Chapter 9 (Piper)
Piper was sitting in Jason's cabin waiting for him to become conscious again after he had badly gotten his head injured(him being her boyfriend). She had feared even with the nectar and ambrosia (these were both foods to heal wounded demigods with their injury) they had managed to give him, she couldn't help the feeling of him losing his memory once again like he had when they had just arrived at Camp Half-Blood. Piper had seen visions in her dreams that were too disturbing, and it didn't help that they kept reappearing more vividly. The last thing she could have done to make herself feel better was to draw her blade, which could show other visions (scenes) to her, but drew out Katoptris, which meant "looking glass". It was just a simple triangular blade, but it had once been owned by Helen of Troy.
She saw demigods gathered in the forum, with Octavian speaking to the mob while shaking his fist. Piper couldn't hear anything since it was a vision, but the gesture was obvious as to say: We need to kill those Greeks! Reyna stood to the side with a tight expression. The scene in her blade had now shifted to a series of images she had seen before in her dreams. She didn't understand any of them: Jason with his eyes gold and on horseback; a woman in a Southern belle dress standing in an oceanside park; a bull with a bearded faced man rising out of a river; and twin giants hoisting a rope pulley that was lifting a large bronze vase. Then came the worst of those: a science in were herself along with Jason and Percy standing waist-deep in water, in some sort of circular chamber. Ghostly shapes moved around her as the water rapidly rose, and in no time both Jason and Percy were pulled underwater, with Piper trying to escape but helplessly clawed at the walls. She pleaded to herself, Don't show me that again, show me something helpful, and made herself face the blade once again. Next, she saw an empty highway with a mileage marker that read, Topeka 32. On the side of the road, she saw a man holding up a silver goblet and beckoning Piper to come towards her. Somehow she could sense that he had the solution to a problem they would face.
Jason calls for her, and she was so focused on her blade it startled her and made her drop the blade. She came back to her senses, and thankfully Jason had remembered her and what had happened before getting knocked out. Everyone safely made it back to the ship with the supplies needed and after Leo gets the ship in better condition, they meet up at the mess hall to have dinner before calling it a day.
Leo notifies them that he still needs to repair the ship completely before heading across the Atlantic, and Percy points out that while they were on their trip to finding the supplies, Frank had spotted eagles over Salt Lake City figuring the Romans aren't far behind us. Hazel adds that Nico only has six more days until he dies along with Rome. Piper shares her visions she had seen in her dagger Katoptris, and after discussing, they came to the conclusion that Annabeth has to face a task by herself. If she is able to complete it, it may be able to settle an old score between the Romans and the Greeks. Percy asks Jason if he had ever heard of a legend like that, but he hesitates and says he is not sure. Piper could tell he did not want to discuss it at the moment and looked her way as if saying, later. What the future held for them didn't sound pleasant, but they had to put down the ship in the morning before crossing the Atlantic. It needed to be somewhere close, and Piper remembers the vision of seeing a sign that read TOPEKA 32 and suggests going to Kansas.
Chapter 10(Piper)
In the morning, Leo wakes Piper up telling her they are about to land, and thanks her for sticking up for him when he had fired on Camp Jupiter. They both head to the deck, where most of the other demigods are already prepared. Piper talks about the vision she had with the man with the goblet, and they think it may be the Dionysus (Bachus). The members going are decided according to Piper's vision, so she and Jason, and Percy set out to the highway.
They thought it would have been closer, but they weren't making as nearly as much progress as they had anticipated. So, Jason and Percy called for their horses that were driven by spirits, a lot like Hazel's horse Arion. Jason's named Tempest, and Percy's named Blackjack which was a pegasus. They raced down the highway for a good few minutes, and they finally arrived at the mile marker they had been searching for.
Then, the man from her vision appeared into view, and they try and get more information out of him. He talks about how he killed the twin giants Ephiltes and Otis in the first Giant War, and Piper insists that he must help them during the quest. Dionysus negotiates to this, saying he needs a proper tribute in order to help them out. However, he gives them the advice to seek out Gaea's son, Phorcys, who lives in Atlanta and seek out for the saltwater. He disappears suddenly without notice, and then Piper feels a cold feeling like the one Annabeth and Leo had described...
