"How long does it need to be a secret for? Because having a sorcerer on our side would be quite the coup, especially if we teach you how to swing a sword too."

Keeping an eye on their surroundings as they walked towards the dining pavilion, Harvey shrugged when he realised that Clarisse was waiting for a response. "I don't know yet, I just get the feeling that I can't let people know about it yet," he answered honestly, making his aunt grunt under her breath. "Besides, wouldn't it be better to keep it a secret right up until I'm throwing fireballs at the bad guys?"

Clarisse smirked a little at that, tilting her head and nodding. "Point," she acknowledged, "Those nerds are never going to see this coming. When can you arrange extra lessons?"

"I'm meeting her right after breakfast in the Big House," Harvey reported, making his aunt nod. "I'm not sure how much we're going to go over, she said she wants me up to a certain standard by Friday, but I only managed a chapter and a half of that book last night."

"More than I can manage," Clarisse muttered in agreement, "I've been reading some strategy books, I'd rather never touch a sword again than read another page. Now," she continued louder as they reached the dining pavilion and headed towards the buffet table in the centre, "Before you eat you have to sacrifice a little of your food, so always take some extra sausages or a spare steak, Ares naturally loves his red meat."

Feeling oddly like he was breaking his zero-religion rule, Harvey obeyed and watched as the sausages were burned up immediately in the brazier by a flash of dark flames, the bacon following suit much slower as if the fire was being forced to eat its greens before dessert. Which was weird, because who didn't like bacon?

"I'm an atheist," he whispered as they sat down at the end of a red table covered in knife marks and carvings. "My mother used to force me to go to church with her until I was fifteen and had an… accident… with the minister's son. This doesn't count as-"

"It doesn't count as religion because it's real," Clarisse interrupted, rolling her eyes. "You're not sitting in a church hoping that you're right about your beliefs and giving them money because they tell you you'll go to hell if you don't. The Greek Gods won't threaten to send you to hell just because you like boys, most of them have had boyfriends themselves after all. They won't send you to hell because you don't follow their rules. Sure, you piss one of them off and you're going to get your ass smote, but they're basically the snobbish popular girls at high school compared to the 'real God' being that psychotic kid who nobody talks to because he'll cut them if they look at him funny."

Just because he liked boys? How the fuck did she-

"Chiron says he prefers to remain in the physical world," Leo added, interrupting the panic beginning to boil up in his mind. "That 'God' is a metaphysical matter or whatever. Personally, I think that means he either doesn't know if God is real or not, or that he just get really sick of religious demigods trying to start a holy war. It happens more often that you'd think."

"Chiron usually takes those demigods to Olympus to meet the gods," Clarisse finished with a smirk, "They usually come back with the fear of Zeus put in them, if they come back at all."

The two smirked as Harvey picked at his food, the amount of grease dripping from the bacon enough to make his stomach turn. Sure, he had a good metabolism, being a teenage boy and all that, but if he started here for the year his training would take he'd end up the size of a small elephant.

"Eat your breakfast," Leo ordered sternly, "You'll burn through energy too fast if you don't. It's cooked in proper olive oil, if that makes you feel better, the dryads and nymphs do the cooking and they're all vegans who like to cook things as healthily as they can."

You used oil to cook bacon? Somebody was doing it wrong here, and he was pretty sure it wasn't him.

"And yes, we make vegans cook our meat for us," Clarisse added with an even bigger smirk, "Because unlike mortals, they don't sit there whining and bitching about it. They know their diet and they know the human diet. And they cook a mean steak."

"Hell yeah," Leo mumbled around a mouthful of bacon, grinning dumbly as Harvey gagged a little.

The blood stopped pouring as the skin sealed itself shut like a zip-lock bag. Watching as Will ran a wet wipe across his shoulder to wash away the blood, Harvey slowly tested the limb and felt the ache already fading rapidly.

"Careful. It'll be tender for a couple of minutes while it finishes healing internally, just sit out a couple of rounds before you re-join us," the blond warned absently, tossing the red-soaked wipes into a small bin to the side. "There are some benefits to training with the sons of the God of Healing, eh?"

