Chapter 23: The Gods Choose to Look

The first indication that something had reached Olympus came not from an Iris-message but from the water.

Percy was in the shower at six forty-seven in the morning — he knew the time because he had been counting minutes since he came inside, the way he used to count strokes when swimming in the dark, something to hold onto that was not the other thing — when the pipes shuddered. Not a mechanical shudder. He had lived near water his entire life and he knew the difference between a pipe struggling with pressure and water being briefly, catastrophically uncertain of its direction. The shower ran cold for approximately four seconds. Then it ran warm again. Then it ran in the normal and indifferent way that showers ran, and Percy stood under it with his hand against the tile and thought about the way the ocean had felt around him five hours ago.

He got dressed in seven minutes. He was getting faster at this.