Secrets and White Lies
Much to Annabeth's utter displeasure, Thalia had mercilessly bombarded her with endless questions about why Annabeth had cheated on Percy.
In all honesty, to Annabeth, it was like a instant stab to the heart—one clean swipe—when she saw other people jump into conclusions rapidly even without a second thought.
Without any further doubt, Annabeth willingly told Thalia everything. How it all started, from the very beginning. When Lloyd Draco had become a son of Poseidon to everyone's surprise, how Percy was furiously blamed for such stupid things, and when he found her and Lloyd together; everything. Annabeth had told her everything.
Relief had washed over Annabeth when Thalia began to slowly understand Annabeth never meant to drive Percy away. He had clearly misunderstood her intentions and was blinded by jealousy that was completely understandable. That was why Annabeth wanted to explain her side of the story to Percy the very same day. But before she could, he had already left.
Annabeth had also undoubtedly told her about the sudden amnesia the campers had gotten of their memories of Lloyd Draco. It was unexplainable in a way, and it didn't really make sense at all. One thing she knew for sure was it had to do something with Fyrmarcs. What had made it even more odd was the fact that she (out of all the others) was the only one who had remembered. Gladly, Thalia had said the vague memory of Lloyd Draco was still there, especially Percy's.
It was incredibly relieving when Annabeth had said all those information to Thalia. The feeling was sensational; it was nice knowing you don't have to hide everything from everyone.
Annabeth mentally noted Thalia didn't speak much in their conversations. She simply just empathized with Annabeth or respond to her questions, but nothing else more than that.
"You know, I've found a few things in the Book." Annabeth gestured at the ancient book. She gently took it from Thalia and furiously flipped a few pages, trying to remember where she had found the words written in modern English.
Her eyes lit up as she pointed to a page where the other half was burnt. The rim of the pages were coal black. Thalia leaned in closer and brought her hand to touch the faded words.
"'Chamber of the Honed, Stolen by G'?" Thalia read as her brows creased. She threw a glance at Annabeth in confusion.
Annabeth just shrugged as she put a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. Finally, Thalia murmured softly, "The rest were burnt, weren't they?" Annabeth nodded and turned a few more pages back.
It was slightly similar to the other, but this time the words were embedded with a bright gold. Nothing else was written, just two words written with letters, not symbols.
Thalia tilted her head to the side and squinted to read the tiny written words.
"Leir . . ." she said slowly, eyes still narrowed, "Kataramenos."
After processing the words, Thalia blanched. Something what looked like surprise filled her face.
"Leir Kataramenos. There is a healer in our hunt named Faith Kataramenos!" exclaimed Thalia. She turned to look at Annabeth, the surprised look not leaving her features.
"It's not a foul coincidence, isn't it?" asked Thalia.
Annabeth said nothing again as she silently fidgeted, readjusting into a more comfortable position. In the end, she decided to cross her legs with her elbow rested on her right thigh and chin meeting her closed fist.
Annabeth mentally took another note in her mind; the sun was slowly disappearing as they now speak, and darkness was to take over very, very soon. But they needed to talk just a few more minutes.
Before replying to Thalia, Annabeth took sudden interest in the necklace on her neck. She fumbled with the beads, each and every one.
She refused to look at Thalia in the eyes and said rather quickly, "We also have a camper named Elijah Kataramenos, son of Daehros. Or, commonly, he is likely to be called the child of the cursed. He had mysteriously disappeared a few days back, leaving no trace of clues or anything that could help in finding him. Until now, the satyrs are trying to look for traces outside the borders of this camp, but nothing has been found."
Thalia shifted and gazed at the sky longingly. Annabeth knew what was in her mind; it was late. Sooner or later, dinner would call for them.
"Child of the cursed?" queried Thalia quietly, "why is he a child of the cursed?"
"They are simply children of Daehros, god of curses," said Annabeth shortly. "The Romans do believe a legend—a legend that portrays children of Daehros are cursed to save or destroy the world." Annabeth refused to meet Thalia's contemptuous gaze. Annabeth said again, "I know it's hard to believe—"
"I believe you." Annabeth looks at Thalia incredulously, but the raven had just shrugged nonchalantly. "I believe what you're saying."
