CHAPTER III —— dreams and gods.

MARE STOOD NEXT TO JASON, HER EYES TRAINED ON PIPER'S BODY.

Jason and Rachel had put her on the couch whilst Annabeth rushed down the hall to get a med kit. Mare's eyes never trailed far from Piper's body, even if she knew that the girl was far from death. There was no scent of the underworld anywhere around her. Despite the fact that she seemed perfectly fine, Piper wouldn't wake up. She seemed to be in some sort of endless sleep, or a coma.

"We've got to heal her," Jason insisted. "There's a way, right?"

Piper was pale and barely breathing, it was obvious that Jason felt some sort of responsibility for her, his entire body stance was protective, like he'd fight the world for a girl he'd just met. Mare admired that about him, Piper at least had memories of him, even if they were fake, but Jason knew nothing about her, except for the fact that she was there when he woke up.

Chiron put his hand on Piper's forehead and grimaced. "Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?"

"I wish I knew," she said. "As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera's cabin. I went inside. Annabeth and Piper came in while I was there. We talked, and then—I just blanked out. Annabeth said I spoke in a different voice. "

"A prophecy?" Chiron asked.

"No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This was like long distance, a power trying to speak through me."

"That's never happened before?" Mare inquired, she didn't know much about Rachel's powers, and if she was honest they kind of creeped her out. Rachel worked for Apollo and the fates, Mare had never met Apollo before but the one interaction she had with the fates, well that wasn't enjoyable. She'd laughed in their faces, and there was part of her that was now worried about that, even if she hadn't been in the moment.

"No, it hasn't." Was all Rachel said in response.

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Annabeth ran in with a leather pouch. She knelt next to Piper. "Chiron, what happened back there—I've never seen anything like it. I've heard Rachel's prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper's shoulders and told her—"

"To free her from a prison?" Jason guessed.

Annabeth stared at him. "How did you know that?"

Chiron made a three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil.

"Jason or Mare, either one of you, tell them. Annabeth, the medicine bag, please."

Chiron trickled drops from a medicine vial into Piper's mouth while Jason explained what had happened when the room froze—the dark misty woman who had claimed to be Jason's patron and told Mare that freeing her was one of the reasons she was alive, and then threatened her life.

When he was done, no one spoke, Jason's hands shook from where they were intertwined, giving away his anxiety— even if none of it showed on his face.

"So does this happen often?" he asked. "Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?"

"Your patron," Annabeth said. "Not your godly parent?"

"No, she said patron. She also said my dad had given her my life."

Annabeth frowned. "I've never of heard anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk—he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind?"

"I don't think so," Jason said. "If she were my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She's imprisoned. She's worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising from the earth on the solstice—"

Annabeth turned to Chiron. "Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that."

Mare sucked in a breath, no matter how many weeks past she would probably never stop having dreams of what happened the night she died. When one of Kronos' warriors tried to kill Percy and Travis, the hit on Percy rebounded like it was nothing but if Mare hadn't gotten in the way, Travis would have been dead. The blade of the warrior had sunken into her stomach and there was nothing anyone could do for her, and there was so much blood.

Mare's thoughts were stopped by someone's hand brushing her shoulder. Her eyes focused on the sky blue in front of her. Jason had his hand on her shoulder, his face twisted in concern as he stared at her. It shocked her to see the same protectiveness that had been on his face when he looked at Piper reflected as he stared at her.

She guessed the shared vision and jokes had ignited some sort of kinship between them.

A glance around the room told her that everyone was now focused on her, even if Chiron had tried to keep the conversation going. She waved her hand in dismissal, pulling her face into a mask of apathy and barely moving as Jason stepped away from being in-front of her.

Chiron closed the medicine bag, and continued the conversation from where he had stopped. "Piper needs rest. We should discuss this later."

"Or now," Jason said. "Sir, Mr. Chiron, you told me the greatest threat was coming. The last chapter. You can't possibly mean something worse than an army of Titans, right?"

Why did he know about the army of Titans? Why did Mare recognise the mark on his arm? Why did the lady in the mist erase his memories? Why did the lady in the mist lie about her own memories? She had so many questions.

