A Crown of Golden Leaves
By xXTheDragonRiderXx
June 2015

Title: A Crown of Golden Leaves
Category: Het (Canon AU)
Characters/Pairings: Percy/Annabeth
Ratings/Warnings: T+/angst, major character death, violence, language, Romans, fluff, historical inaccuracies,
Tags: soulmates, good vs. evil, AU, Greco-Roman AU, omg what has this fic turned into?, truth and lies, light and darkness, right and wrong, destiny, arranged marriages, FLUFF, feelings, relationships,
Summary: Annabeth, a princess from the declining polis called Athens, must marry the Heir Apparent of Rome, Perseus, in order to save her country and the rapidly expanding world from a threat even the gods couldn't foresee.

PART I OF II: Where the Light Is

"Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering." – Saint Augustine

Caput XXV: On the Edge of the Ocean

Tarentum

A sinking feeling began in the pit of Percy's stomach as he and Jason rounded the final bend in the road, walking on foot, and looked down at the small town of Tarentum.

The ground had been scorched and upturned. Weapons had been strewn everywhere, and if Percy paid attention closely enough, he could see long, narrow white things. Bones? He was sure he didn't want to know, if the heavy, oppressive feeling in the air was something to go by.

Somehow, he knew that his people did this— Roman soldiers did this. He didn't really know how he knew that, just that he did. His pater ordered the Roman military to takeover a small trading port, and for what? More land? Roma barely traveled by sea. For his greed then? He didn't understand. Why had his pater not informed him of this? No, why didn't his pater try to form an alliance? Tarentum was small, it didn't have its own government, let alone a military. So why...

"Gods," Jason breathed, and when he turned around, his eyes were round as though he were surprised. Percy wondered if he knew about this. Probably not. "Did we do this?"

"Yeah," he said, kicking at a white rock. It crumbled to pieces, like ashes blowing into the wind. His head spun and his stomach churned. He could taste something bitter in the back of his mouth. "We did this."

He saw that the buildings were falling into the rough, unforgiving sea.

"Things will be different when you're Caesar." Jason told him quietly. Percy forced himself to smile in an effort to lighten the mood as he looked at him.

"Careful. What you're saying could be considered treason."

Jason shrugged. "It's the truth."

Percy looked back at the city. Maybe it would be different, and maybe not. He didn't know how to do anything differently from what his pater taught him, and even if he did somehow change it in his lifetime, then what about in the future? He knew human nature. Fear and greed were primary motives— mankind rarely did something that was beneficial for future generations. And even if they did do something now, some egomaniac will just come in and destroy it all.

How could he go up against something like that? Or was he just being arrogant? Ignorant? Naïve?

"Stop doubting yourself," Jason interrupted. "You'll figure something out eventually, and you don't need all the answers now."

He smiled a little more genuinely. He knew Jason was right. He'd figure it out eventually, but for now he just needed to look into the happenings of this town. Why did I think Rome was a happy place in the first place anyway? He wondered, but when he tried to think back, he couldn't remember his reasons. Maybe he had just been parroting what his pater kept telling him. It wouldn't be the first time after all.

Am I really still that naive? He wondered, but then he dismissed it quickly. Impossible. He was a twenty-year-old man, not a ten year old boy.

"I still can't understand how you like wearing scratchy peasant clothing." Jason said, suddenly changing the subject. Percy looked down at his tunic and tried not to smile at the dull brown-gray cotton. Very different from the purple silk he wore usually.

"I don't get stared at like I'm an animal on display when I wear peasant clothes." He didn't really think about his answer as he walked around his horse and pulled out his cloak.

"Sometimes," Jason began, shaking his head. "I really don't understand you."

"Two hundred denarii."

For a moment, Percy thought he had misheard the innkeeper, and he clutched his pouch of money close to his waist. Ridiculous.

"Two hundred denarii?" He repeated, just to make sure. He hadn't expected it to be more than fifty denarii for a single room. He did have enough money to cover it, but it was still a lot. Too bad this was the only inn in town, otherwise he'd have gone somewhere else if he could. A part of him contemplated just sleeping outside again.

"Aye, son. Two hundred denarii for 'un room with two cots and a hot grub of fish and wine. Times are hard fer eve'yone."

Percy shook his head as he pulled the coins out, glad that Jason was outside the inn otherwise he would have probably have a tantrum and get them thrown out. If he thought the price was ridiculous, then he couldn't imagine his reaction...

He heard children laughing and shrieking so he assumed Jason was playing with them. Jason always had been good with children—better than himself, and Percy liked children, and definitely better than Reyna or Rachel.

