What I know of her is what my dad has told me, and when I saw a vision of how she died after I tried summoning her spirit to talk to her.
[Nico absently twists his skull ring.]
Her dad was a diplomat in DC. Her name was Maria. She stayed in Venice until World War II, then brought my sister and I to America to escape it. I saw her only in a vision that explained the circumstances of her death, and why the two of us were in the Lotus Hotel to begin with. Mostly, I remember that she and Bianca shared the same smile, and I inherited her eye color.
[He winces as he digs the metal too hard into his skin, and lets his hands drop on either side to grip the branch.]
We were in a hotel in the capitol. Hades tried to convince her to move to the Underworld because Zeus had given him an ultimatum. Surrender his children to the Lord of the Sky or put them in Camp Half-Blood. He refused to even give Zeus an answer. Mom didn't want us raised in the Underworld, and she didn't want us in the Lotus Hotel when he offered that, either. She just couldn't believe that Zeus would kill children.
[The son of Hades frowned.]
We might have been going out for dinner or something, I don't know. All I know is, mom went back to the hotel room to get her purse, and that's when lightning struck. Hades...dad...only had time to shield Bianca and I from the blast, but he wasn't fast enough to save our mom. He sent us to the Lotus Hotel after ordering one of the Furies to bathe us in the Lethe to forget that night.
[There's something of a grim smile on his face.]
The other reason he put us there was so that one of us could fulfill the prophecy. The one that said a demigod of one of the Big Three would survive to sixteen. He wanted me or Bianca to be the one, so that his children would be the heroes for once instead of another child of Poseidon or Zeus.
action;
[Nico absently twists his skull ring.]
Her dad was a diplomat in DC. Her name was Maria. She stayed in Venice until World War II, then brought my sister and I to America to escape it. I saw her only in a vision that explained the circumstances of her death, and why the two of us were in the Lotus Hotel to begin with. Mostly, I remember that she and Bianca shared the same smile, and I inherited her eye color.
[He winces as he digs the metal too hard into his skin, and lets his hands drop on either side to grip the branch.]
We were in a hotel in the capitol. Hades tried to convince her to move to the Underworld because Zeus had given him an ultimatum. Surrender his children to the Lord of the Sky or put them in Camp Half-Blood. He refused to even give Zeus an answer. Mom didn't want us raised in the Underworld, and she didn't want us in the Lotus Hotel when he offered that, either. She just couldn't believe that Zeus would kill children.
[The son of Hades frowned.]
We might have been going out for dinner or something, I don't know. All I know is, mom went back to the hotel room to get her purse, and that's when lightning struck. Hades...dad...only had time to shield Bianca and I from the blast, but he wasn't fast enough to save our mom. He sent us to the Lotus Hotel after ordering one of the Furies to bathe us in the Lethe to forget that night.
[There's something of a grim smile on his face.]
The other reason he put us there was so that one of us could fulfill the prophecy. The one that said a demigod of one of the Big Three would survive to sixteen. He wanted me or Bianca to be the one, so that his children would be the heroes for once instead of another child of Poseidon or Zeus.