Ed XI
They were being held hostage by a little girl. When dinner was over, Shelby had kidnapped the three demigods, dragged them over to a couch, and started pelting them with questions. After the first dozen only Sapphire continued to answer.
"Who's the oldest demigod?" Shelby asked, just as enthusiastically as she had asked her first question.
"Greek or Roman?"
"Both!"
"Roman, there's a daughter of Juventas, I think, named Aeliana. Greek, Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares."
"How old are they?"
Sapphire thought for a moment. "civis Aeliana is around eighty, and Clarisse is twenty-one." At that, Sadie looked up from her magazine with surprise.
"The oldest Greek demigod is what?"
"Twenty-one." Sapphire repeated. "We don't tend to live long." Ed didn't get a chance to see Sadie's, or any other magician's, reaction to that statement, because Shelby's next question made both him and Lacy look quickly at Sapphire.
"How'd you get that scar?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Ed saw Lacy's face pale. Sapphire sat completely still except for a muscle that twitched in her jaw. Her eyes looked black. The other magicians in the living room had also noticed Sapphire's state.
"Shelby!" Alyssa exclaimed.
"Shelby, that's rude." Julian chided. Shelby began wilting under the deluge.
"Sorry." she said to Sapphire morosely. Sapphire didn't respond. Ed touched her sleeve gently.
"Sapphire. It's OK, we're safe." His best friend breathed in raggedly and he breathed out with relief. Unresponsive Sapphire was worrying, unresponsive and non-breathing Sapphire was just plain scary. Ed had learned that about a week after their friend Jeremy had died. The next level was unresponsive and mindlessly cruel and/or violent, which he had only seen her reach once and never wanted to see again.
"'Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honour.'" Sapphire murmured to herself in Ancient Greek. "Lacy, can I borrow your prism?"
Lacy blinked and then nodded. She handed the polished glass to Sapphire, who removed one of her gloves and held the prism in the palm of her left hand. Ed saw Lacy inch away, and he did the same. He really didn't feel like dying or having dandelions sprout out of his ears.
The magicians looked at each other warily as they noticed the two demigods moving. "Excuse me." Sadie said. "But what are you—" Sapphire's hand lit up. A few of the magicians gasped quietly, and Ed didn't blame them. The first time he had witnessed Sapphire using her powers he had needed to pinch himself repeatedly before he was convinced that he wasn't imagining things.
It had been painful.
The golden light streamed through the prism and created a yellow-tinted rainbow, which Sapphire used to start an Iris Message. "Please, show me Leo Valdez at Camp Half-Blood." The son of Hephaestus appeared in the rainbow with his sister, Nyssa, by his side. They were in the forge, judging by the machines behind them, and didn't notice the IM because they were looking down at their workbench.
"We'll put traps here, here and here." Nyssa said, pointing at the map that was on the workbench in front of them. "The Hecate kids are putting their traps here and here, and the Hermes kids here and here." She looked up, probably intending to look at something attached to the wall, and finally noticed the Iris Message. When she saw Sapphire's face she elbowed Leo frantically.
"Ow! Nyssa, what…?" he looked up, saw the Iris Message, and his face fell. "Aimi, what's wrong?" His upper arms burst into flames and Nyssa carefully inched out of the image.
"I should never have told you that story, Fire Boy. Oh, and you're on fire." Leo absentmindedly patted out the flames, leaving the sleeves of his shirt blackened.
"Sapphire, you're the colour of printer paper." All of the magicians were listening to the conversation, even the ones who were trying not to. Ed saw Shelby turn red at Leo's comment and Alyssa nod in agreement. "Please, tell me what's wrong."
"Someone just reminded me of him." Sapphire said. Leo clenched his jaw.
"Where are you?"
"Brooklyn House. What was that about traps?"
"Camp may or may not be under attack soon, so we're preparing. Who was it?"
"Leo, you can't beat up a little girl."
"What do you mean Camp might be attacked?!" Lacy exclaimed. Leo rubbed the back of his head.
"One of Will's sisters had a dream… It might not happen, but it's better to be ready."
"Was there warning for Camp Jupiter to?" Ed asked. "You did hear about what happened there, right?" Leo nodded.
"We heard. Don't know if there was any warning, but we sent over some of our medics. The Hecate Cabin managed to get their portal thing working." It was about time, as they had apparently been working on a portal between the two camps since the clean-up from the Giant War had ended. Then again, according to Mike the magic they were working with was really tricky. Ed wondered how long the portal would have taken to finish if they could have worked with the Egyptian magicians. A day, probably. The Egyptians, at least those at Brooklyn House, seemed to take portals everywhere.
