Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Yo, got a question for you.”

Leo looks up from where he’s elbows deep in the cranium of a Colchis bull. He’s never been able to truly fix them. He wants them to be as vicious as they were the day they attacked the camp. But after spending three days building, repairing and reprogramming automatons while trying to convince himself only monsters were dying in the war, he’s sure he knows what to do now.

Especially with the new shed Hephaestus gifted Cabin Nine, containing everything they could ever need for building pretty much anything. Soph’s spent so much time here she’s slept on her desk twice in the past week. Malcolm’s already asked Leo to come get him if she does it again, but Leo thinks hyper-focusing on building shit is definitely the best way to handle everything that happened.

Cabin Nine was renovated last week, the same as all the others, and like, it’s great to have a permanent bedroom year round, but Leo’s also super not okay with being on his own right now.

Soph seems to be the same way. Harley’s already harassed his foster parents into bringing him back to camp, and Beck has moved into the new Cabin Counsellor bedroom. Lee says Nyssa and Jake have asked to switch to full time, but being in his own room that isn’t the boy’s dorm with a divider- Yeah, it’s kind of freaking Leo out. He’s thinking Soph’s having the same issue.

The first thing Leo had done after they came back from the funerals was spend hours in the forge making the weapon he’d been sketching out in his mind whenever he had even a second to think between fighting and sleeping. It’s not like he didn’t have weapons already, plus the whole being able to reach insane levels of fire with a thought thing. It should have been enough.

It didn’t feel like it. So he’d gone and made himself the pollaxe thing he’d dreamed up. Pollhammer? He’s pretty sure the original design had a fancy French name meaning ‘falcon’s beak’. He’s still trying to work out how to make it transform into something a bit more portable.

Leo’d just wanted to sleep, and he’d hoped the new weapon would make that easier. Except he hadn’t thought beyond forging the thing. Clarisse had found him standing in the arena, holding his new toy and staring blankly at a training dummy, realising he didn’t know how to use the thing.

If he never admits he broke down crying on the scariest Ares kid in camp, he can pretend it never happened. She was weirdly okay with it too. She’d waited him out and then walked him through the basics of using momentum to destroy pretty much anything with the pollaxe.

Once the training dummy was in ruins, she’d hesitated, giving him a sharp, thoughtful look. Then she showed him the grips he’d need to use the metal shaft to block pretty much any sort of strike, explaining it can double as a shield.

Which had made him wonder about whether he could build a shield that could take a full force blow, unlike the one Tyson made for Prof that can’t hold against the big monsters, but is still great for normal sparring. He’d wandered off mid-lesson without even saying thank you.

He figured she must not have minded, because the next day, there were a whole pile of different knife sheaths and some terrifying knives that, despite how they looked, he was absolutely certain were not celestial bronze, left on his main workbench.

Lee had found out and pulled Leo aside and warned him the knives were made of the same compound as Piper’s sword. Lee didn’t need to say more. No-one will be forgetting what Piper’s sword is capable of. Not after that last fight with the guy in Kronos’s armour.

It should have horrified him, but Leo was so gods damn relieved to know he’d never have to go anywhere without a weapon again. He’d seen what Piper’s sword did to celestial bronze armour, his new pollaxe would break in a spar against that sword. Having knives of his own that can do that is a good thing.

“Flicker.”

Huh? Oh, Prof. He asked a question, didn’t he?

Prof gives him an amused smile and quirks an eyebrow. His sea-green eyes sparkle with suppressed laughter. He must be avoiding Cabin Ten, because he looks a complete mess, hair sticking up in every direction and that must be the oldest and rattiest tee-shirt and jeans he owns. Leo frowns when he sees Percy’s bare feet. How many times has he been told he has to wear shoes inside the forge or workshop? Just because the shed’s new doesn’t mean the rules have changed!

“Dude.”

Oh, Leo’s so dumb sometimes. ADHD is very mean. His hands haven’t stopped moving as he thinks, but who knows how long Percy’s been standing there waiting for an answer.

Leo finally answers him, “Prof, nothing good comes from you asking questions.”

Percy winces, looking genuinely regretful. Leo’s surprised to see him alone. Seems like he’s had a permanent bodyguard in the form of a god or Lee since they got back. Not that he blames them. Having a prophecy hanging over your head that you’re going to die is so much nope.

Leo’s still trying to forget everyone who did die.

He, Jon and Soph are dealing with whatever the hell went down with Athena and Demeter by pretending it never happened. If they don’t acknowledge it, it’s not a thing. Denial is a healthy coping mechanism, don’t you know?

“It shouldn’t be a bad question?”

Leo groans, pulling his arms back out of the metal cow skull, but leaving the hatch open. He’s definitely not done.

“What is it?”

“Do you want to be left to work on your current projects, or would something new be better? I know everyone’s still kind of… not great, and this isn’t prophecy stuff, I just thought you might like a distraction?”

That gets Leo’s attention.

“What sort of new project?”

“A life-size robot dragon that breathes fire?”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Nope. Like, I’ve seen it because I’ve dreamed of it, but we had to bury the thing because it would’ve distracted you and Grumpy from- Well. You know.”

Leo waves him off. He gets it. He also doesn’t want to think about it.

“So it’s here?”

Percy nods. “Yeah, you’ll need Grumpy, at least to start with, but I can show you where it’s buried. I would suggest keeping it far away from people who aren’t fireproof, pretty sure it needs some repairs. But I figure you’d rather work all that out yourself, not have me give you answers.”

Yeah, Leo doesn’t mind Percy giving him hints, but he likes learning things for himself. Much more fun that way, sometimes future visions ruin the fun of discovery.

“Why do I need Beck? I’m better with automatons than he is.”

Leo realises what he said and slaps a hand over his mouth. When the hell did he completely lose his brain to mouth filter? Gods, if Beck heard him!

Percy grins. “‘Bout time you found your confidence. You’re better with automatons than him, but this dragon was originally programmed to answer to Grumpy. He needs to give you authority, or whatever it is in computer speak.”

Oh. Okay. Yeah. That’s fine. If Leo needs to be given administrative access, then it makes sense Beck would have to do that. He’s been here a lot longer than Leo.

Leo shuts the maintenance hatch on the bull and checks it is safe to be left shut down. Cool.

“Okay. Let’s go get me a dragon. Is it really broken? I’m hoping it’s really broken.”

Percy rolls his eyes dramatically, like Leo said the worst thing ever. “It needs repairs. It also has some extra pieces that aren’t with it, and I’ll leave you to work that bit out for yourself. If you find them, you may want to involve Shrew. I’d guess she’d like a new project as much as you.”

Leo is practically stepping on Percy’s heels as they leave the workshop. “I still can’t believe Soph lets you call her Shrew.”

“If anyone asks, I call her Shrewd.”

“Yeah, no. I’m not that stupid.”

“She knows, she doesn’t mind.”

“She’d kill me and feed me to Peleus if I called her that.”

“Yeah, but I’m a prophet. You’re the sucker who’s her best friend.”

“Fair.”

Nico leans in the doorway and eyes Percy sceptically. “How much of this is actual prophet stuff?”

Percy gives him a sour look and flops back dramatically on his bed, staring up at Artemis’s starry sky.

“Tell you what, Shadow. You don’t call me out on my coping methods, and I won’t mention how much time you’re spending at Cabin Ten with Sax.”

Nico stomps over and shoves him hard, snarling down at him, “I don’t know how to braid hair like Hazel’s! Don’t be a dick!”

Percy tilts his head and gives him a flat look.

Oh.

Okay. So Nico might be acting a little strange. But Percy does War Drum’s hair, and he thought it would help Hazel feel kinda welcomed? Like family? Nico’s not sure the way to explain it. He might’ve gone a little overboard on learning all the different ways to braid her hair, since it was so different from War Drum’s. Austin hadn’t seemed to mind being used for practice.

Well, he hadn’t minded until Piper and Drew started their perfume monster repellant experiments. Nico can’t tell if they got it working on monsters, but it certainly repels everyone else. Coping methods all round, apparently.

Nico shoves at his brother some more until he shifts over, and he slumps down on the bed beside him, so he can look up at the sea monsters and stars that cover the ceiling of Percy’s bedroom in Cabin Three.

He sullenly mutters, “Fine. I still need to know if this is some sort of fated path, though.”

Percy flinches beside him. “It would have been. But it’s not anymore. The future’s ours to change as we see fit.”

“And somehow that translates to me pretending the Romans aren’t decorating those temple things with skulls that still have souls attached?”

Percy huffs a soft laugh. “Exactly how many times have you visited their camp since Uncle told you about them?”

Nico glares at the ceiling and keeps his face expressionless. “Once or twice.”

He’s been there eight times in the past two weeks.

Mostly, he tells people he’s visiting the Underworld. Which he does, he always makes sure to stop in and talk to Bobby. The mind-wiped titan is a lot happier working as Father’s ‘butler’. Even if Father isn’t so happy with it. But Percy told him it was important, and the gods have learned to listen when Percy says that.

Nico’s pretty sure Percy wants to visit himself, but the gods aren’t so big on him visiting the Underworld so soon after everything went down.

Which means Nico has an extra valid reason for his trips.

If Nico shadow travels to the Underworld and then back to the surface world in California, it’s a much easier trip than shadow travelling the full distance across the surface. All that time spying on Mount Othrys had really improved his shadow travel abilities.

He wouldn’t have been able to shadow travel a titan even those few miles if he hadn’t been regularly bouncing from one end of the continent to another.

Percy speaks gently. “She’ll be safe there, Shadow. I know it’s less than great, but I’m watching her, Uncle’s watching her, and she can call you if she needs anything.”

“She should be coming here.”

“Shadow, she’s Roman. You and I are the only ones who even know that the Romans exist. War Drum and Eclipse don’t even know about them. You only know because Uncle told you.”

Lee is completely baffled by Percy’s changing his name. Percy’s refusing to explain himself, and Nico is living for the drama.

It’d be more fun if it weren’t happening at the same time everything with Hazel was going on.

“I still don’t get why no-one else knows.”

“I don’t either. It’s always been hard to see them. I’m assuming it’s a pantheon thing, but then ‘Pollo completely flipped when I said those girls on the sorceress’s island were Roman. The things I’ve seen… There was some sort of unending war between the camps. I don’t know how it started, or what ended it. But demigods are a bridge between gods and mortals. Fighting each other- It doesn’t end well.”

“If you can’t see them, Hazel’s going to get hurt.”

Percy turns his head and pokes him hard in the shoulder. “War’s over, Shadow. She’ll be safe. And I can watch her. When I saw ‘Pollo last week, I asked if there was a way to see them easier, and he did- something. I’m not clear what. But I’ll be able to watch Hazel.”

“Father won’t explain why I have to say I’m a Dyspeptic Logos.”

Percy chokes with laughter, eyes watering as he tries to get his breathing back.

“You did that deliberately, you little shit!”

Nico grins at him sunnily. “Greek makes more sense than Latin.”

“Of course it does; we’re fucking Greek. But you need to be Roman when you’re there. They can’t know we exist.”

Nico scowls, all amusement gone. “I promised Crackle.”

Percy gives him a scathing look and returns to watching the ceiling. “I’m arranging that. But he won’t be informed until he’s here. The Romans will be encouraged to believe she’s Roman too. At least for now.”

“So, why am I Dyspeptic?”

“Because you’re an absolutely grouchy little shit before you get your caffeine?”

Nico pokes a sharp finger into Percy’s ribs as he twists away.

“Fine, fine. You are the Legatus pro Dis Pater because Romans really, really love official titles. It just means Ambassador of Dis Pater. Of Uncle’s Roman aspects, Dis Pater has the highest status. Hazel’s actually a daughter of Pluto. Same as Dancer’s a daughter of Hades as Aidoneus. But they’re all the same being.”

Aidoneus, the Unseen One. Specifically calling on his nature as a solitary and distant god. Nico really wishes he’d known that when he was younger; it would’ve explained so much about Bi’s love for independence.

Nico had already sort of known that demigods tended to be born to certain aspects. Though it was more common to inherit a mix of aspects.

Some aspects were considered gods in their own right, even if in reality, they were all the same being. Other aspects were more fluid. With those, a demigod kid could inherit a mix from their godly parent. He’s not sure how much control the god has over that. He really doesn’t feel like having a ‘how are babies made’ conversation with the King of the Underworld.

Nico’s confused. “You using names because it’s Father?”

Percy gives him an uncomfortable-looking grimace. “Try saying Neptune with intention.”

Nico eyes him with suspicion, but he doesn’t think this is a prank?

“Neptune, thank you for letting me use this cabin.”

What the hell? There’s no answer. No shift of essence. The gods don’t listen as closely to Nico as they do Percy, but they hear him when he speaks with intention. Especially Uncle Poseidon. Neptune’s an aspect of Poseidon, isn’t he?

Nico tries again, and there’s still no response.

Percy shrugs a shoulder, giving him an awkward half-smile. “I have no idea why, but the gods don’t seem to hear their Roman names. The only time Uncle would have heard his name is when I said who Dancer is a daughter of, and he doesn’t actively listen when I’m talking to you. Says he’d rather not know what chaos we’re planning.”

That is so fucking weird. Definitely needs some more investigation.

But also.

“You’ve never told me what aspect I was born to?”

“Because you already know.”

“I was kinda hoping I was wrong?”

“It doesn’t really matter. You aren’t like me. I doubt it was even intentional. Fates had nothing to do with it.”

“So I was right?”

“Yeah, Shadow.”

That is- Less than comfortable. Nico and Percy are constantly being described as the most powerful demigods of their generation, and even in the bits of history they have, their powers aren’t exactly normal.

The reason for Percy’s powers being what they are is very much ‘Fates did a thing’, but Nico was born decades before Percy, War Drum and Lee. Yet like Percy, Nico inherited a lot more abilities than is normal. But most of it comes under a single aspect. Hades Moiragetes. Overseer of fates, specifically the destiny of mortals. The one who ensures a person follows their fated path.

