"Yeah, Nico's The Ghost King and all, he wanted to help me grieve or whatever." Leo pulled Festus over a particularly rough patch of rocks with a grunt. Percy would have offered to carry the compacted dragon but he knew first hand how protective the son of Hephaestus was of his companion. "The three of us had movie nights together but they were getting less and less frequent. We used to do Games Nights too but Nico won literally every time." 
Percy laughed at that, "Well, he did spend seventy years in a casino." 
Leo nodded but the topic of Nico seemed to be wearing away at all of them, Percy knew his own expression was set somewhere between nostalgic and anxious. They walked in silence for a minute or two, alert for the sounds of any monsters that might have picked up on their scents. 
"So why do you two look like shit?" Leo broke the quiet, never one to mince his words. 
Percy laughed at the sheer bluntness of his friend, "Gee thanks man, way to kick a man while he's down." 
Leo shrugged unapologetically.
"We just haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately." Percy said, touching his fingers to the bags forming under his eyes. Percy hadn't taken the time to look in the mirror when he'd received the summons from Hestia but he was sure that Leo was right - he must have looked terrible. 
"Demigod dreams?" 
"T-Tartarus," Annabeth said and the name was stuttered as if her throat had constricted around the syllables out of fear. The return of their nightmares had almost erased any healing the two had managed to do since the war, reopening the psychological wounds Tartarus had left with them. 
"Demigod dreams would have at least helped us track down Nico," Percy sighed, almost wishing for a prophetic dream, if only to save him from his recurring nightmares for a few hours. 
The familiar rock cluster that was the Door of Orpheus appeared almost irrationally menacing as the demigods approached. So many years ago, Percy had been there, fifteen and in the middle of a war and hopelessly out of his depth, following the son of Hades with an uneasy feeling in his gut.
The same feeling had returned with a vengeance as Percy stopped in front of the mossy stone, eyeing it apprehensively. 
"I was expecting like massive gothic doors with gargoyles and bones, if I'm honest." Leo quipped, fidgeting with the zipper of his toolbelt anxiously. 
"Maybe if Hades had created them, "Annabeth theorised, "But this door was created by Orpheus to be a discrete entrance. "
"So how do we get in? "Leo frowned at the boulders.
"I can help with that."
The three demigods whirled to the new voice, Percy drawing Riptide and Annabeth her drakon bone sword. Leo had slipped behind them, and a glance showed his hand hovering ready to trigger Festus' re-activation.
"Relax it's just me," Apollo sighed, appearing in the blue eyed and dark curly hair form of Lester to which he had seemed to grow attached. Though he had distinctly less acne and a visible golden glow exuding from him. 
"Perfect because I really didn't want to sing," Percy muttered none too quietly, capping Riptide once more. Leo didn't relax, scowling openly at the Sun God - and who could really blame him given Lester's involvement in Jason's death.
Apollo himself seemed to shrink from the fire-wielder's cold expression.
"I've got just the instrument, "Apollo patted the pockets of his coat, all his motions stilted with awkward
tension. He pulled out a thing of cogs and crank handles, "My Valdezinator. "
Leo blushed as he took in the sight of the instrument. The God held it reverently, and despite the years that had passed, it looked to be in good condition. Its layers of copper wire, like multiple sets of guitar strings that were crisscrossed inside the funnel, were still strung tightly. And the rows of striking pins controlled by levers on the outside of the cone, were without rust or grime.