Chapter 4: A Nightly Friendship

Aelia, or Hestia, swept her hand over the fire. "This is where I assume my true self, where I am not taken over by Aphrodite. Only at night, by the hearth, is where I can be myself." she fixed her black irises on Percy. "You are the only one who can see me, Perseus."

"Why?" Percy asked.

"Think. What made you different from the rest yesterday?" Hestia said knowingly.

"Um..." Percy did think about it for a moment, before the answer came to him in a fleeting moment. "I didn't fall for Aphrodite's charms? But...how did you know, if Aphrodite takes over? So if that's the case, is Aelia you, or Aphrodite?"

"I know you wouldn't do that, Perseus. You are very...interesting. As for your second question, Aelia is me, Aphrodite simply...ah, likes to intrude."

"Who did this to you?" Percy questioned, feeling slightly angry at whoever did this, even if Hestia looked completely adjusted to her new limited form.

"The Giants, of course. They seek to cause chaos in the camp with Aphrodite. If everything goes according to their plan, a civil war will break out. It will be the Trojan War repeated. With no demigods to help the gods, the giants will be undefeatable, and Olympus will fall."

"Why include you in their plan? I mean, if Aphrodite could cause a war, you don't really need to be in...this." Percy gestured at her.

At this, Hestia frowned. "For that, I'm not sure. Maybe when they captured me, something went wrong, and they had to put me in this form." She looked at her hands for a moment, before continuing, "At any rate, Perseus, you will have to stop all of this from happening."

"Alone?" Percy said, a pang of hurt striking him as he thought about Annabeth. He had yet to make it up to her. "What about the gods?"

She shook her head. "The gods will not help. When they scanned Aelia earlier, they saw no trace of me. They will not believe you. I fear someone is clouding their minds...corrupting their judgement. I don't know what..." she didn't finish the sentence.

"Can you tell them?"

"I cannot. The minute I leave the hearth, this hearth, I will be taken over by Aphrodite."

"You make her sound like she's evil."

Hestia's eyes flashed. "I'm afraid she may be. Her motives are simple. Spread her domain of love: The Giants' love, or desire, to see Olympus fall; the demigods...it is quite self-explanatory. She is almost like Ares – they both would start a war, even if the war would destroy the world. Perhaps that is why they like each other."

Hearing this, Percy's opinion of Aphrodite changed quite a bit. Aphrodite could be helpful, but sometimes downright ruthless.

Percy exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding for a while. "What do I need to do now?"

Strangely, Percy thought he saw her cheeks flush, but it was hard to tell in the darkness. "About that...I need your help. See, every night, I will come here, but I will remember nothing about the conversation we had. Even today, I will not remember anything the next day. So..."

"You want me to help you remember?"

She nodded meekly. "I just have this feeling, like I'll recover from my condition if I remember my old self."

Percy was slightly taken aback at her request, but he responded, "Yeah, I don't mind." She smiled slightly. "Thank you, I can also give you some advice."

"Yeah..." Percy stifled a yawn, but he couldn't deny his fatigue. "I should leave now. See you tomorrow?"

She nodded and Percy started to take his leave, but he stopped suddenly and asked, "How do you know I won't just make something up?"

"Because I believe you will never do that," she replied confidently and looked at the sky. It was still dark, but she could just make out the wave of red light almost touching the horizon.

The blue combining with the red.

"So...do you want to start?" Hestia asked. The two of them were at the hearth. It was roughly midnight. Percy was wearing a black shirt and leggings to hopefully prevent him from being undetected. Hestia didn't really seem to care. Then again, if anyone saw Aelia, they would probably let her off scot free in a lovesick stupor.

It took Percy a moment to process that question. Too much was on his mind about today. "Huh? Oh yeah, today..."

She frowned. "Is something wrong?

He sighed, "Yeah...Annabeth...she's making things difficult for me." He winced, realizing how selfish that sounded. "I mean, I'm having trouble talking to her."