The Lieutenant would have claimed it was proof that Father was evil. That Nico was evil for being born to an aspect like that, because all mortals’ paths end in death.

He changes the subject.

“So, I need to show up, tell them I’m a Dyspeptic Logos, pretend to be Roman, somehow, and just leave Hazel there?”

Percy sighs heavily. “Legatus pro Dis Pater. I so wish I could tell War Drum and have her bully you into saying it a thousand times. Yes, you need to be Roman. Yes, you need to ignore the forsaken souls. For now. And yes, you need to leave Hazel there. Once we’ve dealt with Crackle’s little brother, and Hazel’s had some time to adjust to the surface world, we can bring her here if she’s unhappy at that camp.”

“You know they talk about Greeks the same way the Lieutenant talked about Father?”

Luke Castellan seemed certain that Father was Satan. That Nico must hate him and want to overthrow him solely because of how evil he was. Because the God of the Dead couldn’t have compassion. The God of the Dead would never see life as something precious and sacred.

Father also insisted on adding a charm to Nico’s stygian adamant necklace that would allow him to be instantly recalled to the Underworld. Given Nico lived through an entire end-of-the-world battle and Father didn’t feel the need to give him a virtual child leash, Nico is suspicious of these ‘Romans’.

Almost all of them are straight-up mortal. He counted, like, seven demigods in their little toy army thing? There’s not even a trace of the divine in the essence of most of the people there. A few show signs of carrying blessings from gods, probably a bloodline thing, but it may as well be a mortal boarding school or something.

Except for the lack of anything even remotely like classes about mortal things. Nico doubts they’d ever be able to get themselves accredited as a state approved private school. Not that Lee managed that without Apollo doing something.

Nico avoids morning lessons like the plague, but he listens when Lee rants about how much importance mortals place on that shit. And why Chiron’s complete lack of understanding of mortal things had actively harmed hundreds of demigods. Nico definitely wasn’t meant to have heard that last part. Lee puts a lot of effort into trying to balance out War Drum’s hatred of the horse.

The Romans also all super hate Greeks. Which he is so confused by. Other than Percy, no-one here really cares about Romans, or even thinks of them, like, at all? Why is there a weird cult completely dedicated to hating Greeks?

And what does that make Nico? His mother was Italian. Which is where Rome was. So. Um. Yeah. He doesn’t get it?

Percy looks equally lost. “Yeah. I am kind of very unclear on why? Nothing I’ve seen has suggested we did anything worse than they did. But it was war. So, who knows?”

“If I scare them, they’ll take it out on Hazel.”

Percy shifts over so he can press his shoulder against Nico’s.

“If you don’t want to show your powers, there are ways to scare them that don’t involve the death equals evil stupidity. Romans have a thing about, like, political power? As the diplomatic ambassador of the King of the Underworld, you have a fuckton of political power. You outrank even the consuls.”

“Who’s consoling who?”

“Stop being a shit. I know Uncle’s explained this to you.”

Nico wrinkles his nose and sulks.

“You don’t need to use your powers to scare them. You pretty much just need to exist and believe you hold more authority than they do. Shadow, you stared down the King of the Gods two weeks ago. Be that person.”

“Had you and War Drum.”

Another nudge from Percy. “Shadow, these are mortals. They aren’t even demigods. Barely a drop of ichor in them. They only have as much power as you give them. Talk it over with your sister. She might be fine with people thinking she’s as powerful as you. It may keep her safer.”

Nico pauses, thinking about it.

Actually.

He quietly confesses, “I was kinda worried they’d find out what she can do and decide she’s a walking bank account.”

Nico can’t summon precious metals and gems from the earth. He can sense metal and identify it, but Hazel has some crazy kinetic abilities when it comes to the ‘riches under the earth’. She’s terrified of it, even after Nico promised her that Father removed the curse. He’s figuring she’s going to need some time to adjust before he suggests training her powers.

The only real crossover in their abilities is that Hazel can see essence too. Not at his level, she thought he was a god the first time they met. She can’t sense souls otherwise, and he’s betting she only sees the essence of demigods. Which he should probably explain to her, now he’s thinking about it. Otherwise, she’ll be so freaked by the Romans’ playacting weirdness.

On the plus side, Hazel won’t feel how completely bizarre the ‘lares’ are. The Romans appear to genuinely believe their weird purple spirit people are the souls of long dead Romans. The two teenage leaders seem a bit more sceptical, but they are nowhere near as suspicious as they should be. Nico’s planning to tell Hazel to stay very far away from them. If she can’t sense them, she won’t ask awkward questions that he doesn’t have the answers to.

Percy speaks softly, “Then, if they think she can make them feel the terror of death and sense souls, it may not be a bad thing?”

“You think Blackjack would be willing to live on the West Coast while Hazel’s there?”

Blackjack had been ‘gifted’ to Nico right after Bi joined the Hunt. Gifted as in the black pegasus had spent years throwing tantrums about only being ridden by the Second Prince of Atlantis and trying to fight Percy’s zebra, Spot.

Percy had finally lost patience with Blackjack and told him to get over himself, and Blackjack had responded by deciding Nico was now his personal human. Something about being the only solid black pegasus here and Nico being a ‘Prince of the Underworld’. The horse is the only one who has ever used that title for him.

Nico is so glad he can’t talk to horses, the secondhand commentary from Percy is nuts enough.

Percy snorts, sounding deeply amused. “Uncle’s got plans already on that for your sister, but if you want to come and go on a black pegasus, it’d sell the bit. So long as he has his usual supply of inappropriately sugary foods, he’ll be happy to do whatever.”

Nico still isn’t sold.

Percy clicks his tongue, annoyed. “It’s also not forever. ‘Pollo won’t let me stay in the camp until Crackle’s little brother has proved he can be trusted. So, we’ll go to Atlantis for a bit and then go and pretend to be Romans.”

His tone turns fond and amused. “I get to be a son of Apollo and everything. ‘Pollo’s way too smug and Dad’s sulking. You can come with us for all that, they already know you have a connection to me. The younger girl we met in the Sea of Monsters is a praetor.”

Nico snarks, “Pride? Didn’t we just deal with intense hubris? Now they use it as a name?”

“Yeah, I’m not dealing with this. Go find War Drum for a spar. If you keep snarking about the Latin, soon as he gets back, I’ll tell Chiron you’ve decided you want to learn it.”

Nico carefully watches him out of the corner of his eye. That was very savage for Percy. They’ve all been joking about the ways the gods are watching him, but Nico knows there’s more to it. Percy’s not upset by Apollo and Mr D keeping an eye on him. Nico’s pretty sure Percy really missed it when the battles got too intense.

The issue is that Percy hadn’t expected to live past the final confrontation with Zeus. He seems to have thought that, even if he survived, he’d be, like, banished from camp and blamed for everything. Add in that he was already too reckless with his own life, and it’s not a great combo.

Lee had pulled Nico aside and had a serious talk about telling someone, even if it’s only Father, if Percy does or says anything that worries him. And that under no circumstances is he to agree to leave camp with Percy without informing people first. Nico can come and go like normal, but if Percy tries to go with him, Nico needs to make sure Lee or a god is informed.

It’d been obvious Lee was dancing around something and attempting to shield Nico from it because he’s so young or some shit like that.

So he’d gone straight to Father and asked him.

Father doesn’t always answer Nico, but he definitely tells Nico far more than he’s meant to. Father’d bluntly said that there was some concern Percy might be suicidal, but he’d seen nothing in his essence to suggest that. He said it was more survivor’s guilt, and actual guilt, along with the strangeness of coming into Underworld powers when he’s already a child of the sea.

Still, Percy’s not normally so cutting, not with people he considers his. Gods are always fair game.

Nico sits up to get a better look at his brother’s face. “You okay?”

Percy wrinkles his nose and gives him an awkward smile. “Not really? I’ll be fine. I just… When I changed that prophecy, it was the right thing to do. I know it was the right thing to do. But there’s a seer at the Roman camp. He’s the only one who remembers it, and everyone’s treating him like Cassandra.”

Great. More guilt. He knows exactly why this one is an issue.

Nico purses his lips. There are things he knows because he put the pieces together, but he also knows they should never be spoken aloud.

But.

There are reasons Lee explodes when people mention Cassandra. Cassandra, and her entire story, has been banned at camp since Lee was, like, fourteen. When he shot Beck at near point blank range for making a fairly inoffensive joke about her. The normal explanation people give is that Lee has Apollo’s overprotective and possessive stuff and Cassandra was a daughter of Apollo.

But Percy and Lee never bother hiding their cryptic conversations from Nico. He’s figuring Lee has some extra applicable experiences that explain why he finds the story of a child of Apollo driven insane by visions that no-one ever believed so distressing.

If a seer is actively being treated like Cassandra was- That will trigger a lot of things.

“Are you sure about introducing this person to Lee?”

Percy lets out a short, humourless laugh. “No. But he’ll know what to do. It’s what he’s good at. Besides, Eclipse would kill me if I didn’t tell him. This guy’s a descendant of ‘Pollo.”

No way. He can’t mean-?

“Wait, are you talking about the augur guy, the Dumb Fire?”

He keeps his expression carefully neutral when Percy doesn’t notice the butchered Latin.

“I guess? I don’t really know much about them.”

Nico had barely managed to shadow-travel away without being caught the one and only time he spied on the largest of the temples at the Roman camp. He’d made it back to the Underworld and collapsed on the ground, laughing his ass off. Father had found him, still cackling helplessly in the dirt.

When he explained, Father was completely delighted. He’d insisted Nico not tell Percy that half his prophecies from the last few years were engraved on the floor of a Temple of Jupiter. Nico is going to make sure he’s there when Percy sees that. It’s going to be so awesome.

Nico deserves nice things. Percy would do the same if their positions were reversed.

If the Duumviri dude is also a descendant of Apollo and being treated like Cassandra, Lee is going to get involved and it’s going to get even funnier.

Percy’s eyeing him extra suspiciously.

Nico shakes his head. “Never mind. But I really don’t think you should be freaking about this. You’re a prophet. The Fates are dicks. We know this.”

Percy is incredibly unimpressed. “Please don’t say that near Apollo. He might be okay with us saying that gods are gods, not people, but he will not be okay with your new addition.”

“Father says they don’t care.”

“The Fates don’t. The gods do.”

“That’s because immortality makes you stupid.” He drops it when Percy gives him another look, “Fine, any other advice?”

“The longsword’s fine, because it’s not Greek. But get Flicker or War Drum to check over any other weapons you take. Tell them you need to know if they’re associated with Ancient Greece. Definitely keep the shield and bident hidden.”

What?

“My sword’s not Greek?”

“The Romans only use the weapons of Ancient Rome. They’ll assume we do the same, but with Ancient Greece. And like, the bronze is really obvious. Anaklusmos is an Ancient Greek design too.”

Which makes sense. Since Anaklusmos was made in Ancient Greece and all. But also.

“Father made my sword?”

Percy pauses. “Uh, just to be very clear, he definitely intended it as a joke. Please don’t take it the wrong way.”

Nico squints his eyes. “What did he do?”

“The proper name for your sword is a ‘bastard sword’. It’s from, like, medieval England?”

Nico climbs to his feet. “If you’ll excuse me, I believe Father and I need to have a very serious discussion.”

Percy laughs, shaking his head, “Use the bident, it’ll hurt more.”

“I’m not lying to Apollo.”

Percy beams at Piper, looking far too pleased with himself.

“Who said you had to? I’m hiding from Eclipse, not ‘Pollo.”

Eclipse is a definite improvement on ‘Hot Air’. Piper’s still not sold on it. Percy’s acting strangely. Then again, they all are. It’s been like six weeks, which is not long enough to get past the ‘lived through a war’ thing.

Clarisse doesn’t even warn Chiron anymore.

If he so much as looks at her funny, she draws her trident and goes for the kill. He’s only been back for a couple of weeks. His broken legs are still healing, so he’s permanently using the wheelchair. Which hasn’t stopped Clarisse. Poor guy must be looking forward to a break from being hunted. Piper’s never seen him so careful with his words before this.

Wait. Is Piper feeling sympathy towards Chiron? Yeah. The world’s definitely ending.

She turns back to Percy. “You are so lucky that Mum likes you.”

Piper can’t work out how Percy even got into her bedroom, but there he is, sitting at her desk, drawing in one of his endless sketchbooks, as if he has every right to be in her room in Cabin Ten. The rules may have changed on how cabin assignments and classes are handled, but Percy’s probably the only person Mum would allow to break into the room of one of her children. Usually, breaking into a minor’s bedroom inside a god’s cabin is begging for a smiting.

Especially when the god is Aphrodite. The only question would be whether she does it herself or asks a favour from Ares.

“Why are you hiding from Lee?”

“Because I should’ve left for Atlantis already, but I wanted to talk to you first?”

“Please tell me this isn’t some insane quest thing. I know there’s some sort of mysterious visitor coming, but this is ridiculous.”

The only reason she even knows they have a visitor coming is because Apollo insisted his prophet and oracle not be in the camp while they’re here. No other details were given.

Logistically, it means someone needs to look after his pet zebra. Even if Spot is Percy’s in name only. She’s both camp mascot and official giver of hugs after nightmares. A combination of being raised for a life in magic shows, a blessing of Dionysus and living next-door to a powerful son of Poseidon has turned a wild animal into the best therapy pet ever.

Which is extra helpful, since everyone’s been needing some comfort since they found out Percy was leaving because of this random visitor. The god’s paranoia is to the point they’ve all been instructed to not mention Percy or Rachel by name.

It’s got them all a bit on edge. Percy had held off as long as possible in explaining the Great Prophecy, and they hadn’t had time to process things before the fighting started. Then they processed what that prophecy meant, and they’ve all basically closed ranks around him. Apollo claiming he doesn’t want the visitor to even know Percy’s name super doesn’t help.

