A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Caput IV: Iridescence

"Most days it feels as if the world is whirling around me and I am standing still. In slow motion, I watch the colors blur; people and faces all become a massive wash." -Sarah Kay

Caput IV: Iridescence
Iridescent: showing many colors

"ANNABETH."

Annabeth looked up from the surface she had been sitting on and peered into the white mist. Her eyes narrowed and her heart began to pound rapidly under her chest—ba-boom, ba-boom, b-ba-boom, boom, ba-boom.

A gust of wind that blew her hair across her face, though she was in a place that was suspended in time and space, and the white mist cleared. A tall, black-haired woman was walking toward her, grim-faced as ever.

She stood up and curtsied, lowering her head so that she would not have to look into the goddess's gray eyes. "Matera," she greeted, forcing her voice to stay steady and unemotional.

"Rise," Athena commanded in a flat voice. Annabeth lifted her head slowly, just in case the woman was angry for some reason. She could never be sure with her mother.

"Why are you here? Why have you come into my conscious? My lady?" She added the last part hastily, realizing her tone had been less than respectful, and the goddess's lips twitched for a moment before her face became hard.

"Have a guess, Annabeth. You are not that unintelligent."

Annabeth scowled for a moment, trying not to cross her arms as that would show defiance. It wasn't exactly her fault father had decided that reading and writing and mathematics were useless skills for a girl—even if she was a daughter of Athena—and instead stuck her with the ladies of the court. It wasn't exactly her fault that the only thing she really knew was how to keep her mouth shut sometimes and to crochet. Oh, and how to gossip—even if that made her feel like she was about to explode.

She held her hand up and let her wrist face Athena, showing her the dark lines of the owl and medallion that had been burned into her skin very much against her consent. "Does it have something to do with this?"

"Do not tell me you are still bitter over something so trivial."

"Trivial? You burned a permanent mark in my skin—against my consent, and even after I told you not to!" She didn't mention the burning pain that had almost knocked her into a coma. She hadn't been able to properly use that hand for a month, which had caused some very awkward questions. But it wasn't like she could say her crazy mother had decided to burn some permanent black ink into her wrist.

"Enough with this!" Athena's voice turned piercing, and her gray eyes turned a shade darker. "You are being melodramatic."

Annabeth pressed her lips together, trying not to say something she knew she would regret later. One, two, three, four, five... she counted inside of her head, and once she reached ten she let out a huff. "I have a feeling this has something to do with the Mark of a Champion."

Athena shook her head slowly and smiled. It wasn't mischievous like Lord Hermes'; it was colder, crueler... more calculating, like she had just figured out how to checkmate Lord Poseidon in a game of chess. (The sea god was almost as good as Athena herself at chess.) "No. It has to do with your destiny."

"Which one?" Annabeth snorted derisively before she could help herself. "The Champion of Olympus one? Or the one when I'm destined to be Perseus' housewife and bear children?"

"You know you have many more destinies than just that."

Annabeth half raised her foot off the ground before she caught herself—she was not a child. "That's so helpful, matera."