"With all the pain,
with all my chaos,
I somehow feel
myself being calm
when I'm next to
you, Percy."
IN WHICH
AELLALINA WALL IS THROWN BACK INTO HER
...
xxii. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO The Contemplations of a New Beginning ≿————- ❈ ————-≾
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AELLA HAD NEVER BEEN so conflicted in her entire life. Leaving camp the first time was so set in stone, so obvious, it was probably the easiest decision she'd made. Along with every other time she came back just to leave again. But now, with Percy's request and the fact she could hardly defend herself with her arm, her options were blurring at the lines.
After they danced, Percy left reluctantly to make a few calls before leaving Olympus. This left Aella with her own rattling mind for company, which was never a good thing. Thoughts and doubts were crawling to her throat and burning her head.
She could go to camp and stay—heal, relax, see her friends; but be completely useless, have to face Nico and the other campers who despised her, have to stay in a cabin that rejects her lineage and sleep next to the empty bunk that was her brothers.
She could also leave—hit up camp for supplies and slip out before they even realized she was there. She'd done it before, more times than she could count. But she'd be putting the losses of the quest on her friends shoulders, leaving Annabeth, Percy, Grover. Dealing with other god's requests and finding half-bloods all while incapacitated. Practically going AWOL for whatever fighting was to come.
But if she was away from everyone, the people she cared about, none of them would get hurt. She would be able to sleep knowing her presence wasn't...wasn't cursing them.
Then there was her promise to protect Evania, who's mother was still a mystery. For all she knew it was another trick from Eris to exploit her powers. And she just couldn't put anyone through that again.
She still sat on the edge of the fountain, but now gripped her hair with her elbow on her bouncing knee. Her anxious thoughts made her body tense as she kicked the ground frustratingly. Nothing felt like the right answer. 'What if's' swarmed her mind horrifically and tears tried prying their way through her eyes. Her heart beat fast when she had the terrible thought of, "what if this is all her doing?" Eris could very well be controlling the steps and decisions she took at that very moment and she wouldn't even know. She could be planning something vicious, something that would hurt Aella's friends, all while Aella sat compliant—a pawn in her game. She'd done it before, without fault. And now she was back...
A held back cry of anger and sadness released from her throat as she rubbed her wrinkled forehead. In a place so luminous and sharply white, despair and inky shadows radiated from the girl on the fountain. So much so it was spreading to the gods, who subconsciously moved farther away from the area, everyone unaware of her panic, even Zeus himself.