Rachel’s a lot simpler. People don’t really know her beyond ‘random friend Percy dragged home last summer’. Most of the campers probably thought she was an unclaimed demigod. Rachel becoming an oracle is super new. She’s at school anyway, and Kayla, her new priestess, is staying at camp, and she’ll make sure Rachel’s safe.

Lee and Clarisse are ‘escorting’ Percy to Atlantis and being official priests or whatever.

Which means Piper gets to run the camp.

The power’s totally not going to her head. Not at all.

Percy smirks at her. “I know what you’re thinking. Sea Foam will totally tattle to Eclipse if you go overboard.”

Silena would. But only to a point. There’s a whole lotta grey area Piper is fully intending to exploit. It’s only been in the past eighteen months or so that they’ve had so many adults in the camp, but Piper prefers to pretend they aren’t there. She likes running the camp, and she’s looking forward to doing it without Lee hovering over her shoulder.

Plus, Silena is inclined to give her siblings whatever they want right now. She’d been scooped up by Luke only a few months after the battle at the Labyrinth entrance in camp, and after that she was ‘spying’ for Kronos. They bound her with this creepy bracelet thing. Which meant they had to keep Silena completely isolated from the camp. Like, she went into it willingly, but it was the shittiest possible time to lose access to their big sister.

They got her back the same day the war in the city started, and they’ve been clinging to her ever since. The war wrecked her leg, and everyone is a little too aware that they could’ve lost her entirely after a year of silence. Which makes Silena feel guilty. Which means she’s currently willing to let her siblings get away with murder.

“So what? Still fun to be had. Seriously, you just here to wish me goodbye, or is this another creepy warning?”

Percy tilts his head from side to side, looking thoughtful. “Right now, it’s just a question. Depending on how you answer will decide things.”

Wonderful. Extra cryptic.

“Just spit it out, Surfer Boy.”

“Same question I asked Flicker, you want to be left alone to deal with shit, or would you like a distraction?”

“Is this like how Clarisse claims you asked her, a full three years in advance, whether she wanted to join the shit show with you, and then you dragged her through a war?”

Percy flinches slightly. Oops. Piper’s definitely returning to her old habits of biting comments that hit where it hurts. She- Yeah. She needs to have some heart-to-hearts with Silena, hurting her friends is not something she wants to do.

Piper softens her tone, “Sorry, bad joke, and my filter’s still not working right. She doesn’t regret it. You know that. She’s your soul sister.”

“Yeah, I know. I just- Fuck, I wish it never happened.”

Piper’s pretty sure they all wish they hadn’t had to live through a war. But it wasn’t Percy’s fault, that whole thing had been set into motion long before any of them were born. They may have been born to fight the gods’ wars, but Percy’s the only one who wasn’t given a choice about whether he was getting involved.

Everyone else was given endless chances to walk away. Even during the war, any of them could have said they’d hit their limit, and Lee would’ve sent them up to Olympus to wait out the fighting. No-one would’ve held it against them. Percy’s the only one who couldn’t walk away.

Piper is insistent. “It wasn’t your fault. None of it was your fault.”

Percy turns back to his sketchbook, pencil moving smoothly. He speaks quietly to the desk. “I brought you here three years early. If not for me, you would be arriving here this December. Would have missed the war entirely.”

Piper moves to sit on her bed where she can see his face. “And I don’t regret it. Can you just imagine what I would’ve been like if I’d had three extra years with the out-of-control charmspeak?”

Percy turns slightly to look at her, and there’s too much amusement in Percy’s eyes.

“Wait, what did I do in that timeline?”

He gives her a look. “It’s not a timeline, it’s a path that will never happen.”

So what if Piper likes watching movies? Not her fault he never gets her references.

“Whatever, semantics. What did I do?”

“Uh. More like, what didn’t you do?”

“Explain. Now.”

He wrinkles his nose. “You kinda kept trying to get your dad’s attention? And you started stealing bigger and bigger shit. Even a BMW. You ended up given a choice of, like, one of those uber creepy reform schools or actual prison?”

Piper gapes at him. “Yeah, you know what? I’m good with the war. I like that path. What the absolute fuck?”

“You’re spending too much time with War Drum.”

They all spend too much time with each other. Mimicking speech habits is practically their favourite game these days.

Torturing Lee is a close second. They’ll all miss Lee doing the morning lessons. He’s the only one who lasts longer than an hour when they get going. Everyone else who tries to teach their class gives up way too soon. Makes the win feel meaningless. Maybe no Percy and Nico will up the difficulty level?

“Well, you are stealing her away and all. And you know, safety in numbers. That dragon thing is terrifying.”

If not for Leo insisting it’s an automaton, she’d have already gone hunting for it. She’s not as experienced with a bow and arrow as Clarisse or the Apollo kids, but she’d have tried her best. She’s seen the thing flame grill Leo more than once. What is it with demigods and lethal pets?

This isn’t even a living organism. It’s a robot. With a broken brain that randomly attacks Leo and Beck. How is that a good thing?

“Meh, Flicker’ll iron out the kinks soon enough.”

She gives him a flat look. “If not for you and Georgie being here, the woods would have burned to the ground because of that thing.”

Water powers are very useful. Especially when the woods are being set alight by aforementioned flame breathing robot dragon.

“Yeah, but he’s having fun! And he’s got new mysteries to solve. It’s all good.”

The problem with Percy is that he can keep the banter going indefinitely, and he won’t leave Piper alone until she gives him an answer.

How the hell does Clarisse survive sharing Cabin Three with Percy and Nico?

Then again, if she’d stayed in Cabin Five, she’d be living with Sherman and the assorted siblings that come and go constantly.

Clarisse has never really liked being Cabin Head. And now, in summer anyway, she’d be stuck with the two newbies from Kronos’s army as well as her usual roll call of siblings. One newbie is a son of Ares, which is whatever, but the other is a son of Eris. The goddess of strife and discord. Why the hell she even has children, no-one can explain.

Piper does not blame Clarisse for getting the hell out of there at her first opportunity. Besides, it’s not like Clarisse even likes Ares. Hephaestus kids have more fondness for Ares than Clarisse does.

Sherman is pretty happy too. Ever since Clarisse was named a Priestess of Apollo, Apollo’s been treating the entire Ares cabin to the same dawn music concert he gives to Percy and his own kids. Sherman’s ecstatic to sleep past dawn without earplugs.

“I’m not answering your question until you tell me if I’m committing to some multi-year-long path.”

“No fated paths. Just choices. If you aren’t up for new things, I won’t do the thing, and nothing’ll happen. If you’d like something new, I’ll do a thing, and it’ll still be your choice to go along with it. No commitments or anything. Though if you decide not to later, I’d appreciate you passing things on to whoever does decide to do it.”

He’s right, she’s spent far too long around him. Piper understood that mess.

She’s also spent too long around Clarisse. That’s like her catchphrase when Percy gets going and Clarisse has to translate. Maybe some distance will do them all good?

Or maybe not. Even Piper isn’t all that okay with their splitting up.

After the endless battles and the three-day war, everyone’s pretty twitchy about being separated. Lee had not been wrong with his concerns about how the fighting would hit different for the underage campers.

Especially with how they were all really damn certain Percy was fated to die in the battle.

He’d given a jumbled explanation that basically amounted to there’d been a high chance Zeus would kill him, or maybe Athena or Hermes. Which did not help. Since they’d just fought a battle for the gods.

Percy’s repeatedly told them he’s going to Atlantis, which is the one place where he should be guaranteed to be safe. But Piper is suspicious of how much emphasis he puts on his being in Atlantis. There was no need to emphasise it so intensely.

Most of the auxiliaries have already returned to their normal lives. A handful stayed on long term at the camp, but whether it’s for their own sake or to support the younger ones, Piper isn’t sure.

Piper, Jonathon, Sophie, Leo, Castor and Pollux are likely going to be even clingier with the others away. A distraction wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Percy’s still waiting for an answer. She hesitates, focusing her eyes on him and waiting for her vision to shift. He’s still Joy from Inside Out, when she was trapped in the memory dump. Piper’s already told Lee. He just says that Percy needs time to grieve, and he’s okay, they aren’t going to leave him to deal with things by himself.

Percy goes all huffy. “I am fine, Angry Girl. Eye of the beholder doesn’t replace actual sight. Like Dad and ‘Pollo have? I’ve got enough people watching me. I’m not running away.”

She makes an apologetic face, and he waves it off, seemingly unbothered by her snooping.

Makes sense, his entire thing is snooping.

“Fine. Give me whatever it is.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. We can spar with Triton supervising or something if I decide you’re the worst person ever.”

Percy smirks at her, and she shrugs back. She knows she’s not built for prophecy and future bullshit, but she is super happy to have Triton lurking around the camp. He’s officially here to ‘support Georghaliae in her transition’. Meaning to help out as Georgie learns to be a baby god, which is a thing, because Piper’s life is so incredibly strange some days.

Anyway, Triton being around means she finally gets to train with him, and she is loving it.

Piper’s still very happy to be a daughter of Aphrodite Areia, but Triton’s offered to act as her patron, and she is definitely considering it. He said she could live in Cabin Ten, which is good because she’s Cabin Head still. Much better than Ares’s weird attempts to offer Piper his patronage.

With Drew being the Cabin Counsellor for Ten, once Piper ages out, if she wants to stay on, she’ll need to move out of Ten, but that works for her. Lee’s told her she can move to Pallas House or the Big House. Or if she wants to stay in a cabin, Poseidon likely wouldn’t mind her becoming Cabin Counsellor for Three.

It makes her feel like she has somewhere she belongs. Before the fights really heated up, Lee had offered yet again to see about getting in touch with someone about her grandfather’s culture. Dad’s dad was Cherokee, not that he talks about it, like, at all.

Spending time around Percy and his obsessive correction of Greek myths had really made her wonder about the stories Dad used to tell her. The ones he claimed were Cherokee traditions. It took about three seconds on Google to realise, yeah, no. That two wolves story that Dad loves so much is both Christian and modern. It’s pop culture. Which is fine, Piper loves pop culture. But it’s not actual culture?

She’s heard three different versions from Dad about his memories of his grandmother with eagle feathers braided into her hair. Also definitely not a real thing.

Dad also seems to think his grandmother lived on a Cherokee reservation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Except that’s where the Cherokee Nation head office is. It’s not a reservation. If not for Mum telling her that Grandpa Tom definitely was Cherokee, Piper would think Dad made the whole thing up. Like, she could probably pass for having Mexican heritage or something. Not that she or Leo look anything alike. So maybe not?

She’d reluctantly agreed to read some material if Lee got it for her. Then she’d read that traditional Cherokee society is matrilineal, inherited through the female line, and realised she’s a full two generations distant from any Cherokee women, her great grandmother is the closest she has.

Lee had given her such a disappointed parent vibe when he tried to tell her that just because the traditional society was like that, it didn’t mean it wasn’t her culture and that’s not how it works now. That Piper is both wholly Greek and wholly Cherokee. She’d shrugged him off and ignored it ever since. If ignoring it was good enough for Tristan McLean, it’s good enough for her. She’s not enrolled with a Cherokee tribe. She doesn’t even know which Cherokee tribe her grandfather was from.

Piper is Greek. She has a home here. She’s welcome here. Piper is her mother’s daughter, and that’s enough. At least for now.

Even if she hadn’t already decided she wants to stay on when she turns eighteen next year, having Triton onsite would have had her scrambling for an official role. People can stay in the camp as an adult, but only if they fill a proper job. Lee’s unofficial camp director title is a very vague role, but everyone who matters considers it a proper job. Since he’s planning on stepping back now that Percy’s older and needs to be, like, a real prophet, Piper was all for learning how to take over one day.

This place is home. She can’t imagine life away from here. Especially not the sort of life where she ended up in some sort of gods damned reform school. Like, what the hell? At camp, people know she has powerful charmspeak, and she works to control it. The idea of mind controlling random mortals is so not fun.

Piper’s not the only one staying. Cabin Ten is one of the busier cabins already, even with school in session. The moment Lee lifted the restrictions, Lacy, Mitchell and Valentina got themselves to camp and announced they were now year rounders.

Mitchell and Valentina hadn’t even bothered informing their foster carers of their decision. They’d legit run away the moment Lee gave the all clear. That had been such an awkward phone call. Lacy’s dad at least gave permission and drove her to camp.

She looks at Percy, who is patiently waiting out her inner musings. “This won’t affect the kids, will it?”

Percy wrinkles his nose. “Not really? Not with Bright Eyes here and Sea Foam in Cabin Two.”

True. With Piper intending to take over from Lee, she’s never been fully engaged as Cabin Head, Drew mostly passed the title over because she was ageing out. Then the war happened, and Drew decided to stay long term.

“Fine, give it to me.”

‘It’ is a bag of books?

“Dude, all that build up for fucking homework?”

“Some things are easier if you’ve done the reading? I won’t be around to tell campfire stories. This is easier. Just give ‘em to the visitor if you decide you’re not up for it, yeah?”

“Okay. Any other sage wisdom, oh wise and wonderful man behind the curtain?”

Percy looks thoughtful, and a bit too full of mischief. This should be interesting.

“In no particular order, Shadow’s unlikely to be around after I leave, tell Dancer he’s fine and with me.”

Piper’s going to be seeing Bianca? Uh, when? The Hunt’s been away since the war, recovering in their own way. Piper hadn’t expected them to be back anytime soon. She’s really not sure the camp is up for even a friendly game of Capture the Flag right now.

They’d lost seven hunters during the war. Piper’d figured the deaths hit Thalia doubly hard, and the last thing she’d want is to see camp returning to normal with so many kids who were older than her brother ever got to be.

Especially after they found out about the little Zeus kids. Piper had half thought Thalia would never come to camp again after the first of the new baby Zeus kids start attending. She kind of suspects half the reason Thalia was so happy to join the Hunt was that it was all girls. Less things to trigger memories of what she lost.

