CABIN FIFTEEN DIDN'T seem all that threatening at first glance. It looked like an old-fashioned prairie house with mud walls and a rush roof, and there was a wreath of red poppies hanging on the door.
"This is the cabin for Hypnos, the god of sleep," Annabeth told them. "You've forgotten everything—if there's any god who can help us figure out memory loss, it's Hypnos."
Inside, three kids were fast asleep under piles of covers. A warm fire crackled in the hearth and above the mantel hung a tree branch, its twigs dripping white liquid into a collection of tin bowls. Soft violin music played in the background. The air smelled like fresh laundry. It was so cozy and peaceful that Ophelia had to stifle a yawn with her hand. She hadn't realized how exhausted she was, though it was understandable after the kind of day she'd had.
Ophelia blinked slowly, already considering a nap when Annabeth nudged her. "Snap out of it," she said. She jabbed Jason hard in the arm as well, making him startle out of his own little daze. "Cabin Fifteen does that to everyone. If you ask me, this place is even more dangerous than the Ares cabin. At least there you can learn where the land mines are."
"Land mines?" Jason questioned.
Annabeth walked up to the nearest sleeping kid, shaking his shoulder. "Clovis! Wake up!" It took a few moments for her to finally shake him awake. The boy mumbled a complaint at having been woken up, but he sat up anyway. He yawned, causing Ophelia, Jason, and Annabeth to yawn as well.
"Stop that!" Annabeth said. "We need your help."
"I was sleeping," Clovis complained.
"You're always sleeping," Annabeth said.
"Good night." Before he got the chance to pass out again, Annabeth yanked his pillow off the bed.
"That's not fair," Clovis mumbled. "Give it back."
"First help," Annabeth said. "Then sleep."
Clovis sighed. "Fine. What?"
Annabeth explained Jason and Ophelia's problem. She had to snap her fingers under his nose every so often to keep him awake, but by the time she was done, he actually stood and stretched, blinking at Jason and Ophelia. "So you don't remember anything, huh?"
"Other than each other's names, just impressions," Jason said. "Feelings, like..."
"Yes?" Clovis encouraged.
"Like we shouldn't be here. At this camp." He shared a brief look with Ophelia. "We're in danger."
Why does it feel like that's not the first time that statement's applied to me?
Clovis hummed. "Alright, you—" he pointed at Ophelia "—close your eyes."
Ophelia raised a brow, glancing at Jason and then at Annabeth, who nodded reassuringly. She prayed she wouldn't end up snoring in one of the free bunks for the rest of her life and closed her eyes.
Her mind began to feel murky, as if she was trying to see through a dark water.
It was as if no time had passed for her when her eyes snapped open, but clearly that wasn't the case. She was sitting in a chair by the fire, Clovis, Annabeth, and Jason kneeling in front of her. Jason's expression was fearful, his hand on her arm.
"—serious, all right," Clovis was saying.
Ophelia blinked. "What happened?" she asked. "How long—?"
"Just a few minutes," Annabeth said. "But it was tense."
"You almost dissolved," Jason said, his tone worried.
Ophelia really hoped he didn't mean that literally.
"Usually," Clovis spoke up, "memories are lost for a good reason. They sink under the surface like dreams, and with a good sleep, I can bring them back. But this..."
"Lethe?" Annabeth asked.
"No," Clovis said. "Not even Lethe."
"Lethe?" Ophelia questioned. "What's Lethe?"
Clovis gestured to the tree branch above the fireplace. "The River Lethe in the Underworld. It dissolves your memories, wipes your mind clean permanently. That's the branch of a poplar tree from the Underworld, dipped into the Lethe. It's the symbol of my father, Hypnos. The Lethe is not a place you want to go swimming."
Annabeth nodded. "Percy went there once. He told me it was powerful enough to wipe the mind of a Titan."
"But... that's not our problem?" Ophelia asked.
"No," Clovis confirmed. "Your mind wasn't wiped, and your memories weren't buried. They've been stolen. I'd bet it's the same case with Jason—but I can still try you next."
Jason quickly shook his head, rejecting the offer. "I'll take your word for it," he mumbled.
"Stolen?" Ophelia asked. "How?"
"A god," Clovis said. "Only a god would have that kind of power."
"We know that," Jason said. "It was Juno. But how did she do it, and why?"
Clovis scratched the back of his neck. "Juno?"
"He means Hera," Annabeth explained. "For some reason, Jason and Ophelia like the Roman names."
"Hmm."
"What?" Jason asked. "Does that mean something?"
Clovis hummed again, and Ophelia realized he'd fallen asleep. "Clovis!" she yelled.