The familiar sound of a conch shell echoed throughout the whole camp, interrupting the two girls. Annabeth hoisted herself up, nearly falling down again. Her legs had taken a quite good rest doing nothing for four hours straight.
Thalia clutched the ancient book to her chest and stared at it, as if in absolute disbelief she was actually going to do this. "I'll have to find a good place to hide this, then," she says then chuckled lightly, "and, about Percy, should I tell him—?"
Annabeth abruptly interrupted her from continuing. She didn't know why, but a soft smile was dancing almost playfully on her lips. "Just tell him I want to say my piece and leave. I do not want anything from him except hearing what had really happened. He needs the truth."
*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*
Thalia ran to the back outskirts of the cabins rather than the front, where she could easily risk being seen. It was dark, but the bright light of the fires in the amphitheater lit up almost the entire camp.
She watched from the corner of her eyes as campers from multiple cabins stepped out. She held the book on her arms with slight uncertainty.
Thalia was debating whether to tell the others about what she had learned. After all, she only swore an oath to never tell anyone of the book of Fyrmarcs. That meant she could spill all the information she had gotten from Annabeth, but the ancient book.
In that way, she wouldn't really be breaking any promises, would she?
The book seemed to grow heavier on her arms the more she stood still, waiting for the hunters to come out of the cabin for dinner in the dining pavilion so she could slip in, and hopefully, hide the Book.
To avoid wasting time, Thalia began thinking furiously of possible places to hide the book. If Thalia was completely honest, Annabeth giving her the ancient book and trusting her with it was a rash yet brave move.
Her breathing stopped for a fair good seconds when almost all the campers, including Chiron, were gathered in their respective tables.
She glanced around the area, looking behind her now and then to make sure nobody knew she was there. No other people were roaming around…and everyone was in the dining pavilion except for the hunters. What could they possibly be doing?
Maybe they were looking for her?
Thalia pressed her back on the walls of the cabin as the sound of door creaking was heard. She steadied her breathing whilst closing her eyes, waiting patiently for the hunters to finally exit the cabin.
The murmurs of the hunters were what she had heard first. It was the only confirmation Thalia needed that they were indeed worried over her disappearance.
The rims of Percy's midnight-black cloak bellowed softly and harmonized with the sound of his clicking boots. Thalia recognised Faith by his side, then other hunters with Estelle. The latter was clearly distraught with concern.
Thalia let out a sigh after realizing she had been holding her breath the entire time. The hunters along with Percy were already sitting down on their tables with one chair empty. They kept murmuring to each other, and some kept glancing towards the Athena table.
Annabeth was already present in the Athena table. From a faraway distance, Thalia could make out Annabeth tapping her fingers nervously on the ebony wood.
All Thalia knew by then was that she had to be fast if she was going to hide the damned Book.
"Oh, Styx!" Thalia muttered an unpleasant curse when she couldn't bust open the cabin door; the hunters have locked it. Realization crept over her when the thought of going inside through the window entered her mind.
Time; she needed more time. She figured someone had already saw her. But she needed time.
A few cheers disrupted her from her thoughts. Oh gods, they were already starting without her.
The cheers were loud—loud enough for the sound of a window breaking not to be heard. Such a tiny, tiny chance though. But if it could get louder, maybe even just a decent cheer, then she could break in.
A few seconds pass by. She could hear the distant voice of Chiron announcing something. There were a few claps.
Thalia counted in her head. One minute, she had waited for a full minute. Just one cheer…one cheer was all she needed.
As if the campers had heard her plead, they cheered louder than the last. Thalia quietly wondered what news was so exciting that made them joyful.
Without hesitation, she slammed her fist through the window. Shattered glass was everywhere. Some tiny shards had even managed to dig themselves into her skin which made her wince slightly. Thalia didn't wait any longer as she broke a few more parts of the window so she could slide in.
The cheer slowly became quieter, long enough nothing was heard except for silence.
Thalia played with the book on her arms. Nowhere was a good idea to hide the Book at all.