“Polearms are great, but your sword is better.”

Okay, now he’s trying to piss off Triton. Piper loves her new sword, Salos, but Triton has repeatedly told her she only has it because they needed her to look like Percy during the battle, and she would be a lot safer using her own spear.

Xiphos swords don’t have near the reach of a spear. Clarisse gleefully told her that Nico attempting to fight a Nemean lion with a longsword ‘broke the gods’ and all their trainers doubled down on polearms after that.

“Don’t forget you have a family here. This is your home, don’t let anyone make you doubt that.”

Yeah, she still can’t deal with prophecy bullshit. This is breaking her brain.

“And never forget you’re my Angry Girl. Let no-one intimidate you. If they don’t back the fuck off when you ask nicely, use charmspeak.”

Piper doesn’t use her charmspeak on people. Not since she understood what charmspeak was and what she was doing every time she used it.

Even setting aside the bit where she’s mind controlling people and traumatising them in the process, her charmspeak isn’t indefinite. People eventually realise what she did, and in a world of gods and demigods, they are guaranteed to respond violently.

Charmspeak is for monsters, and only in specific circumstances. Like where the monsters’ patron god is aware and allows it, or if Piper needs the monster to stand still long enough for her to kill it.

Percy watches her think it over. “I’m serious. If someone gets in your face and doesn’t back off the first time you ask, you make them back off.”

“You are so gods damn weird, Surfer Boy.”

“Just wait ’til you meet this visitor. Feel free to give him a tongue lashing or twelve. He’s got a good heart, but you gotta dig deep to find it.”

“The guy Apollo hates?”

Percy shakes his head, looking worried all of a sudden. “S’not the guest that’s worrying ‘Pollo, it’s the people he represents. Actually. I don’t know what instructions you’ve been given, but new guy is going to cause some less than fun drama. I’d suggest giving him the full new camper tour and intro to Greek life if you can. Be good for him.”

A sudden bellow from outside stops the conversation. “Percy! If you aren’t out here in the next thirty seconds, I’m calling your dad as well as mine!”

“Think Lee gave up searching for you.”

Percy pulls a face and climbs to his feet. “Yay. I so love every person I meet bowing to me. Being the second prince is just the bestest thing ever. This’ll be so much fun. Not. See you around, Angry Girl.”

“Have fun, Your Highness.”

Percy gives her the finger as he leaves super slowly, looking like a small child dragging his feet as he wanders out of her room, even as Lee starts loudly counting down.

Piper sticks her head out of the second-story window to call down, “He’s on his way! He’s just being a toddler about it!”

Lee looks entirely resigned already. Clarisse is beside him, laughing her ass off.

Lee calls up to her. “If he left anything with you, can you check if his circlet’s there?”

No fucking way.

She checks the bag, and- Yep. She’s going to kill him.

Piper bolts down the stairs after Percy, who has miraculously started moving faster.

She makes it outside right as Clarisse tackles him to the ground, and Piper joins in on the dogpile, cramming the crown on his head.

He gives up and flops onto the ground, the circlet dangling at an angle over his face.

“I almost got away with it!”

“And what happens when Triton finds out it was misplaced? You just told me all about how I was, like, a fucking klepto in that alternate timeline of yours!”

Percy beams beatifically up at her. “It was gonna be so awesome!”

“You are an absolute turd.”

“I know!”

Dakota leans into the Principia, knocking a hand carelessly on the doorframe. “Yo, the kid’s back.”

Jason scrubs a hand down his face. “He got past our sentries again?”

Nico is still popping in and out of New Rome and Camp Jupiter without explaining how he’s getting in and out. It’s driving Reyna insane.

“Got a good excuse this time, he turned up on a pegasus.”

“He has a pegasus?”

Yet another accidental status symbol that Jason will need to explain to the City Senate. Reyna has a pegasus, but her sister is the Queen of the Amazons and treats Reyna like a princess. Easy enough to let the consuls assume Reyna really has that sort of status.

Nico is much more difficult to give valid reasons for. Why would the Legatus pro Dis Pater own a pegasus? Horses have no connection to the Underworld. Unless you count Consus, and the consuls really don’t appreciate Jason mentioning Consus.

Dakota walks across to perch on the edge of the desk and throws his hands up in answer. “Apparently? Fucking huge solid black beast, makes Nightmare and Scipio look like ponies. No tack, not even a strap to hold on to.”

Wonderful. Not only a pegasus, but one he can ride bareback. Nico seems entirely unaware of the way he’s freaking out the consuls, but every time he leaves, it becomes Jason’s problem.

Jason should not feel so intimidated by Nico. He’s refusing to tell them how old he is. So far he’s told them he’s ninety-three, eighteen and three years old.

He looks like he’s fourteen. Maybe. His eyes are older. Jason’s still not completely certain the kid isn’t a god. There’s plenty of stories of gods pretending to be mortals. So, he could be? He’s half a head shorter than Jason, but Nico has the sort of presence the consuls can only wish they had.

Even the lares turn all deferential whenever they’re within a hundred feet of Nico. Reyna doesn’t even need her dogs to deal with Fronto, the lar who is obsessed with advising her on being a proper leader, since he claims to have taught Marcus Aurelius. Not that Jason believes any of the lares are who they say they are, but he’s never seen one be respectful to any legionnaire. The way they treat Nico- It’s like Nico is Mors himself.

He won’t give a straight answer about who he is. It’s really not helped by how the one thing he readily admits is that he’s Italian. Reyna straight out asked him what century it was when he lived in Italy, and the kid smirked and said, “Not this one.”

Which gives weight to their theories that he might really be a god. It’s 2025. He’s a kid, not an adult. He’s from Italy, but didn’t live there in this century?

Dakota pokes him. Oh.

“You’re going to explode if you keep thinking so hard.”

“It’s not like I’ve gotten a single straight answer out of him. It’s like he enjoys being confusing.”

Dakota gives him a long, slow blink. “Pretty sure that’s exactly what it is?”

“Great. Do you know why he’s here?”

“Think he’s just visiting his sister. He said something about being an on-call hairdresser?”

Jason winces. “The consuls want us to insist Hazel follow the same rules as everyone else, and only see her ‘family’ when on furlough.”

Dakota gives him a sceptical look. “And probationes aren’t allowed to go on furlough. You realise they’re trying to isolate her already?”

For all Dakota adores causing issues, he’s become incredibly protective in the six weeks since he became junior centurion of the Fifth Cohort. It’s good to see. But Jason really wishes this weren’t the cause of it.

“Dis Pater was insistent she be allowed to use her powers.”

“You know Bacchus would have been just as bad, except my powers aren’t noticeable?”

“Can we not, please?”

Dakota softens a little, still leaning on his desk. “You want me to ask him again?”

Nico’s refusing to tell them anything more about Jason’s sister. Only that she’s alive, he’ll be reunited with her soon, and Jason will be away for a while. Jason’s found it hard to think about anything else ever since.

Because if ‘the pictures are exactly what he thinks’, that makes no sense. Those photos were of a girl who couldn’t have been older than thirteen. Thalia’s twenty-two now.

“No, there’s no point. How are things going with Hazel other than the power stuff?”

Dakota shrugs. “She’s a bit… off. There’s a lot she’s not sharing. You’ve seen her in training. She’s fairly new to weapons, but not completely unfamiliar. She knew a lot about mythomagic already, but she’s lost on pop culture otherwise. She may have been raised away from the mortal world, but there’s no way to confirm it, and she and Nico shut down completely whenever I try to ask.”

“Fitting in otherwise?”

“Sort of? I’m not sure if it’s the demigod thing or something else. She keeps her distance from most others. But so do we. She still prefers Reyna and Leila, and they’re the only other female demigods in the legion. But even with that, Hazel’s still more comfortable around you and me than she is with most of the probationes.”

“Guess I’m telling the consuls that Dis Pater said he’d remove his daughter if Nico isn’t allowed to visit her, then.”

“You don’t even try to hide the lying anymore, do you?”

The consuls currently can’t do anything. Jason killed a titan, and they gave him a full Roman Triumph for it. He’s got a good six months before they can back peddle on their support of him and still save face.

Besides, everyone now knows he has power over the winds. That’s a whole different type of power to what he’s been holding over the consuls so far.

“I’ll deal with it after I see Thalia. I really just cannot find it in me to care right now.”

“You realise if you disappear without warning, Octavian will use it as an excuse to push for praetor?”

Yes, he will. Jason’s already made arrangements for that.

“I’m aware. Look, do me a favour whenever I leave?”

“Depends on what it is?”

“Keep him away from Hazel? I don’t know what’s going on there, but he’s been watching her ever since he read the auguries for her.”

Dakota gives him a sharp look, and Jason shakes his head. “Not that. Octavian would still rather pretend his father’s obsession with his marriage prospects wasn’t a thing. The Lawrences would be the problem, but Bryce is gone. So.”

And the Pearces don’t share the Coelispexes and Lawrences’ obsession with increasing the divine blood in their descendants. They prefer to ensure that Mars is always the god they claim, regardless of how long ago it was. Not even Reyna, a demigod daughter of Bellona, Mars’s consort, is of interest.

Jason’s very glad there haven’t been any confirmed children of Mars since the Byzantine Empire, at the latest. Dealing with Consul Coelispex and Prefect Lawrence is bad enough.

“What exactly do you think he’ll do?”

Until now, Reyna and Jason have kept Octavian’s episode to themselves. But Jason isn’t loving the idea of going away and having Reyna the only one who knows there’s something wrong.

“Hazel is a bit too nice for this place. Octavian had a bit of… an upset? I’m really not sure how to describe it. It was right after the battle. He claimed a prophecy had changed. Reyna thinks he was hallucinating from stress. He’s been stand-offish ever since. Octavian is feeling powerless, and Hazel… Well-” He shrugs at Dakota.

“She represents a lot of power?”

“Pretty much.”

“I’ll see what I can do. How’s your little weather hunt going?”

Jason grimaces. “Same as always. Whole bunch of strange reports that sound like wind spirits, nothing like the lightning storms I used to track. They all started after Mount Tam.”

“Have fun with that. You helping with war games tonight?”

“Guess I should if the kid’s here.”

Dakota frowns. “You realise it’s a really bad look for the new praetor to be avoiding the legion?”

“I have a lot on my plate, Dakota. Not just Thalia. At some point, Nico is going to notice the temples. The fact he hasn’t yet is a fucking miracle.”

Some sort of unreadable expression crosses Dakota’s face before he can hide his reaction.

Jason eyes him. “What do you know?”

“Hazel’s definitely seen the temples. I’m pretty sure Nico already knows.”

“Then why isn’t he doing anything?”

“You know, you could always just ask me?”

Jason jerks out of his seat, hand reaching for Conservatori.

Nico leans in the doorway, raising a cynical eyebrow.

Dressed as he always is, like he actually is goth or is playing a joke on everyone that he hasn’t felt like sharing. Unrelenting black jeans, black shirt and black jacket, with a silver coffin necklace. A black longsword on his hip. Not a spatha, but a Medieval English sword. Glossy dark hair and olive skin. Sharp features and a permanently chaotic glint in his dark eyes.

Nico is 5’6” and all wiry muscle under the layers of clothing. The one time Consul Coelispex tried his whole ‘my dear boy’ paternal condescension thing, Nico had grabbed the hand the consul placed on his shoulder and sent him sprawling in the dirt. Keeping a straight face during all that was one of the hardest things Jason’s ever had to do.

Nico takes in his defensive stance, looking very entertained. “You planning on attacking me or something? You won’t like the result.”

Jason steps back, standing stiffly at attention. He doesn’t know why he bothers, nothing freaks the kid out. It makes him feel a lot more sympathy to Octavian. It’s not fun being on this side of standoffs.

“Then you know about the temples?”

Nico looks incredibly amused. “Yes, I know.”

“You haven’t done anything about it?”

“Not yet, no.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m waiting on someone who can explain who they were and why they are here. As much as I dislike leaving them there, I was asked to wait. So I am waiting.”

“The prophet.”

The boy gives him a tight smile and no answer.

“By the way, I keep meaning to ask, what’s with the eagles?”

Jason tilts his head, confused.

“They’re the eagles of Jupiter? Juno sent them to the legion just after I came here. They stay as long as I’m a member of the legion.”

Nico looks delighted. “And here, all she sent me was coffee.”

What? It’s like he does this deliberately. Why would he have met Juno? He’s a son of Dis Pater? Or that’s what he claims, anyway.

“Do you actually ride them?”

“Yes?”

Nico speaks seriously, like he’s imparting great wisdom. “When you see your sister, you have to tell her all about flying on the eagles.”

There is too much mischief in his eyes. Jason has a faint memory of Thalia telling him not to go so high. But why would this kid know about that?

Before he can stop himself, he blurts out, “You make no sense.”

That gets a loud cackle. “Fucking finally! I thought you were never going to crack.”

“You’ve been doing this deliberately?”

“Yes? You’re gonna, like, lose your mind if you don’t learn how to just roll with things. This place is- Yeah. I don’t know what it is.”

Jason really doesn’t know what to say to that. Shouldn’t Nico be familiar with all of this?

Jason’s really thinking Nico is from those three hundred years they don’t seem to have any record of. He might be a demigod, but he could still be immortal?

“Anyway, I’m kidnapping Hazel for a few hours. I’ll bring her back before lights out or whatever you call it.”

Dakota snickers and Jason works on not showing his frustration. The consuls are definitely going to lecture him again.

“Can I tell the consuls that she was summoned by Dis Pater?”

Nico rolls his eyes with a huffy exhalation, and Jason carefully doesn’t react. Anyone else in the legion and he’d be required to sanction them for their disrespect. But Nico is not part of the legion.

That may be a good thing.

“The hell is with you lot and rules? Yeah, fine. Go bananas, Father won’t care.”

Nico pauses. “To clarify, Father won’t care about you using him to explain my spending time with Hazel. He will care very deeply if you use him as an excuse for things without his knowledge.”

