The Guardians and their doors.

Chapter where the author refuses to apologize

A seagull landed on the deck, glowed gold briefly, and turned into a teenaged god.

"Hey, Perce!"

Percy turned to see Jason and Leo jogging towards him, Leo's hands full of metal bits and bobs.

"Hey." Percy greeted, going through a shortened version of his and Jason's typical handshake with the Custos leader. "What's up?"

"We're almost to the Varden. Annabeth is up in the captain's quarters with some stuff you need to see before we get there." Jason said. He was enjoying shoving the Custos's problems at Percy since he had been regulated to a second in command. According to Piper, he had been grinning every time he left to deliver paperwork to Percy's desk.

"And more importantly Axel's been kidnapped!" Leo cried a piece of metal that looked suspiciously like one of Nico's mythomagic figures falling off his pile.

Percy blinked. He knew all the Guardians and none of them were named Axel.

And so, with great hesitation, he cautiously asked, "Whose Axel?"

Leo's jaw dropped and he stared at Percy like the god was singlehandedly responsible for every eldritch horror and massive tragedy in the history of the multiverse.

Jason mumbled something along the lines of "Here we go again" as everything fell to the deck and Leo grabbed Percy by the shoulders and began to shake him violently.

"Whose Axel? Whose Axel? He's my best freind, my bro, my amigo, my hermano, my arson buddy, the light of my life!"

"Don't let Calypso hear you say that," Jason muttered.

"How do you not know!?" Leo cried, his hair and shoulders bursting into flames.

Percy pryed the blacksmith off before his favorite shirt got more than singed and looked at Jason for clarification.

"Dumbledore's phoenix flew the coop and has been hanging out in Leo's workshop ever since we left the Wizarding world," Jason said, sliding up to Percy in a way that put the god between him and the smith. "But he's been hanging out with the musicians for a few days now."

Leo burst into tears that threatened to burn the deck and were more dramatics then anything else.

Percy nodded. "Leo, he'll come back. Especially when we start moving out and aren't playing music as much. In the meantime, why don't you go hang with Festus."

Leo grinned, tears gone. "Is that permission to take a day off?"

Percy blinked and the blacksmith was gone.

"You walked right into that," Jason smirked.

Percy glared. "You knew what he was up to. You were in on it the entire time."

"Yup. Annabeth really does need you to see you up in the captain's quarters  though."

With that, the son of Jupiter leaned backward, flipping off the rail and flying towards the Argo five.

"Yo, Prissy!" Clarrisse yelled from the hatch leading below. "Get your podex in here before I drag you."

"Coming!"
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Nasuada looked out upon the burning plains which had turned black from the sheer number of empire soldiers.

"A hundred thousand troops, milady." One of her aides said, looking at a scroll in her hands. "80,000 footsoldiers, 2,000 magicians, 18,000 calvary."

Nasuada nodded. "And the dwarves?"

"On their way. But they will not arrive for another three days." 

Nasuada sighed. "And what of Eragon?"

"He sent a message on ahead that he is a day out." A different aide said. "He and Saphira have been flying at night to avoid attention."

"And the Kidemonas?"

The aides all exchanged looks before one, the newest, spoke. "They stopped over Dras Leona. They have been anchored there since yesterday."

"Do they mean to break bread with the King?" Another asked.

"We do not know. Only those monsters have been spotted fighting on the mountains. Along with massive warriors of light performing strange dances."

Nasuada hummed. "Keep me up to date. Perhaps the Kidemonas are our enemies, but I will stand by what Eragon has told me. Do not attack them unless they do so first."

"Yes, milady."

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I'm not going to apologize for the long wait. Only those things have been rather rough for a while. Hopefully, I can start updating again, but this may be a one-off before I sink back into depression. You can have some fanart however.