If Leaneira ever saw a test squab ever again, she was going to scream.
The airport had been filled with police officers and doctors and anything else you could think of until she and the others could all be transferred to a "safe location". A quick spell had been needed to manipulate the pilot that flew Drew and the others over, but Lea didn't feel all that guilty over it. What she needed more than ever was to get away so she could sit at Ethan's side until Drew finished her quest.
So, she was a bit thankful when Kirke appeared at the side of Drew's foster father to take over and whoever that was that was playing her Uncle because Lea had seen Zeus before and that was not Zeus. It was more like one of the statues from Olympos than her Uncle. But as soon as she had gotten the all-clear and Kirke made the necessary preparations and talking over everyone to get things to go her way even with Piper's Father appearing, Lea had grabbed Lou Ellen and the RowdyRuff Boys by the hand, teleported them to camp and then made her way to her Mother's apartment.
She had been told by Paul that they had carted Ethan off to one of the lower floors in the building and Lee Fletcher had prepped him for surgery. He was severely dehydrated with bones that had begun to heal wrong, an infection had set in on some of his cuts, and he had a fever so high that caused him to be a bit delirious with some bouts of awareness. Gleeson told them that Drew gave him a bit of nectar and Chiron mentioned that there's no telling what it had healed, but they'd do their best to fix what was left.
Leaneira had time to sneak off to her room, and allowed herself to cry once again because it felt as if she gained one person to lose another. Ethan had been like a brother to her (so did Trent; so did Alabaster) but Percy was her actual brother, and she still did not know where he was being kept!
She made her downstairs where her Mother and stepfather had gathered. Her Mother was using the appliances within that unit while Paul was still wearing that perturbed look on his face whenever he was faced with the fact that the apartment building essentially only belonged to them. A refugee for the homeless on the lower levels and a makeshift base for runaway demigods that needed to be transported to camp; an area for the pegasi, and plenty of rooms for the campers that wanted to try to start back attending mortal school. (A lot of them were spread between Yancy and B.A.G. and even some school called Goode High. The Tenth Cabin had seen to a demand of scent neutralizers.)
The door to the room that they were healing Ethan in opened. Lee stepped out, blond curls falling into his face and out of the waist length braid that he had it pulled into.
"He's been cursed," Lee Fletcher told her, wiping his hands with a cloth. "We've done all we can to stabilize him, but Chiron says very strong magic is killing him as fast as we heal him."
"Cursed?"
Lee nodded. "We healed all his wounds from his capture, but now it just reverses what we do. We fix a punctured lung and a rib snaps. We fix that and suddenly he has kidney failure. Fix that and the bone in his legs shatter. We cannot give him anymore ambrosia or nectar in case he burns up. A curse."
She knew of only one curse that was on him.
Lea pursed her lips and nodded. "Give me ten minutes." Pushing past him, she slipped into the bathroom. She filled the tub with water before pouring a half cup of sea water within in. Placing some obsidian crystals, fluorite and black tourmaline that she had soaked in moon water around the tub, she grabbed a cloth and allowed that soak within the remaining moon water while making a reminder to make some more. She teleported to the roof to grab a fresh batch of black snake root to repel evil spirts before going back down to her room to grab some amethyst and clear quartz to create a talisman for him.
When she made her way back to the lower floors, she waved them to bring the boy into the bathroom before she stumbled. Her parents reached out to stabilize Will and Fletcher while Gleeson and Chiron rearranged their hold on Ethan.
"Lea?" Her Mother asked, brushing the hair away from Lee's face before looking over at Leaneira in worry. "What happened?"
Chiron pursed his lips, looking up towards the ceiling as if he could see the sky from there. "The sun chariot has stopped moving. It may not be anything serious."
"I thought you said Apollo wasn't the god of sun?"
"He's the god of sunlight," Lea corrected, shaking it off. "Giving him a connection to the sun alongside the fact that he is on very good terms with Lord Helios." She continued on, gesturing for them to lower Ethan into the bath. The boy gasped, eyes snapping open as the cleansing immediately took hold. He blinked, groaning in relief before weakly turning his head. His eyes met hers, and she gave him a smile; pained as it was. "Hi, E."
"Elle..."
She sniffled, reaching over to grab the cloth out of the moon water. "Hi, Ethan."
