The Ring of Theseus

II

    At the end of the stairs she stood on a mosaic tiled floor. She looked around and she is inside a big dome. If she happened to be here before her previous quest she would have caught her breath, the ceiling were so high she can only catch a glimpse of the big details. The architectural was amazing. It clearly looks old because of the green mosses covering most of the tiled floor and cement walls but she can still see the beauty of this dome. At the center of the dome, she saw a podium like stand and on top of it resting a glint of gold as small as a pebble. She was sure it was a real gold because it shone without sunlight so it does not merely reflect a light; it gleamed on its own.

    Annabeth noticed the voices had quiet down. “This is suspiciously easy.” as soon as the words escaped from her mouth, the dome started to shake. She cursed, “You are too wise to come down here, child of wisdom.” a soft voice said. A woman wearing a white Greek tunic dress appeared at the other end of the dome. She emerged from a cloud of smoke. “A classic entrance, who are you?” Annabeth dared to ask.

    “You want to know my name, child? Say hello first to your good old foes.” She spread her arms and suddenly hundreds of legs are scuttling on the ceiling, wall and floors. There seemed to be thousands of them, she shone her light to the ceiling, countless of small black eyes stared at her. “You have angered them awful Annabeth. After you killed Arachne, all the spiders in the world loathed you.”
After Rome, this is the second time she saw a spider. The reason why decided to stay at camp the whole year after the war, is because of this. As soon as she went home to her dad in San Francisco, spiders seemed to follow her everywhere she goes. “I am not afraid of spiders anymore” that didn’t even convinced her, but she had to talk to stall some time, she need a plan. She clearly can’t go back upstairs, the spiders can overwhelm her. “Why won’t you tell me your name? Are you afraid if I would know, I would find out how to kill you?” she started. “You can’t kill me, child. Not even if you can control the Mist. That upstart Hazel, was just lucky because Hecate lend her some of her powers but you, you are hopeless. Why not surrender yourself? You don’t need to waste your strength in a lousy fight.” The woman answered.