A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Capvt XXIX: Through the Looking Glass

"Sometimes, his methods and his motives are questionable and even his morals are questionable in the way he does things. But I think his intention is always to protect his [son]." -Victor Garber

Capvt XXIX: Through the Looking Glass

Annabeth
Rome, Autumn x176 BC

THE problem with being nobility was the whispering, the rumors, the gossip about why her stomach hadn't begun to grow round. Some women claimed that she (and Percy) had lied about her virginity (which, technically, they had, but that was just details). Others accused her of miscarriage and she hadn't told anyone—which, honestly, she didn't understand. If she miscarried, wouldn't she have had to go to Meg the Physician?

Her stomach churned at the thought. She wanted to have children, but the idea of losing them... Besides, she wasn't entirely sure about when she wanted to have children. Part of her was still scared out of her wits at the idea of... well, that. The idea of doing that with Percy. It terrified her and... weirdly enough, she wanted to...

Ergh! She stopped in the middle of the streets and shuddered, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out. She'd spent way too much time around Thalia and Luke. And Piper, for that matter.

The people grumbled as they knocked into her and parted around her. That was another problem with being Heir Apparent—there was no freedom to do as she pleased when she felt like she was going stir crazy in the castle. So, of course, she had been reduced to sneaking out through the maid's entrance... as a peasant...

Oh, she was probably going to get into so much trouble.

For a moment, Annabeth glanced over her shoulder at the palace, weighing going back versus walking forward. If she went back, she would be found out without accomplishing her purpose which was to go to the public library. She knew there were likely to be less resources than the one in the castle, but she still wanted to know... she had a suspicion lurking in the back of her mind, that somehow gods older than the Olympians were involved with this plot. If it was a plot, that is. Maybe she was just being overly paranoid.

She didn't think so.

So, Annabeth breathed in deeply and squared her shoulders. On to the bibliotheca then; she would deal with the consequences of her wandering later.

...Hopefully, Percy would never find out about this. Well, he was training her for a reason on how to use a sword, and she wasn't stupid enough to leave it in the castle.

You're not an expert, a voice reminded her. It sounded like Piper. You're a novice still.

Shut up. I'll be fine so long as I don't draw attention to myself.

Why was she talking to the voices inside of her head? Wasn't that a sign of insanity or something?

~...~

That was how Annabeth found herself in the library later that day, looking up books about monsters and the gods with the small, dark skinned woman helping her.

The library, of course, was much smaller than the one she had found in the palace. That made sense, because the palace had more money to create the books. It was about the size as the one back home in Athens. The shelves reminded her of what Daedaelus' labyrinth must have looked like, and it made her wonder what the library in Alexandria looked like.

"Here is a book on the royal lineage and some smaller books about the originals." The woman said, walking back over to her with three large books in her arms. Annabeth stared at the size for a moment—she had never seen such big books, and she wasn't sure if she could read them at all—but she took them from the librarian anyway, because she wasn't about to give up before she even tried. She didn't miss the way the woman's eyes widened a little, as though she was surprised.