To Know a Soul

"Made it!"

I looked back at Jason, bent forward with his hands on his knees. An overstuffed suitcase sat beside him. From how hard he was breathing and the way bits of clothing poked out of the suitcase's edges, he had spent the last hour rushing to shove absolutely everything he needed inside. 

Behind me my followers from Spokane were mostly loaded up on our twin chariots. Calypso was onboard herself, summoning back the spirits needed to pull them. Also on board was Prometheus. The titan was all the way at the helm of one, resting his elbows on the rim with a wide relaxed smile.

I held out my hand. "Good to have you onboard." Jason smiled, straightening and taking my hand. "All of you," I added.

His eyes widened. He twisted rapidly around.

Behind him, every one of the Roman demigods had shown up, even a few I didn't recognize. Most were only there to say goodbye, but some had suitcases of their own.

Frank, Piper, of all people Reyna, stood with their own belongings packed. Jason gaped at them. 

"Guys?" he said. "But…. it's safe here!"

"I'm not sure you can use that line when you're leaving yourself," Frank said apologetically.

"And I know you weren't thinking of leaving me behind," Piper said.

"Not forever," Jason said. "I was just following my sister. There's no reason—"

There is a reason for us," Reyna interrupted him harshly. "We're following you . Deal with it."

Jason didn't seem to have an answer for that. 

I patted his shoulder. "I hate to say it, but I think you've been out-argued. Welcome, everyone. I promise we'll treat them well."

The last line was directed at the others, the six staying behind in the Wolf House's sanctuary. Leila snorted.

"You better," she said. "And if you're ever back in the neighborhood… swing by. I'm sure it'll be worth your time."

"All ready!" Calypso called from the chariots.

The spirits were summoned. Lelantos was reaffixed in his proper place. Frank, Piper, Jason and Reyna stepped (or wheeled) forward. All of us boarded, and in minutes we'd left the Wolf House far in the rearview mirror, Leila and the others waving goodbye until the moment they were out of sight.

Next stop: Los Angeles.

-

The sweltering sun beat dry heat down on my back. My shirt was ruffled and my pants slightly torn. I put one foot in front of the other, stepping over bits of rubble and shattered glass that covered the street. Just ahead of me, Lelantos walked straight-backed and smug. A shadow fell over us. An obsidian castle climbed high into the sky before us, its ramparts and windows dark and imposing, as different as possible to the short ruined buildings all around it.

There was a gate at the end of the road, with tall spiked doors and a guard on either side. They looked almost human, in plumed horse-hair helmets and dark plate. But there was something about their eyes, threateningly hollow, and their faces, unnaturally perfect, that gave them away as spirits.

Prometheus had warned us of them. Proioxis. Battle spirits of onrush. They were walking incarnates of the act of charging into a fight. Perfect minions for the Titan that charged first in the original war.

"Halt!" cried one. "State your purpose, or I'll run over there and cut you down!"

He brandished a sword threateningly, while his friend lowered his spear. Lelantos didn't stop walking. 

"Your master sent me on business," he snapped, "and I've returned having done my part. Behold!"

He reached back, grabbing my frayed collar and pulling me along quicker.

"This upstart felled a governor," he said. "Rio was one of the weaker among us, but he wasn't utterly useless. So I tracked this thing down. I laid low, hiding my power. And when he was sure he had me at his mercy, I ambushed him in a flash!"

The guards seemed to be itching for a fight. It was literally a part of their being. But when they heard Lelantos describe a Governor as 'one of us', they reluctantly lowered their weapons. 

"I'll present him to the master." Lelantos finally stopped, me still just behind him, right in front of the imposing dark doors. He tapped his foot impatiently. "Chop chop now. I won't have my glorious rewards delayed because you forgot how to work a gate."

The guards traded looks. Seemingly without either actually doing anything, the doors swung open.

"Thank you," Lelantos said. "And about time."

As soon as we marched inside the doors shut behind us with a dull THUNK! The noise echoed down a perfectly empty hallway. We kept walking, and the deeper we got, the more I straightened back to a normal walk.

"You're a pretty good actor."

Lelantos sighed. "I did exactly as you asked. So could you please remove that thing?"

I glanced down at where my right arm, hidden from the guards by Lelantos's body, hovered behind his back in its true form. One strike would've sent him flying, and possibly shattered his spine along the way. 

"You won't run?" I asked.

"What's the point? You'd only catch me again if I tried."

"True." I shrugged, lowering my arm, and right away Lelantos let out a deep breath.

Surprisingly, there were no attendants to greet us. There weren't servants rushing from room to room. In fact, there were barely any rooms at all. The castle was massive, but most of it seemed to be taken up by long, bleak hallways. Gemstones and precious metals were embedded in the black walls, lending them some life, but they were placed seemingly-randomly. There was no art to it, just a way to show off the wealth of the owner.

The only other thing filling the hall, every hundred feet or so, were small pedestals with glass at the top. White disks were piled in each. They sort of looked like cookies, just not a kind I'd ever seen before.

As we passed I took a whiff. A strange scent mingled in my nostrils, somewhere between the sweet tang of ambrosia and the dusty dullness of the Fields of Asphodel.

"So," Lelantos said, "as I can't see myself having any input, where exactly is it we're headed to?"

I looked away from the odd white objects. "I don't know."

"That seems problematic."

"There's a few ways this could work," I said. "We aren't looking for one place. We're looking for one person. Somehow, we have to bring him to us."

I expected Lelantos to throw a fit. Frankly speaking, the Titan was a coward. He hated confronting the strong. That was the reason he'd been so docile since we captured him. It was easier to do as we said, then try to struggle through a losing battle.

