Being quiet was difficult.

Emilia never realized how hard it was to shut her mouth. Normally, she was the silent kid in the corner of the classroom with no friends. At Camp, she kept to herself. Really, it was Pollux and Will's fault that she became more of a talker. It was part of her therapy to voice her thoughts and now it was like she had to be chained down in order to prevent the rude slips.

She was glad the others were there to balance her out. If Leo could stay serious, if Jason could be fearless, if Piper could be patient, then Emilia could hold her tongue. Maybe.

Piper, diplomatic as always, flashed the King and his son another smile. "So... you don't know how you got here?"

"Sort of," said Midas, frowning at Lit. Emilia didn't buy the confusion for a second. The hairs on the back of her neck stood, and she wanted them all to just leave now that the traps were disabled. She hoped she was wrong and was just failing to trust everyone around her instead of being right and watching a bomb tick away. "Why did we pick Omaha again? I know it wasn't the weather."

"The oracle," said Lit simply.

"Yes! I was told there was an oracle in Omaha," Midas shrugged. "Apparently I was mistaken. But it is a rather nice house, isn't it? Lit— short for Lityerses, by the way— horrible name but his mother insisted— Lit has plenty of space to practice his swordplay. He had quite a reputation for that. They called him the Reaper of Men back in the old days."

"Delightful," said Emilia. Just the sort of person Gaea would recruit. Lit flashed her a smile that was more of a cruel sneer. Oh, how she wished she'd had more time to perfect her sword skills with Pollux. She could normally hold her own just fine with a spear– even against a sword– but Lit was not bulky enough to put her at a greater advantage. She'd have to exert her energy to darken the room and blind him.

"So," said Jason casually. "All this gold–"

The king's eyes lit up. "Are you here for gold, my boy? Please, take a brochure!" He gestured to the coffee table.

Jason picked one up, showing the others that it read GOLD: Invest for Eternity. "Um, you sell gold?"

"No, no," said the King. "I make it. In uncertain times like these, gold is the wisest investment, don't you think? Governments fall. The dead rise. Giants attack Olympus. But gold retains its value!"

Leo frowned. "I've seen that commercial." Emilia was more focused on mentions of the giants attacking Olympus. Such an odd little thing to mention.

"Oh, don't be fooled by cheap imitators!" said Midas. "I assure you, I can beat any price for a serious investor. I can make a wide assortment of gold items at a moment's notice."

"But your Majesty," said Piper, "you gave up the golden touch, didn't you?"

"Let me guess," said Emilia curtly. "You kept the wish Dionysus gave you– the golden touch– even after realizing it made you a greedy fool. Now you capitalize off of it instead of repenting. I suppose I'm not surprised to see your daughter nowhere in sight. Is she one of the statues?"

Midas's lip curled. "Well, even if she was, there is no running water in the house because I don't want accidents. But we chose to live next to a river just in case. Occasionally, I'll forget and pat Lit on the back—"

Lit retreated a few steps. "I hate that."

"I told you I was sorry, son. At any rate, gold is wonderful. Why would I ever give up that gift?"

"Well," Piper said, seemingly looking at me for help, "isn't that the point of the story? You learned your lesson after turning your daughter into gold?"

Midas laughed. "My dear, may I see your backpack for a moment? Toss it here."

Piper hesitated at first, then dumped its contents out and threw it to him. He caught it with ease and it instantly became gold. Still soft and flexible, but definitely gold. "As you can see," he explained, "I can still turn anything to gold. That pack is magic now, as well. Go ahead– put your little storm spirit enemies in there."

"Seriously?" Leo was suddenly interested. He took the bag from Piper and held it up to the cage. As soon as he unzipped the backpack, the winds stirred and howled in protest. The cage bars shuddered. The door of the prison flew open and the winds got vacuumed straight into the pack. He zipped it shut and grinned. "Gotta admit, that's cool."

"You see?" said Midas. "My golden touch a curse? Please. I didn't learn any lesson, and life isn't a story, girl. Honestly, my daughter Zoe was much more pleasant as a gold statue."

"She talked a lot," Lit offered.

"Exactly. You were right, dear..." He smiled slyly at Emilia before gesturing to the corner, where a golden statue of a girl stood. "She doesn't mind. Besides, if I'd learned my lesson, would I have gotten these?" He pulled off his sleeping cap and out popped long, fuzzy gray donkey ears.

"Oh wow," Leo said, "I didn't need to see that."

