"Too many," Dawn replied dryly. "Let's see... Jason, Aaron, Jake, Alexander, Ben and Steve are twins... Kevin, of course, and Michael. So that's... Eight brothers, so far." She shrugged. "It could be a lot worse. And I'm sure there are several out there who haven't been claimed yet."

"Be glad you don't have full-god half-brothers." Nika sighed. "I have Phobos and Deimos, a god named Calix, and then all my half-brothers and a couple half-sisters. And, you know, all the unclaimed ones. Plus probably a couple other gods or goddesses that are Ares' that I just don't know about."

"Those are the eight brothers I live with," Dawn said. "There were another eight or ten through the years I've been going to camp. Danny, Tom, Jackson, Josh... There might have been a sister, a year or two before I got there, I don't know." She sighed. "As far as I know, at least. Girls are rare in our cabin. I'm one of the only ones in recent history."

"That sounds about right. Apollo's children are mostly male, because he's a sexist bastard." Nika shrugged. "Ares isn't much better. I wasn't supposed to survive being born, apparently. Oh well. Let me know when we're close."

Dawn looked around, and pointed to one of the emptier parking lots.

"Park over there," she said. "It's about a ten minute walk to the academic buildings, but it's really not too far. That lot is for commuters and visitors, mostly visitors."

"Let's get going, then." Nika parked her car and got out, locking it after Dawn was out too. Then she motioned for Dawn to lead the way, since she'd never been hre before. There were lots of places she had been, and lots more places she hadn't.

Dawn got her things out of the car, and manipluated the Mist a little bit so that nobody saw her weapons. The walk wasn't too long, and the building she was looking for was right near the street.

She walked with Nika into the literature department office. The student secretary looked up.

"Is Professor Andersen in?" Dawn asked. The girl at the desk nodded.

"Captain Pandersen is in his office," she said with a grin. Dawn grinned back.

"Oh good, that joke stuck," she said. She led Nika over to the door that was marked 'P. Andersen' and knocked.

"It's open," a male voice said from inside.

"Hey, Captain Brainchild," Dawn said cheerfully. The professor looked up from his desk. He was easily in his fifties with salt-and-pepper hair and clear gray eyes.

"You're back," he said, a slight grin on his face. "Why are you back?"

Nika stayed in the background, her arms crossed over her chest and her weapons and shield hidden from the humans. She raised an eyebrow at the man, identified him as a demigod, and then stayed in the doorway, blocking anyone else from entering and keeping an eye on both of them at the same time. Because she's talented like that.

"Pandersen, I'm hurt," Dawn replied dramatically. "I can't stop by to see my favorite professor from time to time?"

"Dawn, really," Andersen replied. "I like I think I learned something about you in the three semesters you took my class. What is it you need to know?"

"Alright, alright," Dawn replied. "It's kind of like this..." She summarized the vision she had. Half-way through her explaination, Andersen had gotten up and taken a book off of his shelves. He flipped through it.

"That sounds like something I read once, about a vague refference to The Void," he replied carefully, reading. The little owl-shaped tie-pin on his tie caught the light as he moved. "Ah, here. 'His jealousy of the gods was akin to that of the mighty Void.'"

Nika's eyebrows raised as she listened, letting those two do the talking. She just listened, gathering all the information she could out of the conversation.

"Is there anything else?" Dawn asked.

"Not that I remember," Andersen asked. "I don't think I saw any other references in any of the English or Greek texts, and I don't think any of the Latin translations mentioned it."

"Alright," Dawn replied. "It's better than the unsettlingly vague 'I don't know' that Chiron gave us."

"I doubt he could tell us anything," Nika spoke up. "He is sworn to secrecy on certain topics, and he cannot speak of certain things. Perhaps this is one of those topics. Perhaps this happened before, but for some reason he didn't, or couldn't, tell us." She shrugged.

"This is true," Dawn said. Andersen nodded.

