Unspooling the threads

Appointed Corvid

What could be vs what must be. And the will of those who'd chose to intervene.

There's no need to visit Camp Jupiter just yet, Reyna will contact him the moment Percy steps into their walls, he's sure. There is, however, a place he must go to; but it's deep within the Underworld.

Shadow travel will take him only as far as the foot of the tower, the rest of the trek is on Nico; and as he starts the climb, he wonders, just how exactly Leo managed to land where he did. There's no hole in the obsidian roof, though Nico supposes it's been long enough for anything to be patched and restored, the white door with a copper design of a forever frozen clock beckons him, but like every other time he's come here, Nico ignores it.

The cavern of strings doesn't really welcome him, but it doesn't push him out either, so Nico stays on the entrance and steps no further. The weavers don't need to be warned of his presence, but they will not talk to him unless spoken to.

Two particular strings float closer to Nico, dancing around each other without ever tangling, one a deep purple, the other a bright copper; he allows himself to smile at the sight, relieved that at least this much hasn't changed. He looks away from the strings and back to the three deities who are hard at work, knowing that they will not react to information for they see all and know all, but still wanting to share what he knows.

"The daughter of Athena found Koráki"

Atropos, in her even and melodic tone, is the one to answer first.

"Both are running without pause"

Clotho, in her high-pitched and energetic voice, continues.

"Running circles around and away from each other"

Lachesis, in her raspy and paused way, finishes.

"But the running will soon end"

They turn to him then, and every string in the room seems to glow for that moment, and they all speak in unison.

"Split the connection or fix the path"

Nico hears the sound of cawing, and wings flapping, and then he's swallowed by the shadows, talons on his shoulders. He knows better, by now, than to fight the crows, lest he wind up on the other corner of the world; they take him to their nest.

There, some of the older birds, hack at each other until a younger one lets out a sharp caw, one Nico is a little more familiar with; and it's only then that he realizes, the crows have different voices. This crow, Code if Nico's remembering correctly, pulls a shining metal rod from her perch, and flies down to the pedestal in the center of the room, staring at Nico.

Not wanting to get his eyes pecked out, Nico approaches the pedestal, Code ruffles her feathers at him in what he hopes is an appreciative manner, and then starts tapping the rod against the stone. She does this thrice before putting the rod down, and it's all it takes to Nico to realize it's a message.

/.-.. --- ...- . ... -.-- --- ..-/

And then, from the small shadow she casts on the pedestal, she pulls out a pomegranate, and caws sharply at him. Nico's probably gone all red, but he takes the offered fruit, and gives the crows a short bow before dipping away through the shadows; it's only respectful.

It takes, considerably long for Nico to realize he's been given not a prophecy but a warning; which, in his defense, he's still getting used to prophecies being so prominent in his life. The fates, though they are perfectly capable of seeing it, don't really tell the future; but Nico must have done something right by them if they feel like warning him.

Or maybe, and this is more possible, they're warning him because they can't get to Leo; as he's still struggling with his memories. But all knowing this does is make Nico wonder what Leo would've done with it, makes him run mental circles around the words said to him.

And then his hand brushes against the bump in his jacket's pocket, from where he pulls the pomegranate maybe Code had given him. In one of the very few joint lessons Nico had with Kogane, Leo had explained that the presence of a crow was always a sign of something, as it was their job to warn people of things.

Nico thinks about the lines of Morse code he'd been given, suddenly understanding Leo's name for the crow; and what it means that an omen interrupted the fate's warning. He also thinks about the dancing strings, about the way Greek fire seems to lean towards him as he walks through the underworld, about Leo being able to see people's life-lines even without his magical item to help.

There's a third option, he realizes with sudden clarity. But he needs to test his theory, and for that, he needs Koráki back.

There was something about this particular goddess, something that told Leo he wasn't feeling the right way about her, flashes over her, of bluish white skin and black hair, would sometimes replace the fake tan and ivory white locks; dark brown eyes as opposed to the lightning blue that stared at him. One thing was the same, the way she looked at Leo like she was already planning where to put him to best accent her collection; only in this version Leo wasn't distracted by her beauty.

There's something else, about the way her voice rolls around the letters of the pet name she gives him, something about this palace of ice. It's the cold, Leo figures, considering he has literal fire in his veins, but there's more than that.

A pulling of sorts, from the dead ground beneath his feet, to the deathly cold that's tugging to Leo's core, trying to seep his heat away. A whisper from the distorted shadows that all seem to point at Khione like daggers; everything Leo knows about demigods says he should fear them, and yet.

His fingers find his new tool belt, tracing a shape inside one of the pouches, and taking out a sleek bronze colored cube, not once glancing away from the goddess. He's not sure what she's waiting for, but she smiles sharply, and approaches Leo with clear intent.

A memory tugs at his head, a series of dots and lines in a language he practices the way religious people pray. And as she gets closer, and her expression turns vicious, he tries it out against the cube.

/... .... --- .-- - .. -- ./

A few things happen, the first, and most notorious one is that the cube gains weight in his hand, and his instinct activate just in time to not let the now full on Warhammer fall to the ground; it's a lot lighter than Leo ever imagined one of these being when he saw them in museums and stuff. The second, and a little more terrifying, is that the shadows start bubbling like boiling water, and then, the moment Khione tries to grab at him, they burst out in a cloud of crows. If they were normal crows, she'd have frozen them in seconds, and she still might, which is about enough for Leo to sprint into action; and it's like they're connected to him, because they swerve in and out of the fray in perfect synch with his every swing,

As he sends the goddess packing with a whirl of feathers and flames, he has the epiphany like realization that he's done this before, that he knows these birds. He's grown with them, taught them Morse code for easier communication, helped them with things back in the underworld; they are his very weird family, his murder.

One bird in particular, incredibly familiar, chirps at him softly from the ground. Leo stretches out his right arm and watches the crow wiggle excitedly before flying up and landing in the offered perch.

He looks into her blueish eyes, and feels something give inside him as he smiles at his first friend, his partner.

"Hi Code"