After the Victory
"So... we won. Or rather... I won."
Sally Jackson remained staring at the image of her son on the other side of the Iris Message.
Percy was sitting on what looked like a huge wooden crate, wearing a proud smile.
He seemed fine.
He had a few scratches.
His clothes were torn to pieces.
And he probably needed to sleep for two days straight.
But he was alive.
For Sally, that was enough.
She slowly let out the breath she had been holding.
"Thank the gods..."
Percy grimaced.
"Well, technically they got me into this mess, so I don't know if thanking them would make them very happy right now. Especially since technically I kicked their asses in their own competition," Percy said with a smile.
Sally blinked.
"...Right."
There was a brief silence.
"And the others?"
Percy stopped smiling.
Sally noticed immediately.
"Percy."
"Luke and Thalia died."
All the color drained from Sally's face.
"...Oh."
"Well, not that dead, actually," he said as he glanced to the side.
Near Percy, some rather strange complaints could be heard along with what sounded like a furious fight, while small electrical sparks flew back and forth.
Sally was obviously confused, not quite understanding her son's words.
"Percy. You'd better start from the beginning."
"Well..." Percy shifted slightly on the crate. "Luke and Thalia ended up impaled by the same sword. Or rather, Luke stabbed through Thalia and himself with his own sword."
Sally's mouth opened slightly in surprise.
"Then an Egyptian god who looked like a pharaoh ripped their souls out."
Sally once again looked confused and surprised at the same time.
"Then Master won their souls in a bet against Zeus."
"..."
"And you remember how he used to say that if I died, it wouldn't be a problem because he could bring me back to life, but as his servant. Well... he wasn't completely lying. So now they're alive again, but they're trying to kill each other again. Or basically, Thalia wants to kill Luke for killing her."
"..."
Percy tilted his head at the indescribable expression on his mother's face, who could only blink as she tried to process all that information.
Right at that moment, Thalia ran past behind Percy and fired a lightning bolt charged with energy from her spear, her expression completely furious, while someone else tried to dodge it.
Percy casually tilted his head slightly to avoid the electricity that flew past him before looking back at his mother's image with his calm smile.
Sally slowly moved her gaze, following Thalia as she ran behind Percy.
"Mom?" Percy asked when he saw how quiet she was.
"I'm trying to decide which part I should start worrying about first," Sally finally replied.
"It's not like they're zombies or anything. Though I'll keep an eye on them in case they start craving brains," Percy said with a smile.
"That doesn't help," Sally replied, letting out a sigh.
She thought she had already gotten used to all the craziness ever since her son became the student of a divine being like Miraak.
But apparently there were still things even she couldn't understand.
Sally let out another sigh to calm her emotions.
"So... Thalia is okay?" she asked.
Annabeth still wasn't straying too far from Thalia even while she chased Luke, as though she was afraid Thalia might disappear again if she stopped looking at her. Grover seemed to have run out of tears and was now simply sleeping while leaning against Bessie. Even Clarisse had stopped arguing with Percy for at least ten minutes, which was probably the real miracle of the day.
Tyson, meanwhile, watched everything with a huge smile, as though he was simply happy to have everyone together again.
"Oh, yeah. Aside from being really pissed off, she actually seems pretty happy about not being tied to Zeus anymore. Master even told her she could do whatever she wanted from now on," Percy replied.
"And that boy... Luke?"
Percy glanced to the side.
"More or less."
Right at that moment, a massive burst of electricity lit up the surroundings.
"We can't let him roam free, so he became the official servant of this vessel," Percy said with amusement.
"Servant? Vessel? Percy, where are you now?" Sally asked, even more confused than before.
"Mmm... well, that requires another slightly longer explanation," Percy said as he started thinking about everything that had happened.
...
Flashback:
After leaving Mount Tamalpais, his master had simply returned Luke and Thalia's souls to their bodies. Like he was gluing two pieces of paper together and that was it.
Obviously, there were probably much deeper things going on behind it that Percy simply didn't understand.
The point was, there was no grand ritual. Just a few mysterious words while Miraak raised one hand.
And both of them started breathing again.
It had taken Thalia approximately ten seconds to understand that she was alive.
Then she hugged Annabeth.
Then Percy.
And finally, she noticed Miraak's presence. For a moment, she was frightened when she saw him, but at the same time she thanked him for bringing her back to life.
