Daughter of Poseidon, the Girl Who Lived

30. Muggles mistake deadly weapons for fishing equipment

Severus and I both held our breath as Triton's expression darkened. Harri was still blocking the trident stolen from Poseidon with her cousin's black sword.

"That was a mistake, clownfish. Your death could have been quick and relatively painless," Triton growled. "Now you will suffer!"

"Then so be it!" Harri spat back. "I won't let you attack our father or the other Olympians! I will either stop you, or die trying!"

Triton withdrew the trident to strike again and Harri again blocked him.

I pushed the button on my right web shooter. The handle of my sword came out of the hidden cavity for me to grab with my left hand. Severus drew his own Stygian iron sword next to me. We were ready to help Harri fight Triton but two merpeople blocked the path with their spears. We might have been able to fight them off if we hadn't been deep down in the sea. Just a quick blow with one of those spears to pierce the bubbles allowing us to breathe would doom us.

We could only watch helplessly as Harriet fought her immortal half brother.

Triton was a skilled warrior who had probably been trained to fight with a trident his entire life, while Harri only had a borrowed sword to rely on. If only she still had her own trident to use...

As Triton slowly gained the upper hand, I wondered if this was it. Were we all destined to die here while Triton went to Olympus and take down the gods?

The stolen article will be returned after a fatal fight.

No, we were not to die. The prophecy said that the trident would be returned. I remembered the last part of it.

The sea spawn shall bleed and victory shall be received,
to the son of wisdom's delight.

The 'sea spawn' could be either Harriet or Triton. I wasn't sure which one, but I was quite sure I had to interfere in some way.

The only question was how? If I tried to swim closer, Triton's guards would kill me.

I looked at my sword. Perhaps I could throw it at Triton? No, it would probably just sink to the bottom of the ocean. It would be a waist of a good sword, and not gain me anything. But, what about the web shooters Peter gave me? Could I hit Triton from this distance? Would the spiderweb even work under water?

My sword magically disappeared back into its place in the web shooter's secret cavity, it was worth a shoot.

I aimed quickly before the guards could react and shot.

The spiderweb hit Triton right in his eyes, blinding him. Harriet sliced up a gash in his right bicep, causing him to scream in pain and let go of the trident. Harri quickly caught it before it could sink to the bottom. She turned around and swam towards us.

"Surrender!" she yelled at the guards keeping me and Severus at bay.

They obediently swam away. Once again next to us, Harri turned around to face her half brother. Triton managed to remove the webs from his eyes and glared at me. He apparently knew exactly which one of us had interfered and cost him his victory.

"Curse you, sister!" He turned to face Harriet. "You may have had one of Athena's children to help you today, but I swear, when you are walking towards your death and longing for their support, you will be all alone."

He grabbed his bicep that was leaking some golden liquid and ordered his fish army to retreat.

As he disappeared with them we slowly made our way back to the surface.

Harriet used her powers to help us get up on our boat. I smiled at her once I stood on deck.

"Maybe you should have cut him in half like you did with Scylla? Then we wouldn't have to worry about him plotting some revenge."

It was meant as a joke but Harri didn't find it funny. She looked tired as she watched the sun set, leaning on her father's trident.

"I couldn't do that, Draco. I couldn't kill Triton even though he would regenerate again soon enough. He... he is still my brother... and, he just wishes dad would love him as well. Even though I know he does already."

Harri's head hung low.

"You did great, Harri," Severus said. "Let's set the course towards the mainland. The quicker we can return the trident, the better."

Harriet set the course and manipulated the currents in the same way as before. We would reach the mainland in the morning she predicted, which gave us time for some well needed rest.

The following morning we found ourselves at the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. We took one of the muggles' 'greyhound buses' to get to Manhattan from there. After an uneventful ride with the tube, (though, Harri insisted on calling it 'subway', which was apparently the American word for it) we reached the Empire State Building.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

"Olympus is currently located above the Empire State Building," Harri explained simply.

"I think it's illegal or something to fish in there!" a bypassing guy commented.

"Thank you for the advice!" Harri yelled back.

"Shouldn't they be a bit more worried that you might impale someone than trying to fish?" I asked as we walked inside.

Muggles need to get their priorities straight.

"Nah, the mortal muggles probably sees this," Harriet gestured to the pointy trident, "as a fishing rod or something similar."

I looked at Poseidon's trident. I had a hard time understanding how that mighty weapon could possibly be mistaken for a fishing rod.

"It is the work of the mist," Severus explained. "A magical force that Hecate controls. It prevents the mortals from seeing the mythological occurrences that happens in front of them by making it look like something they are familiar with. Yet another reason she hates the wizarding kind."

"What?"

"Some mortals, like Rachel and Sally can see through the mist, which frustrates Hecate. Those mortals are almost always descended from squibs, and thereby wizards. We cannot be fooled by the mist." Harriet explained.

We walked up to a security guard and Harri asked for a ticket to the 600th floor. The guard eyed us with suspicion.

"There's no such floor, girl."

Harriet cleared her throat and fiddled with the trident. The guard looked at it, then back at Harri.

"I really need to see my father, Poseidon. It's rather urgent."

"Um, of course..." he stammered and handed her a key.