ROSE

I woke up with a start, slamming my head into the roof.

I wasn't sure what to make of my dreams, so I simply put them aside and got ready for the day. After I got changed, I headed to the mini-bar for breakfast.

I saw Kai lying on the couch near the bar with Amethyst at his side. Kai seemed to be asleep, as he had drool coming down his shirt and was loudly snoring. Add onto that the fact that he was rolling around like a pig in a mud pond and you've got Kai's sleeping routine.

"Good morning, Amethyst," I greeted.

"Good morning, Rose," Amethyst replied. "Did you get a good sleep?"

I poured myself a glass of chocolate milk and toasted some bread, saying flatly, "Nope."

"Well, why not?"

I went ahead and explained the contents of my vision to her, grabbing my toast and putting it on a plate as I did so.

"Wow, that's quite… strange," Amethyst said, not wanting to go into further detail.

I nodded. "My reaction exactly." I sat next to her and asked, "How's Kai doing?"

"Well, outside of the fact he's been asleep for twelve hours, he seems fine," Amethyst answered. "We really dodged a bullet there."

"We did," I muttered, taking my first bite into the toast I made.

When I turned around to greet Oman, I saw him leaning a little too close towards the console, his bloodshot eyes pulled back as his head descended ever so slightly.

Before Oman's head collided with the console, I yelled his name, the satyr's head perking up almost immediately as his eyes opened wide. "Dang. Almost fell asleep there."

I hadn't realized it until now, but Oman hadn't been sleeping and it showed. The bags under his eyes made him look like a zombie and he was way less cheerful than usual. I felt super bad. He didn't get the time to sleep because he had to fly the ship 24/7, and we seemed to be traveling everywhere, no breaks at all.

"Oman, I really think you should try and get some sleep," I said with concern.

"I'd love to, but none of y'all can take the wheel," Oman replied. "Look, I'll try and get some sleep soon, but we're only an hour away from Lisbon, so let me finish this out."

I nodded and sat back down with Amethyst. Within time, Alexander and Geneva woke up and joined us. Timmy had woken up too, as I heard a loud groan of his from downstairs. He was asking for something, maybe related to the bathroom or food of some kind.

"Gods, that guy is so high-maintenance," Geneva groaned.

Alexander shrugged. "I don't blame him. If I was stuck in a cell for two days on end, I'd probably die."

"Eh, I guess that's true," Geneva replied, smoothing her hair over.

Maybe it was a child of Hebe thing, but whenever she woke up, she still looked really good, as if she'd gotten a full hour to prepare herself before waking up. The term 'bed head' has literally never applied to Geneva.

It was good to see her doing fine, but I knew it was a cover of some sort - after all, many of my early days at camp were similar, in the sense that I acted fine in public while simultaneously suppressing my true feelings. Arthur's loss really took a toll on her, no matter how she tried to get around it, as loss often does.

She'd also been practicing her shape-shifting a bunch, but from what she told me and the visible and audible sounds of books slamming against walls, she wasn't really getting anywhere. At least she was doing something to keep her mind off of Arthur..

"Here, I'll shut him up," Alexander offered.

He grabbed a plate of half-made eggs and went down to the bottom deck to shut up Timmy, mumbling to himself something about what name to use when shutting up Timmy. Talk about committing to a bit.

"So, what's the plan when we reach Lisbon?" Geneva asked.

She seemed to be staring at me for the answer, which usually would have caught me by surprise, since Amethyst was usually looked to for that stuff.

"Well, based on what Hephaestus said, we can find this Euterpe girl in Lisbon at a music shop or something," I replied.

"Who's Euterpe again?" Geneva asked.

"She's one of the Muses, gods and goddesses of music and art that often play on Olympus," Amethyst answered. "She's the Muse of music and lyric poetry."

"So, apparently, she has some knowledge or something that can help us?" Geneva asked. "Seems oddly unspecific."

"Well, we kind of have to try. I'm not opposed to just flying to Greece and smacking Erebos inside and out, but I have a feeling he expects us to do that," I said.

Alexander rushed up the stairs, alarm in his face. "Guys, this is bad."

