The Daughter of Hestia

Chapter 23

"That's not -" Lori found she couldn't bring herself to say any more.
"No. No, it can't be," Calypso said. Lori felt her hand rest on her shoulder.
Lori wanted to erase from her mind the gore. The smears of blood, the twisted dark shapes hanging from the ceiling by rope. . . Those weren't her friends. Those weren't her friends.
"Breccia!" Lori screamed, her voice returning. She moved forward, her hand no longer pressing at her side. Her wound had healed with the ambrosia square.
"Cory! Kira!"
"Shh!" Annabeth hissed. Lori opened her mouth to protest, but then realized why the daughter of Athena had cut her off.
There was a deep rumbling. It was like laughter, but wasn't.
Tartarus, Lori thought. A sick feeling swelled up inside of her.
But the noise couldn't be laughter. As the ground started shaking and rolling, and cracks started to spread in the chamber's foundations, she realized what it was.
"Earthquake!" Piper managed to yell before the first chunk of ceiling fell.
Lori didn't know where they were in Tartarus's realm - she didn't know a lot of things, starting with how her friends had found her and ending with the panic of her missing friends - so she didn't know what kind of environment was above them.
"Under that table!" Jason said, pointing to the largest table, laid out like a long rectangle.
Lori scrambled underneath, and the other followed suit.
"What's happening?!" Piper asked frantically.
"Nobody knows what's happening!" Annabeth exclaimed, frustrated. "My head could explode just acknowledging all this madness!"
It was eerily silent until Percy spoke.
"Why would Hestia give up the pithos? It holds power unlike any other."
"Hope," Calypso whispered. She hesitated, then added, "What if Tartarus . . ."
"Released Hope?" Annabeth asked grimly. "Nobody knows."
It was silent for a minute. Then, Piper released a long sigh. She crawled out from underneath the table. When nobody moved out with her, she stuck her head under the table and said, "And nobody need ever know. C'mon guys, we're demigods. We don't give up without a fight. We'll get that pithos back. We'll find Cory, Breccia, and Kira. Then we'll leave this godsforsaken pit forever. Hope isn't held hostage inside some clay confinement. It's in all of us. Now, let's show this primordial god what happens when you mess with Olympus's children. With sass."
Percy perked up, and he nodded. Jason smiled out the left side of his mouth, his blue eyes reflective in the dim light. Leo shook his head, muttering, "We're insane." Calypso gave her friend a shining smile and squeezed Lori's hand. Annabeth took in a shuddery breath.
"Piper's right. Let's kick some godly butt."
And then there was a feeling Lori hadn't truly felt since she first saw her distressed mother. As she gazed around Tartarus's torture chamber, all she could see clearly were the weary but determined expressions on the faces of unlikely friends. They could do this. They would do this.
Hope glimmered deep inside Lori's heart, slowly breaking out of its shell.