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CHAPTER THREE / VOL. I, WE LIE TO OURSELVES ALL THE TIME
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BY SEVENTEEN, Will Capote knows nothing about love, just that it is the muse of many poets and has ruined many others. The way she sees it, love is conditional—dependent on whether or not you still have something to offer the other person. It comes and goes on its own accord, not subject to any laws, just anarchy. And despite how much you might want to hold onto it, it never stays. You will be left mournful and alone, reflecting on where it all went wrong and clinging to the memories like they will give you life. Your heart will waste away but the rest of you lives on, stumbling through the motions like a bull in a china shop. You will be inconsolable and it will occur to you that nothing is absolute.
And then Will thinks that maybe love is a lie. Maybe we lie to ourselves so that we will feel less alone in the world.
When Will left Chiron, still seething and filled with more acrimony than before, she expected that the group of demigods would have dispersed entirely, but she is surprised to see Piper still on the couch, only now she's gained consciousness and is looking out the window, hand resting on the hilt of a dagger that Will hadn't noticed in all of the chaos. Against her better judgment she approaches.
"You found Katoptris."
Piper looks up in surprise, glancing behind Will at the hallway she had emerged from, and wondering how she hadn't heard a single sound besides her own breathing. Her fingers find the hilt once more and unsheathes the weapon slowly. "Yeah, Annabeth took me to the armory. It just felt right." She looks back down at the knife, glimpsing at her reflection before she thinks back to the scene that had played out in it earlier.
Will looks at it too. "That was Helen of Troy's parazonium blade. Those kinds of daggers were mostly ceremonial—to show power and wealth. Hopefully you get more use out of it than she did. It's always a shame to let a good blade go to waste."
"Well I think it's a pretty low bar considering she used it as a mirror," Piper chuckles.
Will does nothing, not even let out a pity laugh to soothe the uncomfortable air. "Yeah," she says finally.
