Revealed

Chapter 17 (Rachel)

It was a really long day and I wanted to rest after everything we did at camp. I had just had a meeting with the gods with Chiron, talked with the campers to shore up the defenses, and then I had to contact my dad to convince him I was ok and see if he could do anything to at least calm down the situation. He said he'd talk with his colleagues and friends in the higher-ups and see what he can do. I could tell from his tone that there would be some sort of consequence later.

I pushed aside my curtain and went inside the cave. After this long day, I just want to sleep. However, it seems that somebody didn't want me to do that.

"Hello, Lady Athena," I greeted her, bowing slightly. I instantly knew it was her with the way she carried herself, and her scary, calculating gray eyes. I was worried she might know what I'm thinking so I decided to talk.

"How may I help you, ma'am?" I asked.

"I need your help. Have you seen any visions of what would happen to Olympus lately?" Lady Athena asked. I shook my head. 

"No ma'am, not since the start of their quest, something's been blocking the Oracle again," I replied. It was true. Other than the occasional weird dreams I have which I do not know if they will happen, nothing really showed to me. No visions. No prophecies. 

"I thought as much. Apollo has been slacking again. I told him to guard the Oracle before anything..." the goddess was still muttering to herself when she flashed out. I averted my eyes and put my arm up just for good measure. 

After she was gone, I fell on my bed and tried to relax. The Oracle is being blocked and the goddess was muttering about protection. I'm not going to be surprised if they say that Erebus or someone took over the cave and blocked it again. Until it is restored, all I'm any good for is helping Chiron here at camp and whatever they need. 

All the hairs on my body stood up. The air smelled of ozone. Thunder suddenly rumbled outside and before you can even say pancakes! lightning struck somewhere inside the camp. That was too powerful to be a normal bolt. That was the master bolt of Zeus, no mistake. I bolted out, running so fast that I almost tripped on the curtain I use as my door. There, on the top of the hill, Thalia's pine tree was smoldering, and some parts of it were blackened, others burned. The nymphs and satyrs were already trying to douse the remaining fires. 

I do not know if the others could see this, but I swear the camp barriers blinked into existence then flickered. It also looked ready to break. I ran to find Chiron, who I saw was also on his way to the tree. We both rushed to it. 

"This is not good," A son of Ares said from behind us. Half the tree was gone and the rest was black and still smoldering. 

"This is definitely not good, thank you for pointing that out," A daughter of Athena replied. They were going to start arguing when I pushed them apart to let Chiron and me through. Chiron examined the tree. 

"This can only come from the master bolt. But why would Lord Zeus do this? Unless..." He trailed off. 

"Unless what?" I whispered behind him. 

"Unless... we'll discuss this in the Big House. Let us go, Miss Dare. We have some Iris Messages to do." he trotted off to the direction of the Big House while I followed behind him. He closed the door behind us.

"Lord Zeus will only do that in an emergency. Something bad has happened," Chiron explained. I understood why he wanted to discuss it in private. No use having everyone panic. How he made a rainbow without sunlight or any other light I do not know, but soon enough he had Iris open a line to Olympus. 

"Oh. My. Gods," I  didn't know what to say. My hand was to my mouth and my eyes were bugging out. 

"Olympus," Chiron murmured. 

"Olympus has been invaded," I continued. The marble and gold statues were toppled. There were soldiers swarming the temples, and I thought maybe the gods and the nymphs had left already, which must be the case except for some that I could see were either hiding as trees or plants or running away. The soldiers didn't fire. When one of them did, the nymph fell without a sound. 

"She's not dead," Chiron said. I stared at her. She was on the ground, but there was no blood. Tranquilizers! They were trying to capture everyone on Olympus! I spoke to the IM. "Oh Iris, please show the throne room."

The image shimmered and the throne room materialized in front of us. The large doors were still closed, and the gods were nowhere to be found. The thrones were abandoned. The hearth was still going, but without Hestia to tend the fire, it was barely a few inches tall. 

"What do we do?" I ask, turning to Chiron. 

"The gods must be in hiding. There is nothing we can do now but wait. And hope that the quests succeed.

A/N: Whew! That was a long update! (I was talking about how long it took me to make this) anyway, I have a surprise for everyone once the other story "Shifter: The Unknown Primordial" gets 3.5k reads!

thank you for reading!

Vote, comment, and follow!