𝐄𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

Game plan

The Romans knew how to eat.

Sets of couches and low tables were carted into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom. Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits-aurae-swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies.

Drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts-Lares—in togas and legionnaire armor. Around the edges of the feast, Fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with Mrs. O'Leary, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

The whole scene was so familiar yet so completely alien that it gave Lilia vertigo, despite getting her memories back, majority of them were still a blur.

All she wanted to do was be with Percy—preferably alone. She knew she would have to wait.

Reyna and a few of her officers (including Octavian, freshly back from burning a teddy bear for the gods) sat with the crew. Percy joined them with his two new friends, Frank and Hazel.

As a tornado of food platters settled onto the table, Percy leaned over and whispered, "I want to show you something later. Just you and me.."

He spoke softly, smiling at her whilst playing with a bit of her hair.

"Are you forgetting I lived here?" She said teasingly.

"What's with the attitude Goldie locks?" He laughed.

Lilia frowned. goldie locks, that's what Apollo called her, and someone else—someone she could quite remember.

Percy hadn't seemed to notice her demeanour, "I've been thinking," he said nervously. "I had this idea—"

He stopped as Reyna called a toast to friendship.
After introductions all around, the Romans and Greeks began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he'd gone on a quest with Piper and Leo to rescue the goddess Hera (or Juno, take your pick-she was equally annoying in Greek or Roman) from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.

"Impossible!" Octavian broke in. "That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there-"

"They would've destroyed her," Piper said. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish."

Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Lilia really loved charmspeak. She noticed Reyna looking back and forth between Jason and Piper, her brow creased, as if just beginning to realize the two of them were a couple...then it hit Lilia, memories of Jason and Reyna—they had like each other.

Lilia barely managed to bite back a gasp, the others turned to her with frowns. Reyna looked at her, her brown eyes were sad and pleading, like she didn't want to believe it.

"So," Jason frowned, noticing the strange interaction. "that's how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands-Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by... what did he call it? Pulling up their roots."

Percy nodded thoughtfully. "Gaea's been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face."

Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name-Lili.