In a hurry, she slid the book under several mattresses on her bunker. All the hunters knew that this has been her bunker ever since she had become a part of the hunt. For her sake, she really wished the others wouldn't go looking through it and accidentally stumble upon the ancient Book.
Thalia proceeded to go back outside through the window. She stepped over the shards of glass scattered throughout the ground, reflecting the small stars on the sky.
She didn't have a choice but to make up an excuse or convince the others it wasn't her. To make it more convincing, Thalia had come from the strawberry fields, the opposite side of Zeus's Fist.
It will slightly raise suspicion, no doubt, but not as much as coming out from the Artemis cabin where there was a broken window.
In all honesty, it was embarrassing when she had arrived. Beads of sweat trickled down her neck, almost glistening from the firelight. Thalia awkwardly strode to her empty seat with unease. She could feel the hunters' stares digging into her skin.
Phoebe set down her fork and spared a shrewd look towards her. "Where in Hades have you been? We were worried sick!" she hissed quietly.
Thalia stared at her empty plate. She really didn't feel hungry at all, so she left the thought aside.
"Percy didn't tell you? I met up with Annabeth," she hissed back as her hands gripped the sides of her chair until her knuckles turned a light bony color. "We had a little chit-chat and that was it. Nothing else happened."
"A chit-chat that took four hours," muttered Phoebe as she rolled her eyes at Thalia. "Some nice chit-chat you had."
The aforementioned let out a stubborn 'hmph'. Phoebe pursed her lips in thought as the corners of her mouth pointed downwards. "But you didn't tell her anything important, did you?"
Thalia gave her a look of disbelief. "No, of course not," said Thalia. Guilt hugged her like a blanket—a thick blanket she could not get away from. It was just there.
Phoebe nodded approvingly and took a humongous bite of steak. Thalia glanced to her left, where Percy sat. He had his arms crossed rather glumly. She noticed his plate was almost as empty as hers, if it weren't for the crumbs scattered on the edges of his plate.
The guardian's face was utterly emotionless, and his eyes seem to bore deep into the table, as if glaring at it but his mind was on something else.
Thalia nudged him cautiously as her hands balled into fists. Percy didn't turn to her like she expected him to. Instead, he murmured with a bitter-like tone, "What did she tell you?"
She would be lying if she said she wasn't caught off guard by the sudden outburst.
Thalia leaned further into her chair, opting for a more comfortable position. "Information. Too much, in fact," replied Thalia.
That seem to catch Percy's attention and make his ears perk. He nodded lightly, but that look in his sea-green eyes remained. "You know, I heard about Rachel coming to visit here and tell the next great prophecy," said Percy.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" muttered Percy followed by Thalia's light nod, "The next prophecy would involve something about Fyrmarcs. And if we fight against our foes which hold the ancient book of Fyrmarcs—which is scarily possible due to it being currently gone, or in other words, stolen—we have already lost by then.
"But the alternative could be someone learning to wield the Fyrmarcs . . . and that 'someone' is siding with us," finished Percy.
His voice was nothing more than a wispy rasp. Thalia nodded again; as much to her displeasure, all his words were true. She watched silently as Percy played with a loose string from the fabric of the silky white cloth draped over the table.
There was a loud pounding in her ears. Thalia took a deep intake of breath as her heart hammered against her chest. She so desperately wanted to say the ancient book was on their hands and was perfectly safe. But with the oath, she really couldn't.
Without any other choices, she decided to stay silent.
Her train of random thoughts was pulled to an instantaneous stop as Percy spoke again in the same voice he used before, "I was wondering if…well, I was hoping there isn't going to be another war." He let out a humorless laugh. "Foolish of me, right? There'll always be war in the Greek world!"
Some hunters had stared at him with confusion on their faces at the sudden rising tone of his voice. Thalia's chest abnormally heaved up and down as she tried to find her voice. Yet again, what was she supposed to say? All those words were, once more, awfully true. The Greek world were truly nothing but bloody wars with little happiness in between them.
Thalia thought of a way to change the subject, and she knew exactly how. She gathered enough courage to say, "Personally, I agree with you. The prophecy has got to do something with Fyr—" she lowered her voice barely above a whisper. "—marcs. Annabeth had stated she thought it was a very high possibility."
