EURYDICE || Percy Jackson

15 - Family Bonding

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FAMILY BONDING
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SHE CHUCKLED. "STRAIGHT TO THE POINT, DEAR?"

"I don't like small talk," Laviana said. "Why speak with me now? I doubt it's to help, so spit it out."

She gasped. "Well, I'm offended. Truly, all I want is to assist you on your quest."

Laviana raised an eyebrow.

"Honest!" Loki said. "I've saved your life plenty of times before."

Laviana growled. "Just so I could die at the right moment. Is that all I am? A means to an end?"

She weighed her hands. "A suppose, a little bit. But I did what was best for you. I'm your mother, darling. I care about you. Without me, Kronos wouldn't have been defeated."

"Yes, he would have!" Laviana snapped. "If I was alive I could have used my skills, my powers, whatever, without you having to interfere!"

"Don't put all the blame on me," Loki warned. "Hera wanted you to die as well. I protected her from you."

"No you didn't," Laviana spat, all the arguments she had had with her mortal mother lining up perfectly. "Vivian did. She went to Circe, then had to concede to accepting a bit of Apollo's help. You were trying to kill me!"

"Ah-Ah-Ah," Loki tutted. "You forget, I needed you to die at the right moment. That was far too early."

Laviana tried to calculate. She briefly remembered having a dream, years ago, where her mother had said they had roughly a year and a half left. Maybe she wasn't talking about Laviana. A year and a half from that summer would have been After Kronos came back...around New Years...

"No," Laviana said, starting to feel faint. "But you didn't need Vivian alive. She was expendable. You sent the wolves!"

Loki raised her eyebrows. "A brash claim."

Laviana crossed her arms. "It doesn't change the fact that I'm right! You killed my mother!"

"No," Loki corrected. "That wasn't me."

Laviana couldn't fully tell if she was lying. Maybe a half truth...

Perhaps Loki could tell what she was thinking, because the god rolled her eyes. "Really, dear, I wish you'd stop blaming me for everything. You wouldn't have half the adventures you do now."

Laviana narrowed her eyes. "Are you saying you made me and Allison meet Ethan?"

"I had nothing to do with that. It was Hera's meddling. She had a vision of the future about how you could save her at her greatest moment of weakness." Loki snorted. "She even gave you artificial dyslexia so you would fit in more. She wanted you to go to camp half-blood so you could train for a few years until she deemed you ready to die. Valhalla gives out truly fantastic upgrades."

"Then she could pluck me out whenever she wanted," Laviana realized. "She took a temporary mortal form to negotiate with Odin. That's the only way the pantheons are allowed to meet, isn't it?"

"It's not so much a rule as common courtesy," Loki admitted. "But, essentially, yes."

"What about what you told me on the gateway arch?" Laviana asked. "About staying away from Percy?"

"Reverse psychology," Loki said. "I tell you one thing, you do the other. You get close to the boy, you die at the hands of one of Kronos' servants or something of the sort, and then he gets revenge and defeats him." She smirked. "I can see it worked."