Bag of Depravity
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In Pursuit of Power: Chapter 13
🕑 Added 2024-09-20 18:35:28 +0000 UTCChapter 13
When in Rome...
There were so many things that I wanted to ask Thalia. How she’d been these last three years. What she and Calypso went through while I was asleep. How she figured out she could fly of all things, and how it didn’t drive her fear of heights totally bonkers.
But now, driving our floating chariot while she flew next to it, none of that would come out of my mouth.
Large buildings slipped by underneath us. We were traveling northeast, further away from LA, but that hardly seemed like it mattered. Right now, putting distance between us and the remnants of Kronos’s attack was what mattered most.
“Who was that?” Thalia asked.
Even her voice had changed. She was taller now, almost six-foot. Without trying, I noticed how her figure had filled out, particularly around the chest and hips. Even her style had changed. Rather than the punk look she went for when I met her, or the silver parka she adopted as a Hunter, she was dressed for efficiency. Black pants, gray shirt, all perfectly fitted to hug her body.
“The one that got caught in the blast,” she clarified. “The one that pushed you away.”
So she saw that. Something warm rushed through my gut— shame or grief, I couldn’t tell.
“Martin,” I said. “He was new. Worked for Rio before.”
“That scumbag?” Thalia asked.
“The mortals working for him got a second chance after he ran into some trouble. Whether they wanted it or not.”
Thalia whistled lowly. “You took him down?”
“Calypso, actually. I just gave her a little push.”
“As long as he got what was coming to him,” Thalia said with a shrug. Suddenly, something caught her eye. “Hold up a second.”
I willed the chariot to stop. Slightly further behind, Calypso did the same with hers. Thalia dove down toward the flat roof of a nearby grocery store. A moment later Calypso and I followed her, wheels hovering just above its shingled surface.
Surprisingly, there were people waiting for us.
One, a blond girl with a heart-shaped face and a small build watched our descending chariots like a rodent ready to bolt. I think the only thing that stopped her was the sight of Thalia. Piled behind her were stacks of crates. Non-perishable foods, mostly, but a few contained things like napkins, soap, and hygiene products. They probably came from the store we were on the roof of.
Two boys crouched by the crates, looking at us with just as much fear. Not that I blamed them. If I saw two flying chariots swoop out of the sky pulled by clouds, I’d be the exact same. Considering Lelantos was still strung up on the front of one like a trophy, I probably would’ve vaulted off the roof long before the wheels touched down.
Both of the boys were of asian descent, but very different kinds. One was a good-looking Indian boy with a head of messy hair and sharp brown eyes. The other was a Chinese boy nearly twice his size. Despite a soft face, his hands were large enough to wrap around a cantaloupe in one squeeze. A strange holster was strapped to his chest as if for a gun, but I didn’t see any handle protruding out.
The blond girl was the first to speak.
“Who?” she said simply, pointing at us.
Thalia rolled her eyes. “I told you I was expecting friends.”
“Your friends have a man tied to the front of their chariot,” the Chinese boy pointed out.
“Thank you for noticing,” Lelantos said. “I really do appreciate it.”
He’d relaxed a bit since his panic when Kronos attacked, but he still looked paler than was natural.
“Technically he’s not a man,” I said. “He’s a Titan.”
That didn’t seem to help them relax.
“We can’t feed that many,” said the blonde, scanning all the faces behind me.
“You can for one night, Leila,” Thalia said. “They’re not staying long. Right?”
Before I could answer, Calypso stepped off her chariot. Even when dressed plainly she had an aura that grabbed people’s attention. With her braided golden hair and perfect features, she was as regal as royalty. While everyone’s eyes settled on her, she bowed to the strangers.
“If you can help us find somewhere to stay for just one night, we will be extremely grateful. You don’t have to worry about putting up with us for long. We are on our way to kill my uncle, you see.”
“You’re uncle being…” the Indian boy asked.
“A certain son of Iapetus,” Calypso said brightly.
I could see the gears turning in their heads.
“You want to kill the ruler of the West,” Leila breathed. “You’re crazy.”