The air abruptly turns cold and dark.

Jason swallows hard. “Yeah, that’s not something I’d ever try.”

He’s not sure what he thinks about Dis Pater knowing about the temples. The moment Nico leaves on his definitely giant black pegasus, Hazel sitting behind him and looking completely gleeful, Jason goes to find Reyna.

He finds her on her way back from the city, with her two metal automaton dogs, Argentum and Aurum, accompanying her like always.

The three of them are standing in the road watching the pegasus fly off. Jason can’t quite believe Nico and Hazel were riding it with no tack, nothing to hold on to. Even Dominus wears a leather collar for Jason to grip so he doesn’t go sliding off, and Jason can fly on the wind, so falling off isn’t the end of the world.

Shouldn’t children of Dis Pater be very uncomfortable on a flying horse? Jason feels awful just going into the basement level of a building, like there’s a glass wall between him and his powers. Being in the sky, on a horse, completely separates them from their father’s domain.

Reyna scowls, still staring after the two kids. “At least we saw him leave this time? He going to give Hazel back?”

“Nico said it was only for a few hours, and he told Dakota he was an ‘on-call hairdresser’?”

Realisation in Reyna’s voice, “Ah. Hazel mentioned she needed to redo her braids. I’d been trying to work out what to do about that.”

Jason cringes. “Yeah, somehow I don’t think our Ambassador of Dis Pater would have been okay with our normal solution.”

If hair doesn’t meet ‘military regulations’, or requires more attention than a quick comb, the consuls expect it to be cut short. Like, there needs to be rules about that sort of thing, if only from a practicality standpoint. Their helmets are metal and not adjustable. But the consuls definitely take it too far.

Reyna’s pointed out more than once that Jason really doesn’t help matters, when he looks like an all-American white boy soldier and meets their expectations without having to do anything.

Reyna looks exhausted as she turns back to the road, Jason matching pace with her.

“Kid told me something else too.”

“Oh?”

“He says he knows about the temples. That he’s been asked to wait for someone to tell him who they are and why they’re there.”

“Percy?”

“Yeah, I think so. He didn’t say it outright, though.”

“Nico did say Percy would see me soon. That’s really not what I was hoping for.”

Jason switches subjects. “You get anything on the archives?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing. Consuls insist they don’t exist.”

They’ve gotten nowhere with it. They know there are archives they’ve never seen, Octavian confirmed it, but none of them know where they are. Jason wants to suggest that Reyna ask the prophet, but it’s also something they really shouldn’t be bothering a prophet with.

Except.

“If the prophet is going to look at the skulls, there may be more of them in those hidden archives.”

Reyna shuts her eyes for a second, her pace slowing. “No, Jason. He is not Octavian. He is not a consul. We are not manipulating him like that. This is our problem, not his.”

“We’re missing three hundred years of our history. That feels like it’s an everyone problem?”

“No. Jason. Drop it. I mean it.”

Jason scowls but doesn’t push further. He is so sick of waiting.

Chapter Text

Jason’s waiting ends on the sixth of October.

He’s awake well before dawn. Jason and Reyna have duties on Temple Hill today, and it’s best they’re handled without the consuls noticing.

Jason’s been summoned by the consuls every day since Nico showed up on his black pegasus. The constant questions about the black sword and what it’s made of were bad enough. Especially after they asked Hazel to show them her knife and her response was, “No.” That’s all. Just, “No.”

Reyna gleefully told him that ‘No is a complete sentence’, and she’s not wrong. But he really wishes it didn’t immediately become his problem.

The consuls are growing increasingly unhappy with Jason. It’s been a little over three weeks since Hazel arrived, and he can’t give them the answers they want.

No matter what angle they use, he’s not going to magically produce an explanation for where the pegasus came from. Nor is he going to suggest to Nico that his pegasus is not welcome in the valley. He’s fairly sure Nico would double down if anyone so much as hinted at that.

Same as how Nico is free to carry weapons. He’s not a member of the legion. Nor will he ever be. No matter what the consuls think. Given how casually he orders the lares around, Jason doesn’t want to know what would happen if Nico genuinely felt threatened.

Jason had also had to tell the consuls that no, Hazel doesn’t have any information on the pegasus and no, they aren’t going to interrogate a thirteen-year-old girl.

After that last request, he’d sent Reyna the next time they summoned him. Whatever blistering response she gave, it made them back off of Hazel, which is the most he can hope for. They still see Nico as fair game, though. When they aren’t face to face with him, anyway. These conversations end much more quickly if Nico’s in the room.

Jason really doesn’t feel like being summoned for an explanation of what he and Reyna are doing on Temple Hill today.

Which is something he no longer needs to worry about.

Jason walks out of his little house on the Via Principalis to find a goddess waiting for him.

He blinks rapidly, unsure what to say.

The stern goddess, wrapped in a goatskin cloak, gives him a highly unimpressed look.

“I shall interpret your silence as shock and awe at unexpectedly meeting your patron. I will not make such allowances a second time. You have five minutes to collect what you need for an extended stay elsewhere. Please return promptly.”

She gestures towards the door he’d just stepped out of, and Jason numbly turns and walks back into his house. What the hell? Just. What.

He’s had a bag packed ever since Nico told him he’d be going somewhere to meet Thalia. He grabs it now, shoving in his phone and Amazon Flame, the demigod version of their Kindle, and any other extras he can think of.

He’s back outside within four minutes, and he’s remembered how to be appropriately respect.

“Your majesty, I’m ready.”

Her eyes scan him from head to toe, missing nothing. He feels like an insignificant insect. “A mild improvement. Very well, take my hand.”

“Jason?”

He glances over at Reyna, only now leaving the house next to his. “Going on a trip, don’t wait up.”

She gives him a tight look. “Be safe, and good luck.”

He nods and takes the goddess’s outstretched hand.

A blinding white flare of light and the world spins around him.

Reality settles again, and they are in an entirely different place.

They’re standing right inside the entrance of a cave, and right outside is the ocean, almost spilling into the cave. An island is visible in the distance.

The cave is dark and damp, it smells like earth and ocean. The ground is full of tide pools, with bright creatures clearly visible. Jason’s betting the whole cave is underwater most of the time.

He’s extremely certain he’s no longer in California. He steps back from the goddess, keeping his posture respectful.

She looks so much like he imagined, but also not. The brown goatskin cape hangs down her back, a length of rough leather that seems almost jarring against the light flowing fabric of her white stola and palla, each edged in glittering gold.

More gold shimmers through her dark hair, as if every strand has been dipped in gold dust. It’s been done in an elaborate style of tight curls and braids all twisted up in a large bun at the back of her head.

Large dark brown eyes devoid of warmth scrutinise him from a pale face. Pink cheeks, red lips, all of it reflecting her status as a powerful goddess of women. The wide golden diadem on her head confirms it. Juno, Queen of the Heavens.

A wife, a queen and a warrior. She’s well muscled, and even if she were mortal, Jason doubts Reyna would win a fight against this woman. She is someone worthy of respect in whatever incarnation she chooses.

Not that he needs his eyes to know that. She feels like pure power. As familiar as the necklace with Juno’s claiming pendant that he’s worn since he was eight, even if he can never remember he’s wearing it. But it’s definitely the same power.

The Draco Hesperidum was a faint echo of the woman who stands before him.

His patron.

“Queen Juno, would you mind telling me where we are?”

The goddess looks around, disinterested.

“It has had many names over the centuries. I believe it is currently called Devil’s Oven or perhaps Anemone Cave? The mortals claim it is an entrance to the Underworld.”

It’s certainly steeped in power, but it doesn’t feel like a doorway. More like a meeting point, maybe? The dark of the earth meets the chaos of the tide. The air is heavy with the feel of the ocean, and a trace of pure darkness.

Juno is eyeing him speculatively. “Perhaps you can determine what this place is to the gods?”

Jason hesitates, he’s really not sure how to handle his first conversation with Juno. She’s definitely testing him, but he’s unsure why.

“It feels like the boundary between domains. Between the ocean and the Underworld.”

“And very specifically, not your father’s domain.”

“No.” Jason gets the impression that Jupiter knows nothing about any of this. Which seems more than a little wrong. But he’s had only a single moment of awareness of Jupiter’s attention, on the day he became a full member of the legion, so it’s also kind of expected?

“Do you understand that my claim on you trumps even your father’s?”

Jason catches himself before he the shock shows on his face. This is not a goddess who would respond well to casual shows of emotion. But, no. He did not know this.

“Uh, your majesty, does that mean he gave me away?”

She considers him; her face still far too stern and regal, but there’s something in her eyes, it looks almost like sorrow or regret. But that can’t be possible. She’s a goddess. A member of the Capitoline Triad. A warrior.

“It was your mother who gave you to me. She believed that sacrificing a child would placate my anger. In a bid to curry my favour, she named you Jason, for some unfathomable reason.”

Jason pauses again, trying to take that in. He’d never really thought about his name after the one time he looked up the meaning of his and Thalia’s names, but he’d definitely never connected it to the Greek hero Jason.

‘Thalia’ is a Greek or Hebrew name, depending on who you ask. ‘Jason’ is the same. It means ‘healer’ in Greek, the root word meaning ‘cure’, or ‘the Lord is my salvation’ in Hebrew. He’d figured Beryl must’ve been pop culture Christian or maybe simply liked the names.

He doesn’t know the Greek myths well, but there is one thing he remembers. “Didn’t Hera hate that Jason? After he abandoned Medea?”

“You already know far more than your mother ever did about me.”

“The mortal news is certain Beryl killed her children.”

Juno flattens her lips. “Had I not removed you, both your sister and yourself would have died within a year. It was foreseen.”

Jason blurts, “Not by the prophet, unless he’s an immortal kid.” Jason cringes when he realises what he said. How can he be so stupid whenever he’s confronted with a god?

“No. Not the prophet. His father.”

Apollo. Okay, that makes more sense.

Wait. Hang on.

“If Thalia’s a demigod, this wasn’t just because you were pissed at your husband?”

Her eyes flash. “Take care with your words. You may be my champion, but my protection extends only so far as you behave like one. The original Jason learned that lesson the hard way.”

She softens slightly while Jason tries to look anywhere but at her, “It was the right choice for you as well, child. You could not have stayed with your sister. In siring you and your sister, my husband did something so incredibly block-headed that I still daydream of castrating him for it.”

Castrating Jupiter is absolutely not a topic Jason wants to discuss with the goddess. Far too many myths start with that sort of thing. Especially with conversations between a god’s wife and his youngest son about it.

He carefully asks, “You said my mother gave me to you? But also that you removed me?”

“Some things are rather too complicated to explain. Suffice to say, there were political reasons. Your mother made her decision of her own free will. I accepted because it ensured your survival. Had certain situations gone differently, you were to serve as leverage against my husband.”

“So naming me your champion?”

Her answer is acerbic in the extreme. “Was to protect you. You belong to me, regardless. I do not make a habit of naming two-year-old mortals my champions.”

Okay, that’s- Yeah, that’s actually completely understandable. Two-year-olds should not be champions.

“I’m afraid I’m a little unclear on why we’re here? I know the prophet said I would be reunited with my sister?”

“And you will be. This is merely a convenient meeting point before the next stage of your journey. But I wished to clarify some things with you before you continue.”

“Of course, your majesty.”

Queen Juno stands there in this dark cave with the ocean outside and the sky dim and overcast in the early morning light, watching him thoughtfully. Nothing feels quite real.

“In your mother sacrificing you to me, you were placed in my service and given a destiny. You were raised by the wolf god and taught the old ways, before she gave you over to the legion. I had been unsure if this day would come, and now that it has, I remain uncertain on this course.”

She gives him a more amused smile, “Had I not spoken with the prophet, this conversation would be going very differently. But he insisted you be given the chance to reach the right conclusions of your own free will.”

“A destiny, your majesty?”

“Yes. Not the sort the prophet deals with. Not unchanging paths and certain ends already woven into the Tapestry of Fate. Your destiny remains yours to claim or deny as you see fit. There will be consequences for whichever choice you make. The choice need not be made now, but you must be informed of the consequences.”

Jason’s eyes widen. He thought he was being taken to meet Thalia? This really isn’t making any sense.

“Do you know what today is?”

He answers promptly. “Dies Ater. The black day.”

The whole reason Jason had been awake so early was so he and Reyna could see to the necessary rituals on Temple Hill without the consuls noticing.

No sacrifices or offerings were to be given, no worship was to be public. But rites still needed to be said. Travel is banned on Dies Ater, which- Yeah, Jason’s going to assume it’s fine since Juno was the one doing the travelling.

“And what happened on Dies Ater?”

“The Battle of Arausio, 120,000 Roman men were lost in a matter of hours. Fourteen legions, dead to the last man. Only Caepio returned to Rome.”

Eight initial legions, further reinforced with six sent from Rome at the last minute. All of them gone. It was this defeat that led to the military reforms that defined the military power of Rome.

Historians like to claim they ‘only’ lost 80,000 soldiers, because the other 40,000 were slaves, servants and camp followers. Reyna and Jason consider them to be legionnaires, regardless of whether they held the rank of a soldier or not.

Quintus Servilius Caepio returned to Rome, only to be tried first for the theft of an astoundingly enormous quantity of seized gold that never made it back to the city. He was acquitted of the theft, and then tried for the loss of the Roman men, and promptly banished from Rome.

Jason and Reyna have too many opinions about that battle. It was because of the Battle of Arausio that the concept of rallying to a legion’s eagle was developed. Before that battle, most legions didn’t even carry the gold eagle standards, and their symbolic importance was introduced after.

Twelfth Legion lost its eagle, and it doesn’t have the professionalism of the powerful legions of Rome. It looks a lot more like the legions that were lost at Arausio. Who needs prophecy when you have history?

“Yes. It was a slaughter. The legions were backed up against a river with nowhere to run. Who killed them?”

