Apollo, Leo, and Calypso arrive in Indianapolis and are immediately surrounded and attacked by blemmyae monsters.

Emmie appears in the city square, shoots the blemmyae with crossbows, and leads the group to the Waystation.

Apollo and Leo learn the Waystation's founders have lost their daughter Georgina to the dangerous Oracle of Trophonius.

The goddess Britomartis arrives at the Waystation and demands Apollo rescue her sacred griffins from the Indianapolis Zoo first.

Meg arrives at the zoo and drops between Apollo and Lityerses, blocking his sword with her crossed blades.

Calypso blasts open the zoo enclosure's net, and the group escapes on the backs of the rescued griffins.

Britomartis reveals that the route into Commodus's hidden palace runs through an old city canal's sewers.

Apollo, Meg, and Leo free Georgina and other prisoners from the palace vault and recover the Throne of Memory.

Meg leads Apollo into Commodus's arena, where Commodus reveals his plan to sacrifice Apollo at his naming ceremony.

Leo arrives on Festus and Hunters of Artemis drop in on silver ropes to rescue Apollo and Meg from the arena.

Trophonius speaks through Georgina on the Throne of Memory, commanding Apollo to visit his oracle cave the next morning.

Apollo inhales the dark madness gripping Meg inside the Cave of Trophonius, fulfilling the Dodona prophecy and saving her life.

Apollo reveals his blinding divine form inside the Waystation, causing Commodus to stumble blindly out through a window and vanish.

Meg recounts Apollo's prophecy from the Throne of Memory, delivering it in the unexpected form of a Shakespearean sonnet.

Meg summons a satyr to guide the next quest, and the satyr is revealed to be Grover Underwood.

Apollo arrives in Indianapolis with Leo and Calypso, immediately attacked by blemmyae monsters working for the evil emperor Commodus. Rescued by Emmie and Josephine, Apollo learns that their daughter Georgina has been taken by Commodus after visiting the dangerous Oracle of Trophonius. After rescuing sacred griffins from the zoo — where Meg dramatically reappears to save him — Apollo infiltrates Commodus's palace to free Georgina and recover the magical Throne of Memory. The oracle Trophonius delivers a warning through Georgina, sending Apollo and Meg into a perilous cave where Apollo nearly dies saving Meg from its madness-inducing visions. Apollo defeats Commodus at the Waystation by unleashing his blinding divine form, and Meg uses the Throne of Memory to recite a new prophecy pointing to their next quest. The book closes with the arrival of the satyr Grover Underwood, who will guide Apollo and Meg toward the American Southwest.

Apollo's quest to find the oracle, defeat Commodus, and receive the next prophecy.

Apollo has a vision of Nero ordering a frightened Meg to capture Apollo before he finds the Indianapolis oracle.

Agamethus the headless ghost communicates using a rigged Magic 8 Ball, telling Apollo he must bring someone home.

Apollo learns from Emmie and Josephine that visiting the Oracle of Trophonius left their daughter Georgina mentally shattered.

Apollo uses the Dodona arrow to navigate the zoo and learns he needs a toy train and gold-coated tater tots.

Calypso picks a zoo café lock with a hairpin and discovers gold-coated tater tots stored for the griffins.

Apollo and Calypso sing an ancient lullaby to calm the griffins and successfully feed them tater tots by hand.

Britomartis admits she secretly triggered Calypso's magical surge at the zoo, knowingly risking Calypso's life to free the griffins.

Apollo has a vision of himself disguised as a mortal strangling Commodus to death in a bathtub in ancient Rome.

Josephine tells Apollo about working for gangster Al Capone and how Artemis rescued her by making her a Hunter.

Apollo sings to calm the pregnant griffin Heloise as she lays her eggs the night before the palace raid.

A massive Carthaginian Snake attacks the group in the canal, and Apollo drives it back by shouting in his godly voice.

