Lea was pensive when she awakened.
She was also uncomfortable in her own skin as energy seemed to pour out of her in waves. She found herself nauseated and spewing seawater of all things as she stumbled out of her-the cabin.
The small tortoise that Alabaster had summoned for her bit away at the air around her.
And the ground looked so comfortable, but she found herself falling into arms instead of the earth's embrace.
"You don't look so good," the familiar voice of Ethan said in her ear. "Though, you slept through breakfast so it makes sense."
Lea groaned as she struggled to stand on her own two feet. A hand was placed on her forehead. "No fever," he muttered.
"What's takin-" came Alabaster's voice before he cursed lowly. "I did not know you were a pharmakís, Leaneira."
"A what?"
"Pharmakís. Ancient Greek word for witch or sorceress. There is mayeia, magic all around you though considering whom your soulmate is... well it's not surprising."
"So what's happening to her," Ethan said as they helped her sit up. Alabaster did something as he chanted under his breath. Lea could somewhat recognize three different languages and none of them were english before something crashed over her like a wave. She blinked when that overwhelming energy disappeared.
In Alabaster's hand was a pretty black stone that dangled that and with a few more whispered words, it chiseled out into a round stone with a trident and caduceus engraved on each side. "This is a black tourmaline stone," he told her as he placed it around her neck. "It's for grounding and protection and a lot more. It's keyed into your energy."
"And I need this because I'm a pharmacy?"
"Pharmakís," he pronounced slowly, letting her hear the curl on his tongue. "Even outside of your soulbond, I'm not really surprised that you are one. A lot of women in the ancient days were priests to the gods and the stronger pharmakís like Medea and Hecuba were either born from a god or had been a practitioner. Queen Hecuba works with Mother even now I believe."
"What about Circe and Pasiphae," Ethan wondered. Alabaster shrugged, "They are goddesses. Daughters of Lord Heliôs." He then turned back to Lea. "I don't know much about sea magic. I tend to focus more on the 'dark arts' as Mother is a Khlothian goddess and a child of the night, but my great-grandmother Lady Eurybiê has mastery of the sea's power. We can pray to her to help you."
Lea scrunched her nose. "I never agreed to learning anything."
"You should. The solstice and equinoxes overflow with energy and the gods' power strengthens them. The Olympioi have the Summer Solstice and the Khthonioi have the Winter Solstice. The Nomioi gods power through the Spring Equinox whereas as the Eleusinioi gods control the Autumn Equinox," Alabaster said before their attention was grabbed by the cheers of the other campers.
The two of them dragged her forward once she was steady on her feet to see what the commotion was about. She could pick up bits and whispers from the crowd... something about an Annabelle and a lightning bolt.
Somehow, Lea found her way to the front even when she was sure that someone's elbow had clocked her clean in her left tit. Standing before her was the blonde girl that had been traveling with Percy and Grover. Lea was admittedly shocked and disturbed to see Grover not wearing pants for some reason, but she was more disturbed by the fact that Percy was nowhere to be found.
"Lea," Grover asked dumbfounded and she scowled at him. "Neira. Leaneira," he hurried to correct. Because Lea only gave her friends permission to call her a nickname and despite the fact that they shared lunch tables for an entire school year, Grover was Percy's friend. Not hers.
"Underwood," Lea noted, sizing up Blondie who was doing the same to her before turning to the other boy. "Where's my Brother?"
She hadn't paid any attention to swords and knives and all the other pointy things that the Pedophilic Kidnapping Pony-man tried to introduce her, but she would not hesitate if she found out that these dweebs got her brother killed.
"Olympos," Blondie stated. Lea raised a brow. She had the absent thought of how there was way too many blondes at this camp and a lot of them with blue eyes when the books that her soulmate brought her named a lot of the gods and ancient heroes "rich haired".
