IF THERE WAS ONE THING Camilla was certain of in a very uncertain world, it was that she didn't really matter.
If you were to ask just about anyone at Camp Jupiter if they knew of a Camilla, they'd say something like: well, the name sounds kind of familiar or isn't that the praetor's friend? i thought her name was Camryn? or yeah, from the Third? oh, she's awesome! not her? there's another Camilla?
Camilla had come to accept the fact that she was as invisible as a demigod could be—in the metaphorical sense, at least. If she was invisible in the literal sense, then at least there'd be something interesting about her.
But the simple fact was that Camilla wasn't all that important. In the grand scheme of things, she was barely a cog in the machine—she was just another nameless, faceless legionnaire from the disgraced Fifth Cohort. She was just another name on a roster, easy to forget and easier to overlook entirely.
If she went missing, the camp would run as smoothly as it did everyday. The only people who might even notice she was gone was her roommates—she could count on a single finger how many of them would even care—and her best friend.
If she disappeared, nothing would happen. The world wouldn't stop turning; the sun and moon wouldn't stop rising and falling. Daily life would go on as it always did, as seamlessly as anything ever went for descendants of the Roman gods.
If she disappeared, the camp wouldn't be running on fumes like it was now that one of the two most important people there was missing.
Okay, that wasn't really fair—the remaining praetor, Reyna, was doing a fantastic job of keeping the camp afloat, even as monster attacks became more and more frequent and more and more deadly; even as campers returned unsuccessful from their quests or just didn't return at all. Camilla doubted anyone at camp could do as well a job of running the camp alone than Reyna.
But still, morale was low. Jason Grace—the almighty son of Jupiter, savior of Olympus, praetor of the Twelfth Legion, and Camilla's best friend—was missing, and everyone felt his absence.
Perhaps none more than Camilla herself.
Looking back on their friendship, she couldn't pin down the moment they actually became friends. She couldn't say when casual greetings turned into short conversations, gradually lengthening over time until they started meeting for coffee on weekday mornings just to talk.
She didn't know how they became friends, either. The only thing they had in common was their Cohort. Jason had stood for her when she arrived at camp, eleven years old and terrified and as unimportant as she always was. She knew it was pity that made him stand for her.
Since the start of her life at Camp Jupiter, Camilla was barely anything more than a naïve little girl who'd stumbled upon one of Lupa's wolves after her fifth time running away from a foster home and was led to the Wolf House for her training because the wolf could smell her godly blood. She had no credentials, no letters of recommendation, no sponsors whatsoever—she didn't even have a last name.
Why the famed son of Jupiter decided to stand for her, Camilla had no idea.
On top of all the unanswered questions about the how and the why of their inexplicable friendship, there was also the matter of trying to pin down when their friendship began to feel like something more.
It could have all been in her head—it probably was—but in the months between the legion's victory at Mount Tam and Jason's unexpected disappearance, something seemed to have shifted between them. Innocent glances felt more charged than before. Their hands would brush more often when they walked through downtown New Rome. Jason's smile would flood her stomach with a horde of angry butterflies.
What Camilla could say was that she liked Jason Grace as more than of friend.
But he was gone now. The one person who saw her, who didn't look through her like she didn't even exist, had been missing for eight months, and Camilla had all but lost hope.
She hated thinking like that—she was an optimist at heart, something Jason always said he admired about her (even when her optimism stood in direct contrast to the dismal facts of real life). But after eight months of absolutely no clues as to where Jason had disappeared to, most of the camp had started to accept the idea that Jason Grace was simply gone.
And no invisible optimist could change that.
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June nineteenth started like any other day. Camilla ate breakfast with her cohort (namely Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang, who were pretty much the only people at camp now who even knew who she was, and that was mostly because Hazel was her bunkmate); she went to training and monster class and tried not to fall asleep during the latter; she ate lunch in the mess hall; she went through her chores (the Fifth always got the grunt work, but she'd learned long ago that complaining wouldn't change anything); and she worried about Jason.
Camilla was in the infirmary with Heather, another girl from her cohort, organizing the medical supplies like every Wednesday. Heather was a quiet girl, not much different from Camilla, so the tent was mostly silent, save for the occasional clacking of glass vials and the gentle rustle of a breeze on the tent fabric.
It was an ordinary day in the post-Jason's disappearance era Camp Jupiter found themselves in—until the disturbance at the Little Tiber.
Camilla dropped the vial of unicorn draft she'd been trying to push onto the top shelf—a struggle for her five-foot even stature—when the watchtower horns blew across the camp. She squeaked in surprise, barely catching the tiny vial before it fell. She placed it on a lower shelf (the wrong one, but she figured the mistake was justified) and swiped a bottle of nectar before sprinting after Heather to the camp gates, silently praying it wasn't yet another monster attack at the camp boundaries.