"Oh," Rachel said in a small voice. "Oh, dear. The woman was Hera. Of course. Her cabin, her voice. She showed herself to Mare and Jason at the same moment."

"Hera?" Annabeth's snarl was even fiercer than Seymour's, it wasn't a surprise, Annabeth and the Queen of the Gods did not get along. "She took you over? She did this to Piper?"

"It's not surprising, she's always been a meddler." Mare said.

"I think Rachel's right," Jason said. "The woman did seem like a goddess. And she wore this—this goatskin cloak. That's a symbol of Juno, isn't it?"

Mare furrowed her brows, Jason had used a God's Roman name again.

"It is?" Annabeth scowled. "I've never heard that."

Mare wondered if she was scowling because it was Hera, or because someone had known more than her for once.

Chiron nodded reluctantly. "Of Juno, Hera's Roman aspect, in her most warlike state. The goatskin cloak was a symbol of the Roman soldier."

Mare flashed her teeth, "Jason was one of Hera's favourite heroes in the olden times, it's not a stretch to say the kid who shares his name has Hera as his patron."

She and Travis had read that story together, that was the first day she remembered thinking she had feelings for him.

"So Hera is imprisoned?" Rachel asked. "Who could do that to the queen of the gods?"

Mare clicked her tongue, "Artemis was imprisoned by Atlas, Persephone was kidnapped and basically imprisoned by Hades. It's not unheard of for Gods to be kidnapped. Also i'm pretty sure there's an old myth where Hera was kidnapped, and some guy tried to make her his wife."

Annabeth crossed her arms. "Well, whoever they are, maybe we should thank them. If they can shut up Hera—"

"Annabeth," Chiron warned, "she is still one of the Olympians. In many ways, she is the glue that holds the gods' family together. If she truly has been imprisoned and is in danger of destruction, this could shake the foundations of the world. It could unravel the stability of Olympus, which is never great even in the best of times. And if Hera has asked Jason and Mare for help—"

"Fine," Annabeth grumbled. "like Mare said, we know Titans can capture a god. And in the old stories, the gods captured each other in traps all the time. But something worse than a Titan...?"

Mare bit her lip, the only sign that she was feeling anything at all.

Jason turned, and Mare couldn't help the fact that her eyes followed him. "Hera said she'd been trying to break through her prison bonds for a month."

"Which is how long Olympus has been closed," Annabeth said, snapping Mare's attention back to her. The daughter of Athena was staring at her like she knew something— Mare wasn't sure if she wanted to know what Annabeth thought she knew or not. "So the gods must know something bad is going on."

"And they've chosen to ignore their children until they need us, nothing much has changed." Mare commented, the bitterness growing in her gut.

"But why use her energy to send me here?" Jason asked. "She wiped my memory, plopped me into the Wilderness School field trip, and sent you a dream vision to come pick me up. Why am I so important? Why not just send up an emergency flare to the other gods—let them know where she is so they bust her out?"

"The gods need heroes to do their will down here on earth," Rachel said. "That's right, isn't it? Their fates are always intertwined with demigods."

Mare nodded, she always found it unfair that their entire lives were spent trying to fix mistakes their parents made and they'd never get any recognition from them. Mare guessed she was lucky, her mother didn't care about her but at least she wasn't sending Mare on a wild goose chase, that was just the other gods.

"That's true," Annabeth said, "but Jason's got a point. Why him? Why take his memory? And what about what she said about Mare and her memories?"

"I have all my memories, thanks." Mare replied, certain. But then she caught a glimpse of Jason's tattoo remembered the feeling she had the first time she saw it. And suddenly she wasn't so sure.

"And Piper's involved somehow," Rachel said. "Hera sent her the same message—Free me. And, Annabeth, this must have something to do with Percy's disappearing."

"Hera didn't mention anything about Percy when we talked to her," Mare pointed out. "How can we know this is connected?"