Letting the other teen jump up onto the table beside him, both of them watching the duelling demigods for a moment, Harvey cracked his neck and pretended not to notice the way Will glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Was he being flirted with? He was normally rather on point about whether Caleb was making a move or not, but he wasn't as hyperaware of everything Will did as he was his partner. He probably hadn't needed to take his shirt off for a simple gash on his shoulder, and Will probably hadn't needed to basically molest his stomach to 'hold him in place' long enough to heal said gash, especially when healing it considered mostly of singing under his breath and poking the wound. Harvey wasn't flirting back, he was making sure of it, but he couldn't really say anything without sounding like a jerk if he was wrong. Will might just be friendly, he'd given Harvey a standing invitation to join his training sessions the other day, after all.

"The pros of being able to heal don't really make up for the con of you being the reason I needed healing in the first place," he said finally, making Will snort.

"You're not used to it yet, you got the hang of gripping the sword like a natural, but you still need to build up the strength in your fingers to allow you to block with it effectively. It'll take a while, but you won't even notice it happening when it does. A successful defence is the most important part of a fight, whether its dodging or blocking, simply not getting hit will increase your odds of winning," the other boy explained slowly.

In his personal experience, cutting someone in half with a magic sword increased his odds of winning too.

"Of course," Will continued thoughtfully, frowning down at the ground. "You are a legacy of Ares. You might get it in half the time it'll take someone else, depending on how much Ares 'DNA' you got from your dad."

"You're sure your brothers won't mind me tagging along for the rest of the day?" Harvey added, hoping to change the subject. "Clarisse and the others are running drills, I was rather pointedly warned of impending death if I hung around them."

"It's fine," the blond said absently, too busy staring into space to put more effort into sounding reassuring. "Normally you'd train with Ares cabin, but since they live for a fight they all automatically volunteered for barrier patrol. We're splitting their duties between Apollo, Hermes, and Athena cabins until everything's fixed again."

"WILL! Get off your ass and patch Dave up!" the tallest blond in the group shouted, waving Will over to a demigod with blood pouring out from beneath his fingers.

Harvey didn't need to have good hearing to hear the muttered "Stop flirting with the new kid and do your job," that Lee Fletcher added as his half-brother ran past. "Blair! You can take Dave's place against Jess."

Grabbing his borrowed sword and sliding off the table, he froze as he rounded Fletcher to find himself standing opposite the blond amazon he'd tussled with yesterday, the girl looking like it was her lucky day as she stroked her sword provocatively. Absently wondering if it was worth risking Clarisse's wrath by interrupting their training session, Harvey settled into a fighting stance and quickly shifted it as Fletcher gave a few muttered corrections before turning away.

And then there was a flash of light before his sword was on the ground, the back his hand bleeding and stinging as Jess stepped away smirking, her own hand still glowing slightly.

"Pick it up," she ordered, flicking her sword in the direction of his own.

Sadist.

By the sixth time he'd been disarmed by the demigoddess, the spots in his eyes felt permanent and she'd moved on from the bloody mess of his hands and had started cutting up his arms instead. And not to sound like he was whining, but he'd been under the impression that they were supposed to be teaching him here, not outright torturing him – because from the look on Jess' face it was obvious that's exactly what she was doing.

Blinking back tears as his sword went flying and a gash was opened up across his face, Harvey glared darkly at the girl as her amusement only grew, snatching up his sword again and wiping the blood away from his eye. If he scarred from this, he would learn how to put a curse on someone just to get revenge on this bitch.

"Jess! What the fuck?"

"It's fine," he cut in quickly, refusing to look at the pissed-off Lee Fletcher as he stormed over, "She's teaching me."

Fletcher snorted. "There's a difference between teaching and-"

"You heard him," Jess interrupted, "I'm teaching him a lesson. His kind don't belong here."

There was definitely a lesson here, he'd gone easy on her yesterday when he really should have put her in the grave. Consider that lesson learnt.

Fletcher stood there, crossing his arms as Harvey slid into his stance again, sword raised and free hand flexing pre-emptively. "It's fine," he promised, not looking away from Jess as her hand began glowing again, telekinetically sliding his knife from its sheath and hovering it behind him. "I've got this."

