Shadows and The Sea - The Darkling

Meetings & Eavesdropping

Percy's POV

As much as I love the food here, I miss McDonalds sometimes.

Aleksander had a maid bring in the food once Fedyor dropped me off at his door. It was just as fancy as I was expecting for the general of the Second Army and thank the gods there wasn't any seafood.

Once we were done and our plates were taken away, I was about to take my leave and let Aleks rest since I could see the weariness on his face but the drachma from this morning was still in my pocket.

"Hey," I drew out as I turned back around to face the man I've grown closer to over the few weeks I've been at the Little Palace. "Do you think you'd be up to meet my dad tonight? I-It's okay if you don't want to. I comple-"

"I would be honored, Persephone," he said calmly as he left his kefta in his wardrobe and strode towards me with a gentle look on his face.

I let out a sigh to try and relax my nerves and held out my free hand. He placed his warm hand in mine and I led us towards his connected bathroom.

I dragged him into the dimly lit room and used a basin of water that was sitting on the counter to my advantage. With an admittedly dramatic wave of my hand with the drachma in it, the water rose out of its container and glided through a beam of moonlight that peeked through the window. I held the golden coin with my thumb and index finger while the others flared out to disperse the stream of water into a fine mist.

As the smaller particles of water bounced the silver light off itself, the colors started to show themselves to us in a small, but still beautiful arch.

I heard Aleks take in a breath from behind me and realized this was the first time he had seen me use an Iris Message.

Heh.

"Oh Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Poseidon, god of the seas," I spoke clearly and flipped the drachma into the streaks of color floating in the air.

The coin vanished as it passed through the mist and a bright white glow emerged from the center of the rainbow until it formed a circular window with the image of my father's library.

He seemed laser focused on skimming the shelves for something and didn't notice the faint glow that the IM radiated. I spared a glance back at Aleks behind me and couldn't help but giggle just a bit when I saw how stunned he looked with the spectacle that came with using an Iris Message.

He looks like someone smacked him in the face with a cream pie.

His normally composed features were all stretched in awe and shock. His brows were raised and eyes wide like the moon. Even his mouth was parted just enough to tell that he had drawn in a breath of shock, not just relaxing his face.

I realized that I had been staring at the lower part of his face for a little longer than I thought and quickly turned back around to the image of my dad, who had been alerted of our presence by my giggle.

He spun around and I could see that something was stressing him but I would ask about that later.

"Hey dad," I said softly while waving with my free hand. I felt the grip on the other tighten ever so slightly.

"Percy, how ar- Who's this?"

I winced as I heard the tone in his voice shift from light to stone cold in a split second as my dad's eyes landed on Aleks from behind me.

I let out a nervous laugh and pulled the tense Shadow Summoner to stand more next to me rather than behind me, "Dad...this is Aleksander. Aleks, this is my father, Poseidon, god of the seas."