Anthízo, Percy Jackson

IX. the bearer of bad news

THE SENATE HOUSE INTERIOR LOOKED LIKE A high school lecture hall. a semicircle of tiered seats faced a dais with a podium and two chairs. the chairs were empty, but one had a small velvet package on the seat.

percy, hazel, and frank sat on the left side of the semi-circle, while karina went up to the podium alongside reyna. karina hated senate meetings, and always hoped that one day reyna would hurt let her sit one out, but nope! the ten senators and nico diangelo occupied the rest of the front row. the upper rows were filled with a several dozen ghosts and a few older veterans from the city, all in formal togas. octavian stood in the front with a knife and a beanie baby lion, just in case anyone needed to consult the god of cutesy collectibles. reyna walked to the podium, dragging karina along, and raised her hand for attention.

"right, this is an emergency meeting," she said. "we won't stand on formalities."

"i love formalities!" a ghost complained.

"yeah, well, no one else does!" karina shot back, and reyna pinched her arm, giving her a side-eye.

"first of all," she said. "we're not here to vote on the quest itself. the quest has been issued by mars ultor, the patron of rome. we will obey his wishes. nor are we here to debate the choice of frank zhang's companions."

"all three from the fifth cohort, and a praetor?" called out hank from the third. "that's not fair."

"and not smart," said the boy next to him. "we know the fifth will mess up. they should take somebody else."

karina narrowed her eyes at the boy. "oh, and you think you can do much better? who's the one who got their asses handed to them last night?"

"yeah!" shouted dakota, getting you so fast he spilled kool-aid from his flask. "we were plenty good last night when we whipped your podex, larry!"

"enough, dakota, karina," reyna said. "let's leave larry's podex out of this. as quest leader, frank has the right to choose his companions. he has chosen percy jackson, hazel levesque, and one of our praetors, karina ashwood."

a ghost from the second row yelled, "absurdus! frank zhang isn't even a full member of the legion! he's on probatio. a quest must be held by someone of centurion rank or higher, like maybe karina. this is completely-"

"cato," reyna snapped. "we must obey the wishes of mars ultor. that means certain. . .adjustments."

reyna clapped her hands and octavian came forward. he set down the knife and beanie baby and took the velvet package from the chair. karina was secretly thinking of ideas on how to steal that beanie baby from octavian without him noticing. she needed to save that stuffed lion.

"frank zhang," he said. "come forward."

karina saw frank glance nervously at percy, but then got to his feet and approached the augur.

"it is my. . .pleasure," octavian said, forcing out the last word, making karina pinch his back, to which he jumped at, giving her a glare before continuing, "to bestow upon you the mural crown for being first i've the walls in siege warfare." octavian handed him a bronze badge shaped like a laurel wreath. "also, by order of praetor reyna and praetor karina, to promote you to the rank of centurion."

frank looked at karina in utter shock, but she just gave him a smile. octavian handed frank another badge, a bronze crescent, and the senate exploded in protest.

karina groaned into the hands. "oh my gods, not again."

"he's still a probie!" one yelled.

"impossible!" said another.