Chapter Text
Ellis huffed, a little frustrated as she led me to the hole in the ground. Her compass started to spin once we found this hole, of course the last remains for the Titans supporters would hide in a literal hole in the ground. The hole was surrounded by stone that was being gradually swallowed by dirt, moss and grass, and when I looked in the hole it was covered in a layer of old, grey stone like a wall.
It was a well, not a hole. An old, forgotten well.
“Do you think they’re trying out new careers as moles?” I asked with a tired grin. Couldn’t the Titans and their followers just call it quits already?
“I doubt it,” Ellis responded with a sigh, her pale blue eyes moving from the well to me. “Can you sense any water at the bottom?”
My brows furrowed as I tried to concentrate on the sensation of water and not about Titans cosplaying as moles, I could sense some water but nothing deeper than ankle deep water. It definitely wouldn’t be deep enough to cushion our fall if we jumped in, I voiced this to Ellis who grunted.
“Alright, I’ll float us down,” she said, her facial expression changing to something that looked vaguely apologetic to me. Reading her minute expressions and unusual body language never failed to be a challenge but I think I know her well enough now to know what she’s thinking and feeling.
I dreaded this part, I don’t like how my limbs felt like static whenever Ellis made me turn ghost-like too. I had no idea how she could tolerate it, let alone enjoy it. Reluctantly I reached out a hand so my friend could make me intangible too, and I shuddered as she placed her hand in mine and the static feeling spread across my body.
Under Ellis’ power, I floated alongside her and we dove head first into the well. At the bottom of the well, in the gloom I saw a hole that looked recently carved into the dirt and stone. The well led to a tunnel that was lit by lamps and fake tealight candles that ran on batteries, I breathed out a sigh of relief as the sensation of static in my body disappeared.
Ellis kept Ghosting Out, her white blonde hair floating around her. Her body was almost completely translucent like this, so translucent that you could see the veins and muscles underneath her skin and look right through them, and her teeth and eyeballs. The first time I saw it in action I almost screamed in fright, the older she got the more translucent she became when she Ghosted Out. Ellis said it’s because she’s becoming stronger, and when she becomes stronger she becomes more ghost-like.
This time, Ellis was the one to follow me. I had riptide out and I was ready for a fight, and she had her sickle out and she was ready to fight if they gave us any trouble. I was glad to have her watching my back, I never had to walk on eggshells around her the way I have to with Annabeth and the other kids at Camp Half-Blood.
Thinking about Annabeth and how quick she was to insult me whenever I did or said something she doesn't like made me anxious so I tried not to think about her, her jealousy, and how so many people acted like I should date her. I don’t want to, I talked to Mom about how anxious it makes me feel at the thought of dating Annabeth, how I feel like I have to avoid her so I don’t have to deal with people making comments about her jealousy and implying that I should give her a chance. She told me that I didn’t have to date her, and she was so, so sad when she asked if she made me feel that way when she teased me about it and I couldn’t answer her.
Ellis once said; "Sometimes silence says more than a thousand words ever could."
I think she was right.
The tunnel led to a huge room with a weird stone rectangle shaped like an arch or a door, Ellis’ breath hitched at the sight of it and she stopped Ghosting Out. Her feet touched the floor with a little tap, and her flower printed doc martens let off little taps as she moved to stand in front of the stone arch that reminded me of the little arches from that stone circle thing in England. I think they were called the stone hedges?
“That’s a portal door,” Ellis murmured, if her skin wasn’t already bone white she probably would have turned pale. She looked uneasy. “Percy, how much do you know about the Brittonic deities and their demigods?”
“What?” I asked, confused. What were Brittonic deities?
“Ok, I’ll give you a rundown of what this is,” she pointed at the stone arch. “So Brittonic deities are the gods and goddesses of iron age England, they were worshiped by natives of Iron Age England. They were worshiped openly until the Romans invaded in the second century where worship of them was slowly being dismantled, as well as the culture there. The Romans didn’t like that the tribes there were able to be led by women and that the society there could be equally patriarchal or matriarchal instead of primarily patriarchal like theirs.”