But when he heard the news that we'd be drawing out Menoetius, he simply said, "I see. I have an idea, then. If you're open to suggestions."

I let him lead the way. I didn't believe that he was lying. So far, he'd been nothing but honest with his thoughts about people. Prometheus he seemed to grudgingly respect. Kronos terrified him. Menoetius? His opinion of the West's ruler was painfully apparent.

Disdain.

Twice we passed more Proioxis as we wove deeper into the compound. Both times they moved past hardly sparing us a glance. Periodically paintings would appear on the walls, or a marble bust would be sitting at the side of the hallway, but just like the gemstones the placement seemed entirely random. All pillaged loot the new owner didn't understand in the slightest. More white disks appeared the deeper we got, too, and the air in the hallway itself started to take on their distinctive smell.

We turned a few times, weaving between corridors that were all identical. At one crossroads, I spotted more Proioxis than I'd seen the entire rest of the journey combined. These ones were equipped with full suits of armor, and their eyes were mean as they tracked us. Lelantos hurried his step as we passed them.

"What's down there?" I asked.

He shrugged. "They don't even allow governors past, only Menoetius himself. I never asked. Large, empty palaces were never for me. I only visit this place when I have to, and I certainly never asked about its secrets."

"Then what are you leading me to?" I asked suspiciously.

Lelantos just laughed. "This is no secret, it's the main attraction. Look. We're here."

White double doors stood in our way. There wasn't anything remarkable about them, except that it was the first non-black piece of architecture I'd seen in thirty minutes since stepping inside the palace.

"After you," Lelantos said with an exaggerated sweep of the arm.

I stepped up to the doors, laying my fingers on their surface. They were absolutely frigid, like somebody found a way to freeze ice. They reeked of the stench coming off the cookie-like offerings in the hall. From the other side I could hear soft noises, mewls and groans nearly too low for even my immortal ears to catch.

With one firm shove I forced the doors open.

I overestimated how much force it would take. The swung away easily on slick hinges, hitting the walls on the inside with a sharp crash. I thought that the room on the other side had white walls at first, but as I walked inside, I realized that wasn't true. They were obsidian like everywhere else, just painted in thick layers of splotchy white substance.

The space was massive, as big as three basketball courts shoved together. The floor was smooth and reflective. The ceiling was high, rising at least three stories above our heads, making space for the room's centerpiece.

The contraption in the middle of the floor looked a bit like a blender, if a blender were bigger than most homes and coated in incomprehensible black pipes. As I approached I could feel a peculiar kind of cold emanating from the metal, a kind I'd only felt from one other item. They were Stygian Iron, the same magic metal as Nico Di Angelo's sword.

The central vat swirled with viscous fluid. A faucet near the base pumped small shapes onto a conveyor belt, which in turn carried them across the room and fed them out through a gap in the wall.

I walked to the faucet and snatched one. It was one of the cookie-like objects, identical to every single one we passed on the way there.

"What is this?" I demanded, turning to Lelantos.

He had strolled into the room after me. While I was busy taking it all in, he walked up to the blender itself, clinking a finger off of its glass. "Do you know where this compound is built?"

"L.A."

"More specifically," he said. "We are standing directly above the Underworld's main entrance. Or, it was the main entrance, until Hades retreated into his domain and shut it. He couldn't fight all the Titans himself, but there is no sieging the land of the dead. Unfortunately for mortals, their souls couldn't find a way in any more than the Titans could."

He walked around the base of the blender, trailing his fingers along its surface. 

"They started to collect here, gathered at a gate that was forever shut to them. And when Menoetius moved in and built a palace atop Hades' head, he found them. He decided it was a waste to leave them listing around for eternity. He figured if they were going to suffer, they might as well do it for his benefit."

I stiffened. I honed in on the noises I'd heard from outside the door, the groans and quiet moans. They were coming from the vat itself— and, periodically, from the space above it, as spectral shapes drifted down from the ceiling and were absorbed into the ectoplasmic mess.

My hands tightened.

"Those pellets being churned out are used for everything in this place," Menoetius said. "You'd be surprised how much energy is leftover in a grinded up soul. If you destroy this machine, I guarantee Menoetius will come running."

"What happens to the souls inside?"

Lelantos shrugged. "How am I supposed to know?"

I tossed the pellet in my hands away with disgust. I didn't even want to touch it, knowing what had been sacrificed to make it. There was no doubt in my mind that Lelantos was right. If I destroyed this, Menoetius would rush right into my hands.

But I couldn't do it.

If I busted this entire machine apart, I didn't know what fate the dead inside would face. It was the faucet at the base that was condensing them, tearing apart the fabric of their being to fuel greedy immortals. 

My arm adopted its true form, fingers wrapping around the base of the machine. I squeezed and turned, until the faucet warped into a ball that not even one drop could squeeze through.

Then I turned away, leaving the room.

"That's not enough." Lelantos followed me. "Stopping the production will take time for him to notice. You need to break it entirely."

"Yeah, I'll pass," I said.

I wasn't naive enough to think this was a solution. Without a way into the Underworld, spirits would keep on collecting, trapped in limbo on Earth. But that was better than the alternative. If they were ground up and used for parts, there was no hope. But in the future, if I really changed this world, loitering spirits could be led where they were meant to go. I muttered a quick mental plea, hoping they would be patient.

"Besides," I said out loud to Lelantos, "I have another, better idea how to get Menoetius's attention."

Lelantos raised one curious eyebrow.

I stopped walking. We'd arrived back at the crossroads filled with armored Proioxis. The one that not even my Titan tour guide knew what lay at the end of.

"The thing about secrets," I said to him, "is that they're usually secret for a reason. You might not know what Menoetius is hiding… but the two of us are about to find out."