"What? Did Timmy break out or something?" Geneva inquired.

Alexander snorted. "Yeah, like that would ever happen. Have you seen that guy's spaghetti arms? Man couldn't harm a fly if he tried."

"Alexander, get back on focus. What's going on?" I asked.

"When I went to deliver the eggs to Timmy, he told me something about how the GHOSTs were probably going to trap us in Portugal."

Amethyst looked confused. "Willingly?"

"Sort of," Alexander replied. "He said something weird about the GHOSTs, so I continually poked him with a staff until he fessed up."

"Great," Geneva muttered. "Not only do we need to locate some weird goddess for a clue, but we also are going to have fight Olivia and her stupid friends. This day literally could not get much worse. Rose, you're sure we can't just fly ahead to Athens?"

Alexander interceded once again, stating, "Not sure that's gonna work either. Timmy told me about these mountain gods, Ourae, I think, that guard Greece and are now serving Erebos, that would cause us big problems on our quest."

Before any of us could respond, Kai woke up with a start, headbutting Amethyst on accident and drawing all of our attention to him.

"Gods," Kai groaned, wiping his eyes. "So many dreams about death."

My eyes widened. "You had dreams… about death?"

"Yup. Just my usual Monday."

Alexander gave Kai a high-five. "How are you doing, bro? Ready to get into some action?"

"Feeling super dead actually," Kai replied blankly. "Everything hurts, and I keep hearing this weird snipping sound." He then waited two seconds before snapping. "Yup. There it is."

"Awesome!" Alexander said. "Seems like you're ready to get into some action!"

Amethyst made a 'tsk' noise. "Nuh-uh. Kai, I'm afraid you're going to have to sit this one out. We need somebody to stay on the ship with Oman and Timmy, and while your vitals seem fine, I'm not too sure it's a safe idea to 'get back into some action', especially because we know we're going to have company in Portugal."

"Fine, Dr. Worry Much," Kai said, begrudgingly accepting the truth behind what Amethyst said. "I'll just sit here like some unhappy housewife. Don't mind me."

Kai's whining concluded our breakfast talk as the five of us headed back to our cabins to rest up for the mission. We waited for a long thirty minutes, but boy oh boy was it a worthwhile wait.

When Oman announced that we were about to land and the city of Lisbon came into view, all of our jaws dropped as I imagine everyone, including me, went to look through our cabin windows.

The city was composed of timelessly old architecture with the roofs of each building tiled in a red hue and built up of white or tan bricks that glistened in the early morning sunlight. Plazas bustling with activity contained stone statues, park-esque areas, and lined bricks that made up the floor that many residents walked upon.

Oman dropped the ship down into the water and concealed it behind a massive rock in front of a long beach. Geneva, Amethyst, Alexander and I made our way up the steps and onto the shore of the town, as we entered Lisbon.

We made sure to keep a low profile, keeping our faces down, avoiding eye contact with any passerby, and taking roads and routes that were uncrowded. Amethyst had given us some caps to conceal our faces, but still, all it took was one citizen and we'd be on the run from the police. Alexander kept exaggerating his movement, which made me question if he was really as good at stealth missions as he said he was.

Amethyst looked to her left and right before proceeding, checking a travel guide board for some info. On the side of the board was one big paper, which contained a picture of Kai, Geneva, and I, and a bunch of Portuguese I didn't understand. Luckily for us, there was an English translation located directly below.

"WANTED: If these three individuals are spotted, make sure to report them to police nearby," Amethyst read out loud. "Anyone seen aiding them or helping them will automatically be arrested on sight."

"They're really laying down the law," Alexander muttered. "And since when can you understand Portuguese?"

Amethyst frowned. "There's literally an English translation provided below."

"Oh."

I looked at the map on the guide to see if there was anything useful to help us, but nothing was really too useful.

"Ugh, this isn't helping," Geneva groaned. "Give me a second."

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked.

Geneva ignored my question and walked up to a young teenage kid. The kid's face lit up right on sight. While the rest of us would get reported to the police if we talked to a stranger, Geneva could just charm them into talking to her. It was a Hebe thing, I guess.

"Excuse me, um, are there any music stores near here?" Geneva asked.