"What? What?" His eyes fluttered open. "We were talking about pillows, right? No, gods. I remember. Greek and Roman. Sure, could be important."
"But they're the same gods," Annabeth said. "Just different names."
"Not exactly," Clovis said.
"What do you mean?" Ophelia all but demanded.
Clovis yawned. "Some gods are only Roman. Like Janus, or Pompona. But even the major Greek gods—it's not just their names that changed when they moved to Rome. Their appearances changed. Their attributes changed. They even had slightly different personalities."
"But..." Annabeth faltered. "Okay, so maybe people saw them differently throughout the centuries. That doesn't change who they are."
"Sure it does." Clovis began to nod off, prompting Jason to snap his fingers under his nose. "Coming, Mother! Clovis yelped. "I mean... Yeah, I'm awake. So, um, personalities. The gods change to reflect their host cultures. You know that, Annabeth. I mean, these days, Zeus likes tailored suits, reality television, and that Chinese food place on East Twenty-eighth Street, right? It was the same in Roman times, and the gods were Roman almost as long as they were Greek. It was a big empire, lasted for centuries. So of course their Roman aspects are still a big part of their character."
"Makes sense," Jason said.
Annabeth shook her head. "How do you know all this, Clovis?"
"Oh, I spend a lot of time dreaming. I see the gods there all the time—always shifting forms. Dreams are fluid, you know. You can be in different places at once, always changing identities. It's a lot like being a god, actually. Like recently, I dreamed I was watching a Michael Jackson concert, and then I was onstage with Michael Jackson—"
"Save it for your dream journal," Ophelia interrupted. "Back to Rome?"
"Right, Rome," Clovis said. "So we call the gods by their Greek names because that's their original form. But saying their Roman aspects are exactly the same—that's not true. In Rome, they became more warlike. They didn't mingle with mortals as much. They were harsher, more powerful—the gods of an empire."
"Like the dark side of the gods?" Annabeth asked.
"Not exactly," Clovis said. "They stood for discipline, honor, strength—"
"Good things, then," Jason said, almost defensively. Ophelia understood—for some reason, she felt like she needed to speak up for the Roman gods, too. "I mean, discipline is important, right? That's what made Rome last so long."
Clovis gave him a curious look. "That's true. But the Roman gods weren't very friendly. For instance, my dad, Hypnos ... he didn't do much except sleep in Greek times. In Roman times, they called him Somnus. He liked killing people who didn't stay alert at their jobs. If they nodded off at the wrong time, boom—they never woke up. He killed the helmsman of Aeneas when they were sailing from Troy."
"Nice guy," Annabeth muttered. "But I still don't understand what that has to do with Jason and Ophelia."
"Neither do I," Clovis said. "But if Hera took your memories, only she can give them back. And if I had to meet the queen of the gods, I'd hope she was in more of a Hera mood than a Juno mood. Can I go back to sleep now?"
They left the Hypnos with more questions than answers.
❖
Ophelia obviously couldn't remember if she'd ever been to a campfire before, but she was fairly sure if she had, it was nothing like Camp Half-Blood's. The fifty or sixty campers were all singing some strange campfire song about how their grandma got ready for war. Some were dancing around like idiots—which Ophelia was pretty sure was the idea, or at least she hoped it was—and others were talking or joking around with their fellow campers.
Annabeth had explained that everyone was normally grouped together by their godly parents, but since neither Jason nor Ophelia knew who theirs were, they sat toward the front of the amphitheater steps with her, separate from the majority of the campers. Jason sat right next to Ophelia, their knees touching.
According to Piper, she and Jason had come to their school together, and they were dating even before they got there. Ophelia hated not being able to remember how they'd met or any of the time she knew they must have spent together before the mess their lives had become. It was just another in a growing list of reasons she really didn't like Juno/Hera at the moment.
"You okay?" Ophelia looked up to see that Jason was looking at her, his brows scrunched together a little in concern.
"As okay as I can be after finding out some goddess stole my memories and expects me to break her out of prison," she mumbled. "You?"
"The same, I guess," he murmured. "This is all... a lot to take in."
Ophelia nodded in agreement.
After a moment, Jason whispered, "I'm glad we're together, though." A second later, his cheeks grew slightly pink. Quickly, he added, "I mean, that we don't have to go through all of this alone. I feel like I'd go crazy if it was just me."
Ophelia didn't even make a conscious decision to reach for his hand, but like on the chariot earlier that day, the way their fingers threaded together effortlessly was like coming home. "I know," she murmured. She smiled at him a little. "I'm glad, too."
His soft smile could have put the sunrise to shame.