Now, Lea wasn't the best at geography. She had surprisingly managed to pass it with a C, but she was pretty sure that Mount Olympos was across the sea-which her "Father" "supposedly" controlled-and above a mountain blocked by a bunch of "gods" from the sights of mortals.
(And the fact that there were kids claiming to be children of Athena-one of the Maiden Goddesses-just added proof to the alien theory. Clearly, they were just aliens that had come to earth once the people of ancient times came to their senses and realize that the gods didn't exist-though the hallucinating Big Daddy G that appeared as a talking bush and that gave birth to his only begotten son was no better-and adopted the names of the gods and went around impregnating people. She swore if she got a lobotomy...it will not be pleasant for everyone involved!)
"We completed our quest," the girl continued, this time speaking to the rest of the campers. "Percy's finishing the last of it now."
"He's going to die," Lea heard whispered behind her.
"The great prophecy-"
"Not suppose to be aliv-"
Lea gritted her teeth.
"Why don't you tell us what happened while we wait for Percy to come back to us," Chiron's voice said around them. Lea turned to watch him gallop over in their direction, giving her a soothing smile that she scowled at.
Pervert.
-
-
Lea sat atop of Half-Blood Hill, thinking over everything she had just been told. Percy had been accused of stealing Zeus' master bolt (and a part of her wondered how could a mortal even with the blood of "gods" steal a weapon made for a deity but then she remembered that Hermes and Athena had let the original Perseus use their flying shoes and shield before it became Aegis).
Percy had killed Medusa (and she wondered which version because in one of those books explained that there was a sea-born monster named Medousa and her sisters and there was a trio of mortal sisters named after the original versions who were turned into monsters like the original versions).
Percy had killed the Furies.
He tricked one of their immortal brothers? and bribe Charon.
He blew up a national monument.
And he fought a god and lived. Granted, the god was mentally compromised but it was still impressive.
(She remembered those instances when they were children like the time, he strangled a snake that crawled into his bassinet and the time she cracked pavement from stopping her foot-were they nursed by a goddess at one point in life? The only people the books stated did that were Herakles or the idiot that wounded Aphrodite and Ares with Athena's help. There was probably more, but she still could only read so much before she got exhausted. Just because her dyslexia was now controllable did not mean that it was gone.)
And now he was visiting their "Father" and the being that was technically their "King" all alone at that.
It was all so much... so unbelievable.
Gods? Monsters? Those were just stories that were made to explain humans' relationship with nature. They weren't supposed to be real. None of it.
It took her a moment to notice that someone had sat beside her. She looked to the side to see that it was Luke. The sunlight caught onto his blond hair so brightly that it was almost glowing white.
She turned back to look over the strawberry fields.
"What are you going to name it," the older boy asked. Lea peeked at him in confusion before realizing he was talking about the animal atop her head that she had been absently feeding strawberries. She shrugged. She hadn't thought about that. "What's the greek word for turtle?"
"Well for one, the official 'greek' language is actually called ellinika and they're called ellines or well, we would be called hellenes considering our heritage and whatnot. Anyway, the word that you would be looking for is khelônê. Dad actually changed a nymph by that name into a tortoise."
"For what?" She tried to avoid any mention of him and her so-called Father. She wasn't always successful, but it was the principle of the thing.
"Our King and Queen were getting married or well, basically renewing their vows. Khelônê was basically the only person that stayed at home, mocking the whole thing and just being plain rude. Dad came down from the Olympos, threw her house onto her back then threw her into the water and changed her into a tortoise. Basically, saying that if she wanted to be home so much then she could never go anywhere without the heavy load."
Lea scrunched her nose. She wasn't sure if that was worse than when she read about him befriending one tortoise and then turning it into an instrument in the next breath. Then again, his brother, Apollo, flayed a dude alive so clearly, he wasn't that bad.
She hummed, raising her palm upwards until the small animal crawled into her hand. "Think I'll name it Arkas instead."
"Arkas?"
Lea turned to him, "Isn't Arcadia named after the bear cub? And that's where your dad, um, Hermes was born."
