Hera's Daughter | Luke Castellan¹

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕋𝕨𝕖𝕝𝕧𝕖

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𝒲𝑒 𝐹𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝒪𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒯𝓇𝓊𝓉𝒽, 𝒮𝑜𝓇𝓉 𝒪𝒻

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The Furies circled the parapets high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open.

They walked through the courtyard and up the steps of the palace. They passed the skeletons' guards, armed with various weapons.

"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."

Percy's backpack weighed a ton now. He couldn't figure out why. He wanted to open it and check if he had somehow picked up a stray bowling ball, but this wasn't the time.

"Well, guys..." Percy looked at the doors in front of them. "I suppose we should... knock?"

A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.

"I guess that means 'entrez'." Annabeth said.

The room inside looked just like in Percy's dream. Expect this time, the throne was occupied.

He was the third god that Percy had met, but the first one that had really struck him as god-like.

Hades was at least three meters tall, for one thing, and was dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on this throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.

Percy immediately felt like Hades should be giving the orders. He knew more than Percy did. Hades should be his master. Then he told himself to snap out of it.

"You're brave to come here, Son of Poseidon." Hades said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply foolish."

Percy stepped forward. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."

Hades raised an eyebrow, sitting forward in his throne. "Only two requests?" He asked. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."

Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded Percy in the back.

"Lord Hades." Percy spoke. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be... bad."

"Really bad." Grover added helpfully.

"Return Zeus's master bolt to me. Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus." Percy pleaded.

Hade's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"

Percy glanced back at his friends. They looked confused as he was.

"Um... Uncle," He spoke again. "You keep saying 'after what I've done'. What exactly have I done?"

The throne room shook with a tremor so strong that mortals probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them from every time period and nation inn Western civilization. They lined the permitter of the room, blocking the exits.