Percy Jackson - Cursed to Forget

New Beginnings

I stood looking out over the balcony we had appeared on, trying to take in everything around me. The view in front of me put anything I had ever seen in my life to shame, even Olympus itself. No offence Annabeth. I was looking out at a city stretching out as far as I could see, only coming to an end when faced with the giant mountain range that took up the horizon. Almost as if it was signaling the edge of the world. The city itself was magnificent. Skyscrapers reaching high into the sky, flying transport vehicles buzzing around in all directions. It looked like a city you would see on earth, only thousands of years in the future. But the city wasn't the best part. After I came to terms with my shock of the view in front of me, I took a look around me. We were in a castle, grand and imposing. A suitable living space for the creator of the universe. Made of white and gold, with towers pointing high, shimmering in the late afternoon light. Most surprising though was that it was floating. This giant castle which might have been bigger then Olympus itself was just floating hundreds and thousands of feet in the air.

I turned back around to look over the balcony edge again, taking a big scan of everything I could see. Attached to the ground the castle was built upon were giant chains. These chains were attached to the planet beneath it, as if to keep the miracle structure from floating away. These chains were humongous. Each link would have been the length of multiple football fields at least, and they were the diameter of the Empire State Building, probably. Directly below the floating mass of land and castle was a hole. The shape of which seems to have been from when the ground the castle is built upon was lifted out of the ground, except it went much deeper than that. It was a hole in the planet itself, and filling the space that was left behind was something I had been faced with before, a void. This one however, didn't fill you with a dark and sinister feeling like the one in Tartarus. No, this one was more balanced. As if it was breathing life out into the universe, but at the same time, anything that went inside would cease to be. It swirled with power and every time any movement was made a glimmer of light would poke through, giving it the appearance of a night sky filled with shimmering stars.

"It's quite the view," said the voice of Chaos, drawing me out of my bewildered staring.

"It's incredible," I replied. "Words can't even describe it."

"I get what you mean," he said as he walked over and leant on the banister, looking out over the city. "Even though I live here I still like to come here and take in this view every now and then. It reminds me that there's still a point to all of it," he continued. Just as I opened my mouth to ask what he meant, Chaos straightened his posture and cut me off before I could get the words out. "Well, no time for that now," he exclaimed. "I'm very busy so I'm going to give you the crash course of the universe, so you'd better shut up and listen," he said bluntly. I just stared at him with what was definitely a puzzled expression but the ever dignified ruler of the universe started speaking anyway.

"First a short history lesson," he started. "I was spat out of a void very similar to this one, except much bigger and much more powerful. That void is now the centre of the universe. Any way, I don't know how I came to be only that I was. My conscious mind drifted in a plane of nothingness for I don't know how long since time wasn't a concept yet. Eventually I created the universe and everything in it. Well sort of. I didn't create life, I created the conditions for life and then took a hands off approach and let the universe basically create itself."

"What about earth, why do we have immortals?" I interrupted. The creator narrowed his eyes and sighed. "Earth is different I created the primordials which of course birthed the planet itself. I also had to create the solar system which it resided in. Everything else happened on its own. Now I thought I told you to be quiet," he answered. I just shrugged my shoulders in response. Chaos sighed again and mumbled something along the lines of 'big mistake' under his breath before continuing with his little history lesson. "There are many billions of planets and many billions of species residing on them. Within those species are sub-species, basically a type of being that has evolved differently then the main group to suit the living conditions of the planet they are on. The biggest species are humans, or as we call them, numah. Anyway, point is there are billions of planets and trillions of people. With your newfound immortality you will be able to use your vapour travel between them if you don't want to use public transport. You won't have your normal thought process while travelling that way, meaning you can think only of your destination and it will still take you time to move between planets especially if you haven't been there before. Now that's about the gist of everything, if you want more info on the finer details go ask someone else. I'll have your earth time keeping device built and sent to you within the hour, until then, might I suggest you go and explore the city below or perhaps the library in the castle," Chaos finished. With that he started walking away. "Oh and one more thing," he called over his shoulder. "Your weapons won't work on people, they are mortal after all." And with that he walked out of the door of the room connected to the balcony I was still stood on, leaving me alone, on a foreign planet, and no idea what to do next. "What have you got yourself into Percy," I sighed to myself.