Jason frowns at her use of the word slaughter. It’s Octavian’s favourite word.

Still, he knows the answer to her question.

“Barbarians, the Cimbri tribe.”

“Who were from?”

This feels like being back at New Rome School being drilled on history.

“The battle was in Gaul, but they were a Germanic tribe, I think?”

The location of the battle is somewhere in modern-day France now. He tries not to think about why he knows the modern location. It’s not a battle they learned about in New Rome, it was Reyna who introduced him to history books that gave a less biased view of Rome and didn’t only focus on how they were bestest people ever who could do no wrong.

“Good.”

The Queen of Heaven gives him another narrow eyed intense look. “You will indeed be meeting your sister shortly, but the location of your meeting has been chosen for other reasons. You are to be my peace offering. In saving you and your sister’s lives, you owe me a debt. You belong to me, first and foremost. Above even your legion’s claims on you. You are to be a bridge to overcome millennia of hatred.”

He has no idea how to respond to any of that.

“You mentioned consequences, your majesty?”

“Yes, you will be prevented from communicating any information about the place you are going to. Your devices will still work, you may speak with your friends in the legion, but they will not hear or read any information that is not for their knowledge.”

She pauses, waiting until he nods his understanding before continuing. “You will be free to leave at any time. The one you call Dominus will likely come and go as he pleases, but he will also collect you at any time if you call for him. Doing so comes at a price.”

“What price?”

“Should you choose to return to the legion without achieving a true understanding of the situation, your memories will be modified the moment you leave. You will remember meeting your sister and that she is alive, but your knowledge of where you have been and the people you have met will be completely erased.”

“You can do that?”

Her answer is cutting. “Of course. I could erase your entire memory, should I wish. I am a god, child. Do not forget that.”

“If I’m such a risk, why bother at all?”

“Your sister has powerful friends. She also recently provided a great service to the Dii Consentes. In performing that service, she became aware of your continued survival. A promise was given that she would be reunited with you.”

Given that it was Juno’s Draco Hesperidium that Jason used to kill the titan, he can entirely understand why she’s not mentioning his achievements, but it’s making him incredibly curious about where Thalia’s been.

“She’s happy, right? She’s okay?”

Juno snorts sourly. “I never knew a handmaiden could be so irritating. The ones you are meeting will answer all your questions, I’m sure.”

She gives him another sharp look. “Repeat back to me what I have told you.”

He dutifully answers. “I will meet my sister shortly. She will be with people that I need to gain an understanding of. If I leave before I have achieved this, I will forget both the people and the place, but I’ll remember Thalia.”

“I suppose that will have to do. Remain here until they arrive. Do not venture from the cave, the tide will rise shortly.”

She doesn’t give him a chance to reply, but vanishes from the cave as if she were never there.

So far, Jason’s been so constantly caught by surprise that there hasn’t been time for his emotions to catch up. But it’s all starting to boil up now as he realises he still doesn’t know where he is or who he’s meeting, and he can’t explain any of this to Reyna.

He pulls out the phone anyway, navigating to a map.

He’s in Maine. Why the hell is he in Maine?

He hears a strange sound outside, like massive wings beating the air. It sort of sounds like Scipio when he flies?

He cautiously walks to the edge of the cave entrance and watches as a flying chariot charges towards him.

Like, the palomino pegasus is flying, and the chariot is also flying?

Jason really isn’t up for dealing with more gods right now.

The chariot slows down and comes to a stop right outside the cave, not so much landing as almost hovering on the surface of the water.

The two people standing in the chariot grin at him, and he feels even more lost.

A girl he thinks might be near his age, probably a bit older, and a woman, late twenties, maybe early thirties. Both look far too curious, their eyes sharp.

The girl is dressed like a mortal fitness instructor. Tight leggings and a long sleeve shirt. She’s fully covered, but everything is tightly fitted, and she’s showing a lot of muscle. Definitely not one of those mortals who dress like that for fun.

Her dark eyes glitter with interest, and her dark brown hair is pulled back into the sort of tight, sleek ponytail Reyna prefers. A hair clip that radiates power has been carelessly stabbed through the ponytail.

She has the same sort of deeply tanned skin as Reyna, but that’s where the similarities end. Reyna would never wear such an eye smarting combination of hot pink and silver. Somehow, the black additions are more of an accent colour than a break for his eyes.

The woman beside her also wears exercise clothes, but hers hang loose and are much plainer, in simple blues and greens that don’t make his eyes ache. All of her looks softer, with less defined muscle.

Her black hair is in a simple plait that hangs to her waist, and she has warm brown eyes that are much less piercing than the girl’s. Much paler skin too, with a lot more makeup. It gives her the airbrushed look of a model from a magazine.

Of more interest is the power Jason can feel from them. If he keeps being introduced to powerful people, he definitely needs to think of a new ranking system. The girl is significantly more powerful than the woman, more powerful than Reyna even. But not at Nico’s level. The woman is more powerful than Dakota, maybe a little less than Reyna.

Yeah, this is as useless as describing them as storms or wind gusts. Jason decides he’s going to say they’re powerful and leave it at that.

It’s the girl who speaks first, “Hi! Are you the package we were sent to collect?”

“Uh, maybe? She didn’t tell me who was coming, just that someone was?”

The woman snorts, and the girl smiles widely. “Extra mysterious, wonderful. Must be a Sixth Sense special. You know the gods exist and all that, right?”

“Yes?”

“Great! Hop in! I have no idea how long the chariot can hover. Didn’t even know it could hover, actually.”

The woman speaks gently, “Piper, please don’t scare the newbie.”

“Yeah, whatever. Trial by fire is more fun.”

The woman shakes her head at the girl in mock disappointment before turning back to Jason, “I’m Silena, this is Piper. We were told we needed to pick up someone who would be visiting our camp for the next little while. I’m afraid we weren’t told much else.”

“Um, I’m Jason? I’m meant to be meeting Thalia Grace?”

They both freeze, going tense and hands flinching towards hips. They aren’t wearing visible weapons, but that move is instinctive. All humour is gone, and now he’s facing sharp-eyed warriors.

Piper’s voice is icy, “Is there a reason you know Thalia’s full name?”

Jason blinks, still standing in the cave’s entrance, looking up at them both in the chariot.

“Thalia’s my sister.”

They stare at him blankly.

This might be the first time Jason’s told someone who he is and they don’t start talking about the missing Grace children. Granted, it was thirteen years ago now, but the conspiracy theorists obsess over it. The younger woman might not know about it, but the older one looks to be in her late twenties?

The two women exchange speaking glances, and a chiming phone breaks their focus.

The younger one yanks a smartphone from her pocket, in a bronze-coloured case, and rolls her eyes dramatically.

“He says to stop stalling; he’s who we’re here to collect. And that if we don’t get a move on, the chariot actually will sink.”

She turns back to Jason. “C’mon. Get in. Now.”

Since they clearly know Thalia, he figures they’re who he’s here to meet?

He scrambles onto the chariot, and he’s barely got a grip on the waist-high wall before the older one calls to the palomino pegasus, and the chariot launches into the sky.

Piper eyes the new kid extra doubtfully out of the corner of her eye, and Silena lightly nudges her with an elbow.

She frowns and carefully blanks the skeptical expression from her face.

But seriously? You have to be bloody kidding?

Blonde kid stands stiffly, like he doesn’t know the definition of the word ‘relax’, and he’s all casually announcing he’s Thalia’s little brother?

Her very murdered, very dead, little brother?

Piper hadn’t put her Thalia and Thalia Grace together that year she was living at the camp. She looked nothing like the cute little nine-year-old blonde pageant girl who disappeared, and it wasn’t like they’d run in the same circles. Tristan McLean was A list even then. Beryl Grace really, really wasn’t.

The goth kid who sparked with lightning and obsessively insulted Percy really didn’t make her think ‘missing child of TV starlet’. Though. Actually. Now that she’s thinking about it, that definitely fits.

The disappearance of the Grace kids had freaked her dad out, even though she later learned everyone assumed their own mother was the culprit.

Piper had been four when they vanished, and she hadn’t entirely understood what had happened, but she’d spent two years with an armed bodyguard following her around, right beside the nanny, and when dad started taking overseas jobs, she got dumped in a fancy boarding school with high security.

She’d been bouncing from school to school with their stupid, stuck up rich kids right up until Lee did something - he’s never explained what - and had her diverted to Camp Half-Blood for summer camp.

She’d attacked Percy, done a whole lotta other stupid things, and then, instead of incinerating her ass as he totally should have, Apollo lojacked her and bound her charmspeak, giving her the time she needed to get her shit sorted.

Lee’s been lying to her dad ever since about exactly where she is. But he definitely didn’t make all that fancy promotional material on the fly. It makes it seem like the camp is an extra exclusive Long Island boarding school with intense security, far fancier even than the one Rachel’s stuck at.

Piper’s not trapped here, but sometime around the twelve month mark she stopped waiting for Dad to call and say he had some free time and she should come home and spend the summer with him.

She still sees him now and then, whenever he has a thing in New York she goes and stays at whatever hotel he’s using, but the last three times, Lee’s had to come and get her within the first two days because Dad got too busy to hang out.

She used to blame the Grace kids for screwing over her life. Since they were the reason Dad gave for the boarding schools, that he ‘was keeping her safe’. After three years at camp, she’s guessing there was more to it than that.

Piper’s learned that most of the demigod kids of male mortals have things way shittier than the ones with mortal parents who did the pregnancy part of making a demigod.

Everyone else gets no warning that a baby’s being dumped on them. For the Athena kids, their parents rarely even met Athena. She basically saw a smart person doing impressive things and went, ‘Hey! I know just what you need! Lemme ruin your life real quick.’

Percy better be right that her head’s been fixed after that whole curse situation. Because that’s so incredibly cruel.

Lee had explained that Dad had probably been Misted, because she grew up being told Dad wasn’t sure who her mother is, but that the DNA tests proved she was his. Mum’s never explained why she chose Dad, and Piper’s never going to ask. She so does not want to know.

There’s too much chance the answer is, ‘because he was so adorable in that one movie.’ Aphrodite is incredibly eclectic in who she decides to gift a child to. Silena told her she asked Mum once about her own dad, and the answer was, ‘his chocolates were just to die for, how could I not reward him?’

Percy’s got them all pretty trained with how gods are never going to make sense to them, because they aren’t people and there’s nothing but heartbreak waiting for them if they expect them to act human. For the few kids who still held out hope the gods would be different, seeing the result of Annabeth and Luke wanting gods to act like mortals has cured them of it.

Most of the Aphrodite kids don’t ask why Mum had them.

The Hephaestus kids have things a little easier, because it’s virtually always a mortal’s invention that got the god’s attention. Same with the Apollo kids. They have a parent who was really good at archery or wrote amazing poetry. Maybe they’re a famous musician.

Lee’s different, though. According to him, his mortal parent fell firmly under Apollo’s Protector of Youth domain. It was his mortal dad who taught Lee why it’s so important to give kids safe spaces and people who genuinely care about them.

Most mortals the gods choose aren’t like that.

Thalia once told Piper that she figures, ‘Beryl just stood still for the appropriate length of time.’ She never talks about Jason. It was only after she became Artemis’s lieutenant that she’d told Piper she knew what it was like to grow up in ‘that world’ and explained who she was.

It’s been kept quiet at camp. Clarisse, Percy, Lee and Nico probably knew, but they’re like steel traps when it comes to other people’s secrets.

Piper hadn’t known how she felt about it. But she didn’t really have time to think it through. The Hunt was at camp because Artemis was busy, and they were facing down a battle. A year later, there was a full on war. It really didn’t matter.

What she knows is that she’s the one Thalia went to when she had nightmares about her baby brother dying alone in some gods forsaken backwoods. Because they may not have known each other as kids, but Piper understands the world Thalia grew up in.

Piper’s the one Thalia told about how she’d run away the same day her mother came home without him, and spent months stalking the woods looking for him, but there was nothing.

When people finally realised Beryl Grace’s children were missing, Thalia started moving from place to place, never staying anywhere for long. It’s how she met Luke and Annabeth.

Thalia told Piper that the first thing she did when she was given the Hunt was ask permission from Artemis to search Sonoma woods for Jason’s grave. Artemis had granted it, but even with the Hunt, she couldn’t find where her brother’s body was buried.

Piper’s really been missing Thalia since the war ended and the Hunt left camp. They lost some of their people, and Artemis has been away for over a year. They need time to get their own shit sorted, but she misses having Thalia around.

She’d been kind of happy when Percy implied that the Hunt would be back soon, even if it meant dealing with Capture the Flag games no-one’s ready for.

But now this asshole soldier kid is standing in the chariot, claiming that he’s Thalia’s brother?

What the hell?

Silena nudges her silently again, and Piper resists the temptation to give as dramatic an eye roll as Nico is so fond of.

She knows nothing about their visitor. Except everyone has super carefully stated he’s not a new camper. He’s a ‘guest’. Percy’s not allowed to be in the camp while he’s here, but it’s also Percy who texted her with the details of where to collect him from.

Trust the gods to dump him off in the one place where he risks drowning if Piper and Silena don’t get there quickly enough.

The chariot belongs to Hermes Cabin, but Ladon - her pegasus Ladon, not the dragon - is the best at flying it. She’s glad she borrowed it now, rather than flying out on pegasi and riding double on the return.

Especially with the way the wind is picking up. She can feel her hair getting blown everywhere and calls out to Ladon to speed up, he makes an annoyed snorting sound, but the chariot goes from much-too-fast to definitely-too-fast and the wind calms down.

She really needs to make some time for Travis and Connor so they can properly test their new toy. It’s starting to feel more like hippocampi travel than pegasi travel. That weird blurring movement that means you’re travelling much faster than you think.

Which is good, because she’s feeling incredibly exposed like this.

Percy’s message had also said to carry minimal weapons, and only ones that were completely hidden, so they, ‘don’t appear as even more of a threat than you naturally are’.