"You really don't feel comfortable being mated to a god? An olympian? Some people would kill to be in your position."
Lea scowled. "Gods aren't real," she denied vehemently. "Secondly, if they want this position, they can have it. I didn't ask to be mated to a cradle robber."
"You're mated to one of the Twelve Olympians. One of the sons of Zeus. Your Father is also one of the Twelve Olympians and also the King of the Seas and you don't believe gods are real."
"First of all, they are the Twelve Olympian Major. There were other Olympians who basically served the Twelve Major, but they were still very much Olympians." How was it that she-the one who didn't even believe in the crap-knew that instead of the people that preached it like gospel. "And secondly, you have no proof that they are gods instead of interdimensional alien beings that are trying to take over the world by impregnating, or not even impregnating since I heard something about brain kids. For all you know, there's a parasite residing in your body that will eventually awaken once they complete their mission of takeover."
Luke stared at her.
"That's the biggest pile of minotaur dung that I have ever heard," he said after a moment of silence. Lea sniffed. "I could be right."
"You could be wrong too," he shot back.
Lea didn't think so.
He sighed. "Though I suppose I could understand why you feel that way. The gods-they aren't good parents."
Aliens.
She was going to scream I told you so when the truth came out.
Still, she shrugged. "They're no worse than regular parents. We just can't take them to a mortal court. My dad has almost thirteen years of child support to pay and I'm not interested in being experimented on in Area 51."
"They are not aliens."
"So, you say."
He shook his head. "You know many of us would kill for our parents' attention and you just have mine with no effort."
No effort? She was branded like cattle and haunted in her dreams.
And besides, the other campers could honestly leave her alone. They were not the Tony Starks and Jason Todds that they thought they were. Lea had daddy issues just like the rest of them. She had a few mommy issues too, but not as severe as her daddy issues.
Sally Jackson had never hid how much she loved and cared for her kids, but Lea had always had the feeling that she wished some things would have been different. Though of course, that was a rare feeling because Sally adored her children.
Lea loved recalling the fierce look in her Mother's eyes when she pressed that heated knife against Gabe's neck and threatened to press just a little more if he even looked in her direction. She aspired to be that brave one day.
"Well who is your soulmate since you're so interested in mine?"
Luke startled before age-old grief and rage crossed his features. It made him look older and bitter. "Well, this tree," He pointed towards the big pine tree ahead of them. "Is the site of a very important person to me."
Lea only just noticed the little offerings that littered the ground around it.
"Her name was Thalia. She was the daughter of Zeus. Like you and Percy, she wasn't supposed to be born and Lord Aidôneus -" Lea had noticed a lot of campers from Cabin 11 using that name to reference Lord Hades. "sent a horde of monsters after her. I was traveling with her. Me and Annabeth. And we were so close to camp... so close to the borders for safety, but- Thalia didn't want to be hunted down like an animal any longer and I suppose she knew that the camp would never be truly safe so long as she was here. So, she made her last stand there and in pity, her Father turned her into a pine tree."
He didn't seem to notice the tears that were streaming down his face. "Imagine my surprise three years later, falling in the middle of training only to see Thalia Grace engraved in my skin." He pulled his shirt up at a spot by his armpit where the letters Θαλια Χαρις glowed lightly in a electric blue light. "She never even said anything."
She guessed that's what his Dad went when he said that she would have been turned into a tree. Lea didn't know what to say to that.
"Sometimes I think what life would have been like if I had never met my Dad," Luke mused, eyes lingering on the tree before him.
"I wouldn't know," Lea shot back. She had never met her Father nor was she particularly interested. "But in regards to meeting your Father... I probably would grow indifferent? I think that's the word. I wouldn't really care about anything that goes on around me. Now I have to be on guard for things that only appear in nightmares. And my sleep isn't safe either since he's there too."
"You dream of him," Luke startled. There was a look of alarm and mischief on his face.