He didn't know who struck first, both of their hands moving at the same time as light flashed and someone – thankfully not him – screamed in pain.

"You fucking cheat!"

"The only unfair advantage is the one your enemy has and you don't," Harvey shot back, opening his eyes to watch Jess yanking the throwing knife from her thigh and tossing it at him, missing terribly. Caleb's private school was good for something it seemed, he'd have never heard that phrase if his boy hadn't gone there, and as often as he abused it he kind of needed it in his life.

Almost everyone in the clearing turned to face Fletcher expectantly, the eldest son of Apollo just shrugged lazily as one of them healed their sister's leg. "Jess introduced powers first, so I'll allow it. Now, try again," the head of Apollo Cabin ordered. "One disarms, the other counters. And I'm watching you, Jessica, don't push your luck."

"Can someone heal me too?" he asked quickly. "She kind of mangled me before."

"No powers, either of you," the man instructed, waving someone forward who sang under his breath softly, sealing his wounds shut without all the touching Will had used. As the cuts scattered across his hands and arms literally sealed together - which was a morbidly fascinating process to watch – he glanced over to see Fletcher latching onto Jess' arm and leaning in close, whispering furiously, his words inaudible until Harvey retook his place inside the 'arena' of bodies.

"Don't show her any mercy."

Eyes snapping towards where Jay was standing just within the arena, Harvey's eyes narrowed at the ghost who moved forward and shot Jess a dark look. "You're not a mortal, you're a demigod. Every second since you've found out the truth of what you are, you've been getting stronger," Jay continued, eyes locked with his own, "You can beat her, you just need to centre yourself. You've got this."

"This is training, not an open duel," Fletcher called as Harvey closed his eyes, breathing deeply and trying to find that calm spot inside him. "One disarms, the other counters. The first to break from that pattern, will be cleaning the bathroom floors with a toothbrush for a month," he threatened, "Go."

Jess didn't even pretend to follow Fletcher's instructions, sword dancing straight towards Harvey's throat. This wasn't fun anymore. It had been fun when he'd first joined the group, running through a series of blocks and parries in a spacious formation. It had been fun when they'd partnered off into duos to practice said blocks and parries. It'd even been kind of fun when his attempt at disarming had ended in him being stabbed. But this? This wasn't fun, this was on par with the Fury trying to kill him, the only difference was that it was a fellow demigod instead of a monster.

And that pissed him off.

Deflecting Jess' blade to the side with a liberal application of telekinesis, Harvey spun around her body and kicked her in the small of the back, sending her stumbling forward as he debated ending the fight before it truly begun. He didn't need to have the finger strength to block her if he just parried her sword to the side, and he didn't need training to know how to win. But was this really the time to reveal his magic? Circling around the glaring demigod, unable to help but notice that neither Fletcher nor the others were intervening, he considered his options to be getting more and more limited as every second went by.

He could summon his knife, he always felt better with his knife in hand, and he knew he'd fight better too. He could disarm her telekinetically and beat her to near-death with her own sword. He could break his promise to Lou Ellen already and conjure fire to scare her off. Hell, Harvey could probably beat her if he simply fought dirty, which he normally did.

"You don't belong here," Jess growled, lowering her head and charging.

She came to a sudden stop as he raised a hand, curling his fingers into an iconic gesture. "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

There was a series of chuckles from the teens around him at the quote, the laughter cutting off immediately as Jess started scrabbling at her throat for air. Harvey really should have done this against the Fury, since it was working so well, the bitch opposite him on her hands and knees as he kept a tight telekinetic grip around her neck. Relaxing it a bit as her face went purple, he let her get some air before tightening his grip, repeating that until he saw her tapping at the ground in the universal symbol for 'I surrender'.

Nobody spoke as Jess gasped for air, Harvey just watching her with his hand ready at his side for round three. He didn't doubt there'd be one, and he didn't doubt she'd bring friends with her next time. And likewise, he didn't doubt that merely choking her out again would be enough to make her back down.

Twisting about as Jess' recovery heralded another attempt at outright murder, he dropped to one knee and punched the ground as hard as he could. It was strange, much like how he'd known that he could change his knife into a sword, he just knew that if he pushed at the ground just right, he could make the ground push back.