"Drew?"
"She's on her way," Lea told him. "She had to beat up the people that kidnapped you. I'll get her as soon as she's finished."
"No," he cried. "Trap. They want you... want you gone. Have help."
"What do you mean?"
But he didn't answer, coughing as the cleansing forced the curse to manifest. Lea inwardly cursed, rubbing him down with the cloth. "Ethan," she said, and her worse spoke magic. "This day, I have worked magic. Heal well, in this place with me and mine. Live well... You are a dear friend, and I care everything for the lives of compatriots."
He shook, her mageia began to pour out of his pores like smoke and being absorbed by the crystals around the bathroom. Lea sniffled as he sank into a deep slumber as that old curse lifted from him completely.
"You care about him a lot," Lee Fletcher noted. Lea nodded, wiping some sweat away from his bangs as the curse continued be torn away. "Il est l'amour platonique de ma vie," she cleared her throat. "One of my best friends."
Lea blinked, gaze turning to the walls of the room.
"Leaneira?" Chiron questioned before a smile appeared on her face.
"They did it!" She cheered, feeling the effects from miles away. "Queen Hera has been freed!" It was a bit worrying there if Lea was being honest. Now that she thought about it, she did the remember feeling an emptiness coming from the Heavens as if her Aunt and Uncle were no longer there. A literal missing piece of a puzzle. But now, she could sense power wafting into the air. She could feel her Father reaching out towards it, sensing her other Aunts and Uncle reaching outwards. She could just about envision it, a looping chain coming together as one. It was like holes in the ozone layer healing themselves and becoming stronger than ever.
Her mageia burst from around her, giving off small flares of light like fireworks.
"That's wonderful news," Chiron says. "I suppose we should await them at Camp."
Lea nodded sharply. "I'll take you," she said, standing to her feet.
"I don't think you should," Paul commented hesitantly. "He said it was a trap?" He looked at Ethan who was floating in the battle, eyes close peacefully and the curse no longer wafting around him. Lea shook her head. "I'll be fine," she assured them. "And if it's really a trap, then I'd just teleport back or fight my way out in case they have something for my magic." Which she doubted. She and Lou Ellen led the charge of marking the camp with talismans that boost their powers, writing sigils into just about everything from tree bark that the dryads let them carve up to the blades of grass even the lava wall had sigils carved in them.
She gave them a smile once more, pressing a kiss to their faces before her eyes caught sight of the ring on her finger. She gasped sharply, summoning Ethan's ring to her from where it was on the table in her room. Lea turned to her friend, slipping the ring back onto his finger, pressing a kiss to his forehead before standing up. "I'll be back with Drew real soon," she promised.
They walked back to the living room of the place which was apparently going to be a makeshift infirmary now.
"Be back soon," she smiled, a bit tiredly. One happy moment for today and then searching for her brother tomorrow. One thing at a time.
Lee, Chiron, Will, and Gleeson grab ahold of her, and the world spins around them. Her mageia coated the ground beneath her feet like ink across paper, the walls of the apartment changed into wooden panels. The antiseptic smell; a bit bitter with a faint but unmistakable scent of blood and pus lingering seeping through the undertones of artificial fragrance contained in soaps and cleaners was replaced by the scent of refreshing day at the beach and fresh plants grabbing ahold of them.
Salome peeked up at them from her cat tower before going back to rest.
Outside, Lea could feel what she was recognizing to be her aunt's power push into the camp. She ran an absent hand over her body, changing back into camp attire as they left out of the cabin. She rushed into the dinner pavilion right as the world seemed to turn inside out in front of them. In the next second, Drew, Jason, and Leo were standing on top of the Tenth Cabin's table. Over sixty campers rose at once to gawk at them while some of the more senior members shrugged a bit. Lea had a bad habit of teleporting everywhere and that wasn't even mentioning the Hecate Cabin—Lea swore that they were teleporting before they were even crawling.
The third boy—Leo? Lea should really remember his name considering that its so similar to her own nickname—jumped off the table, ran to the nearest bronze brazier, and threw up in it—which was probably not a great burnt offering for the gods.
She wrinkled her nose, stepping aside as Chiron trotted forward. "Jason? What—How—?"
Drew smiled, flipping her hair over her shoulder and eyes glowing just a bit. "Hi," she said, as casually as she could. "We're back."
