CHAPTER XC:And All I Lov’d—I Lov’d Alone.

The last question stopped my heart mid beat, but that wasn't comparable to watching Hecate grade my test. She had never really given me the parameters for passing it, all she had said was sit down and take the test. I was drawing on the desk to keep myself from having an anxiety attack while Hecate graded in silence. I was drawing the shrine to Artemis that was made by Artemis' Huntresses in Elysium.

There was a funny story surrounding that shrine that I knew of. Once Artemis' Huntresses started popping up in Elysium, they made a small shrine. Well Persephone made them a forest to simulate Artemis' reserve, but the Huntresses never set foot in it. Persephone nearly went into, what most demigods call, Kore mode. In other words, she nearly went into the version of Persephone that says fuck all and scares the absolute hell out of Hades.

Hecate stood up and smiled, "Well, you passed. No wonder your mom signed you up early. Sorry the test wasn't original, but it was sprung on me last second thanks to Asclepius. You're free to go now, Echo will lead you to a portal that'll take you to The Last Greek Stronghold."

A weight was taken off my shoulder, "Thank you, Lady Hecate."

"No problem, oh and one last thing. Leave Cristiano there if the portal malfunctions, the owner will take you to another portal that'll take you to Alaska. In Alaska, which you will go to only after you rest, will pose some dangers. However, you should get to the temple in about a day," Hecate said.

I nodded in understanding, before walking out. Echo was standing there, and then I heard the running water start making Echo more visible. Her white dress and flower crown highlighted the light blue tint in her skin perfectly. Echo started walking down the hall and I followed her. She led me to a small living space with a large table, clearly modeled after the meeting table in Olympus, with all of my quest mates sitting around. Olivia, Penny, and Santoro were all reading books. Olivia was reading a demigod handbook, Penny was memorizing a dictionary, and Santoro was reading some book that was written in, what looked like, Italian. Seth and Adam were sharpening arrows, while Mino was sharpening his sword.

Echo left us alone, and I took a seat next to Mino, "You doing ok?"

Mino stopped, halfway down his blade, before looking at me, "Did you know your sword dulls faster in Tartarus? It's not in any stories. Your blades dull faster, your powers drain you faster, ambrosia never works, and the water is gods awful."

"Yeah, demigods don't last long in Tartarus. How did you survive?" I asked.

"If you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about it. I did a lot of regrettable things down there…..how I got out being one of them," Mino answered.

I wanted to press on with the questions, but I didn't want to learn what terrors he faced. Tartarus was horrifying enough in thought, it must be far worse in reality. I stood up and looked over at Echo who was staring at a picture of Hera. I couldn't tell if she was mad or upset, but she just stared blankly at the painting.

"Echo, I think we're ready to go," I said.

Echo turned to me, and smiled. She walked over to a set of doors and opened them revealing a mirror. Echo looked around at took out a set of headphones and a voice recorder. Echo didn't exactly need the words to be spoken aloud to mimic them, so I guess this was Echo's way of talking semi-freely.

Echo got her headphones on and pressed play on the recorder, "Demigods and goddesses, welcome to the Mirror of Infinity. To use it, only step through, after saying a burden on your heart, and you will go where the Lady of Paths permits." Echo's voice echoed through the area with increasing volume as she said each word.

Poor Penny had dropped her book for the sake of covering her ears. Echo looked over at her, and took her headphones off. Echo pointed at a small sign that read 'Line up here' with an arrow pointing to the ground. We all got lined up the order was Santoro, Seth, Adam, me, Penny, Mino, and then Olivia.

Santoro stepped up to the mirror first, "A burden on my heart. I fear that my Nonna doesn't truly love me, or respect me as a military leader. She just keeps me around cause I'm family, why else would she give the sacred weapons to Deonna? I got stuck in a mansion with a legion, only doing so cause I had nothing better to do."

The portal opened, and Santoro stepped through. The line moved up and Seth was next. Santoro's burden was hard enough to hear, but I didn't think I could stand to hear Seth's. His would definitely be heartbreaking.

Seth took a glance at the mirror, "Do I have to say it aloud?"

"Aloud," Echo mimicked.

"Fine, my burden. One personal to me, I guess there's only one I know of. I'm jealous, jealous of my sister. Mary's father's favorite, the god's favorite, and she was mother's favorite. The fucking universe wants her because she's special. I can raise the dead and artifacts, she can do that and more because of her strength in magic. When someone says the Hades twins, no one thinks Seth and Mary, they think Mary and what's his name again. Hell! Look at her eyes! She overcame a curse to change her eye color cause she's also an Oracle!" Seth yelled out, he started shaking from anger halfway through his rant.

It hurt hearing Seth saying that. I watched as he walked through the portal, and felt tears come to my eyes. It felt like my heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. The line moved up and Adam was next. Hopefully his wouldn't be as hard to hear.

Adam looked at the mirror, "Luna….my best friend…we've drifted apart recently. We've been friends since we were five, we learned how to shoot a bow together. The Silver Princess taught me to string a bow, and taught me huntress tricks. If she truly does leave me….I think I might end my life….I would never tell her that of course, but I definitely couldn't live my life without her by my side…..I believe she knows that."

Adam stepped through the mirror, it hurt my heart to hear that. Adam and Luna had been friends forever. Their nicknames for each other, which everyone knew, were Sun Boy and Silver Princess. Those two were practically inseparable, it has disheartening to hear him say that. Next up was me, I looked in the mirror and saw nothing. It was just blank empty glass, it felt like I was a vampire.

I thought briefly for a minute and looked at the mirror. "My burden is that death follows me everywhere. My grandparents died, my mother died, a lot of my friends have died recently. Does being The Princess of The Underworld mean this much death will follow me? How blood soaked will my road be just because of the god I was born too?" I said, my reflection had appeared in front of me in the mirror.

I took a deep breath and stepped through the mirror. The cold metal had seemingly turned into plastic wrap. I broke through the flimsy plastic into a dimly lit store. A woman with green eyes and sunflower hair stood at a counter surrounded by potions and talismans for demigods. That was Snake Bite, a well known merchant in school. Behind her I could see a set of rooms and staff moving around. We were at The Last Greek Stronghold, we were, hopefully, reaching the end of our quest.