Blessings from Khaos

|annask þik, elskan min|

Mercurius watched as Percy took in his first sight of New Roma with its several miles wide valley. The basin floor rumpled with smaller hills, golden plains, and stretches of forest and the small clear river cut a winding course from a lake in the center and around the perimeter, like a capital G. Tuyshtak rose in the distance, right where it should be. To think that only six months had passed when Drew, Leo, and Jason took Enkélados down with vengeance.

Speaking of his niece and pseudo-sister in law, she was in the midst of flirting with the Hunters that dropped in on the camp. Her lips painted red like blood, Lea's hooded red and black jacket and a black choker as she got in their personal space. Ártemis hated it so much, watching her huntresses turned just as red as the girl's lips. They swore to stay maidens, swearing off Aphrodítē's touch of passion, and all of it was threatened when faced with Drew's charm. "The grass is greener wherever I'm at," the girl smirked.

Aphrodítē beamed proudly and Apóllōn laughed good-naturedly because she used the same lines as he, but they swore off love.

"Camp Jupiter," Magnus was saying as they continued onwards. Percy, however, was still distracted by sight of the city of white marble buildings with red-tiled roofs at the center of the valley, nestled by the lake. The open plaza with freestanding columns, fountains, and statues alongside the five-story-tall Roman coliseum that gleamed in the sun, next to the long oval arena like a racetrack. He had wanted to take Lea to a show at one point though he knew that would have caught his Father's attention. "We'll be safe once—"

Medea burst into the light behind them, breathing hard while covered with stone dust. She lost her helmet, so her hair fell down around her shoulders and there was along slash mark on her arm that she absently ran a hand of magicka over to heal. "I slowed them down, but they'll be here any second."

Magnus cursed. "We have to get across the river."

Iūnō squeezed Percy's neck tighter. "Oh, yes, please. I can't get my dress wet."

Venus snorted softly.

"But Percy has to cross the river himself. Not teleport or he'll never get his memories back."

Medea and Magnus tensed.

"You don't have your memories?" Medea demanded while Magnus look offended on the behalf of his cousin. The boy shook his head and the couple exchanged looks. Medea turned to look at Iūnō. "And why should we believe you?"

"Why, it is the will of the gods."

"Like I don't have enough divine issues," Medea grumbled before running to the river with Magnus and Percy. Every time the later stumbled, they kept him on his feet, stopping at the riverbank so that Percy could catch his breath. Iūnō must have been increasingly her weight, a sort of personification resembling the weight of the world on his shoulders as he drew closer to the boundary in the metaphysical atmosphere that kept the grecian world separate from the roman.

"Go, Medea," Magnus stated, turning around. One of his hands was coated in magicka while the unsheathed Sumarbrandr that was already talking a mile a minute. "Escort Percy so the sentries don't shoot him. It's my turn to hold off the baddies."

"If you die, I'll bring you back and kill you myself and then I'll let Pranjal have a turn," she threatened before she waded into the stream. The current was fast, but it wasn't too deep. It was just powerful, flowing with the power of the empire's river. Maybe Percy could sense it. The underlining distrust and hostility that it bore. Maybe he could sense the hatred within it from the Trojans that fled their homes to escape the Achaeans, the blood that they shed to defend the home that they created imbued in its rivers. Maybe he could sense the weight of Ancient Roma and all that it entail as the world's superpower pressing upon it as if saying: Look child, gaze upon my strength. Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one.