PoV:Hazel

I groaned as I opened my eyes. The brightness of the light spiked my headache and I struggled to open them. I could hear things, but they sounded quiet under the ringing in my ears.

When I finally could keep my eyes open, I saw Frank smiling at me. "Hazel!" He exclaimed, "Are you okay?!"

" Ugh,I feel like Arion just ran over me multiple times. " I mumbled before smiling back.

 "Well, it could be worse, I guess." 

We both stopped talking as Tempest came through. While I knew Tempest said she was on out side, a large part of me was angry at her. She called us her friends and then hurt us. Yeah, real friendly.

 "I see you're awake, Hazel." Tempest spoke softly.

 " Yeah. " was all I said.

Tempest sighed, "You do realize that if Gisela assigned anyone else to do that, it would've been much worse, don't you?"

 " Sure. "

She sighed again and muttered something under her breath before moving forward. Tempest stopped in front of Fitz and just looked at him for a while before looking behind her, "I can see why you don't like him."

Alvar appeared behind her, " it's a mutual feeling. "

Fitz's eyes narrowed, "What are you doing here?"

"Gisela told us to come here. I'm surprised you haven't figured that out by now."

" Well, you can leave. "

"I second that," Gisela said as she approached , "Especially since I don't recall telling you to come here after you failed your last mission."

"They were prepared-" Alvar started.

"There's no way for them to be prepared! It was simple, and you failed. Go back to Vespera."

Alvar rolled his eyes before stalking away. Tempest moved towards Gisela, and they met fairly close to where I was sitting. The two of the spoke in hushed tones, occasionally shifting their gazes from Fitz to Percy and to me. Finally, Tempest turned around. She snapped her fingers and a group of Neverseen members came and untied us.

"You 6 are coming with me," Tempest said sternly, and, sure enough, I found myself, along with everyone else, following her. we went a similar route to the one I had taken with Gethen however long ago it was. Sure enough, we arrived at the same clearing. The memories caused me to grab Frank's hand and grip it tightly. 

"Why are we here?" Percy asked. 

"Because Gisela wanted me to kill you, " Tempest replied, pointing at Fitz.

"What did I do?!?" Fitz exclaimed.

"From what I can tell; nothing. You just make your brother distracted, which Gisela can't afford."

" So you're going to kill him?!? " I asked, tightening my grip on Frank's hand.

Tempest shook her head, "I've been waiting for the right time, but now I'm afraid we don't have one. " She pulled out a necklace with a crystal hanging from the end, "This will take us all to the Shores of Solace. It's the only way to keep you all safe. "

"What about the others here?" Percy asked , "Will they be alright?"

" They don't know anything. They'll be fine. It's you two I'm more worried about. " she pointed at me and Percy.

"Two questions," Jason said, "One, isn't that just a crystal, and two, what do they know that we don't?"

Tempest grinned, "And my answer to both of those is that you'll find out soon. First though," she held up a device and pushed a single button. I felt the device in my neck fall off and my demigod abilities rushing back. I grinned and made a gold nugget appear in my hand, just to make sure. 

"Alright," Tempest continued after she helped Piper untie the gag and throw it into the ground, " We don't have much more time before someone gets curious. Everyone, hold hands. "

I found myself being stuck between Frank and Jason. Tentatively I grabbed Jason's hand and let Tempest pull us into the beam of light she'd created.

____________

When we came back, the first thing I noticed was the tall building in front of a beautiful sea. Gleaming grey and white, it was truly stunning.

The second thing I realized was that the building was made entirely of crystal. It had a similar pull to the necklace in my pocket, but neither of them were as strong as the metals like gold.

the third thing I saw was two people leaving the building; a girl and boy. The boy had blond hair and the girl's was brown, but that was all I could tell from my distance. Fitz, however, seemed to recognize at least one of them immediately, because he took off running towards them. The girl saw him as well and ran to meet him, wrapping him in a hug. 

As the three of them walked back towards us, I could figure out who they were. The girl was Biana, Fitz's sister, and the other was Keefe, Gisela's son. I smiled at Biana when she looked at me.

The cheerful moment didn't last, however, once Keefe saw Tempest. He frowned, and in a flash he had moved from his spot by Biana to pinning Tempest on the ground, holding a throwing star at her neck."What are you doing here?" He asked harshly.

 "Nice to see you too, " Tempest replied.

"You said you wouldn't try to find me."

 "I wasn't. I didn't even know you were here," she said smoothly.

" Then why are they here? " he used his head to gesture towards us, "You know they aren't supposed to be." I snuck a glance at Percy , and I saw him looking back at me. The expression of both intrigue and worry that was on his face was probably mirrored on mine.

"Because they would've died if I didn't bring them here." Tempest replied calmly. How she managed to keep her voice steady while a weapon was being held at her neck, I would never know.

"That doesn't justify bringing them here, of all places! Candleshade is empty, why didn't you bring them there? "

"Because I didn't have time to steal a pathfinder. Unless you were ok with giving Alvar the chance to kill his brother?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Biana wrap her hand around Fitz's arm.

"Then how'd you get a crystal to leap here? " Keefe asked, relaxing slightly.

"You must've left it behind. I found it outside your room at base. "

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Now, if you're just going to interrogate me, you can do it without holding a throwing star at my neck. It's not like I can go anywhere. " Tempest said, sounding slightly bored.

Keefe hesitated a few seconds before getting off Tempest. "So," he started as Tempest stood, "Where are you planning to hide them? "

"I was planning on here. Why else would I have taken only your crystal?"

" You're going to leave them with my dad? " Keefe asked with a small smile on his face, "Cause that's ever a good idea." 

 " Uh, Keefe? " Biana spoke up, "Didn't he say he hid someone there before?"

"That could've been centuries ago! " Keefe countered, "He's probably changed since then! "

"Centuries?!?" Frank asked, making the three elves remember we were here, "Is your father some minor god or something?!?"

Tempest smirked, "Not quite. Lord Cassius is quite old, though. Pretty much everyone in the Neverseen besides me is a couple hundred years old."

 The entire group went dead silent. Nobody really knew what to say, myself included. Tempest was chuckling, and the others were smiling at our reactions.

"Well, that's one way to make people stop talking, " Biana said with a grin, "but we should probably figure out where they're going to stay. "

"Probably not Candleshade," Tempest added, "Since they're planning on searching it soon. "

"How do we know what you say is trustworthy?" Keefe asked .

"If you really didn't trust me, I wouldn't be standing here." Tempest pointed out, "Now, I'll go talk to Cassius. I'm sure he'll be fine with them staying for a short time."

" He's hiding in a secret room, " Biana called back at Tempest after she started walking.

"I gathered that," Tempest called back without looking behind her. Our whole group went quiet and I took the time to think over what just happened.

" Hey, Keefe? " I asked, "Does everyone know your father?"

" Pretty much, " he replied, "Why?"

" Well, I never heard you mention his name, but Tempest knew it. It also sounded like she knew him pretty well. "

Keefe thought for a few seconds, "Well, she had never seen my mother and I hadn't ever seen her before I left, so maybe she worked with him at some point? "

 "But she said she was younger than him, " Piper pointed out, "And while she could've worked with him, I don't know if important people really spend that much time with teens. Trust me on that. "

Keefe shrugged, "Well, maybe we can get an answer from her at some point. But at the moment, we should probably explain who we are. "

That took me way to long to finish!! Even after my account started working again, it would occasionally delete my progress, so it took longer than usual. So, I made this chapter longer than usual to make up for it. I'll try to update again today since this chapter was supposed to be out yesterday.  See you later!