Chapter 34

Thalia quickly cleared off the whole table, not just a section of it like Phineas did since if she was going to pull this off she needed no possible scents to interfere with anything.

She watched as Phineas accepted the pen and napkin that Frank had gotten from a food truck vendor before the blind seer scribbled something down on it and stuffed it in his bathrobe pocket.

"I swear on the River Styx that this is the location of Alcyoneus's lair. Not that you'll live long enough to read it" Phineas said as he sat down in front of her.

She merely grunted as she looked towards the harpies that were waiting nervously for her signal, which she had told them was when they opened the vials.

"Now let me feel the vials" Phineas said as he held his hands out.

"Keep your sweats on old man. Not like feeling anything will help they are 100% identical" Thalia said as she set the two vials of Gorgon blood down on the table, before Phineas quickly picked them up.

Phineas frowned as he weighed the vials in his hands, running his fingers over the surface of them before setting them back down.

Thalia narrowed her eyes as she felt a soft tremor shaking towards them before she slammed her foot on the ground, using her increased strength to mess with it as much as she could and counteract it.

She felt her nerves calm down as she almost felt a warm sensation envelop around her as both vials fell over at the same time. "Sorry, no interference from gods. Now we uncork them and choose. Just remember one smell to make it fair" Thalia said with a smirk as Phineas frowned but nodded while she reached forward and uncorked the vials.

Her smirk grew as, just as Phineas went to waft the scent of the vials towards him, the harpies quickly perked up and all flapped their wings, sending a large gust their way.

Thalia knew she had an affinity towards wind, as well as lightning, so she had to focus as the gust blew towards her. She closed her eyes as she inhaled the two scents that blew against her. She remembered how in the Wolf House Lupa helped her realize she could feel where winds were coming from and what they passed over if she focused hard enough.

She was just glad she could still do it as even with the multiple sources she could feel and determine where the cinnamon scent she smelled was coming from as she traced it back through her sense.

"Well you had your sniff. Now we choose" Thalia said as Phineas frowned.

"Wait! I didn't get my smell! The wind ruined it, the gods are interfering!" Phineas yelled as Thalia scoffed.

"The gods aren't interfering considering the gods do not contact us Romans. After Jupiter was dethroned his domains were divided amongst other gods and goddesses. Plus your patron tried to interfere with her tremor so suck it up and choose. You can smell yours when you choose" Thalia growled out as Phineas frowned and grumbled.

"Fine, ladies first I figure" Phineas said as Thalia smiled, glad that he decided to go that way.

"Good, now I choose the one on my right" Thalia said as she picked up the one she had felt the cinnamon scented breeze come from.

"Then I too choose the one on my right" Phineas said as he picked up the one on her left and his right. His frown though turned to a smile as he smelled his vial. "Ah the scent of earth, that can't be a good sign for you" he said as she rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you say, if you're so confident then let's drink" she said as he chuckled.

"Cheers, we drink on three. One," he said as they lifted their vials "two," he said as they put their vials up to their lips "three!" he finished the count as they both tossed back their vials.

The second the blood hit her tongue and poured down her throat Thalia doubled over, the cinnamon smelling blood tasting like gasoline as she felt like it had ignited while going down.

'Healing always hurts, especially the more powerful kind. Bear with it my dear daughter' a man's voice spoke in her head as she clutched it in pain as she grit her teeth and tried to bear with the pain.

"Oh gods, Thalia! You can't die" Hazel yelled in fear as she tried to rush to her friend's side before Percy held her back.

"Nope! Nope, nope, nope" Ella fussed as she nervously shivered and weakly reached out for Thalia weakly.

"Stay back, she has it handled" Percy said as his eyes were steeled on Thalia as she gave them a thumbs up from under the table.

"Yes! Any moment now my sight will return!" Phineas yelled in triumph as he heard Thalia's groans of pain.

"Are you sure about that you blind asshole?" Thalia groaned out as the pain started to ease just as Phineas doubled over like he had been hit hard in the gut.