Ophelia forced herself to look away after staring at him for a bit longer than necessary, letting her gaze wander around the amphitheater. She spotted Leo with a bunch of burly-looking campers, and Piper was sitting with Rachel. Ophelia met her eye, shooting her a concerned look. She looked better than she had when she was passed out, but she still looked a bit shaken up. Piper returned her look with what Ophelia was pretty sure was meant to be a reassuring smile, though it was closer to a grimace.
The song ended with a round of cheers and applause. Chiron trotted up in his full centaur form. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"
"What about capture the flag?" somebody yelled.
"Yes," Chiron said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."
"And kill people!" one of the campers underneath a red banner decorated with the silhouette of a boar's head shouted.
"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report?"
One of the girls under the same banner as Leo stood up, visible uncomfortable as the majority of the campers turned their attention toward her. "We're working on it," she announced.
"How, Nyssa?" someone demanded.
"Really hard," Nyssa muttered. She sat down to a chorus of angry complaints.
Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones, silencing the disgruntled campers. "We will have to be patient," he said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."
"Percy?" someone asked. Ophelia could sense the crowd's anxiety increase.
Annabeth stood up. "I didn't find Percy," she announced, her voice catching a little as she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis—everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."
"It's the Great Prophecy, isn't it?" a girl called out. It was Drew, and judging by the surprised looks on most of the campers' faces, Ophelia took a guess that Drew didn't participate in group discussions that often.
"Drew?" Annabeth asked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, come on," Drew said, as if it was obvious. "Olympus is closed. Percy's missing. Hera sends you a vision and you come back with four new demigods in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The Great Prophecy has started, right?"
She, along with most of the camp, looked at the redhead from before, Rachel. "Well? You're the oracle. Has it started or not?"
Rachel stepped forward calmly, addressing the camp. "Yes," she said. "The Great Prophecy has begun."
The crowd broke into chaotic yelling and talking. When they finally quieted, Rachel continued. "For those of you who have not heard it, the Great Prophecy was my first prediction. It arrived in August. It goes like this: Eight half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall—"
The words triggered something in Ophelia, and the same must have happened to Jason because he shot to his feet, his eyes wild. Ophelia was pretty sure she would have followed suit if she hadn't been pinned to her seat by the shock of the closest thing she'd gotten to a memory since waking up.
"J-Jason?" Rachel asked. "What's—?"
"An oath to keep with a final breath," he said, his voice strange like when he'd spoken Latin with Chiron.
"And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death," Ophelia finished, unable to figure out where she'd memorized the lines but going with it anyway. Her instincts were all she had to go on, after all—might as well follow them.
The campers stared at them in shock, and Ophelia realized after a moment that she and Jason must have switched to Latin again.
"You just... finished the prophecy," Rachel stammered. "—An oath to keep with a final breath / And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. How did you—?"
"I know those lines," Jason said, Ophelia nodding in agreement. It made her head ache to try to remember where she'd learned the words, but somehow she knew them. "I don't know how, but we know that prophecy.
"In Latin, no less," Drew called out, looking at Jason with that familiar, intrigued glint in her eyes. "Handsome and smart."
Jason sat down, visibly embarrassed. Ophelia reached for his hand again, squeezing it lightly.
"Well," Rachel said, still looking a little shaken up. "So, yeah, that's the Great Prophecy. We hoped it might not happen for years, but I fear it's starting now. I can't give you proof. It's just a feeling. And like Drew said, some weird stuff is happening. The eight demigods, whoever they are, have not been gathered yet. I get the feeling some are here tonight. Some are not here."
Does she always sound this ominous? Ophelia wondered.
"We don't know what the Great Prophecy means. We don't know what challenge the demigods will face, but since the first Great Prophecy predicted the Titan War, we can guess the second Great Prophecy will predict something at least that bad."
"Or worse," Chiron murmured.
Ophelia barely suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.
"What we do know," Rachel said, "is that the first phase has begun. A major problem has arisen, and we need a quest to solve it. Hera, the queen of the gods, has been taken."
There was a moment of collective silence before the campers all starting talking at once. It took a few moments for them to quiet back down so Rachel could explain what happened on the skywalk earlier that day and everything that had happened after, including Hera's appearances to Piper, Jason, and Ophelia.
"It's clear Hera herself issued Jason and Ophelia a quest," Rachel said. She paused, as if giving either of them a chance to protest their destiny. Ophelia could feel everyone's eyes on the pair. Jason set his jaw and nodded. "I agree."
"What he said," Ophelia said with a shrug.
