The following day, Hecuba and Nope are exhausted from shadow-traveling. While Annabeth goes to school, Percy and Grover will look for Gale, but first they review Annabeth’s notes in Hecate’s library. In ancient times, Gale sold potions and magical scents but “had somehow gotten on Hecate’s bad side” (125). She also had a gas problem. Pondering these things, Percy stares at a bookshelf and notices a display of seeing devices, including the broken blue eyeglasses, engraved SEJ, from his vision. Ghosts of not only the dead but also memories and regrets close in on him as he backs out of the library.

Saying he needs to ground himself before they search for Gale, Grover leads Percy into Gramercy Park and then lies down on the ground and covers himself with leaves and dirt. Squirrels and a black rat come to him, covering him almost completely. Vines and tree roots begin to wrap around him until an alarmed Percy interrupts. Grover explains that he was conferring with everything alive on Manhattan and now knows Gale’s last known location. Later, he admits that a risk of the grounding method is that he might “dissolve into nothing” (134).