"Y-You can't! Gaea, you, you promised" Phineas groaned out as he staggered to his feet, stumbling away from the table while clutching his stomach. "I'm too valuable! You have to save me!" he yelled as steam started to come out of his mouth.

It was a sickly yellow vapor that also started to come out from his ears, beard and his blind eyes.

"Y-You tricked me! Unfair!" Phineas yelled as he tried to pull the paper out of his robe only for his hand to crumble away into sand.

"I didn't trick you. I mean sure I had a hint of the smell of cinnamon but I was never outright told that cinnamon meant the healing blood. You still got your sniff after you chose. I was fair, not my fault you let me go first" Thalia said, her voice hoarse as she stood up from the table as the pain had stopped, even if she didn't feel healed.

"Maybe next time you shouldn't gamble when you can't take a loss and I intend to hold you to your oath!" she growled out as she watched Phineas wail and writhe in agony.

He turned around in a circle, as if trying to run away as steam continued to rise off of him while he continued to disintegrate until there was nothing left but an old stained bathrobe and a pair of bunny slippers.

"Those are the most disgusting spoils of war ever" Frank said with a shiver of disgust before they all heard a woman's voice chuckle in amusement.

"While I would get annoyed at you cheating through technicality but in this case I will look the other way as you didn't fully know what cinnamon meant" the voice said as a pool of green mist collected in front of Thalia while a woman rose from the center.

The woman was stunning as she had long glowing green hair with streaks of blue and a pair of murky swirling green eyes. She wore a dress that almost seemed to be made of shadows that hid her olive toned figure.

"W-Who are you?" Thalia asked as the woman cupped her cheek, giving her a feeling of ease and slight fear.

"The river you swore on. Now you are lucky I owe your father for freeing me and moving my essence and my husband out of Tartarus which has sided with that woman. But do be careful next time young girl, I will not take technicalities this well again. Your father might have big plans for you but I take my oaths seriously" the woman, identifying herself as Styx said before her form started to dissolve into green mist and disappear.

Thalia let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding as she felt like she had just dodged a massive bullet while her friends rushed to her.

"Thalia! Who was that?" Frank asked as he helped her up off the ground.

"It was Styx, she was just warning me not to push my luck. She also said my dad has big plans for me so I think he might have helped me" Thalia mumbled as Frank went pale and Ella quickly hopped over to her and nuzzled into her side.

"Plans. Plans and ideas. Kind man of nature. Big plans for Thalia. Food for Ella?" Ella muttered quickly as Thalia smiled and pet the rambling harpy's hair.

"T-That was Styx. Oh gods that's not good" Frank said as she waved him off.

"Yes we'll get you food Ella and Styx said she let this one time twisting of her oath go since my dad apparently got her and her husband out of Tartarus. We need to keep moving, what does Phineas' note say?" Thalia asked as she stood back up with Ella huddled to her side while she could already hear the other harpies rushing over.

"Here have some cinnamon rolls" Thalia said as she handed one over to Ella who happily held it close to her chest and squeaked in joy.

"Nope, nope, nope," Ella muttered, half singing as she swayed next to her "Phineas nope. Food and words for Ella yes".

Thalia stood next to Hazel as the daughter of Pluto prodded the robe with her cavalry sword, looking underneath to see if there were any signs of Phineas trying to reform only to see nothing before she turned towards her.

"I have got to say twisting an oath like that has to be either the bravest thing I've seen or the stupidest" Hazel said as Thalia chuckled and pet Ella's head and the other harpies as they had gathered around her like her little flock.

"Yeah that makes sense, somehow I feel like my dad would be proud of it. Now let's see what I almost died for" Thalia said as she tried to lean down to grab the note only to find herself not able to move as the harpies were too closely huddled against her.

"Relax, I got it" Percy said with a chuckle as he picked up the note and unfolded it. "Hubbard Glacier, do you know where that is?" he asked Hazel who nodded.