The scene was fortunately more confusing than horrific. An unfamiliar boy was standing on the near side of the Little Tiber, an old woman hunched over next to him. Hazel was on that side as well, staring at Frank in horror as a pair of snake-haired gorgons held him suspended above the water.
The sentries above them yelled, but there was no clear shot that Camilla could see. She tucked the vial of nectar into her pocket and drew her gladius along with the other campers around her.
But apparently the strange boy had a few tricks up his sleeve.
The dark-haired teenager thrust his hands out, and the river responded. Whirlpools formed on either side of Frank, and giant, watery hands sprang from the surface of the water. The hands copied the strange boy's movements, grabbing onto the gorgons, who dropped Frank in surprise. Then the hands lifted the squawking monsters in a liquid vise grip.
Camilla was jostled back by the suddenly apprehensive crowd, though she was more stunned than afraid. She'd never seen someone control the water like that, like it was an extension of his body. It was incredible.
The boy made a smashing gesture with his fists, and the giant hands plunged the gorgons into the Tiber. The monsters hit bottom and broke into dust. Glittering clouds of gorgon essence struggled to re-form, but the river pulled them apart like a blender. Soon, every trace of the gorgons was swept downstream. The whirlpools vanished, and the current settled.
The strange boy stood on the riverbank, his clothes and skin steaming like he'd stepped out of a hot tub and into freezing air.
In the middle of the Little Tiber, Frank stumbled around, looking stunned but perfectly fine. Hazel waded out and helped him ashore, and Camilla hurried over to them, handing the bleeding Frank the vial of nectar. He took it in silence, his wide eyes stuck on the stranger.
"Well, that was a lovely trip." Camilla looked over at the old lady, having forgotten she was there. "Thank you, Percy Jackson, for bringing me to Camp Jupiter."
At the front of the crowd of legionnaires, Reyna made a choking sound, like an aborted gasp. "Percy... Jackson?"
The old woman laughed with delight. "Oh, yes. You'll have such fun together!"
The woman began to glow, changing form until she was a shining, seven-foot-tall goddess in a blue dress, with a cloak of goatskin over her shoulders. Her face was stern and stately, like a strict mother, and in her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower.
Reyna knelt, and all of the campers hastily followed her lead, including Camilla (she really wasn't in the habit of pissing off the gods).
Hazel was the first to speak. "Juno."
She and Frank also fell to their knees next to Camilla, leaving the new boy—Percy Jackson—the only one standing. To Camilla's surprise—and horror—he didn't even make an attempt to kneel.
"Juno, huh?" he said. "If I passed your test, can I have my memory and my life back?"
The goddess smiled. "In time, Percy Jackson, if you succeed here at camp. You've done well today, which is a good start. Perhaps there's hope for you yet."
She turned to the rest of camp. "Romans, I present to you the son of Neptune. For months he has been slumbering, but now he is awake. His fate is in your hands. The Feast of Fortune comes quickly, and Death must be unleashed if you are to stand any hope in the battle. Do not fail me!"
Lady Juno shimmered and disappeared. Percy looked to Frank and Hazel for some kind of explanation, but it was clear they were just as confused as he was.
Reyna stepped forward. She examined Percy warily for a moment. "So," she said coldly, "a son of Neptune, who comes to us with the blessing of Juno."
"Look," Percy said, "my memory's a little fuzzy. Um, it's gone, actually. Do I know you?"
Reyna hesitated for just a moment. "I am Reyna, praetor of the Twelfth Legion. And... no, I don't know you." She turned to Hazel. "Hazel, bring him inside. I want to question him at the principia. Then we'll send him to Octavian. We must consult the auguries before we decide what to do with him."
"What do you mean," Percy asked, "'decide what to do with' me?"
Camilla's eyes widened at the boy's boldness—not many people dared to question Reyna's orders.
Reyna's hand tightened on her dagger. "Before we accept anyone into camp, we must interrogate them and read the auguries. Juno said your fate is in our hands. We have to know whether the goddess has brought us a new recruit..."
She studied the son of Neptune as if she found that doubtful.
"Or," she said more hopefully, "if she's brought us an enemy to kill."
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eeeeeeeee, i'm so excited for this story. i've had in the works for a hot minute, so i've got the plot already figured out in my head (for the most part), and i'm super excited to bring it to y'all. i love camilla w/ my entire heart, she's such a sweetheart.
as you might be able to tell already, this story will start in the son of neptune and continue through the rest of the series, which means it'll be a while before we get camilla/jason content. BUT it will happen, and they are very precious, so it'll be worth the wait if i do say so myself. this part is more of a set-up for camilla's character & her relationships w/ hazel, frank, & percy (which are all very fun to write).
i'll be updating this story every saturday, so look out for the updates! and let me know what you think of the story & camilla so far! <3