Week Twenty One: The Descendant: Choosing

  Nico took Elli’s hand to reassure her. Squeezing his hand in response, she wished she could tell him what she was thinking without everyone knowing but around her were the people she tried to avoid yesterday. She didn’t want to push them away but all of the adventures they had were starting to make her sick. Annabeth with Tarturus, the whole interaction with Gaea, the relationships, and friendships started to weigh her down. Finally before entering the room to talk with Chiron, Elli spoke.

  “You all are friendly and I don’t doubt for a moment that you’re doing this to help me…” She said and took a second to breathe. “But I haven’t gotten used to all of you, despite how much I want to be around all of you at once.” She said, starting to feel more pain about all the truths they held.

  “Tartarus…” She gawked then looked up at Percy and Annabeth then at Nico. “I hope I never have to go there…” She muttered.

  Nico frowned. “We need to tell Chiron and you need to be there.”

  Elli nodded. “I know…” She gulped. “But these people. Not that they do it on purpose but I unwind every person I meet and they, they’re worse than some of the adults at the stations. I’ve analyzed murders, they’re not murders but their lives…” She said shaking her head.

  “Please, can you inform me later? I want to go be with Will or go back to your sister’s room. I’d be much more comfortable there.” She said holding back tears. Knowing the truth was similar to feeling the pain of her friends. How angry they were, how desperate… She couldn’t take it any longer.

  Nico sighed. “You know where Will is, go to him.”

  Giving an understanding nod, Elli hugged Nico, making him blush.

  “Thank you.” She said whipping away a few tears and then turning to the others. “It’s nothing personal…” She said pausing. “Well, for me anyway…” She smirked, these people were practically naked in front of her. “I’ll trust you all will make a good decision.” She said scurrying away.

  Percy smirked. “Man, I can’t even imagine having to go through our lives again and all of at once?” Percy frowned. “I wonder if she knows about Leo.”

  Meeting Percy’s gaze, everyone stood silently at the door. Finally, Jason smirked and turned the knob. Looking up from his desk, Chiron ushered the group to come in and sit around the table. Percy and Annabeth took two seats. Across from them Jason and Piper sat, with a seat in between them and Nico. On the opposite side of him except not leaving a gap in between herself and Annabeth was Racheal.

  Glancing around for Elli and failing to find her, Chiron gave a silent nod to the group. “I’m assuming this is about the prophecy?”

  “Yes.” Racheal said with a smile. “We need to find out who’s going to go with Elli. She can’t go alone and the prophecy doesn’t have specifics on who should go with her.”

  “Not that I want her to go alone…” Nico added quietly. “But maybe this a quest only she can do?”

  Racheal sent a glare towards Nico and Piper quickly added. “I understand where Nico’s coming from, there’s no one else here who’s directly related to her, she said it herself she has no siblings. Her dad might have lied but no one in Camp Jupiter is born under Veritas and we all know how their security system is so there’s no way someone could lie about it.”

  Jason shrugged. “I don’t know, she said the pseudologoi could lie and she wasn’t able to detect it. I wouldn’t doubt that there would be a way to breach the system.”

  Percy smirked, thinking of Terminus.

  “I did know about both camps longer than anyone else.” Nico added. “There is a way as long as you have no bad intentions.”

  “Ambassador.” Annabeth thought to herself but spoke out load. “Did you know anyone who might have stuck out to you?”

  Nico shook his head. “I haven’t visited the Roman Camp since I decided to stay here.” He shrugged.
“No one comes to mind. Michael Kahale crosses my mind but he’d do nothing against Rome, he’s the child of Venus and the side of a football linebacker but that might be the only reason why he crosses my mind.”

  Percy nodded. “That guy is huge.”

  Jason agreed. “He’s a good soldier, he wouldn’t do anything to hurt the legion.”

  Chiron tapped his fingers on his desk. “I know all of you are willing to volunteer to help her but for a quest like this I wouldn’t want more than three to go in total. It’s the general number for situations like this and as Racheal said, there was no specifics on who was supposed to go with her.”

  Piper smirked. “I’d want to go but she already doesn’t trust me with my charm speaking skills.”

  “It’s not that she doesn’t trust you.” Percy tried to explain. “I mean, she knows what you’re thinking so you can’t lie to her and if you do she’ll know and figure out what you’re hiding anyway.”

  Annabeth nodded. “I vote Percy and Nico.” She replied. Meeting eyes with Nico, they exchange understanding glances.

  “She’s most comfortable with Nico and Percy seems to understand her the most. He won’t bother lying to her or thinking to himself, he know she can read his mind and won’t try anything because even though he can be a seaweed brain he’s not stupid all the time.”

  Percy smiled. “Aw,” He grinned. “I’d go but I really think Nico and Will should. They both get along with her fine and she shouldn’t have problems with either of them. If I go she’ll still unwind my life in a timeline and I might give her a headache.” He smirked. “If any of us go with her without Nico she’ll be unwinding our lives with every word, touch, though, and whatever else she can do.”

  Nico sighed. It seemed only logical for him to go, deception and trickery he could deal with, he had nothing else to do anyway but still. Did Elli need to be by him any more than she was? She knew his life. Not all of it but most of it, more of it than anyone at the table had known. Raising an eyebrow, Nico glanced at Annabeth to see if his speculation could be true.

  “What if she needs someone from Camp Jupiter? I you all came together.” He shrugged.