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Chiron had sent Percy and Annabeth to Europe, not for a quest but for vacation. They deserved a vacation after going through Tartarus and two wars. The duo had decided to spend the majority of the trip in London, England. They visited many historical sites in London and Annabeth described and marveled at the architecture of each. Did you know that Big Ben is the name of the bell in the tower? Percy did not. He learned the tower was originally called “The Clock Tower” but was changed to the Elizabeth tower in 2012. It had been two days since the start of their trip, but they had not encountered a single monster yet, almost like London was being protected.
Today, Percy had convinced Annabeth to just walk around the shops with him. Percy wanted a break from looking at all the buildings because while he loved Annabeth, he could only spend so long looking at a structure. He regretted his suggestion of looking at shops pretty quickly. Annabeth had spotted a bookshop and was now dragging him with her into the shop. Upon entering, Percy noticed that only one other person was in the shop, and it looked like the person was the owner. The squiggles on the owner’s name tag matched the squiggles on the front of the building saying who owned the bookshop.
Annabeth immediately took off towards a section of books that look like they were written in Ancient Greek. This surprised Percy, most bookshops do not sell books in foreign languages especially not dead languages like Greek. Percy soon followed Annabeth in hopes of finding a book in Greek that might pique his interest, but he was doubtful.
“Come over here!” Annabeth shouted and Percy raced over to her with his hand reaching for Riptide. Percy breathed out a sigh of relief when he found out that she was not in danger. Annabeth had just found scrolls on the designs of the Parthenon. Annabeth was beginning to pick up the scrolls to examine them when a shriek sounded behind them. Percy swirled around with Riptide uncapped. Unfortunately, there was no actual danger and Percy ended up slashing the owner in the stomach. Per y could only guess that the owner had been about to warn them that the ancient scrolls were fragile or that they were not for sale. Shock was evident in the owner’s face as the owner looked down to where Percy had slashed him. Great, Percy had slashed another mortal accidentally, but the owner could not have been mortal. Riptide had cut the owner! The injury was rather small though given their proximity to each other, but a red liquid was seeping from the cut. Suddenly, a stranger wearing black leather with short and brilliantly bright red hair came rushing over to the scene. Percy looked at Annabeth, silently asking who or better yet what the bookstore owner was. Annabeth only shook her head in confusion. That was not a good sign.
The stranger growled out, “What did you do to my angel,” to Annabeth and Percy. The stranger was sending them a threatening glare before checking on the wound Percy had inflicted.
“Darling, I am fine,” the owner mutters to the stranger.
Percy counters the strangers with, “A better question is what they are considering they are not mortal.”
“How’d you know that?” the stranger asked warily. The stranger was suspicious of Percy and Annabeth before but was even more so now.
Percy replied, “Celestial bronze,” he lifted his sword, “only cuts people or beings that are not fully human.” The stranger seemed to edge away from Riptide at that. Maybe the stranger was not human, too? Made sense because their companion was not human.
Annabeth asked, “What are you?” as she began to unsheathe her drakon bone sword.
The owner decided to finally speak, “Now dears, I need you to calm down so we can sort this all out. We do not have any ill intent towards you.” Both Annabeth and Percy were still skeptical, but it was hard to fight the sense of tranquility and comfort that washed over them. Percy dazedly noticed that the owner no longer had a cut on their stomach, but tranquility erased any worries he had. The swords were put away and Annabeth and Percy found themselves following the owner while the red-haired stranger trailed behind them. Percy was subconsciously worried about how similar this feeling was to when he was lured into Medusa’s lair but could not find himself to care. He noticed the stranger was more relaxed now as well, but Percy had a feeling that it was due to the owner being healed and the lack of weapons in Annabeth and his hands.
“Why don’t you sit down. I am just going to fetch us some tea,” the owner says. The owner said that he would “fetch” the tea, but the owner really just snapped his fingers and the tea appeared in front of everyone. The stranger gives the owner a look for summoning the cups in front of Percy and Annabeth’s eyes, but the owner just shrugs it off. Soon, everyone was seated around a small round table in the back room of the bookshop. There were even more books back here and Annabeth was searching the books to see if anything else piqued her interest. Percy bet that Annabeth would buy the whole bookshop if she could. The owner set down the cup of tea he had been drinking and introduced himself, “I am Aziraphale, guardian angel of the Eastern gate.”
