[ex malo bonum]

Dale looked up as her grand bedroom doors swung open, and Adhara hurried in. The fabric of her billowing dress hissed like an angry snake was following her as the daughter of Nemesis marched into Dale's room. Once the doors shut behind her, Dale got to her feet in a hurry, nearly tripping over herself.

"So?" Dale insisted, golden eyes wide. "What do you have for me?"

Adhara took a deep breath, her violeteyes flickering. "Firstly, I am not your personal messenger. Secondly, I couldn't tell them everything. I ran out of time."

Dale chewed on her bottom lip. "What did you manage to tell them? How'd they take it?"

Adhara dropped Dale's inquisitive gaze and swept over to the ornate sofa nearby, perching herself on the top of it. "I told them that you were okay, that the mansion moves, and that Luke is Aether."

Dale nodded. "But they don't know that all the answers to our questions are here."

"I'm afraid I wasn't able to tell them that," Adhara's voice was tight. The daughter of Nemesis cleared her throat and looked towards a window, the sunlight making her bronze pallor glow.

"Why not?" Dale hedged, taking a step closer. "Did something happen?"

Adhara pursed her lips. "Mark happened."

Dale blinked, feeling like she'd been hit between the eyes. Oh. "What'd that idiot do?"

A ghost of a smile tugged at Adhara's lips, but she continued to frown. "Oh, nothing. Simply accused me of being a traitor and a villain and the root of all his problems." Her voice was light, but with each word, Dale felt like she wanted to leave this mansion if only to smack her best friend upside the head.

"Adhara, he doesn't mean it," Dale tried, but Adhara inhaled, looking away. "He's just..."

"I know," Adhara interrupted, her voice resonating. "But there's an ounce of truth to everything people say, especially in lies. As the keeper of balance, I've gotten pretty good at telling when someone is honest and genuine or not. Mark meant every word."

Dale shut her eyes, willing her mother to use her power to smack Mark with a tree branch the next time he passed under one. When she opened her eyes, Adhara had gotten to her feet, brushing off her swishing gown.

"Did they have any messages for me?" Dale asked.

Adhara nodded. "Amelie said that she'll try to break the barrier, given its being made of Mist. That's all I felt compelled to tell you." She started for the door. "Anything else?"

Dale shook her head, feeling numb somehow. "No."

Adhara took that as her cue to leave, it seemed. She continued for the door, but just before she disappeared, Dale called, "Mark's crazy about you, Adhara. He may be mad and sad and distraught right now, but really, he just wants you to be okay."

Adhara tensed, but she glanced over her shoulder, raven waves cascading down her back. "I'm afraid the only person he wants to be okay is you, Dale."

And with that, the daughter of Nemesis shut the doors behind her.

~~

Later that evening, as night was falling over the mansion, Dale decided her crusade. She was in the center of her enemy's stronghold, with the answers to freeing innocent halfbloods and protecting hundreds buried somewhere in these golden halls. All she had to do was find it, find someway to tell her friends, and then find a way out of this hell.

And so as Dale crept out of her room under the cover of darkness, she prayed that her footsteps would be silent down these marble floors. Even if Luke was Aether, she'd like to see him try and stop her on this mission of hers. Some small part of her was wishing she'd just stay in her room and avoid all contact with Luke and his army, but it was overpowered by her wishes to see them all destroyed.

Kane had yet to return her knife, but Dale could do without it. She'd spent the time it took for Adhara to visit Camp Half-Blood to fashion a weapon of her own making out of a hair-brush, a shard of glass, and fabric ripped from her drapes. Her knife was settled in the waistband of her jeans, but hopefully, she wouldn't have to use it on anyone.

Dale padded down the darkened halls, careful to avoid the sconces of Greek fire offering minimal illumination in the night. She reached the end of the hall, sent a tendril of her power down either direction, and when the coast was clear, she hurried down it. She racked her brain, trying to remember how to get to the library Kane had taken her to before. She continued on down the halls until eventually, with a sigh of relief, she came across the library doors.

