Amaurosis

IX: Meet Jules-Albert

"Wait a second," Annabeth said, holding out her hands in a 'T' as she tried to put the facts together. "Timeout. His staff was gone?"

"Stolen," Nico corrected, arms crossed over the white skeleton on his black t-shirt.

"If Tiresias doesn't have the staff," Annabeth muttered, pausing to think. "Who does?"

"He said something about Tilphussa," I brought up, watching the gears in her brain whirl and whiz, whereas Percy's is home to nothing but cobwebs.

"Tilphussa, you say?" asked Hazel, her own brain trying to fit the story together as we uncovered each piece. "I think I've read about that in the Athenaeum at Camp Jupiter." She took a seat on a long upholstered sofa beside Leo. "There was a quest a year or two after I had arrived." She glanced at Frank who stared intently at his girlfriend. "I was having strange dreams about a giant sinking in a pool of water, so I went to the Athenaeum to research bodies of water in the era of ancient Rome. Later, I discovered that it was the Giant Mimas, bane of Hephaestus, and I remember coming across that toponym. I think it's a spring or river if I remember correctly."

"It's a spring!" Annabeth shouted as if she was in a gameshow, running to the large paper map stapled to the side of the wall. A single red pin stuck out of Long Island and another from the location of Camp Jupiter. She pointed to a spot in Central Greece. "Here. It's near Mount Telphosion. That's where Tiresias died. He drank from its toxic water and it killed him. Now I remember!"

I'm not going to lie. It was kind of nice not having Annabeth one-up us as a know-it-all or making any of us feel stupid. That moment was long gone, left way back at Mount Rushmore along with any chance of us demigods being normal.

"That must be where his staff is," Jason suggests, readying to get his hands dirty. "How long until we reach-- what was it? Central Greece, you said?" Annabeth nodded.

Leo's elvish ears perked up like a puppy. "Festus! Whatchu got, buddy?" The mechanical dragon head whirred and thrummed in response, sounding like a series of hums to an untrained ear. "Festus says four thousand and eighty miles, more or less. Fifteen hours at the most, assuming we don't have any-- uh-- unaccounted encounters if you know what I mean." He winked twice.

Insects began to eat at the inside of my stomach and my heart skipped a beat. My voice cracked, "Unaccounted encounters?"

They nodded, glancing at one another as if to say, 'Do you want to tell her?' After an unbearably brutal period of murderous silence, Annabeth sighed in defeat. "These 'encounters' are why quests are so dangerous. There are many people and things trying to stop us from completing our quests, whether that means we come out dead or alive. Though, we've learned from experience that they prefer death."

"This wasn't in the brochure," I mumbled, my chest heaving. Nothing overwhelms you more than realizing you signed up for dying. Isn't that wonderful? "Great," I charmed a little louder this time, smiling innocently at Annabeth while internally screaming.

"It's really nothing," Percy assured me, but he wasn't entirely convincing. I've learned not to believe seventy-five percent of the things that come out of his mouth. He's a tad bit of a drama queen when under the right light. "I mean, we've only almost died on a quest-- what? Like twenty-seven times?"

He turned to Annabeth who refused to speak on the matter. "Let's just drop the subject."

"You're right. It was at least twenty-eight. I forgot about that one time we were almost caught in a stampede of chimeras. Whoops. My bad," Percy admitted, feeling accomplished. Annabeth rushed to cover his running mouth with her hand.

The only thing going through my mind was Thanatos' words: I will do everything in my power to help you succeed. But I can't bring back any of you if you were to die.