Apollo, Meg, and Leo spy on Commodus in his throne room and learn that the Waystation's location has been discovered.

Apollo arrives at the Waystation mid-battle and discovers that the griffin Heloise has been killed in the fighting.

The group holds a solemn memorial ceremony for Heloise, and Abelard the griffin flies away to return when the egg hatches.

Leo announces he will fly Festus to Camp Jupiter to warn Roman demigods about the Triumvirate's imminent attack.

While the main quest drives the story forward, a series of crucial secondary events fill in the world and raise the stakes. Apollo's visions reveal Nero's hold over Meg and the dark history of his relationship with Commodus, while Agamethus's ghostly communications quietly guide the group from the shadows. The zoo rescue mission unfolds through absurdly resourceful moments — a hairpin lock-pick, a toy train, and gold-coated tater tots — before Calypso overextends her restored magic to free the griffins. As the group prepares for the palace infiltration, Apollo learns the canal route from Britomartis, sings to a labouring griffin, and barely survives a monstrous serpent in the sewers. After escaping the arena, Apollo returns to the Waystation to find one of the griffins has died in the attack, casting a shadow over their hard-won victory. The pool ends with Leo preparing to fly to Camp Jupiter, setting events of the next book in motion.

The missions, visions, and smaller moments that shaped the quest's outcome.

Apollo realizes Emmie is Hemithea, the ancient mortal woman he accidentally turned into a minor goddess thousands of years ago.

Apollo dreams about Trophonius and Agamethus, learning how their treasury robbery ended with Trophonius beheading his own half-brother.

Apollo has a vision of Commodus executing three guards for losing Meg and promoting Lityerses as his new chief commander.

Apollo recalls his former romantic relationship with the young Commodus while retrieving animal treats from the zoo café freezer.

Lityerses confronts Apollo and Calypso at the zoo's toy train station, and Apollo collapses the canopy overhead to escape.

Meg releases caged combat ostriches to charge at Lityerses, buying the group time to flee the zoo enclosure.

Apollo and Meg reconcile at the Waystation after their long separation, with Meg finally agreeing to a truce.

Emmie privately asks Apollo whether he caused Georgina's mental illness as revenge for Hemithea abandoning the immortality he once granted her.

Apollo overhears Commodus secretly order his bodyguard Alaric to assassinate Lityerses and destroy the Waystation the following morning.

Lityerses confesses to the whole group that he placed trackers on the griffins, unknowingly revealing the Waystation's location to Commodus.

Meg's singing in the cave accidentally projects her buried memories onto the walls, revealing that Nero murdered her father while she watched.

Trophonius demands Apollo grant him one wish in exchange for stopping his torment of Meg inside the oracle cave.

Lityerses refuses Commodus's direct order to fight the Hunters and openly defects to Apollo's side during the arena battle.

Apollo rescues Lityerses from Commodus in the arena and tells the others they share common ground as sons of terrible fathers.

Apollo tells Emmie he envies the family and life she built at the Waystation, showing how profoundly his views have changed.

Beneath the action of the main quest runs a deeper story of revelations and character change. Apollo's recognition of Emmie as Hemithea and his dreams about Trophonius force him to reckon with the lasting harm of his divine indifference, while visions of Commodus — both as a lover and as a tyrant — expose the guilt Apollo has carried for centuries. At the zoo, the history between Apollo and Commodus surfaces alongside a tense confrontation with Lityerses, a villain whose potential for redemption Apollo quietly recognises. Inside the palace, Apollo overhears plans that betray Commodus's cruelty even toward his own commanders, and Lityerses later breaks with Commodus entirely, choosing a new purpose. The cave of Trophonius delivers the book's most devastating revelation when Meg's projected memories expose how Nero murdered her father, clarifying why she has always returned to her abuser. By the end, Apollo's admission that he envies Emmie's mortal life signals how profoundly the quest has changed him.

The discoveries, confessions, and emotional shifts that defined Apollo's transformation.