Carefully, Dale approached the golden doors and pressed her hands to them. She summoned more of her power to scope out if anyone was inside, and thankfully, the library was empty. Confidence mustered, Dale pushed the doors open and quickly slipped inside, shutting the doors behind her.

Unlike the rest of the mansion, the library was entirely illuminated. Reassurance washed over Dale as she crept towards the numerous bookshelves lining the walls and floor. So many books, so many records, and some of them held the key to what she was looking for.

"If I was an evil plan, where would I hide?" Dale mused, scanning a shelf and moving onto the next. Countless titles of mythology—Greek, Roman, and otherwise—met her eyes, but nothing that gave her answers.

Before she knew it, Dale had cleared an entire row of shelves. She huffed a breath, beginning to doubt her plan, when something flickered out of the corner of her eye. Dale whirled around, alarmed, but found herself staring at a large tapestry depicting a sunrise and the light flickering from behind it.

For a moment, Dale hesitated. What if it was a trap? What if Aether and the Masks were waiting behind that tapestry, ready to turn her into a monster?

Dale forced the thought from her head. This entire mansion was a trap, and yet she was still alive. Something told her that if they wanted her dead, they would have killed her by now. No, if Dale was going to escape and save her friends and the other halfbloods held hostage here, she needed to take every lead she could get.

Drawing her makeshift knife from the waistband of her jeans, Dale stalked towards the tapestry. She brushed it aside and found herself facing a passageway, carved into the marble and stone of the library walls. The light came from a torch on the wall, the flames of Greek fire almost inviting Dale in. And somewhere down wherever this passageway led, whispers and wind echoed back out into the library.

Dale mustered up her courage, taking a deep breath as she stepped inside the passageway. Gripping her knife, she followed the passageway, each little noise sending a pang through her heart. Every few feet or so, Dale glanced behind her to make sure the entrance was still there and illuminated. Having ventured through the Labyrinth, this wasn't exactly new to Dale, but the atmosphere made her feel like she was the unfortunate hero of some new horror movie, fated to meet her untimely demise in the heart of a haunted castle.

Dale reached the end of the main passageway. From there, the light was scarce; she could hardly see what was before her. For all she knew, a monster could be staring her down, hidden in the darkness. She sighed, realizing that her quest for knowledge had seemingly come to its end for the night. If she was to continue investigating where these passages led, she'd need light and a way back.

Dale turned on her heel, preparing to leave, when something caught her attention on the stones at her feet. She bent down, picking up what seemed to be a piece of paper, and felt her blood turn to ice in her veins as she realized it was a photograph, the same kind that she and her friends had been finding everywhere lately. The same ones that the Masks left in their wake.

The passageway got colder. Dale looked behind her shoulder, into the darkness, and sent a tendril of her power down it, just to be sure. And according to her powers, something was heading right towards her, barreling through the shadows.

Dale pocketed the picture and made a run for it, back the way she could. Was that her heart beating so loudly or was it the footsteps of whatever haunted these passageways? She skidded up the passageway—was the entrance really that far way?—and with every bit of strength she could gather, sprinted for the exit. She made it and catapulted out, back into the library, and watched as the tapestry fell over the entrance.

Dale watched, catching her breath from where she'd collapsed on the ground, for the flickering of the torch beyond the tapestry. Eventually, it disappeared. Confusion taking over fright, Dale got to her feet and crept back the way she'd came.

But when she pulled back the tapestry, a solid wall of marble looked back at her.

Before Dale could decide what to do next, she felt a hand on her shoulder, throwing her to the ground. Dale watched in astonishment and anger as Kane glowered down at her, a maniacal look in his wild eyes.

"What were you doing in there?" Kane spoke, each word clipped with venom.

Dale narrowed her golden eyes at Kane, getting to her feet. "Why do you care so much?"

Kane matched her steely gaze. "Answer my question."

"Why should I? According to...Luke," Dale faltered at his name. "I'm free to go where I please in the mansion."

