The Animal Within

Chapter 61 - Eyes of Green

Luke and Alabastor didn't enter the house with Nico and Percy. Instead, the two cousins found themselves sitting alone opposite Rhea besides a roaring fireplace. Percy's fingers twitched uneasily around Riptide in his pocket. Gaea declined to sit, instead the Primordial goddess stood with her arms crossed behind Rhea, a judgemental and murderous gaze fixed on Percy.

Clearly, she was still unhappy that Percy was involved with Kronos. Percy couldn't say that he was now. Percy, however, didn't know what he and Kronos could be defined as anymore. He wanted to tell her that, but figured she probably wouldn't care. He couldn't blame her for it though. Gaea seemed to have an intensely complicated relationship with all her immortal children, but particularly with Kronos. Percy had a suspicion it was because Kronos had clearly taken after her, in the sense of his intelligence and general untrustworthiness. Gaea had, after all, been the one to suggest the killing of Ouranos and Kronos was just as likely to hug Percy as he was to stab him more than Percy was comfortable with. But there was also more to Kronos than that – he had made it clear many times over that he sought strength, and Percy had seen many aspects of him that he couldn't also pick up in Gaea. Percy's suspicion about where that came from had grown over the course of the giant war, and he was sure that Kronos took after his father Ouranos more than the Titan Lord was willing to admit.

Percy shifted slightly, uneasily. "Are you alright?" He asked Rhea finally. It seemed a foolish question, considering Rhea's state, but he wanted to fill the silence with something other than the crackling of the fire and Gaea's judgemental stare boring into him.

The Queen pressed her lips together. Her lips parted and she let out a long, lingering sigh. "You have come here asking about the problem at your Camp," Rhea stated finally, her gaze troubled as she glanced behind her to Gaea.

Nico nodded slightly, clearly extremely uneasy with Gaea's presence. That was understandable. She had had him held captive in a bronze jar. But Percy figured that dating not-dating one of her favourite sons would mean that Percy had more reason to be worried about her presence than Nico did. "Yes," Nico said. "How did you know? I thought there weren't any messages that can be sent."

"There are not," Rhea confirmed. "We have been unable to send any ourselves," she added. At the questioning look Percy gave her, she frowned slightly. "Titans," she elaborated simply. "It is not just Olympus affected by the blackout this time."

Percy's eyes furrowed slightly. "So then how do you know about Camp? What do you know about what's happening in the forest at Camp?" He asked carefully. "And how's it connected?"

Rhea pressed her lips together, considering Percy and Nico for several long moments. "Perseus, you were-"

"Percy."

"- not with your friends when they visited me in Crete," Rhea said, speaking over him as if he hadn't interrupted. "But Nico here was. The place they travelled to was the first location of the Grove of Dodona."

Percy blinked. "What's that?" He asked. Gaea snorted, apparently amused with Percy's lack of knowledge. Percy tried to ignore her.

"Demigods," Gaea muttered scornfully under her breath, clearly purposefully making it just loud enough that Percy and Nico could hear her. Percy scowled.

Rhea grimaced slightly, though whether at Gaea's snide comment or Percy's question, he didn't know. "The location of an Ancient Oracle," Rhea said, "my Oracle."

Percy's eyes widened slightly and he sat up, his attention returning to Rhea. "You have an Oracle?" He frowned slightly. "But what's that got to do with Camp?" It couldn't be a coincidence that Apollo, the god of prophecy was missing and something was going wrong with the Oracle of Delphi whilst Rhea was now bringing up her own Oracle at the same time.