hall made of huge marble blocks. It looked like it could've been part of a Greek structure, with bronze torch holders fastened to the walls. Annabeth announced to rest here so we'd all get a break after the exhausting fight with Kampê. Hypnos must've been considerate enough to program the butterfly to pause because it rested on the wall when we stopped in our tracks. Grover didn't need to be told twice to sleep and he was snoring on his straw heap in no time. Tyson and Percy instead talked to Briares, trying to give the old being a pep talk. Since Kampê was out of the picture indefinitely, Briares might feel better about being free.
I was more than happy to sit down and lean against a wall with a sigh of relief. If it weren't for Hypnos' blessing right now, I'd be completely exhausted from relying on the curse of Achilles.
Annabeth didn't join them and sat next to me. "Are you really ok? I didn't know a blessing of Hypnos gives you a superhuman body."
"I'm good, I promise. My dad's blessing was like an adrenaline rush, so I feel pretty superhuman right now." I smiled wryly, but I dropped the grin and grimaced. "I'm never singing to a monster like that again, though."
"So, you'd still drink the metaphorical water?"
"Oh, I'm absolutely drinking it. I hope you burn."
We both snickered at the dumb joke and then quieted.
Annabeth nudged my shoulder. "How did you get a hold of River Lethe water?"
"Ah, from the secret mission, which is why I was with Nico because he's… familiar down there," I said while implying Nico's birth. "I never imagined that it'd work against Kampê though."
The daughter of Athena nodded. "Same, I wouldn't have thought it'd be effective, but I guess we shouldn't underestimate the river's power."
We watched Percy, Tyson, and Briares. I could tell Briares was slowly warming up to Tyson and Percy as the guy was now having a tentative smiling face on instead of the sad one he had on before. I think sending Kampê into a deep sleep gave Briares a measure of comfort.
"I'm sorry I dragged you into this quest," Annabeth said in a low voice. "Chiron is right, taking five people on a quest is risky. When I saw you fall, I thought that I was proving him right, that you were going to be the dead one just like how the prophecy said."
I recalled the line she was talking about. "You mean, 'the dead, the traitor, the lost one raise'?"
I wondered about that, too. Would that line still refer to Nico? I couldn't think of a reason why Nico would go around raising ghosts when his misery over Bianca's death was fairly resolved.
"Actually, we already saw the dead, which was King Minos," Annabeth corrected herself. "But that's not exactly comforting because that means he can roam the Labyrinth freely."
I blinked. Oh, yeah that works.
"Either way, I don't think I can forgive myself if I lost any of you guys," Annabeth said, picking at her necklace. "I always wanted to lead a quest, but…"
"The glory doesn't seem worth it?" I guessed.
Annabeth grunted. "I don't care about the glory, Jade, I care about-"
"Proving yourself, which is what glory does. It's what heroes do," I yawned and stretched my back. Curse of Achilles notwithstanding, that fall hadn't been gentle on my spine.
"You were like a real hero today against Kampê, you know," Annabeth said with a tired smile.
I let out a dry laugh at her compliment. I've never considered myself as a hero, that description seemed so far away from reality. When I heard the word 'hero', I thought of Percy and Annabeth and Luke. They were real life heroes that were made of the same stuff in Greek legends, with the special kind of wit, character, and adventures.
Reaching out, I threaded my fingers through the chunk of silver strands in Annabeth's hair and glanced over at Percy. The dim lighting highlighted the dull grey bangs hanging over his eyes.
I couldn't believe they held up the weight of the sky. Only real heroes could handle the burden. Even though he was fighting on the wrong side, Luke was still a real hero despite all his faults since he was able to bear the Titan's curse.
"You're the real heroes." I said in quiet declaration. I couldn't hold up the sky like they did. Maybe I could, but I wouldn't take someone else's place out of goodheartedness.
I was no hero.
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