Alice's POV[]
Ciara rushed into the room with an expression on her face like she'd seen a ghost, which, from what I'd heard about the Oracle, may have been true. Chiron had left, and Clarisse had returned(at the news her daughter was leading her first quest.)
"So?" Mikaela asked impatiently.
Ciara hesitated.
"Six. I need six people." She said finally.
"And? What was the exact wording. This is important, Ciara." Calypso said.
Ciara glanced nervously around the room, then recited the prophecy.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Ciara looked at Amaranta. "You can still back out if you want."
She shook her head. "I need to help my father."
"On that subject, who all is going?" Clarisse asked.
Ciara looked hopefully at Mikaela. "Kae?"
Mikaela smiled, and stepped up to stand beside her. "Of course, Ciara."
"I'm coming too." Devon said.
Ciara gave him a glare that might have killed a lesser being. "No one invited you, Grace."
"Look, I'm no more excited than you about spending- well, any, time together, really, but they're my parents. I have to help them."
She held her glare for another moment, then turned away without further argument. "So, two more."
"I want to come." I said.
The room exploded with protest.
"According to the prophecy, we're going to the Land of the Dead. Is anyone else here a legacy of the Lord of the Underworld?"
"Still, you're way too young-"
"Percy and Annabeth were twelve on their first quest. Thalia and Annabeth were living on the streets avoiding monsters at the ages of twelve and seven. I'll be twelve in May! And I'm not helpless! I'm a member of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata!"
I lifted my sleeve for emphasis, showing the tattoo on my inner arm of the slightly-humanoid symbol of Pluto and the crossed spears of Mars, above the letters SPQR and five straight lines. "I am the daughter Frank and Hazel Zhang, praetors of New Rome. The blood of Pluto and Poseidon runs in my veins. And I am going on this quest." My golden eyes burned with determination.
Ciara blinked a few times. After a minute or so Clarisse's daughter nodded. "Right. Fine. One more." She looked to the daughter of Zeus, who was still at her younger brother's bedside. "Thalia?"
She looked up, not expecting to have heard her name.
"We could really use someone with your experience." Ciara said.
Thalia's surprise quickly wore off. "Of course. I'm there."
"Then we have a quest!" Clarisse said, putting her hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"We have a quest." Ciara agreed, sounding much less sure.
"How are we going to get to the Underworld?" Amaranta asked.
"We can travel with the rest of the party heading back to New Rome. Once we're in California it shouldn't be hard to get there." I offered.
"That should work." Devon said.
"We should leave immediately. No time to waste." Thalia said, heading towards the door.
The rest of us followed.