“Eastern gate of what and what do you mean by angel?” Annabeth questions.
“Oh…ah… I guarded the garden of Eden. The second question is harder to explain. The best example is that I am an angel like those in the Bible, divine beings that watch over and help humanity,” Aziraphale explains.
“Well at least you are doing something,” Percy says grumpily.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Aziraphale says in confusion and outrage that this boy thinks that he would not try and help humans.
“Our gods send us on ‘quests’ to do stuff that they are too lazy to do themselves and all because we are their kids,” Percy says spitefully.
“But you look like you are only sixteen,” Aziraphale says in astonishment.
“Technically we are seventeen but close enough. The only reason we are in London is because we wanted a break after being forced to fight in two wars for them,” Percy says as he seems to grow angrier at the gods by the minute.
The stranger pops into the conversation with, “I thought humans created the most chaos with them starting the World Wars without demon interference.”
Annabeth takes the opportunity to tell the stranger they are wrong by countering with, “The humans did not start those wars. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades were using mortals and their demigod children to see who was better. By the way, you never told us what you are.”
“Demon, names Crowley,” Crowley says lazily. “What about you two? Immortals too?”
“Demigods. My mother is Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy,” Annabeth says proudly before introducing her boyfriend. “Seaweed Brain here is the son of Poseidon.”
“Those are both Greek gods are they not?” Aziraphale questions.
“Yes, the Greek gods and goddesses are real. Yippee,” Percy says full of sarcasm.
“What is so terrible about that?” Aziraphale asks.
“Well for one, most demigods die young and in painful ways because monsters constantly hunt them down just because they are demigods. Second, Greek monsters do not truly die so even if you turn it to dust for a little bit, it will come back to kill you with a vengeance. For example, I killed the minitour when I was younger, and I faced it again about two years ago. Third, the gods do not care about whether we live or die, they only care when they need us to do something. Fourth, the gods made a rule that they cannot interact with demigods even their kids. We are fixing the last one though,” Percy replied.
“You have defeated the minitour?” Aziraphale questions in surprise.
“He’s bluffing,” Crowley says.
“No, he is not. The first time he defeated the minitour was when he was twelve and he did not even have a weapon at the time. Also, he has done loads more impressive things since then,” Annabeth says proudly.
Percy looks a little sheepish at the compliments. “You have done some amazing stuff too, Wise girl. Not just anyone can hold up the sky for a day and defeat Arachne,” Percy says before going to kiss Annabeth.
Aziraphale interrupts them by coughing before saying, “I don’t think we ever got your names dears.”
“I’m Annabeth Chase and this is my idiot boyfriend, Percy Jackson,” Annabeth says with a huge smile.
“If I remember correctly, Athena and Poseidon hated each other in the myths,” Crowley prods.
“Athena does. She is still angry at me for dating Annabeth simply because I am the son of Poseidon. No matter what I do she does not seem to want me to date Wise girl. By the way, I thought demons and angels did not get along?” Percy says.
Annabeth whispers, “That is rude to just ask.”
“They were the ones to ask why we were dating given our parents rivalry,” Percy whispers back.
“Well, we are not like the other angels and demons,” Crowly says ominously.
The group then begins to tell stories of how they meet their other halves and adventures they had been on together. Later, Aziraphale spots the time and says, “It is getting late my dears, you should head back now. I hope we can meet again soon?”
“Before we go, can I buy one of the Greek scrolls or books in architecture?” Annabeth asks earnestly.
Aziraphale looked saddened by this but reluctantly says, “I suppose so, I do not have a use for architecture books being a bookshop owner.”
Annabeth and Percy leave the bookshop happy to have made new friends instead of enemies and with Annabeth owning a few more books than she had before. The group had made plans to swap more stories the next day.