Melpomene (PJO)

7. The two-faced god(dess)

"We're lost," Mari said.

"We're not lost." Annabeth huffed. "We're just... a little disoriented."

"That means lost," Percy told her.

There were in a corridor that looked like it used to transport sewage. Exposed red-brick walls, with vents blocked by cold iron-bars along regular intervals. Mari imagined that the vents would normally be connected to pipes, but in the labyrinth, they just led to an empty, dark void. It reminded Mari of the labyrinth entrance she'd nearly stumbled into with Adela, which didn't give Mari a whole lot of confidence about her future amongst the living. The floor was covered with damp iron grates, which, no matter how careful the five of them were, made gods-awful clanging sounds with every step, which in this place was practically a signal flare to any hungry monsters prowling around nearby.

"I said we're not lost!" Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "Look, we're fine. If we just keep one hand on the left wall and follow it, we should be able to find our way out by reversing course."

Naturally, the second the words had left Annabeth's mouth, the left hand wall disappeared, replaced by eight tunnels, each leading in a different direction.

"Oh, yeah, forgot to mention." Mari's voice was dispassionate. "It does that."

"Uh, which way did we come in?" Nervous bleats bled into Grover's voice.

"Just turn around." Annabeth sounded nervous. Each of them turned towards a different tunnel. Mari didn't bother, because if she remembered how the labyrinth worked correctly then none of them led to the way out, and at least three of them led to certain peril. Mari wondered what would happen if someone tried to bring a GPS into this place.

"Left walls are mean." Tyson frowned. "Which way now?"

Annabeth swept her flashlight across the tunnels and turned towards Mari. "What do you think?"

Mari closed her eyes, expanded the mist around her and let her instincts seep into it, a feeling not unlike skin melting off her bones. She cringed.

"It tickles," Tyson said with a giggle. Mari supposed as a monster, Tyson would've had more of a sense for the mist. She was glad someone was enjoying this, at least.

"Let her concentrate," Annabeth told him.

"T-that way." Mari pointed towards a tunnel to the very left. "It might be a bit of a tight fit. Sorry."

She'd felt the passage get smaller with the mist, like paper rolled into a cone. Annabeth went in first. It turned out, 'a bit of a tight fit' was the understatement of multiple millennia. Mari was fine, being the smallest of the lot of them, and Annabeth, Percy and Grover just had to duck their heads a little. Poor Tyson had no choice but to crawl on his knees. "I don't think it should be that much longer," Mari assured him. "I'm sorry about this."

"It's okay!" Tyson looked up to smile at her but bumped his head. "It's like the coral climbing frame, in Daddy's palace."

"Uh..." Mari wasn't sure what to say to that. "Sure."

Finally, when even Mari was having to bend a little to avoid banging her head on the ceiling, the corridor opened up. They all tumbled out, and Mari sighed, relieved to be in free space again. Then she remembered that the 'free space' in question was an evil murder maze, and her relief was gone. Grover, who had been hyperventilating all the way along the corridor (not that Mari blamed him) shook his head. "I can't stand this anymore. Why would Pan want to be down here?" He whimpered. "This is the opposite of the wild!"

"Woah, guys, look at this room," Percy whispered.

The entire room was one huge mosaic. It was old and cracked in places, but still vivid. It was... well, it was nothing short of beautiful. The walls depicted the Olympians, some feasting on ambrosia and others soaring above. Mari dragged her eyes across the tiles, and spotted a depiction of her father. Apollo was high in the sky, playing the lyre for the rest of the gods to hear. There was a crack in the centre of his face (which he definitely wouldn't appreciate if he ever saw this mosaic), so she couldn't make out his full expression but he was definitely smiling. Next to him was a Satyr, bowing with pan pipes in his left hand. "That's..."