The Heroes of Olympus: The Black Swordsman

Darren

Darren didn't know you could have dreams while frozen, at least not until he got turned into a Darrensickle by a deranged, very hot, woman. Okay, so Darren had a crush on a psycho ice lady, but at least he wasn't the first. From what he had heard, Leo used to have a crush on Khione goddess of snow. And then that same goddess tried to freeze him to death during the giant wars. Why did so many woman have to be so cold!? But back to the main point at hand.....why the heck was he back in this place?! Darren was once again drifting in the deep domain of Oceanus Titan of the seas. Oceanus was once again sitting on his throne looking at Darren with an amused expression.

"I see that you did not take my advice concerning trust in yokai." Oceanus said heartily. Seriously boy, I can't afford to have you getting frozen before we can stop my brother now."

"Wait, That was a yokai!?" Darren exclaimed. "But she was so....."

Oceanus gave Darren a stern look. "Now now, just because they look pretty on the outside doesn't mean they aren't cold and unforgiving on the inside. Take Media for example. She was pretty no doubt, but on the inside she was a cold merciless sorceress. Snow may look beautiful, soft, and elegant. But it's cold climbs creeps and bites. Remember that well Darren."

"Uhhhh......" Right, Darren said with an unsure shrug.

Darren then groaned. "Just my luck!! I fall in love with a girl and she freezes me, I try to take us to Las Vegas and we end up in Canada, I must be the worst Quester ever!!!!"

Oceanus shook his head. "You sell yourself too short Darren Brighton, your luck was never meant as your curse but as your power."

"Huh? Since when is bad luck a power?"

"Think back Darren, how were you born?"

Darren remembered the tale well. His mother had told it to him a million times. He had been born on Christmas Eve, when he was born a woman wrapped in fog had placed her hand on Darren.

'I bless this boy with power over the very odds of magic itself. It will be a blessing, but he will see it as a curse. There will come a time when he must use his misfortune to better the fortune of others.'

The woman had disappeared, (but the smoke hadn't, seriously, couldn't she at least clean up after herself.)

"Yes, you see? That misfortune that you carry around isn't just some dumb luck it's........

"What? What is it?"

I

"I forget."

"AGAIN!?"

"It's a habit."

Darren almost tore the hair off his dream self in frustration. "Were you always this forgetful!?"

"I am sometimes, and sometimes I'm not. The personality of the ocean changes quite frequently. For instance, I just remembered!!"

"And you are going to tell me before you forget again.....right?"

"Indeed I am, yes your misfortune is due to the fact that you have been fused with a nature of magic."

"Nature of magic?"

"Magic is like a many sided dice." Oceanus explained. "There are many sides to it, it has many aspects. One aspect is called The Mist. The Mist is the illusion side of magic, it obscures and it lures, it makes you see what you want to see. It is the most common side of magic. The aspect of magic that dwells in you is called The Odds. It constantly manipulates your luck because part of magic is making the impossible possible whether good or bad."

"Well my power is defective." Darren mumbled, "because I've got nothing but the bad."

Oceanus smiled. "Only because you believed it to be. This kind of magic is manipulated through belief. For your entire life, you have never believed in yourself. You have constantly put yourself down, and so your luck followed suit. However, do you remember what happened during the games back at camp once you believed in yourself just a little?"

"We won."

"Yes, by imbuing confidence within yourself, you can alter your luck.....literally."

"What do you mean....literally?"

Oceanus scratched his beard. "Let's see, how do I explain this? Let's say you are in a bowling alley."

Darren almost laughed. An ancient all powerful Titan who acted like an old grandpa and talked about bowling? Priceless.

Oceanus continued his explanation. "Let's say you decide that if by not rolling the ball at the pins you will actually hit the pins. As long as you believe it hard enough, you will hit the pins, whether it's because the ball bounces off the wall at just the right angle or etcetera."

"So I can control-"

"Random chance." Oceanus's eyes sparkled. "You can alter random chance at will......if your will is strong enough that is."

Darren thought about this. This power was huge. If he could learn to use it, not only could he bend his bad luck, but he could do awesome stuff like win the lottery, or defeat an enemy with just a grain of sand simply because he believed he could.

"You see Darren." Oceanus said. "Next to Percy Jackson and Kazuto Kirigaya, you are one of the most feared by Kronos. He knows that if you were to completely master your power, his enemies would gain a very powerful weapon indeed."

Darren was blown away. This was perhaps the most amazing talk with a god he had ever had in his life. Unless you count the time Apollo did a terrible haiku to explain where babies came from (definitely did not want to revisit that).

"However, this power has one weakness." Oceanus said raising his finger. "This power is extremely difficult to master, not even Hecate could master more then 30 percent of it's full potential. The few mortals who have used it, have gone overboard and killed themselves. Because of the shameful way in which they died, they were actually wiped from the history books. All records from the Illiad and other books were wiped clean as a whistle. Because using The Odds aspect of magic is extremely dangerous."

Darren suddenly felt a whole lot worse. He imagined being wiped from all records of existence just because he had been stupid with his powers. Not a very nice thing to leave the world with.

"So basically you want me to be more careful." Darren said.

"Yes........I mean No.......I mean yes........what are we talking about again?"

Darren shook his head. "Never mind. Just one question. What did you mean last time by Pomona knowing yokai?"

Oceanus gave a booming laugh. "Of course she would know them! She's surrounded by them isn't she!?"

"Huh?"

"Times up!! Goodbye Boy blessed with Misfortune!!"

"That name makes no sense!!"

And with that, the dream dissolved.