A Moment of Stars | PJO Chaos

Sixteen

By then, both of them knew they had to keep moving.

It took less than five minutes before they were trudging through a narrow tunnel connected to the underground chamber.

Percy shivers. There is no light to guide them other than the flashlights found in their packs, and they both resorted to keeping one hand on the right wall of the tunnel for spatial reference.

Elara looks at her tracker as they continue down the dark path. According to her, they weren't too far away from the destination of the SOS signals. In fact, it's seems as if they've gotten closer since their tumble underground.

With a silent huff of breath, he continues along. A headache is starting to form in his head, and he's about 99% sure it's from his encounter with Empyrean. It left him feeling completely different from what he felt before.

Ever since the Void, he's been feeling...empty, to say the least. He can't even really remember how long ago was is when he woke up in the infirmary of Chaos' palace, but it couldn't have been more than three days. Empyrean however, seems to have blasted him with something he hasn't felt in a long time.

He feels attracted to the weapon. The want to pick it up again cannot possibly be healthy, especially with the results the first time.

Flashes of the visions the sword showed have been dancing around in his mind every since it happened, and a small sense of frustration overwhelms him each time. They felt like missing pieces to a jigsaw puzzle, but what were they really? Visions? Insights? Fears? Desires? Memories?

"Elara." He says, the need to talk about it only seeming to grow. It felt weird to address her so casually, but at this point in life, he cannot care less.

"Mhm?"

"Your sword...showed me some things." He says, glancing towards her to see how she reacted. "There were images and voices I heard, and I'm not quite sure what they were but..." he trails off.

"It might've been hallucinations." Elara states after a few seconds.

"You believed me when I said 'every ending is beautiful', now you suddenly think they're hallucinations?"

"Some of them may have been." The commander huffs. "Empyrean often has scenarios or fears of the Origins. Though you can't expect much of what you saw to have real substance."

So one of their fears is the laughter of a baby? That couldn't make any sense.

"No," Percy presses, "these were too...odd for me to just make up. I think they were visions."

"Many things can seem real around here, Perseus. But right now we can't just dissect every little thing about what you see in your dreams."

"I wouldn't be talking to you about them if they felt normal, Elara." Percy raises his voice. Only a few seconds into this conversation, and he's already irritated. "You can't just disregard what I saw—"

"I'm disregarding nothing, and can we not?" Elara snaps—glaring a him from behind. "Just for now. We'll discuss this later, but now we need to stay focused. We're underground in a claustrophobic space, and we don't even know how supported the tunnel is. Not only that, but anything can happen at this point. Yes, your visions may have some significance, but now if not the time. Understand?" Percy finally drops the topic after an intense stare down. The silence becomes tense as they continue on their trek through the stone walls.

•••

For what felt like hours, they decide to rest for a second. The tunnel seems endless at this point, and Percy is getting progressively more skittish.