"Hera said the key for me to finding Percy was Jason, remember. It's the whole reason we went to the Grand Canyon, it's connected. I know it is." Annabeth sounded like she wanted it to be true, more than she was sure it was.

"Anyway," Annabeth started, fixing her eyes on Chiron. "Why are you so quiet, Chiron? What is it we're facing?"

The old centaur's face looked like it had aged ten years in a matter of minutes. The lines around his eyes were deeply etched. "My dear, in this, I cannot help you. I am so sorry."

Mare frowned, Chiron rarely hid things from Annabeth and he'd told Mare when she came back from the dead that he'd try not to hide things from her either.

Annabeth blinked, clearly as taken aback as Mare was. "You've never... you've never kept information from me. Even the last great prophecy—"

"I will be in my office. " His voice was heavy. "I need some time to think before dinner. Rachel, will you watch the girl? Call Argus to bring her to the infirmary, if you'd like. And Annabeth," Chiron paused, "Mare, you as well, you should speak with Jason. Tell him about— about the Greek and Roman gods."

"But..."

The centaur turned his wheelchair and rolled off down the hallway. Annabeth's eyes turned stormy. She muttered a few insults toward centaurs in Greek and Mare couldn't help the small upturn of her lips. Annabeth could be entertainingly mean when she insulted people, she had a lot of creative insults.

"I'm sorry," Jason said. "I think my being here—I don't know. I've messed things up coming to the camp, somehow. Chiron said he'd sworn an oath and couldn't talk about it."

Mare felt sorry for him, being in a new place and having all this weight on his shoulders couldn't be easy. It probably wasn't great for him to have to be here without any memories, without any knowledge of who he is, or was.

"What oath?" Annabeth demanded. Mare stared at her blankly, Jason just said that Chiron couldn't talk about it. "I've never seen him act this way. And why would he tell me to talk to you about the gods..."

Her voice trailed off, apparently she'd just noticed Jason's sword sitting on the coffee table. Mare hadn't taken any interest in it, but now that Annabeth was, it was probably best she did too. The daughter of Athena touched the blade gingerly, like it might be hot.

"Is this gold?" She said. "Do you remember where you got it?"

Ah, yes, because the person with zero memories will now randomly remember something because Annabeth had asked him. Mare wasn't sure where Annabeth's superior intellect had disappeared to, but it certainly wasn't showing up in her questions.

"No," Jason said. "Like I said, I don't remember anything."

Annabeth nodded, like she'd just come up with a rather desperate plan. "If Chiron won't help, we'll need to figure things out ourselves. Which means... Cabin Fifteen. Rachel, you'll keep an eye on Piper?"

"Sure," Rachel promised. "Good luck, you two."

"Three, actually." Mare said. "I'll come with you."

Annabeth nodded, and Jason stared at Mare like he was trying to figure out what her motives were. She wondered if he had done that a lot, it looked natural on him. It sort of reminded Mare of Annabeth, it was the look of someone who was tasked to be a leader at a young age. Something Mare couldn't figure out settled on Jason's face.

"Hold on," Jason said. "What's in Cabin Fifteen?"

Annabeth stood. "Maybe a way to get your memory back."

Mare headed for the door, "Don't get your hopes up, these things are never easy."

"Wonderful."

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They headed toward a newer wing of cabins in the southwest corner of the green, near where Mare's own cabin was located. Some were fancy, with glowing walls or blazing torches, like the Hecate cabin, but Cabin Fifteen was not so dramatic. It looked like an old-fashioned prairie house with mud walls and a rush roof. On the door hung a wreath of crimson flowers—red poppies.

Mare preferred withered flowers over living ones, she was sure it had something to do with her heritage but she didn't think the demeter cabin minded much. They always gave her the flowers they couldn't save, recycling and all.

"You think this is my parent's cabin?" he asked.

Mare grinned sharply, "This being your parent's cabin is very, very unlikely."

"No," Annabeth said, sending Mare a sharp look. "This is the cabin for Hypnos, the god of sleep."

"Then why?"

"You've forgotten everything," she said. "If there's any god who can help us figure out memory loss, it's Hypnos."

