The Half-Blood Magician, ch. 18: We Topple a Throne

A few nights later, I had a dream where I heard only two words:Camp Jupiter. When I woke up, I decided that if someone had gone to the trouble of sending me a dream message, I'd better listen. I flashed out to the Roman camp. This time, I did not come through inside city limits, but on the banks of a river.

It looked like late summer, which ment I'd been in Lotus about 8 months. I flashed across the banks. Two armed Romans wearing the marks of Praetors came to meet me. It wasn't Michael or Mikaela (thankfully), but I did recognize one of them. A boy with blond hair and blue eyes. His Duat aura confirmed it-the boy from my vision, with the thunderstorm aura. "Who are you?" He asked. "Um, Stella, daughter of Juventas." Both teenagers took several steps back. "How? You seem the same as when you last visited here." The girl asked. She had tan skin and dark hair, and a bright red aura, which usually ment Ares, or Mars, here, I guess, but I got a very goddess-y vibe from her. "I never age. And I'm sorry about that bit back in the 80s. But those two really probably exagerated the whole thing. Anyway, I got a dream message to come here, so... here I am."

The praetors had a heated conversation in Latin, then turned back to me. The boy spoke-"I am Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. This is Reyna, daughter of Bellona, and my fellow praetor. You have arrived at an interesting time. In one week's time, we march on the mountain fortress of the Titans, Mount Othrys. If your intentions truly are friendly, you may accompany us."

"Um, sure."

The praetors led me into the city. A scrawny blond boy in a toga stormed up to us. "What is this?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Who" I corrected. "More reinforcments against the Titans." Jason said. The boy went off on all sorts of ramblings about bad omens, but Jason silenced him. "Begone, Octavian." Octavian started to protest, but Reyna gave him a stern look and he reluctantly walked off. "Sorry about him." Jason said.

"It's-" I stopped talking abruptly when I saw a dark-clad figure on the other side of the street. "Nico!"

"You know-" I didn't hear the rest of Reyna's sentence, because I flashed over and hugged him. Then I felt my face get red and stepped back. The praetors looked uncomfortable."I-I thought-" I calmed my breathing and said, "What happened? Where did you go?" Nico grimaced. "My step-mother needed me to retrieve some thing for her."

"You know the Ambassador to Pluto?" Reyna asked.

I raised an eyebrow at Nico. "Ambassador to Pluto?"

"Yes. After I completed this task for Pers- that is to say, Prosperpina, I remained in the Underworld as my father's advisor." Nico's eyes said:I'll explain later. So I nodded along. "Well, Nico, you should be able to show Stella to the guest barracks." Jason said as he and Reyna walked off. Nico and I walked through the city, back toward the camp. "How did you find this place?" He asked. "Misfired portal spell, like 30 years ago. You?"

"My father showed me." We'd arrived on the porch of a low building, like a bunker. Two doors stood in front of us, each with a Latin inscription:masculus and feminam.

"'Boys' and 'girls'" Nico translated. "Let's talk out here." He suggested. I agreed. "So your attacking Othrys with Rome?" I asked. "No. I'm just passing through. Tommorow I have to go to Camp Half-Blood to talk with Percy, and then I'm probably going to defend Olympus with the rest of the Greeks."

"Oh. Well, I already said I would help Rome." We stood in silence for a second. "How about, after both of the battles are over, we meet up in Manhatten." I suggested. "Sounds good. "

The rest of the week at Camp Jupiter was pretty cool, even though Nico left the second day. Then it was time to fight. We marched (well, I didn't actually march, but) on Othrys, and were imediatly met with tons of Scythian Dracaenae. I flashed around, stabbing them with my knife or burning them before they even knew what was happening. . When we got into the actual palace, the praetor, Jason, defeated a giant in constellation armor and rams horns-the Titan Krios.

The Battle of Manhatten took a while longer, and went to guard one of the entrances to the New York island with the Hunters. I also met the new Leuitenant, Thalia, who turned out to be the girl in punk clothes from my dream. After the Battle, I met up with Nico a few blocks away from the Empire state building. We talked about the Battle, and then,

"Othrys?" Nico asked. I smiled. "Razed." I summoned my scrying bowl and showed him The Battle. Then a girl passed us on a black Pegasus. "Rachel?" Nico approached the Pegasus and it skittered to a halt. He'd told me flying horses didn't like him. "Get out of my way, Nico." The girl on the Pegasus said. I looked at her in the Duat-no aura at all. She was completely mortal. "What are you doing? " Nico asked her. "I have to get to Camp Half-Blood." "Camp? But-" "It's my destiny." Rachel led the Pegasus away from Nico and it took off. Nico turned to me. "This isn't good. I have to go warn Percy. I'll see you later, okay? "

"Ya, okay."

He sprinted toward the Empire state building.

The Half-Blood Magician, ch. 19:I Sign off, For Now