"I seem to remember something like that," he replied. "Unfortunately, I can't be of much more help than that." Closing the book, he put it back on the shelf. "Very effective use of the Mist, by the way. My student secretary doesn't suspect a thing."

"Thanks," Dawn replied. "We should probably get back soon... I kind of have a cabin to look after."

Nika nodded. "Yeah, I need to talk to my father. Thanks for the info. I may or may not see you again." She raised a hand in farewell to the professor, leaving the office.

"So, a teacher you had? I expect he's one of Athena's, correct?" Nika had noticed the use of "brainchild" and the owl tie pin.

Dawn waved in parting to thecher and left he office with Nika.

"Yeah," she replied. "The first day of class that I had with him was interesting, though. There were a lot of guarded comments that I know the rest of the class didn't understand. The rest of the classes were great, though, I could hear so many inside jokes, the rest of the class must have thought I was crazy." She grinned. "One of the girls in my second semester class thought it was cute to call him Captain Panderson, since his first name is Peter, so his email is Panderson. When I went for office hours that week, I called him Captain Brainchild, and it kind of stuck."

Nika chuckled. "That sounds fun," she said, a tad wistfully. "I guess you've had some good times here, especially with him. He seems competent, at least. Which is good. We may need his help again before we can figure this out. No harm in going to someone with experience."

"It's nice to find people on the outside, like this," Dawn agreed. "Especially ones like him. I mean, he managed to actually make it to that age, that has to say something." She adjusted her quiver on her back. "I know a few people were surprised when I hit 21, a couple years ago. It's not all that common, if you stop to think about it."

"I know," Nika said, her voice grave. She shook herself a little and managed a smile. "Right. Back in the car, or do you want to do something else while we're on the outside?"

"There wasn't anything else I wanted to do," Dawn replied. "I spent the last ten months on the outside, I was looking forward to camp again." She grinds. "I missed the archery range. My brothers too, of course, but still."

Nika nodded and fell silent, driving back to the camp. She didn't speak for the rest of the way back, and she parked in the same spot before getting out and making sure her car was all locked up.

"Well, for the moment at least, there's nothing more to do except wait," she said with a shrug. "If you have another vision, we might have to do something, but for the moment all we know is that the Void is out there somewhere. We have to wait for it to act first."

"I've had two visions since I got to camp," Dawn pointed out. "I'm just not sure what the first one means, yet." Getting out of the car, she grabbed her things. "I'm going to go put these things in my cabin and figure out what kind of trouble the boys have gotten into in the two hours we were gone."

"Alright. See you later." Nika headed off into the woods, away from the camp. She had some business to discuss with her father, and she did not want anyone else around when she talked to him.

Dawn made her way back to Cabin Seven. The slight glow from the golden walls was comforting, and the soothing chimes of the floor tiles helped her relax. It was obviously a free period for the campers, since most of her brothers were lounging about in the cabin. Thankfully, they all seemed to be in one piece.

"Dawn!"

Kevin bounced cheerfully off of his bed and jumped onto hers.

"Hey, buddy," Dawn replied. "How was your first day at camp?"

"It was so cool!" Kevin said. He started to chatter on about his day, and it was oddly comforting to listen to after how her day had gone earlier.

That night, Nika returned for dinner. She returned sporting a black eye, a split lip, and a bloody nose. Her knuckles were bruised and bleeding, and she walked with a slight limp back into camp. She walked straight over to the Ares table and sat heavily with a little wince.

"Nika! What the hell happened to you?" Deimos demanded, shouldering his way over to her.

"Ares," she said, her voice very cold and very flat.

Seth blinked when he heard her, getting kinda curious. He'd just been hanging out all day.

Dawn noticed Nika coming back, but didn't say anything. She didn't want to get in the way of whatever 'family politics' were going on, especially when they concerned Cabin Five. A smart demigod stayed away from them unless it was absolutely necessary.

Jason noticed, too, but followed his sister's lead. If Dawn didn't do anything, then he didn't have to, either. It was just easier to listen to her, since she was the head of the cabin.