[Third Person POV]
Thalia stood silently, her sharp eyes fixed on the restless sea below. The waves rolled and hissed, echoing the violence that had just shaken the waters. She narrowed her gaze, waiting—anticipating a counterstrike, some desperate attempt from the depths. Seconds stretched, heavy with tension, but nothing stirred. At last, she released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, her chest rising and falling in a weary sigh.
Though she didn't lower her guard, some part of her knew the battle had ended
. Victory should have tasted sweet, yet all she found was a bitter tang that clung to her tongue.
Gradually, the wind began to die down. The furious gusts faded into gentle breezes, carrying the salt of the sea. The storm clouds above broke apart, thinning until silver light spilled through. The stars glimmered faintly, and the waxing moon emerged, bathing the wreckage in pale radiance.
When Thalia finally turned her head, she caught sight of Lucian. He stood next to Annabeth in the Princess Andromeda, lowering the shimmering dome of protection he had been sustaining. His barrier flickered and dissolved, threads of light unraveling as his shoulders slumped.
Her eyes swept back to the ocean one last time. She lingered there, unwilling to fully trust the silence, before she willed herself to move. As she flew back she extended her legs and spreading her arms, Thalia drifted downward, her boots touching lightly onto the railing of the cruise ship. With a soft hop she landed inside the deck.
"Hehehe…" The giggle startled her.
Lucian swayed like a drunk, both hands pressed to his flushed cheeks. He peeked at her from between his fingers, his expression dreamy and absurdly giddy.
Thalia blinked in bafflement, her brows lifting in amusement as she turned toward Annabeth. "Was he bitten by some strange bug? What's wrong with him?"
Annabeth only smirked, her eyes glittering mischievously. "You realize when you were speaking to Luke, you amplified your voice with your power, right? We all heard every word you said."
Thalia frowned, tilting her head. "Oh… so?"
Rolling her eyes, Annabeth explained, "He's been like this because you told Luke he would never amount to even half the man Lucian was." She motioned toward him with a deadpan look.
Lucian, crouched at the far side of the deck, had somehow acquired a flower—gods only knew where. He plucked its petals one by one, muttering with childlike intensity, "She loves me… she loves me not. She loves me… she loves me not. She loves—" Each phrase twisted his face between a beaming grin and a tragic pout.
Thalia's lips twitched as her patience frayed. A violent urge rose in her to smack some sense into him, though she feared she might actually kill him if she gave in.
"Anyway," Annabeth said briskly, pulling her attention back, "what happened to Luke?"
Thalia released a long, weary sigh that seemed to come from the pit of her soul. "I don't know. He sank into the ocean. Live or die—that's his problem now. Lord Hermes can't fault me for what happens to him afterward." She shrugged, dismissive as the waves below.
"So you're leaving it up to Fate," Annabeth muttered, shaking her head. "You should've at least gouged out one of his eyes. Preferably both. Cutting out his tongue would've been the ideal solution, if you ask me."
Thalia chuckled, raising a brow at her friend's venom. "You really don't like Luke, do you?"
"How dare that arrogant bastard call me an obsessive little weirdo?" Annabeth snapped, her teeth clenched as her glare turned seaward.
Thalia couldn't help laughing again, raising her hands in mock surrender. "I mean…"
"Whose side are you on?" Annabeth shot her a flat look, unimpressed.
Lucian, having finally finished his flower ritual, straightened and stretched, his shadow shifting unnaturally as the twin bear brothers swam back to him. "If you leave it to Fate, Luke will most likely survive. It's bound to happen. Not that I mind." A grin tugged at his lips, his tone disturbingly cheerful. "He's my new source of shadow monsters, after all. My little gold mine. And if he does die… well, then he was never meant to be anything more."
Annabeth and Thalia both nodded in agreement before Annabeth asked, "So… where to next?"
Lucian stretched his arms above his head with a weary groan. "The closest island, obviously. It's been a long day~ and I'm growing really tired." He punctuated the statement with a yawn that made both girls blink in surprise.
