![]() “The big mother knows all!” a ghost cried. The screaming and wailing told her she had guessed correctly. “He emerged fully grown from the stone, holding his dagger and torch.” “Mithras was born from rock,” Annabeth said, hoping she was right. “There is a third test, which I will pass.” “Neither torch nor dagger,” Annabeth said firmly. Then it occurred to her: maybe the little statue of Mithras wasn’t stuck in the rock. She wondered why its legs were stuck in stone. Her instinct was to focus on the dagger or the torch, but instead she concentrated on the statue’s base. She stared at the altar statue, which was glowing brighter by the second. Maybe they’d thought they could beat the ordeal. They’d all chosen one or the other: fire or dagger. The failures of your predecessors will guide you. “Fire or dagger! Survive one, and then, perhaps!”Īnnabeth looked down at the bones of her siblings. “You must choose an ordeal!” the pater insisted. She doesn’t want me to follow the Mark of Athena. This was one time she wished she didn’t know the answer, but she tried to maintain her calm. “The weaver…” Annabeth realized with a sinking feeling what the pater was talking about: the thing in the dark from Percy’s dream, the guardian of the shrine. Your wisdom is great, but that is all the more reason why you cannot leave. His pope hat tilted sideways on his head like a gas gauge dropping toward empty. Be silent and let me speak to your pater.”Īt the front of the room, the pater trembled-either from rage or fear, Annabeth wasn’t sure which. He had a raven badge on his toga-the same symbol as on the floor at her feet. She glared at the ghost who had just spoken. Unless you look around the room, Annabeth thought, her confidence growing. Some slapped their faces as if to wake up from a bad dream. The ghosts wailed and covered their ears. It was a total guess, but the altar showed Mithras killing a bull, so Annabeth figured it must be important. You want to kill me, just as…uh, as Mithras killed the sacred bull.” His other symbol is the dagger, which is why you can also be tested with the blade. You test your initiates with fire because the torch is the symbol of Mithras. She began to talk, pulling deductions from the top of her head. She looked desperately around the room-the cracked ceiling, the floor mosaic, the wall paintings, and the carved altar. ![]() The mortar was crumbling, but it was not weak enough for her to break through with brute force. “Mithras shall do that for us!”Īnnabeth pressed her hands against the bricked-in doorway at her back. “We do not need to kill you ourselves,” the pater growled. The ghost looked embarrassed and took his seat. “Kill her!” One of the ghosts charged, his hands out to strangle her, but he passed right through her. “The magna mater!” a ghost wailed in despair. Mithras cannot hide anything from my sight.” “A child of Athena,” Annabeth said again.
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