“I prefer the term ambitious,” I said.
The three teenagers looked at each other.
“Let’s just help them,” said the Chinese boy. “Perry just visited. We have the food to help out.”
“Besides,” said the Indian boy, “I’d rather not annoy people that tie up Titans for fun.”
I thought Leila was going to refuse at first. But after a long pause, she just sighed.
“Move out,” she commanded.
They sprang into motion, piling crates onto a flat tarp with ropes around the edges. I wondered how they were planning to get those out of here. Just because there weren’t as many monsters as in downtown Oakland, didn’t mean the streets were safe.
“Do you want us to carry that?” I asked.
“Nah,” said the Chinese boy. “I’ve got it.”
By now that crates had been moved. I’d be lying if I said I expected what came next.
One moment the burly boy was just that— a boy. In the next he’d bent forward and grown even larger. His skin turned to tawny feathers. His feet lengthened and narrowed. A beak grew out of his face, long, curved and sharp. Faster than you could blink he’d turned into a giant eagle as big as a car.
As the other two went to work closing up the tarp and tying it to his new talons, I had to ask, “What kind of parent do you need to get that for a power?”
Leila glanced at me.
“Frank is a legacy of Poseidon.”
“And his dad?”
“Mars,” she said.
And didn’t that just make me pull up short.
“...Mars?”
-
I knew way less about the world than I thought I did. That was my conclusion as everything I thought I knew about my dad’s pantheon was turned on its head.
Split personalities. Wars. Completely different cultures and customs. These three we just met were demigods, sure, but of a different kind. They were Romans.
To be honest I just tried not to think too much about it. If this was before, news like this might’ve sparked a war. Now…
Well, there was no Camp Half-Blood. From the state of the ones we’d met and how worried they were about stocking food, the roman camp was nothing like it used to be either. There was no way the two sides would fight each other, simply because there were hardly two sides left.
Frank the giant eagle flew slightly behind our chariot. The Indian boy, Pranjal, rode on his back. Thalia was carrying Leila by the shoulders. We’d offered the daughter of Ceres a ride, but she turned it down. Not enough trust there yet.
Thousands of old vineyard trellises lined fields beneath us, overgrown and neglected. Sonoma Valley had gone from a tourist trap to an abandoned stamping ground for things scaly and ugly. Wherever he was, I imagined Dionysus shedding a tear.
Frank swooped down first, and we followed. Behind us was the city of Sonoma, although from what I could see, it was mostly rubble now. And speaking of rubble…
Frank and Thalia both landed in front of what was more ruin than home. Frank transformed and their passengers dismounted like they were home, but I didn’t see much going on.
The stone foundation of a mansion stood covered in moss and ivy. A massive pool marked the middle, filled with a pittance of murky green water. Ancient black char marks had stained the stones. It was kind of pretty, and definitely looked historical and all, but I didn’t see much livability in it.
“Oh,” Calypso said. “Very nice.”
As I became aware of it, the spell snapped and melted. Suddenly I wasn’t looking at a ruin. A three story wooden mansion rose as tall as the nearby trees, hollow in the middle to encircle the pool I’d spotted before. The walls were made of parallel logs with a sloped roof. Altogether, I’d guessed there had to be enough room inside to house fifty different demigods, if they didn’t mind squeezing in a little.
“Welcome to Camp Jupiter,” Leila said. “All that’s left of it.”
“The actual Camp was near Berkeley,” Pranjal explained, already working to untie the supplies. “It didn’t last long. The Titans stayed far away. Probably found it uncomfortable to confront non-Greeks, although we didn’t know it then. That didn’t stop them from sending monsters. There’s only so long you can hold out, you know?”
“We tried,” Frank said.
“That we did, Big Guy,” Pranjal said. “Nobody can say we didn’t. That’s why we’re all that’s left.
“Just three of you?” I asked.
“There’s ten, actually,” Thalia said. She hadn’t moved to help the others, instead looking toward the mansion. “Including the reason I found them.”
“That’d be me.”
