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.)

We didn't leave my dad's house for three hours. After everyone updated me on what had been going on for them, we all hung out, had fun. Didn't think about impending doom.

But we did have to leave, eventually. Dragging out the visit until the last possible second would only make it hurt more. There were a lot of tears, but still, I pulled away. I had to.

Eight o'clock, I left my family.

Sage, of course, still didn't want me to go. No one really wanted me to go, but I'd gotten most everyone to accept that I had to go. Sage didn't agree.

"I still say you don't go." Sage told me. We were at our house, curled up together in his bed, watching Hephaestus Tv. Some show about demigods renovating monster dens and nests, called Nightmare To Night-Lair.

"It's not up to you, Sage." I said.

"I just don't see why you have to go if they're going to take over the world anyways." Sage said, holding me close.

"I have to go because it will put my loved ones in less danger." I explained softly. "If they don't get me, they go after them. If they get me, they may still go after them. But I have a feeling that catching the prey they've been hunting since the dawn of time will excite them enough that they'll ignore the rest of humanity for another few millennia. Everyone I love will long have been dead and gone by that time."

"And what about the immortal, Mick? You care for some of us." Sage countered.

"It will put off your demise." I told him. "I can't not go, Sage. This is my duty, to protect humanity to the best of my ability. And I'd do it anyways to protect everyone I care about. I would forever feel a coward not worth the life I have if I did not face my destiny."

"I don't want to lose you, Mick. You were my best friend, and you were taken away. I barely got to have you as my wife, and you were taken away. Now I've just barely got both back, and you're being taken away again, for possibly ever." Sage whispered, voice breaking.

"I know." I said softly. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"Let me just hold you, for now." Sage said quietly.

"Of course." I responded, curling closer into Sage's arms, while his grip around me tightened.

"I love you." Sage whispered into my hair. "With all of my heart, I love you Eleos Mikayla Tucker. I will never stop loving you."

"And I'll never stop loving you, Sage Tucker." I told him. "No matter whether I am with you, away, or if my bones have already turned to ash and spread amongst the stars. I will never stop loving you."

Six o'clock.

I woke early and took a shower while Sage cooked us breakfast. This would be the last time I had either.

When I'd gotten out of the shower, Sage brought me to the kitchen, where he'd set out everything he'd made - pancakes, bacon, sausage, toast, chocolate milk, and there was some fresh fruit, too, strawberries and raspberries and black cherries.

Eight o'clock.

It had been a lovely breakfast, and I ate as much as I could stomach. Afterwards, we laid together on the couch, my damp hair soaking through his shirt. Sage held me tight against him, and I think he was crying. No. Those sobs were coming from my own body.

Eleven fifty seven.

I stood up. Sage moved into a sitting position, but didn't stand with me. He could not follow me. I leaned down and kissed him softly. It was a long, sweet, soft kiss, conveying all of the emotions between us, all of the emotions neither of us could voice right now.

"I love you, Sage." I whispered.

"I love you, too, Mikayla." Sage whispered back. He pressed his lips to mine once more before releasing me.

Eleven fifty nine.

I took a step back, gave my husband a sad smile, and flashed away for the last time.

Noon.

"I almost thought you weren't going to show, Eleos." The female's voice called out as I flashed into the clearing, appearing on the steps of my temple.

"I would not do that." I said, arms crossed.

"Of course you wouldn't." She laughed.

"Seeing as we'll be getting much better acquainted with each other soon, is there something I can call you, other than just referring to you as 'the female' in my head?" I asked sarcastically. Well, they were already going to hurt me, kill me. Might as well go out sassy and snappy.

She only smirked at me. "Over here. Now." She commanded, holding up shining black chains of obsidian.

I did not hesitate, walking right over and allowing her to place the chains on my wrists and ankles. She smirked at me once again.

"You will remain here, at the temple. These chains will alert us to your location, and whether you use your powers or not. The rest of your court has hidden away in the temple, but you will send them out to us. One member of your court, each day at dusk, will meet us out here, or you and your loved ones will suffer the consequences. Each offense will only build a bigger punishment." She told me.

I was uneasy. I'd gotten my family out of danger, for the moment, but my court… There wasn't much I could have done. They would have been after them like hounds anyways, they had been before they'd caught me, they would be after, too.

"Do not disobey. You belong to us now." She told me, and then disappeared.

I turned and went into the temple. The twins greeted me at the door, leading me down the familiar halls I'd roamed in the months after my body's acceptance of Eleos's spirit. They took me straight to the dining hall, where I found my court awaiting my arrival. The looks on everyone's faces ranged from fearful to accepting to determination.

I fell to my knees the moment I reached the hearth in the center. I was weeping, but I made no move to wipe the tears away as they fell down my face. I looked around, at my court, every one of them looking to me for guidance. I did not know what to do. I didn't know how to lead them, and I sure as hell could not pick them off one by one by sending them outside the temple to their deaths.

"I have failed you all." I said finally. "I have taken on her spirit only to let her fall to them. They have won."

"No." Someone slipped through the crowd to the front. Tall, dark skin, short, curly gray hair, gray beard, and grey eyes. Beren, our history keeper. He was a son of Athena, almost as old as the spirit itself, and was one of the first few members of the court. "As long as your spirit remains, so does she, and that means they have not yet won. It is not you who has failed. The court was meant to protect you, so the decree has been since we formed. If anyone has failed, it has been me, the last standing survivor of the court of five."

I took the hand Beren had held out to me, standing. "You have not failed me, Beren, and the five live on through you." I told him. I looked around the rest of my court. "And neither have the rest of you failed me. You all have done exactly as fate would have had you do, and I can ask no more of you. Here is your choice: Remain here with me, bound for certain death at the hands of the very beings we have always fought against. Or retire from this court, return to a normal life, wheresoever you may choose, and have a chance at living out the rest of your natural life."

There was a shocked silence, all of them staring at me. I raised my voice. "I do not fault you if you choose to retire. It will be a mercy, compared to this path. Speak now if you wish to take it." I announced.

And, to my (grim) joy, not a single member out of the hundreds in my court chose to retire. I was not surprised, they were of my court for a reason, and now they would be in this with me until the end.

It had been a week. Seven days. Seven court members dead.

They'd volunteered, to go out and be the first to face our enemy, a choice I can't imagine how hard it was to make.

As for what the rest of us were doing, it wasn't much. There wasn't much we could do, trapped in the temple with no way to put a stop to what was happening. The only one trying was Beren, going through every book he had in the library on the history of the spirit, reviewing all the stories he had since the start of the court, and any and all information anyone had on our enemy. He didn't seem to be finding anything, but we all let him look. To have something to do was better than nothing.

"I must protect-"

"No. You must remain alive to pass on your knowledge."

"But-"

"No buts. This mortal body no longer matters."

"We can save-"

"No one can save me. If it is to happen, I must save myself."

When I woke, it was dawn. I exited the sleeping quarters and crossed the courtyard to go to the kitchens. I gathered together a basket of bread, cheese, and some fruits that had been picked from the gardens, then again crossed the courtyard to go to the library.

"Beren?" I called, stepping inside the grand doors, propped open with stones.

"Livestock ledgers!" Beren called back. I made my way over to where the ledgers that kept the records for the trade of our livestock and their products.

"You really ought to take a rest, Beren."I said softly, looking at the old man. "You look as if you haven't slept in weeks. Were you sleeping before I arrived?"

He didn't answer, and I knew it meant he hadn't been. He kept scouring the pages of the ledger of he was looking through.

"You're going to run yourself ragged, Beren, and that does no good for anyone." I told him. "I want you to rest, for today and tonight, if not longer."

"There is simply too much to be done, my Lady." Beren said, snapping the ledger closed and putting it back on the shelf, pulling the next down.

"Then at least sit and eat with me, won't you?" I suggested. "You need nourishment."

"Don't I always?." Beren asked with a soft smile. He did tend to eat breakfast with me, I'd brought food for him every morning and night, since he wouldn't remember or stop to eat otherwise. "There is a table by the crafts ledgers. We can eat there."

We were just finishing breakfast when Beren slipped something into the basket, hiding it under the cloth lining the basket. I shot him a questioning look, and he slid a note across the table, pressing a finger to his lips, before getting up and wandering back over to the ledgers he'd been looking through before.

Found this hidden inside an old ledger labelled for pigs. We haven't had pigs since the very beginning, when this place was still being built.

They seem to have ears everywhere, but not eyes. Go to your study above the belfry. It is your private space, no one will bother you there, nor will they ever enter without your express permission.

Burn this note as soon as you can, and do not let anyone see. The less that know of the book, the better, because we are doomed if they find it.

I dropped the note in one of the two fires on the steps outside the library, and made my way to the belfry like I had all the time in the world. None of my court would betray me, but I didn't want to take any chances of them somehow overhearing.

My study wasn't so much a study as a mostly bare room above the large, golden bell in the bell tower. There was a small ladder hidden behind a false brick wall in one corner. I slid the false wall back into place and climbed up the dark shaft, closing the trapdoor behind me when I reached the top.

The floor of the study was wooden, and the walls were the same brick as the tower, with large windows starting slightly above the height of my waist. The vaulted ceiling was high, reaching up to the pointed cone of the tower's tip.

The only furnishings up here were a small rug in one corner, and a pile of pillows and blankets atop said rug.

I went over and settled down on the small rug, back against the pillows, and pulled the book out of the basket.

I nearly dropped in is surprise when I opened to the first page.

It was the diary of the original Eleos, the one born with the very spirit I now carried within my body.

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