And push back it did, a blunt spike of earth – looking suspiciously like a fist – burst out from the ground to collide with Jess' stomach. The pillar losing shape and falling back to the ground as loose dirt as the demigoddess went flying back with a scream, hitting her encircling siblings like a bowling bowl did the pins.

Hand hurting a little, because punching the ground did that, Harvey straightened up and tried to look like he'd done that on purpose. It didn't matter in the end, because as Jess struggled to her feet with an arm wrapped around her stomach, Fletcher strode over to knock her back down and pin her with his foot. Oh, now he was going to interfere? He didn't care to get involved back when Harvey's head was on the line, but now that he'd shown he was capable of actually hurting his sister he put his foot down? That was cheap, and kind of a big warning not to trust these guys, more so than he'd already distrusted Jess. Was this what Clarisse had meant about needing support against other cabins? Did Ares Cabin truly have that bad of a reputation at this camp that such a precaution was actually necessary?

"Robin, Clint," Fletcher barked, staring down at Jess for a moment before stepping away from her. "Escort our dear sister down to see Chiron, I'll be along in a moment. Everyone else, find something else to do with your time, we're done here."

Yeah, yeah, they were.

Doing his best to avoid stomping away like a petulant child, Harvey caught Jay's eye before turning and leaving, the gathered demigods parting like the Red Sea before him. Returning the borrowed sword to the rack, he refused to stop as someone called his name, instead focusing his eyes on Jay's back as the ghost led the way through the forest. He wasn't going to go running to Clarisse to whine and bitch, he would warn her about what had happened, but right now he wanted to go somewhere private to whine and bitch to Jay where no one could hear him so he could preserve his reputation.

"I'm not going to lie," Jay said when Harvey finally caught up, "I've got no idea what that was, aside from awesome, I mean. I've never seen anyone do that before. Was that the magic Lou Ellen has been teaching you?"

"No."

Jay shot him a curious look. "You can tell?"

"Yes."

"Oooh, one word answers, very masculine of you," Jay deadpanned, "You're so strong and mysterious, I'm practically swooning."

Ignoring the now unhelpful ghost, Harvey sped up and ended up on the beach, following the shoreline at random. Leaving Jay to trail after him, he faltered at the sight of someone else walking the shoreline too, the couple thankfully too wrapped up in each other to notice him as he turned and walked the other way instead.

"Percy Jackson; Son of Poseidon," Jay offered softly, "Perhaps the strongest demigod in over a century. It's been that long since there's been a child of the Big Three, they swore to never have kids again after the massacres their kids caused during the American Civil War."

"Good to see they keep their word," Harvey muttered.

"They're the Big Three, who's going to hold them accountable?" Jay scoffed, shaking his head as Harvey passed him.

Stopping to scoop up a rock around the size of his fist, he levitated it into the air and made it orbit his hand like some kind of fucked up moon. The two of them stood there quietly for a moment, Jay managing to bite back whatever he wanted to say for a while before finally letting out a long slow exhale with his question.

"How are you feeling?"

Telekinetically hurling the stone as far across the water as he could, Harvey watched as it vanished off into the distance, something in his chest aching at the otherwise innocent question.

"I wanna go home."

"That was out of line, what she did," Jay mumbled, making Harvey grunt. "You know Clarisse is going to tear Apollo Cabin apart, right?"

"Clarisse doesn't like me, Leo might try something but he's the only one here who likes me," Harvey corrected bluntly. He'd only been here one day, so he wasn't that surprised that he only had one friend here so far, but the feeling that he'd already fucked things up with his 'role model' kinda felt like a punch to the gut. "But it's fine, I'm not going to hold back anymore."

"Clarisse is going to tear Apollo Cabin apart for thinking they could get away with hurting one of hers," the ghost repeated firmly, "It doesn't matter if she likes you or not, Ares cabin stands together."

"She'll murder me when she's finished with them."

Jay nodded. "She'll murder you when she's finished," he agreed.

"So, I heard you killed one of Lee Fletcher's sisters."

