Caliginosity [ Leo Valdez ]

Livana Dances to Death

Leo swallowed down a tablet of Dramamine to ease his car sickness. He handed the bottle back to Nyx, who promptly put it away in a shadow pocket.

"So she came to your camp as...?" she said.

"It's still hard to explain," Leo said, leaning back into the seat of the corvette. The wind blew his hair around violently, and he dreaded the knots he would have to brush out when he got the chance. It made him think about getting a haircut.

"But your story isn't clear," Nyx said. "Not to me, at least. I've never heard of someone looking like a shadow and a person at the same time."

"But it happened," Leo said. "It was like she was fully flesh and blood, but she had a shadow wrapping around her. She looked like a shade but if you focused it was like she was regular? I don't know."

Nyx gripped the wheel tighter. The sun was just starting to set over the horizon, leaving a golden glow on the skin of the driver. She and Leo had been on the road for about six hours, occasionally stopping so Leo could use the bathroom and take some medicine for his motion sickness. When they weren't talking about Livana or her situation, it was awkwardly silent. Neither really wanted to spark a conversation, because they didn't know what to say.

Leo was sitting alone in the car with his girlfriend's primordial goddess mom, driving wherever they wanted, talking about nothing. He didn't know her well and vise versa. They didn't have anything to talk about, and the whole interrogation that comes from parents when you get into a relationship with their kid was unnecessary. Leo didn't go to school, he didn't have a job, he didn't have a life goal, but he really liked Livana and wanted to save her. That seemed to be enough for Nyx to not smite him.

So to save the awkwardness between them, Leo dug through his memory to find even the smallest details to talk about. Right now they were discussing whether Livana was a shade or not.

Nyx sighed and let go of the wheel, which normally would have been a huge problem if she wasn't able to control the steering with her mind. "She was a shade and fleshed? I think I see now..."

She stared into the horizon in deep concentration. Leo felt rude bugging her.

"What do you think happened?" he asked.

Nyx pulled off her sunglasses and set them elsewhere. "She wasn't actually there. You mentioned that your fire had burned her? But when she recovered she was unscathed. Livana has mastered another skill..." She frowned to herself and grabbed the wheel again. "Her physical form lies elsewhere, while her mind projects herself to another place. The reason why she looked so human is because that is what her current form is. That is what she looks like. That part of her was unharmed because you aren't able to actually touch it. The shade part is her manifestation of her body to where you were. That was the part you attacked, and that's why she mostly looked like a shade until you looked closely."

"That's sort of confusing," Leo said. "Why do your kids have such weird powers?"

"Because the darkness is not something that is easily understood," Nyx said. "Because all you mortals feared it and never attempted to discover its properties."

Leo rolled his eyes and sat forward. "I'm kinda hungry. Can we stop for food?"

"What do you want?" Nyx asked. "I can conjure up whatever you desire."

Leo grimace. "I don't feel safe eating food made from a shadow."

"Why not?" Nyx asked. "My children eat them all the time! I have some kids that even eat nightmares. You're welcome."

"Um, okay," Leo said. "I don't know. Why can't we just take a quick stop? I'm getting restless anyways. These legs need freedom!"

Nyx sighed. "Okay. What would you like to eat?"