Annabeth and Thalia exchanged a silent, worried glance. Lucian was someone who could go days without rest, his endurance bordering on unnatural. For him to be worn out before a full twenty-four hours had even passed was… concerning.
Still, Lucian only smiled to himself and murmured, "What a good day this has been." Then, without warning, he leapt into the air, shadows curling around his form as he shifted into a sleek black raven. His feathers shimmered like polished obsidian, and his eyes glowed with an eerie, crimson light.
The girls watched him flap away into the distance. Both sighed in unison and hung their heads.
Annabeth shook herself first. With a small smirk tugging at her lips, she leapt high into the night sky, twisting gracefully as magic wrapped around her body. Her form compacted into a golden-feathered owl, her silver eyes gleaming as she shot after Lucian.
"They're both so freaking extra…" Thalia muttered, dragging a hand down her face. "Now how did that spell go again…?"
Her control over the Mist wasn't perfect—not like Lucian's—but she had practiced enough to handle basic transformations. Closing her eyes, she whispered the process. "Wrap my form in magic… and compress it into the form I need."
A ripple of energy surged around her body. In a blink, she shrank, feathers replacing flesh, wings spreading wide. She opened her sharp new eyes to find herself soaring forward as a bald eagle, her wings cutting gracefully through the cool night air.
'Wait, I never specified what bird I wanted to become…' she thought, startled. But the sensation of riding the air currents filled her chest with calm. 'Still, this feels… surprisingly natural.'
She tilted her wings and caught up to the others, the three of them weaving together as an unlikely flock. It was a strange, almost comical sight—a raven with blood-red eyes, a golden owl, and a bald eagle all flying side by side across the open sea. Their dark shapes mirrored themselves in the water below, their cries echoing into the starry night.
For a time, none of them spoke. The thrill of flight was enough. The ocean spread endlessly beneath them, silvered by moonlight, and the stars above seemed close enough to touch. It wasn't until the novelty began to wear off that they finally noticed the dark silhouette of land rising on the horizon.
Lucian twisted in midair, feathers dissolving into shadows as he landed on the sandy shore in a crouch. He rose slowly, brushing stray grains of sand from his hands. Thalia and Annabeth landed beside him, their transformations unraveling in bursts of light and feathers until they returned to their human forms.
"So where exactly are we?" Annabeth asked, arching an eyebrow at Lucian.
He only shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? I landed at the same time you did."
Annabeth gave him a flat stare. "By using your navigation abilities, oh brilliant treasure hunter."
Lucian blinked, then smacked his forehead. "Oh right… those." He gave a sheepish grin. "Guess there hasn't really been a chance to use them much… until now."
Mist coiled around his fingertips, spiraling upward into the faint outline of a glowing map. Annabeth and Thalia leaned in close, studying the lines as Lucian cross-referenced it with the night sky.
He tilted his head back, eyes narrowing as he gazed at the stars. "Barty," he called softly. From his shadow, a smaller raven burst forth and took flight. Lucian closed one eye, synchronizing his vision with the bird's, granting himself a sweeping view of their surroundings.
"Okay, I think I've got it," he announced after a moment. "We're in the Bahamas, close to Florida. That means we've officially entered the Bermuda Triangle." His voice carried a faint note of excitement as he gestured toward the sea. "North is the way we just came from, and if we want to push deeper into the Sea of Monsters, we'll need to head west. That way." He pointed to their left. "Though, if we'd rather play it safe, we can explore inland first before heading back to sea."
Thalia tilted her head curiously. "Wait—does your ability just… tell you which way is north and south without a compass?"
Annabeth and Lucian both froze, then looked at her with matching expressions of disbelief. Slowly, they raised their fingers and pointed straight upward.
"I/He just looked at the North Star," Lucian and Annabeth said flatly.
"Oh… right." Thalia's cheeks warmed with embarrassment. She rubbed the back of her neck, muttering, "Totally knew that."
Lucian chuckled under his breath before explaining, "But yes, in a way. My powers let me tap into the Earth's magnetic field. So, I always know which way I'm facing, and I can't ever get lost. As an added bonus…" His smile widened as a small ripple of metallic sand danced between his fingers. "I can manipulate metal because of it."
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