Chapter 8

Hecate Pov:

"I won't give you the location of your objective, dear. I have helped you enough, it won't do you any good to be too dependant on me." I said as Iliana asked for help. If it was something life-threatening I would have helped her, but not locating Echidna won't endanger her, in fact, it might keep her from danger.

"Fine, but any suggestions." She said. She was currently dreaming, which was our most used method of communication. I enjoy the feeling of being able physically to touch my children.

"You could have used divination, but you neglected that part of your studies," I said amused.

"From all the tales I have read, divination seems more like hogwash than anything useful. The chances are better that it would get me killed." She replied exasperated.

"Reading the future and learning the location of enemies are entirely different."

"Still an annoying magic class. I will see if my spellbook has anything useful. I will talk to you later, mom. Bye." She said before waking up.

~~~

Ezra Pov:

"Are we finally stopping? How much further." George pestered me. I am really starting to regret inviting him.

"Well we have been driving for 8 hours, so it would take us at least another 17 hours to arrive in Kansas, that is without taking account of breaks, where we will try to get more information. On the question of stopping, yes we will. I am quite tired." I said irritably.

"Why Kansas," Amelia asked as she woke up.

"It is in the middle of the USA and I have no idea where to go. Since I don't know if I should go all the way west I will just go to the middle where I could easily change routes."

"Kansas is good. I just found a spell that will allow me to search for a specific monster so long as it is close enough." She said as she held her spellbook in her hand. I stamped out my envy when I saw it. Is it really bad if I borrow it without her permission for just a bit to copy the incantations?

I dismiss the idea, it probably has some enchantments on it so only certain people could use it. I need Hecate to upgrade my meagre magical potential and it is best not to antagonise her by stealing from her daughter.

The only reason I can even use charmspeak decently is that I am a son of Aphrodite. I am bad at any magic not related to my mother's domain. I can barely manipulate the mist on humans, let alone on a demigod or a monster. It is not about being dumb, it is about my lack of magical power.

"Nice, just let me take a nap and we will be on our way unless you have a spell to automate the driving."

"Unfortunately not, but it is fine. We needed another food run anyway." She said. I proceeded to park at a nearby gas station before falling into bliss.

~~~

"Finally in Kansas. The state I know nothing about." I said, exhausted. I want to die. I have barely been getting any sleep these last few days and while I struggled, these guys could happily relax.

The only time I made sure they weren't having fun was when I decided to let us hunt a few monsters to further improve our teamwork. I don't think my punishment worked on the girls, they frankly enjoyed killing monsters too much.

"I'll use the spell while you get more sleep in," Iliana said, sounding worried for me. Good, if she didn't have an ounce of affection for me after driving her around the country, I might as well kill myself and quit my ambitions.

I just nodded before going to sleep again. When I woke up I saw that the guys made a campfire where I parked.

"So how far will I have to travel." I inquired.

"Iliana said they are somewhere in Nebraska. So less than a day of travel." Amelia supplied as she cleaned her blades.

"Thank gods. I was afraid I would have to drive all the way to California or something." I said cheerfully. "Get in the car, I want this done as soon as possible."

I can't wait for planes to become more mainstream or maybe I could learn necromancy and let the undead become my personal chauffeur. We got in the car and spent the next few hours going to Nebraska which was just above the state of Kansas.

"We are a few kilometres away from them," Iliana said. "Before we start our battle, I want to rest for. The spell is exhausting."

"I won't mind getting another nap opportunity, to be honest. Do you know how hard it is to do just one thing for hours with ADHD?" Well, charmspeaking myself certainly helped quite a bit, but I wasn't going to mention that.

"I always thought a quest would be more exciting. Sitting and sleeping in a car for most of the time certainly doesn't count for a good time." Iliana said.

"It is better than walking. So I am glad I won't have to do that again." Amelia said. "There is those three sisters with the taxi cap but I find them too creepy and the fees they charge are insane."

"Your method of transportation for a quest was walking? I can't see myself doing something so bizarre." George said shocked. We continued some small talk as we continued driving close to the location. When we were finally a kilometre away, Iliana and I took another nap to make up for the energy we lost.

When we woke up the group looked calm until Iliana decided to blow that calmness away.

"Do you have any information on our enemies or could you an invisibility or scent removing spell on me so that I could scout them," I asked.

"My spell allowed me to sense the location of a monster and I chose chimera, so we know one of them is there. Certainly, a hard monster to deal with but still manageable. The bad part is that using the spell now, I could also identify a hydra with them. Their mother is most likely with them as well." We turned grim at the news. If our morale is weakened we will be at an even worse advantage, so I quickly aim to somewhat help it.

"I can see some fear in your eyes, but know this, my comrades. There may come a day when we will fight insurmountable odds and lose ourselves to the domain of Lord Hades; where we betray our friends to fates worse than death for hideous causes such as greed or preservation.

This however is not that day. She is no Typhon, just his glorified breeder so let us fight for our gods but most importantly ourselves." I hid my cringe as I gave the speech. I used a subtle amount of charmspeak, to help even further.

Their grim expression changed to determined. Good, I had them, now just take out the children of a daughter of Gaea in front of said daughter. This is definitely not a bad idea.

A/N: You can read ahead on pa.treon/DickMcJones. I am on chapter 25 on there.