Daughter of Wine

Jason

My jaw drops. The central section of Aeolus's fortress is as big as a cathedral, with a soaring domed roof covered in silver. Television equipment floats randomly through the air. Cameras, set pieces, potted plants. And there's no floor. Leo almost falls into the chasm before Calli pulls him back, yet again. 

"Holy-!"Leo gulps. "Hey, Mellie. A little warning next time!" 

An enormous circular pit plunges into the heart of the mountain. It's probably a half-mile deep, honeycombed with caves. Some of the tunnels probably lead straight outside. I remember seeing winds blast out of them when we'd been on Pikes Peak. Other caves are sealed with some glistening material like glass or wax. The whole cavern bustles with harpies, aurai, and paper planes. 

"Oh, my." Mellie gasps. "I'm so sorry." She unclips a walkie-talkie from somewhere inside her robes and speaks into it. "Hello, sets? Is that Nuggets? Hi, Nuggets. Could we get a floor in the main studio please? Yes, a solid one. Thanks." 

Callie's mouth twitches. "A harpy named Nuggets?" She asks. 

Mellie smiles. "Yes, why?" 

"Nothing." Calli shakes her head. "Just... just making sure I heard you correctly." Her eyes gleam. 

A few seconds later, an army of harpies rises from the pit, all carrying squares of various building material. They get to work hammering and gluing and using large amounts of duct tape, which is not reassuring at all. In no time there is a makeshift floor snaking out over the chasm It's made of plywood, marble blocks, carpet squares, wedges of grass sod, just about anything. 

"That can't be safe." Calli frowns. 

"Oh, it is!" Mellie assures her. "The harpies are very good." 

Mellie floats across easily, since she can just fly. I take the first step, seeing as I can fly too. Amazingly, the floor holds. 

Piper grabs my hand and follows me. "If I fall, you're catching me."

"Uh, sure." I hope I'm not blushing. 

Leo and Calli step out next. I see Leo grabs Calli's hand tightly. "You're catching me too, with your spooky purple grape magic." 

She yanks her hand out of his, her face red. 

Mellie leads us toward the middle of the chamber, where a loose sphere of flat-panel video screens floats around a kind of control center. A man hovers inside, checking monitors and reading paper airplane messages. He pays us no attention as Mellie brings us forwards. She pushes a forty-two-inch Sony out of our way and leads us into the control area. 

Leo whistles. "I got to get a room like this." 

The floating screens show all sorts of television programs. Some I recognize, but some look a little strange, like demigods battling monsters, gladiators fighting. Maybe they're movies, but they look more like reality shows. 

At the far end of the sphere is a silky blue backdrop like a cinema screen, with cameras and studio lights floating around it. 

The man in the center is talking into an earpiece phone. He has a remote control in each hand and is pointing them at various video screens, seemingly at random. He's wearing a business suit that looks like the sky. Blue mostly, but dappled with clouds that change and darken and move across the fabric. He looks like he's in his sixties, with a shock of white hair, but he has a ton of stage makeup on, and that smooth plastic surgery look to his face, so he looks not really young, not really old, just wrong. His eyes dart back and forth from screen to screen, like he's trying to absorb everything at once. He mutters things into his phone, and his mouth keeps twitching. He's either amused, or crazy, or both. 

Mellie floats towards him. "Ah, sir, Mr. Aeolus, these demigods-"

"Hold it!" He holds up his hand to silence her, then points at one of the screens. "Watch!" 

It's one of those storm chaser programs, where insane thrill-seekers drive after tornadoes. As we watch, a Jeep plows straight into a funnel cloud and gets tossed into the sky. 

Aeolus shrieks with delight. "The Disaster Channel. People do that on purpose!" He turns to us with a mad grin. "Isn't that amazing? Let's watch it again." 

"Um, sir." Mellie says. "This is Jason, son of-"

"Yes, yes. I remember." Aeolus waves her off. "You're back. How did it go?"

 I hesitate. "Sorry? I think you've mistaken me-"

"No, no, Jason Grace, aren't you? It was-what-last year? You were on your way to fight a sea monster, I believe." 

"I-I don't remember." 

Aeolus laughs. "Must not have been a very good sea monster! No, I remember every hero who's ever come to me for aid. Odysseus, gods, he docked at my island for a month! At least you only stayed a few days. Now, watch this video. These ducks get sucked straight into-"

"Sir!" Mellie interrupts. "Two minutes to air." 

"Air!" Aeolus exclaims. "I love air. How do I look? Makeup!" 

Immediately a small tornado of brushes, blotters, and cotton balls descends on Aeolus. They blur across his face in a cloud of flesh-tone smoke until his coloration is even more gruesome than before. Wind swirls through his hair and leaves it sticking up like a frosted Christmas tree. 

Calli steps forwards as our resident expert on crazy. "Mr. Aeolus. We brought you these rogue storm spirits." I hand her the backpack, and she offers it to the god. 

"Did you!" Aeolus looks at the bag like it's a gift from a fan, something he doesn't really want. "Well, how nice." 

Leo nudges her, and she tries to offer it to him again. "Boreas sent us to capture them for you. We hope you'll accept them and stop, you know, ordering demigods to be killed." 

Aeolus laughs and looks incredulously at Mellie. "Demigods be killed, did I order that?"

Mellie checks her computer tablet. "Yes, sir, fifteenth of September. 'Storm spirits released by death of Typhon, demigods to be held responsible,' etc...yes, a general order for them all to be killed." 

"Oh, pish." Aeolus waves his hand. "I was just grumpy. Rescind that order, Mellie, and um, who's on guard duty? Teriyaki? Teri, take these storm spirits down to cell block fourteen E, will you?" 

"Another harpy named Teriyaki?" Calli asks. She looks like she's ready to explode. 

"Yes." Mellie tells her casually as the harpy swoops out of nowhere, snatches up the golden bag, and spirals into the abyss. 

Aeolus grins at Calli. "Now, sorry about that kill on sight business. But gods, I was really mad, wasn't I?" His face suddenly darkens, and his suit does the same, the lapels flashing with lightning. "You know... I remember now. Almost seemed like a voice was telling me to give that order. A little cold tingle on the back of my neck." 

"Um, a voice in your head, sir?" Calli asks warily yet gently, as if she's speaking to an old dementia patient. 

"Yes, how odd. Mellie, should we kill them?"

"No sir." She replies patiently. "They just brought us the storm spirits, which makes everything alright." 

"Of course." Aeolus laughs. "Sorry. Mellie, let's send the demigods something nice. A box of chocolates, perhaps." 

"A box of chocolates to every demigod in the world, sir?"

"No, too expensive. Never mind. Wait, it's time! I'm on!"