The Son of Time

Chapter 54

Luke's point of view

We continued to talk to Christina and Nathan, and we gave them an update on what was going on in the world above. They hadn't heard much since the war ended. I forced back a grimace as I thought of the unspoken reason for that.  Eventually it was time to go, but before we walked away from them I went over to Christina and threw my arms around her. I said, "I'll miss you so much."

Hugging me back she said, "I know little brother, but you have to go. You can't take me back with you, and you can't stay here."

My dad seemed surprised by my hugging Christina, I couldn't really understand why though, I would ask later.

My dad stepped closer to her, and said to her, "I know that you thank me for saving you, but in a way you helped to save me too. The day I helped you, was my first visit back to camp half-blood since I left. If I hadn't helped you that day who knows how long it would have been until I went back there. You along with the friends I still had there, gave me a reason to go back there. You helped me just as much as I did you."

My dad hugged her before saying to me, "We'd better go."

I nodded and forced myself to turn away from my half sister and her boyfriend.

As we were walking out of Elysium a voice said, "You're not going to leave without saying hello to an old friend are you Percy?" a look of surprise appeared on my father's face before walking over to the person that had been speaking. I followed and I could see that the person who had spoken looked to be in his twenties. He had sandy coloured hair, blue eyes, and a scar on his face.

Dad said, "Luke."

I asked, "what?" 

The other guy started laughing, even my dad chuckled.

Looking at me this time my dad said, "Luke this is...

The other guy interrupted him saying, "One of the guys he named you after."

Chuckling again my dad said, "I would have worded that differently, but whatever."

As he spoke I figured out who this guy was. From what I had been told about him already, I guessed why he had laughed when I had replied to what my dad said earlier, and based on the fact that he looked like some of the children of Hermes at camp I figured out who he was.

 I said, "Luke Castellan?"

 I said it more like a question though. He nodded.

Looking at my dad he asked, "I don't remember telling you my last name, when did you learn that? Did my dad tell you?"

Dad shook his head before grimacing and saying, "No Nico told me when we were trying to find out if you had used the river Styx in order to host Kronos."

"How did he find out?" my namesake asked.

Dad shrugged and answered, "probably from a ghost, he spent more time with the dead than the living back then."

My dad talked for a bit longer, I didn't say much, what are you supposed to say when you meet the guy your dad named you after for the first time? I really didn't know so I mostly stayed silent.

My dad asked him why he hadn't gone for rebirth like he had planned to, he replied that he had decided to stay in Elysium for a little while first. My dad also asked him about someone named Ethan, who had apparently gone for rebirth.

After they finished talking dad and I returned to camp. After we got there I asked him, "Why did you seem so surprised when I hugged Christina?"

He explained how normally the dead are not solid, and how normally if you tried to touch one your hand would pass right through. My dad said that Hades had done us an extra favour that he hadn't asked for. 

After that I left to continue my activities, but as I did I was still thinking about our trip to the underworld, I knew that like Christina had asked, I would try to let her go, and stop blaming myself for her death, I would never forget her, but I couldn't continue to be depressed over her either.

Percy's point of view

After we returned from the underworld Luke wandered off to continue his camp activities, I went back to my palace still thinking about our visit to Elysium. I had been surprised when we ran into Luke Castellan, based on what he had said as he was dying I had thought that he would have gone for rebirth by now since he had said that he thought he would, and that he would try three times in order to get into the isles of the blest. I had blamed myself for his death for a while, but I eventually realized that he probably would have died no matter what I did and that I had done the right thing. His death had been foretold in the prophecy, and if I hadn't given him the knife a lot more people would have died, heck if I hadn't Kronos would have succeeded in destroying Olympus, and that would have been the end of the world as I knew it. 

As I was still thinking about many different things I heard a knock on the door. 

I said, "Come in."

As the door opened I could see that it was my father.

I said, "Hey dad."

He replied, "Hello Percy." 

Completely serious he said, "Earlier today I thought of something that you need to know."

I said ,"Oh what?"

He replied, "An ancient law, it was made even before we came into power. We do not know if Kronos put it in place or if it was made by Chaos himself, but regardless you need to know about now since it applies to you."

Confused I asked, "if it applies to me why wasn't I told about it before?"

Dad replied, "Because it only recently began applying to you. Apollo probably never bothered to tell you because he never thought that you would need to know about it." 

before I could ask any questions Dad continued, he said, "It began applying to you when you were chosen as the new king of the gods, The law states that the ruler of any pantheon when they choose to marry must be with one of their own kind." 

"In other words a goddess." I said grimly, my face falling.

"Why didn't you say this sooner?" I asked.

My dad raised a hand indicating that I should stop, he said, "I never thought of it until recently, but cheer up there is a loophole in the law that will still allow you to marry Amber."

 I perked up a bit after that. He continued he said, "The law doesn't state that the woman that you choose has to be born a goddess, you will just have to make her one." 

I definitely cheered up after he said that, but I knew that I would have to tell Amber about this change in plans, I wasn't sure how she would react to it, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't cause her to change her mind. She would probably just be surprised. After I had cheered up Dad said, "The law also requires her to have a place on the council."

I raised an eyebrow. That would be quite a status jump for her, going from a mortal to an Olympian goddess. I said "That might make it a little harder to convince the others."

My dad replied "On the contrary I believe that it will be easier. With Zeus gone it should be easier to convince the others. Since most of them get along with you rather well, I believe that it shouldn't be that difficult. Besides her becoming a goddess will even out the imbalance that was created when we dethroned Zeus."

I had to admit he had a point, but I wasn't sure that it would be that easy.  I would have to visit her tomorrow and inform her of the change. I couldn't help but wonder how she would react to the news, my guess is she will probably be shocked, and kind of nervous, but she would accept it for us. It isn't hard to tell how much she still loves me since she doesn't bother to try and hide it. I try to hide it from the other Olympians that don't already know, but I think some of them might suspect that I am in love with a mortal, they just might not realize that it's the same mortal I was with twelve years ago.

A/N What did you think of that plot twist? did I have you freaking out there for a second?