Welcome, I'm Fate's Second Apprentice (the title Fate's Apprentice has previously been taken) this is not my first account and therefore not my first fanfiction (I know, thank the gods for that, huh?). This is a fanfiction about Octavian currently I plan to write in third person his POV, but the POV may change if its suits the story. Be warned there will be swear words and possibly hints of erotic things. Other than that enjoy the story!
Only kids right a disclaimer….ha!
Octavian's Slightly Biased Diary of Events
Chapter 1: Graecus
Sometimes things just happen. Sometimes the gods will curse you and then laugh. Sometimes Octavian meets some people that suffer from what he considered the 'Jason complex' and it has horrible consequences. It was that morning that he felt the horrible knowing he'd grown used about a person who was coming that suffered from the cruel disease. Perhaps Jason was back. Octavian shook his head; he refused to believe that was ever going to happen.
Octavian opened his cupboard; all his clothes looked pretty much the same so he never had to consider what to wear in the morning; Jeans and a shirt today it was blue, tomorrow he decided he'd wear red. Perfect planning. He sighed as the feeling he'd woke up with intensified, it was definitely happening today, he needed to get to the temple before it happened. He would not let this person enter as a friend to New Rome. He left his house before anyone else was up, with his bag, three or so new sacrificial toys, his knife, and breakfast.
He walked over to the family temple – no need to travel all the way to Temple Hill - appeasing whatever hunger the night had given him with a slice of bread and a few pieces of fruit. The family temples were crowded and a bit of garden gone badly but it was a nice place have breakfast anyway. Octavian pulled out one of the toys, this one was special it was a My Little Pony Rarity pony which he had borrowed from his cousin Little Julia. It seemed a waste to have the thing spend endless hours as a target when Octavian could just end its life quickly and with purpose.
Rarity's guts spilled on the floor and Octavian frowned. Sighing he sat down and pondered the remains. Most of it meant nothing, but the rest…the rest made no sense but it meant something, "The Greek has arrived," Octavian closed his eyes and tried to think about what it meant, all he could think was the word, graecus. Surely a Greek wasn't coming to camp; he eyed his eyes with a smile. If a graecus was really coming then Reyna must be told.
He didn't rush to the legions camp. There was no need, besides he thought it best to revitalise the hatred of the Greeks with in the legions population, most of whom were spending the hour before daily muster doing nothing. "Terrible omens my friends," He said to a group of his friends sounding bored. They were all his age and most of the held rank; naturally none of them were centurions. He'd wait before he addressed the others. They all looked a bit shocked at the sudden change of subject (Octavian could guess what had been the topic before). "We have a graecus coming."
Octavian watched the reactions carefully; understandably the legacies were a bit more agitated. "Like a Greek? Or like a Greek demi-god?" Said a brown hair girl called Milla, she was a legacy and a captain of eight, second cohort. "Why does it matter? It's a demi-god…" A boy from the third began before realising that there were more demi-gods in the group then legacies. "It's bound to be bad news." The boy said with a cough.
"Oh, guys, I watched this video on Youtube when this Korean teacher was trying to teach her class how to say Coke and she was like 'Can I have some…cock!'" A demi-god girl who was a child of Somnia, she was never one to follow a conversation. "How much for some cock!" And with that the entire group dove head first into the lovely plan of sex jokes. Until someone mention the child of Pluto. "Death the kid is home." A girl named Neria told him in a low voice. Octavian looked at her and nodded, "Where?"
"Pluto's shrine," She said looking at him hand.
"Thanks." He said passing a silver sestertius to her and stood leaving.
Octavian went straight to Reyna, making a note to go talk to the kid before the boy vanished again. "Salve, Reyna." She turned around her face was tired. "How are you?" She sighed.
"Fine, do you want the first to be defending or attacking tonight?" She said knowing the answer.
