Son Of The Cup Bearer {Percy Jackson x Ejen Ali}

Tickling Or Stabbing? You Choose

You ask what someone was doing in the middle of the night and they announce they have killed their father.

The information took Khai off-guard, nevertheless. He totally forgotten about the case of the storm spirits - he was just shocked. Moon - of all the people - murder someone?

But her tone and grim expression told him otherwise that she wasn't joking. She was looking at him keenly as if spotting for any signs of being repulsed of her, but Khai just couldn't.

"I-" he cleared his throat. "I'm pretty sure there's just been a misunderstanding."

"He really is gone, Khai," Moon said sadly. "I asked the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo himself. He sensed his spirit in the Underworld. There is no one more sure of someone's death than a son of Hades."

Well, screw trying to let Moon have false hope now.

"But I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have killed him," Khai said, trying to sound as helpful as he can. "Um, if you don't mind, how did he di- how did he leave, exactly?"

Under Moon's glare, Khai felt like he wanted to sink into the earth to avoid a full-out combative fight. But eventually, Moon's gaze softened as she gazed at the forest of trees behind them. Khai followed her gaze, and couldn't help repressing a shudder at the sight of their ghostly depths, blanketed within layers and layers of darkness.

"He was a tired man, my dad," Moon managed to say. She sat down on the grass, and patted beside her to indicate that Khai do the same. As much as he hated dirt, he couldn't let down the poor girl who had suffered so much. So he sat, just for her sake.

A gentle breeze ruffled Khai's once-neat hair into a mess. His purple SPQR shirt rumpled slightly as the wind picked up, and as suddenly as the eerie wind came, it receeded. Concerned at Moon's silence, he risked a glance at her, when he noticed she was observing a long bronze sword. Not just any bronze sword - a Celestial bronze hoplite sword.

Khai blinked in amazement. "Where did you get that?"

Without even looking at him, Moon transformed the sword into a brown feather. At least Khai felt safer about the idea of being tickled to death than being stabbed with magical metal if he crossed the girl.

"I've been practising," Moon said as she placed the feather on the grass. "Magic, you know. I had a dream-" See, it's always about dreams - "The lady in the woods-"

"Wait, lady who?" Khai blurted.

"A few weeks ago, I've been told to leave this place by a woman with a polecat and weasel."

Woman with a polecat and a weasel. That definitely shortens the range of who the lady might be, what's more with Moon's bitter tone.

"Let me guess," Khai tried. "Your mom, Trivia."

Moon stared at him. "Hecate."

"Oh. Sorry, not used to it yet."

Moon rolled her eyes, which loosened the tension and only made Khai think she was extra cute - with the chubby cheeks and brown orb-like eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, she set a path that led me to Camp Half-Blood. I was extremely worried about my dad, but I didn't have a phone on me. So one of the campers there, Jet, he told me this trick called Iris messaging - the one Ali and Alicia did yesterday."

"You should definitely teach me how it works next time," Khai agreed to Moon's chuckles.

Taking in a deep breath, Moon continued, "Well, when I messaged him, it was when he was...doing the thing. I tried to stop him, but he couldn't hear me. He kept saying between sobs stuff like 'why', 'take my life instead', 'spare her mercy' and..." She broke off, but recovered herself just as quickly. "My name."

Everything clicked into place instantly. Khai hushed for Moon to say no more. Her bravery of being able to speak this much must have been hard on her, but yet here she was, staying up to train her magic while everyone else was snoring away. Talk about a hardworker.

"I-I still have something to tell you, though," Moon stammered, her voice becoming frailer by the second, like she was on the verge of crying. Khai did not look at her to give her some space, though he wasn't sure he could see her face in the dim moonlight anyway.

"In the dream," Moon choked. "Hecate told me to come back here. She told me to look behind the curtains; she told me to find an owl's feather."

"Did you find it?" Khai asked.

Quietly, Moon nodded and pointed at the feather between them.

"Ah..." Khai said, realisation dawning on his face.

Moon brought her knees closer to her, huddling it as if for warmth. "I don't know, Khai, something about this quest seems...made-up. I feel like someone's constantly watching us. It's like we're playing their game."

But then again, they were always playing to the games of the gods.

Khai thought back to the lines of the prophecy. Since the last time he had went through it, certain things have became clearer. 

Travellers trails sniffed by the wind.

Obviously, they were the travellers, and the wind...the venti must be the wind, since they basically just threw a tornado party in Moon's living room. That, he cannot forget.

Hopelessness be retrieved. 

Now that Khai knew that the five parts of Asteri were forged from the five rivers of the Underworld, hopeless might as well be...

"Khai?" Moon asked apprehensively.

He must have spaced out for some time. Moon had fixed her large brown eyes on him. Her silky black hair reflected the moonlight above. 

"I...I think I know which part of Asteri we have to look for," Khai breathed. 

Moon raised an eyebrow. "Which?"

Khai looked back at the mansion beside them, wondering if this was the last time in the next few days they could get such a nice place to stay.

"Cocytus. We have to find the part of Asteri that was formed from the River Cocytus."