She yanks her phone out of her back pocket to glare it at some more, right as it vibrates with a message.

‘He really is who he says he is.’

She stiffens, and baby soldier asks politely, “Something wrong?”

She eyes him, he doesn’t look like Thalia. Though Thalia’s hair is technically the same shade of blonde. She dyes it black. Thalia’s eyes are dark grey, and this guy’s eyes are, like, intensely blue. She knows Percy doesn’t lie, but she still doesn’t believe it. Not unless Thalia confirms it.

“No, just a friend being a total dick.”

Another message slides onto her screen. ‘Don’t tell him, but it’ll be a few days before Crackle gets there. He needs time to adjust.’

Then; ‘Yes, I know I’m a mind reading asshole. But you try doing meet and greets with half the merpeople of Atlantis. See how long you last.’

She snorts, and Silena sighs, “What did he do this time?”

“Pretty sure the Second Prince of Atlantis is hiding from his own retinue.”

She glances at the new kid and deeply enjoys the confusion on his face. She doesn’t explain anything. Piper has become excessively fond of Percy’s whole trial by fire thing. She tones it down for the younger new kids, but the blonde kid is old enough to deal with it.

He’s dressed mostly normally, assuming purple is his favourite colour or something. She’s so glad Mr D sticks with purple shoes and doesn’t go for the over the top purple thing. Not that Piper would ever tell him that. He’d start wearing purple ballgowns or something, just out of sheer perversity. Do the whole Grandmere Renaldo thing, from the books, not the movies. She was kick ass in the movies.

Kid’s wearing blue jeans, a black daypack style backpack, a purple tee-shirt, with a purple windbreaker over the top, and- combat boots? Huh. He also has a gold knife on his hip, which is a little different.

There are gold weapons in the armoury, but they all gravitate to the celestial bronze or Atlantean metals. The gold weapons are intensely old and don’t feel quite right compared to the newer stuff.

There’s an old superstition about the gold weapons too. Lee thinks it’s complete nonsense, but the auxiliaries all insisted that only children of Apollo can carry gold weapons, anyone else carrying them will be cursed.

Clarisse spent like a month straight parading her golden bow in front of Nathan before he reluctantly decided to change his claims to ‘children of Apollo and priests of Apollo are exempt’, but he still insists that anyone else using the ancient gold weapons will be cursed.

New kid is wearing no other visible weapons, there’s only the knife on his hip and it makes her kind of twitchy. The last person she knew who carried nothing but a knife ended up going full world-ending level evil.

She narrows her eyes and scans him again and carefully controls her expression when his image flickers in her vision. Huh. Okay. Unexpected.

Sometime during the endless battles and then the three-day war, her eye of the beholder thing had settled.

Drew and Silena had told her it would happen eventually, that she’d start seeing people as they actually look in reality all the time and only flickers of their true selves, but there had been a time where she felt like she was living in a camp full of movie characters and fashion models. Then she’d look in the mirror and see all her own imperfections and none of the good, and it hadn’t been much fun for her.

At the time, the only person who looked ‘normal’ to Piper was Annabeth Chase. The only one in a sea of perfect beauty.

It was a hard lesson to learn. The eye of the beholder pretty much always shows kids as breathtakingly beautiful. Because they’re kids, and no-one is born wrong or bad, not in Piper’s experience.

Thirteen-year-old Annabeth looked like she was at the end of a multi-week long survivalist camp. Piper’s never seen anything like that since, and she’s hoping she never does. Thirteen-year-olds shouldn’t look like anything but perfectly beautiful to the eye of the beholder, they’re thirteen with their entire life ahead of them. Piper rationalises it by telling herself it was the result of Athena’s curse and tries not to think about it.

Back then, despite being Japanese, Drew virtually always looked like Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods. Which was incredibly confusing. Piper had made a complete ass of herself, but Drew, being a real life Elle Woods, forgave her once she got her head on straight and apologised.

New kid is different, though. New kid is Aragorn as a homeless Strider. Like from the start of the Fellowship movie?

That is really not what she’d have figured he’d be. She kind of would have thought she’d see him as, like, an Air Force Colonel or something? Military to the bone? Like how she sees Nathan as himself but wearing dress blues.

She really hadn’t expected new kid to be a king running away from responsibility. That’s like the complete opposite of that?

He stares back at her, sky-blue eyes super unimpressed. “Can I help you?”

“Nope, just having a few epiphanies.”

Silena’s voice is reproachful, “Piper.”

She shrugs at her, unapologetic, and Jason glances between them, looking thoroughly confused.

Piper snorts and explains, “Silena’s my much older sister. I’m also her boss.”

Silena gives Jason a smile. “She’s not wrong.”

Piper gives her a sarcastic look, and Silena smiles innocently back. Percy is not good for anyone, they all end up as chaotic as him.

Silena’s a Cabin Counsellor for Cabin Two, she’s got the new Iris kid there, but most of her focus is on giving two of the kids from Kronos’s army some much needed one-on-one care and compassion.

They still aren’t certain how Luke and Annabeth even knew about Ash, the eleven-year-old son of Angelos. Allysa, a twelve-year-old daughter of Morpheus, made a little more sense, since Morpheus was one of the gods on Kronos’s side.

They’d both been recruited at the last minute and were on the boats the river gods sunk. Thankfully, the kids never saw any real fighting, but they weren’t willing to risk any other demigods feeling abandoned.

Silena’s taken them under her wing, and they’re living in Hera’s Cabin. Which is still a super weird thing to say. Ash is technically Hera’s grandson, but of the three kings, both Angelos and Morpheus are most closely connected with Hades.

Hera said her cabin was open to all, but Piper’s still impressed she’s committed to it.

Ash and Allysa aren’t the only kids from the army. There’d been fourteen under eighteens with the assorted demigods the gods had been holding as prisoners of war.

Six of them will turn eighteen within six months, so they never even came to the camp. Lee and Piper met them in the city and made arrangements from there for them to be settled in the mortal world with funding and support systems.

Including warded homes and basic weaponry.

All six had received extensive training from Castellan and were offended at the suggestion they might like some additional protection.

With the funding they gave them, all six can go to college pretty much anywhere in the country if they want to, or they can have a gap year to sort themselves out.

Lee had zero compunctions about calling in favours to magic the kids through the admission systems. So long as they leave their kids alone and stay away from Camp Half-Blood, they’re willing to give them what they need for a fresh start. Percy seemed fine with it, so she’s assuming it won’t bite them in the butt. She hopes.

The four sixteen-year-olds were placed in foster homes with trusted demigods where they could have a chance at making better choices, but wouldn’t put the camp’s younger kids at risk. They’ll spend the next two summers at camp, like any other demigod, but they’ll be closely monitored.

Which left four others. Ash and Allysa are settled with Silena. Thirteen-year-old Clare, daughter of Hecate, is living in Cabin Four with Katie Gardner.

Which is a bit of a strange combination, but Katie was one of their demigod teachers in an approved boarding school, and she’s not ready to go back to that life. Not after losing her little sister Miranda in the war. Piper figures that she and Clare are good for each other.

The fourth kid is the one Piper tries intensely hard not to think about. Nine-year-old Damien White is a son of Nemesis. He looks and acts nothing like his half brother, but Piper cannot look at Damien without remembering his brother’s last fight.

Damien’s living in Nightshade with Jon, which makes things kind of awkward, since Mum adopted Jon and he normally spends most of his time with Cabin Ten during the year. Damien’s super uncomfortable around adult men and only slightly more okay with women, but he glued himself to Jon. Jon said he was willing to do whatever he could to help him.

Piper misses spending time with her brother, though.

“Can this thing go faster?”

She turns to look at the new kid, who is now looking kind of worried. “Why?”

“There are venti, storm spirits, following us. Not sure why, but they’ve been showing up all over the country for the past six weeks.”

Wonderful. This is why she’d rather not leave camp. Piper clicks her tongue and calls out to Ladon. His wings beat harder, feet galloping on the air as he pulls hard on the chariot and their speed reaches terrifying levels.

They’d been three hundred miles from camp, and it’d taken ninety minutes to fly to Acadia National Park, they’ve not even been in the air for thirty minutes and already Long Island is rapidly approaching.

“They’re gaining on us.”

“We’re almost there, this’ll be a rough landing. I’d suggest hanging on.”

Ladon seems to agree with her, he’s pelting towards camp for all he’s worth, and Piper spares a moment to be extra grateful the gods expanded the barrier for Percy and Nico’s pirate ship.

They plunge through the barrier while they’re still over the ocean, and Ladon immediately slows down, beating his wings to create a backdraft, so the chariot doesn’t crash out entirely. The whole Hermes cabin would hunt her down if she wrecked their flying chariot the first time she borrowed it.

It’s still a far rougher landing than usual, and Piper does not appreciate the mocking yells from Travis and Connor about never trusting her with their things again.

The chariot sweeps through some sort of invisible barrier that prickles across Jason’s skin, and the pegasus frantically tries to slow down as they go careening into a- Wait. What is this place?

They’d whipped past a wooden ship that Jason could have sworn was an honest to gods pirate ship, over a golden beach and straight into an unexpectedly lush green valley.

Dense woods surround most of it, though the hill ahead and off to the right is mostly bare, with one lone pine tree at its peak, though the tree glitters strangely. A big, spreading lake lies off to the left, and little clusters of buildings are scattered all over the valley. Everywhere he looks there are odd pillar shaped piles of grey rocks, but he hasn’t got time to work out what they are.

The chariot jerks and shudders, and its intense speed drops off, finally landing near the lake.

Jason tries to get his bearings as the girl, Piper, starts yelling back and forth with two older teens. Something about how they won’t trust her with their things again and how she won’t trust them with- A ladle? Oh. Ladon. Who is the pegasus. Okay.

The guys she’d been yelling at come over to unbuckle the pegasus from his harness, and for someone who claims not to trust them, Piper seems fine with letting them look after him.

Silena steps off the chariot and tells Jason she’ll see him around, before turning to Piper and saying she needs to ‘check on her kids.’

Piper asks her to see if she can, ‘make them stop being total stickybeaks’, and Silena nods and stalks off towards a building. It’s only then that Jason realises there are two groups of kids staring at him through the windows of a couple of the nearby buildings.

There are a few adults trying to make them go back inside: a black guy with long braided hair like Hazel’s, a taller guy with glasses and blonde hair, and a woman with short red-gold hair and wide shoulders. They all look to be in their twenties, a bit younger than Silena, maybe?

Silena joins them and starts calling out to the kids, who reluctantly turn away from the windows.

Piper looks fondly exasperated and tells him, “No-one likes mortal homeschool, but if we have to suffer through it, so do they. It’s so much better now we can split ‘em up by age, but it’s still torture for everyone.”

Jason hesitates and then asks, “Uh, what is this place?”

“Camp Half-Blood? The name’s the result of a translation screw up. It’s a sanctuary for demigods. We’re a summer camp, but some of us live here year round.”

Half-blood? Like the word Octavian kept mentioning? He’s stopped insisting there was a prophecy about ‘seven half-bloods’, but it’s the only time Jason’s ever really heard that word in relation to demigods. Jason’s distracted before he can ask for more information.

Another overly fashionable girl walks up to them. Older than Piper, but not by much. Japanese, maybe? Her hair is a bright shade of blonde, but he doubts it’s naturally that colour. It looks dyed, or bleached, or whatever word you use for that. Reyna would know.

She has a hot pink hairband holding her hair back off her face. Her makeup is as perfect as Silena’s, the dark eyeliner further accentuating her sharp assessing eyes. Tight dark blue jeans under a bright pink glittery top. These girls really like pink, don’t they?

Right before he can decide she’s not a threat, Jason catches sight of the distinctive outlines under her sleeves and pants. Concealed knives. He only knows to look for them because he and Reyna are still trying to get a clear idea of how many hidden knives Nico carries.

They’re both a little concerned Nico will use them on consuls if they keep provoking him. Best to do a proper risk assessment.

Jason glances at her shoes and does a double take. Combat boots. Bright pink, but they’re definitely combat boots, complete with additional knife sheaths. Military grade of a much higher quality than anything the legion supplies.

Not that Jason had known you could get military grade combat boots in hot pink. Not until right now, anyway.

The older girl gives Jason a head to toe scan that makes him feel like a squished bug on a windshield before turning to Piper. “Mr D said to bring him straight to the Big House. That he’s a guest, not a camper.”

Piper scowls. “Does Dickhead know who he is?

“Seemed to, but you know what he’s like, care to share?”

“After. I want confirmation first.”

“Katie gave up on lessons for your lot, so they’ll be lurking in the shadows. They’ll help with the tour or whatever, you know what cabin?”

Piper purses her lips, looking angry. “Not Ten. I’m not saying more until Dickhead confirms.”

Jason tries to make his voice on the excessive side of polite. “Uh, Dickhead?”

“Mr D. Officially the Camp Director or whatever. Only on paper, though. Lee runs camp when he’s here, and I run it when he isn’t.”

“And Lee is?”

Piper’s answer is sharp. “Lee.”

Okay. That wasn’t helpful. At all.

The new girl, who still hasn’t introduced herself, adds, “Oh, bee tee dub, Dickhead says he knows about the bird and don’t freak. Not a monster.”

She looks back at Jason. “Hope you’re worth the trouble, hon. You ain’t much to look at.”

This is- He does not know what this is. He still vividly remembers the starving, wolfish eyes of the consuls and Litterator Lawrence when Jason first arrived at Camp Jupiter.

Less than four weeks ago, New Rome paraded him around like an emperor of old.

Now he’s got two girls looking at him like he’s chewing gum they scraped off the bottom of their designer shoes.

Piper scoffs and tells her, “Look again.”

The girl-with-no-name, cocks her head at Piper and then turns back to Jason, her eyes boring into him as she gives him another sweeping top to bottom scan. Her head jerks back slightly.