"How much is it for the fish and wine?"

The man rubbed his beard, but Percy couldn't help but notice how his eyes didn't leave his moneybag. He made a mental note to keep it with him at all times.

"Twenty for 'un fish and twenty 'un glass of wine."

"That makes the room one hundred and twenty then," he calculated aloud. Still rather pricey, but he still felt guilty over the ravaged landscape coming into the town, which made him feel obliged to give extra money to the town. Besides, they were undercover. He wondered if there was enough time before nightfall to walk down to the seaside.

"You a smart 'un den, are ya? We don' get many like you."

I can't imagine why, I feel like I'm becoming stupid just being around your stinking breath.

"My wife is smarter than me." He evaded the question, not speaking his thoughts out loud. He didn't want people to find out who he really was, since he was sure there was leftover resentment at the Roman Empire. That would be the end of getting away from Roma. His pater had always been overprotective.

"Women always are, even when they're being dumb."

He laughed a little nervously and scratched the back of his neck. He decided to not voice his agreement, because he didn't want her to find out. Just in case. It never hurt to be a little careful, especially when it came to Annabeth. He had a habit of underestimating her.

He pulled out the last coin and pushed the small pile over the counter. The man grinned, giving Percy a full view of his chipped and yellow teeth.

"Excellent. Thank you very much, err..."

"Percy." He supplied. "Thank you for the room, Sir."

"It was my pleasure!"

As he walked up the creaking stairs to deposit his satchel, he got the feeling he had just been robbed somehow. He brushed it off quickly though.

"Where're you going?" Jason asked as he walked by, holding his arms out so that a boy and a girl could hang off them. Percy wondered how he even noticed him with how much he was concentrating on them, but then he realized that he was praetor.

He'd be a pretty awful praetor if he didn't know what was going on around him.

"Down to the seaside."

"Careful around the rocks, friend of Jason! They're slippery." The girl said as she dropped down and earnestly looked up at him. She even tugged on his sleeve a little. Percy smiled.

"Aw, Martiel. Stop being such a worrywart! He's big!" The boy complained. The girl –Martial—glared at him, so he spoke up quickly to avoid an argument between the two siblings.

"Don't worry, I'll be careful. And thanks for the warning. I'm sure I may have slipped into the water if you didn't tell me." Which, technically wasn't true, but Martiel grinned up at him and her bright eyes made the white lie worth it.

He waved over his shoulder as he walked away, pretending he didn't hear her, "I told you so, Abraham."

His mind wandered with his feet, and his thoughts eventually went to the future. Like, if he and Annabeth would one day have children that got along well with each other. He hoped so.

It was lonely being an only child, though he would never admit that out loud. To anyone. Reyna and Jason were like family to him, and he knew she was the closest thing he had to a sister, but it just wasn't the same. He didn't know how he knew that. He just did.

And if he had a sibling... He didn't really know. He was sure he would have tried to be his (or her) friend, because having a sibling meant that you would have a friend for life. Honestly, he didn't understand why brothers and sisters hated each other, like Reyna and her sister. After all, wouldn't it be better to have a friend for life then an enemy? Because you're related by blood, and he didn't care about other opinions on that.

A sparkling, silver expanse formed on the horizon as the terrain grew rockier. He was getting close now, and he had to stop himself from skipping the rest of the way. He didn't want to slip.

Didn't stop his face from feeling like it was about to break in half. He must be grinning.

He knew he could dry himself off, but the idea of getting cold didn't excite him much. The leaves had begun to change colors.

He sat down on a rock when he finally got over the edge —the girl had been right, it was slippery— then he stared out at the water, and the sight took his breath away almost.

The water stretched as far as he could see, to the horizon. The colors changed, from gray to blue to green with the reflection from the sun and the sky.

The waves slammed against the rocks so hard that the spray leapt fifty, sixty feet into the air. When the tide ebbed away, it left white, foamy stuff on the surface and sea creatures scuttling around. Just as quickly, ripples and waves would creep up against the white shore, eventually break into sea foam and slide back into the sea, taking and leaving shells and seaweed with it's motion. Then just as suddenly, it would slam against the cliffs so hard that it surprised him they didn't break under the sea's might.

Seagulls circled the sky and cried and dove into the water, probably trying to catch some fish. The ocean makes a sucking sound, and when he stuck his tongue out, he could taste the salt in the air. And the smell... like saltwater and fish at the same time. It was like no other scent.

"Beautiful, isn't she?"

Percy jumped and he reached for his sword as he looked over his shoulder. A man sat next to him, his hand resting on a cane like he had been sitting there next to him the whole entire time. His eyes —green, Percy noted, a very strange green, like the water—were fixed on the horizon.

