Chapter 03 Adam

I took off running for the wall, and kicked off the ground with wind I summoned. And turned in the air as I came down, drawing an arrow from my quiver. In front of me, scaling the wall and lined up behind them, were demigods. There were 45 of them or so at this section of wall. As I hit the ground, I let the arrow fly, penetrating the chest of one of them. He laughed and pulled it out.

"Foolish child of the Olympians. Surrender or die a more painful death." He looked like he was 25, but had entirely too much muscle. He reminded me of the cyclops I had fought just a few months prior.

"If I say no?"

"I just said. You will die a most painful death. Is that not clear?"

"Not very clear at all, I'd like to know exactly what we're facing here, man."

"A most painful death." He pulled a blade from a sheath, it was pitch black. The thing was strange, nothing I’d seen before. The edge opposite the blade seemed to flow like smoke, the blade shiny and sharp.

"By what?" I smiled, the man looked thoroughly confused. He scowled in reply, instead of an actual answer he charged towards me. I jumped straight up into the air, landing in a tree. The guy below began to climb, but I kicked off the end of the branch and landed inside Camp Mythos. Charlie was near the guard tower, not far from where I was standing.

But the moment I headed her way, everything went dark. I wasn't blinded, or dead, but there was no light, I couldn't see my hands, feet, battlefield, or weapons. I felt a disturbance in the air to my side, I turned and drew my bow.

“Adam, is that you?” Charlie asked. I eased the tension in my bow.

“Yes. Can you see?”

“No.”

“Fuck.” For a moment I saw the darkness flicker. Just for that split second, I saw that assailant in front of us. Before I could draw my bow, I was on the ground, his blade blocked by mine. Charlie drew her bow and hit the man in the head. He crumpled to the ground, blood had flown from his shattered skull, and landed on my cheek. The darkness faded, and I could see. It was as if there was a total solar eclipse, dark haze everywhere.

I saw another couple scale the wall, and took them out with Charlie’s help. Within 5 minutes, they had all disappeared, including the body of the one I’d slain. Charlie and I walked back to the center of camp, after clearing the walls and surroundings of the camp. Everyone was surrounding one table, in the mess hall. We ran up to the table and looked upon it.

A boy no older than 14, his name was Arty Osborne. He had joined the camp only a year prior. His wounds were deep, slashing across his chest. The guys and girls of Apollo were doing their best to heal him, but the children of Hades pronounced him dead. A young girl, around the same age, burst into tears at that. Presumably his girlfriend. She had long gold hair, and laid her head on his shoulder, sobbing. Not 3 minutes later, he awoke.

“Mandy?” He croaked.

“Art?” She yelled in surprise. Planting a kiss on his cheek.

“Fucking hell, Death really was captured.” I said to Charlie a little while later.

“It really isn't a good sign.”

“That corpse I killed disappeared too.” I grimaced.

“Yeah.” she paused, then looked at me, “what was the deal with that darkness?”

“Man I wish I knew, felt like the power of Hecate or something, the darkness just appeared, and we couldn't see.”

“Could it have been our assailants?”

“Lord, I hope not. If they can do that, they're more powerful than anything we’ve faced before.” I thought back to our failed quest, a year prior. Charlie and I had gone off to help my father deal with some storm spirits. It hadn’t gone well. Now my relationship with my father is fractured.

A few minutes later we were greeted by a beautiful ageless face. She looked as if she was just a child, 12 at most. A rainbow dress floated around her.

“Charlie, of Hecate and Loki. And Adam, of the wind god.” She greeted. “I’ve brought with me a message.”

“Lady Iris.” I replied. “It is an honor.”

She gave a slight smile. “Lady Styx has requested your presence in the underworld.”

“Oh no.” Charlie began. “Are we supposed to get Thomas too?”

“That’s right, daughter of magic. I must leave, but get Thomas, Styx will rake over the rest.” She disappeared into a cloud of mist. Better than Hermes, always running off, leaving the ground behind him torn up.

She was a good goddess, always kind and friendly. She handled some of Hermes's work as a messenger, but mostly handled messages from demigods.

Charlie and I went to wake Thomas up. We were in the easternmost side of camp, not far from the cabins to our northwest. We saw some satyrs and Naiads, some Dryads too.

“Hey Charlie, Adam.” Said Ivy. She was a cross between Naiad and Dryad. She didn't know her parentage or lineage. But she was cursed by Hera. She had to walk among plant and water, never able to leave. She always had a flask of water with her, and a few sprigs of grass in another bottle. That enabled her to move about for short periods of time.

“Ivy, what's up?” Charlie asked.

“Nothing much, saw the chaos earlier, and Thomas’s near-death experience.”

“Yeah, we believe that Thanatos was captured.”

“Oh gods.”

“Yeah.” I agreed. “We were sent a message from Styx via Iris. We are getting Thomas, then we will meet with the underworld gods.”

“Mind if I come with? I get so tired of my cousins.”

“Yeah, that's fine, I guess.” Charlie looked to me. I always though Ivy was cute, figured it couldn't hurt. “No objection from me.”

Thomas was sitting outside his cabin, with his half sister, Arya, daughter of Neptune. The gods Poseidon and Neptune were separate, the Romans believed Neptune to be the calm and collected god of the seas, whereas the Greeks believed Poseidon to be more chaotic and powerful.

“Hey guys.” Arya greeted. Giving Charlie and Ivy a hug, me a good strong handshake. “I’ll leave y'all to chat.”

“Thomas, we got a message from-” Before I could finish, we had all fallen from the porch, tumbling through the darkness, gods knew where. Thomas and Charlie were wrapped in an embrace, Ivy took my hand. My cheeks turned bright red, but thankfully nobody saw it in the darkness.

We broke through the roof of an area and slowed to a stop a couple inches over the ground. It was a dreary place, red light all around, moisture made the air thick and hard to breathe. And the heat was unbearable. To our right stood 2 other people, I had no idea who they were.

“Charlie.” One said.

“Raven.” Charlie replied.

“Who are they?” I asked Charlie.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Welcome.” A voice in the distance said. “Approach.” it was a feminine voice, radiating in power.

We walked toward it, shoes squeaking on the shiny black marble.