The Silver Ring (PJO)

Chapter 16

Getting to meet your mother after months of hard work is a dream come true. At least, for a little while.

At first, your mother fussing over you in that manner that only mothers can perfectly replicate is nice and makes you feel special, while you can temporarily shelf your worries away. Then, after about three second of this, you crack like an egg.

My experience was different. That never happened. And that's probably because I love my mother more than I love myself.

But before this all had happened, we had to reach Atlantis. To reach and survive in Atlantis, you had to meet certain criteria: Firstly, you had to be able to see through the Mist; if you got that down, then you had to find a way to breath underwater for however long you were going to be there; you had to know where it was; and finally, you had to be friends with my father or one of his children in order to not get killed on sight. (Just because the sea is his domain doesn't mean there aren't evil things out there.)

Of course, the easiest way to get to Atlantis was to be a child of Poseidon. And if you think there's another way, it's probably eliminated by how deep Atlantis is; anything and everything that isn't technically part of the sea will get crushed under the pressure.

And that's why Nico was questioning my method of traveling to Atlantis. "How are we going to get there?" Nico asked. In was early morning and the weather was perfect; we were standing on the beach, a slight breeze ruffling our hair and the waves crashed onto the shore with perfect harmony.

I laughed. "You don't trust my means of travel?"

Nico avoided the question. "It's not that I don't like the water—even though I am technically the King of the Dead, I can still die."

I couldn't help myself. "Would you then be called 'The Dead King of The Dead'?"

Nico glared at me. "That's not funny. How are you going to keep me alive?"

"With my amazing abilities, of course!" I joked. "Relax. I'll just teleport us to the gates of Atlantis and everything else will be taken care of by Dad."

"What if he's a few seconds late?"

"That won't happen," I said, dismissing his concern.

"But there's still a chance that can happen—Whoa!" Nico exclaimed as I suddenly grabbed his arm and mist traveled underwater. 

As I had promised, in front of us were the gigantic golden gates of Atlantis, the only opening into the gigantic bubble surrounding Atlantis. There were a few merfolk standing guard outside, and at our sudden appearance had readied their spears and pointed them threateningly at us. Once they saw who I was, though, they quickly relaxed and—to my ultimate displeasure—bowed. "Prince Perseus," one burly merman said. "Welcome back to Atlantis." When he saw Nico, though, he regarded him suspiciously. "Is he with you?"

"For the last time guys, don't bow to me," I said through a sigh. They all smiled at me proudly, as though what I had done was pleasing to them. "And call me Percy. Just Percy. You all are older than me. And this is Nico. The Ghost King."

"Welcome, King Nico," The same merman said, then turned his attention back to me. "Usually, we wouldn't allow a child of Lord Hades to enter our lord's city without permission, but their relationship as siblings has now been repaired and strengthened. Go right on in. King Triton's expecting you." Then, the merman tapped the gate with his spear. I didn't know what that would do, but the gate itself looked at least a few thousand pounds—it wasn't built to be pretty and convenient; it was built for war. A few seconds later, the gates opened smoothly without a creak, as though there was magic—or machinery—powering it.

As we walked in, Nico said to the merfolk, "You can just call me Nico as well." The mermen and mermaids bowed their head in acknowledgement.

The gate closed behind us as I turned to Nico, who was admiring the beautiful gold city bustling with merpeople. "I'm just going to mist travel us again into the palace. We'll miss the beautiful walk, but at least it won't take the full night to reach."

Nico tore his eyesight away from the stunning city and glared at me. "A little warning next time would help," he said.

I laughed. "Already did."

Then, I grabbed his arm again and teleported to the palace. Specifically, into the throne room. 

"Percy!" a familiar voice exclaimed happily. "And Nico! Oh, how good it is to see you both!"

I turned towards the three thrones at the end of the majestic hall and said nervously, "Hi, Mom."