Percy chewed on his inner bottom lip. Thalia figured he was still registering the fact that she and Annabeth had a 'talk' today about Fyrmarcs in such an open area where they could've been heard. That problem was well dealt with when Thalia had arrived in Zeus' Fist as Annabeth had apparently put an enchantment around them, almost like an invisible barrier. "What else did she say?" was what left his lips.
"She also believed a myth about the children of the cursed saving or destroying the world that the Romans believed to be true." At these words, Faith seemed to overhear them. The healer was just two seats to Percy's left, so no doubt more others heard them rather than just Faith.
Percy traced Thalia's gaze and ended up staring at Faith. The aforementioned sent a look towards Percy, as if passing a message towards him. The look Faith gave him was somewhere between a glare and a stay-silent look.
"Ah, that was it? Was there more she might've told you, perhaps?" asked Percy, turning to Thalia abruptly as Faith resumed to finishing her dinner.
Thalia scrunched her nose in confusion at the sudden question. She simply stated, "Yes. A conversation with someone that lasts for four hours usually gives you a load ton of information."
She sees the look of wonder on Percy's face. "No, not now, Perce. Tomorrow, I promise. Even I get tired sometimes, you know?" whispered Thalia, followed by a chuckle with light humour traced with her voice.
A few minutes or so, they were told to return back to their cabins for curfew. The distant yet worried stares she got were endless. Thalia had managed to ignore them by avoiding direct eye contact and pretending to be busy on something else.
Thalia unconsciously picked her nails as they walked in neat files towards their cabin. Something slowly dawned on her like a light feather falling from the blue skies.
Panic arose like a wildfire inside her body, willing to escape. Thalia swallowed that intense panic that refused to be hidden. She should act normal; in that way, she wouldn't look suspicious about the broken window.
Faith had been the one to open the wooden ebony door. Her pale fingertips slowly wrapped around the doorknob and pushed forwards. Thalia remained at the back of the hunters, trying to remain calm.
A curse followed by soft gasps rung in her ears. Thalia watched as few hunters scout the area, bows drawn out. "What the Hades?"
Phoebe approached towards the glass shards and kneeled with an evident frown. "I don't like this," she murmured.
Aegeus staggered forwards, lowering his head towards the glass as his midnight-black tail wagged. They stared curiously, as if to see what the creature could do. Instantaneously, the wolf snarled towards Thalia's direction.
Thalia furiously kept still. The creature knows, she knew that, and it was solely up to Aegeus if he should reveal who was the culprit.
Percy stepped forward, running his slender fingers over the wolf's fur. "Who was it, Aegeus?" he asked.
"It's not like it's going to answer to you, Water Boy," a voice that very well belonged to Aelin, a hunter, snorted. Percy, who was completely unaffected by Aelin's words, shrugged with casualty that Thalia pondered how could he appear so calm despite their situation.
Percy stood up, at the same time Aegeus began slowly pacing towards Thalia, who was behind Phoebe's beefy figure. Phoebe let out a sound that was between a snort and a cough and raised her hands with an incredulous look on her face as the creature stopped in front of her.
"I was there with you guys the whole time!" said Phoebe, looking equally mortified as the hunters around her. "What do you mean—!"
Aegeus let out a disgruntled snarl and walked past Phoebe savagely. The aforementioned muttered an 'oh, well' as the wolf made its way to Thalia.
What was she gonna say?
Hey, I'm sorry I broke the window. I just felt like it, you know? Nope, not that one.
Aegeus is lying! You can't put your complete trust on a wolf. Slightly convincing, but definitely not unless Thalia wanted an angry army of rogue wolves after her.
Everything was too late as Aegeus reached her. Thalia tilted her head to the side innocently. She counted slowly in her head; one, two, three, four, fi—
The creature stared at Thalia with its mesmerizing eyes (which she swore was glittering with amusement) before howling softly and turning away from her. Aegeus shook his head, its tail wagging slowly.
Percy sighed exasperatedly. "Well, we're going to have to eventually find out who did it, won't we?"