"Terrible, isn't it?" Midas sighed. "A few years after the golden touch incident, I judged a music contest between Apollo and Pan, and I declared Pan the winner. Apollo, sore loser, said I must have the ears of an ass, and voilà. This was my reward for being truthful. I tried to keep them a secret. Only my barber knew, but he couldn't help blabbing" Midas pointed at a statue of a bald man in a toga holding a pair of shears. "That's him. He won't be telling anyone's secrets again. Yes, gold has many uses. I think that must be why I was brought back, eh, Lit? To bankroll our patron."

Lit nodded. "That and my good sword arm."

Emilia shot the others a look, asking silently, Can I kill them now? Jason replied with a wary gaze, as if telling her to wait. "So you do have a patron. You work for the giants."

King Midas waved his hand dismissively. "Well I don't care for the giants myself, of course. But even supernatural armies need to get paid. I do owe my patron a great debt. I tried to explain that to the last group that came through, but they were very unfriendly. Wouldn't cooperate at all."

"Group?" Emilia asked uncertainly.

"Hunters," Lit sneered. "Blasted girls from Artemis."

Emilia tensed. Were any of the Hunters among these statues? "How long ago?"

Lit shrugged dismissively. "Few days ago? I didn't get to kill them, unfortunately. They were looking for some evil wolves, or something. Said they were following a trail, heading west. Missing demigod— I don't recall."

They must have been here looking for Percy. Midas scratched his donkey ears. "Very unpleasant young ladies, those Hunters. They absolutely refused to be turned into gold. Much of the security system outside I installed to keep that sort of thing from happening again, you know. I don't have time for those who aren't serious investors."

"Well, we're not serious investors," said Emilia, getting to her feet. "Thank you for your sales talk. We'll be on our way now."

"Oh, but you can't leave!" said Midas. "I have to rebuild my collection. Don't worry. You don't have to be turned to gold. I give all my guests a choice– join my collection, or die at the hands of Lityerses. Really, it's good either way."

Piper tried to use her charmspeak. "Your Majesty, you can't–"

Quicker than any old man should've been able to move, Midas lashed out and grabbed her wrist. Emilia leapt back as a frost of gold spread over Piper. Leo tried to summon fire, but he'd forgotten his power wasn't working. Midas touched his hand, and Leo transformed into solid metal.

"Hedge!" Jason yelled. "Need help in here!"

He didn't charge in. "Which one do you want to handle?" Emilia asked Jason, reaching for her spear and gesturing between the King and Lit. "The donkey or its carrot?"

Jason reached into his pocket, flipping his coin and drawing his javelin. "I'll take Lit."

"Good," said Emilia, smiling darkly at Midas. "I'll eviscerate him."

She could make it hurt, if she wanted to. What was the old man going to do? As long as he didn't touch her, she had every advantage. Lit charged at Jason, and as soon as the two locked in battle, Emilia swung her spear over her head, creating a coil of shadows that she thrust through the air at Midas.

It should've been enough to fling him into the wall. But somehow, he remained upright, skidding only a few inches back. He laughed, "In this room, my power dampens all others: fire... even charmspeak. Which leaves me just another trophy to collect."

Okay, so she'd have to try a little harder. She dodged before Midas could fling himself at her, already feeling herself growing exhausted after such a large burst. She sent the spear back into the shadows and willed it into a blade, hurling it at Midas and at the last second, splitting it into smaller slits of dark energy that she shoved against him like knives on his flesh.

As he staggered, she forced the energy to swirl around him like a cloud, keeping him from seeing her as she summoned the spear and ducked down to cut across his thighs, knocking him down at last. She dissolved the spear before he could reach for it; what would that have done? It almost made her curious.

That alone had drained her and she wasn't sure how much more shadow-summoning she could manage. She had a moment to recover as Jason sent Lit toppling into Midas. When Midas tried to help himself up– or maybe help Lit up– he turned his own son into a statue.

"Curses!" wailed Midas. Suddenly, the air pressure dropped. Emilia covered her ears as she felt them pop unexpectedly. Even Midas was surprised. "Ow! What are you doing? My power is supreme here!"

Thunder rumbled. Outside, the sky turned black. "You know another good use for gold?" said Jason. "It's an excellent conductor of electricity."

Emilia managed to duck in the corner as Jason raised his javelin, bursting open the ceiling. A lighting bolt ripped through the roof, connecting with the tip of his spear and sending arcs of energy that blasted the sofas to shreds. Chunks of ceiling plaster crashed down, the chandelier groaned and snapped off its chain, and Midas screamed as it pinned him to the floor. The glass immediately turned into gold.

