CHAPTER LXXXVII:Catching Up.

"So you can control yourself still?" I asked.

Kori smiled a bit, "That's a fair question. Have you ever heard of The Curse of Charon?"

I have, I had seen mentions of it in other books but was unfamiliar with the actual spell. According to the books it was forbidden to use. That would actually explain why it wasn't mentioned to often, besides that I knew nothing about it. Well, I knew one haunting fact. The original name was The Styx Rejection, but it was later called The Curse of Charon because he couldn't take you down The River Styx.

"Explain it," I said

"No need, you have a general understanding of it," Kori smiled.

I looked at Kori surprised, "How did you-"

"I can read your mind still. It's a side effect of reading The Khaos Passages," Kori cut me off.

"The Khaos what?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"Ah, I forgot that my, no OUR, father changed its name. It's called The Book of The Universe now, Hades didn't want any more daughters of his finding it. He actually keeps it under constant guard in Asphodel. How does he look now by the way? Godly appearances are not something an Oracle, or someone with all of the power in the universe, can predict," Kori responded in a kind, yet off putting, voice.

"He doesn't look like he's a hundred anymore, but he still looks pretty old. Hades looks like he's thirty five, and his beard is trimmed and black, same with his hair, instead of grey. Also Hades doesn't wear that ridiculous toga anymore he wears a torn black suit," I answered keeping eye contact with Kori.

Kori seemed to consider my description, she laughed like it was amusing to her. I guess the thought of my dad going from looking like a terrifying deity of death to a guy having a midlife crisis was an amusing thought. It was especially amusing since everyone considered Apollo to be the laid back and unruly god, meanwhile Hades' clothes were hanging on by literal threads.

Kori kept laughing, like we were old friends instead of enemies, "So, let me get this straight Hades' beard isn't a foot long any-" Kori started screaming in pain.

"Kori?!" I yelled out leaning forward.

Ichor came from Kori eyes staining the sheets. Kori made a flask, that was visibly red hot, appear in her hands and drank something from the flask. Kori coughed up some Ichor before her body relaxed. I went to help her but she just held her hand up.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Kori yelled making her flask disappear.

I sat next to Kori and sighed, "What was in that?"

"Water from the River Phlegethon, I still need it to survive since a part of me is still in Tartarus," Kori explained.

Kori wiped her mouth and stood up. She opened up a closet in the room and pulled out my jacket. Kori took an infinite water bottle that was stuffed in my jacket pocket, and pulled two glasses from the closet. She set the glasses on the nightstand, and poured water in both glasses.

"So, no matter where you are, you still need to drink from The River of Fire?" I asked.

"Precisely," Kori answered drinking some water.

"I'm sorry about your mother by the way, I lost my mother as well," I said trying to emphasize with Kori.

Kori looked down, "Every single one of our sisters have, I'm happy to say that you'll be the last one to lose your matér. At least that I know of, especially since the gods live for a long time. They actually get to go to the planets that were named after them, some crazy Oracle told them that we'd move to the stars. Well she did until she was brutally murdered, Apollo was pissed."

I sat there surprised, Khaos has seen a lot of history. Some unknown to mortals and demigods, and some that's forbidden. Maybe that's why Zeus tried to kill me, especially since I was supposed to be stronger than Kori. I guess it didn't help that I surpassed a curse put on me.

"I have a question for you," I said.

"Why did a child of Aphrodite kill my matér? Easy, I lived in Korinth," Kori answered.

"Okay then, why are you here?" I asked.

"Whether you win or lose this war you won't kill me, Khaos will leave my body if you hurt me to bad so I won't die. And if you lose Khaos will leave me, after she breaks you, to claim your body and power. I'll be completely immortal either or, so I may as well get to know you better," Kori explained.

"You know Eva Rossi right?" I asked, Kori nodded silently. "She said I'm more powerful than you, is that true?"

"Sort of. We both have the same powers from Hades, except maybe…hm, nevermind. Despite what some individuals think, our magical strength is where we differ. Your magical strength is stronger than mine trifold, or it was until you were cursed. Speaking of that! Why don't you change your eye color? You could easily do it semi-permanently since you're an Oracle," Kori said.

"I can?!" I shouted sitting up straight.

Kori nodded, "Yep, just imagine it and it'll happen. That's how gods do it anyway."

I breathed deeply and imagined my eyes turning a different color, any color really, just something other than white. I kept thinking about my eye color changing, and felt a sharp pain in my eyes. It felt like needles were being forced into my eyes. I tried looking around but I was blind, I got a massive headache and curled up putting my hand over my eyes. It hurt worse than what they described drinking from The River of Fire felt like.

When I got my sight back I uncovered my eyes slowly and was blinded by the light, as dim as it was, and covered my eyes again. I uncovered one of my eyes and let it adjust to the light, slowly but surely, it adjusted just fine. Then I uncovered the next one and saw that Kori was gone, I guess Khaos was taking control again or she had to go back to Tartarus. I stood up slowly, making sure Asclepius wasn't watching, and walked to a mirror and looked at my eyes. My eye color had gone from a blank white to a blazing Peridot green, just like my favorite god, besides my dad of course, Apollo. Tears came to my eyes and I sat down again, Draco slithered next to me from under the bed.

"Good job Oracle, you're getting more and more powerful by the day. You're also getting your memories back, maybe you can try changing your hair color next," Draco said.

"No! I'm never doing that again, for ANYTHING!" I shouted.

Draco curled up, "Alright alright, don't yell. I wouldn't say anything, but you're the boss. Anyway, it's time to show you something you need to see."

Draco turned human and stared at me with her, or rather my, brown eyes. Draco put her hands to my temple and smiled. She whispered something I couldn't make out and I welcomed darkness immediately. I woke back up at a cemetery alone, my mother was away getting flowers at a nearby store and I had wandered off. I was looking around at the tombstones, and saw two that got my attention. One grave read 'Jessica Riley; 1954-1984.' while the other read 'Lucian Riley; 1950-2002.' that was my grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother died while giving birth to my mother, but my grandfather had hung himself when my mother was only eighteen. I turned around to see two ghosts, I screamed and ran into the road. The last thing I remember was the sound of screeching tires, followed by my mother screaming my name.