αα. Hapephobia - Fear of touch
(a/n: sorry I hadn't updated in so long; I fell out of writing for a hot minute, but now I'm back on the horse so expect more Aza)
Aza was brought back to reality when Gleeson trotted out of the room to stand guard outside. It was for the best; they wouldn't get anywhere diplomatically with the satyr continuously threatening Midas and Lit, and she doubted the royalty would tolerate him for much longer.
Once the satyr was gone, Piper plastered on a fake smile and turned back to King Midas, hoping to continue on a peaceful path. Aza hoped she would ask him questions on his patron more, seeing as her charmspeak would be most likely to draw answers from him.
"So... you don't know how you got here?"
Midas frowned, looking at Lit. "Oh, well, yes. Sort of," he said off-handedly, dark brows furrowing as he tried to remember. "Why did we pick Omaha, again? I know it wasn't the weather."
"The oracle," Lit said simply. Midas nodded, eyes brightening. "Yes! I was told there was an oracle in Omaha. Apparently I was mistaken. But this is a rather nice house, isn't it? Lit - it's short for Lityerses, by the way - horrible name, but his mother insisted - Lit has plenty of wide-open space to practice his swordplay. He has quite a reputation for that. They called him the Reaper of Men back in the old days."
"Lovely," Aza muttered under her breath - it certainty wasn't a very kind nickname, nor one that made Aza feel confident about their chances of getting out of the solid-gold mansion without a scuffle. Lit smiled - or, Aza assumed he tried to smile, but it came out as more of a cruel sneer, like he was analyzing his future prey.
"So," Jason begun after an awkward silence. "All this gold-"
Instantly, Midas perked up. The old man sat up straighter, his eyes twinkling brightly, making him look years younger. "Are you here for gold, my boy? Please, take a brochure!" He motioned over towards the coffee table, where a small pile of brochures sat. "Um, you sell gold?"
Aza rolled her eyes; clearly this boy needed some lessons on mythology from Annabeth. Midas waved his hand in the air and his eyes darkened, almost like he was offended. "No, I make gold. It is the wisest investment, isn't it? Governments fall. The dead rise. Giants attack Olympus. But gold retains its value."
Giants attack Olympus? That's not exactly the most comforting notion, Aza thought. It sounded like Midas wasn't talking about the past Gigantomachy; the King had a voice laced with foreboding. An uncomfortable silence settled over the room, and Leo fidgeted uncomfortably before blurting, "I've seen that commercial."
The King waved his hand in the air dismissively with a roll of his eyes. "Oh, don't be fooled by cheap imitators! I assure you, I can beat any price for a serious Investor. I can make a wide assortment of gold items at a moment's notice."
Aza rolled her eyes - clearly Midas hadn't learned his lesson, and there was nothing more dangerous than a stubbornly wrong king.
"But you accidentally turned your own daughter to gold," Piper rebutted, a small frown scrunching her perfect features. "And you realized how greedy you'd been. So you repented."
"Repented!" Midas looked offended, and he exchanged a shocked glance with Lit. The man's eyes flashed dangerously, and something pulled at the pits of Aza's stomach.
"You see, son," Midas addressed Lit, but still maintained a steady and intense eye contact with Piper. "You're away for a few thousand years, and the story gets twisted all around. My dear girl," his voice softened slightly to a rumbling purr. "did those stories ever say I'd lost my magic touch?"
Piper hesitated, but Aza didn't hear her response; she was still reeling from the 'few-thousand-years'. She couldn't think of anyone who would have the ability and the want to bring them back. These were some of the worst mortals from the ancient times, and neither still remained in favor with the gods.
The daughter of Phobos was drawn from her thoughts by a soft warmth brushing against her wrists softly. Aza's russet eyes widened slightly when she saw Jason's fingertips lingering against the back of her hand. A heat filled Aza's face that took all of her power to fight back - and even more to turn down the corners of her lips that threatened to twitch upwards.
She looked up to see Jason's face still facing stoically towards Midas and Lit, but his crystalline blue eyes were looking down towards her. Aza's breath caught slightly in her throat. Why was he touching her? He flickered his eyes back to Midas and Lit, moving his hand back towards his side.
Aza felt like an idiot when a wave of disappointment washed over her, and then Aza felt worthless when she felt a tsunami of guilt crash against her, drowning her. She was so selfish to be disappointed that Jason hadn't done... anything? Aza didn't even know what she hoped he would do. Send her a smile? Reassure her? Hold her hand? Yes, that's what she wished he had done. For a fleeting second, when she realized the soothing warmth on her wrist was his fingers, she thought he was moving to hold her hand - for comfort, or for reassurance, or for anything, but he was just trying - and failing - to bring her back to attention.
And now, here she was in the middle of a quest. She was in the middle of Omaha, inside of a tacky golden house - is it still tacky if it's real gold? Aza wondered, looking around. Yes, she decided. It's still most definitely tacky - but the reason Aza felt guilty, she reminded herself, was because she allowed herself to get distracted.
