The Missing Gods

Chapter 19 - We Have an Olympian Facetime Chat

After we got over Arce's godly meltdown on Ganymede's doorstep, we started preparing to leave. Annabeth "borrowed" what was at first a fancy, laced satchel that immediately changed into a regular backpack when she grabbed it. I raised my eyebrows at Ganymede, to which he replied "this palace was supposed to be a paradise, not a prison, Jackson. Items will shift and change depending on the wants and needs of the user."

"Too bad Zeus can't upgrade his cabin at Camp Half-Blood the same way, huh?" I said, trying to take a humorous approach to what would probably be a very bad day, all things considered. Annabeth started going through the gleaming kitchen, grabbing any ambrosia and nectar she could find and shoving it in the bag. Ganymede left the room and quickly returned with the bag filled with my dad's trident, Zeus' lightning bolt, and Hades' helm of darkness. The room glowed a bit brighter while the bag emitted a strange buzzing sound that raised the hair on the back of my neck. I wondered silently whether all three of the godly items had ever been this close together in history.

After grabbing our bags and a quick run back up to our bedroom to grab the rainbow fish scale that had fallen off of Aegipan, Annabeth, Ganymede, and I left the mansion, with me trying to shake thoughts of a bacon and egg breakfast from my head.

My stomach, which I was really focusing on trying not to focus on, was in knots thinking about the note from Aether and his mention of my father. I reached for Annabeth's hand as we walked through the bright mist, her fingers curling around mine.

In the other hand, my fingers were clasped around Aegipan's scale, the brittle edges cutting into my skin. I held it up in the misty brightness as we walked, studying the rainbow shimmer and wondering if it had any use. I passed it to Annabeth to study, and she eventually sighed and handed it back, the fish scale remaining normal as usual.

Ganymede, hearing Annabeth sigh, looked back at us, his eyes immediately drawn to the scale in my hand. "Is that a remnant of Aegipan?" He said, looking like he was holding back a laugh.

"Yeah, it's one of his scales that fell off when we fought him," I replied hesitantly, hoping Ganymede wouldn't be mad to hear that we offed his fellow constellation.

"Aegipan was always so crabby, always trying to fight anyone and anything," Ganymede chuckled, then held out his hand so that he could study the scale as well. He handed it back after some thought, and then added "it seems like there is an energy to it, Jackson, do you feel it?"

Annabeth looked curiously at the scale in my hands, and then lit up as a thought came to her. "Percy, I want to try something," she said excitedly. Our group stopped walking, all of us circling around the scale in my hand and staring intently at Annabeth, waiting for instruction.

"Aegipan was part fish, right?" Annabeth posed, "and the scale has a rainbow in it too... It reminds me of when we used to use water to form a rainbow to send Iris Messages." I looked at her, mouth open, wishing I could kiss her.

"So maybe I can use it to contact my dad," I said, putting the pieces together. Thanks the gods for Annabeth and for Aegipan's fish butt!

"It is uniquely connected to the ocean," Ganymede said, pondering, "but you are the only one here capable of harnessing its energy, Jackson. Do you know how?"

I gave him a steady look, the wheels turning in my head. "Yeah, I think I've got it, but you guys might want to back up in case anything goes wrong." Annabeth and Ganymede slowly backed up a few steps, watching me as I closed my eyes and focused on the scale in my hands. The mist started picking up around us, forming droplets that stung my skin, as if they disapproved of the energy burst I had brought forth. I felt a familiar tug in my gut as I thought of the ocean: the roaring tide, the salty air, the taste of the sea on my lips. The scale started to heat up in my hand, the smell of ocean air becoming clear and crisp as the mist spun around it like a solar system, lighting up in rainbow hues as the droplets reflected off the scale.

We all gasped as the scale grew white hot and my father's unmistakable green eyes appeared in the filmy rainbow mist.

"Perseus!" Poseidon exclaimed, my heart sinking as I saw the lines of worry around his eyes. "I do not have much energy left so we will need to be quick. I have been channeling the ocean in hopes that I could contact you through the scale I could feel in your possession."

"We're coming to get you, Dad, I promise," I replied, Annabeth nodding furiously alongside me. Ganyemede remained standing from a distance.

"I do not think it wise for you to meet Aether in battle head on, Perseus. You need to return to Olympus and request help from the other gods immediately."

"They don't even know what happened to you! Everyone has been searching, we only knew where to look because of the prophecy," I said in a rush, my face flushed at the suggestion that we go back.

"Aether must be the one clouding us then, only he holds the power to conceal us, made easy by the distance between us and Olympus without our tokens," Poseidon said.

"Ganymede said that he was the cause of the mist," Annabeth said. Poseidon looked surprised at the mention of Ganymede and then quickly masked it when I chimed in.

"I thought Aether was gone," I said.

"He was asleep, deep in Tartarus, much like many of the old gods and titans who have been encountered again. I have no doubt they escaped during the battle with Gaia, even a slight shift of Earth and they could have risen like air back into their places in the sky," Poseidon said, a note of sadness in his voice. "You need to be careful of more than just Aether if you continue on this path, Percy."

"Who else is responsible for this? How many gods are we up against?" I asked urgently, as the mist began to fade away, taking my father's face with it.

"I put my trust in you three," my father said, his voice fading away at the end as if we were losing a bad cell signal.

The scale in my hand started crumbling, turning into fine beach sand and drifting away in the wind, my mind racing with it as the mist continued to part, allowing us to see ahead clearly for the first time since we had arrived.

A tall and shining palace stood before us with a winding path leading up what seemed like the largest mountain to the front doors. Glittering in the stars above us, the palace seemed to hover over us menacingly, to which Ganymede said with a heavy sigh "we're almost there."