All Is Fair in Love and War

Chapter Four. Two Tin Machines Try to Kill Us

I remained unconscious up until the evening.

I was having a very nasty headache from both communicating with Phobos and learning so much new information about demigods in general and myself in particular.

My appetite was pretty much nonexistent but Clarisse made me some beef broth with leeks and croutons so I wouldn't be completely hungry and helped me get to the bathroom before bedtime while Chris prepared a cold compress for me and kept it on my head as I was lying in my bed, still processing what had happened.

"Clarisse?" I turned to the woman ever so slightly. "What happened to me?"

"You got claimed by your divine parent, Shinobu, and it seems like he also contacted you telepathically. I never thought that, of all my divine siblings, it would turn out to be Phobos, although I should have guessed earlier." she sighed. "By the way, we put your game back into your suitcase, just so you know."

I nodded and smiled weakly.

There were still some family members that I could trust and I finally found out the truth. However, I still wanted to find my mysterious opponent because he still had explaining to do, like how he knew that I was a daughter of Phobos and my name.

Besides, according to that man, I played Go better than my father, which meant that Phobos himself was an avid player, a conclusion that gave me a strange urge to play him some time, if only to get to know him better and spend some quality time together, as families do, because despite having never known my father up to that point I could feel that he wasn't lying about not claiming me earlier for safety reasons and that he truly cared about my mother and I.

"How was the broth?" Chris asked me. "Are you feeling a bit better now?"

"Yes..." I mumbled. "Thanks...Uncle Chris. Can I call you Aunt and Uncle?" I asked them cautiously.

They both nodded in unison.

"Yes, of course. That's what we are." Clarisse responded. "There's no need to deny the facts." she smiled softly. "Now, try to get some rest, Shinobu. We have a very long trip ahead of us."

I nodded as my eyelids were growing heavier and heavier, as if someone was attaching dumbbells to them.

Now that I had found out that I was Clarisse's biological niece, I couldn't help but feel much calmer than before. With her and Chris around, I could feel as safe as a demigod can. They were decent people who actually wanted to help a fellow half-blood in need and they were acting very much like a family of sorts but, naturally, they couldn't replace the family I had grown up with.

However, that evening I promised myself that, should my grandparents and my mother turn out to be alive, I would introduce Chris and Clarisse to them, not just as my additional family members, but also as my rescuers.

It was with that resolve that I was sleeping that night but what I did not know while setting off for Hypnos' realm was that even my dreams would have something in store for me.

***

Even before opening my eyes, I felt a distinct smell of blood mixed with sweat in the stale, damp air of wherever I was and I also heard someone murmur something in a quiet, broken voice.

Upon coming around, I noticed that I was in a cave-like room, very small, filled with ash gray rocks, icicle-like sharp stalactites, wide stalagmites and nothing else.

I quickly stood up from the cold ground made of gray stone, dusted off the purple nightgown I was wearing and looked around the dim 'room' to locate the source of the murmuring sounds.