BY fates design

Lotus casino

The inside of the casino was... bright to say the least, neon lights and lots of music. The typical casino, or at least that's what Cassiopeia assumed, having never been in a casino before. "Ok, before we go further we put down ground rules. No eating or drinking anything," Cassiopeia started.
"Why?" Percy asked.
"Did you ever read the Odyssey as a kid?"
"The graphic novel."
"Well when Odysseus reached one of the island he met a load of people who couldn't remember where they came from or anything about themselves. Do you know why?"
"Because they had eaten the lotus flowers." Realisation dawned on Percy and he gestured for Cassiopeia to continue with the rules. "We should split up, Grover that way, Percy with me, Annabeth that way." She pointed off in different directions, "we meet back here in 20 minutes."
"What do I say if I find Hermes first?" Grover asked.
"You come find us." Cassiopeia replied, taking Percy's hand to lead him into the main area of the casino.

"God, you are so bossy!" Harry sneered, glaring over at his half sister. "Go fuck yourself." Kira replied flipping him off. "Yeah, she was just making sure we did everything as efficiently as possible." Grover defended.

Together they weaved through crowds of people playing an assortment of gambling games and arcade games. They carefully pushed through until Cassiopeia stopped, in front of them was some kind of card game or something, a man in a cream hoody stood between beautiful women as he threw some dice. "There he is." Cassiopeia whispered. "Ah demigods," he acknowledged the two, "why don't you join our game?"
"We're here for your help." Percy said, cutting straight to the point. The god rolled his eyes and threw another pair of dice down. "You want me to take you to the underworld, believe me you aren't the first demigods to ask and you won't be the first to leave disappointed." Hermes dismissed, walking around the table with a pair of dice in his hands. "We're friends of Luke," Cassiopeia said, watching Hermes pause and turn to them, "and I was a friend of Poppy's." She choked on the name, her eyes scanning his for any reaction. She felt a fleeting sense of satisfaction when he cringed at the name.

"Who's Poppy?" Alice asked. "You'll find out later," Cassiopeia muttered, "it's nice to meet you though, your son is a good friend of mine." Alice blushed slightly with a bashful smile.

"Come with me." He pushed the two towards a separate area where he took a seat, a waiter handing him a glass of what Cassiopeia guessed to be whisky. "Sit." He ordered, "I know you." He pointed to Cassiopeia. "I would hope so, we've met a few times. At the solstice, after Luke arrived," she listed off, "I know what happened between you, how he blames you for everything, how he said he hated you." She watched his face, gauging his reaction, "We need your help, please, if you do this you might be able to win back some of Luke's favour." She was desperately trying to persuade him.

"Do you know what happened, I was warned to stay way from them, but I didn't listen. Do you know what it's like to love someone so much, but simply being with them puts them in danger." Hermes said, placing his hand on Percy's, "I think you do." Then he touched Cassiopeia's hand and she gasped, her eyes flew shut as they welled with tears, "I know you do." She glared at him with reddened eyes. "Please, if you won't do it for your current favourite then perhaps you'll do it for the last one, for Poppy," she studied how he flinched again at the name, "it's what she would have wanted, you owe her that much, after all you didn't even come to the funeral. You promised. You promised her!" Cassiopeia's breath became increasingly more ragged and her cheeks were red with anger, "you know she made it back to camp, she made it all the way back to camp because you promised you would be there. You lied!" She was yelling by now and Percy looked around to make sure that they weren't drawing any attention.

"You're angry." Hermes observed.
"Of course I'm angry," she scoffed, "she died and hardly two days later Luke shows up, you replaced your favourite daughter with a favourite son. I mean you're not the only one to do that, Ares did it too with Eddy and Clarisse, Hades, I've even see Apollo do it but at least he had the decency to mourn first." Her eyes glowed with a dangerous fury.
"I can't help you." He denied.
"Then at least tell me why you weren't there. Tell me what you were doing that prevented you from being there. Were you too busy screwing things up with Luke and his mother to come?" Cassiopeia demanded.
"I can't help you." Hermes repeated, his sleeve rolled up to show his watch. Suddenly something dawned on her, all this time he had been stalling them, "you know." She muttered, it was too quiet for Percy to hear but the god seemed to catch her voice loud and clear, his eyes widening, "you know," she repeated standing up.