"He's not the god of sleep, but he does have the power to send people to sleep or keep them awake at all times. He's always in my dreams talking to me. Sometimes he shows me dreams from others like one of the campers was dreaming about creating a robot army. But we mainly just talk."
Lea was not imagining the way that didn't seem to calm the boy down, but she really didn't care. His Father's business was his business. Who was she to worry about it? And sure, she knew most people thought that soulmates were people that made each other better people, but who was Lea to a "god"? Especially one that lived during an entirely different cultural time... if anything, Lea trying to enforce her morals onto him would be rude and unethical - was that the word? - no, there were so many differences. How could she make him better?
"You don't have demigod dreams?"
Lea turned to him blankly. "What?"
The older boy winced. "Demigod dreams. Sometimes they're prophetic. It varies person to person."
Great another thing to worry about.
"No," she finally replied, setting Arkas to the side where the animal quickly moved into her cup of strawberries. "My dreams haven't been the same since the day I got my mark. Your Father is always there."
"It makes sense," he muttered. "The Land of Dreams is in the Underworld. I worry if he knows abo-" He cut himself off quickly as a loud cry of "Lea!" echoed around them. The aforementioned female turned her head to the sound, eyes filling with tears at the sight of her brother. "Percy!"
"Lea!"
"Percy!"
She stumbled to her feet, rushing down the hill until the two of them crashed into each other. Her brother wrapped her tightly in his arms and she could feel the dampness atop her head as he let his own tears show while she clutched to him tighter.
"I saw the news," Percy muttered. "I thought..."
"I was brought here," she assured him. "My, um, soulmate. He brought me here."
"Your soulmate," he asked, and she was pleased to note the wariness in his voice.
Lea shrugged. "Hail Hermês."
"Luke's dad is your soulmate?!"
Lea grimaced. He didn't have to say it like that. He could've just said that her soulmate was Luke's dad. Lea had a stronger claim than any of his offspring.
You know, if Lea believed in all of that.
"Dad said he isn't Mom's soulmate," Percy told her as he led them back up the hill.
That's right. He did meet their "Father". "What was he like?"
"Who, Dad?"
"Duh."
"Powerful. Strong. Mysterious. Divine."
--
--
Lea sat on her bed that night, contemplating what she learned after the campfire and shroud burning which- who makes a shroud in case someone died? That was like wishing death on people, but Alabaster stated that it was tradition and it was a way to give thanks to the Moirai for not cutting that person's string.
Lea shrugged eventually. Even if it may have confused her, who was she to question someone else's culture?
And no, she did not particularly care that it sounded like she was going back on her word. She knew what she believed in, and she knew that she did not believe in gods but she wasn't going to convince the people around her that.
No, when the truth came out, she was going to sit back and reap the glory of having always known! Even if her brother had been somehow convinced of it, pulling her aside after the celebrations to apologize to her. "I know you never intended to be in this world, but you're in it all the same."
She hadn't agreed per say until she had walked back into the cabin to find Arkas chewing on a thin string of metal that had been looped through his shell. A card had sat beside him from her Father, detailing how Arkas would also function as a "periapta", an amulet, as the writing translated. That she was more gifted in goeteia than the average pharmakeia.
There was also a ring shaped like a dolphin with a diamond? sitting on the card. She wasn't sure that it was dolphin because somehow she just knew that it was sea water, but she wasn't going to question it too much. It was really pretty and once she found some ice, she was going to test how real the silver was. (And somehow find away to know how many carats were in the water diamond.)
The card also told her that as she grows, Arkas would be able to help her with any uncontrolled mageia outbursts she may experience.
Lea really wanted to know who was telling people that she was going to learn magic? She believed in that even less than she did soulmates and she had the brand on her body!
Not that she could grumble about it too much... she had seen Alabaster will Arkas into existence and the hatchling was currently staring her down in disappointment. That was something that should not be possible for something that small to be so judgmental.
