Solangelo 2

WILL

The aura around camp dwindles throughout the next week. Everyone seems subdued, a little lost. But still no one sacrifices anything, apart from my cabin, who know that there is nothing Apollo can do, and might need our help. If we still have that power.
Percy told everyone about his encounter with his father, and soon other people begun having interactions too. Never as formal as Percy's, normally in dreams or visions.
The infirmary is more full than usual, the Gods not offering any protection, and the people around camp relying on skills they've lost. Annabeth and her cabin help out a lot. I barely have time to leave. Not that I'd know what to do with it.
I'm working alongside Annabeth, patching up an Ares boy who was accidentally stabbed.
'How do you get stabbed accidentally?' Annabeth asks, holding him down while I clean the wound.
'We we're doing a thing. It's usually good.' He says, cringing.
'I don't even want to know.' I say.
'Yeah, well it's-' he freezes, and Annabeth is no longer beside me, but in the centre of the room, beside another woman. Insanely beautiful. Refined. Athena.
'What?' I say quietly, 'what...what is this?'
'Will, this is my mother. We've been talking. She wants to talk to you.' Annabeth explains, nodding slightly to me, letting me know it's okay.
'You've been...talking? You were just...beside me.' I say, walking towards her, completely confused.
'Dear boy, I am a god. Time isn't really a big issue for me.' Athena says, so confident, collected. The way she speaks fills me with assurance.
'You want to talk to me?' I ask, 'can you help us?'
'Annabeth has told me what happened to Nico. I understand he's your boyfriend?'
'Yes.' I say, quickly.
'I'm sorry to hear what went on.'
'Thank you.' Again, I can hardly speak more than a word in front of her.
'While I am...let's say, affronted, by the method you've chosen to approach this, I understand your motive. And your reasoning. Hades was wrong to do as he did. This I have no question in. And we Gods aren't always the best at listening.'
'You'll help us?' I ask, unable to contain myself.
'I'm afraid I cannot.'
'You...but you said...'
'I said I cannot. As in I am not able to. As in, it is not my place, and I do not have the power. You understand this?' I can only nod.
'Not your place?' Annabeth asks, 'who else's place could it be?'
'You tell me that Nico was happy here?'
'Yes.' I say, 'he was.'
'And you say he was taken without his consent.'
'Effectively. He was tricked.'
'Sounds familiar. Wouldn't you say, Annabeth?' Athena says. I turn to Annabeth who stares at her mum, but as I turn back Athena is gone.
'Oh my god.' She says, 'oh my god.'
'What?'
'I know who can help us.' She says, walking past me, and everyone begins to talk around us again.
'Annabeth, who?'
'What the hell? Did you guys just move to the middle of the room? How did you guys do that?' The Ares boy asks, but we both ignore us.
'Annabeth, who?' I ask again, clinging to her arm to stop her moving away.
'Persephone.' She says, 'Nico said they got along. That she confided in him. She went through the same thing. Persephone was tricked, like Nico, to pick the Narcissus flower planted by Zeus and Hades that would send her down to the underworld. She belongs up here, like Nico. She's got to help us.'
'But winter starts in like, three days.' I say, 'how are we supposed to find her before she goes down?'
'I think I know someone who might know.'