Miraak simply waved one hand dismissively. He had only done it so the brat he called his student would stop bothering him.
Luke had been less lucky.
His soul had been handed directly to Miraak as part of the Trial, something Miraak didn't even seem to care about. But simply because he was in the mood, he had done a two-for-one resurrection.
Though he also did something that left Percy surprised and, at the same time, pretty happy and amused.
The first thing he did was point at him.
"You will obey his orders."
Luke had asked for how long.
Miraak replied:
"Until I decide your debt has been paid."
Percy could still remember Luke's expression.
It had been wonderful.
Meanwhile, Clarisse, Malcolm, and Grover had been so shocked from the very beginning that they couldn't do much more than stand there with their mouths hanging open.
Bianca, meanwhile, stared at Miraak as though she was about to become the first devoted follower of a new religion.
End of flashback.
…
"And Zeus?" Sally asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.
Percy grimaced.
"I don't know exactly what they did to him."
"You weren't there?"
"We left before that."
"Before they punished the King of the Gods?"
"My master said it wasn't our problem."
That was putting it mildly.
Miraak had practically thrown Percy into the drakkar before leaving.
"Tyson heard it from... our older brother," Percy said, though he still had trouble saying that title.
Sally was a little surprised to discover that Percy had yet another brother, but knowing Poseidon, it really wasn't that surprising, so she decided not to even ask.
"Apparently, those chains have existed since the first Trials were created. They're made to restrain even gods, so the punishments aren't exactly symbolic either."
"Hades seemed pretty happy to get the chance to use them against his brother. This time, the punishment was that Zeus won't be able to leave Olympus for at least a thousand years. As long as the sentence lasts, he also won't be able to manifest outside Olympus or directly interfere with the mortal world."
"...They can do that?"
"Apparently. That means he'll have to control his urge to have more children for a while," Percy said, amused.
Sally covered her face with one hand.
"And about your last question..." Percy was about to answer, but before he could, the sudden sound of an enormous amount of water rising could be heard.
Percy looked toward the horizon.
His smile disappeared.
His face went completely pale.
"I think... I'd better tell you later," he said as he raised one hand to end the Iris Message.
"Percy, what's happ—?"
Before Sally could finish the question, the conversation was cut off and the rainbow disappeared.
Near Percy, the other members of the group aboard the drakkar were also staring toward the same place, their faces completely pale.
An enormous shadow continued rising in front of them until it almost completely covered the sun.
As though night had suddenly fallen.
Miraak stood at the center of the bow, watching the same place with interest.
They were in the Sea of Monsters.
More precisely, in the exact same place where a mountain had blocked Percy and Clarisse's path the previous year.
And now that same mountain was rising from the sea.
But unlike that time, when enormous waves had ended up destroying their ship, now the water seemed to part much more gently as the mountain slowly emerged, though massive amounts of water poured down its sides like gigantic torrents.
Something was preventing the drakkar from being dragged away.
Then everyone began to realize something.
That wasn't a damn mountain.
The thing had enormous black scales.
Then...
A gigantic eye opened beneath the water.
It glowed as that thing continued rising.
Until finally, half of what appeared to be the immense head of a dragon emerged.
A head the size of a damn country.
And that was only the head.
It was surrounded by enormous golden chains stretching in every direction, preventing that existence from emerging any further.
"Master... please tell me that thing isn't what we came here to free," Percy said, trembling from head to toe as he felt that gigantic eye fixed on him, as though it could look straight through his soul.
"Little dragon... it seems we meet again."
A woman's voice spoke directly inside his head.
Percy went completely still.
He knew that voice perfectly.
It was her.
The beautiful chained woman he had encountered during that strange dream.
"And..."
The gigantic eye slowly moved until it settled on Miraak.
"I have waited a long time for your arrival. You accepted the request of the last of my children. That means you are prepared."
The enormous dragoness fell silent for a moment.
"The instant you do this, you will become the enemy of every deity that exists on this plane."
The sea slowly began to churn around them.
"You will unleash the greatest war between gods that has ever existed."
Her voice remained calm.
Almost amused.
"A war where only one can emerge victorious..."
"...and be the only one with the right to call himself Divine King."
The enormous eye remained fixed on Miraak.
"Are you ready?"
"Master... what does she mean?" Percy asked, confused.
Miraak gave him a calm look.
"Do you remember when I told you there would be no one above you except your master?"
Percy blinked.