"Hera would be ideal since she took away your memories but, well, there are no demi-god Hera kids." Mare titled her head, "That we know of, at least!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Hera doesn't break her vows, she doesn't have kids."

"Athena is supposed to be a virgin goddess and she has kids, who's to say Hera didn't find a loophole too?"

Annabeth paused momentarily like she was contemplating the idea, "I think if I found out there were spawns of that repulsive woman I would cry myself to sleep."

Mare's lips twitched, and they stepped inside the cabin.

Inside, even though it was almost dinnertime, three kids were sound asleep under piles of covers. A warm fire crackled in the hearth. Above the mantel hung a tree branch, each twig dripping white liquid into a collection of tin bowls. Mare didn't know what it was, but she was one hundred percent sure that whatever was in it was not safe to be touched. She made sure Jason knew that too by slapping his hand away when it looked like he was reaching out to touch it.

Soft violin music played from somewhere. The air smelled like fresh laundry. The cabin was so cozy and peaceful and a horrible death trap. If someone didn't have enough mental strength to stay awake they could take a nap in this cabin and never wake up ever again. It didn't help that the furniture looked so inviting. There were plenty of empty beds, all with feather pillows and fresh sheets and fluffy quilts

Annabeth nudged Jason. "Snap out of it." Mare hadn't even realised he'd been falling asleep, she'd been too caught up about the dangers of the place to even pay attention, even as a daughter of the goddess of nightmares, this place was dangerous for her.

Jason blink and pulled himself up, he looked like he was a minute away from falling asleep.

"Cabin Fifteen does that to everyone," Annabeth warned. "If you ask me, this place is even more dangerous than the Ares cabin. At least with Ares, you can learn where the land mines are."

"Land mines?"

She walked up to the nearest snoring kid and shook his shoulder. "Clovis! Wake up!"

Mare turned to Jason as she did this, "Ares cabin changes the position of the land mines sometimes, Annabeth has yet to work out the pattern because there is none. Sherman just changes it depending on whether he feels like it or not, and his mood swings happen often."

Jason nodded like he understood, there was no way he'd be able to understand what Mare was talking about.

Clovis, Hypnos' youngest son was fifteen and an interesting character. Mare didn't care enough about him to form a close bond with him, but what she knew from when he was awake, he was quite funny.

Clovis looked like a baby cow. He had a blond tuft of hair on a wedge-shaped head, with thick features and a thick neck. His body was stocky, but he had spindly little arms like he'd never lifted anything heavier than a pillow.

"Clovis!" Annabeth shook harder, then finally knocked on his forehead about six times.

"Wh-wh-what?" Clovis complained, sitting up and squinting. He yawned hugely, Annabeth and Jason yawned too. Mare didn't, her mother being the goddess of nightmares gave her some leeway when it came to the kids of Hypnos' abilities, she got sleepy less but if one of the Hypnos children wished, they could send her to sleep. She wasn't sure if they could control her dreams, no one had ever tried.

"Stop that!" Annabeth said. "We need your help. "

"I was sleeping."

"You're always sleeping." Annabeth sighed.

"He's a son of Hypnos," Mare turned to Jason, "what else can you expect?"

"Good night."

Before he could pass out, Annabeth yanked his pillow off the bed. Mare rolled her eyes, if you needed the help of the god of sleep's kid, taking their pillow hostage was certainly how to do it.

"That's not fair," Clovis complained meekly, Mare almost felt bad. "Give it back."

"First help," Annabeth said. "Then sleep."

Clovis sighed. His breath smelled like warm milk. It was very, very gross. "Fine. What?"

Annabeth explained about Jason's problem. Every once in a while she'd snap her fingers under Clovis's nose to keep him awake.

Mare studied the room, her shoes and then Jason. Her eyes never seemed to stop bouncing around the room, even if the rest of her body didn't move an inch.

Clovis must have been really excited, because when Annabeth was done, he didn't pass out. He actually stood and stretched, then blinked at Jason. "So you don't remember anything, huh?"

"Just impressions," Jason said. "Feelings, like..."

"Yes?" Clovis said.