"Um, yes?"

The old man looked at him disapprovingly. "Do not disrespect her, young man. She is a friend—a fickle friend, I should say."

"Really?"

"Oh yes. She brings fine days where I can fish from dawn to dusk. She tempts me to trust her, to love her. But then in the blink of an eye, I can incur her wrath and she'll rise her might against my little hand-painted boat of wood. You should respect her, and hold her in awe, but always remain wary of her. I doubt even Neptune himself can control her if he displeases her."

Percy blinked, unable to reply to the sudden onslaught of poetry. It was just so sudden. The man grinned suddenly, and he noticed that his teeth weren't chipped or yellow.

"No need to worry son. I'm just a harmless old fisherman."

Harmless? My podex. The last time someone told me that, he left me under the belly of a horse.

He tightened his grip on his sword. Those eyes... he was sure he saw them somewhere. They looked familiar for some reason. The old man turned back to the ocean.

"Ah, the days of youth. I remember how I used to go out shelling all hours of the day, only for my mater or soror to yell at me to come back in. The sea is my life, my profession, my world... and my greatest enemy."

Percy decided that he liked the man, even though he didn't trust him. So he settled back down into the rock, even though he kept his hand on the hilt of his sword. Just in case. Who knew, maybe this man was a shape-shifter. Like Proteus.

"I come from an area surrounded by land, so it's very rare I'm able to be around the ocean." It has a lot of water.

The man sighed. "Such a shame. The sea has healing elements and it helps to take away stress, and you're a young man under stress if I ever saw one."

Does everyone else see me that way?

"Don't worry, I'm just able to see things like that."

Percy looked at the man, trying to gauge him truly. How in the world did he know what he was thinking? "Are you a mind reader?"

The man laughed. "Not at all. I'm Abijam by the way." He held his hand out, and Percy took it.

"Percy."

"You must not be from around here. I know everyone's face."

Percy loosened his grip on the sword. He was beginning to believe if this man was aiming to hurt him, he would have done so long ago. He wouldn't let his guard down though—he really liked his face and he was pretty sure Annabeth wouldn't be happy if he got in a fight and lost one of his limbs. She liked playing with his fingers for some reason, and she was way too good at tripping him up for her own good.

"I'm a traveler. We —my friend and I— heard rumors up north that strange things were happening here, so we decided to check it out for ourselves." He explained, pulling his leg up so that his ankle rested on his knee. He shifted so that he faced the man a little more squarely. A seagull landed on the bolder, looked at him with a beady eye, and tilted its head.

"Hmm. Are you talking about the aperture?"

"Aperture?" he echoed.

"Yes. They say it just appeared overnight. They say it looks like a hole in the ground, but that's what they say. I've never looked at it myself, since these old bones aren't up for extensive traveling." He laughed and slapped his thigh. "Nobody really knows what it is."

"Hmm. I've seen something like that in Sparta before," Percy said, thinking back to his last visit in his home country. He hadn't thought of it in so long that he was surprised he still remembered the details. The bird walked closer to him, and Percy waved his arms, shooing it away. It left with an angry skawk.

"Oh yes. The city that was razed in a day by a large wave?"

"What?" Percy hadn't heard anything about that. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, just something a little birdie told me. Apparently, Sparta was destroyed by a large wave— there were only a few survivors. Apparently, the Roman empress was there when it happened."

He stared at his hand. His knuckles had turned white, so he loosened his fingers and let go of the hilt. If he had to get his sword, he could reach it. For now though, he didn't want to break his knuckles from squeezing the sword too tight. It happened before once.

"Yeah..."

Poseidon, there's no other explanation. But why though? Why would he want to wipe out an entire town just for my mother? Was she even his main target?

There was a prickling sensation, as though Abijam was staring at the side of his head. When he looked up though, the old man was looking away from—at the ocean again. That frustrated him.

"Well, I must be going now."

Percy blinked at the abrupt announcement. The old man was already standing up and hobbling away as he half-processed what he just said. How could someone just up and leave, just like that? Wasn't that rude?

He realized something.

"Wait!" He shouted, turning around. Abijam looked over his shoulder. "Where he the hole?"

"Oh, on the West side of the town." he responded, "But I wouldn't go there if I were you. They say that place is cursed."

Interesting.

He smiled. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, son." He waved over his shoulder as he walked away, a skip in his step. Odd, wasn't he limping just a moment ago? And he could have sworn the fish were following the man for some reason, but then he dismissed it as the light reflecting strangely off the water.

It was getting late anyway.