The Price of Victory
Silence settled over the summit of Mount Tamalpais.
No one spoke.
The words of the three judges still echoed across the mountain.
"The winner of the Champions' Trial..."
"...is Perseus Jackson."
Percy remained motionless.
His eyes never left Luke and Thalia's bodies.
Luke was still holding her.
The sword still pierced both of them.
The blood had already stopped flowing.
He had won.
But...
Was that really a victory?
He remembered the journey from Half-Blood Hill.
The arguments.
The laughter.
The fights.
Everything...
Had come to an end.
Percy slowly closed his eyes.
"...I didn't want to win like this."
The wind slowly swept across the mountain once more.
Even the three judges remained completely still.
As though they understood that feeling perfectly.
Then...
The sky roared.
Zeus's voice descended once again.
"That changes the outcome of the Trial."
A brief pause followed.
"But not our wager."
Percy's eyes snapped open.
The wager...
Right. Everything had begun because of that stupid wager between Zeus and his master.
Percy couldn't help frowning in anger.
Not only at Zeus, but also at his own master, because in the end, all of this had become a game even to him.
He had become the very thing he hated.
Had becoming a divine being turned him into this... or had his master always been this way?
But when Percy looked up at Miraak, his expression changed.
His master was giving him a faint smile.
One he almost never showed.
The only other time Percy had seen it was when he thought Miraak was about to sacrifice his life for him during the battle against Zeus.
It was a smile that seemed to tell him to simply trust him.
That nothing bad was going to happen.
Osiris raised his sceptre once more, and the contract signed by both parties appeared before him.
He read it calmly.
"The victor shall receive the champion belonging to the defeated god."
He gave a slight nod and moved one hand again, causing the chains to react immediately.
They seized Luke's soul before Zeus and slowly carried it across until it stood before Miraak.
Zeus frowned for a moment, though he pretended not to care very much. Or perhaps he had already accepted that part of the outcome, limiting himself to a look of annoyance.
New chains immediately appeared around Thalia's body.
Just as they had with Luke, they gently drew her soul from her body and placed it before Miraak.
Artemis immediately raised her head.
"No!"
Annabeth turned completely pale as well.
Zoë watched the scene with a helpless expression.
Grover, meanwhile, was in floods of tears.
Osiris continued.
"Champion Thalia Grace is included under the same conditions."
Zeus let out another irritated snort, showing not the slightest concern for his own daughter's soul.
"Continue."
His voice regained its usual confidence.
"The second clause."
Osiris lowered his gaze once again.
"The defeated god..."
"...shall be expelled from the plane to which they do not belong."
Zeus's smile widened with disdain.
"Proceed."
One second passed.
Then another.
Nothing happened.
The chains remained completely still.
Zeus smiled once more.
"Naturally. Then the contract ends here," he said before turning away, as though the matter no longer concerned him.
But Hel spoke again.
"No."
"A clause written to disadvantage only one party lacks balance."
Osiris slowly raised his head.
"Trial contracts require balance between the signatories."
Zeus stopped smiling.
Hades continued.
"A condition that can affect only one of them constitutes a deliberate alteration of the contract."
Zeus's expression changed completely.
"...What?"
Hel finished.
"The second clause is invalid."
"And an attempt to alter a Trial contract requires a sanction."
The chains surrounding the thrones began to move.
This time, they did not turn toward Percy, Luke, or Thalia.
Every one of them pointed toward the sky.
Miraak remained completely calm, as though he had already lost interest in what would happen next.
He simply grabbed Percy by the collar and threw him toward the drakkar.
Then he raised one hand, pointing toward the souls and bodies of Luke and Thalia.
"From this moment onward, their fates belong to me. What becomes of them will be my decision," he declared while looking at the gods present.
The three judges nodded with complete calm.
Zeus still wore a deep frown, his expression filled with irritation.
Even Artemis and Atlas remained silent.
But neither of them could say a single word.
Miraak simply turned his back on them and boarded the drakkar alongside the others.
A moment later, the ship slowly sank beneath the surface of the small lake and vanished as though it had never existed.
He paid not the slightest attention to the punishment Zeus would receive for trying to alter the contract.
Nor to what would become of Atlas, of Artemis...
Or, for that matter, of Olympus itself.