"Go on." Mare said, at the same time as Clovis. She flicked her fingers at him. To everyone else, it almost seemed like her way of saying, snap.

"Like I know I shouldn't be here. At this camp. I'm in danger."

Once again, Mare thought, proof that none of this was going to be good. Whoever Jason was, he was likely lugging around problems. Problems that would kickstart the second great prophecy.

"Hmm. Close your eyes."

Jason glanced at Annabeth, but she nodded reassuringly. He glanced at Mare next, she stared at him and titled her head forward slightly. She couldn't promise that everything would be fine, so she wouldn't lie.

Jason's eyes rolled back, for a few minutes nothing happened and then it seemed like he was disappearing. Clovis and Mare grabbed on to him, whilst Annabeth brought a chair over to sit him down in. They waited a tense few moments but thankfully Jason's eyes snapped open.

"The situation is serious, all right," Clovis said.

"What happened?" Jason said, he sounded disoriented and Mare wasn't surprised considering just seconds ago it seemed like he was becoming a ghost. Mare had felt his life force draining for a moment. "How long—"

"Just a few minutes," Annabeth said. "But it was tense. You almost dissolved."

Annabeth's expression was solemn, but Mare grinned sharply.

"It was almost bad, thought you'd might get to meet my mom before I did."

Everyone stared at her but Mare kept grinning. "Tough crowd."

"Usually," Clovis said, looking away from Mare, "memories are lost for a good reason. They sink under the surface like dreams, and with a good sleep, I can bring them back. But this..."

"Lethe?" Annabeth asked.

"No," Clovis said. "Not even Lethe."

"Lethe?" Jason asked.

Clovis pointed to the tree branch dripping milky drops above the fireplace. "The River Lethe in the Underworld. It dissolves your memories, wipes your mind clean permanently. That's the branch of a poplar tree from the Underworld, dipped into the Lethe. It's the symbol of my father, Hypnos. Lethe is not a place you want to go swimming."

Annabeth nodded. "Percy went there once. He told me it was powerful enough to wipe the mind of a Titan."

Mare looked at the tree, "Percy told me that he met my mother near that river."

It was the first time that Mare had ever gotten a description of her mother from a person outside of a history book. No matter how much she acted like it didn't matter, she was grateful that Percy told her about their meeting, even when they didn't like each other.

Jason still looked lost. "But... that's not my problem?"

"No," Clovis agreed. "Your mind wasn't wiped, and your memories weren't buried. They've been stolen."

The fire crackled. Drops of Lethe water plinked into the tin cups on the mantel. One of the other Hypnos campers, Mare knew that his name was Theodore but everyone called him Teddy, muttered in his sleep— apparently he watched a duck eat a car and then become a rat.

"Stolen," Jason said. "How?"

"A god," Clovis said. "Only a god would have that kind of power."

"We know that," said Jason. "It was Juno. But how did she do it, and why?"

Clovis scratched his neck. "Juno?"

"He means Hera," Annabeth said. "For some reason, Jason likes the Roman names."

Mare kept her smile sharply, "He's a little weird." Jason's eyes found her's and he very pointedly rolled them.

"Hmm," Clovis said.

"What?" Jason asked, focusing back onto the other two demigods in the room. "Does that mean something?"

"Hmm," Clovis said again, and Mare noticed that he had begun to snore again.

"Clovis!" Jason yelled.

"Take his bed hostage." Mare suggested.

"How the hell would we do that?" Annabeth asked, Mare shrugged and gestured her hand towards the bed. "Great strategy."

"What? What?" Clovis' eyes finally fluttered open. "We were talking about pillows, right? No, gods. I remember. Greek and Roman. Sure, could be important."

"But they're the same gods," Annabeth said. "Just different names."

"How do you know? You meet them?" Mare asked.

"My c— Mare is right. They aren't exactly the same," Clovis said.

"We're not cousins." Mare snapped.

Jason sat forward, now very much awake. "What do you mean, not exactly?"

