Awakened - T Stoll - Percy Jackson and The Olympians.

XXI

Thalia leaps forward as I quickly stand up. "What did you do to him?" I ask with a frown. Wishing I had brought my sword with me. 

Prometheus chuckles. "I did not hurt him. I am merely showing him something." he shrugs. 

Just as he says, Percy stands up with a gasp. Beads of sweat rolling down his skin as his eyes look around wildly. 

"Percy?" Thalia asked. "What . . . what was that?"

Prometheus nodded sympathetically. "Appalling, isn't it? The gods know what is to come, and yet they do nothing, even for their children. How long did it take for them to tell you your prophecy, Percy Jackson? Don't you think your father knows what will happen to you? I mean. Look at you, Imena. Your father knows what is to come. To his own daughter, and yet he does nothing." 

I gulp, feeling a bit sick. Thalia puts her hand on my shoulder. Mumbling something about me needing to ignore him. 

"Percy," Grover warned, "he's playing with your mind. Trying to make you angry."

"Do you really blame your friend Luke?" the Titan asked me. "And what about you two? Percy and Imena? Will you be controlled by your fate? Kronos offers you both a much better deal."

Percy's eyes blaze with rage. "I'll give you a deal. Tell Kronos to call off his attack, leave Luke Castellan's body, and return to the pits of Tartarus. Then maybe I won't have to destroy him." 

I take a deep breath, glaring up at Prometheus. "And you better stop it with the fake sympathy bullshit or I might skip on down to the Central Park Zoo and find me some vultures." I smile with fake sweetness. 

The empousa snarled. Her hair erupted in fresh flames, but Prometheus just sighed. As if we're just meddlesome children. 

"If you change your mind," he said, "I have a gift for you."  A Greek vase appeared on the table. It was about three feet high and a foot wide, glazed with black-and-white geometric designs. The ceramic lid was fastened with a leather harness. 

Different reactions seem to circulate around our side. Grover whimpers, Thalia gasps. Only Percy and I don't react. This vase doesn't seem special to me. Just... familiar? I feel like I've seen it before... Or felt it before... 

"This belonged to my sister-in-law," Prometheus explained. "Pandora." 

I gasp. "Pandora's box." Prometheus groans. "I don't know how this box business got started. It was never a box. It was a pithos, a storage jar. I suppose Pandora's pithos doesn't have the same ring to it, but never mind that. Yes, she did open this jar, which contained most of the demons that now haunt mankind—fear, death, hunger, sickness."

"Don't forget me," the empousa purred, smoothing down her flamed hair. 

"Indeed," Prometheus conceded. "The first empousa was also trapped in this jar, released by Pandora. But what I find curious about the story—Pandora always gets the blame. She is punished for being curious. The gods would have you believe that this is the lesson: mankind should not explore. They should not ask questions. They should do what they are told. In truth, Percy, this jar was a trap designed by Zeus and the other gods. It was revenge on me and my entire family—my poor simple brother Epimetheus and his wife Pandora. The gods knew she would open the jar. They were willing to punish the entire race of humanity along with us."

I shake my head. "You're forgetting about the most important part." I remind him. 

Prometheus grins, an eerie sight. "Of course. She also released hope. Elpis, the Spirit of Hope, would not abandon humanity. Hope does not leave without being given permission. Your mother knows very well about the Goddess of Hope. Or at least, one of them."