The Truths Spoken In The Sea Of Lies

Pan Lord of the Wild

Grover's blessed by Pan,

Final farewell, parting dawn,

Nature's call remains.

***

They ran until they were exhausted. Rachel steered them away from traps, but they had no destination in mind—only away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos.

They stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave. They couldn't hear anything behind them, but they didn't feel any safer.

"I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.

Annabeth had been crying the entire time while Rhea and the other two were running. Now she collapsed and put her head between her knees. Her sobs echoed in the tunnel. Nico and Rhea sat next to each other. He dropped his sword and took a shaky breath.

"That sucked," he said.

"I swear off marriage completely!" Rhea declared. "Forget it! I mean my views on marriage were already ruined but Kronos made worse! Ew." She turned to Nico. "Thanks for that."

Nico wiped the dust off his face. "Blame the girls for dragging me along. That's the only thing they could agree on. We needed to help you, you got yourself in ... quite a mess."

Rhea snorted.

Annabeth lifted her head. Her eyes were red from crying. "What...what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

"Kronos took Luke as a vessel since he yet can't form his own body," Rhea said.

"No," Annabeth said. "That can't be true. He couldn't—"

"You saw it with your own eyes, that was Kronos inside Luke's body, not Luke," Rhea said.

"No!" she insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him."

Rhea nodded. "With a blue plastic hairbrush in the eye, respect by the way."

Rachel looked embarrassed. "It was the only thing I had."

"But you saw," Annabeth insisted. "When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses."

"Doesn't change the fact that Luke gave his body up to Kronos."

"You want him to be evil, is that it?" Annabeth yelled. "You didn't know him before, Rhea. I did!"

"You mean the same way you know me?" Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Apart from the fact that my favourite colour is blue, that I have a nasty temper, and that I spout proems and haikus from time to time, and that I never take serious situations seriously, and apart from the fact that my mother is Sally Jackson, and my father is Poseidon, and the school I went to and going to, do you know anything about me? My likes? Dislikes? What do I hate besides the obvious things? What do I do in my pastime? My talents?"

Annabeth was about to give answers only to stop and freeze, thinking about it, Rhea knew nearly everything about everyone yet Annabeth herself didn't know much about the black-haired girl besides the things Rhea showed her.

"Point is Annabeth you really can't know a person for who they are because they will never show you the full truth," Rhea said.

"SHUT UP!" Annabeth shouted.

"Whoa, you two," Rachel said. "Knock it off!"

Annabeth turned on her. "Stay out of it, mortal girl! If it wasn't for you..."