The End of an Olympian

05 | First Impressions

"Oh, and Lucius," I called out to him, "please, call me Percy. We're going to be around each other a lot and the 'Lord' thing will get annoying." He was definitely not expecting that and blinked at me as I walked towards my chambers.

1704 words

Lucius

I have to admit I was terrified when Percy flashed in. Part of me thought I'd never see the master of the house. He hadn't come here in so long, a lot of people joked that he was a myth. We've heard an insane number of stories about his heroics and what he was like as a god. They were all so wild no one knew if they were truth or rumor.

I wasn't lying when I said my many greats grandpa passed down a lot of stories about him, but I did lie when I said the stories would never speak ill of Percy. They hinted on several occasions that Percy had a darker side, a side he hid well, yet it was also a side he wasn't afraid to show in certain situations. Of course, my family always said only his enemies had to fear his wrath. But the Maris Astéria people knew too well that seemingly nice gods often lose their temper, and when they do, their wrath is easy to incur.

My people had once worked for Poseidon who was as unpredictable as the seas. Eventually, he released us from his service. His public excuse was that we preferred the land, which wasn't entirely untrue. But the reason we had grown to prefer land was because his people were too cruel. The guards and nobles showed little compassion, and Poseidon turned a blind eye most of the time. He only released us because he would have received backlash from the other Olympians.

What many, even some Olympians, did not know was that Zeus had enslaved my people after that. He forced them to serve him in the sky, far from our homes. He was an even crueler master and cared even less for my people's well-being compared to Poseidon. My family said Percy was an unsuspecting saving grace.

Because he needed servants for his palace, Zeus gifted us to him. Apparently, the gods told Percy we were sea cavern dwellers that agreed to be in service to him. Zeus had warned our people many generations back not to reveal any of our true histories to Percy. No one understood why, but out of fear, everyone had kept quiet since.

As it turned out, the kingdom Percy built was prosperous. He ruled justly and showed mercy to his people. There was peace and those under his reign grew to love and respect him. But my people were still slaves, even if our master didn't know it. Because of that, we have always been wary. I have always been wary. It didn't help when he had supposedly gone into a depressed state and hid away on Olympus. Then he went down to Earth for some unknown missions. He visited a few times about 100 years ago, but not since then. The only things my generation knew about him were these outlandish tales and the titles he held. The most recent one being Tamer of Monsters from well over 300 years ago. We heard he spent a period of time down in Tartarus and when he came back, he was able to command an army of monsters during the Razaeri Invasion. I kept wondering what kind of person someone had to be to earn such a title. That was probably why Clarus's mother was crying and why his father was fearful and why the servants were statues during the whole ordeal. No one knew what he would be like.

I knew I had to introduce myself. He would require my services eventually, so I decided to be the first to make a formal introduction. I stumbled through it alright, but then he told me to call him Percy and I didn't know what to think. Whenever someone told stories, they always addressed him as Lord Percy. The older generations regarded him with respect, so they always used his title. Like an idiot, I just stood there and stared at him until he turned and walked off towards his chambers. I was a little nervous when he said we'd be spending a lot of time together. It wasn't like I didn't already know that, but facing the truth was a lot more unnerving than I thought it would be.