Lea rushed forward, tackling her into the ground.
I begin to sing about Leaneíras, the twice-blessed goddess, mother of witchcraft, bringer of storms. O Walker of the Worlds, to be an enchantress of beauty and a being of khaos. Hail Leaneíras, sea born, dark-haired goddess!
Theoretically, Mercurius should be paying attention to the argument in front of them as Iūnō and Iovis yelled at each other, their siblings yelled at each other, and the other Olympians yelled even more.
He should be paying attention to the way that Peithō had appeared back on Olympos, draping herself over his lap.
But the camps were more important him.
The Son of Troy had snuck out of New Roma to travel to the Wolf House and complete some cleansing rituals while Krisa led the songs and concerts of Saturnalia. The people of New Roma were consistently shouting io Saturnalia casting the Sacred Flame of Roma to higher altitudes as they continued their tradition of lighting torches and wax tapers. The Saturnalicius princeps of that year was Vēiovis' son, Pranjal, and he had been crowned by Medea herself who looked upon him with hearts in her eyes. As the named master of ceremonies for the proceedings, the boy had a lot of fun commanding just about everyone to go get their check ups by medics on site. Some of the people were gambling and dice-playing while others were playing games of latrones; a lot of them were losing badly. And maybe once all the arguing was done, Father would allow them off the mountain to join in the celebrations.
But then again, as Hērmês turned his attention onto Camp Half-Blood which his Leaneíras had just taken to calling Camp Delphi. She sat beside Drew as the daughter of doves spoke with Jason and Leo about their quest while campers continued to pile question after question at them. He could see the way that the exhaustion was starting to settle in; the way that Eliza and Drew were both needing to step away as the effects of the Solstice finally ebbed away. It was one of the few regrets of Aphrodítē to give birth to not one but two children on a solstice. Almost as bad as when Apóllōn sired a child on the summer solstice and "bright" seemed too small of a word for the way that the power had affected that kid. More like a solar flare of ten thousand suns multiplied by infinity.
Though, it still was a bit sad when the kid burned themselves out and a bit hilarious when said child made it to the Underworld still glowing just as brightly. Háidēs had gotten irritated to the point that he personally left his paperwork to track them down in the Fields of Asphodel to drag back to the palace and present them as a makeshift sun for the garden of Persephónē.
In the midst of one of their conversations, Lea had summoned a golden chalice from her cabin, raising it for one of the nymphs to filled it.
His brows furrowed; there was something wrong. It was something that he could sense as the god of rustic divination that presided over certain primitive forms of divination including the casting of stones, coin-throwing oracles, and astrology. Hērmês was about to turn his gaze to Apóllōn to see if his brother saw anything more when Leaneíras pressed the cup to her mouth.
Peithō leaned forward on his lap.
Hērmês' sharp eyes do not miss how Leaneíras reacted a moment—only a moment, but a warrior's eternity—before the chalice falls from her hands.
Her eyes flash in a haze of green as if peering into an emerald gem before rolling backwards, her body sag and sank as fell to the ground. He was out of his seat—off the mountain—before any could truly stop him, Peithō falling onto the marbled floors. He appeared in front of the masses, garnering screams and gasps of shock from the campers as he bundled his Leaneíras into his arms and yet he... the fastest of the Olympians... could do nothing as whatever spell befallen her whisked her away from him.
A roar pain shook the entire valley as he clutched the phantoms of her body, golden-green sparkles fading from sight.
"Lea, my Lea," he cried, not seeming to notice the hands on his body as his brothers hurried to take him back to Olympos.
In the distance, the sea cried in rage. Waves slammed against the shores in random places over the entire planet. Thousand feet of waves rose in the air as if they were attempting to touch the sky before crashing back down to the ocean floor. Mortals screamed as the foundations of the earth shook. The waves churned into chaos, whipping gales from every quarter, shrouding over in thunderheads the earth and sea at once—and night swept down from the sky—East and South Winds clashed and the raging West and North, sprung from the heavens.
"My Leaneíras, please. My love. I have missed you. I've missed you every day that I have not been with you. I would do anything for you. You make me want to wake up every day. You're in my dreams every night. And you're the most important person in the world to me. Please. Come back to me."
But she did not.
And Hērmês wailed.