Miraak pulled what looked like a strange rock from his pocket and, without giving it much importance, tossed it toward one of the golden chains keeping the dragon trapped.
The rock struck the chain.
Crack.
It shattered as though it were made of glass.
Then another.
And another.
Until the bindings that had kept that gigantic existence imprisoned for who knew how long began falling one after another.
At the same time...
Hundreds...
No.
Thousands of gazes seemed to fall upon that place.
Each one more powerful than the last.
The entire sea began to churn.
Storm clouds covered the sky as lightning of different colors tore through them. Golden, reddish, and white glows appeared at different points along the horizon.
All converging on the same place.
Right above the drakkar.
Even enormous golden flashes began appearing everywhere, forcing everyone present to lower their gazes as they felt the suffocating heat caused by the divine presence of hundreds of beings.
Percy lowered his gaze, staring only at his own feet while everything around him shone as though the sun itself were directly above his head.
But then...
He felt a familiar aura.
A rumbling that seemed to come from existence itself, like drums of war.
Very similar to the ones he had heard when he himself became a Dragonborn.
Percy barely raised his gaze toward the enormous dragon and saw her body beginning to grow smaller and smaller, while all that energy flowed directly toward his master.
"Then receive the entirety of Tiamat's existence... avenge me as you become the God of Primordial Chaos of this plane."
The dragoness's final roar made the entire world tremble.
Even space itself began to crack around them.
Meanwhile, Miraak remained standing there with a proud, arrogant smile, watching the true divine forms of all the beings that had appeared around him.
And instead of feeling fear...
His desire to fight only grew stronger with every passing second.
"At last."
Miraak's smile widened slightly.
"I'm not the kind of person who stays beneath someone who thinks they're superior for very long."
The same look that, once upon a time, the dragons must have seen in his eyes just before Miraak destroyed their rule.
END
...
Author's Note
Wow... yeah, this story really was hard for me to write.
Originally, I wanted to make it much longer. I had a lot more plans for it. I wanted to do more things with Tiamat, and I even thought about having her join Miraak. I also planned to create the arc for the next book and, if everything went well, continue until I adapted the rest of the Percy Jackson books.
I had a lot of ideas.
But no matter how much I tried to continue, I just couldn't do it.
Every time I thought about how to keep the story going, some part of me kept telling me that this was the right moment to end it. That it was better to give it an ending now instead of stretching it out just because I could and eventually ruining something I had enjoyed writing so much.
So... here we are.
Percy Jackson: First Dragonborn has officially come to an end.
It's pretty strange to write that.
When I started this novel, I had barely begun reading the Percy Jackson books. I knew the world, obviously, but there was still so much I hadn't discovered yet. Basically, I kept learning more and more about Rick Riordan's universe while writing this story.
And now that I'm much further into the books, it's funny to look back and think about all the things I would've done differently.
There are characters I would've used in a different way.
Arcs I would've changed.
Ideas I would've introduced much earlier.
Gods, monsters, and concepts I know about now that would've fit perfectly with Miraak and everything related to the Dragonborn.
Even some of the decisions from the beginning would probably be completely different if I started this novel today.
But I guess that also shows how much I changed as a writer during all this time.
I don't think this story is perfect. Not even close.
There are things I would write much better now, and decisions I would probably never make again. But even so, I'm happy with it.
Because I finished it.
And for me, that already means a lot.
Especially because there were moments when I genuinely thought I'd never make it this far.
So I want to thank everyone who read this story.
Those who were here from the first chapters.
Those who arrived when it had already been running for quite a while.
Those who commented, left a review, pointed out some mistake, discussed theories, or simply showed up every time a new chapter came out.
And even those silent readers who made it all the way here without ever commenting.
Thank you.
Seriously.
I'm really happy I managed to get this far with this novel, and that there were people willing to stay with me through the entire journey.
Maybe someday I'll return to the Percy Jackson world with another story.
In fact, now that I know this universe much better, I have a lot of ideas that I think would work much better from the very beginning. If I ever come back, it'll probably be with a completely new story, taking advantage of everything I learned while writing this one.
But that's future Darki's problem.
For now, I think Percy, Miraak, and everyone else deserve to rest for a while.
Well...
Except Luke.
Percy probably already found some new stupid thing to order him to do.
Thank you for reading Percy Jackson: First Dragonborn.
Thank you for staying with me until the end.
And I hope that, despite all its flaws, you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
See you in the next story.