The Rise of Chaos [ONGOING | UNEDITED]

6. Carter

It was nighttime. There wasn't much 'life' going on, considering it was called the House of Life.

I floated into the Hall of Ages.

'What time period is this?' I asked.

'You are looking into the future, young Padawan,' Horus replied. 'You would be dead by now if it wasn't for your strength.'

'What do you mean?' I asked, but the war god didn't say anything to that.

I could see the Hall of Ages lengthening: stretching to fit all the years of Egyptian history in it. And I realised that there was a new age unfolding. Amos was nowhere to be seen.

'The present age is young,' Horus said. 'It will die young: quickly overtaken by the next.'

The curtain was tinted red: the colour of evil.

[Yep. Cool, not.]

'What's happening?' I asked. 'What will happen?'

Horus didn't reply. I supposed I had gone a little too far. And before I could investigate further, my ba was yanked out of the Duat. I woke up sweating, to find Shelby — one of our ankle-biters — splashing ice water all over me.

'Huh?' I sat up, shivering. Zia's bed was empty, probably already downstairs. I looked around. What time was it?

My clock showed ten in the morning. Gods, I really was bad at waking up early.

I shooed Shelby out of my room, dressed absent-mindedly and went downstairs.

Everyone had finished breakfast, so I went looking for Zia and Sadie and Walt.

I found them in Amos's study, talking in hushed voices.

'Ah.' Amos looked up and waved to an empty chair when he saw me. 'We were just talking about you. Come, join our conversation.'

I had no idea what he meant by 'talking about you', but I sat down anyways.

'Carter, I had a dream.' Zia said gravely, 'I——'

'Well. So did I!' I replied with a lot of sarcasm.

Sadie and Walt leaned forward.

'Well, I was outside the First Nome——' I started. But Zia very rudely interrupted.

'Let me guess. The House of Life was in ruins. Then you saw the Hall of Ages and it was expanding. Let me guess, Carter Kane. Horus was telling you something about how this 'age' is young and it will 'die young'. I'm right, aren't I?'

'Exactly.' I sat myself heavily on a chair, sighing. If we both had the same dream, that dream was very likely to become true.

'But Ra told me something else,' Zia said.

'What?' I asked.

'They're destined——'

'Zia, this is new to us,' said Amos. 'Please can you explain, who are 'they'?'

'I —— I don't know, Amos,' Zia replied. 'Ra just said that they were destined, destined to lead the new age.'

'Hmm.' Walt drummed the side table with his fingers. 'Do you know anyone with a destiny yet?'

'The demigods?' Sadie asked.

'I don't know,' Zia replied in thought. 'It could be them, it could be us. Or it could be the most random person in the entire history of existence. We don't know, and maybe we'll never know. Perhaps that's just one side of the future. Perhaps, if we do something differently, all that chaos will never happen.'

She was interrupted when Annabeth came rushing in, still in her pyjamas.

'Guys, I——' Annabeth backed away a little, looking most undignified. 'Oh.'

Amos smiled. 'Don't worry, Carter here is a late one too, come sit down. Tell us what you so desperately wanted to tell.'

Annabeth took a deep breath.

'I had a dream. Of Camp Half-Blood. It —— it was all in ruins. And I heard Athena — mom — she was telling me of a, well, a new age, and——'

She flopped into a nearby chair, her breathing shallow. I looked at Zia, and a message passed between us: Let's have a little pep talk after all this about stupid gods and stupid dreams.

'You had a dream about Camp Half-Blood,' Amos mused. 'Tell me — what exactly did you see?'

Annabeth took a deep breath. [Wow. I never knew everything-geeks had to breathe! Inspiring! I'll remember to breathe next time too! Oh no. Not you again Annabeth! I'll be back in 5 minutes. Running from the everything-geek! Sadie just said I'm a nerd. Thanks, sis.]

'Well, Camp Half-Blood was in ruins. I saw the Athena cabin burn first. Then all of the cabins burnt down and it didn't look like anything I've ever seen. Not Gaia's work. It doesn't sound like Apophis' work either, from how you described him. But the fire was a funny colour. It was red. Not like that fiery red. Like the sort of dark crimson that matches the shade of blood. Not fresh blood, but not completely dry blood either.' Annabeth sounded really confused.

'It possibly could be Apophis actually,' Sadie said. 'You know——'

'No, it isn't Apophis. I had that feeling it wouldn't be, and demigod feelings are always right,' Annabeth retorted.

Yeah, maybe it's Set. Because of the red thing.' Walt replied.

'Well, some sort of enemy,' Zia concluded. 'But I'm pretty sure Sadie and Carter took care of Set. And plus, Set's small stuff next to Apophis.'

'Hey. I did it perfectly,' Sadie said, offended.

[Haha, sis. As if that's true.]

'Well, either one, Set or Apophis, it's an enemy worth fighting,' Zia said. 'But we shouldn't worry about that right now. The fact that Apophis wasn't actually execrated is something to think about already.'

'Why not?' Annabeth stood up. ' You may not feel the same for Camp Half-Blood the way I feel for it. But what would you like if your home was destroyed? They are my family!'

I could tell Annabeth had struck a nerve. Zia clenched her jaw like she wanted to roast her into a grease spot.

'Umm,' I said nervously, not wanting to start an argument about dead families. 'Zia's village was destroyed when she was eight.'

'Yeah. Of course you take her side.' Annabeth scowled. 'I don't care if Zia's parents are dead or not. Hell to them, they don't know pain. None of you know pain.'

'You say that like you don't have a mother as a goddess,' Zia said coldly. Flatly. Emotionlessly. As if she didn't care either. 'You say that like you don't have a friend circle. You say that like you're not an orphan. You say that like you were never gifted with powers at birth. Now, tell me, Miss Annabeth Chase, did your parents die at the hands of Apophis? I don't think so. Did your home and everything you knew as family get destroyed? Nope. Did your surrogate father die? You don't even have one, because your father isn't dead, your mother isn't dead. You've got Percy, Piper, Hazel, Leo, all the demigods behind you. And you walk around like you're nothing.'

Annabeth paused for a moment. 'You know what?' she said. 'I don't feel sorry for you. Sociopaths like you don't need families, anyway.'

And then strode away, slamming the door behind her.