"Getting distracted is getting killed," Clarisse had once told Aza in the dim lighting of Cabin 5, where Aza alone gathered supplies for Manhattan, only last summer. She remembered the look Clarisse gave her - dark and mysterious. "Don't get distracted by him, Aza-Everett." Aza could remember the feeling of foreboding that pooled in her stomach at Clarisse's words, the freeze of fear that captured her body, only allowing her to slowly turn back to face Clarisse in shock.
Aza was pulled from the memory when the warmth returned to her wrist, this time pressing more urgently against her skin. She looked up at Jason, who shot her an alerted, high-strung look. It was all Aza needed to compose herself, walling up that self-pity and guilt in the back of her mind, pushing it into the depths, but they didn't go far. They itched at the back of her mind, nipping and biting at her almost playfully, like they were taunting her.
Aza had never felt that feeling before, the scratching inside of her head, the taunting of thoughts and emotions that refused to succumb to Aza's willpower, the strength inside of her own head.
Getting distracted is getting killed.
" - I do owe my patron a great debt," Aza caught the middle of Midas' sentence "I tried to explain that to the last group that came through, but they were very unfriendly. Wouldn't cooperate at all."
"Last group," Aza echoed, drawing Midas' attention to her. She was about to ask Midas who the last group was, but Lit made a strangled snarling noise and he spat out, "Hunters. Blasted girls from Artemis."
A flicker of hope bloomed in her stomach, warming Aza's torso - the Hunters had been here.
"When," Aza spoke again, projecting her voice slightly to reinstate herself as an authoritative figure - Midas and Lit wouldn't listen to some shallow girl wallowing in self-hatred. But they would listen to her as Aza-Everett Malin, the daughter of Phobos, granddaughter of Ares. Her confidence bolstered as she thought of the golden ichor that flowed through their veins, golden ichor that blessed them with strength - strength they gave her. "When were the hunters here? What happened?"
Lit shrugged simply. "Few days ago? I didn't get to kill them, unfortunately. They were looking for some evil wolves, or something. Said they were following a trail, heading west. Missing demigod - I don't recall."
Percy - the hunters came so far west looking for Percy. It made her stomach drop slightly. They had exhausted nearly all of the country, and the son of Poseidon was nowhere to be found. But wolves - why were the hunters after evil wolves? Was it the wolves who had taken Percy? No, that's ridiculous, Aza reminded herself. Wolves - especially evil wolves - couldn't sneak into Camp Half-Blood and kidnap their leader without so much as a whisper or a yell.
"You know, those hunters are very... unpleasant young ladies - absolutely refused to be turned into gold! Much of the security measures outside I installed outside to keep that sort of thing from happening again, you know. I don't have much time for those who aren't serious investors."
Aza's heart stalled for a second, and she glanced towards Jason. His electric eyes were already looking at her. They almost looked like they were sparking in his sockets, thrumming with energy and power. He looked back towards Midas as Piper assured Midas the group would be on their way, but Aza felt her hand prickle, like she had just stuck her finger into an electric socket. It buzzed up her arm, and she smelled the faint sharpness of electricity in the air. Jason's hand had brushed against her, lingering slightly in comfort - and warning. We have to get out, Jason was saying, as his pinky sparked against Aza's thumb. It's going to be okay, he promised as it curved around the bend of her thumb and settled for a moment in the open dip between her thumb and index finger.
His hand fell back towards his pocket when Midas spoke. "Oh, but you can't leave! I know you're not serious investors, but that's alright! I have to rebuild my collection."
Lit smiled cruelly, looking at the demigods in satisfaction - Aza got the feeling seeing Midas turn people to gold was like seeing a Broadway show for Lit. Midas rose to his feet, and Aza saw Piper and Leo retreat slightly, further from the threats. "Don't worry," Midas began, and Aza took the distraction to subtly inch closer towards Piper and Leo, not noticing Jason do the same to her. "You don't have to be turned to gold. I give all my guests a choice - join my collection, or die at the hands of Lityerses. Really, it's good either way."
Aza tensed, taking another small step towards her friends.
"Your Majesty, you can't -" Aza barely had time to react - Midas lashed out towards Piper, and Aza only had time to take one step towards her when his hand clamped on her wrist.
"Piper!" Aza yelled in alarm, watching in horror as a frost of gold consumed Piper, and in the time it took Aza to blink, the girl was solid gold. She took an urgent step to Leo, she was so close to him - but when she went to grab at his bicep, to haul him closer to her, all she felt was the cool smoothness of metal. Fuck. Leo! Aza had the gut instinct to stay close to Leo and Piper, to guard their statues - no, not statues, it was still them. To guard them.
She did an awkward shuffle back, leaning away from the lightning-fast arm Midas had reached for her with, just narrowly missing her forearm, her left hand falling towards her bracelet, desperate to summon her sword. She didn't know what to do, her heart was hammering and blood was thumping in her ears, muffling Jason's shout for her, and her thoughts raced in her head, swirling like the anemoi thuelli, and she was so confused, she didn't know what to do, and Aza wished Annabeth were here, and Aza wished that she was stronger, and Aza hoped that everything would be okay.
And then suddenly Aza's mind went blank, and she was still.