Seven: Euna
Like Seeking Comfort from a Boa Constrictor
All Euna had wanted for the last day was silence.
And some of her father's homemade kimbap. That sounded really good.
On autumn weekends when Joey didn't have a dance recital and they didn't have a tournament, she remembered racing Joey to the garden to pull carrots and pick apples while their father cut spinach from their indoor greenhouse. As they put on boots and jeans, he'd cook everything. He'd wrap the vegetables, eggs, and whatever other ingredients he wanted in rice and seaweed paper, then he'd shove his daughters out the door for an all day hiking trip.
When Euna was little, she remembered being excited to race Joey up and down the trails, inevitably getting yelled at by their father for being rude to other hikers. When she got older, she hated being dragged out of bed as early as 4:30 in the morning to stumble up a mountain.
Now, Euna sat on the porch of their barrack in New Rome, in the same comfortable silence and the same sky view as she would have had in her old home in Duluth, Georgia, or her new home in Alexandria, Virginia.
Everyone was worried about her. She knew it. She knew why Calex kept following her around, why Kally kept giving her worried looks, and why Merry kept touching Euna's shoulder and humming, "How you doing hun?"
But, after fighting Santiago… after taking Hemera's god-enhancing droplets and hearing all the plants scream out at once, the prayers of gardeners and farmers alike, the laughter from Santiago's men, and trying to focus on her sister's scream...
She liked this silence, even if it did come at the annoying price of a 4:30 AM wake up call.
Euna still had two drops from Hemera to temporarily put her in god mode again. She fingered the eyedropper in her pocket. With her other hand, she absently drew Backbiter. The two-toned blade gleamed fiercely in the moonlight.
"Are you still there?" she asked. Euna hadn't heard the sword's chilling voice since they entered New Rome. The Little Tiber had tried to rip it from her, but she knew she had to keep it. After all, Backbiter was part of her nightmare-prophecy.
"I don't understand why you want me to have you instead of Eris," Euna grumbled, flicking the blade's pommel like she could wake it up.
The sword did the typical sword thing and didn't respond.
"Huh, a sword. That's a pretty atypical choice to open up to, but I'll bet he gets your point," a girl said behind Euna.
Euna whirled to face the intruder, taking a defensive position with Backbiter.
The girl didn't flinch, despite being much shorter than Euna. She had shoulder length, curly hair and light eyes that contrasted nicely with her cocoa skin and locks. She wore an SPQR shirt and a cavalry sword hung at her side. She was beautiful in an energized, mystical way that made Euna feel like the girl could vanish at will. In one hand, she had a half-eaten, golden apple.
This girl looked like Hazel Levesque, the Centurion of the Fifth Cohort, but something felt off. They met Hazel after Reyna's interrogation, when Hazel had kindly offered for their group to sleep in their barrack. She even escorted Euna, Kally, and Merry to the Roman bath house the night before, allowing Merry to ask all kinds of uncomfortable questions about the gossip in New Rome as a distraction. Euna wondered what they'd done with all of their original clothing with all the bloodstains before they gave them fresh clothing. Did the Romans do a massive well, that's a bad memory clothing burning?
Euna lowered Backbiter and sat down on the barrack's porch again. "You're Pax," she said, losing all interest.
The girl opened her mouth, like she was going to make an excuse, then shrugged and plopped down beside Euna. Her posture relaxed and she winked one golden eye at Euna. "Usually only Axel can figure me out that fast. What gave me away? My natural charm? Have you ever even seen me turn into someone else?"
"Calex and Kally told me you could," she said. "I just knew it was you."
"Can I offer you a kidney in exchange for not telling Axel?" Pax-Hazel asked. Hazel's sweet voice sounded uncanny with those words.
Euna didn't really see the point in telling Axel. "I don't care," she muttered. "Is Axel still getting ready?"
"Like a pretty princess," Pax affirmed. "He likes to make sure he's all neat and trim for Reyna, since he assumes the praetor likes the military-looking type. You know, short cropped hair, with just a hint of rebellion in the form of a goatee."
Euna didn't really hear him. She thought about how two of Santiago's henchmen had restrained Pax so Santiago could bleed his son. "How's your tongue?" she asked.
"Eh, it wasn't the first time I've had a string of thorns put through my tongue," Pax-Hazel tried to say lightly. He trembled. "But this time, Mom must have given me this cool tongue ring while we were sleeping—" Pax went to stick out his tongue, only to remember it looked like Hazel's and not his own. "Ah, well, I'll show you when I morph back. But it is awesome enough to befit a Pax boy."
Euna examined the girl's face, how Pax puffed up and popped her cheeks. Normally, Pax looked like a younger version of his father. Whenever Pax shoved his hair back, Euna had to restrain a wave of rage at seeing that face. "Do you ever hate yourself for being part of your family?" Euna asked.
Pax ceased all his fidgeting and looked at Euna. For a moment, all of Pax's playfulness left Hazel's golden eyes. "Yea… I do. It's one of the reasons I like turning into other people." He held up the remains of the apple core. From what the others said, they were gifts from Eris that let Pax turn into whomever he wanted for an unpredictable amount of time.
Pax continued, Hazel's mouth creasing into a frown. "And why I liked Camp Othrys so much. No one cared who my parents were. I could just be a kid and have fun. Though my Uncle Frasco was a cool part of the family, before Santiago beat him to death… I miss Joey already. She brought a lot of spirit—ha ha—to the group."
The laugh was half-hearted.
Euna stared off at the rest of Rome's encampment. There were a few sparse guards posted out in the distance, but no one close enough to hear them. "I'm so used to telling Joey to shut up, waiting for her to act disrespectful to the wrong person, throw a temper tantrum, or tell me I'm being a lazy waste. Now it's just quiet. I think… I think Hemera's god droplets messed with my head."