The teenager nodded and pointed to a store down the road. Geneva wished him a good day before returning back to us. Thank the gods he understood English. Either that or he was following the 'smile and nod' principle and just pointed to a random store out of confusion.

Geneva rapped her knuckles. "Euterpe may be there, at the Extraordinário Música Store."

We walked down the long sidewalk to the music store, crossing a packed restaurant and a few sketchy technology stores along the way.

We entered the small store, and only a man at the front was present. Aside from that, the store was very small in size, with some music books on a shelf to the side, some racks containing instrument tuners and rosin, and in the back, there was a small selection of orchestral instruments to choose from.

The man waved at us and said something in Portuguese, that of course, none of us understood.

"Fala inglês?" Amethyst asked.

The man nodded and said in a gruff accent, "Yes, anything you're looking for?"

"Yes, do you know Euterpe?" Amethyst asked.

He nodded again. "Yes, Lady Euterpe is big, big celebrity. She came earlier actually, is now at concert west of here."

"Okay, thanks for the help!" Amethyst said, giving the man a wave as we made our exit.

"So you do speak Portuguese!" Alexander observed, pointing a crooked finger at Amethyst.

"Yeah, like a few basic phrases. Nothing special. Why do you care so much?"

"Nothing," he half-muttered. "I found this foil ball on the ground."

Alexander proceeded to reach inside his pocket and pull out a definitely fake, rather dim foil ball that had collected a fair bit of dust.

"Good for you, Alexander," I said slowly. "Maybe you should throw that away, 'cause it might have, you know, bacteria on it?"

Alexander shrugged and hurled the foil ball all the way to a wastebasket across the street, missing the basket by quite some way and hitting an unknowing resident, who couldn't care less.

We began making our way to the concert, using the receptionist's instructions as our guide. Some venturing westward and we began to hear loud cheers and cries from nearby, and using all of the knowledge afforded us, we arrived at the massive town square where the concert was being hosted.

A large admission stand obstructed my view of the stage located dead center of the plaza as we jumped in near the back of the long line. Guards were scanning the area, armed to the brim as they helped with the admission process.

Just to give you an idea of how crowded the area was, the designated parking area for attendees of the concert was filled completely and people had to settle for places all the way down the street to get in.

"Holy Zeus, who invited Beyoncé here?" Alexander exclaimed.

I shook my head in disbelief. "How are we ever going to get in there?"

"Well, we need to create a distraction," Amethyst said. She thought for a minute before saying, "Okay. You guys stay here. When you hear the signal, enter inside as fast as you can."

Amethyst walked to a tree and quickly climbed up. Everybody else was too distracted with the concert, so no one really questioned or saw what she was doing.

From the top of the tree, I could see Amethyst nock an arrow into her quiver and prepare it for fire. I honestly didn't know what she was planning to do. I could only listen for 'the signal' and hope to the gods above that no unknowing civilian would just happen to look in Amethyst's direction as she launched this arrow.

Amethyst fired the arrow as it sailed into the floor. It emitted a terrible screech sound which put all the mortals to their knees. I nodded at Geneva and Alexander, and the three of us slipped by the guards and into the plaza. Amethyst sneakily entered behind us, weaving past the guards and entering in with us.

The guards examined the arrow before destroying it. One of them made a call on a walkie-talkie, and within a minute or so, more guards and police officers arrived. Our ruse had worked, but we had now just made the process way more difficult.

"Okay, so we're in," Geneva said. "What do we do now?"

"I say we come up to the stage and smack that band off," Alexander said. "Those guys are playing like Walmart Creed, and that's still being generous."

We were lucky that no one had listened to what Alexander said or we would have a whole mob of fans swarming us with pitchforks and rakes. A majority of the people that were watching the concert were crazed fanatics, with some having tattoos of the band symbol on their body or wearing merchandise dedicated to the band.

"Okay, well we need to see where Euterpe is," I declared. "The only problem is that this place is crowded as all hell."

Amethyst sighed. "Here, let me do some searching around and see if I can find anything to help us out. Stay put, guys."

She headed off, weaving through the crowd as she scanned the area. Geneva, Alexander and I didn't say anything as we awaited Amethyst's arrival.

