Okay. Cool. I took a couple of deep breaths, ignoring the stabbing pains in my right arm, and turned, slowly picking up all of my marked arrows and putting them back in my [Inventory] for later. I got the sense that they'd come in handy if I ever needed to fight a slow-moving enemy again.
I turned back towards Atlantis, the mark I'd placed on Amphitrite pulsing a pale blue. Tiredly, I felt the ocean currents pick up my weary body towards the mark.
"Perseus!" Amphitrite screamed loudly as I walked into the dining room, where she was sitting with my father, Delta, and three other people I'd never met before. "Oh my…Perseus, you idiot! What have you done?"
I'd taken great care to make sure no civilian saw me like this, and for good reason. Even with all of my enhanced healing, my arm was getting back to normal very, very slowly. My hand was still a mess, my shoulder was still pointing in a way no shoulder ever should, and my arm was still demolished. The undershirt I'd been wearing was covered in slashes and some blood, and for some reason, some of the fire from earlier had burned me too, leaving my skin a couple of shades redder than I remembered.
"Hey," I said, lamely waving with my good hand. "How's it going?"
"Son," Poseidon said, his face going through a number of emotions. I saw him flash through disgust, anger, annoyance—basically the whole spectrum, before settling on one: pride. "How are you?"
"Honestly? I've been better, Dad," I laughed, gesturing with my mangled arm, which I could now move a little more. "I've been better."
"Percy, why don't you tell us what happened?" Delta joined the conversation smoothly, speaking before Poseidon could continue with our banter. "Start with when you found Lady Amphitrite."
"Perhaps our queen should leave," one of the men spoke up, and the rest gave their assent.
Amphitrite nodded, shooting me a meaningful look and exiting the room.
"Well, I successfully identified Carcinus' daughter, Malia, and she came to me with some interesting knowledge…"
A half-hour and a tall glass of water later, I was done with my story, and almost everyone in the room was looking at me in awe.
Delta was the first to speak up. "Well…wow."
"Wow, indeed," Poseidon muttered, rubbing his chin. His eyes swept over the other three people I didn't know. "Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta—your thoughts?"
"It's troubling that Oceanus is making a move of this caliber," the first man, Alpha, said. He stood tall, his chest and legs covered in a teal set of armor with a maroon cape. His hair was cropped, barely advancing to his forehead—but the weirdest part about him, by far, was that I couldn't see his eyes. Alpha turned to me, his eyes covered in a black-linen wrap, similar to the original eyepatch I'd used—that's why I couldn't see his eyes. "It's clear he wishes to use the young prince as a host. After hearing about this fight, I must confess that I see the merit. Our fullest efforts should be placed in protecting him."
"Brother, must you always be so dramatic?" The shorter man, Gamma, butted in. He was wearing a Triton Rocks! T‑shirt and a pair of skinny jeans—he must've been at the concert. Like the rest of his family, he had black hair, but he wore it in a braid that came down to his upper back. "Yes, Oceanus wants the prince, and while that is a concern, I'm more concerned about how a mission request from that girl went unnoticed for so long."
"Percy said that Carcinus had a man on the inside," Delta reminded the group. He was playing with a knife, occasionally sharpening it against the stone slab he was sitting on. "Nonetheless, I'm with Gamma. The real issue here is this mole. If there's truly an information breach in Atlantis, our first order of business should be identifying it and swiftly dealing with it. Otherwise, these problems will simply compound, over and over."
"My younger brothers are correct," Beta agreed, waiting until the end to put in his two cents. He looked like a carbon copy of Alpha, clothes and all, but his hair was tucked into a headband, and his eyes were a brilliant shade of blue—out for everyone to see. "Perseus has shown himself to be capable of defending against threats. It would be a waste of resources to put extra detail on him. I say he continues training with Delta, and we put forth an effort to find the leak."
Poseidon hummed. He hadn't moved from his thinking position since the commanders had begun to give their opinions. A sigh escaped from his lips, and he looked at me.
"And you, son? What's your take?"
I took a few moments to myself, composing my thoughts.
"Carcinus said something that troubled me. He said, the hunt begins, right before I killed him. While I'm not concerned for my safety, that sentence makes me think the citizens of Atlantis could be put in harm's way if we don't find the one leaking all of this stuff soon. I agree with them. This information leak has to be our main concern."