"Oh," Hestia replied, feeling a bit embarrassed, considering she had never been in a relationship her entire immortal life, so she did not know what advice to provide. "Well, what did she say?"

Percy didn't want to retell what had happened today – he didn't feel like sharing it with anyone, but since Hestia asked, he recounted their talk.

It was lunchtime. All the demigods were at the dining area, which was rich in laughter and incessant chatter, with the occasional sound of clanking of utensils on the stone floor. Everyone was simply resting from their training.

But Percy didn't feel like eating. His appetite was non-existent until he patched things up with Annabeth.

Finally, he spotted her blonde hair at the Athena table. He walked over and asked, "Annabeth, could I have a word?"

Annabeth looked at him like he was some kind of machinery, scrutinizing his emotions and expressions. She shot a look at her siblings, who were all engrossed in the own conversations or food, though Percy was convinced they were listening to him, before saying, "Fine."

She got up and they went towards the area just outside the woods, where no one was there.

"Well?"

Percy took a deep breath and said, "You got it all wrong, Annabeth."

"Fine, do enlighten me on where I made a mistake." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"I don't like Aelia, I don't feel anything towards her at all. I still love you, okay? You don't have to worry about anything." Percy hesitated, just for a fraction of a second, maybe unnoticed by Annabeth, when he said "I still love you".

Of course he still loved her, but maybe it was because he loved her he had to let her go, or she would be harmed to hurt Percy. With the Giants' rise, he couldn't be by her side 24/7, and gods forbid if she was kidnapped by the Giants like the Ares campers.

"Oh, please. Don't say that." She snapped, making Percy flinch. "She's so pretty and all the guys are fawning over her. How can you be any different? Plus, if I recall correctly, you were the one showing her around. What do you have to say about that?"

This time, Percy didn't have an answer. He wished he could tell her the real reason why he was the one giving the tour, but...

Stupid River Styx and the oath, he thought.

The silence told Annabeth everything.

"Just as I thought, can't think of an answer, can you Jackson? Tell you what, you stop associating with her, and I'll forgive you." With that, she spun on her heel and marched back to the dining hall.

Hearing this, Hestia felt pangs of guilt shoot through her heart. Percy seemed to notice this, because he smiled reassuringly and said, "It's not your fault. You weren't the one spreading all that jealousy. It's Aphrodite that's doing all this."

"Still..." the air felt colder to Hestia than usual.

"You know what? I'll just start talking about what I came here for." Percy said.

Hestia couldn't tell if she or Percy was more relieved at the change of topic, but she nodded.

"So, yesterday..." Percy talked about the things Hestia told him, about the Giants and Aphrodite, what he had to do sooner or later. He felt a bit weird talking to the person that told him about all this in the first place, but he did agree to help her, and he was glad that he didn't feel the pressure of having to save the world whenever he was around Hestia, almost like the same feeling he got when he was around Annabeth...maybe it was just the hearth.

When he was done, Hestia looked at the cinders, deep in thought. She could remember all of that, but she wanted to talk about their conversation, but she figured Percy wouldn't get it. It was late, and Hestia didn't want to exhaust him further. Plus, he was dumb that way.

Maybe that is why Annabeth Chase likes him so much.

She immediately pushed that sudden thought away, feeling awkward she was having such thoughts.

"I think that is all. Thanks for your help, Perseus." She bowed her head in gratitude. Percy sighed, "I'd rather you call me Percy, milady."

"And I'd rather you not call me milady or Lady Hestia," Hestia shot back with a cheeky grin.

"Fine, if you call me Percy, I'll call you Hestia. Deal?"

"Deal." She smiled, and only then did Percy realize how pretty she looked when she did. He shook those feelings off as they came in shock. Thinking a chaste goddess was pretty was a big nope. He had to get out now.

"Good night, Hestia." He left without looking back.