She tells Piper, “Okay. Not what I expected.”

“That’s what I thought!”

“Are either of you going to explain?”

They shake their heads and speak in unison. “Nope!”

Cool. Good to know they’re all on the same page. He doesn’t even have the words to explain how off kilter he feels right now.

Girl-without-a-name gives a wave and reminds Piper, ‘don’t kill the bird’, before she leaves. Piper gives him another narrow eyed look before announcing they may as well get it over with.

“Don’t suppose you’re ready to tell me what this place is, why I’m here and how long you’re expecting me to stay?”

“Thought you were meant to be meeting Thalia?”

He scowls, feeling more and more off balance. “That’s what she told me. But I haven’t seen anyone who even remotely looks like Thalia here.”

She snorts and stalks off, calling over her shoulder. “Yeah, including you.”

Jason trails after her. She’s stalking towards the large four storey building up ahead of them, the one that looks like an older English style house painted sky blue.

Next to it, the large, ancient looking building seems out of place. Big white Corinthian columns rise over a porch, and the building itself is all white marble and gold accents. It reminds him far too much of Apollo’s little temple on Temple Hill.

Piper ignores it, heading for the blue building that sits closest to the hill with the pine tree.

The pine tree that is glittering.

Jason stumbles to a stop, staring bug-eyed. All thoughts of Apollo and temples forgotten.

There’s a dragon wrapped around the pine tree. A golden dragon. Not like the Draco Hesperidium, this one’s a lot smaller with only one head, but it’s still a real life dragon. Something else glitters further up in the branches of the tree, and Jason really doesn’t want to know what it is.

“For fuck’s sake! How old are you? It’s like I need a leash or something!”

The girl stalks towards him and grabs his wrist, turning and towing him along behind her until he shakes the shock off and digs his heels in. This is incredibly familiar territory. No-one drags him around, not Octavian and not mean girls dressed in too much hot pink.

“No, you’re going to explain what the fuck this place is first.”

She throws her hands in the air. “It’s camp! A sanctuary for demigods! A summer camp for most of them, a home for others. Mr D wants to see you. I’m hoping he has some fucking answers!”

Jason frowns, mouth opening to snarl at her, but he’s interrupted by a familiar peeping chirp.

He whirls, searching. There!

Dom glides down from- Actually, how did Jason not see him before? Eight foot tall eagles can’t exactly hide from view? Wait. Was he standing with the dragon? Why was Dominus with a dragon?

Piper’s cursing and spinning and she yanks something from her hair that transforms into a sword in her hand.

Jason plants himself between her and Dom. “Stop! He’s a friend!”

Piper’s voice is tight, and she sounds like she can’t breathe. “How certain are you? Nothing should be able to get through the barrier, but that’s-”

A voice calls from the direction of the blue building. “I thought Drusilla was meant to warn you? Stand down, Pippi Longstocking.”

Piper flinches a bit and shuts her eyes, breathing slowly and carefully. She looks completely terrified. Like, her face is almost grey, and she’s visibly shaking.

Jason steps towards her, about to ask if she’s okay, and the voice turns sharp. “Step back, Junior. Give her space.”

Jason looks over, wanting to know who the fuck this is now, and it’s-

He blinks his eyes rapidly, squeezes them shut and rubs them and then looks again, as a strange shifting mirage image of a person standing on the porch shimmers and swirls.

It’s Bacchus? He thinks?

He sort of looks like the god he met with Dakota last year; a young man with curly black hair, deep blue eyes and too-red lips. Round pink cheeks. The powerful build of a Roman god.

Then the image shifts slightly, and he’s a much slimmer young man, with the same curly black hair, but he now has swirling purple eyes. And a much more androgynous figure. He’s draped in vines that twine up his arms and twist into a crown on his head.

Both versions are wearing the same leopard print Hawaiian shirt, tight blue jeans and purple running shoes.

Is this Bacchus? He’s definitely a god.

Piper calls up to him, “How sure are you the bird’s safe?”

The god scoffs, “Very safe. He won’t harm a child, and won’t attack at all unless you attack first. Worst he’ll do is take the boy and run for it.”

Standing beside Jason, Dom makes some of his little soft yipping noises, the ones he uses when Jason’s upset. They sound kind of alarmingly like a distressed puppy. Jason frowns at the eagle, but Dom is watching Piper. He looks sort of sad?

Piper’s still clutching her sword for all she’s worth; she eyes Dom a few seconds longer. She nods, taking a few steps back before her sword transforms into a hair clip that she shoves back into her ponytail.

She looks at Jason and Dom. “Sorry. Still kinda on edge from some stuff. Should’ve listened to what Drew said.”

The god rolls his eyes theatrically. “You? Listen? And pigs might fly!”

Piper snarls at him. “Pigs did fly, Dipshit.”

Jason holds very, very still, waiting for the inevitable smiting.

Nothing happens.

The god snorts loudly. “Are you coming or what? I don’t have all day!”

Piper stalks towards him. “You have nothing but time, Dickweed. Your hundred years aren’t up yet.”

He calls over his shoulder as he goes back inside. “Your insults need work, Paige.”

“You gonna call me Phoebe next? Can’t go for a matched set, then you’d actually get my name right.”

“Hurry up, Prue.”

Jason stares, completely dumbstruck, while Dom shoves at his back until he stumbles forward. It takes a few more shoves before he remembers how to walk.

A shout from the house. “Move it, Julian!”

He flinches, anger churning in his gut, but jogs up the stairs, reminding himself the god had called Piper everything but her name. Maybe this god can’t remember names?

Because gods don’t- Yeah, he’s got nothing.

Jason pulls off the windbreaker that’s making him overheat as he walks through the door, stepping into a remarkably normal looking sitting room.

The god is already seated at the table with another man. Piper’s swung a chair around so she can straddle it backwards, and the god is dealing playing cards out. There are glasses of lemonade in front of the three of them, and a fourth glass is waiting at an empty seat.

The god gestures, and Jason takes his backpack off, sitting gingerly on the seat, keeping his backpack between his feet, one hand gripped on a strap.

Jason’s hallucinating or something, isn’t he? He’s still asleep in his Praetorium and Reyna’s about to bang down the door because he’s slept past dawn for the first time ever.

The god looks over at him, purple eyes deeply amused. “Despite what you think, you are not at the point of a psychotic break. Though, a bit of madness would do wonders for you.”

Piper jumps in with, “So, he actually is that Jason?”

The god tilts his head to give her a sharp look. “Yes. He is Jason Grace.”

Jason gives up on understanding anything and looks at the other man.

Who is not a god?

He’s completely freaked, though. Jason can’t even work out if this is horror or fear or something else entirely.

He’s sitting in a wheelchair, pulled up to the round table. Jason can’t even make a guess at his age. Over thirty, and under sixty? Short black hair, tanned skin and features that look vaguely Mediterranean. Bushy black eyebrows and sharp brown eyes that are currently blown wide as his face takes on an increasingly sickly sheen, still goggling at Jason.

“Um, sir? Are you okay?”

The man jerks back and chokes out, “You should be dead.”

In the echoing silence, Jason grits out, “Can someone please explain what the FUCK is going on?”

The god gives him a filthy look. “Are you really that slow? Show Horseface your arm. Let’s get this over with.”

Jason tries to get his anger under control, now is the time to explode. He needs to understand the situation. He’d like to pretend he doesn’t understand what’s being asked of him and show them his unmarked left arm, if only to get some control back, but he carefully holds out his right arm, showing his legion mark.

The man in the wheelchair stops breathing, eyes bugging out. Piper eyes him uncertainly and edges her chair away from him.

Piper turns back to Jason and fixates on the tattoo. “That looks burned. Like with fire, not just tattooed. How old are you? I thought you were fifteen?”

Jason tries to keep his face expressionless. “It was burned. When I was eight. I’m fifteen now.”

That shuts down any further comments from her. He shouldn’t feel so savage about it, but he does.

The man in the wheelchair tries to speak several times, never getting any words out, before he stops and pinches the bridge of his nose and breathes deeply a few times.

He turns to Jason and opens his mouth to speak and-

The god drawls, “Horsebutt, do you really want to break that oath? Think very carefully now, Lady Styx is a harsh mistress.”

The man shuts his eyes, too many emotions crossing his face at once. “Why is he here? It’s a violation of that oath. Who brought him here?”

“You’re the only one that was bound in that way. The rest of us could be trusted to know what was safe to share. We aren’t going off half-cocked like you do so very consistently.”

The man asks tightly, “Will you explain it, then?”

“Thought we’d let Jennings do that.”

Piper’s apparently decided to ignore Jason’s comments about branding, and she’s back scrutinising the tattoo, looking puzzled. “Is that like code or something?”

Jason looks down at his arm. A stylised eagle, the letters ‘SPQR’ and eight stripes for eight years with the legion. Piper definitely doesn’t recognise it.

“It’s the symbol of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. The last legion of Rome.”

“Like, Ancient Rome? I don’t think Italy has legions? Wait, I thought you were a demigod?”

Jason has a very sinking feeling.

He’d been trying to ignore it this whole time. Piper had said multiple times that this place was a sanctuary for demigods. If even a quarter of the people he’s seen so far are demigods, they have far more here than New Rome and Camp Jupiter do.

Piper’s bronze transforming sword. Bronze. Not gold. Exactly like the ones wielded by the dracaenae on Mount Tam.

That casual mention of a Prince of Atlantis, implying sea gods are known and welcome. Or are at least seen positively, if that was a nickname rather than a title.

The blank look on her face when she saw his tattoo.

He speaks evenly. “Yes, I’m the son of Jupiter. Champion of Juno. Praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata.”

The man the god calls Horseface - Horsebutt? - grows more and more upset as he speaks, and then he freezes, looking baffled.

“Pardon me, but I was unaware legions had a praetor?”

Jason answers as politely as he can. “I didn’t choose the names of the ranks, sir.”

Piper’s also confused. “Uh, Roman names of Sky King and Sky Queen? That’s different?”

The god snorts, “Our children are born to different aspects. You of all people should know that, Padme.”

“I’ve never heard of a child of a Roman aspect, so sue me!”

Well, that’s pretty much confirmation.

He has to ask, though.

“You’re Greek, aren’t you?”

She blinks at him, startled. “Yes? What else would we be?”

This is a nightmare. Jason needs to wake up now.

He asks tightly, “Could someone please explain what’s going on?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Bacchus asks.

Except. He’s not Bacchus, is he?

“Why do you look like Bacchus?”

“Gods are a touch more than your little minds can handle, so you see what you expect to see. I am Bacchus. But it is not the only name I’m known by.”

Piper adds cheerfully. “Personally, I like Douchecanoe best, but most people call him Mr D.”

Every name Piper has used for him starts with D.

This isn’t happening.

“You’re Lord Dionysus.”

“Ah, very Roman of you. Perfectly respectful to my face. No telling what’s said behind my back, though.” The god winks at him.

Piper’s been insulting him this entire time. Jason can so picture Octavian’s face if he told him the Greeks gleefully insult their gods to their faces.

And aren’t incinerated for it.

He turns to the other man. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m not sure who you are.”

“No, you wouldn’t know me. My name is Chiron.”

Jason freezes. You have to be kidding. The son of Kronos?

The god - Dionysus - chortles. “Not that Chiron. Though your level of panic is appreciated. That Chiron died millennia ago when the moronic loser stabbed him with a poisoned arrow. It was all rather too dramatic, even for my tastes.”

This is like being seven years old and seeing New Rome for the first time. He shouldn’t ask, he knows he shouldn’t, but he can’t help himself.

“…The moronic loser, sir?”

“The idiot who claimed he did twelve labours. We don’t speak his name. In your parlance, his memory has been sentenced to oblivion.”

The greatest hero to have ever lived is to be erased from history and living memory. What?

Can he please wake up now?

Chiron adds softly, “It was the young prophet who asked for it. He had some very compelling reasons.”

Jason snaps his head to focus on him. “The prophet? You know where he is, sir?”

It feels like the temperature in the room drops below freezing. The three other occupants all sit stiff and glaring at him, fire in their eyes. Piper’s got the hair clip back in her hands, and Dionysus’s eyes are burning with purple fire.

His voice carries the threat of madness and death. “Why?”

Jason’s definitely stepped on a landmine, and he doesn’t know how to defuse it.

“He helped a friend of mine, sir. Saved her from something terrible. She’s been desperate to see him, to thank him. I promised I’d help.”

Dionysus watches him with intense eyes. “You speak of your fellow praetor.”

Jason nods, feeling a bit like the air is being stolen from the room.

The god smirks and leans back. The heaviness lifting. “Do not concern yourself with the prophet. He does as he wishes, and the rest of us dance to his tune.”

The room is still too tense and quiet, and Jason is desperately thinking of Dom outside. He is so ready to leave. But he hasn’t seen Thalia.

He speaks firmly. “Can I please see my sister now?”

Chiron gives him a sharp look. “We will contact her, and she will be here shortly. In the meantime, I believe it would be wise if-”

The god smoothly interjects, “If we give him the full show and tell that we give every new camper. Don’t you agree, Poppy?”

“Madame Pomfrey? Seriously, Doorknob? At least put some effort in!”

Without drawing breath, Piper turns back to Jason. “He’s not wrong, though. How about we get you set up with the orientation film?”

Dionysus adds, “Tell him Hero’s rules too. Not the brat’s, the other set. Oh, and when you do the tour, give it to the bird too.”

He seems to think he’s won something, smiling smugly when Piper stops and gapes at him.

Jason cannot fathom the rules of whatever game Piper and Dionysus are playing.

Maybe they aren’t Greek? They’re just lunatics?

The god takes the cards left abandoned in front of all four of them and starts shuffling and dealing for a game between him and Chiron.

Piper makes a sharp aggravated sound and turns back to Jason. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

Jason is glad of any excuse to abandon the bizarre conversations. He grabs his backpack and hurries after her, hoping he never has to go through that again.