A/N: Good luck to anyone who has exams next week, I know I do! Enjoy a nice break as we carry on at CHB. Thanks Harmony for another lovely review! ~ Emma
Emma had expected more from the armoury. Everything else on camp had seemed so fantastical, but the armoury was just like any one she had read about in a book. Annabeth had grabbed Emma at breakfast, saying she was going to make good on her promise to get Emma a new weapon. The room shone bronze as Annabeth had opened the door and ushered her inside. Annabeth made her try everything from a spear to a club and even a few shotguns. They were a little loud for Emma's liking.
The problem was none of them allowed her to go back to her life in Manhattan. Nothing was as concealable as her dagger. Besides the dagger also held a lot of sentiment. It was the only thing she had from her father. She brushed the thought aside, stubbornly telling herself she didn't want anything from him.
Annabeth pointed out all sorts of heroes weapons that had made their way into Camp Half-Bloods weapon-shed. Emma didn't even know Odysseus had used a bow an arrow until it was sitting in her hands.
"What's this?" Emma said raising a thin sword that had stood out as it wasn't bronze.
"You don't want that. That's the sword of Damocles." Annabeth said, and thought the name rang a bell, Emma couldn't quite place it. "The one Dionysus strung up over his head to show him that kings were always in danger."
Ah. Thought Emma quickly returning it to its place.
She started to lose hope in ever finding a sword that would work for her when she wandered over to a small section marked miscellaneous. All sorts of apparent junk was scattered across a few shelves. There were some ancient vases, cutlery, throwing stars and even jewellery. She vaguely remembered Annabeth mentioning that her friend had a bracelet that turned into a shield. Emma reached over and picked up a necklace with a beautiful bronze pendant and snake chain. The Pendent was about an inch long and had six rectangular faces that came together to form a point at the bottom. Across the faces was a depiction of a girl holding a similar looking necklace. She was outlined in black while the others in the scene were simply etched into the metal. As she turned the pendent to get a better look at them the etching came to life, moving across it. She was so startled she almost dropped it.
"What have you got there?" Annabeth said, coming up behind her.
Emma raised the necklace over her shoulder so the other girl could see.
"Huh. I've never seen that before. How is that a weapon?" Annabeth said, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion.
"You talked about Percy's pen, Jason's coin and Thalia's bracelet... maybe there's a command word or maybe you just-" Emma noticed the way it twisted. There was a small gap just beneath the point where pendent met the chain that stayed still while the rest of the pendent twisted, like a propeller on a toy aeroplane. She wondered if just maybe…. She held onto the chain and pulled the pendent, gently. It came apart into two pieces. The lower half of the pendent transformed into a celestial bronze sword with depictions of same girl she had seen on the pendent. They flowed up the blade telling a story of a woman defending her children from an attacker. At the end the woman lies dead and one of her daughters picks up her sword and defeats the attacker. Then the sword returns back to necklace form and by the hilt was shown the scene she saw on the necklace to begin with.
"Holy Hades, that's beautiful." Emma said, blown away by the craftsmanship of it. The weight felt perfect in her hand and it definitely ticked the conceal-ability box. She tried a couple of simple manoeuvres and found that the sword responded well to her. "How do you know it's name?"
"There isn't really a way to tell, but it probably has one. I suppose you could give it a nickname if you wanted." Annabeth joked. "The Hephaestus kids might know. We could take it to them?"
"Oh, is it theirs?" Emma asked, disappointment clear in her voice. On instinct, Emma touched the tip of the sword to the remaining half of the pendent and it collapsed back down to the necklace.
"No. If it was in here, it's yours now." Annabeth said, smiling at her.
When they arrived at the Hephaestus cabin forge, Annabeth hailed over a girl called Nyssa, who has just finished her welding.
"What's up Brains." Nyssa said with fondness, despite the fact Annabeth scowled at the nickname.
"Do you know anything about this?" Emma asked, holding up the necklace.
"I'm a daughter of Hephaestus, not Aphrodite. Try them." Nyssa said grumpily, crossing her arms. Emma simply tugged at the pendent, drawing the sword. Nyssa's face changed as she reached for the blade. She let out a low whistle as she ran her fingers over the edge.
"Where did you get this?" She said, her eyes gleaming.
"Armoury." Annabeth said nonchalantly.
"How has this been sitting in the armoury? The etchings on the fuller… the balance of the blade… this is really quite something." Nyssa finished her examination of the sword and, reluctantly, passed it back to Emma who resembled the necklace.
"So you don't know where it came from?" Annabeth asked.
"Not a clue." Nyssa said, shaking her head. "But whoever made it must have been quite the bladesmith."
"Thanks anyway." Emma said with a smile. She was just happy that she wouldn't have to give it up. She fastened the chain around her neck
Annabeth filled the rest of their morning by showing Emma the stables. She had never ridden a horse before but the fact they had wings didn't make her any more confident. Annabeth walked her through the basics but the Pegasus, Xanthe, kept chiming in with helpful hints telepathically.