When she picked up the chain, she noted that the metal was only physical for her to hold and that there was a string of water looped through the shell that was holding up like it was actual metal.
Lea tentatively moved magic in the realm of possibility in her mind.
She slipped the necklace on where Arkas immediately wrapped around the talisman that Alabaster gave her like it was a teddy bear.
The knocking on the cabin door caught her attention and she wondered who was coming to visit so close to curfew. She knew Percy had gone to speak to Chiron after Lea had forced him to apologize to the kids of Cabin 5.
Lea was not going to deal with their attitudes because he slighted their "esteemed honor" and fought their Dad. Of course, Percy was reluctant to apologize and they were reluctant to accept it, but being the 'khaos-blessed' of an Olympian and a child of "The Big Three" meant that the campers wanted to stay on her good side.
That was nice to know if she ever wanted to overthrow the camp, but honestly, Lea did not want to deal with that. That sounded like paperwork and a bunch of people trying to invade her boundaries.
No, thank you.
When she opened the door, she was faced with a very beautiful girl. Long, dark hair that fell down her back in princess curls with matching dark, monolid eyes that was lined with pink makeup. She wore a necklace with a golden bow charm sat on her neck, glistening prettily on her tanned skin. With the way her shirt was cut, Lea could see the beginnings of her soulmark.
Lea wondered what would happen if she got this girl's name, snuck off to 79th Street in Manhattan and got her name tattooed because Lea's soul was definitely feening for her.
"You're Lea, right," the girl asked
Lea nodded her head even as she absently corrected her, "It's Leaneira."
"Well, my name is Drew. Drew Tanaka. The daughter of Aphrodite."
Lea raised a brow.
"Ethan's my khaos-blessed," she stated, moving the shirt to show foreign letters engraved into her skin. Well that's just too bad Ethan. "This is his name in kanji. Japanese writing."
"And you're telling me because?"
"Ethan won't turn fifteen until the end of next year," Drew confessed. "Well unless he doesn't identify as a boy. I want to get to know him as a friend before he gets his mark. I'd be able to see if I want this to be platonic or romantic now so that when he gets his mark, we'd know if we wish to pursue it."
"So you want to manipulate him?"
"It's not different from how they did in the ancient days," Drew pointed out. "But mainly, if we're friends now, there won't be any need to awkwardly move around each other. We won't have to worry about interjecting ourselves into places that we don't fit in. Tell me, do you really think Ethan would survive randomly walking into a group of my siblings just because he's my blessing? They'd eat him alive. Friends now. Relationship later. Or never."
"Never? You don't want a relationship?"
"My Mother is the goddess of love," Drew scoffed. "But my Stepmother was my Father's soulmate and they were horrible people. I don't want a relationship that turns out like theirs or even turns me into them. They jumped straight into a marriage because of some letters in their skin. I don't want that."
"And what do I have to do with this? Why can't you just walk up to Ethan and talk to him about it?"
"Because he's your friend?"
When the hell did Lea say that?
"If you help me with this," the girl continued on. "I'll keep my siblings off your back, one year's supply of Khryseê and Kythereia. Mine and my cabin's hair care supplies and scent neutralizers. I'm sure you heard the other campers claim that we're not a real force because monsters don't chase after us? Well, that's why. Some of us can live under the radar while the rest of us have to be covered in scent neutralizers or we'd be hunted down all the time. It's very irritating."
"Your siblings will stop bothering me?"
Drew nodded her head, and Lea hummed. That was a good deal even if she wasn't doing anything but introducing two people. "Fine. Whatever. I also want help around this place. It's already clear that Percy's attached."
"Fine by me," the girl shrugged before pulling out Ombre pink bottles with Khryseê printed across them. "Detangling shampoo, conditioner, hair masks, and moisturizers. This is to just get you started. It should work wonders on your hair since you're seaborn like the rest of us in Cabin 10."
She pressed the bottles into Lea's arms, and skipped off before Lea could even think of a reply.