"You must save Hera to prevent a great evil," Rachel continued. "Some sort of king from rising. For reasons we don't yet understand, it must happen by the winder solstice, only four days from now."
Four days the save the world, Ophelia thought. Great.
"That's the council day of the gods," Annabeth said. "If the gods don't already know Hera's gone, they will definitely notice by then. They'll probably break out fighting, accusing each other of taking her. That's what they usually do."
"The winter solstice," Chiron chimed in, "is also the time of greatest darkness. The gods gather that day, as mortals always have, because there is strength in numbers. The solstice is a day when evil magic is strong. Ancient magic, older than the gods. It is a day when things... stir."
A little dramatic, but okay, Ophelia thought at his overly-ominous tone.
"Okay," Annabeth said, clearly still mad at the centaur. "Thank you, Captain Sunshine. Whatever's going on, I agree with Rachel. Jason and Ophelia have been chosen to lead this quest, so—"
"Why haven't they been claimed?" somebody yelled. "If they're so important—"
"They have been claimed," Chiron announced. "Long ago. Jason, why don't you give them a demonstration?"
Jason looked at Ophelia, confused. She shrugged just enough to get her message across—I don't know what he's talking about either. He stepped forward nervously, reaching into his pocket.
His gold coin flashed in the air, replaced by a golden lance when he caught it.
Annabeth and Rachel stepped back to avoid the point, the other campers looking at it with varying levels of concern and suspicion.
"Wasn't that...?" Annabeth hesitated. "I thought you had a sword."
"It came up tails, I think," Jason said. "Same coin, long-range weapon form."
Someone muttered something about an electric spear, and Jason's brow furrowed a little. "Electric," he murmured. "Back away."
The people closest to him, including Ophelia, backed away as he raised his javelin. Thunder broke open the sky and a single bolt of lightning rained down from the sky, racing down the golden spear point and hitting the campfire with the force of a bomb.
When the smoke cleared and the ringing in Ophelia's ears subsided, the entire camp was frozen in shock, staring at the extinguished campfire. Cinders rained down everywhere, a good amount landing in Ophelia's hair and on her clothes.
"Show-off," she muttered.
Jason lowered his lance, looking around at the chaos he'd just unleashed. "Um... sorry."
"A little overkill, perhaps, but you've made your point," Chiron said with a grimace, as if he'd just had his worst fears confirmed. "And I believe we know who your father is."
"Jupiter," Jason said. "I mean Zeus. Lord of the Sky."
Ophelia felt everyone's eyes shift to her. She frowned, holding her arms up. "I can't do anything like that," she said defensively. "I don't think I can, at least."
"Your compass," Jason said quietly. "Maybe... I don't know, maybe there's a clue about your godly parent there?"
Ophelia shrugged, pulling her gold compass out of her pocket. She studied the surface, and suddenly realized she'd never actually tried to open it. Feeling a little stupid for not thinking of that earlier, she pressed the button and the compass opened up. It was gold on the inside, the compass itself clear and intricately designed. The needle was spinning at a slow and steady pace, and it showed no signs of stopping.
Great, she thought bitterly. My weird magical compass is broken.
On the inside of it was an engraved inscription. "Mercurius Visucius," she said aloud.
"That is one of Hermes' Latin epithets," Chiron said. "I suppose that means he is your father."
"Makes sense," Ophelia agreed, slipping her compass back into her pocket.
So much for mystery.
"Okay, that's... understandable, I guess," Annabeth said, "but how can Jason be a son of Zeus? The Big Three... their pact not to have mortal kids... how could we not have known about him sooner?"
Chiron stayed quiet, though Ophelia was almost positive he knew the answer. He just wasn't inclined to share.
"The important thing," Rachel said, "is that Jason's here now. He and Ophelia have a quest to fulfill, which means they need their own prophecy."
She closed her eyes and swooned. There seemed to be a protocol for that, as a group of campers rushed forward to keep her from falling. They eased her onto a three-legged stool, and as everyone watched, green mist started to swirl at her feet. Her eyes were glowing when she opened them after a moment, and emerald smoke poured from her mouth. The voice she spoke with was raspy and ancient, nothing like her natural voice.
"Child of lightning, beware the earth.
The giants' revenge the eight shall birth.
Daughter of travel, where memories dwell,
take command of those who fell.
The forge and the dove shall break the cage
and death unleash through Hera's rage."
❖
she's a daughter of mercury! (and maybe something else... who can say...)
i didn't really know how to do ophelia's godly parent reveal since she's technically claimed already, and hermes/mercury doesn't have any crazy powers like the other gods. but i like this simple reveal for her (esp compared to jason/zeus's ~dramatic~ approach)
anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!