Splitting a Soul~Chapter 6

“Lay her down over there,” I said, pointing to an old reclining chair we kept in the basement. Jack set her down and pulled the lever back, causing the back of the chair to fall back and the foot-rest to fly up. “Careful, you don’t want to hurt her.”

“Sorry,” Jack half-heartedly apologized, shrugging his shoulders.

“Anyway, we need to make a rainbow. Look for something on the shelves over there,” I told Kimi and Jack, pointing to a large row of shelves on the far end of the room. I looked in a few old boxes, hoping to find something besides a garden hose.

“Will this work?” Kimi asked, pulling an old lamp off the shelf. It was an ugly lamp with small plastic crystals hanging from the golden rim of the shade. I think it was a Christmas gift my mom got from my grandmother, but my grandma never had good taste.

“Ya, just plug it into the wall over there,” I told her. Kimi plugged it in and flipped a switch, causing one of the light bulbs to burst instantly with a pop, but the other one gave off enough light to bounce rainbows all over the room through the crystals.

“Ok, I just hope someone answers,” I said as I pulled a golden drachma from my pocket. I had brought a few with me before I left camp and I called on Iris, tossing the coin into the rainbow. “Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow; please accept this offering. Connect me to Chiron at Camp Half-Blood.”

There was a tune playing in the background that sounded kind of like Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog. Chiron then appeared on the other end of the vision. He was rubbing his eyes and had his long hair braided using several curlers; there was even on in his beard. As soon as he looked in the vision, he quickly pulled the curlers from his hair and tried his best to look dignified.

“Hello? What can I do for you Mr. Faith?” Chiron asked. I moved over out of the way to give Chiron a view of Aisling in the chair. Kimi was looking after her, and Aisling was starting to wake up. “I see; can you bring the lamp closer?”

“Alright,” I said and I extended the cord as far as it would go. I managed to angle it so that one of the rainbows was right on Kimi’s bite mark. “Can you see it?”

“Yes, I have a very good look,” Chiron said. I could see his image flickering between multiple rainbows given off by the lamp, so I just hope Iris wasn’t going to charge me for using multiple phone lines. “I think I have seen something like this before. Give me a second.”

“Who’s that guy?” Jack asked, looking into one of the rainbows. He watched as Chiron rolled around in his wheelchair looking at scrolls on his wall. He went to reach for one, but found he was too short. Chiron then pulled himself from his seat and took on his full centaur form. “Holy cow, that guy is a horse!”

“Half horse,” Chiron explained as he took a scroll off the top shelf and returning to the rainbow. He took a long look at Jack and scratched his beard. “And who might this be?”

“This is Jackson, a friend of mine and a demigod apparently,” I told Chiron. “But that isn’t important right now. Any good news?”

“I wouldn’t call it good news,” Chiron said as he read the scroll. “Based on the bite mark, she was bitten by a Mormolyceia, or Mormo for short. They are minions of Hecate and are similar to Empousai.”

“Is my leg going to fall off?!” Aisling called from the corner. “Am I going to have to ask the Hephaestus cabin to make me a bronze leg?”

“Your leg isn’t going to fall off,” Chiron said in a comforting tone, trying to calm her.

“You may just turn into a blood sucking demon of the Underworld,” came a voice from just off screen.

“Mr. D!” Chiron yelled, obviously upset by the camp’s director. The rainbow shifted a little bit and I could see Dionysus in a pair of leopard-print pajamas.

“It happens to the best of us…well not me or anyone important. But it does happen sometimes to demigods,” Mr. D commented.

“You’re kind of a jerk,” Jack said into the rainbow. Mr. D’s smile faded and he shot a stare right at Jack.

“Excuse me?” Dionysus said.

“You heard me; you are kind of a jerk. She’s got bitten by some kind of blood sucking monster and you’re making jokes. You could offer up some kind of advise or something, but you couldn’t be bothered,” Jack said, looking angrily at Mr. D, who Jack most likely had no idea who he was.

