In the darkness, one finds light. (Solangelo)

I can't think of a good name for this chapter

Sorry for the late update. My girlfriend came back from her exchange trip so we were together all weekend. I also got a tattoo on my right forearm and the artist said not to let it rub against anything for at least three days. I.e, my laptop.

I tried to stay calm, I really did. But the darkness of the underworld is not to be taken lightly, and without my guide I was completely lost. I wandered around the river bank calling out Nico's name in a last attempt of desperation. However, each place looked just like the last, and sound didn't carry well. So whenever I yelled it seemed to reverberate back into my own head.

 "Will." I muttered to myself falling to the ground and digging through my backpack.

"You need to stay calm. We will get through this." I finally found what I was looking for and brought out a map of the Underworld that was constantly shifting and words appeared in random places for one second and disappeared the next. I tried to find the River of Lamentation but once I did manage to locate it, it would disappear from the map and reappear in a different place. I was beginning to get frustrated and I threw the map aside.

It was useless anyway.

I dug through my pack once more, hoping to find something else that could help me track Nico or at the least find the dagger so I could focus my energies on recovering him. In the midst of my digging a flash of silver caught my eye. My skull ring sat upon my middle index finger and it gleamed at me in the dark sunlight of the underworld.

"Thank the gods." I muttered. I pulled the ring off my finger and shifted it around my hands. Looking for something to activate it or make it function as the communication device it was meant to be.

I tried various code words and once even tried throwing it onto the ground, but nothing happened. I probably should have asked how it worked before Nico, and I went prancing out into the underworld. I thought of Nico and how desperate he had looked reaching for my hand. I was sure that I looked just as desperate if not more so. Now, without him, I would have to find a way to navigate the underworld and fight off a ghost to retrieve a dagger. On top of that, Nico had the thermos that it had to be kept it.

I was so lost in my misery that I didn't notice a soft buzzing sound coming from somewhere near me. I stood still for a moment trying to locate the noise and scurried to the place near the ground where I had discarded my ring. The ground was pitch black, and I had to feel around for a moment. Trying to locate it via sound, and hearing. Finally, my fingers enclosed around the cool metal of the ring. It vibrated in my hands softly.

Great, now that I had it I still didn't know how it worked. I ran my finger pad across its surface and shook it.

"Come on you stupid thing! Answer! Open! Work! Hello?" After I yelled hello at the poor offending ring, it released a small DING through the air and stopped vibrating. To my immediate relief, Nico's voice filled the air around me like it was possessing my surroundings.

"Will?" the ring, or Nico, asked. I leaned back with a huge smile on my face and chuckled in relief.

"Thank god. Nico. I was freaking out. Where are you?" I asked. I wasn't really sure where to direct my voice to, so I sat there and talked into the ring like that character from that Lord of the Rings movie.

"Will. I need you to do something." Nico's voice came through the ring.

"Anything. What do you need? Where are you? You need to get back here asap. The map keeps changing on me." I said.

"Yeah, I'm working on that. Just... put down anything you have in your hands, and hold out your arms." I paused. That wasn't really the request I was going for.