A Fire Burns Within Me (completed)

Preparation

Previously:
"What the Hades was that?" That was Leo, shaking himself out of his shock at being suddenly woken up.

Perseus and I froze, standing in the middle fo shattered pieces of Hestia's throne. Isla, Piper and Leo were staring at us with still groggy eyes. I shared a look with Perseus and we pointed at each other.

"She did it," Perseus said while I said, "he did it."

Isla eyed the sword in Perseus' hand pointedly and he shoved it out of sight behind his back.

"Hang on," Piper said, looking around. "Where's Austin?"

"Austin, no she's not real!" We found Austin outside of the Throne room in a trance, looking at a glowing figure in the distance. Isla seemed to have recognized it but wasn't pulled into the same trance as Austin. She was yelling desperately for Austin who seemed to be cut off from the world.

"What is is?" Elpis asked, coming up next to me and Isla. "What's wrong with him?"

"That's a wil'o the wisp," Isla answered. "They take the form of the person you long for the most and lead you to your deaths."

"Like the boggarts from Harry Potter?" Leo asked. Isla glanced at him once then looked back at him, clearly surprised to seem him being serious for once.

"Yes," she said curtly.

"How do we get Austin back?" Elpis asked almost desperately.

"Are we sure we want him back?" Leo asked the question we were all thinking. Except for Elpis of course, she's too nice for her own good.

"Leo!" Pier protested, hitting him on the arm.

"It's not like he's been the nicest person since we've met him," I agreed with Leo as I watched him get ever closer to the glowing figure. "Who's he seeing anyways?" I could faintly see a figure of a woman in white clothes.

"I'm assuming he's seeing his late wife," Piper said the same time Elpis whacked me on the back of my head.

"How do we get him back?" Elpis repeated, ignoring my hurt look.

"We've got to break him out of the trance. To do that?" Isla shook her head sadly. "We need to destroy the phantom that's entrapped him."

"How do we do that?" Elpis persisted.

Isla looked after Austin sadly as he stumbled farther and farther away. "I have no idea," she murmured. "If we get too close, we could get pulled in to the trap as well."

"Perseus," Elpis looked to me expectantly, "do you have any ideas?"

I blinked in surprise. "Me?"

She nodded and I could see the others looking at me as well in the faint light of the moon.

"Why me? My ideas are horrible," I protested.

"Yeah, but they work," Piper pointed out.

"Yeah, they got us out of many tight spots," Leo agreed, nodding enthusiastically.

I sighed in resignation, looking on in empathy as Austin stumbled after the glowing figure of his lost loved one. He was crying out for...Ana? Tears streaked his dirty cheeks and he was moving as if it were painful for him, like a zombie. As if he'd already lost as much as he could loose so it didn't matter about much else.

He was devoid of all hope.

Hope?

As soon as that thought struck me, I looked at Elpis in shock.