Now matter how hard Thalia tried falling asleep, she really couldn't. There was this one irritating light bulb on one of the upper corners of the gloomy cabin that kept flickering at random times, making it harder for her to sleep. Thalia glanced back and forth at the shattered window and Aegeus—who was curled up in a ball, its furry tail hiding its face. She could've sworn she saw the wolf look and pace around the cabin whilst she pretended to be sleeping.
About the broken pieces of glass everywhere, the hunters have cleaned the mess up thoroughly. They decided to ask Chiron to replace the window with a new one first thing in the morning when they woke up.
It was clear that no monsters or dark foes would be able to attack them that night anyway because of the border, warding all the monsters and any danger away. Their one problem would be campers sneaking in, but the chances of them having the balls to do such thing would be a suicide mission. The hunters knew it, and so did the campers.
Thalia's eyes fluttered open delicately. She stared at the ceiling with guttural annoyance. Why she could not sleep, she did not know. Thalia shifted to the side and pressed a firm hand on the thick mattress she was currently laying on. Somehow, she could feel the book's power reverberating off of the mattress.
Thalia stopped moving, waiting for sign of movement from the others. Once she heard no footsteps or sounds of any sort except for their light snores, Thalia began to sit up slowly. She winced as the creaking of her bunker echoed and bounced off the wooden walls.
Thalia couldn't help it; her curiosity got the best of her. The things Artemis had told them today—it was obvious the next great prophecy had something to do with Fyrmarcs, as Percy had stated.
Thalia tossed the blanket aside cautiously, resulting for a cold wind hitting her skin in almost less than a second. She huffed as she lifted the mattress up and saw the ancient book. A good idea by then would've been to find a better or maybe even a decent hiding spot for the book instead of under her mattress. Thalia pulled the book, feeling it's heavy weight suddenly bring her hand down.
When Thalia had turned around, she jumped in her bunker roughly in absolute surprise and muttered a few good curses. She found Aegeus's eyes staring back at her lightning blues.
"You knew, didn't you?" she murmured, not even attempting to hide the book from the creature. Aegeus let out a purr that Thalia took as a 'yes' instinctively.
Thalia stepped out of her bunker, feeling the cold dark floor against her bare feet. She clasped her fingers over the ancient book under one arm. She felt Aegeus's stare on her as she made her way to an old dirty desk with a lamp. There, she put the ancient book and sat down on a chair. Thalia sighed as the light illuminated the symbols written over the pages.
She clearly remembered what Percy had said, "But the alternative could be someone learning how to wield the Fyrmars . . . and that 'someone' is siding with us."
Impossible, it was. Annabeth had said it would take a month or so just to learn how to read the Fyrmarcs. Wielding and learning how to control Fyrmarcs…that undoubtedly would take a year . . . maybe even longer . . .
Thalia turned page after page. She was unmistakably highly interested about the 'children of the cursed' Annabeth had also mentioned. Children of Daehros, god of curses; she had said.
Thalia was eager but mainly curious if there were anything else written in words—not symbols—in the book but the ones Annabeth had merely shown her. But out of all the confidential information she knew, there was a certain one she hated and absolutely despised.
Thalia (who had remembered a certain page number) flipped a few pages until she reached page 394, which just as before, half-burnt. Leir Kataramenos.
She would be lying if she said she wasn't deep worried for her friend, Faith. Thalia wanted to believe it was a coincidence, but she very damn well knew it wasn't. Faith's last name cannot just happen to coincidentally appear in a book that had been created millennia ago.
"We also have a camper named Elijah Kataramenos, son of Daehros. Or, commonly, he is likely to be called the child of the cursed. He had mysteriously disappeared a few days back, leaving no trace of clues or anything that could help in finding him. Until now, the satyrs are trying to look for traces outside the borders of this camp, but nothing has been found."
It took Thalia quite a while to piece everything together. She even slapped herself a good couple of times due to her stupidity. Unfortunately, her slapping session with herself ended when she realised Aegeus was staring at her with those galactic eyes.
It all made sense, yet it didn't.
Faith Kataramenos and Elijah Kataramenos were the children of the cursed destined to destroy or save the world. Elijah was gone, and Thalia knew Faith was next in line.
But a thought kept Thalia awake until morning.
Did Faith know what she was capable of doing?