Pausing, sandwich halfway to his mouth, Harvey's eyes flicked up as Clarisse dropped down into the seat opposite him. His aunt (He really needed to get a hang of that) raised an eyebrow at him before grabbing one of his sandwiches off his plate despite the stacked pile of sandwiches right beside her.

Here comes the murder.

"I tried, they kept healing her right before the good part."

His aunt's chuckle was bloodthirsty, leading credence to the view of Ares Cabin that everyone had. "They do that," she acknowledged before fixing him with a look that matched her laugh, "Lou Ellen stopped by earlier, she had a few choice words for me regarding you. I don't like being chewed out because of you, nephew."

"I overheard some of the Apollo boys talking, they had a few choice words regarding me too," Harvey muttered, glancing past his aunt at the table crowded by the kids of the God of Healing. As expected, a couple of them looked up and glared when they saw him looking. Thankfully there were some of them that didn't seem bothered by their sister's beating, and some seemed to be scowling at him just out of principle. "I'm not going to get chewed out by them with fists, am I?"

"They won't risk it," Clarisse dismissed, "Lou Ellen will, though, for breaking your word."

"I ain't broken anything," he denied quickly.

His aunt looked even less pleased with him than she had before, "You promised us both you wouldn't use magic without supervision."

"Then it's a good thing I was surrounded by supervising demigods who didn't care about me getting dead," Harvey snapped, glancing around belatedly and lowering his voice. "And that it wasn't magic," he added to try calm the fire almost literally burning in his aunt's eyes, "I'm more than just a legacy, remember?"

It looked like Clarisse hadn't remembered, as she blinked at him in confusion before pushing to her feet and grabbing his arm, pulling at him to make him stand. "I don't think you understand how powerful most demigods are," she explained quietly, piling enough sandwiches to feed a small army on a plate and bringing it with them as she dragged him from the pavilion. "I'm the Ares councillor because I'm the strongest one, not only because I'm the best fighter, but also because I'm the only one out of all of us to have any 'active powers'."

Active powers? Like Charmed active powers?

"And having two powers is unusual?" Harvey questioned.

"Two powers?" Clarisse echoed, pulling him to a stop and frowning at him, searching his face like she was looking for something. "You can summon weapons like a son of Ares," she listed, "That makes one. Two is telekinesis, Lou Ellen says it's a little too developed to be an aspect of magic, she's starting to wonder if you're one of her lot. Three is another Hecate power, the ability to see spirits. Magic is four, more proof in Lou Ellen's book. And then five is this rock thing you did earlier."

Shifting on his feet uncomfortably, a little unhappy that he was apparently that powerful but simultaneously pleased that he was, Harvey looked around to ensure nobody had heard the list. "Aren't two and three both part of four?"

A shoulder shrugged, "Not according to Lou Ellen they're not," Clarisse dismissed. "Now, I don't like anybody who isn't me having that much power, but if anyone has to have it then I'll settle for it being one of mine," she confessed, "And you honestly couldn't have come at a better time, there are hordes of hellhounds circling this place as we speak and I'm not going to turn down the extra sword, but-"

"Yeah, count me out," Harvey interrupted quickly, shaking his head as he felt his heartbeat quicken at the mere word. "I'll fight Furies for you, I'll fight giant fucking snakes and robot birds, but if there are hellhounds I'm running the other way."

Clarisse stared at him for a moment before her eyes dropped to take in his jacket, jumping back up to his face in silent question.

In equally silent answer he crossed his arms, fighting down his shudder and choosing to take on Clarisse over the hordes of hellhounds outside the fragile dying barrier. Shit… he was scaring himself.

"Don't like dogs?" Clarisse asked innocently.

"Don't like horse-sized shadow dogs that almost killed me," Harvey countered, "All I knew was that I was mildly psychic, I had no warning, just a giant fucking dog trying to tear off my leg."

"I don't like clowns," the taller brunette admitted, reaching out with her non-sandwich bearing hand to punch him in the shoulder. "We're all allowed an irrational fear."

Oh, he really wanted to show her an 'irrational fear'. Or… well that didn't make sense, he wanted to beat her so hard she developed one? But that would be counterproductive since it wasn't an irrational fear if it was brought about through rational means. Like how he'd developed his very rational fear after nearly being murdered.

