Love Across Lifetimes

It took the group a couple of hours to arrive at Central Park. To Justin, it seemed an eternity. Last night’s walk with Rose had been running through his mind the whole time. What was she not telling me? Should I ask her about it? No, when she is ready, she will tell me.

Everyone gets out of the van and unloads their supplies, including their new Stygian Iron daggers. Justin turns to Argus, the camp’s head of security looks at him and raises an eyebrow, almost as if to ask if they need anything. “Thanks Argus, we got it from here, drive careful on the way back.”

He gives Justin a nod, then climbs back into the van and takes off.

Justin turns to his group and he can tell that everyone is nervous. He can feel the anxiety building inside of himself. But he can’t let the others see it. So he pushes his fear down further inside of himself, determined to hide it.

“Alright guys, let’s find Grover, then Grace is going to try and find Orpheus’ tunnel. Grover should be pretty close. Charley, mind getting a bird’s eye view?” Justin had to fight to keep his voice from shaking. He had to stay calm and in control.

“On it,” Charley says and takes off flying. Almost immediately, he comes back down. “He is about half a mile north of here.”

“You’re sure?” Justin asks.

“Unless there is another satyr with a bright orange shirt looking around.”

“Let’s get going then,” Justin says.

About ten minutes later, they come up on a satyr who had large horns poking out of his curly hair. He has a fairly long Billy Goat beard that covers half of the words on his Camp Half Blood t-shirt. When he saw the group he jumped up from the stump he was sitting on.

“So I’m assuming you are the army that wants to sneak into the Underworld.” Grover’s voice was full of disapproval.”

“Yes, with your help, if you will,” Rose says, trying to sound as nice as possible.”

“I don’t like it, but I’ll help. Just don’t ask me to go down with you.” Justin could hear the fear in Grover’s voice, the thought of having to go down to the Underworld was probably the worst thing possible for the satyr.

“No, we wouldn’t do that to you Grover. We are just grateful that you are helping us this much. If you ever need anything, let us know.” Justin wanted to comfort the satyr and let him know how grateful they are.

“If you make it back, I’ll hold you to that,” Grover responded. “Let’s go find that tunnel, if my memory is good, it shouldn’t be far from here.”

Grace came forward, “Guess I’m up then.” Her eyes close, allowing her to concentrate. She stands there silently for about fifteen minutes. She finally points to the West and says, “About 500 feet that way, I’m pretty sure it’s around there.”

They walk over to the area that Grace points out. When they get there, Grover pulls out his reed pipes. “Any requests what you’d like to hear?” he nervously jokes. “Percy always used to tell me that my music could split rocks.”

The group gives him a nervous laugh, trying to comfort him.

“Here goes nothing I guess.” Grover says. He puts the pipes up to his lips and starts to play. The music isn’t bad, but it isn’t necessarily good either.

The ground starts to shake, then a fissure opens up in front of us. The opening isn’t very wide, only about four feet.

“Well, good luck you guys. You are going to need it down there.” Grover is trying to sound brave for them.

“Thank you Grover, see you in a little while, alright?” Justin pats his shoulder.

Grover nods.

Justin turns toward the tunnel, “Guess I’ll lead the way.” He brings out Riptide and starts down the tunnel. It is only wide enough for a single file line.

As soon as Ally, who is bringing up the rear, enters the tunnel, the opening slams shut. Leaving them in darkness.

“Guess we can’t count on the cavalry coming,” Ally says.

“Story of a demigod’s life,” Gabe replies.

They all nod in agreement.

Justin presses onward. The tunnel seems to get darker, which Justin can’t believe. The only light comes from Riptide and the other weapons, the blades’ Celestial Bronze let off an eerie glow in the darkness. The tunnel also gets hotter with each and every step they take. The tunnel stretches on for what feels like eternity.

Justin felt like they would be descending forever. But just as he was about to scream from frustration, he suddenly noticed that it wasn’t quite as dark as it was before. He wasn’t the only one to notice either.

“Did it just get lighter?” Rose asks.

“I think so,” he answers.

As they forge on ahead, it becomes clear that it is getting lighter and not so cramped. We must be getting close.

When the tunnel finally opens up and they emerged from the cramped quarters, the sight takes their breath away.

They can see the walls that border the Fields of Asphodel, which are supposed to be full and packed full of souls. As the group looks on at the sight, they all notice something is off. “The fields aren’t nearly as full as they should be,” Justin says. “Based off of what legend has said, the plains should be full of souls, but these look deserted.”

“Where could they possibly be?” Gabe asks. “It isn’t like they could just get up and leave, they can’t even really form a conscious thought can they?”

“No,” Grace answers. “They don’t even know who they are, there is no way that they can leave the fields unless somehow they were commanded.”

Gabe gives a look of confusion and concern. “That doesn’t sound good.” He grabs the hilt of his sword, wanting to draw it, but unsure if he should.

Grace turns toward the Fields of Punishment. “I’m more worried about how quiet the Fields of Punishment are. Those are the really nasty souls. I wouldn’t worry about the souls from Asphodel.”

“Well, where should we start?” Ally asks. “Should we try the Judging Pavilion? That is where Minos resided before wasn’t it?”

“Yes, that is where he used to judge the dead, but if you just took over the Underworld, would you stay where you’ve been for the last few thousand years? No, you’d go straight to the Palace. Where you believe you deserve to live.”

“How do you know that?” Rose asks.

“It’s exactly what I’d do, and I’d bet my last dime that’s what Minos did too. Let’s get going.”

Everyone draws their weapons and they start walking towards the palace.

“We need to be careful,” Grace warns. “We are going to stick out like sore thumbs here.”

“Can’t we sneak in some way?” Charley asks.

“No, only one way to the Palace, and that is through Asphodel Fields.”

Everyone looks around, but then Gabe interjects. “Yeah, but who says we have to walk straight there and through the middle of the fields?” He looks over at the edge of the fields toward some rocks.

Rose gets a look on her face, almost like, Why didn’t I think of that, but then says, “You’re right Gabe, we can go along the side of the fields, along those rocks.”

She points out the rocks that she is talking about. They look as if they can go all the way to the palace, but it is hard to tell for sure.

Grace looks nervously, “We will have to be careful though. If I remember my lessons from Kate, those rocks are the border to one of the entrances to Tartarus.” The air seems to get colder at the mention it. Almost as if some of Tartarus was coming up to the Underworld. Everyone can feel it, they all shiver and try to shake it off.

Determined to keep everyone calm, Justin again pushes his fear down deeper inside of himself. “But it will provide us cover. We will just have to be cautious. It’s our best bet right now.”

With that, everyone sets off across the plains of Asphodel toward the rocks. Constantly on the lookout for anything harmful.

“This seems easy enough, sneak along the rocks, sneak into the palace, knock Minos out, day is saved. What could possibly go wrong?” He gives everyone his signature trouble-maker smile. They seem to relax a little bit.

However, little did they know, they are already being watched.

Notes