Then, both Jason and Percy drew their swords, and a voice cackled. Piper, my dear, choose which hero will die with you and because she didn't choose, Gaea chooses in her place. Both are suddenly passed by some sort of spirit, and both demigods charged at each other with their weapons.
Chapter 11(Piper)
The boys charged one another. If not for their horses refusing their master's orders, they would've killed each other. Piper called out for Jason, and for a second he turned towards her, but this was enough time for Percy to use the flat of his sword and knock Jason completely off of Tempest. Jason summons lightning and blasts Percy off of Blackjack, and both horses disappear.
Piper commands Jason to stop, but he responds with a voice that isn't Gaea's. She asks who he is, and he responses that they are the eidolons and that they will live again. Percy had recovered from the strike nad knocked Jason off his feet. Piper raises her voice at Percy and asks them if they are a spirit from the Underworld that had escaped. Percy sneers, "I will live again in this body. The Earth Mother has promised. I will go where I please, control whoever I wish." Piper came to a realization that that was what had happened with Leo back at Camp Jupiter.
She knew her words were no use to make whatever had possessed Percy to listen, so when she saw Blackjack emerging from the wheat field behind them, she pours all of her power into her words telling Blackjack that he will knock him out. Percy is confused by her words and the next second he's on the ground unconscious alongside Jason. Tempest was nowhere to be seen, so she mounts the boys and herself onto Blackjack and took off for the ship.
Once they got back to the ship, she immediately tells Leo to set a course for Atlanta, where Dionysus had told them to go to seek out for help. After the boys were up and fortunately not badly injured, everyone met up at the dining table and explains what had possessed both the boys and quite frankly Leo. However, they don't have any evidence to show their innocence, so talking it out with them isn't an option. Piper also mentions how Gaea needed the blood of two demigods, one female, and another male. Both Leo and Percy seem to know similar information, and they think that demigod's blood must have some power over waking up Gaea. That's why they needed two of them captured alive. While they were all about to end the conversation and call it a night, Piper beckoned for everyone's attention. "There's one last thing. The eidolons, the possessing spirits. They're still here, in this room."
Chapter 12 (Piper)
Piper couldn't explain how she knew, but they were a lot like the Cherokee spirits her Dad used to tell her. She had a gut sense that they were still present, simply because no one had told them to go away. She calls for the eidolons to raise their hands, and Jason, Percy, and Leo were the ones that obeyed. All three of their eyes turned glassy and gold. She commands using her charmspeak to never possess a crew member on this ship and to leave their bodies on the River Styx. The spirits obeyed Piper, and all the boys came back to reality.
Piper and Jason walk along the deck, and Jason tells her about what he knows about the old Roman legend concerning Annabeth and her quest searching for the mark of Athena. The story goes that the Romans had stolen something important from the Greeks, and taken it to Rome and hid it there. Every generation a few are chosen by the goddess Athena to find it, but they have been searching for millennia. It claims that if the Greeks ever found whatever ha been stolen, they'd destroy the legion and Rome, and after what Nemesis had told to Leo and Hazel, he can't help thinking that's how Rome would be destroyed in five days. He tells her that he will tell Annabeth what little he knows about the legend when they reach closer to Rome, in hopes that it will help her.
Thoughts
These few chapters answered some of the questions I had longingly waited for an answer for. I was relieved that Leo firing onto Camp Jupiter wasn't his doing and in fact the eidolons, but unfortunately, they won't be able to convince the Romans to make peace with them without any evidence. I'm curious about why Dionysus advised them to meet the god Phorsys, who is another child of Gaea. I want to know why he would give any insight into what Gaea and the against might be planning to the enemies, which are the seven demigods. Yet these chapters were informative, they were quite long for me and I honestly wanted the story to get to the point a bit quicker.
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