Umbra

Chapter 37

The fall lasted an eternity.

Emilia felt empty even as Percy and Annabeth pulled her close, the three sailing into the abyss like a massive boulder chucked off a mountain.

"What are you most afraid of?"

Emilia had tilted her head at Hylla. "I don't know. I can't really say any typical fears... I'm not afraid of the dark, obviously. I dislike bugs and predatory animals but I wouldn't say I'm afraid of them. You go first, I don't know."

Hylla mulled it over, rocking back and forth on her heels, the Iris-message rippling with each movement. "Being forgotten."

"Really? Why?"

"I suppose it's both being forgotten and being misremembered... I don't want the world to forget the impact I made and I wouldn't want to be remembered as someone who was selfish, useless, and weak. I've made a name for myself and I wish it to remain in the histories."

Emilia considered it. "I'm afraid of... being alone. Well, maybe that tied with losing the people I love. When I arrived at Camp and it dawned on me that I had no one... I felt misery unlike anything else. I hated having no one to rely on. Since then, I've built a whole family for myself. If I were without them... if I lost any of them... gods, I suppose that doesn't even encompass it. I'm afraid of who I'd become in that instance."

Annabeth had once given her a book with poems by Hesiod, back when she'd first come to camp and was still too afraid to go to the library on her own. Hesiod had written that it would take nine days to fall from earth to Tartarus. They'd been falling for so long, Emilia wondered if it was true. The further they got, the more relaxed she felt. The air was hotter and damper, filling her with warmth and moisture. She'd seen Percy's wounds heal in the sea and could feel the scrape on her knee closing– all the physical pain she had was fading.

But the emotional pain lingered. She was terrified of what would happen when they landed. They were gathering so much velocity that they might splat on the ground and that would be the end of them. And if they survived, either in one piece or many, could they really get out?

Emilia felt fear rising in her throat, not because they were approaching Tartarus, but because Tartarus called to her. It felt safe and familiar in a way she couldn't explain. What would this place turn her into? Would she still be the same person when she got out? If?

She'd struggled to learn how to work in a team. Could there be a team here, or would it need to be Emilia standing alone to protect all three of them? She had the advantage here, she knew it. Already the darkness enveloped her in an embrace. Percy and Annabeth couldn't possibly feel such a thing.

Tartarus was welcoming her home but eyeing them as flies lured into a trap.

Already she missed her family. She wondered if Piper, Leo, and Jason would contact her aunt, Pollux, and Hylla or would elect to not worry them. Would they even tell Chiron?

She had to try to stay alive no matter what happened. She at the very least had to reach the Mansion of Night and recruit her mother's help. She could survive if she tried– she just had to make it happen. For herself, for the people waiting for her, for Percy and Annabeth. If she expected to be there when her siblings went on to do great things in the future, she needed to fight tooth and nail to make it back to them. She'd claw her way out of Tartarus if she had to.

She'd claw her way out of her own grave to make it back to them. To Hylla.

The air around them changed. Emilia drew a deep breath, a rush of wind reaching her nostrils and filling her lungs as if she'd emerged completely replenished from a sort of rejuvenation treatment. The smells were different– like rotten eggs, like acid. The air was suddenly hotter. The chute they'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern.