Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)
Eleos offered to go find a new place to stay after I'd healed, but I told her she could keep the guest room because Mikayla and I had never had guests over, anyways, and I wasn't about to start. The guest room was on the bottom floor, past the kitchen and living room. There was a wide hallway between the room and the bathroom, and a set of sliding glass doors led to the backyard. The other two bedrooms, mine and Mikayla's, were on the second floor.
I went in Mikayla's room alot. I'd go in and spend hours at a time just sitting on her loveseat by the window, or laying on her bed, or sitting at her desk. I'd pick random objects up and just stare at them.
The first time Eleos found me in there she'd just stood at the door and looked around at the room. I hadn't said anything, and she'd left soon after. The second time, I'd merely said she could come in. She'd entered and looked around at the photos of Mikayla and I, or Mikayla and her friends and family, pinned up all over the walls. The third time, she'd stood by the desk and just set a comforting hand on my shoulder, staying there until I finally got up.
Eleos and I slowly became friends. I had my grief to overcome, and she had the loss of her mortal identity. And something else she never said anything about, but that I could tell was always haunting her, there on the edge of her consciousness. We refrained from talking about the things that hurt us, and we bonded over everything else. She would tell me stories about her court and their family like bond, and I would tell her stories about my family and the farm. She would laugh along with me after a story about me and my cousins, and would cry along with me when things got a little too close to the past.
It was on the third night after I'd healed that I found out Eleos got nightmares like Mikayla did. Before then, I'd been sleeping heavily, the healing taking more out of me than I would have liked to admit.
I was awake, trying to fall asleep sometime in the middle of the night, when I heard a muffled thump from downstairs. Of course, I went to go investigate it.
Nothing seemed amiss anywhere in the house, so I went to Eleos's door and knocked. "Everything alright?" I called. There was no answer, so I opened the door slowly and went in, shutting the door softly behind me.
Eleos was sitting in the middle of her bed, clutching a pillow to her chest, tears streaming out of her eyes, which were shut tight. I noticed that there was a photo album sitting on the floor, halfway across the room from the bed, likely knocked off of her nightstand. I went over and set it back on the nightstand, then turned to Eleos.
"Are you okay?" I asked her. She shook her head. I climbed onto the bed and sat next to her, wrapping my arms around her small torso. "Is this okay?" She nodded and leaned into me, still crying.
"What happened?" I asked. "Nightmare?"
"Yeah." Her voice was quiet and hoarse. "I get them alot. But everyone I know thinks I'm dead, so I couldn't go to anyone."
"Why don't you tell me about it?" I suggested. "I always used to help Mikayla with her nightmares, and telling someone about it seemed to really help for her. Maybe it'll work for you. When you explain it, things seem less real, she said."
"But it is real." Eleos said. "Or, it's a real possibility. I've seen all the bad and evil in this world, every last bit of it, from the dawn of time to the end of the world, and I've seen the possibilities of what will happen if my enemy were to take over."
"You can see the future and into the past?" I asked.
"No, when I underwent the ritual, it shows you images. All the evil in the world, and then what the world will come to if the enemy takes over. It even shows you the bad in yourself, which is a hard thing for most anyone to face. But I saw it all." Eleos explained.
"What are your nightmares about, then?" I asked gently.
"I know the face of my enemy, and it is them that I see in my nightmares. I see them hurting my family and my friends, torturing and maiming and killing them. I see them doing all the things that they would do if they were to find out my identity." She explained. I hadn't even realized she'd stopped crying until the tears started again.
"Well, they haven't found out your identity yet, or you would've known that they did. I doubt they'd keep quiet about it. So there's that. And if you keep doing whatever it is you're doing to hide yourself from them, you should be fine, right?" I asked.
"I can only hope." She murmured. She was starting to fall asleep.
"It's not so bad. Everything's alright for now, and worrying will only make things harder." I told her.
"I am not worried. I am afraid, Sage Tucker, deeply afraid of what will happen once they do find out my identity. Because they will show no mercy, and they will kill everyone I love in order to get to me, and likely will kill them for sport when they are done with me." She said. A yawn interrupted whatever she was about to say. But then her voice was scarily clear and calm as she spoke again. "Because I would gladly let this entire world be torn apart and burned to ashes for the safety of my loved ones."
I didn't say anything, mostly because she fell asleep as soon as she said that, but I understood the feeling. If it came to my loved ones or the world? I'd choose my loved ones in a heartbeat. Most people would say they'd choose the world, but when it really came to it, the decision was alot harder than it looked at face value.
The next months passed by without anything out of the ordinary happening.
Eleos continued having her nightmares, and it became routine for me to go down to her room to check on her in the middle of the night, every night, because I found that she usually woke around two in the morning. Sometimes she was still asleep when I went to check on her, but I would just climb up on the bed next to her and stay there to be there for her when she needed it. I usually ended up staying with her all night because she usually fell asleep on me.
Eleos would attend every council meeting on Olympus, and she would invite me to go with her, saying I deserved to know what was going on and to be a part of some of the decision making around Olympus just as much as she was. I didn't really care as much about the politics, but I always joined her.
Athena glared at me every time we went, but that was nothing compared to the hatred on her face when she looked at Eleos. She really hated that Eleos had taken away the power she'd had, and that Eleos continued to exercise her own power on Olympus, even if she never once abused it.
Eleos and I would hang out, or I'd hang out with Aliya, or the three of us would all hang out. I became even closer with Eleos, and my friendship with Aliya also progressed, they both became close friends of mine. My only close friends.
I also spent some of my time with my family, and Eleos would join me some of the time, saying she wanted to see the people she always heard stories about, but most times she'd stay home. She did her best to not go anywhere or draw any attention that might lead to her enemy finding her alive, and she also had a hard time seeing one mortal family when she couldn't see her own.
When I woke, I immediately shut my eyes against the light filtering in through the open curtains that made my head pound. There was a laugh, and Aliya, who I'd noticed leaning on the wall next to the door, spoke. "Yeah, you're major hungover. I brought you some of the stuff Apollo gave me the recipe for." Something landed on the bed beside me.
I sat up slowly and grabbed the vial. I tossed it back, gulping it down quickly, because Aliya had given it to me once or twice before and it was absolutely disgusting, but it worked wonders.
"What even happened last night?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.
"You fucked up is what happened." Aliya informed me.
"I was at your party, and I was drinking, and..." I groaned.
"You remember?" Aliya asked. "I saw you from across the room. You were drunk, and you started kissing Eleos. I'm fairly certain she was also at least slightly intoxicated, but she started kissing you back. You two were really getting into it, but then you said something to her and she pushed you away and ran out. I think she was crying. You just grabbed another drink and chugged it, then another, and then you left. I followed to make sure you weren't going to do something stupid, but you just came back here and fell asleep. What did you say to her?"
"I... I don't even know where it came from, but... I called her Mikayla." I whispered the last part. Aliya stared at me for a moment, then whistled.
"Yeah, you fucked up. You need to apologize. Poor girl probably doesn't know what to think. But you don't have time to do it now, before the meeting, so do it after, alright? She's already left for the meeting, but I'll wait for you to get ready." Aliya ordered.
"Will do." I replied.
Eleos didn't look at me at all during the meeting. She refused to meet my gaze. Aliya had offered for me to sit with her, but I'd just taken my seat by Eleos. So when Aliya saw me staring at Eleos, she gave me a sympathetic look that also told me I'd better apologize to her later.
~Eleos's POV~
When the end of the meeting rolled around, pretty much everyone in the council room couldn't wait to get on with their day. The entire meeting was dominated by a petty argument over which of two minor gods deserved a chariot they'd built. Zeus eventually just told them to share it equally and everyone else readily agreed.
I'd spent the meeting concentrating on the arguing gods rather than on Sage sitting beside me and looking at almost nothing else but me during the meeting. I didn't once look at him. I wanted to, but I knew my resolve would crack if I did, and I just couldn't let myself get close to him in the way that I wanted to. I just couldn't.
Most of the room, except for a couple of the Olympians and a few minor gods here and there, had emptied out already when Styx appeared.
Everyone who was standing around, idly chatting, immediately froze. She didn't often frequent Olympus, and never left her home in the Underworld unless she had good reason.
Which of course meant she looked straight at me. "Eleos, I trust you've been well?" Her eyes sparkled amusedly, and I realized that of course she would know who I was.
"As well as can possibly be expected." I answered lightly.
"It's good to hear." She responded. "Do you know the reason that I'm here?" The sapphire diadem I wore suddenly felt heavier. I'd taken to wearing it during meetings and things on Olympus so everyone remembered exactly who I was now. And it helped me try and get over who I had been, so I'd also been wearing it anywhere and everywhere out of the house.