The mansion's front door had opened. There, leaning against the frame, was a blond guy that looked almost exactly my age. There was something familiar in his face, even though it was definitely my first time seeing it.
He was tall, fit, and clearly a fighter… or, he had been, at least. Across his eyes ran a gash of discolored skin, all white and pink and ugly. Both his blue eyes were cloudy, covered by a sheen of white. He was blind.
Yet, as he pushed off the door frame and strolled down to us, he didn’t move like he was crippled. His back was straight. Each step was placed firmly, even though he didn’t have a cane.
“I called the others out,” he said. “They’ll be here in a minute to help with all this.” He gestured in exactly the direction of the piled supplies. “First, though… We have guests?”
”Jason,” Thalia said, and I found myself sucked into her smile, so warm in a way I wasn’t used to seeing on the stern girl. “These are the friends I told you about. The ones I’ve been protecting.”
”Gottcha,” Jason said. He smiled at us— and again, it was actually at us, not in a random direction. “It’s good to meet you. I’m kind of the leader of this place, somehow. The name’s Jason. Jason Grace.”
Those strangely familiar features clicked into place. The width of the nose, the shape of the eyebrows, how far the cheeks protruded— I was seeing parts of Thalia in her brother’s face.
It was probably pretty rude — okay, it definitely was — but I couldn’t help it and just pointed at Jason.
”Huh?” I said to Thalia. “Huh?”
”Pretty much how I felt,” Jason agreed. “It’s complicated. I can explain it all, but first… why don’t you all come inside?”
Whatever defensive spells they had up must’ve been seriously powerful to make their home base look like a total dump, because stepping inside I almost gasped. The outside had been cool, but the inside was nice.
Elaborate lights hung from the ceiling. The walls were bare, just parallel lines of stained wood, but there was something charming in that, like we’d stepped inside a vacation cabin in the woods. The purple carpet was clean and only a little too bright.
It wasn’t the decoration that made me like the place, though. There was a certain atmosphere. Just by stepping inside, it felt like I’d been wrapped up in a hug. I felt welcome. I felt loved. Going by the looks on the faces of my followers, they felt it too, although not as clearly.
I couldn’t get my attention off the feeling. As welcome as it was, I knew there was more to it. It felt divine. I was sure it was the work of another god. And yet, just barely out of reach, I could sense there was something else about it…
“Sacrifice?” someone offered.
“That’s it!” I said.
The atmosphere wasn’t just the work of a god, it was a god’s last act. I didn’t know if they faded or were sent to Tartarus, but I could feel it. They poured every last bit of their power into making this place last and survive, something that extended to anyone who called it home for even one night.
My eyes landed on the person that put a name to what I was feeling, ready to thank them.
The words died on my tongue.
He was sitting in a recliner that barely fit his frame. Not muscular, just tall, his face was coated in thin scars much older than the one marring Jason’s face, like he spent his youth diving into blackberry thickets. He wore a dirty tuxedo and had his hair pulled back in a ponytail. He was big for a human, but tiny for what he really was.
My arm transformed in an instant. My immortal authority roared to bear, ready to blast away the slimy punk in front of me. But, just as quickly, that welcoming atmosphere doubled in intensity, siphoning off power. The more I strained to keep my true form partially active, the stronger it pushed against me, and my arm flickered back to normal.
“Give me one reason I shouldn’t tear you to shreds!” I snarled.
The others were looking at me. More than a few had been knocked over when my power came out so suddenly. Jason seemed like he wanted to say something, but he was holding back. And that thing in the chair? It just smiled at me, like we were old friends.
“That’s easy,” he said. “You can’t. This is the Wolf House, you see, the old den of a goddess named Lupa. She sacrificed herself to bless this place when the world fell. None can do each other harm inside these walls, unless they’re willing to destroy what she faded to create. That’s why I chose this place. Let’s have a chat, Percy.”
“We have nothing to talk about, Prometheus.”
The turncoat Titan, Kronos’s head negotiator three years ago, continued smiling at me.
“On the contrary,” he said, “we have much to talk about. A shared interest, even. After all, Percy… aren’t you interested in revenge?