With the darkness bringing rain pouring into the building, Emilia found the strength to stand, and without hesitation, sent one last blast of dark energy right at Midas's heart, silencing him permanently.

Piper and Leo were slowly changing, along with the other statues in the room. Coach Hedge charged in, mouth covered with dirt, snow, and grass. "What'd I miss?"

"Everything!" said Emilia, already grabbing onto Piper. "Go on, someone grab the packs and someone else grab Leo."

They didn't need to head to the river. The rain was beating down hard enough to change them back into people, and Jason figured they might as well try to move as fast as they could. With Coach Hedge and Emilia holding onto Piper and Leo, he harnessed some of the storm spirits to drag them as far as Pikes Peak, Colorado, right along the vapor trail only he could see. They'd almost crashed into a mountainside before he could get them back into a bag, and by some miracle, they at least managed to find a cave to shelter in. In hindsight, Emilia would've rather shadow-traveled.

Once there, they were able to layer Piper and Leo with blankets. Coach Hedge managed to start a fire, and Emilia swept a curtain of darkness over the cave entrance to try and preserve the warmth. She and Jason gave them each some nectar just before Coach Hedge attempted some 'nature magic' (which he preferred to call sports medicine) using mushrooms and Gatorade to prevent the worst symptoms of hypothermia. Hopefully, they wouldn't get too sick.

"Aeolus's floating palace should be anchored above us," said Coach Hedge when Leo asked aloud why they came here, specifically. Emilia accepted some beef patties and started to make them some hamburgers. "Right at the peak. This is one of his favorite spots to dock."

"I didn't know about that," admitted Jason. "It just felt like the right place to stop."

"The Hunters were heading west," Piper remembered. "Do you think they're around here?"

Jason rubbed his forearm as if the tattoos were bothering him. "I don't see how anyone could survive on the mountain right now. The storm's pretty bad. It's already the evening before the solstice, but we didn't have much choice except to wait out the storm here. We had to give you some time to rest before we tried moving." He got closer to Piper, awkwardly holding her to try and warm her up again.

Leo cleared his throat. "So, guys, long as you're cuddled up for story time... something I've been meaning to tell you. On the way to Omaha, I had this dream. Kinda hard to understand with the static and the Wheel of Fortune breaking in-"

"Wheel of Fortune?" asked Piper.

"The thing is," continued Leo. "My dad Hephaestus talked to me."

Hephaestus had confirmed Emilia's theory. Gaea was in fact the enemy, but somehow the gods still felt it better to stay silent even though demigods and gods together were necessary to kill the giants.

"The gods hate needing humans," said Coach Hedge. "They like to be needed by humans, not the other way around. Things will have to get a whole lot worse before Zeus admits he made a mistake closing Olympus."

Have you forgotten what I taught you? The gods will always use you, girl. Hephaestus offered his son nothing of substance. Oh, he transported a metal dragon far away... what about keeping his son alive? Did he do that? Have any of your parents ever cared for you?

"Coach," said Piper as Emilia blinked Kronos away, "that was almost an intelligent comment."

Hedge huffed. "What? I'm intelligent! It's just that I'm a satyr, they rarely tell us the juicy stuff. Especially an old–" He stopped himself.

"An old guy like you?" asked Piper. "But you're not that old, are you?"

"Hundred and six," Hedge muttered.

Leo coughed. "Say what?"

"Don't catch your panties on fire, Valdez. That's just fifty three in human years. Still, yeah, I made some enemies on the Council of Cloven Elders. I've been a protector a long time. But they started saying I was getting unpredictable. Too violent. Can you imagine?"

"Wow," Piper said, her lip twitching. "That's hard to believe."

Coach scowled. "Yeah, then finally we get a good war going with the Titans, and do they put me on the front lines? No! They send me as far away as possible— the Canadian frontier, can you believe it? Then after the war, they put me out to pasture. The Wilderness School. Bah! Like I'm too old to be helpful just because I like playing offense. All those flower pickers on the Council— talking about nature."

"It thought satyrs liked nature," ventured Piper.

"Shoot, I love nature," Hedge said. "Nature means big things killing and eating little things! And when you're a— you know— vertically challenged satyr like me, you get in good shape, you carry a big stick, and you don't take nothing from no one! That's nature." Hedge snorted indignantly. "Flower-pickers. Anyway, I hope you got something vegetarian cooking, Gonzalez. I don't do flesh."

"Leo gave me the beef patties first," she argued. "The tofu ones are on the way. You want them faster, make them yourself."

Hedge narrowed his eyes as she offered Leo the patties, letting him put the hamburgers together for himself, Jason, and Emilia. He was silent for a long while, and waited to receive his tofu burger before he said, "I know you."