"What's she saying?" Annabeth huffed as Xanthe interrupted her again.
"You can't hear?" Emma asked. She hadn't been phased by talking pegasi. Talking horses may have thrown her off but even after one night at camp she was prepared for anything, but Annabeth shook her head.
"It's just another perk of being a child of Poseidon. Xanthe is kinda like your sister." Annabeth teased. "You can talk to her telepathically too."
Xanthe? Emma tried feeling ridiculous and to her great surprise the horse responded;
Yup. Do you have any donuts?
Ur, no. Sorry.
Darn.
Once she realised she could communicate with the creature she found riding much easier. Annbeth mounted one with a beautiful black coat, who introduced himself as blackjack, and they rode down the breach before flying over the ocean.
Emma had always liked the beach. It made sense, being the daughter of Poseidon and all. She had always loved being in the water. She asked Xanthe to soar down to the waves and they flew across, the sea spray splashing against her face. She wasn't sure how she was meant to return to school on Monday after all the excitement of Camp Half-Blood. It was like a dream world compared to the mundane routine of school. Made even better by the absence of certain people.
When lunch came around Emma was feeling quite relaxed. So relaxed that she'd forgotten she agreed to train with Sherman until he found her in the strawberry fields shortly after she has finished eating.
"You had time for your food to go down?" He asked with a wicked smile.
"Do I get the option to say no?" She said wincing nervously. She had been all for it yesterday, but now he stood towering over her she wasn't so sure. He laughed heartily.
"Probably not. We need to get you a proper sword. Armoury first then the combat arena." Sherman said, walking off.
"Actually…" Emma started as she ran to catch up before unsheathing her sword.
"Neat. Looks like you're all ready."
Sherman was a good teacher, even if he did knock her to the ground more often than she might have thought necessary. Her arms were aching and her body was bruised but he did allow her to go for water breaks constantly which helped to revive her.
"At least I now know I can beat you if you don't have access to water." He said as he knocked her to the ground once more.
"I.e. you retain your demigod abilities and mine are taken away, then sure." She replied snarkily.
"And here I was thinking it was just Ares kids that couldn't accept when they were beaten." He said giving her a hand up.
"I think all demigods have their fair share of pride." She said dusting herself off.
"You work better with that blade." He noted. "Your finally getting the hang of it."
She knew he was just teasing her but she couldn't help but get riled up. As she unscrewed her water bottle she let a small stream fly out and into his face. He just laughed.
Having had the water she felt energised and ready to go again. They spared and Sherman won most of the time, with Emma disarming him every now and then. He did have years of experience on her but she was waiting for this 'powerful children of the big three' magic to kick in.
She felt her frustration building each time. Everyone else made it look so easy. It seemed to come naturally to them. She could say it was just because Sherman was the son of Ares, but Percy and Annabeth were both excellent swordsmen. After being thrown on her arse again she leapt up and grabbed her dagger from where it lay with her jacket and threw it straight into the centre of a sack mans head.
"Was that meant to be me?" Sherman said with a mock-hurt expression on his face.
"I'm sorry." She said, leaning against a crate. "It's just… I'm seventeen. I should be better at this. Bahram is after me and if I can't learn to fight like Percy and Annabeth I'm never going to be able to outrun him."
Emma had been trying not to think about the outside world all weekend, but not thinking about something was never easy.
"Percy and Annabeth have been training for years now. Though Percy did beat Ares himself in combat when he was just eleven, it was by playing to his strengths." Sherman said sternly. "That's what you do too. With the right motivation and circumstance, you could easily beat me. Especially now you know some real manoeuvres, thanks to your amazing teacher."
She let out a small laugh.
"I can't help but blame my dad." She said honestly. "If he had claimed me sooner then I would have the right training and I wouldn't be in this mess. I don't blame him for being embarrassed by me. Look at me. I'm seventeen years old and the only people I talk to are my teachers. I haven't ever won a trophy, much less save the world and I take more after my dad's greatest enemy than I do him. But at least I might have had an actual chance at surviving Bahram."
Because to beat Bahram she would need to trust others. If she had grown up at camp half blood instead of spending years by herself she might be a completely different person. But she didn't dare say any of that out loud.
"Not claiming you was your best chance for survival." Sherman insisted. "When Percy was claimed most of the gods wanted him dead just because he might fulfil the prophecy. Your dad just probably didn't want that for you."
She hadn't thought about it that way. Maybe he was right. Maybe she'd been angry at her dad even when he was trying to protect her. The same way she had blown up at Percy for doing the same thing. She wasn't very good at accepting people's help, she knew that. But knowing her flaws didn't fix them.
"Your kinda soft for an Ares kid." Emma said. She was trying to thank him and by the smile on his face she hoped he understood that.
"Miranda must have softened me up." He grinned. "Now put your sword up so I can go back to being a tough Ares kid who only cares about fighting."
She laughed at his mock serious expression and raised her sword. This time when they fought she refused to let what she thought of herself hold her back from trying.