Oath Kept

Chapter 3

The man smiled through his singed beard. He is incredibly deformed and ugly. His shoulders were at different heights so it looked like he was constantly leaning. He had a huge, bulging, misshapen head and his leg was in a creaking steel brace. He had bushy eyebrows and a wild brown beard that'd sometimes spontaneously combust for no reason.

"Hello, son," Hephaestus said. "Calypso, good to see you too again."

"I'm afraid I can't say the same," Calypso said coldly.

"Well, I have—" my dad started.

"Why am I still trapped on this island?" Calypso interrupted.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," he said.

"Well?" Calypso said impatiently.

"The thing is, you're not," Hephaestus said.

"Not what?" I said.

"Leaving Ogygia."

"But you promised—" Calypso started.

"—Percy Jackson that you'd be pardoned, we know," he finished for her.

"So why aren't you keeping your promise?" I said.

"The magic keeping you here was complicated. It took all the gods' powers plus the Fates and Lady Styx to make the island the way it is," Hephaestus said.

"Styx?" I said.

"Yeah. So you see now why we can't let her leave. If we did, she'd become mortal, then Styx will claim her for a fate worse than death."

"But—" Calypso said.

"It is beyond our powers. But in the eyes of the gods, you are pardoned. I'm happy to help you in any way I can."

Calypso was in tears. I hugged her and she buried her face in my shoulder. Hephaestus looked uncomfortable.

Nearly a minute of her sobbing passed when my dad cleared his throat. Calypso let go and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"So what can you do?" Calypso asked with a shaky voice. "You said you'd help in any way you can."

"I can supply you with stuff. Anything you need."

"Celestial Bronze," I said. "Things to repair my dragon. And wood, paint, blue prints. Glass—"

"Alright, son," Hephaestus interrupted. "I see where you're going with this. I'll deliver everything you need to that clearing in the forest."

"Need for what?" Calypso said, confused.

I tried to wordlessly tell her, later.

"And a computer," I blurted out. "Like the Hephaestus Box 9000 or something."

"Well first of all, my latest model is the Delta Box 90,654,378th edition. Second, I can't do that. That'd give you contact to the outside world and the Fates have forbidden that. But I think you'll appreciate my gift to you."

"Well can you at least tell my friends I'm okay?" I said. "It's the least you could do after I killed Gaea and everything."

"They will be informed. Is that all you ask?"

I looked at Calypso, who nodded. With that, Hephaestus erupted into a column of flames and sped off over the horizon.

I grabbed Calypso's hand and we turned away from the beach.

I gasped. In the forest, a gigantic flame arose. It died away quickly to be replaced by a thin plume of golden smoke.

Calypso released my hand and began to jog toward the smoke. I followed her.

Instead of finding burning trees, we found a shed. It was about five feet by five feet, and eight feet tall. On the roof of it was a round, bronze chimney, the golden smoke billowing out of it.

I opened the door and stepped inside. It was far larger on the inside than it was on the outside.

It was at least thirty feet by thirty feet. The ceiling was ten feet high.

On the wall opposite the door was a forge. Next to it was an anvil. Next to the anvil was a workbench. On the opposite side of the forge was a second workbench.

The rest of the room was filled with shelves. They were attacked with all kinds of different materials. Oddly, there was only one of every item.

I picked up a celestial bronze ingot and a new one immediately appeared in its place.

Different sized wooden planks were stacked in a shelf dug into the right wall. There was a different hole for every size and there were several different wood choices in each slot.

I walked to the workbench on the right and opened one of the drawers. There were stacks of blank blueprints inside. In the other drawer were pencils, pens, markers, and measuring tools. I could have easily gotten all those small things from my belt, but it was still nice to have out all organized there.

"Damn," was all I managed to say.

"It is pretty amazing," Calypso agreed.

I set the ingot I was holding into the forge.

I let it sit for five minutes and took it out with my bare hands then set it on the anvil. Calypso was watching me in fascination.

I pulled a hammer from my belt and set to work.

Thirty minutes later I cooled my creation and handed it to Calypso.

"It's beautiful," she said. It was a perfect moonlace, her favorite flower, made of celestial bronze.

"I can make it functional," I said. "Give it the ability to turn into gardening tool or knife or—"

She stopped me with a kiss. Her arm arms locked around my neck and I could feel the cold metal of the flower against my skull.

She pulled away, but her arms were still around my neck. "Gods, I love you Leo Valdez."

I smiled. "Love you too, Sunshine. Now come here." She let go of me and I grabbed her hand, leading her to the workbench. There was a stool underneath it which I pulled out. I motioned for her to sit.