When she did come back, Amethyst reported, "There's a VIP area in the back that I think Euterpe has a good chance of being found in. Only issue is that a boatload of guards are surveying the area."

"Great," I muttered. "That really helps."

"Okay, we were lucky enough to get away with the first distraction, but we're going to need a way bigger one if we want to get into that VIP area," Geneva said.

"What if we throw a flaming bottle of rum at them?" Alexander suggested. "No, that would never work. What about a giant, rolling foil ball? Eh, that's not much better."

I rubbed my chin. "Dang. If Kai were here, maybe he could help."

"You're not suggesting we call him here, are you?" Geneva asked. "No offense to Kai, but the last thing I saw after we left him behind was him flipping pancakes into his mouth and watching Friends on Alexander's TV."

"I guess that's true," I replied.

"He's really embracing the unhappy housewife role, isn't he?" Alexander observed.

We all let out a little giggle at Alexander's statement before going back to figuring out a plan.

Amethyst began picking at her lip. "Well, there is one option."

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm not sure how difficult this would be, but I could theoretically change the pitch of their instruments and create a really bad sound that disrupts the whole crowd."

"What?" Geneva asked, baffled.

Alexander nodded. "Wait, that could work. Amethyst could distract the crowd by using her magic thing, and the rest of us could go to the VIP area and find Euterpe."

"Sounds fine to me," I said.

"Geneva, can you come with me?" Amethyst asked. "I'm gonna need you to cover for me, so in case anything goes wrong, the two of us still have a fighting chance."

Geneva nodded. "Yeah, sure. Whatever."

I then said, "It's settled. You two will work on distracting the crowd while Alexander and I go talk to Euterpe."

Alexander and I waited patiently as Amethyst and Geneva waded through the crowd until they were close to the stage.

Amethyst then closed her eyes and did some spell-esque hand motions. The band's music got really high pitched, with screeching sounds emerging each time the guitar was strummed.

The crowd exploded in wails and groans of agony, as some of the fanboys started angrily conversing to one another. Other people straight up left, their faces full of disappointment.

An ugly, hairy, punk looking musician walked up to the front of the stage and started saying something in Portuguese, visibly mad.

Amethyst quickly glanced at me and nodded before turning back to the stage, continuing her thing. Geneva gave me a weirded out look making me chuckle.

"We should go," I said, Alexander bobbing his head in agreement.

Alexander and I started our path to the VIP area, dodging past some onlookers and citizens. We were a few yards away from the carpet when a guard walked over to us and said, "You two look eerily familiar."

He spoke in a somewhat heavy accent. I laughed and replied, "Yeah, we get that a lot. I don't really know what they think they see though."

"I got it! You two look like those two criminals on the travel guide," the guard replied.

Alexander's eyes widened. I thought he was about to give us away, but he then said, "Those people? I think I saw them a few blocks from here."

"Where?"

"Um, I forgot the name, but it's near that weird, sketchy supply store a few blocks from here," Alexander answered.

The guard nodded slowly. "Thank you for your help."

He then pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pocket and said something in Portuguese. Within a few seconds, a group of six guards near the VIP area left and followed after the guard as they all hopped in cars and drove off.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "We really dodged a bullet there. Let's keep going."

Alexander cursed under his breath and pointed towards the VIP area. "Crap. There's like five guards near Euterpe."

"Wait, you found Euterpe?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, I thought I saw her look at me when we came towards here."

"That's good to know, but we need to somehow get those guards off her."

As the two of us thought of a solution, I looked across the plaza and viewed what was happening now. The massive crowd that had been in the plaza had dwindled down exponentially, with maybe thirty people there max.

Alexander patted me on the back and said, "Watch this. Boomerang, go!"

He morphed his weapons into a boomerang and threw it with perfect accuracy at the guards, hitting down all six of them at once. The other VIP guests were either on phone calls or busy viewing the concert as they never noticed what had happened. The rest of the guards seemed to be spectating the concert and what was going on there, allowing us to move in quite easily.

Situations like these made me wonder if the Mist was actually gone or if mortals were far stupider than I previously thought.

