Caliginosity [ Leo Valdez ]

When It's Cold I'd Like to Die

Annabeth held Nyx's journal in her hands, tapping a pen against her chin. She'd been in deep thought for almost three hours now. Leo sat across from her at the breakfast table in the hotel dining room. He watched her try and connect the dots of all the information they'd figured out thus far. She'd been working super hard all morning and had been focused on the issue since she woke up. Her eyes were bloodshot from not blinking and she hadn't even eaten her food yet.

Leo tried to help. He spitballed ideas at her and tried pulling out more information from Livana's poetry and old journal entries. Neither of them could come up with anything, so Annabeth retreated into her brain to bring up everything they'd learned until now- from when they first met Livana to the last time they saw her. She wrote down everything she could remember, and occasionally asked the rest of the group for their own inputs. Leo didn't understand how that could be helpful. It only brought more into the equation, and would eventually scramble Annabeth's brain. Even if she was an Athena kid, she could only take so much.

But Leo decided to stay out of it. He trusted Annabeth with this one. She was great at riddles and puzzles and metaphors and whatnot. Leo...not so much. He always needed a visual representation, like with Jason and the ice bridge. Man, that felt like years ago.

Either way, Leo continued thinking about his own ways to solve the issue at hand. While he worked on the final part of his project, his mind ran at 100 miles per hour. He thought of all the places that he knew of with giant towers. He tried to think of a town whose population was full of liars. Nothing really came up, so his brain moved to old conversations with Livana. His heart started aching, but Leo ignored the feeling. There had to be something in his head...smithing Livana had told him. There was no way this would be impossible. He had to find Livana- the prophecy said so.

While Leo's brain kept talking, his screwdriver slipped from the hole it was in and sliced his hand. Leo seethed in pain and put his project down, trying to cover the cut. "Fuck," he cursed. He reached into his toolbelt to grab a bandaid, but Nyx put her hand over his and covered it in a shadow. After a few seconds, the cut went away.

Leo sighed. "Thanks, Nyx."

The goddess only nodded. She hasn't said much since this morning. Leo could feel her nervousness radiating off her. Infact, quite literally. Black smoke steamed off her skin like she was about to set ablaze. She'd been using her godly powers all morning to try and find Apate's location, but it proved impossible. You just couldn't locate a pocket dimension because it technically was everywhere. Yet, she continued her efforts. Leo didn't have the heart to stop her.

While the three of them continued what they were doing, Piper and Jason tried to decipher parts of the prophecies. Leo overheard parts of their conversation.

"Livana finished her prophecy," Jason said. "Her's was just for her travel to the mirror place, right?"

"That would make sense." Piper twirled one of her braids in her fingers. "Daughter of darkness, rise high into the sky, that was Livana going to the tower, and the moon on its fourth was four lunar cycles, which is why it took three months. Corruption far too strong to break- that was Apate- and night make sures death wont take- that was Livana healing herself. But what about the next lines? A shard of glass, the stomach that bleeds; the girl that falls is met with weeps."

"That was when Livana impaled herself. She fell to her knees, and we all- you know- cried," Jason said. "See? She finished her prophecy."

"I thought Livana stabbed herself with her sword?" Piper said.

"I don't know." Jason sat back and sighed. "I still think her prophecy is done. So then all we have is Apate's. Her's hasn't even started."

"But she's letting us know where to go," Piper said. "Let's focus on that."