“Watch your tone!” Dionysus said and flicked his wrist. Grape vines grew out from the wooden floor and wrapped themselves around Jack.

“Oh please,” Jack said and all the vines began to freeze and shatter to the ground. “Got anything else?”

“If you’ll excuse me gentlemen,” Chiron said, taking up the entire rainbow vision and stepping between the two. “Now I have looked over this scroll and may have a solution to the problem.”

“Awesome! What do we have to do?” Aisling asked, optimistic about some good news.

“Right now the Mormo’s bite will slowly corrupt your very soul until, like Mr. D so kindly said, you will become a Mormo yourself,” Chiron explained. “Eventually your soul will die and you will no longer be mortal.”

“And you said you had a solution,” I told him, hoping all we had to do was put a cross under her pillow or something.

“Well it has never actually been tested before, but there is a legend of a gate that will reverse the living and dead essence of a being,” Chiron said, pulling another scroll from his shelf. “It is the gate that Persephone uses when going to the Underworld in the winter and returning in the summer.”

“Won’t that just make her dead?” Jack asked, looking kind of confused.

“Not if most of her soul is dead at the time,” I said, starting to understand what Chiron was getting at.

“Exactly; by entering the gate, the living parts of Aisling’s soul will be restored and the dead parts will be split from her and sent into the Underworld,” Chiron said with a smile, but his face seemed to drop. “In theory anyway. The gate uses ancient magic that I can’t even begin to comprehend. I’m also not entirely sure if the gate works in the way we think it does.”

“Can’t we just ask Persephone?” Kimi asked, joining in on the conversation.

“I’m afraid not, as she is in the Underworld right now and refuses to take any calls,” Chiron explained, but then turned to Mr. D. “Perhaps you know where it is.”

“Nope,” Dionysus said, crossing his arms. “That old myth about me dying in the winter and rising in the summer was thankfully one thing that most people forgot about. I haven’t died since we were in Japan.”

“Not helpful,” Jack commented, causing Dionysus to shoot him another gaze. “Wait, you were in Japan? Have any good anime you could recommend?”

“Stay focused,” Kimi commented, rolling her eyes at Jack.

“Right, so where is this gate?” Jack asked Chiron and Dionysus.

“No idea,” they both said in unison. But then Chiron cleared his throat. “However, I think I know where you can find information on it; the Library of the Gods.”

“The library?! That is so lame,” Jack said as he seemed to lose interest in the conversation right away.

“The Library of the Gods? That sounds amazing!” Aisling yelled, obviously her will to learn kicking in. “So is it like in New York on Olympus?”

“Indianapolis actually,” Chiron said. “The Central Library is based on the Greek style of design. It was Athena’s choice as to where the confines of wisdom should be.”

“I smell a road trip!” Jack said excitedly and spun his keys around on his finger. “Good luck then. I have offered all the help I can, be safe and may the gods bless you,” Chiron said. “I’m sorry this had to happen on your vacation.”

“We both know the life of a demigod is never easy,” I told Chiron and he just nodded back.

“Good luck Pyre Fast,” Dionysus said, waving his and toward the rainbow. “And Mr. Frost, watch your back.”

That sent a shiver down my spine. Dionysus never got anyone’s name right. What was even worse was that Jack had never actually introduced himself to the wine god, so Mr. D must have taken a special interest in Jack. Jack however seemed completely unfazed.

“You better watch your back too,” Jack said back at the rainbow. As daring as it sounded, Jack was seriously just asking for trouble. It isn’t like Mr. D had a reason to watch his back. Unlike Mr. D, I don’t think Jack could do anything to him from almost 200 miles away. Either way, the image faded and we were left alone in the basement of my house with nothing but an old lamp for light.

“I guess we better get going,” Aisling said with a wide smile. We all returned it, but I don’t think anyone really wanted their vacation to end so soon. So is the life of a demigod.