"Yeah, I know where that is, it's pretty famous but we have a long, long way to go to get to it" Hazel said as they frowned.

"Then we'd better go, we have to hurry" Thalia said as the harpies started to squawk at the idea of her leaving.

"Well I hope you know how to get the harpies to stop following you like a mother hen" Percy joked as Thalia frowned and quickly calmed them down.

"I'll meet you all back at the boat. I'll think of something just give me some time" she said as they nodded and left her alone with her little flock.

She frowned as she sat at the table turned towards the harpies as they sat on the ground in front of her. She didn't want to abandon the harpies as she felt something towards them.

"Help them my daughter, use these to ensure they are safe. The pins will ensure them safe travel to as well as knowledge of the camp" Juno's voice whispered in her ear as a breeze blew by and a stack of purple Camp Jupiter shirts and peacock feather pins on top of the shirts.

'Thanks mom' Thalia thought with a smile as she pet the heads of a few of the harpies.

"Sweeties I can't take you all with me right now but I am going to send you somewhere safe I promise" she said quickly to silence the sad whines from the harpies. "Just let me put these on you so you can be safe when you get to camp" she added as they nodded and while it took a while, being that each harpy wanted the shirt on them in a certain way, she had gotten all the shirts and peacock feather pins on them.

She couldn't help but find them cute as they bounced and hopped around with some wearing the shirts as sashes, dresses and even a few pants as she put all the pins pierced into the shirts. "Look girls you know where to fly to right?" she asked as they all nodded and chirped in approval. "Good now go there and find Reyna, she's a pretty girl with two metal dogs. I'll be back to camp later when I am done with my quest. They will give you food" she said as they nodded and flew off into the air until only Ella was left next to her, hugging her arm with her feathered wings.

"Ella can stay?" the shy harpy asked as Thalia nodded, not feeling safe of sending Ella with the others as for some reason the smaller harpy felt important to her, too important to just send away.

"Ella can stay but I really have to make a call first to warn my friend Reyna of the harpies coming" Thalia said as she pet Ella's head, making her coo as she pulled out a drachma and started to draw forth some water chakra in her mouth.

Ella let out a very soft giggle as she sprayed a mist of water into the air and tossed a drachma into the rainbow.

"Oh Fleecy do me a solid, connect me to Reyna at Camp Jupiter" Thalia said as the image of Reyna, reading a book in what looked like to be her room, came into view.

"Oh gods, again?" Reyna exclaimed in shock as she had already been surprised once by this weird Iris messaging in the bath. She was just glad this time she wasn't in another situation that would embarrass her in front of Thalia.

"Yeah sorry but I had to call. While on the quest I came across a flock of harpies and they kind of imprinted on me. I got a gift of Camp Jupiter shirts and peacock pins from my mother Juno to ensure they would get to camp safely. Warn the camp not to kill them and look after them please, if that isn't too much" Thalia said a bit nervously as Reyna chuckled and closed her book.

"How many is in this flock?" Reyna asked as Thalia rubbed the back of her neck.

"Umm, between 12 and 15. They are well behaved and might be a bit hungry. Please they were abused by Phineas, which we will explain when we get back. Harpies like cinnamon" she said as Reyna sighed and nodded, waving her off.

"Fine I'll warn the border patrol to look out for them and make a place for them. If the others get annoyed I'm sure Lady Juno wouldn't like harpies bearing her symbol to be killed especially when they were given the symbol through her daughter. Be safe on the quest and I…I need to talk to you when you return" Reyna said with a soft blush on her cheeks before she waved through the message, ending the call.

Thalia was a bit confused by the last part but nodded as she was glad that harpies were going to be safe when they arrived at camp. "Okay Ella we shouldn't keep the others waiting but we should probably get some books for your nest shouldn't we?" Thalia asked as she held out her hand for Ella, who looked quickly between her and her hand before tenderly setting her hand on Thalia's and nodded.