"I don't believe I do, no." I had a creeping feeling in the back of my mind that I knew exactly why she was here.
"Your oath to the son of Aphrodite holds. You'd do well to remember." Styx warned. Aphrodite perked up at the mention of one of her children. "I would so hate having to punish you. I've been fond of you since I met you."
"You tried to kill me when I met you." I pointed out with a small smile.
She laughed and waved a hand. "Just a courtesy extended to any who feel the need to touch my river. I admire your strength of will." She gave me a knowing look and my cheeks colored slightly. Then tears welled in my eyes, threatening to fall.
"The girl who made that vow is dead, Styx. I'm no longer her." I said.
Her tone turned solemn. "Eleos, you may be a changed girl from the one you were you before, but you are not dead like so many who knew you believe. And that means that your oath to the son of Aphrodite holds."
"I've broken no oath." I said slowly. "You must understand that what happened was perfectly acceptable in the terms of the oath. I did nothing wrong, nothing against what I swore to do for him when he suffered in his grief."
"I know that you did not." Styx said gently. "I only came to warn you that you toe the line, and it is easy to fall into the wrong side."
"My actions do not depend solely on myself. They depend on others, as well." I said quietly.
"You know that you have no troubles in that regard." Styx told me gently, subtly glancing at Sage so that no one else noticed. "But you mustn't only do it for the sake of keeping the oath. Eleos, if you won't let yourself feel, it's only a matter of time before you become an emotionless shell. If you won't do it for the sake of the oath, let yourself fall for the sake of saving your own self." The tears spilled over, and a couple traced their way down my cheeks. Styx smiled sadly at me, then flashed away.
The moment she was gone, I flashed back home and locked myself in my room. Not the one I had to currently stay in, the guest room, but my bedroom. I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering why life had to be the way it was.
I was surprised, to say the least, when Aphrodite flashed into my room. I sat up quickly, especially wary that she had found me in a room she knew only to be Mikayla Leanne's, and not belonging to Eleos.
"Relax, Eleos, I know who you are." Aphrodite told me, taking a seat in the desk chair and spinning it to face me.
"How?" I asked.
"I had my suspicions from the moment you showed up in the throne room for the first time and told them to stop right where they were." She explained. "I am, after all, the goddess of love, and your bond with Sage was always such a rare sort that I couldn't not suspect it was you. It wasn't as strong before you had to leave behind your name, but it's only strengthened since and it's unmistakable to me now.
"Even so, I had no concrete proof. It is even rarer still that that sort of love bond be in place for another when one is lost, but it is still possible. So, when Styx mentioned that you swore an oath to one of my sons, I visited the only one that you knew." Aphrodite continued. "And Jacob is the only son of mine who's had a girl swear an oath on the Styx to him in a time of his own grief in the last sixty years. You really should be careful how much you say." I felt myself blush a little.
"Why are you here, then?" I asked. "If you know who I am, why haven't you gone to tell everyone?"
She gave me a stern look. "Do you really think me so shallow, Mikayla?" She asked. "I won't tell anyone who you are. I respect your decision to keep your identity secret, and I understand what the consequences would be were it to get out about who you are."
"Then why did you come?" I asked. "Just to tell me that you know who I am?"
"My main reasons in coming here were to tell you that you do need to take Styx's advice to heart, I've no wish to see you turn into a lesser version of yourself that cannot feel, I've seen it happen even to the best of us; and I came to tell you that your old life is not so far away. You can, at least, have Jacob back now that he knows." Aphrodite told me.
"He knows?" I asked.
"He always was a smart one, my son. I barely had the words out of my mouth before he knew you weren't actually dead and that that was why I was asking. I told him you'd explain to him, and that you would meet him at his school when classes ended for the day." Aphrodite said. "But now, I must be going. Sage will be back soon, I had Aliya stall him so that I might have a word with you about your connection to my son."
"Before you go," I said hesitantly, "if you were able to figure it out from the very start, is there anyone else who would have been able, with abilities like yours?"
"The ability to sense love must be very strong indeed for one to sense the sort of love you two have, and even much stronger for them to recognize it before you were gone. Only one other person has known, and no one else has a strong enough ability to figure it out from the bond alone. She's known it about as long as I have, and confided in me her thoughts, which I shared, and she has sworn to tell no one of your identity." Aphrodite answered.
"Who?" I asked quietly.
Just before she flashed away, she said a name I'd never have expected. "Aliya."
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