I then took the stool from the other workbench and set it next to her then sat down.

I opened a drawer and brought a blank blueprint. I set it on the table and took a couple drawing tools from the other drawer.

"What are you doing?" Calypso asked.

"We," I said, "are designing a house."

"A house?"

"I know you've been away from the world for a while, but surely you know what a house is."

"Of course I know what a house is. I just don't know why you want to build one."

"The cave's great and all, but I think we deserve something nicer."

"Do you think you can build a house?"

"Sunshine, I built a flying trireme. I think I think I can handle a house. Now, what do you want?"

"What do I want?"

"Amount of rooms, size, design. Sky's the limit, baby. And sunshine dominates the sky."

"That was the cheesiest thing you've ever said."

"Get used to it."

"Speaking of cheesy," Calypso said. "We haven't had breakfast yet."

"I can cover that," I said.

"My invisible servants can take care of it."

"Your invisible servants don't make tacos as amazing as I do."

"Tacos?" said Calypso, confused.

"Mamacita," I said. "You can't possibly be telling me you don't know what tacos are."

"What have I told you about calling me mamacita?"

"Right," I said. "Sorry. But do you seriously not know what tacos are?"

She shook her head.

"Oh, then you are in for a treat!" I set to work with supplies from my toolbelt and in ten minutes I had six tacos made.

"This doesn't really seem like a breakfast kind of food," Calypso said.

"No time's the wrong time for tacos," I said. "Try it."

She took a bite. "Okay, wow," she said before taking another, larger bite.

"Might want to savor it," I said after finishing a bite of one of my tacos. "These things go by fast."

"I'm starving, and this is delicious. I'm not slowing down," she said.

I chuckled. "Just be glad Piper's not here, otherwise I'd have had to make the tofu versions."

"Who's Piper?" Calypso said with an edge to her voice after taking a bite into her second taco.

"I'm pretty sure I told you about her," I said. "She was one of the seven, like a sister to me. Dating Jason."

"Oh," she said. "Right."

"Is jealousy getting in the way of your memory, oh so powerful sorceress?" I asked with a smirk.

"I'm not jealous. The tacos are just so good that they're messing with my head."

"Is that flattery I hear?"

"Don't get used to it," Calypso said. "Now shut up and eat your tacos."

I happily obliged.

Soon we'd begun discussing plans for our future house.

I wanted it to be built right next to the new workshop so that we were in the forest and couldn't see the water. Calypso wanted it on the grass close to the beach. We compromised saying that we'd build it half way between the edge of the forest and the shore, and have our bedroom window face the forest.

The rest of the day was pretty much the same thing. I wanted this, she wanted that, somehow we both ended up happy.

"Alright," I said at last. "I think that's enough for one day."

"Really?" Calypso said, disappointed. Evidently she'd been enjoying herself.

"I want to get my mechanical pet fixed now that I have the supplies."

"Okay. Anything I can do to help?"

"Hmm. I don't know. I'll need to do a more thorough examination and see if there's anything you'd be able to handle."

We exited the deceptively large workshop and walked to the far end of the island where Festus was curled up in a ball, almost as if he were sleeping.

I reached into my toolbelt and drew a tin of oil and a bottle of tabasco sauce. I poured the latter into the first and set it on the ground. Festus jerked his head up and bounded toward the tin and began to drink.

Once he finished and calmed down, I opened the panel on his neck and once again examined his circuitry.

"Everything seems to be fine here—" I said. "Oh, no, wait. This chip is burnt." I reached in and removed a five by five inch plastic square. It didn't look like much, but it was a vital component. I was surprised that Festus had even managed to fly me here without it.

"I'll need to construct a completely new chip," I said. "I think you can actually go through and connect loose wires. Organize them, weave them together, what have you. If you look closely at each individual plate you should see an 'L' engraved in one of the corners." I pulled a hammer out of my toolbelt and handed it to her. "Give the letter three rapid smacks with this and the plate should pop right off. Don't bother trying to reapply it after you're done. Most of them need replaced anyways."

"Is that all?" Calypso said.

"Yep. Oh, you'll want to wear heat resistant gloves, too. It's probably too hot to reach in with bare hands." I thought for a couple more seconds. "Oh! You'll need these to connect the wires," I said and tossed her a roll of electrical tape and pair of scissors.

"Got it," she said.

"Good. Should take me maybe two hours to make this chip. Then we can meet up for dinner."

"Sounds good." I leaned over and kissed her then headed back to my new workshop.