Lucas emerged back into the mortal world through the same forgotten manhole where his descent had begun. Hecate's mark flashed upon the manhole cover before fading, cutting the connection with the underworld as it slid back into place, now just an ordinary manhole cover once again.
After he negotiated with Hades, Lucas immediately turned to leave. While he wasn't in danger in the underworld, it was the realm of the dead. For the living like him, it was uncomfortable and unsettling to be there, a feeling of constant rejection, and that was without the distant pain-filled screams that constantly echoed through the realm.
So, after leaving the palace and playing with Cerebus, Lucas left the realm of Hades and decided to quickly head to Las Vegas to complete his quest. It wasn't that he desired to urgently consume the next sequence potion, but Hades had given him no leads on where in Vegas the demigods would be, worse still. His instincts told him this wouldn't be a standard search and rescue; for Hades to have Elysian protect these demigods, he wasn't expecting it to be simple.
Wanting to get ahead of the potential danger of this quest and start the long task of searching for the unknown demigods, Lucas immediately went to the airport, intending to take a flight to Vegas.
...
By the time he reached Las Vegas, the sun was falling. The golden light of the sun bled into darkness, lit up by the cold glow of neon.
Lucas hated Vegas; every time he came here, it resulted in trouble. Especially since the constant noise and color of the city thinly veiled the darkness that lay beneath.
He walked the Strip, hands in his coat, Veil sight active, hoping to find traces of anything unusual to start an investigation. But he saw nothing. Maybe he could have tried returning to Plutus and ask for his knowledge, afterall the god had lived in Vegas for years; his reach was must be vast enough to help but Lucas didn't trust him to help on this, something which Hades wanted a demigod to do instead of doing himself suggested the need for secrecy, especially against the divine.
After a few hours of nothing, Lucas decided to rent a room at a nearby hotel, intending to rest for the night before beginning his search anew.
The next day, with a mind without jetlag, Luca decided to divine where exactly the demigods could be. Instead of pulling out the coin, he decided on the tarot cards; while not as specific as coin flipping, it was just right for the situation.
Lucas sat at the round table in the hotel room, clearing it of any clutter. Then he lit a single candle, not for light but focus, and shuffled his tarot deck, one he hardly used but always had. While tarot reading wasn't typically accurate for divination, making it a less preferred method, for Lucas, it was accurate enough due to his abilities; as such, his mother taught him the proper way to handle tarot. Especially the sacred rule of never using another's tarot deck.
After enough shuffling, he cut the deck. Placing four cards in a cross. North, east, west, south. The cardinal directions, each a point of truth.
Lucas took a breath. Then he turned the cards over.
First card – Death. The card was black and silver, the skeletal figure cloaked in ash, holding a banner. Endings and beginnings. Transformation. But in this reading, Lucas knew the meaning clearly; it was a literal answer. He was searching for death, meaning, the two demigods were children of Hades.
Second card – The Moon. Mystery. Deception. Hidden truths. The card showed a wolf and a dog howling beneath the moon, and a path snaked between them. Illusions, Lucas muttered. They are somewhere veiled, hidden from the gods with their minds blanketed by illusion and falsehood.
Third card – The Hanged Man. A man suspended upside down, not in suffering but in stillness. A place where time doesn't move, Lucas murmured.
Fourth card – The Devil. Chains. Greed. Pleasure and vice. The card showed a devil surrounded by wealth sitting upon a throne, judging two chained humans. Materialism, he whispered. Temptation. Sin wrapped in comfort.
Lucas stared at the spread. Four cards. Four truths. Four clues.
"The children of death," he murmured, "are trapped in an illusion... inside a place of sin. A place of stagnation, a limbo."
And suddenly, he understood.
Why had Hades requested him to be sent instead of going himself? If Hades had gone, it would have drawn the attention of Zeus, allowing him to discover that Hades had children, a secret addition to the prophecy of the big three. As for why he wouldn't be discovered, the gods' attention was currently on Thalia, allowing him freedom to secretly rescue them and bring them to Elysium for protection before Olympus found them and dealt with them.
This must also be why Hades was smirking so much, and why Lucas had a bad feeling. This was a divine hot potato, especially since they believed he was using Thalia for the prophecy, adding even more children of the big three, and the gods certainly wouldn't be happy.
Lucas stood, collecting his cards and pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind. His current task was to find the demigods and bring them to Elysium; the politics could be dealt with later.