II. a plague for the torturers of his daughter

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0002

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0002. | A PLAGUE FOR THE
TORTURERS OF HIS DAUGHTER

Octavia was having a rotten summer and it had barely begun.

Thalia's tree had been poisoned. Nobody knew how. It was a poison so unrecognisable it left the Apollo campers stumped and even Chiron was clueless. Not even Octavia could heal the tree.

Octavia knew it was because she could only heal the living and wounded, but it hadn't frustrated her any less, or upset her. Since last summer, she had been stewing over what Charon had told her on his ferry across the Styx. Thalia wasn't dead. She was alive in the tree, somewhere. Zeus had preserved her all this time, saving her from the brink of death so that she would not fade into Hades' kingdom.

What upset Octavia most was the fact that Thalia was alive and yet she couldn't help her. She couldn't heal her. She wasn't strong enough yet to help her friend who had died helping her. Thalia was poisoned and there was nothing Octavia could do from stopping her from dying, for real this time.

It wasn't an uncommon wish of Octavia's to pray to be as strong as Thalia had been. Especially in the absence of Luke.

The cellphone he had given her last summer sat heavily at the bottom of her bedside chest in her Cabin, unused.

On Christmas Day, over the winter, she had received one text from him and not a word since. I miss you.

She hadn't dared answer. Her first instinct back then was to call him, to talk to him, but she didn't let herself give in to the want. He had left her, he wasn't allowed to miss her.

She never responded to him, but she still checked for new messages, every night.

What else was ruining her summer and upsetting her was the Camp's Activities' Director. The job was Chiron's, it had been for aeons. His immortality was tied with his ability to train heroes, the best of the best. But Chiron was also the son of Kronos.

When Lord Zeus had learnt word that Thalia's tree had been poisoned, he had demanded retribution. He wanted someone to pay. Mr D had blamed Chiron rather than himself. Octavia could understand his fear but it didn't make her any less grumpy with him. Zeus had a history of stripping Gods of their immortality for punishment, he had done it to her father more times than she cared to think of. Dionysus was just looking out for his own skin, and that of his wife Ariadne.

Chiron had been thrown under the bus, and he had been replaced. He had been given a week to pack up and leave, orders of Lord Zeus.

His replacement, Tantalus, had arrived during the week to take charge of the role. Today was Chiron's last day, before Tantalus was fully instated and decided to take out what wrath he decided upon the children of Apollo.

LIAKÁDA, percy jacksonWhere stories live. Discover now