Sapphire took a breath and Ed was relieved to see that her colour was back to normal, risen-from-the-grave pale, not paper white.
"Should we come back? I know you have Percy, and Nico, and Jason but…" Leo shook his head.
"Chiron said that we're not recalling any quests, and Hazel said that you're with the Egyptians already."
"You talked to Hazel?" Sapphire asked quickly. "She's OK? Not buried?"
"You're talking about the girl who can create tunnels. And besides, you'd know if she was in danger." Sapphire rubbed the tattoo on the back of her neck and blushed, embarrassed.
"I worry." she defended herself. "She's my sister, and Nico's sister. You know how he gets." Ed and Lacy nodded with Leo. When it came to the children of the Big Three who were currently alive, Nico was definitely the scariest and the most overprotective. Woe betide anyone or anything that harmed his family! Percy Jackson came a very (very) close second though. Or maybe Jason Grace. Hazel was pretty scary in her own right and Sapphire…
All Big Three kids were scary and overprotective.
Ed blinked as he realized he'd lost track of the conversation. Dam ADHD, can't take a dam vacation. Maybe go to Hoover Dam… He was zoning out again.
"…feels guilty." Leo was saying. "He resigns, moves across the country, and then the Twelfth Legion is attacked by monsters that only he can control. Piper's been trying to talk him out of it." He was obviously talking about Jason. Ed didn't blame the guy for feeling guilty, anyone would.
"I hope you didn't leave those two alone." Sapphire said seriously. "After Clari—" She cut herself off. "Never mind. Forget it. Sadie, do you guys have memory erasing spells?"
"I don't think so." Sadie said slowly.
"Pity." Sapphire said, massaging her temples.
"Please insert another drachma for two more minutes." said the voice of Fleecy the cloud nymph from the rainbow. Sapphire looked at Leo and said something in automaton. He smiled and replied, also in automaton. The magicians looked confused at the clicking and creaking sounds that they were making, but Lacy and Ed just rolled their eyes at each other.
"Bye Leo." Sapphire said finally.
"Bye."
Lacy and Ed waved to the son of Hephaestus and the Iris Message ended of its own accord. Sapphire looked down at the prism in her hand, blinked, and quickly gave it back to Lacy. Sadie coughed.
"It's getting late." she said. "How about we find you that room I promised?" The three demigods thankfully got up and followed the quasi daughter of Osiris out of the room of staring magicians. At the stairs, Ed pulled Sapphire aside.
"You know I'm always here for you." he said quietly.
"I know." she replied. "You're my best friend, my parabatai… but I needed someone who was there." Ed knew what she meant. If someone were to drag his memories of the deaths of Jeremy and Robert into the light, then he would only be able to talk to Sapphire, not Amber, or Mike, or their mortal friend Elizabeth. He would need someone who understood everything.
"I understand." he told her. "Just remember, alright?" Sapphire nodded.
"Are you two coming?" Lacy called from the top of the first flight of stairs.
"Coming!" Sapphire shouted. They began the ascent.
"Oh, and Sapphire, we've already met Percy Jackson and Sadie Kane. We don't need to add Isabelle Lightwood and Magnus Bane to that list."
"What about Alec? Didn't you have a crush on him after City of Glass?" Ed felt his face turn red. "Of course," Sapphire continued. "I guess that wouldn't matter now thanks to a certain son of Hecate…"
"Sapphire!" His best friend giggled and ran up the stairs. "You are not a child of Aphrodite!" he shouted after her.
The one child of Aphrodite present looked back and forth between the two of them, and, when Ed had reached the landing, said, "She's right, you know."
Ed put his face in his hands and counted to three. When he looked up he had a small smile on his face. "You know me way to well." Sapphire grinned.
"parabatai, remember?"
Entreat me not to leave thee,
Or return from following after thee—
The girls continued up the stairs and Ed followed.
For whither thou goest, I will go.
A/N: OK, lots of credits for this chapter. The part about Hestia that's in italics is from the Homeric Hymns. I picture Sapphire using the Hymns like I use the first line of the Lord's Prayer, something to recite to calm herself down. Isabelle Lightwood and Magnus Bane are Cassandra Clare's characters from the series "The Mortal Instruments" and "The Infernal Devices". The parabatai oath (the italics at the end) also belongs to Cassandra Clare, as well as the idea of parabatai.
-Cynder2013
