[And the answer waaaasss,

"Are you lost?" —Keeper of the Lost Cities

Hehe this always gets me for some reason]

There was a knock at the door. Everyone froze. Sandor sniffed the air.

"The councillors are here." He growled. Edaline froze. She ushered Percy and Annabeth on to the stairs.

"Get into Jolie's room. Second door on the left—quickly!" She added. Percy and Annabeth scurried upwards just as the door banged open. Councillor Emery, Alina, and Oralie were there.

"Lady Edaline, Lord Grady, we are here on Sophie Foster's behalf of questioning." Alina chimed. I rolled my eyes.

"Councillors, we are here on your behalf before Percy douses you with water." Keefe mimicked quietly. It didn't work. Alina still heard us.

"What was that, Mr. Sencen?" She hissed. "Something about Mr. Jackson? Hmm?"

"He's not here, if that's what you're thinking." I shot back. "And no, I didn't need to read your mind to know that." Alina scowled.

"Well, we are here to ask Lady Sophie a few questions." Emery announced. "We, er, tried to get him to answer but he disappeared."

"Key word: tried." Keefe snickered. I couldn't help but giggle. Alina scowled harder.

"Well, Lady Sophie—"

"Just Sophie." I said automatically.

"Sophie," He corrected. "Well, did Mr. Jackson tell you anything valuable?" I shook my head and transmitted to Oralie not to blow our cover.

"She's telling the truth." Oralie declared. I beamed. At least she was on our side.

"Very well, then do you know Mr. Jackson's true origins?" I shook my head again.

"He can resist my inflicting." I said. "And I can't read his mind. That's all I know." Emery nodded.

"There was information that his girlfriend by the name of Annabeth Chase was here. Do you have any information of her whereabouts?"

"I light leaped her back to the Forbidden Cities." I stated. Alina cursed in some ancient language, and my Polyglot senses interpreted a string of words that I won't repeat. Let's just say that if I repeated those words, Grady would wash out my mouth with soap used to clean Verdi the dinosaur.

"This is outrageous!" Alina grumbled. "We cannot even track him down!" Emery tried to calm her down.

"We'll find him. If we do, I'll—"

"SEND HIM TO EXILE!" She shrieked. I flinched. The memories of Exile were too much. Broken minds, gore, suffering, it was too much. I couldn't let Alina send Percy there.

"No! Not Exile." I stopped her. "Maybe—"

"This person is obviously not human, and not an elf!" She snapped. "It is only best if we contain him." I balled my fists, red rimming my vision. Keefe sent a blue breeze through my mind urgently, and the red cooled. I sighed.

"You can't do this. You can't even break into his mind! He'll be sane, and he'll suffer the insanity of the place!" Grady protested. Alina put up her hand.

"Lord Grady, do not make us remind you of the consequences of disobeying the Council."

"Not if the councils' gone crazy." He muttered.

"But it's Exile! Isn't that kind of harsh?" Dex asked. "How about a memory wipe, or—"

"No. Memories cannot be thoroughly wiped. You have seen it with Amy Foster and Alvar Vacker. They have both recovered their memories, even when their minds were wiped." Alina reminded us. I honestly didn't like the idea of a memory wipe, and Alina did have a point here.

But it was better than Exile.

"No. I'm not going through the same thing with Hera." Percy's voice filled the room. All the councillors whipped around, and Percy was there, smirking on top of the stairs, with a very anguished Annabeth with him.

"Care to explain what Exile is?" He seemed so casual about it. He hadn't seen the blood and the gore inside of those shattered minds, but then again, he survived the pits of hell. Sometimes quite literally.

"It's worse than you think, Percy." I tugged on an eyelash.

"I doubt it." His gaze turned dark.

"What is he doing here?" Alina's voice was deadly calm.

"Oh, I just vapor-traveled here to visit Sophie, you know? Catch up on that water fight." He grinned evilly. "I could always return you the favor of drenching you again."

"Don't. Even. Think. About. It." She snarled. Percy shrugged. "Oh well, then we'll just carry on with the water fight. Where's Linh? And Tam?"

Emery ignored the questions. "Mr. Jackson, we are still here to interrogate you. We, ah, might need to send you to Exile for questioning, but I'm sure we can work out a solution." Percy frowned.

"Nah, it's more fun to see you guys on edge." He smirked. Annabeth elbowed him.

"Ow, Wise girl, what was that for?" He muttered. 

"They're trying to kill you, Percy. Isn't that obvious?"

"No, not kill, perhaps question and maybe imprisonment." Alina examined her perfect nails.

"You know that you can't contain me." He shot an amused glance at me and Keefe.

"Oh, but we can." Alina gave us a twisted smile. "Which is why I brought Councillor Zarina."

"What?" Percy snorted. "Another councillor? How is that going to help?"

"She's a Charger!" I realized. Uh oh. This wouldn't go well for Percy.

"Oh, come on! I have enough people who can shoot lightning, and I don't need another." I heard him grumble as Zarina entered the room. Immediately the house was filled with static, and Percy's face was screwed up in concentration.

"I can't do it!" He wheezed. "The electricity's getting to my head—"

"Zap him!" Alina ordered. Zarina snapped her fingers and a wave of electricity rippled through Percy. His eyes glazed over, and he let out a scream. Annabeth shrieked and fell to his side, shaking him and muttering, "Wake up, Seaweed Brain!" in a language I didn't recognize. Probably Ancient Greek. When Annabeth turned, her eyes blazed straight to Alina and Zarina.

"What did you do to him?" She demanded.

"Oh, relax. He's going to be fine." Alina muttered. Annabeth shot a dagger at Alina. Literally. Alina shrieked as the dagger missed her by a hairsbreadth. The dagger ricocheted off of the crystal walls and Annabeth caught it again.

"That was a warning." She growled. "Maybe you'd like to know how accurate I can really be?" She twirled the blade. The bronze metal reflected the sunlight and gleamed. Alina looked terrified.

"This is treason! Heresy! I—"

"—don't care." Annabeth leaped from the stairs and held the dagger to Alina's throat. Even Emery and Oralie stayed put. Zarina looked horrified, as if she couldn't believe that she knocked another person unconscious with her lightning.

"Goblins!" Alina shouted. "Get rid of this girl!" 4 grey creatures came shuffling in, their blades raised. Annabeth raised her own. At the sight of the dagger, some of them cowered.

"That's right, Imperial Gold." She waved it around for everyone to see. "One stab and it'll send you to Tartarus." The goblins obviously knew what Tartarus was, because they all fled. Annabeth turned back to Alina.

"You were saying?" Annabeth glared at her. Alina growled and lunged for Annabeth. She dodged nimbly.

"Annabeth!" Fitz yelled. "You'll be in too much trouble with the Council! I'm going to light leap you to safety." Annabeth opened her mouth to protest.

"He's right." I agreed. "Go!" She nodded, scowling a little. He grabbed her hand, and she reluctantly followed, her last words being, "Keep Percy safe," before fading into the light with Fitz.

Emery looked shocked. Oralie froze. For a second, the silence was too sickening to bear, so I started counting the seconds. 134 had passed before Emery finally moved.

"Well, that was quite interesting." He managed to say. "We will be going now." Alina just had a mask of blank shock over her face. Then she recovered.

"Get the boy!" She screamed. Emery looked startled at the sudden outburst. He grabbed Percy's limp arm before anyone could say anything and leaped away.

[Hey guys! time for question of the chapter :)

During the Battle of the Labyrinth, how long was Percy presumed dead after exploding the volcano?

bye ya'll thanks for reading :)))]