"Oh I think we'll try defending this time, not much use to learn how to attack if we aren't going to invade anywhere anytime soon." Octavian said. Then something interesting happened at the borders. It sounded like an explosion but that was impossible. They both looked over to see the highway entrance collapsing, with four people running out of it in a frenzy, well one of them wasn't running they were being carried and Octavian's mind automatically scorned the actions, the person carrying the other person would be slowed causing both of them to be hurt and therefore eliminating two people from the fray instead of just the one.
Octavian saw Reyna move forward and he began to follow but she turned around and shook her head. "No, you stay here, it's probably nothing." Octavian's jaw clenched but he nodded. "Of course Reyna. You clearly don't need my help," He walked away before she could respond and when he was sure she wouldn't be looking at him glanced back to see her face, it was priceless. He honestly didn't mind not seeing anything, he had a feeling he knew what was happening down there and if that was the case the person causing all that trouble shouldn't be admitted into camp. The person wouldn't be able to parade around flaunting his Jason complex.
Octavian walked through along the Via Principalis ordering those not already running for the border to stay at their posts. They didn't need the entire army at the door; it would just cause confusion and leave the camp undefended, unable to reinforce the other lines efficiently. Then satisfied he walked started walking back to the city only to glance over at Temple Hill and figure he could try to find out the outcome of whatever Reyna decided to do with the Jason complex kid, if it happened to be them which wasn't at all certain, because after all Reyna had a thing for people like Jason.
He changed his direction. Then he turned around at a sudden woosh! And witnessed a huge tower of water rise out of the Little Tiber, Octavian's eyes widened in surprise, What was that? It certainly wasn't something one saw every day that was for sure. He was tempted to go back to camp but dismissed it. He'd probably have a better understanding from Temple Hill anyway.
There were a few people at the border of Temple Hill straining their heads to catch a glimpse of what was happening. "It's all dealt with, nothing to worry about!" He told them they turned looking relieved. He climbed the steps and sat down when he got to the top, the water tower thing had since disappeared and there was silence in the camp, silence never meant anything good when it came to children. Octavian pulled out a stuffed bear and looked down at it, he ran his hands over its neck, the stuffing inside was weak and the teddy bear – if it were alive – would certainly be dead.
He found the perfect place, and stood suddenly feeling very childish he hurried over to the statue of Zeus. He bowed at the god and pulled on the white toga that was always in the temple. Then he returned to face the god and began to recite in Latin, here power surged through the air like a great bolt of lightning – fitting as always – he held up the giraffe and made a delicate slice into it gut, at the seam just under the front right leg. The white stuffing fell out onto the marble floor and he smiled in satisfaction, caught up possibly a bit too much in the process of killing - no, not killing, it was never alive- the bear.
The sky had darkened and he could see the certain ways that the almost glowing body of the god reflected upon the remains. Mortem…filius…Nova Roma…inlaqueaverunt…Harpyia…libros… he ran his hand over the lines on his forearm. It was a dark prophecy if he'd read it right…wait of course he'd read it right! He was Octavian legacy of Apollo; he didn't get these things wrong. He had a feeling that the disturbance at the river was connected to the dark words; death, child, trapped, harpy, books and then possibly the most disturbing of all, New Rome. He was shocked out of his thoughts when two people came up the steps into the temple and said rather obnoxiously (because was obvious what he was doing) "What's he doing?"
Octavian turned around, the shapes of the prophecy still playing across his vision. Octavian knew one of the two people but the other one…well he looked odd with curly black hair and green eyes. He smelt that was for sure and his clothes weren't exactly new, he looked like he'd just walked out of a hippy camp, he even looked like he had a hangover and he been taking a bit more than a little bit of the 'good stuff'. Next to the boy was a girl named Hazel, Octavian knew his girl very well all thanks to his little birds…and a few toys. Hazel wasn't really the picture of Romanii but Octavian liked her, she stuck him as a useful girl. "Percy," Hazel said, "this is Octavian."
"The graecus!" He announced, knowing as he said it he was right, this boy even looked Greek. He looked over the boy's face, seeing the arrogance in his eyes. "How interesting," He said, as the boy met his gaze. The boy named Percy suddenly looked nervous and glanced down at the remains of the teddy bear in his hands.
