Gods, what was that sound? Through the walls of the infirmary, high pitched short notes of laughter and an uneven deeper tone overlapped. I reached for my bag and tried to sit up before being hit with intense vertigo. My head felt like it was being turned upside down, but my eyes fell in the opposite direction, making the blur of colours and noise shake and tremble. After regaining some balance, I consumed my surroundings.

The barren infirmary allowed warm light to peak through the curtains, illuminating the metal drawer of medical supplies. My cot was no warmer than it had been when I first laid down, but the lingering ache of my arm had lessened. As I stifled a hiss to shrug the backpack over bandages, something ran past the window. As I exited, the answer to my observations awaited. Connor and Travis were bickering at the archery range, likely over the near identical arrows mirroring the bull's eye of the target.

"Mine is closer! They did the math! You gotta prank Annabeth! *wheeze* Sucker!" Connor was hysterical, but his brother groaned lowly with regret. They didn't notice me pass behind them, but amused me none the less. I looked to see what time it was, but a certain centaur blocked my view. I stopped myself from backing away, but stood very still.

"Good to see you, Seth. You can head to mythology class. We'll have your schedule figured out once Will checks up on your arm again." Chiron seemed kind enough, and I was glad for the bit of mercy. Part of me had been bracing for a physically demanding job, like the lava wall I spotted this morning, but the other part of me trusted Chiron's kind nature. Trust. Okay, new environment, new me. I guess...

At the lecture hall Grover, a satyr, began his discussion about the gods. He explained things like how Olympus came to be, and how the gods were scattered across the sky, land, sea, and underworld. I couldn't help but wonder with each god he mentioned, if they were my godly parent. A few other kids from the Hermes cabin felt the same, I could tell. Holly and Laurel exchanged glances with each other, as if silently questioning their parentage with the only family they knew, but I simply looked away. Learning about the gods came with learning about the monsters. The kind satyr looked at me and offered a smile when mentioning minotaurs, in which I received thoughtful stares from a few Athena kids, and jealous scowls from Ares kids.

Lunch soon arrived, and I once again made my way to the dining pavilion. I knew that the stares, glances, and whispers were about me. It wasn't surprising, but I still didn't like it. Not that I'd ever tell them, that is. I was feeling more steady and a bit braver, but the cast wrapping around my thumb made it difficult to pick up the tray of food. As I tried my hardest to get a hold on the tray without breaking the cast, the weight was relieved by a tall, raven haired boy reaching over me to hold it. I looked back to recognize Percy holding a tray in each hand, smiling down at me.

"I've got you. Where you wanna sit?" He led me away from the lineup to the edge of the tables.

"Don't I have to sit with the Hermes kids?" I questioned. Travis told me that everyone had to sit at their cabin's respective tables. Of course, Percy was the only member of the Poseidon cabin right now, so it must have been lonely eating every meal with no one to talk with.

Percy just shrugged, "If you want to, go for it. You're unclaimed, so technically not a Hermes kid. You could maybe be a Poseidon kid if Mr. D decides to question you?" His implicit invite to sit with him was obvious. Nervously, I looked to the Hermes table. None of them were looking away from the table, despite me being the only one missing.

"Sure." I followed him to his table as he grinned stupidly to himself. It didn't go unnoticed that he laid our meals side by side, almost close enough for our shoulders to be touching in the large table with only 2 people occupying it. He set it down and then looked to me.

"What do you wanna use as an offering?" I glanced at the fire pit. It seemed to be waving at me again, but I ignored it. Picking a random portion of the tray, I waited with Percy to scrape our offerings into the flame. Connor caught sight of me standing beside Percy, and just smiled with a nod. That made me feel a bit better, like I hadn't ditched him. The flame didn't change as each table gave its offerings, but seemed to dance faster when Percy and I stepped up. Percy's offering was as expected, unchanging and unpredictable.

Mine, however... an excessive amount of smoke billowed as the fire consumed my offering. This got the entire hall's eyes on me and the flame. The smoke condensed to form a ball above the fire. The fire. It repelled from the ball of smoke almost fearfully towards it. As the fire retreated to the very edges of the pit, it came close enough to burn, but I stepped closer. More smoke from the fearful fire was absorbed into the orb as embers landed on my good arm, burning them. I persisted and continued to step up to the edge, but there was too much smoke. So much smoke, so much darker than it had been, that it was black. Out of sudden instinct, I raised my hand, palm open, to the orb and let my pent up energy flow. Darkness surrounded and intertwined my fingers, as it had before, and the bits of darkness weaving their way through my hand welcomed the burning embers to my skin. My hand got too close it seems, because as soon as my hand's darkness was in range of the smoke ball, it turned black and exploded. Drops of the black abys were splattered everywhere, including the walls and my face. Shocked voices sounded at the alarm from surrounding campers. The parts of the building that had been struck were cleanly cut as if it were precise gun shots, but drops that landed on other people simply turned to an orange glow on their skin. For me... my face had gotten the majority of the splashed darkness, turning the left side of my face into black abys, like my hands were the night before, but with streaks and breaks of orange light. In the fire, I could see my reflection. The orange breaks of light were exactly where my scars had been.

"Seth!" I turned and flinched at Percy. He had a few drops of ember light on his arm and cheek, but not darkness to be found. He was shocked and curious, and stared not at my eyes, but my chest. I followed his gaze to see an orange light being emitted below my tank top. Without hesitation, I took off my shirt to reveal Will's bandage job and a mess of splintered light on my chest. It looked like shattered glass with the center point being my heart, but instead of a gaping hole in the center, there was a thin crescent.

Dionysus was rushing around, trying to get the other campers to be quiet while Chiron slowly stepped towards me. As my breathing accelerated, the inky blackness spread from the center of my chest to my entire body. Had it been night, I would have been invisible in the shadows, if not for the bright orange light that showed at shattered glass or mimicked my scars. I looked around, and immediately squinted at how bright it had gotten. The fire was like looking at the Sun.

"Seth," I whipped around to see Annabeth and Percy approaching my stance beside the fire. "It's okay, Seth. I think I know who your godly parent is." Annabeth gulped nervously as Percy just looked at me, worried. With a thud and crackle of lightning, clouds began pouring down into the fire pit. In a matter of minutes, rain was splattering through the hole above the pit, sending the half-bloods into a panicked state. Percy was also scared it seemed, I looked to him confused.

"Seth, Chiron schedules the weather at camp. It never rains when we don't want it to. Someone's controlling it." My eyes widened. Annabeth read my mind and staggered closer to Percy.

"Zeus."