Ariadne's Threads

**Ariadne's Thread** was the name given to the enchanted ball of strings given to Theseus by Ariadne so he could navigate and defeat the Minotaur. It was destroyed during the Battle of the Labyrinth when the Minoan Labyrinth collapsed.

## Summary

Ariadne's Thread was, like its name suggested, an enchanted ball of threads created by Ariadne, the Cretan princess-turned-goddess, who used it to navigate the Minoan Labyrinth so she could lead the Minoan priests to the altar at the Labyrinth's heart to perform religious rites and rituals, as well as to visit her half-brother, the Minotaur, whose prison was the Labyrinth itself.

When Theseus came to slay the Minotaur, through a combination of seduction, charms, and possibly potions, he tricked Ariadne into lending him the enchanted ball of threads. With it, he was able to safely navigate the Labyrinth, kill the Minotaur, and then escaped, though not before taking Ariadne with him to protect her from Minos' wrath.

Since then, the ball of threads had been lost in time, though at some point in the Middle Ages, it came into the possession of a group of sorcerers who used it as part of a cursed and dark ritual to create a new Minotaur. However, before they were able to advance with their plans, they were foiled and killed by Raul Mascarello, who gave it to Chiron as a "spoil of war" to be kept at Camp Half-Blood.

Despite this, however, sometimes in the American Civil War, the ball of threads once again lost through time, as it was used by a group of Greek demigods to escape the Romans via the Labyrinth, though neither they nor the ball of threads were ever seen again.

In the early Edwardian era, Daedalus was able to get his hand on the threads again, apparently winning it as a prize from a tournament in the Lotus Casino, which he used to build himself various hidden rooms and vaults within the Labyrinth, as well as a secret workshop in the former altar of the Minoan religion.

## Appearance

According to Raul's journals, Ariadne's Thread appeared as a simple ball of bright-red wools, roughly the size of a young boy's head, and was reeked with the smell of rotten organs and human flesh.

## Abilities

Ariadne's Thread was an item created solely for the purpose of navigating the Minoan Labyrinth and nothing more. The way it worked was that the user would attach one end of the thread to the Labyrinth's entrance before going in, at which the ball would automatically unravel itself before the user and acted as a guide, leading them to anywhere they wanted to go, provided that the rooms were in the Labyrinth. The thread itself was charmed so that no weapons of mundane origins could sever it, as well as to self-elongate to the point of reaching a near-infinite length.

Following its creator's *apotheosis* and it becoming a symbol in western culture, the ball gained some more powers, the most prominent of which being to create a small pathway of light that led the user to the place that they needed to be the most or where their heart truly want instead of where they initially believed they wanted/needed to be. Supposedly, it could also control threads and manipulate fabric, though not once was this belief confirmed or denied by former users.

## Trivia

* Despite not being her possession, it's still considered Ariadne's Symbol of Power.
* "Ariadne's thread", a problem solving method by multiple means - such as a physical maze, a logic puzzle, or an ethical dilemma - through an exhaustive application of logic to all available routes, is named after the ball of strings.
* According to Dadaelus, only a descendant of Minoan royalty can truly use it.
	+ Later on, this is changed into only those who are connected to blood to Pasiphaë, Queen of Crete and the goddess who enchanted the Minoan Labyrinth, can truly use the power.
	+ Despite, Daedalus had shown to have no problems using it to create his secret hideouts, though it's implied that he "committed tabbos and performed crimes of unspeakable unlawfulness" in order to use it, most likely some form of Blood Magic.