Chapter Fourteen - Annabeth And I Take A Moonlit Stroll
Posted: Monday 12th February 2024

After standing there for some time, I shook myself back to reality, knowing that I needed to get back to camp. I was exhausted but thought I had enough energy to shadow travel back to camp.

Unfortunately with how tired I was, my aim was not the best. I landed on the ping pong table just as Chiron said "Now I think that's enough for one - argh!"

I had landed in the middle of a meeting of the heads of each cabin, a war council. Instantly everyone was on their feet, drawing their weapons.

"Hey," I said, removing my foot from the now crushed bowl of Cheetos. "Sorry, didn't mean to land there."

"Aridane!" Annabeth said, "you're alive? Percy said that you were on the ship when..." she glanced towards Silena Beauregard who's eyes were red like she had been crying. I realised with a pang that Beckendorf must have died in the explosion.

I jumped down from the table, "I almost died." I said, "but I'm fine now."

"How in Hades did you end up on the ping pong table?" Travis Stoll demanded. I looked around the room and saw everyone staring at me with fear and confusion.

"Um," I wasn't sure what to say, but I decided that it was about time for the truth. On the beach I had resolved myself to fight for the gods, well really for Apollo. If I was to fight alongside the campers, they deserved to know the truth.

"My mother is Nyx," I said, "Primordial of night."

Their mouths fell open, all accept Annabeth and Percy, who already knew, and Chiron who was staring at me with an unreal eyes expression.

"I uh- there is only one darkness, I can use it to travel, my mother called it Shadow Travelling. The boat blew up and I managed to get away before I hit the water. I was pretty beat up, but..." I paused for a few seconds to allow myself to work out how much I was going to share, "a god- I think it was Apollo- appeared and healed me and told me to come back to camp."

"Apollo?" Percy asked, "I thought all of the gods were fighting Typhon."

"They are," Chiron confirmed. He eyed me and seemed to make a decision, "perhaps Zeus has decided that you are indeed more valuable to him alive Ariadne. Only time will tell. Anyway, we are glad you made it back to us and we appreciate all of the danger you have faced in these last months at Kronos' side, but I think we have spoken enough for today."

With that Chiron dismissed us all.

There was much muttering amongst the other campers as we left, I headed back alone to the Athena cabin. There was no one there as everyone was partaking in activities, but a sign was up on the bulletin board reminding everyone that there would be a cabin inspection that day.

My bunk was tidy as I had left it, I had very few belongings so it was difficult for it to be messy even if I hadn't been away for months. Everything else was in pristine condition, apart from Annabeth's bunk and her drafting table.

Shadow travelling had sapped my strength and I was beyond exhausted from the day. I tumbled into my bunk and fell straight to sleep.

In my dreams I saw the war. I watched the gods fighting Typhon amidst the storm that the mist had whipped up to cover Typhon's progress. I saw glimpses of the battle to come, the streets of a big city- I assumed it was New York- overrun with monsters. Darkness swirled as Kronos raised his scythe over me. I also saw an army clad in Roman style armour preparing for war, this wasn't Camp Halfblood, under their armour many of them wore purple T-shirts. I thought that this may have been the Roman Camp I had learned about whilst onboard the Princess Andromeda, it looked like they were preparing for an invasion.

I woke feeling just as drained mentally as I had been when I fell asleep, my body felt rested, but my mind was reeling. It was night outside and most of my cabin mates were asleep, but Annabeth was awake, she was standing over me and I realised she had shaken me awake.

"Annabeth?" I wiped sleep from my eyes.

"You need to tell me everything you learned whilst you were with the titans," she had a slightly wild look in her eyes.

"Is everything okay?" I asked as I pushed myself to my feet.

"Let's go for a walk, I want you to update me on everything," She said.

"What about the harpies?" I asked.

"You're the daughter of night right? Can't you hide us?"

"I guess, but why-"

Annabeth pulled me out of the cabin and we began walking. She pressed me to tell her everything, insisting that before the final battle she needed to know everything so that she could plan correctly.

I told her what I knew, laying out everything that had happened in the last year.

"You're worried about Percy," I said.

Annabeth pursed her lips.

"It's not the best of prophecies," I admitted, "but if there is one thing that I've learnt, it's that prophecies don't define us. I'm not my prophecy, just as Percy isn't his. I don't know him that well, but if he does go out it will be for the right reasons, he's not going to raze Olympus."

Annabeth sighed, "I hate prophecies."

"Me too," I agreed.

She fixed me with a look, "how do you cope with it? Percy learnt about his and he's completely freaking out about it, he's trying to play it off like he isn't scared, but I can tell he is. How do you deal with the knowledge that you're part of a potentially world ending prophecy?"

I shrugged, "I try and forget about it mostly. You can't fight a prophecy, it'll happen if it wants to happen. I know that's not super comforting, but it's the truth."

Annabeth and I spoke for a bit longer, but I didn't think I had offered her much comfort.

When we returned to our cabin, Annabeth found that she had a message on her phone from Percy asking her to bring the campers to meet him at the Empire State Building. He told us to arm for war.