"I know you do," Emilia replied. "You called me by my last name. I hardly use it but I did disclose it when I arrived at Camp. Grover and Annabeth mentioned you vaguely. We were getting along so well earlier."

"You're a lot more of a smart-ass than they said you were."

"Clearly your information is outdated." She gestured to the cave. "I'm here, which is not Camp Half-Blood. We've been harassed every day since we left and I am not in the mood to let more people walk over us. I'm not exactly the poster child for kindness. I prefer to get things done."

He huffed, but seemed to respect it. "I don't trust you."

"I don't trust you, either, you old goat. Where I'm from, we make food out of you and we enjoy it."

He bleated. "I can bash my club into your head without feeling remorse!"

"Did you see me kill Midas earlier? You might've missed it because you were grazing mindlessly instead of helping us."

"Both of you, stop it!" pleaded Piper. She sounded... broken. Emilia closed her mouth long enough for Piper to sigh sadly. "We need to talk. I don't want to hide anything from you guys anymore." She hesitated. "Three nights before the Grand Canyon trip, I had a dream vision– a giant, telling me my father had been taken hostage. He told me I had to cooperate, or my dad would be killed."

"Enceladus?" Jason said slowly. "You mentioned that name before."

Piper's lip trembled. "I-I tried to reach my dad, but all I got was his personal assistant, and she told me not to worry."

"Jane," recalled Emilia, having a bad feeling where this was going. Maybe her memories hadn't been so distorted after all. "Medea mentioned her."

She nodded. "To get my dad back, I had to sabotage this quest. I didn't realize it would be the four of us. Then after we started the quest, Enceladus sent me another warning. He told me he wanted Jason, Emilia, and Leo dead. He wants me to lead you to a mountain. I don't know exactly which one, but it's in the Bay Area. I have to be there by noon on the solstice tomorrow. An exchange."

Emilia could sense her guilt but didn't think it had a place. Piper had been keeping them alive, even though it meant her father could be killed. Jason scooted closer, "God, Piper, I'm so sorry."

Leo nodded. "No kidding. You've been carrying this around for a week? Piper, we could help you."

She glared at them. "Why don't you yell at me or something? I was ordered to kill you!"

"But you didn't," said Emilia. "You didn't betray anyone, Piper. Why would we be upset with you?"

"You don't get it!" said Piper. "I've probably just killed my dad, telling you this."

"I doubt it," said Coach Hedge. He was eating his tofu burger folded inside the paper plate, chewing it all like a taco. "Giant hasn't gotten what he wants yet, so he still needs your dad for leverage. He'll wait until the deadline passes, see if you show up. He wants you to divert the quest to this mountain, right?"

Piper nodded uncertainly. Coach reasoned, "So that means Hera is being kept somewhere else. And she has to be saved by the same day. So you have to choose– rescue your dad or rescue Hera. If you go after Hera, then Enceladus takes care of your dad. BEsides, Enceladus would never let you go even if you cooperated. You're obviously one of the eight in the Great Prophecy."

"So we have no choice," said Piper miserably. "We have to save Hera, or the giant king gets unleashed. That's our quest. The world depends on it. And Enceladus seems to have ways of watching me. He isn't stupid. He'll know if we change course and go the wrong way. He'll kill my dad."

"We can do both," murmured Emilia. "We can. If we figure out where he is... if Aeolus could tell us... we could take Enceladus first, free Piper's dad, then I could maybe shadow-travel us to where Hera is being kept. You mentioned a mountain... could it be Mount Othrys?"

Her hands shook, and she wondered if she should be honest, too. About Kronos's voice following her. It didn't matter that it wasn't Kronos itself, maybe they ought to know that a part of him survived in her consciousness. She decided against it; it wasn't the sort of thing one could bring up to piggyback off of what Piper had admitted. That would be tactless and might only make things worse.

Still, remembering Kronos got her thinking about the palace. Emilia mused, "Kronos left Krios in charge and then... I was taken and last I heard, the palace crumbled on its own. It could have a dark energy left behind, the sort of place for Hera to fall and Porphyrion to rise, or the sort of place Enceladus would want to take us to. But Mount Othrys, I worked there for two years. My power isn't diminished even if the Bay Area is notoriously unsafe for demigods."

"No," said Jason suddenly. "No, that's not... true about the Bay Area." He looked confused. "And the palace didn't crumble on its own, that's not... what happened." He was trying hard to remember, but flinched. "Did you hear that?"

For a second there was nothing. Then, the howls of wolves.