Alternate Chapter Title: With The Gods, Promises Are Like Easily Breakable Pieces Of Wood
(A/N: This chapter is heavily inspired by AO3 user liminal's work "oaths cracked lengthwise (don't let it go)" as it really provides a good link between the events of the Staff Of Hermes and that of the Lost Hero, aka the start of Book Two. Even if it doesn't really mention the Staff Of Hermes in it.
Also, this is supposed to be the final chapter before the epilogue to this book, but I thought I would go ahead and get it done and uploaded now, since doing the final three parts of the last arc (Chapters XLIV - XLVI) is going slowly at the moment, because of Book Two and the expanded version. Nevertheless, enjoy!)
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October 2009
The good mood did not last long, unfortunately. Because just as we thought that a bright hope was on the horizon, we were all reminded that if anything, hope definitely laid with the power that was inside me and Kayla. The tragic part about it all is, I'm not being narcissistic at all in saying that. The Gods.. are.. just. That. Bad.
Especially the biggest jerk and asshole of them all, Zeus.
Let's just say, Percy's warning about Zeus having been threatening something turned out to be all too true. A week and a half after the fight against Porphyrion, something seemed off. It wasn't as dark as it was after the war, but you could tell that something was definitely off.
As time had passed, more campers were coming in sure, but there were fewer claimings, and fewer prayers were being answered. It was straight up radio silence from Olympus. It was eerie, weird, and very ominous, if you happen to be me.
It was as if the Gods were slipping back into old habits, and then adding some new, frustrating, even more annoying ones. The only bright spot was that Apollo was at least able to get messages out to Typhon somehow, who then communicated them to me and Kayla in our dreams.
What Apollo was saying.. definitely made me wish I had done more in that throne room after the Battle Of Manhattan. As it turned out, Zeus - out of a combination of paranoia as well as anger at Percy Jackson for refusing his offer of immortality - was totally responsible for the present state of conditions. In his state of wounded pride, he was the one who had closed off Olympus, recalling all of the Gods there. In his brain rotten mind, he had concluded that the increasing intervention of the Gods in mortal affairs was - somehow despite all evidence to the contrary - contributing to the rise of Gaea and the Giants, and had contributed directly to the clash between Kayla and I versus the rogue Giants.
His solution to this problem that didn't exist?
Simple. He basically forbid contact between the Gods and us, which was fucking stupid. But then again, stability and intelligence had never been Zeus' strong suit. It really never has been honestly. So, just like that, all the promises the Gods had promised to keep were gone, broken like fragile, easily breakable pieces of wood as if there were never meant to be followed in the first place, all because Zeus can't even be fucking bothered to even think things through for once.
It's absolute bullshit.
I had half a mind of going to Olympus and unleashing my power on the Gods and finishing what Kronos started over this, but I didn't. Simply because of Kayla. She was honestly, as in the past, the only person that really kept me stable, more than anyone else at this point, even more than Clarisse and Sherman. Everyone else at camp knew by now, that if you ripped her apart from me, the consequences would.. most likely be deadly for you. That's not an exaggeration at all at this point.
I had, by now, dodged death multiple times; wrecked face with so many monsters; fought Tantalus, and more all because of her. She had been what drove me to do all of it from the very first day I had met her.
I hadn't believed in love at first sight up until she had come along.
Now, here as fall started this year, I knew now. I understood exactly what had happened. The first time I saw her, Eros' arrow had hit me. I now had a pierced heart, only the thing was that nobody, including Eros, could have even predicted exactly what would even happen, what I would do, what I would eventually become because of that one arrow. What Kayla would become because she fell for me.
None of us could have ever predicted any of that was going to happen. All we knew back then was that Thalia's tree was dying and that somehow we had to find a way to stop it, protect our siblings, and save camp from Luke and Kronos' plans. Now, here we were, soon to be thrown into another war, but at least this time, we were now far stronger than we were before back then.
To think that this all started due to Kronos manipulating Luke, but it changed for the better unlike anything we could have ever imagined, thanks to that night in the attic back during Percy's first quest.
Thanks to when I got my..
..heart pierced.
— End Of Part III —
(A/N: An epilogue left, and that's it for Book One!)