Kane's nostrils flared as he took a deep breath. "Anywhere but there." He said gruffly. "Now, come quietly or face the consequences."

"For what? Exploring?" Dale stepped out of the way as Kane reached for her. "Don't you dare lay another finger on me."

Something flickered in Kane's eyes, and Dale felt something wither within her. The way he was looking at her...like he knew just how to hurt her and yet keep her alive to witness the torture...

"Kane, please be kind to our guest," Luke's voice echoed through the library, and Dale froze as Kane recoiled. The look in his eyes was gone, but the feeling it emanated wasn't.

Dale turned begrudgingly to see Luke saunter towards her and Kane, an amicable expression on his face. All at once, the wrath she felt began to fester, fueling her adrenaline, her rage.

"That'll be all, Kane. Get some rest. The Gods know you need it," Luke gave his right-hand man a pointed look, and Kane slouched off.

"What do you want?" Dale snarled, reaching for her knife only to realize it had skittered away when Kane had grabbed her.

"To talk," Luke said innocently. "I didn't realize how much my true identity would upset you. I'm sorry."

Dale almost laughed at that. "Yeah, because it's not like you've been the cause of countless kidnappings and disappearances and murders. It's not like you're after me and my friends. It's not like you want my camp to burn."

Luke only smiled. "You make it sound like a bad thing." He sighed shortly and turned. "But if you'll allow me, I'd like for you to get to know me a little better. I am Luke, after all. Aether is more of my...business partner."

Dale made a face. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

Luke gestured for her to follow him towards the door, and maybe it was a spell or her own hidden intuition, but Dale found herself following. "You see, I don't control when I become Aether. Whenever he leaves me, I'm completely powerless. Sure, the Masks know who I am and revere me, but I don't possess Aether's powers when I'm Luke."

"What kind of Jekyll and Hyde nonsense are you on right now?" Dale rebuffed, eyeing the man before her.

Luke chuckled. "I suppose it is quite like Jekyll and Hyde. At any rate, Luke is who I am. Aether is what I do. Does that make sense?"

Dale gave a grudging nod. If Luke was going to trust her with this information, he could trust that she'd be feeding it right back to her friends.

"How long has it been this way?" Dale tried to sound interested, and probably failed as she and Luke walked down a hall.

Luke tensed slightly at that. "For a while. You see, Dale, I'm not a half-blood. I'm not a legacy, either. I don't have a drop of godly blood in me. Well, except when Aether's in control. I've been able to see through what I learned to be the Mist since I was young." A shadow fell over his face at that, contorting his features.

"What'd you do about it?" Dale made a mental note of which direction they were going, and with a slight pang of relief, realized that they were headed back towards her room.

Luke was silent for a moment. "My father thought I was insane. He took me to see therapists, psychologists, had countless tests run. But I knew that he could see what I could. He'd understand sometimes, but at others, it was like he didn't even know who I was."

Dale was dumbstruck for a moment. "I'm..." She stopped herself. Was she really sorry for this monster?

"I know you're not," Luke conceded. "But it's not a sad story. Eventually, I met Kane and we began our crusade. We've been watching you and your friends for a very long time, Dale. Especially Tessa Brennan."

"What do you want with Tessa?" Dale asked casually.

"She plays more of a role in this than you could understand, Dale," Luke said. "But hopefully, she'll see that soon. It's only a matter of time before, like the Masks, every half-blood realizes that the Olympians are fools. They've been idle, letting you demigods do the work for them. But they don't know that there's an undertaking in the midst. A new age is on the horizon, and it'll belong to us all."

Before Dale could shoot him down or ask more questions, they'd arrived at her door.

"I'm very glad you're here, Dale," Luke smiled, and for just a second, Dale thought it was genuine. "I think that we'll become very well acquainted as time goes on. Your powers will grow, your control will strengthen, and before you know it...ah, well, you'll find out. Good night, Dale."

The doors swung open. Dale, as if she was in a trance, walked inside her room. Once the doors closed behind her, Dale reached for her back pocket, for the picture. But somehow, it was gone.