"Uh, hi," Percy said. "Are you killing small animals?" Octavian liked this kid, if only for the thought that he might be using real animals for his auguries, which would have been great. Octavian looked down at the toy in his hand, it didn't even look like a bear anymore, he laughed. "No, no. Once a upon a time, yes. We used to read the will of the gods by examing animal guts – chickens, goats, the sort of thing. Nowaday, we use these."
He tossed the teddy bear at the new kid who caught it with ease. Percy's eyes went over the toy, then over to where the left overs were brushed away for the tip every week. All the boy could say was, "Seriously?" Octavian smiled and shrugged, he had thought it was pretty cool once. He stepped of the dais and noticed that Percy looked even more nervous now that Octavian was closer. Not meaning to state the obvious but wondering if he could befriend this kid Ocatavian said, "You seem nervous."
"You remind me of someone. I can't remember who." Octavian suppressed a frown and looked at the boy curiously. "Possibly my namesake, Octavian – Augustus Caesar. Everyone says I bear a remarkable resemblance." Every meant his mother actually, she was after all the one who had named him. Percy frowned and shook his head but instead of explaining further Percy switched topic.
"Why did you call me 'the Greek'?"
"I saw it in the auguries." Octavian said waving his knife hand at the pile of stuffed toys to the side of the statue of Jupiter. "The message said: The Greek has arrived. Or possibly: the goose has cried. I'm thinking the first interpretation is correct." The only reason he's probably had even read that was being he'd just woken up that morning and he had been tired. "You seek to join the legion?"
Hazel stepped forward slightly. "Percy has just arrived back from the Wolf House, he while Frank and I were on guard duty; he was being chased by gorgons. It soon became clear that they weren't going to die. With Percy was an old woman she and them…well I thought they were gods, which was pretty close since…well anyway I ordered a fall back and sent Percy and Frank ahead. I collapsed the tunnel." He eyes glanced over the marble floor, Octavian pretended not to notice. "After that he had to fight the gorgons at the river, he created a huge hand out of the water and drowned them; their dust remains were slip apart before they could reform.
Then on the other side of the river while the legionaries were trying to take stock of the situation, the old lady began to glow." Octavian raised his eyes; that wasn't something he expected. "She turned out to be Juno."
"Juno. We called her Juno Moneta. Juno the Warner. She appears in times of crisis, to counsel Rome about great threats." He looked at Percy with renewed interest, a Greek, a child of Neptune coming to camp with Juno Moneta that was a bad omen, he wouldn't want to be this kid right now, especially not in New Rome.
"I hear the Feast of Fortuna is this week," Percy said suddenly after the rest of Hazel's story. "The gorgons warned there'd be an invasion on that day. Did you see that in your stuffing?"
Octavian heard the challenge in his voice and sighed, that was it he knew it was coming, people like him could help but try to prove themselves better than everyone else.
"Sadly, no. The will of the gods is hard to discern. And these days, my vision is even darker." Octavian admitted sadly, it wasn't a good thing to know that while bad things were happening your powers were failing you.
"Don't you have…I don't know…an oracle of something?" Percy asked.
"An oracle!" Octavian smiled at the prospect, to even be able to talk to an oracle would be a dream come true. But it was just a dream, oracles that died with the Greek Empire. "What a cute idea. No I'm afraid we're fresh out of oracles. Now, if we'd go questing for the Sibylline Books, like I recommended–"
"The Siba- what?" Percy asked honest confusion on his face, figured he wouldn't know what they were, kid spurting stuff about oracles.
"Book of prophecy," Hazel explained, then her eyes turned to him, venom in her gaze, "which Octavian is obsessed with. Romans used to consult them when disasters happened. Most people believe they burned up when Rome fell."
"Some people believe that." Octavian corrected. "Unfortunately our present leadership won't authorise a quest to look for them–"
"Because Reyna isn't stupid," Hazel cut in, irriated Octavian continued as if she hadn't.