"Well..." Clovis yawned. "Some gods are only Roman. Like Janus, or Pompona. But even the major Greek gods—it's not just their names that changed when they moved to Rome. Their appearances changed. Their attributes changed. They even had slightly different personalities."

"So they're almost like regenerations? Like in Doctor Who?"

Jason turned to her, "What is Doctor who?"

Mare blinked at him, appalled.

"But..." Annabeth faltered, obviously not listening to the wisdom Mare was spouting. "Okay, so maybe people saw them differently through the centuries. That doesn't change who they are. "

"Sure it does." Clovis began to nod off, Mare slapped him over the head and Jason snapped his fingers under his nose.

"Coming, Mother!" he yelped. "I mean... Yeah, I'm awake. So, um, personalities. The gods change to reflect their host cultures. You know that, Annabeth. I mean, these days, Zeus likes tailored suits, reality television, and that Chinese food place on East Twenty-eighth Street, right? It was the same in Roman times, and the gods were Roman almost as long as they were Greek. It was a big empire, lasted for centuries. So of course their Roman aspects are still a big part of their character."

Clovis paused for a moment, staring at Mare. "Kind of like Doctor who, his companions affect his next face, and his next personality but he's still the same person deep down. Think of the companions as Rome."

"The first part makes sense, I have no idea what Doctor Who is though." Jason said.

Mare nodded her head, "Both parts made sense to me."

Annabeth shook her head, mystified. "But how do you know all this, Clovis?"

"Oh, I spend a lot of time dreaming. I see the gods there all the time—always shifting forms. Dreams are fluid, you know. You can be in different places at once, always changing identities. It's a lot like being a god, actually. Like recently, I dreamed I was watching a Michael Jackson concert, and then I was onstage with Michael Jackson, and we were singing this duet, and I could not remember the words for 'The Girl Is Mine. ' Oh, man, it was so embarrassing, I—"

Mare wished she had seen that, it would have been great gossip for when she visited the Aphrodite cabin and if she'd gotten a video of it, Drew would have done her eyebrows for free.

"Clovis, Mare, you too," Annabeth interrupted. "Back to Rome?"

"Right, Rome," Clovis said. "So we call the gods by their Greek names because that's their original form. But saying their Roman aspects are exactly the same—that's not true. In Rome, they became more warlike. They didn't mingle with mortals as much. They were harsher, more powerful—the gods of an empire."

"Like the dark side of the gods?" Annabeth asked.

Mare felt weirdly protective, and she had zero clue why. "That's a pretty black and white way to think about it, Chase."

"Not exactly," Clovis said. "They stood for discipline, honor, strength—"

"Good things, then," Jason said. Mare agreed with him, weirdly. "I mean, discipline is important, right? That's what made Rome last so long. "

Clovis gave him a curious look. "That's true. But the Roman gods weren't very friendly. For instance, my dad, Hypnos... he didn't do much except sleep in Greek times. In Roman times, they called him Somnus. He liked killing people who didn't stay alert at their jobs. If they nodded off at the wrong time, boom—they never woke up. He killed the helmsman of Aeneas when they were sailing from Troy."

"So he was doing the usual God things."

"Nice guy," Annabeth said. "But I still don't understand what it has to do with Jason."

"Neither do I," Clovis said. "But if Hera took your memory, only she can give it back. And if I had to meet the queen of the gods, I'd hope she was more in a Hera mood than a Juno mood. Can I go back to sleep now?"

Annabeth stared at the branch above the fire, dripping Lethe water into the cups. She looked so worried, Mare had never seen her like that. Things happening with Percy always rattled the blonde's nerves. Then Annabeth stood and tossed Clovis his pillow. "Thanks, Clovis. We'll see you at dinner. "

"Can I get room service?" Clovis yawned and stumbled to his bunk. "I feel like... zzzz..." He collapsed with his butt in the air and his face buried in pillow.

Like Mare said, interesting character.

"Won't he suffocate?" Jason asked.

"He'll be fine," Annabeth said. "But I'm beginning to think that you are in serious trouble."

Mare smiled, a sharp grin that didn't reach her eyes. "This is finally getting interesting."