Thankfully she had been able to find a nice stash of recycled books and magazines to make a nest for the red headed harpy before they had decided to head back to the boat, which quickly set off after they arrived.

She smiled as she finished making the nest for Ella while the sped down the Columbia River. "How's that Ella? All comfy?" she asked as Ella nodded.

"Friends. Ten seasons. 1994 to 2004. Friend makes good nest for Ella. Friends melt Phineas and give Ella jerky. Ella will go with her friends. Friends who are nice to her" Ella muttered as she nuzzled against her hand while nibbling on the jerky Percy had given her.

Thalia chuckled as she stood up, letting Ella get comfy as she relaxed and recited random lines from Charles Dickens and 50 Tricks to Teach Your Dog. She watched from the seat closest to Percy, who was focused on driving while Hazel and Frank talked.

Her mind was still throbbing in slight pain as she figured it was the potion taking its course. She merely enjoyed the view of the ride as they reached the ocean and the sky started to darken, making the sea turn the same rusty color of Ella's wings.

'June 21st is almost over. 72 hours until the Feast of Fortuna and our deadline. This is going to be close' Thalia thought as she was pulled from her thoughts as she overheard Hazel start to explain everything.

From how Hazel's own mother had summoned Pluto and fell in love. How her mother wished for all the riches in the earth, which became her curse. She continued on to describe her life in New Orleans before the Voice, which was explained to be Gaea, had taken over her mother and moved them to Alaska.

She felt a bit bad to overhear Hazel's story but being that they were on a small boat there was really no way not to overhear it.

She continued to listen as Hazel explained how she had helped to raise the Giant Alcyoneus under her mother's force and how she had died by sinking the island into Resurrection Bay.

"You sacrificed yourself to stop a Giant from walking. I could never be that brave" Frank said as he squeezed Hazel's hand softly.

"It wasn't bravery. I let my mother die. I cooperated with Gaea too long and I almost let her win" Hazel said as both Thalia and Percy sighed.

"Hazel, you stood up to a primordial goddess all by yourself. You did right" Thalia said as she smiled to her friend to relieve her worry as best as she could.

"Yeah and what happened it Underworld…I mean after you died. You should've gone to Elysium but if Bianca brought you back there had to be a reason" Percy said as Hazel shook her head.

"I didn't go to Elysium. Please don't ask" Hazel said in a course voice as her eyes began to dull.

"Hazel?" Frank asked worriedly as Ella perked up in her next.

"'Slip Sliding Away' number five US single" Ella muttered as she looked at Hazel and Frank. "Paul Simon. Frank, go with her. Simon says, Frank, go with her" Ella said as in Hazel's daze she reached out and clung to Frank's hand before both Hazel and Frank started to fall before she and Percy grabbed them before they fell onto the ground.

"What happened to them?" Percy asked as he and Thalia laid the down on the floor of the boat.

"Sharing, sharing is good. No more blackouts. Biggest American blackout, August 14th 2003. Hazel is sharing. No more blackouts" Ella muttered as she crouched back down in her nest.

"Okay, I'm not sure what that means exactly but I trust Ella's little bursts. I feel like they won't be getting up anytime soon. We should keep driving, if they don't wake by the time we reach Seattle then we park the boat and try some first aid or something" Thalia said as Percy frowned but nodded.

She wasn't sure what was going on with them but they were still breathing and their hearts were still beating. Plus with their time limit they couldn't pull over and stop their progress.

"Oh yeah Percy here you go" Thalia said as she tossed Percy a baggie that held two vials of Gorgon blood. "It's the one that smells like cinnamon. It's a pretty clear so that can help with your memories. I am already feeling something coming back. It'll be good to get it over with while we are somewhere safe" she said as she could feel her mind clearing up already.

She wanted her friend to get his memories back just like how hers were starting to. 'Annabeth, I promise I will remember more about you. Just you wait I'll get this over with and I will find you again' she thought as she relaxed next to Ella's nest, a bit nervous but excited for what she was bound to remember while the boat continued on through the sea.