"– so we have only a few remaining scraps from the books. A few mysterious predictions like these." He nodded to the incriptions on the floor. Percy stared at the words, a look of acceptance on his face. Octavian knew he couldn't read them; after all he was a graecus. Then he stopped suddenly and bit back a choke.
"That one. Seven half bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall –"
"Yes, yes. An oath to keep with a final breathe, and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death." Octavian said flicked his hand dismissively.
"I - I know that one." He looked like his dead mother had just walked in and casually said 'hi'. "That's important." He said seriously, his body trembling. Octavian arched an eyebrow. "Of course it's important. We call it the Prophecy of Seven, but it's several thousand years old. We don't know what it means. Every time some ones tries to interpret it… well, Hazel can tell you. Bad things happen." Hazel glared at him, Octavian looked back at her with a smug smile, you didn't challenge him without repercussions.
"Just read the augury for Percy. Can he join the legion or not?" Octavian looked over Percy, looking past the layer of dirt and old clothes. He could see strong muscles and intelligence in the boy's eyes. He was clearly close to Hazel, though according to the story they had met just over an hour ago. Octavian's eyes came down onto a small head sticking out of Percy's bag. "The is a beautiful specimen. May I?" Percy just looked at him and Octavian took that as a yes he snatched the panda pillow that looked like it had seen better days from the bag.
Octavian turned back to the altar and raised his knife. "Hey!" Percy gasped. But Octavian had already started the ritual. His knife slashed right over its stomach, he wasn't even going to try and read the auguries, this boy had been giving him a bad feeling since this morning and Octavian wasn't going to let him join the legion. Percy could go live with the fauns and the other people who didn't make it into the legion, or worse didn't want to join the legion.
He muttered some words then covered up his surprise with a cough-laugh. Staring at him right in the face was the symbols for He must join. Octavian wasn't one to go against any god, especially when they were talking to him so directly, so obviously. He turned to Percy with a smile and clapped his hands together. "Good news! Percy may join the legion. We'll assign him a cohort at evening muster. Tell Reyna that I approve."
Hazel relaxed. "Uh…great. Come on, Percy." She turned to leave, her hand going to Percy's arm to leed him away. Her haste to leave reminded him. "Oh, and Hazel. I'm happy to welcome Percy into the legion. But when the election for praetor comes up, I hope you'll remember –"
"Jason isn't dead," Hazel snapped. "You're the augur. You're supposed to be looking for him!"
"Oh, I am!" Octavian pointed at the pile of stuffed animals, and he had been, and boy he knew it, his family weren't exactly the best people when it came to forgiving people who were late to cena. "I consult the gods every day! Alas, after eight mouths, I've found nothing. Of course, I'm still looking. But if Jason doesn't return by the Feast of Fortuna we must act. We can't have a power vacuum any longer. I hope you'll support me for praetor. It would mean so much to me."
Hazel's fists tightened and Octavian bit the inside of his lip, he shouldn't have said that, but the expression on Hazel's face whenever she got angry was just so funny. "Me. Support. You?" Octavian sighed and walked over to the small bench where he had put his stuff. He pulled off his toga, setting it down and his knife. He looked over the pile of teddy bears and felt the words form in his mouth.
"After all, I might be able to help." He told her turning back to them. "It would be a shame if those awful rumours about kept circulating…or, gods forbid, they turned out to be true" Octavian notice Percy's arm move, his muscles tightened. Hazel took a deep breath, despite her white knuckles Octavian could see she was on the edge about to burst into tears. "I'll think about it." That was the best he could hope for.
"Excellent," Octavian said, rubbing his hands together. "By the way, your brother is here." Hazel stiffened, snapping out of her depression.
"My brother? Why?" Octavian shrugged. "Why does your brother do anything? He's waiting for you at your father's shrine Just…ah, don't invite him to stay too long. He has a disturbing effect on the other. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to keep searching for our poor lost fried, Jason. Nice to meet you Percy." Then taking the hint Hazel stormed out of the temple – another brilliant metaphor considering – and Percy soon followed.
Octavian sighed and picked up his bag. Today was going to be a long day.
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