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︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶
finding the place was easy. Percy led them right to it, on an abandoned stretch of hillside overlooking the ruined Forum.
Getting in was easy too. Jason's gold sword cut through the padlock, and the metal gate creaked open. No mortals saw them. No alarms went off. Stone steps spiraled down into the gloom.
"I'll go first," Jason said.
"No!" Suddenly Piper yelped.
All of them turned toward her, frowned.
"Pipes, what was it?" Katherine asked, quietly. "The image in the blade...What was it? There anything you haven't told us?"
Piper nodded as her colorful eyes forming of tears. "I didn't know how to tell you. I saw the room down there filling with water. I saw the four of us drowning."
"But I can't drown," Percy said, though he sounded like he was asking a question.
"Maybe the future has changed," Jason speculated. "In the image you showed us just now, there wasn't any water."
Katherine nodded and send piper a certain smile though her instinct told otherwise.
"Look," Percy said. "I'll check it out first. It's fine. be right back."
And before Piper could object, he disappeared down the stairwell.
Katherine waited, her hand hold Jason. Then she heard his footsteps, and he appeared at the top, looking more baffled than relieved.
"Good news: no water," he said. "Bad news: I don't see any exits down there. And, uh, weird news: well, you should see this...."
They descended cautiously. Percy took the lead, with riptide drawn. Katherine and Piper followed, and Jason walked behind them, guarding their backs.
The stairwell was a cramped corkscrew of masonry, no more than six feet in diameter. and as they wound their way underground, Katherine saw old graffiti gouged into the stones: Roman numerals, names and phrases in Italian. That meant other people had been down here more recently than the roman empire, but she wasn't reassured. If monsters were below, they'd ignore mortals, waiting for some nice juicy demigods to come along.
Finally, they reached the bottom.
Percy turned. "Watch this last step."
He jumped to the floor of the cylindrical room, which was five feet lower than the stairwell. Katherine clambered down, and Piper and Jason followed.
The room was no water as Percy was said. The curved walls had once been painted with frescoes, which were now faded to eggshell white with only flecks of color. The domed ceiling was about fifty feet above.