"It's decided, then," Poseidon rumbled, his trident glowing in his hands. "Track the leak. Once you find this…traitor, bring him to me, and I will allow him a taste of my trident. Dismissed."
The four commanders disappeared in a flash.
"Son…I'm sorry," Poseidon's face softened, and I saw that his forehead creased with worry lines. "I never meant for you to get involved in something of this nature."
"It's fine," I shrugged, meaning it. The Game was going to use all of this to boost my powers even more, and I was all here for it. Also, my dad was definitely more pissed off and stressed than I'd ever seen him—the last thing I wanted to do was add to that. "Stuff doesn't always go how you planned. I'm not going to sit here and complain about it, so let's just keep this going. We need to find the leak."
"We will," Poseidon snarled. He raised his trident. "I need to go make some inquiries. Rest tonight, Percy."
My father disappeared a moment later. Man must've gone to blow up some underwater cliffs, or something.
I exhaled slowly, sitting down on one of the chairs and closing my eyes. Damn, that's right. I told myself I would talk to Aphrodite soon. She said something about being able to speak to her through our bond a while ago, right?
Okay, cool. Our bond. I can do that.
With my eyes still closed, I mentally thought: Hello? Aphrodite?
Silence.
Okay, so that didn't work. Maybe I had to do something else?
Uh…call Aphrodite.
Nope.
Yoohoo!
Alright. This just isn't working. Maybe I need to actually try to call forth her presence or something? I thought about Aphrodite. Long and carefully. I tried remembering what she'd looked like last time. Her blonde hair, the dress she had on. Her eyes. The smell of vanilla hanging around her. The way she strode across the room—
Percy?
I blinked a few times. Wow, I wasn't actually expecting that to work.
I thought back, Aphrodite?
Hello. Hey. How did your mission go?
Uh…well…I think.
Well, that's certainly good. There was a pause. I knew you could do it.
I smiled a bit at that one. Thanks. Is there, uh, some way we could talk face to face? Just for a bit.
There were a few moments of silence.
Miss me?
Maybe, I replied instantly.
I felt a rush of heat through the bond. I noticed, with a small smile, that it was the same as the feeling I'd gotten when I used her mirror.
Oh. Well, yes, I can bring you to me, if you'd like. I doubt your father would appreciate me coming there.
Yeah…he's on edge right now, for sure. I glanced down at my arm. I'm going to need, like, an hour tops for my injuries to heal to a point where they aren't terrifying to look at.
That's okay. Just tell me when you're ready.
Okay. Talk to you soon.
Bye, Percy.
I grunted, standing up and slowly walking over to where I remembered my room to be. As I turned the corner to my room, I was instantly taken aback and on guard by a guitar noise.
Triton was sitting in front of my door, plucking some guitar strings and singing, "Watch you back up, know you're scared to love again…every time you try, part of you just dies, you're looking dumb again!" He strummed the guitar harder. "It's so hard to trust again, so just like that you don't, uh, you gon' just get drunk again, roll up, and fucking smoke."
"A Triton original?" I made my presence known, giving my half-brother a friendly wave with my non-mangled hand. "Sounds good, brother."
"Perce!" He shot up, leaving the guitar on the ground. He bounded over to me, his eyes wide with worry. "Oh, man. That looks gnarly. Mom came home looking shaken up and said something about you fighting a monster, so I came up to see for myself."
Amphitrite must've gotten here like an hour or two ago! Did Triton really wait here all this time, just to make sure I was okay?
"Thanks, man, I appreciate it," I grinned, meaning every word. I walked over to my door and it slid open. "You should've seen the other guy. Come on, I'll tell you the story."
"Bro, really? Mom went straight to Dad, she didn't even bother telling me anything," Triton complained, stepping inside the room with me. "Oh, what? We gotta get you some decorations in here, this place is dry."
I laughed. "We can do that."
Triton sat on my bed, looking at me expectantly. "Well, brother? You gonna leave me in suspense?"
"Hold on," I said, looking through my closet to find a shirt. Satisfied with my choice, I turned back to Triton. "Alright. So basically, we get there, right, and your mom takes me to meet this dude Carcinus. Real fat guy, honestly, and I thought there was some pizza sauce on his chin at first…"