“Matriarchal is where society is led by women and women get into positions of power, right?” I asked, wondering what this had to do with Arch. Ellis always had a reason for bringing up background information like this, she was good with giving me context and information without making me feel stupid for not knowing something. I just had to be patient.
“Yeah,” Ellis said with a nod, her free hand brushed the stone arch with a reverence she rarely ever gave to our Greek side. “Then the Romans left in the 4th century and the Brittonic gods and the culture around them carried on for a while, but when Christianity arrived in England in the 7th Century the Christians finished off what the Romans started. And since most of the history of the Brittonic deities were passed through story telling, like the Ancient Greeks did, very little written information of their gods and way of life survived.”
She sighed, her shoulders slumping and her eyes going dull in grief, and she said; “Some pockets of settlements of Brittonic legacies and Brittionic demigods survive in England today, and one of the things they did was use were stone henges and doorways like this as portals to travel across the country.”
“So you think some of the demigods supporting the Titans might be Brittonic legacies?” I asked, feeling a sense of dread. Titans having demigods and legacies that can travel across countries using magic stone portals on their side was bad news, it also explained how they managed to move around and cause so much chaos even when their access to the Labyrinth was cut off by Daedus.
“Or they’ve made allies with some of the Brittonic settlements who don’t have the full story of what’s been happening from our end,” Ellis said, moving her eyes from the inactive stone portal back to me. “Percy, my Grandfather is a Brittonic legacy, and his sister’s grandson is a Brittonic demigod. That’s how I know about all this, it… it doesn’t sit right with me that my Brittonic side is being dragged into this.”
Part of me wondered if, once she finished her education in the Underworld, she might join one of those Brittonic settlements she talked about. She was never shy about expressing how messed up the Greek side of our heritage was, and this would be an easy way out for her.
Ellis hasn’t been in my life for long but I can’t imagine her not being in my life anymore, not when she was one of the few people in my life I can trust without hesitation and will actually explain what’s going on when I ask. The battle in Manhattan showed me that she would always have my back, life without her feels wrong.
“Where do you think this portal goes?” I asked, swallowing down the other questions I desperately wanted to ask her.
“I don’t know,” she said, her pale brows furrowed in thought. She used her sickle to prick the tip of her finger, blood beaded on the tip of her finger and she pressed it against the stone. She pressed it on a part of the stone that had one of those patterns engraved on the stone doorway, what were they called again… celtic knots?
“The only way we’ll find out is if we go through it,” Ellis commented, and the doorway filled with a pale blue mist that never strayed from the door. The mist turned inside the doorway, like it was being stirred by an invisible spoon and the Mist was some kind of magic soup.
The hand with the pricked finger grasped my free one, and she gave me a grim but determined smile, like this was just a boring chore to do and not a possibly dangerous magic door that could spit us out anywhere with no back up. But what else could we do? War almost happened between Greeks and Romans when they found each other for the first time in centuries. What would happen if the Greeks and Romans found out about the Brittonic Gods and demigods? Would it end with another close call or an actual war this time?
I smiled back and squeezed her hand, hoping to hide just how nervous I was. She always seemed to know when I was worried despite being tone deaf and unable to read facial expressions, I’m sure she knew I was scared. She wasn’t though, I can’t remember her ever being scared of anything, now that I think about it.
I kept a tight hold of her hand as we stepped into the Mist together, the Mist caressed every single part of my body, through my clothes and touching my skin but moments later, I was pushed out and the force of it made me lose my grip on Ellis’ hand. I stumbled and landed on my butt on the earthy floor, and when I looked back up, the blue Mist and Ellis were gone.
Alarmed, I cut my finger on riptide and pressed my bleeding fingertip on the symbol like Ellis did. Nothing happened, it was like the portal decided that it wouldn’t answer for me. Panic hit me hard, and I tugged on the link between Grover and I to let him know something was wrong and where to find me.
I ran back to the well, and used the tiny ledges on the stone to pull myself up. I needed help, something happened to Ellis and I needed to find her. Who knows what she found on the other side, and whether she can get back the way she left. Was I not able to use it because I’m not a Brittonic legacy?
Hades, Persephone and Melinoe were going to be furious now that she was missing, and her human grandparents were going to be devastated. I have to find her and make sure she is ok.