ELYSIAN, the riordanverse

25

ELYSIUM

Death was inevitable.

All demigods knew that.

And so did Jason Grace.

So, as Piper's cries slowly became quieter and quieter till he could hear them no more, Jason appeared in a room filled with people of all ages.

The people were milling around the lobby, some crying while some sat in silence. There were children, no older than one or two. There were elderly people and middle-aged people who looked around confused. There were teenagers, who looked to be about his age who walked around the lobby.

Jason scanned his surroundings again, further down the rows of people, there came a point of nothingness. The blond figured it must be the River Styx.

He gulped and averted his eyes from the people, only to see a man standing behind a desk.

The man had chocolate-brown skin and bleached-blond hair, styled in a military fade. He wore yellow tortoise-shell shades and a patterned suit. A silver name-tag was pinned to his lapel.

Charon.

Just as Percy had described him.

'Come forth, hero,' the man called to Jason as the boy stepped forward.

He was in the Underworld.

He died.

Oh gods of Olympus and Rome, he was dead.

'Do you have coins for passage?' Charon asked with a particular accent Jason couldn't exactly pinpoint. It sounded British but also French, odd. Perhaps it was because he'd met so many people, that he'd never really had the chance to have his own accent.

Jason tried to compose himself, but his head was still reeling with the fact that he was in the Underworld. The Land of the Dead. Ereubus. Home to seven deadly rivers.

He gulped again and started to speak, 'Uh, I think I do. Do you take denarii?'

'We accept everything, kid. Denarii, drachmas, credit cards, bills, Egyptian money, and even Norse, on some occasions,' Charon replied, almost bored as if he'd said this a million times.

Jason licked his lips in anticipation, he was really doing this. He was really about to enter the- was that blood?

He slapped himself internally, of course it was blood, you doofus. He got stabbed in the back, in the shoulder, of course there was blood. But there was a sort of tangy taste in his mouth, metal?

There felt something trapped behind his lips, he spit it out onto his palm... Denarii. Right, someone must've done his funeral rites. There was a part of him which hoped it was Reyna.

They'd promised each other on a rainy night so many years ago that if one of them died first, the other would do their funeral rites. It was an odd promise, but they were also Romans. And Romans kept their promises.

He sighed and wiped off the bloody denarii on what was left of his shirt. It was his passage, nonetheless.

The son of Jupiter handed it to Charon who examined it and tucked it in his pocket, 'Accepted. Just follow me.'

Jason nodded and walked behind the man. The two made their way over to an elevator-looking building thing. He watched as people tried to pass through the new (based on what Nico had told him) barriers between the desk and the passages.

He followed Charon to the elevator which was really just a wooden barge and was definitely filled with more people than it could hold. Now, Jason realized that Charon's suit had turned into long black robes and his eyes had disappeared. Instead, there were only empty sockets.