Andromeda then turned back to the flying shoes, looking at them with a frown, knowing she wouldn't be able to wear them, yet Luke gave them to her anyway. Jakob glanced at the shoes and frowned, bit for a different reason. Luke should've known that Andromeda couldn't go into the air, given she was Poseidon's daughter. That was like jumping into a troll's den, sow what was he playing at?
"Luke meant well, Andromeda. But taking to the air…that would not be wise for you." Chiron said, seeing her expression and guessed what she was thinking.
"Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?" Andromeda asked, turning to the satyr, making his eyes light up in excitement.
"Me?!" Grover said, not expecting her to give him the flying shoes, the ravenette nodding as she handed him the flying shoes.
Eager to try them out, Grover put them on his fake feet and tied them up.
"Maia!" Said Grover, causing the wings to appear, only to yelp as he was thrown to the ground sideways, the shows flying around as they dragged him down the hill.
"Practice. You just need practice!" Chiron called out.
Jakob sighed and walked on, managing to grab Grover by his leg and pull him along to the white van where Annabeth was waiting with Argus.
Andromeda chuckled and move to join them, only to stop when Chiron grabbed her arm.
"I should have trained you better, Andromeda. If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason, they all got more training." Said Chiron, hating to send her off on such a dangerous quest with hardly any training.
"Jakob did what he could for me." Andromeda said, shivering as she remember Jakob's combat training. He had not been gentle or easy on her at all. "Though it would've been nice to own a signature weapon like he does."
"While I don't have a axe forged by Dwarves, I do have this." Chiron said, pulling a pen out from his coat pocket and handed it to Percy. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents. "That's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."
Andromeda raised a brow before she took off the cap and half a second later, she held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs.
"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told him. "Its name is Anaklusmos."
"Riptide," Andromeda translated.
"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."
The daughter of Poseidon looked at the sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals? How could it not?" Andromeda asked.
"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mt. Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature of the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply aren't important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."
"Good to know."
"Now recap the pen."
Andromeda touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. She tucked it in her pocket, looking nervous.
"You can't," Chiron said knowingly, smiling.
"Can't what?"
"Lose the pen," he said. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."
Andromeda looked wary, but threw the pen as far as she could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.
"It may take a few moments," Chiron told her. "Now check your pocket."
Sure enough, the pen was there.
"Okay, that's extremely cool," Andromeda admitted with a smile. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"
Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Andromeda."
"Yes. Read The Iliad. It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."
Andromeda nodded and placed Riptide back into her pocket.
"Just one last piece of advice, Andromeda. Relax. Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history." Said Chiron, with the demigod nodding while taking a deep breath.
Heading down the hill to the van, Andromeda saw Jakob sitting in the front while Annabeth and Grover were in the back. Looking back up the hill towards Thalia's tree, she saw Chiron holding his bow up in the air in a salute.
'Just a typical summer camp sendoff from your typical centaur activities director.' Andromeda thought as she got into the van.
The questers had arrived in Manhattan by the time the sun began setting and started to rain, with Argus dropping them off at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side. Helping them unload their bags and making sure they had their bus tickets before driving back to camp.
With them waiting for the bus to arrive, until Jakob noticed Andromeda tearing a flyer off a mailbox.
"Problem?" Jakob asked, making Andromeda look at him before shaking her head.
"No, no problem." Muttered Andromeda before glancing in the direction of her old apartment, knowing that on a normal day, her mother would be back from the candy shop by now.
"You want to know why she married him, Andie?" Grover said, looking at his friend, with the ravenette turning towards him.
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