She touched her temple. "I get it now. It's hard for gods to care about us, because we're just one thing screaming out of their whole domain. How can you decide which scream to listen to when there are so many? When they blur into one thing? I never thought I was important. But I thought Joey would be." Euna's voice cracked.
Joey had been ambitious. No matter how many times Joey snapped that Euna was the better fighter or better at controlling plants, Euna knew Joey would surpass her because Joey cared. And then her hubris got her killed.
Euna hadn't cried, but she didn't think she needed to. Persephone had warned her years ago that she wouldn't be able to save their sister, that it wouldn't be Euna's fault. What had Persephone meant when she said she'd help Joey when the time came? Had Persephone just forgotten?
The emotions she was feeling were annoying and exhausting.
"Joey had a crush on you," Euna said absently.
Pax balked. "Why would you tell me that? And why would she get a crush on me? I'm sorta-kinda Kally's not-boyfriend. And I'm definitely a cowardly jerk."
Euna shrugged. "I don't know. Calex told me." Joey used to tease Euna for complete obliviousness about relationships, but she could sorta see it with Pax. Pax had never been afraid to tease Joey, made Joey struggle hard not to laugh at his lame jokes, and had never backed out of a fight in front of them.
Pax-Hazel cleared his throat. The small girl pulled her legs against herself. "There was a girl… named Flynn that I promised someone I would take care of before the Slaughter of Mount Othrys. Jason Grace blasted a pillar beside Flynn and she was crushed in the rubble. He didn't even know he killed her. He was aiming to crush Krios…" Pax puffed up and popped Hazel's cheeks again. "Fate works in stupid, random ways, doesn't it?"
Euna thought about the prophecy that the Oracle of the Dead spoke through Rachel Elizabeth Dare and the last two lines that hadn't been fulfilled yet:
"Orpheus' head, won by heart's loss.
Darkness' end: peace or chaos."
She thought about all their nightmare-prophecies from Phobetor. Hers and Merry's hadn't come to pass. And they didn't even know what Axel or Pax saw at night, but—from what she heard from Pax—it was enough to make Axel scream awake. A pity since everyone deserved a good night's sleep.
Was Fate stupid or random when there were prophecies like that? Well, yea, stupid. But random?
"Are you going to join the Huntresses of Artemis?" Pax asked suddenly.
"I don't know," she said.
"You seemed to get along really well with Thalia."
"She was cute," Euna admitted.
"Talk to her," Pax said and flipped Euna a denarius. "Even if it isn't about all of this, talk to her." Pax-Hazel stood up and stretched. "Welp! This conversation got uncomfortably emotional for both of us, and I still need to steal something from Frank Zhang while I look like his girlfriend so I have a bargaining tool for a date with a goddess. Have fun third-wheeling on Axel's date with Reyna. I will see you later after I'm done wreaking some havoc and stealing candy."
Pax went to take a step down the porch. As he moved, he adjusted his posture to a scarily perfect replica of Hazel's.
Euna tilted her head to one side. "Hey Pax… why do you think your mom is still giving you those golden apples if you're fighting against her? I feel like that would put her at a disadvantage or something."
Pax-Hazel's eyes widened. He slowly glanced down at the apple.
"Hazel!"
They both jumped to hear someone else in the darkness. A huge figure, with a hastily wrapped toga, came towards their barracks.
"Hey Frank!" Pax-Hazel gave Frank a friendly wave and a shy smile. "I was just chatting with Euna. Where's Reyna?"
Frank gave her a confused blink. "She went ahead to the training field. Why? Was she supposed to be somewhere else?" He looked like he was scared he'd missed a memo.
"I didn't think so. That Pax boy was asking about her and I just wanted to make sure," Pax-Hazel said.
Frank noticed Euna and gave her a brief head nod. "Oh—good morning. Euna, right? I heard you're training with us this morning. I—um…"
Euna nodded back, not really in the mood to say a morning could be good. As if that could ever be the case when she wasn't sleeping in. And she didn't need any more awkward sympathy from strangers.
"Thank you for talking with me, Euna," Pax-Hazel said. He/she took a step closer to Frank, to put a hand on his arm. "Do you mind if I steal Frank for a minute to talk alone? We'll catch up with you and Axel at the training field."
Frank frowned. "Hazel, are you sure that's a good idea?"
Euna knew the Romans didn't like them unattended. Especially after finding out Dakota had apparently slept on the job the other day.
Pax-Hazel gave Frank's arm a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry, I already set it up for them to be escorted. Now, I really wanted to talk to you…"
Pax-Hazel began to tug the praetor away, into the darkness. Euna hadn't been paying enough attention to the camp's layout to know exactly where they were going. She just nodded again when Frank shouted over his shoulder, "Uh—see you at the training fields!"
Euna was about to settle back into enjoying the silence when footsteps sounded behind her. She glanced back to see a freshly trimmed Axel and a Hazel Levesque. Euna was about to ask Pax why he'd doubled back again, before realizing that was likely the real Hazel.
"Morning Euna," Hazel greeted, tossing Euna a normal looking apple for breakfast. "Has Frank come by yet?"
Euna caught the apple and glanced off in the distance, thinking that Frank was probably a little too oblivious and innocent for whatever Pax had concocted. What had he said about a goddess? It didn't matter. They were already long gone. "He said he would see us at the training fields," Euna muttered and bit into the apple, wondering what Pax had planned.
Sorry I'm running late guys! Being out of the country really messed up my schedule. Pax is finally up to some shenanigans. You didn't think he could sit quietly in Rome, did you? XD I hope you enjoyed :D