We sneakily made our way towards Euterpe, who seemed to be waiting for us.

"Hello, heroes," she said. "What brings you here?"

"Um, we've been trying to find you," I explained. "Hephaestus told us to go find you here because he said you may have some info to offer."

"He did?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Well, usually, I'd turn away and probably kill you for knocking down all my guards, but I do owe you guys," Euterpe said.

"Back up," Alexander said. "How do you owe us?"

"Remember in Maine, when those, er, GHOSTs waited for you in that concert venue?" she asked.

"Yeah, we were under the impression that you and your sisters were going to play there," I explained.

"Well, we were, but we decided on a different date to play. Regardless, that venue is a common practice place of ours, so thanks for protecting it." Euterpe said.

Alexander scratched his neck nervously. "Oh, yeah, we, er, totally meant to do that. No defacing music-related property on my watch!"

"Great. Now, as a courtesy for doing that, I'll tell you this: go to the nearby Portuguese library. My sister Clio will likely be able to help you."

Euterpe waved us goodbye before disappearing in a flash of light.

"Well, we just essentially took down six guards and shot a sonic arrow at the floor, scaring a bunch of citizens just so we could be put on yet another fetch quest," I groaned. "I mean, what's the guarantee Clio would even want to help us and wouldn't just tell us 'go find someone else'?"

Alexander shrugged. "I guess it's a chance we'll have to take. Come on. We need to get Amethyst and Geneva out of here."

The two of us slowly walked towards the small crowd of fans at the venue and met up with Amethyst and Geneva.

Geneva asked, "Did you find her?"

I answered, "We did. Let's go, quickly."

The hairy guitar dude began strumming his guitar wildly in some desperate attempt to change its tune, but to no avail.

We hustled out of the plaza as I explained what happened with Euterpe. None of the crowd seemed to have noticed we left, and if they did, they certainly made no effort to stop us. I imagined that the police were probably on the lookout for us, considering we took down and lied to a whole bunch of guards, but none of them were near us, so we were fine.

"Okay, so where's the nearest library?" Amethyst asked.

"Wait, you don't know?" Alexander questioned.

Amethyst shook her head perplexedly.

"Weird, 'cause Kai and I were under the impression that you know where all libraries were at all times in the day," he explained, laughing wildly at the end of his joke.

Amethyst scowled while Geneva and I just rolled our eyes. We crossed the street and entered a whole row of shops and whatnot, starting our search here.

"I think this is the one," Geneva said.

She was pointing down the road to a building labeled in Portuguese.

I could tell it was a library though, as I spotted several books on display and multitudes of bookshelves through the windows. It was also open, as there was a sign in front of the door that read, 'OPEN' in big green letters. The four of us carefully walked the streets, waiting for the cars to go by before walking to the other side. Living in New York really taught you about road safety, as this process was just muscle memory.

We cautiously opened the glass library doors and entered inside. When we entered, a bell that was hung atop the door rang, and a random lady ran up to us.

"Hello, demigods! How may I help you today?" the woman asked quickly.

Whoa. This girl seriously reminded me of when I met Amethyst three months ago and she was squealing over getting back to camp. Her face was vibrant with excitement, her bouncing up and down on her toes with a wide smile on her face. She was wearing a dark green shirt with a long brown skirt, and was brunette with brown eyes. She was carrying a tablet in her hand, and kept looking at it.

"Um, you're Clio, right?" I asked.

The librarian nodded slowly.

"Yeah, so your sister told us to find you here and said you may be able to help with our quest," Geneva explained.

"Oh, well, you're free to look around the library and see if anything interests you," Clio said. "My servants would be happy to help you."

Out of nowhere, a bunch of monsters and creatures came out from behind the bookshelves. I looked back at Clio, who had now transformed into the witch I hated most.

"Pasiphae?" I asked.

Clio/Pasiphae nodded. "Yours truly. And I'm here to make sure you don't get out of this library alive. Boys, lock the doors."

Two clay statue monster-looking things barricaded the doors with some wooden tables as we became encircled in monsters.

"Not to be blunt or anything, but I'm pretty sure we're screwed," Alexander said.