Percy Jackson and the World of Magic

Chapter 7: Test #2-The Cast....Fallen

3rd Person P.O.V.

Now Percy cleared his mind, of everyone and everything except for music and magic. 

Sea magic depended on many things-the depths of ones gift, experience, dedication, the position of the moon, the rythem of the tides, the proximity of the whales. It didn't settle until one was fully grown; Percy knew that. But he needed it to be with him now, and he prayed to the gods that it would. 

Taking a deep breath, he pulled on everything strong and sure inside of him, and started to sing. His voice was high and clear, and carried beautifully through the water. He sang a simple, charming hello to the Matalis, telling them how happy Atlantis is to receive them. When he finished, he bent to the ground, scooped up a handful of silt and threw it above his head. Nihil ex nihil. That was the first rule of magic, nothing comes from nothing. Magic needed matter. 

Percy's voice caught the silt as it rose in the water, molded it, and then embellished it with color and light, until it took the appearance of a lush island with bustling ports, palaces, and temples. He enlarged the image until it filled the amphitheater. Next he summoned a shoal of small, silver fish. These he transformed into the island's inhabitants and as he did, his image became a living tableau. 

The island, he told his listeners, was the ancient empire of Atlantis, nestled in the Aegean Sea. Its people were the ancestors to all those who reside in the current Atlantis and beyond. It was their story he sang. His voice was not the most beautiful in the realm, not the most polished, but it was pure and true, and it had his listeners spellbound. 

Using his magic, he showed how humans from all over the world; artists, scholars, doctors, and scientist-the best and the brightest in their day-had come to Atlantis. He showed farmers in their fields, sailors on their ships, merchants in their storehouses-all prosperous and peaceful. He sang of the islands powerful mages-the Six Who Ruled; Atlan, Orfeo, Navi, Pyrra, Sycorax, and Nyx, he sang of its glory and might. 

And than he sang of its catastrophe. 

Heavy with emotion, his voice swooped into a minor key, telling how Atlantis was destroyed by a violent earthquake due to curiosity. Pulling light from above, pushing and bending water, conjuring images he portrayed the islands destruction-the earth cracking apart, the lava pouring from its wounds, the shrieks of its people. 

He sang of Atlan, and how he saved Atlantis by calling them into the water and beseeching Gaea and Thalassa to help them. As the island sank beneath the waves, the two goddesses used the power of the King's mystic trident, and gave them sea magic. They fought them at first, struggling to keep their heads above water, to breathe air, screaming as their legs knit together and their flesh spouted fins for many. As the sea pulled them under, they tried to breathe water. 

It was agony. 

Some could do it, others could not, and the waves carried their bodies away. 

Percy let the images of a ruined Atlantis fall through the water and fade. Then he tossed another handful of silt up, and conjured a new image-Atlantis in its current glory.

"Show them your heart" Arion had told him. He would. Atlantis was his heart. 

With joy, he sang of those who survived and how they made Atlan their ruler once more. He sang of Atlantis as it is, how it split into several different kingdoms-Atlantis, the Fishermen, the Brine, the Trench, Xebel, the Deserters, and the Kingdom of Valor. 

His voice soared, gliding up octaves, hitting each not perfectly. He was conjuring up images of its people, showcasing them in all their beauty-some with the sleek silver scales, some with the legs of a crab or the armored bodies of lobsters, others regressed. Became savages surviving on primal and animalistic instinct. 

He sang of Thalassa's gifts, canta mirus and canta prax. 

He showed how all the people of Atlantis spread out into the waters of the world, some in salt -and fresh. Some-longing the places they'd left when when still human to journey to Atlantis-returned to the shores of their native lands and founded new realms separate from Atlantis and made up the Kingdom of Poseidon; Atlantica, Quin of the Pacific Ocean, the rivers and lakes, and ponds of the Freshwaters, Odnalina in the Arctic Waters, and the Indian Ocean empire of Matalis.

Then Percy pulled the rays of sun through the water, rolled them into a sphere, and tossed it to the seafloor. When the sunsphere landed, it exploded upwards into a golden blaze of light. As the glittering pieces of light descended, he depicted Matali, and told its history, showing it from its beginnings as a small outpost off the Seychelle Islands to an empire that encompassed the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal. 

He sang of the friendship of Matali and Atlantis and conjured dazzling images of the emperor and empress, praising them for their just and enlightened rule. The though, it pained her deeply, he showed himself and Tama, floating together in ceremonial robes, as they would be shortly to exchange their betrothal vows, and expressed their hope that they would rule both realms as wisely as their parents had, putting the happiness and well being of their people above all else. 

The images faded and fell, like the embers of fireworks in the night sky. Percy remained still as they did, his chest rising and falling, and the he finished his songspell as he had begun it-with no images or effects, just his voice asking the gods to ensure that the friendship between the two waters endured forever. 

Finally he had bent his head, as a sign of respect to all those assembled, to the memory of Atlan, and to the sea itself-the endless, eternal deep blue. 

It was so quiet as Percy bowed that one could've heard a barnacle cough. "Too quiet" he thought, his heart sinking "Oh no, they hated it!"

He lifted his head and as he did, the roiling sound rose. 

A joyous noise. 

His people were cheering for him, even more loudly than they had after the blooding. They'd abandon all that decorum and were tossing up their hats and helmets. 

Atlanna was applauding two. She was smiling, her eyes shining. There was no disappointment on her face, only pride. 

As the citizens continued to cheer for him, Percy's heart felt so full he thought it would burst. He felt as if he could float along, buoyed up by the love of his people forever. 

He would remember that moment for a long time, that golden, shining moment. The moment before everything changed. 

Before the arrow, sleek and black came hurtling through the water and lodged in his mother's chest....