"Harvey?"

Turning on his heel and striding away from Clarisse, once again doing his best to not look like a petulant child, he moved off in a random direction and just hoped he'd end up somewhere he recognised. He may be a man – and therefore be good with directions – but he'd only been here for a day and a half, so he was allowed to get a little lost in his attempt to get as far away from Clarisse as possible. (So long as he didn't get too close to the hellhounds, his palms felt clammy just thinking about them).

"Is it true?" he demanded as a familiar visage fell into step beside him, Jay trying to avoid making eye contact with him as the ghost gestured for him to go left, a glimpse of a red cabin in the distance making him speed up. "Am I really some kind of superpowered freak?"

"You're not a freak," Jay corrected angrily, darting forward so he could walk backwards in front of Harvey. "Never call yourself that again."

"Answer me."

Jay looked like he wanted to be sick, his jaw clenching for a moment before he stepped to the side and his shoulders slumped in. "You're… above average," he conceded stiffly, "You inherited your father's blade, including its summoning enchantment. Being both a legacy and a demigod makes you a little more divine than most, so it's no surprise that you're magically capable, which despite what that Ellen chick claims accounts for your telekinesis and necromancy. And well… your mother isn't exactly a sea nymph, so I'm not surprised you inherited something from her. You're powerful, not super powerful, but it doesn't seem that way to people whose only active ability is the power to pick locks with their mind."

Pushing open the door to Ares Cabin and stepping in, absently checking to make sure that they were alone, Harvey kicked the door shut and turned a scowl on Jay as the ghost walked through it. Studying the man for a moment, trying to spot any signs of deceit, he finally nodded and pulled two swords to him telekinetically. He needed to unwind, seriously unwind, before he snapped, and he couldn't think of a better way to do so than to have some fun.

"You said you were going to teach me," he reminded when Jay opened his mouth, "Can you even hold a sword? Or are you just going to run me through it?"

"The latter. You might be able to touch me, but that doesn't mean you can just give me a sword to hold," Jay explained, hand on the small of Harvey's back guiding him back towards the centre of the cabin. "I can guide you through it though. But Harvey, it won't be easy," he warned, "This isn't some crappy movie where the hero picks up his brother-in-arm's sword and defeats the bad guy, that's the fastest way to end up dead by your own hand. You're not General Grievous spinning your swords around like a fucking ceiling fan. Am I clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good. Now put one of those swords back and summon your father's sword," Jay ordered before pointing at a metal heavy-duty door at the far end of the cabin. "And then go get yourself a baldric from the armoury, your father would expect you to carry Ilingos at all times, and so will I."

Sending the sword back to the rack and summoning his father's one, Harvey held it up to the light and watched the light gleam off the rune-like letters carved into the hilt guard. 'Ilingos'? Was that what it said? And hadn't Clarisse called it 'Vertigo' earlier? It was a beautiful sword, now that he'd stopped to actually look at it, elegant in its simplicity and shit. The bronze (Celestial Bronze, if he remembered correctly) blade was narrow at the base, widening out near the tip before sharply narrowing again, like a triangular leaf that ended in a razor sharp point. Weight-wise it was definitely heavier than the sword he'd used during training before, heavier towards the point than the hilt, perfect for putting his strength behind every swing.

"Hey! Grab a baldric!" Jay shouted from across the room.

"I don't even know what a fucking baldric is!" Harvey yelled back.

"The underarm sheath thingy!" the ghost clarified, "The leather strap that goes across your chest, you hang your sword off it at your hip. Like in the movies."

Making an understanding noise deep in his throat, Harvey followed Jay into the room that was holy shit. "It's bigger on the inside," he blurted before pausing and rolling his eyes. "Caleb watches too much Doctor Who."

AN / So this chapter was a lot longer than I'd expected it to be, simply because I HAD to have that Edward Elric scene in there (It's relevant to the plot later, don't judge me), and then I saw a picture of Darth Vader as a D&D Cleric with the whole "I find your lack of faith disturbing" quote. I couldn't pick which one to choose, so I just chose both.