"Huh, that's a real mystery head scratcher of a title going on there," Alex rolled her eyes when she read the newest one.
"I think, and it's just a wild guess here, but this might be about our capture the flag game," Will offered with sincere sarcasm.
"You're a miracle Will," Jason agreed, mostly for chancing such a thing when Alex rolled her eyes harder and looked longingly at her garrote for a moment before deciding to read.
'We don't even get the mystery of who wins the game,' Hearth mock sighed as Magnus chuckled.
"I take ASL from an elf, so what is normal?" Magnus grinned.
"Still feels like a punishment worthy of Mrs. Dodds," Nico grimaced.
"So that's why he finally approved Lee to start teaching the class," Will grinned. "He'd been asking for months, thanks Percy."
"You're welcome? Any time," he snorted.
"So are the satyrs, and you've seen how fast they can move," Thalia grinned.
"I'm trying to imagine wrestling a monster to the ground and wet myself a little," Magnus admitted, neither the fury or minotaur seemed easy to put in a headlock.
"I bet Ares would claim you on the spot if you tried though, child of his or not," Alex laughed.
"Hey, that's no pushover skill though," Will rubbed his shoulder, "I was impressed."
It still sounded a bit demeaning coming from him too though, so Percy said nothing.
"Actually I think most of them suspected and just wanted to be wrong," Thalia disagreed. Children of the Big Three always meant bigger problems on the horizon.
Magnus tried not to feel too bitter towards him if this turned out to be true, but it made him resentful of whatever his own heritage was. Did the Greek's have an easier time of getting their dead back, could he have saved his mom, possibly still get her back if he'd just had a different dad?
"I don't think they see it that way," Will spoke with the air of someone who'd had to explain this one to many times. "After their 900th kid dying to young, maybe they think it's for the best to put a little distance there rather than living through the heartbreak every time."
"You're assuming they feel the loss of their kids, and it's not just uncaring," Jason said with a quiet resolve.
Thalia opened her mouth, but then quickly closed it as she had no answer for him. Her father had allowed her baby brother to be taken from her to preserve his precious marriage to Hera which he still never wished to be faithful to. He'd turned her into a tree, rather than saving her life, just her essence. How much caring had gone into that act, and how much was just defiance in the face of Hades for setting her death in motion?
Magnus made an uneasy face and signed, 'wish they had book club instead.'
'I'm sure the Athena cabin does,' he nodded.
Will swallowed bile and fought back the urge to caution Percy about getting stabbed in the back. Thalia cleared her throat for a moment and still managed to pretend this wasn't bothering her one bit. She'd known Luke the longest as her best friend..maybe even more. Her time after the tree had left her with too much time, and not enough to dwell on all the ins and outs of his betrayal.
"How come you didn't get that one back, the pen sword Chiron gave you?" Alex asked in surprise. "Seemed to be your weapon."
"Maybe it was just on loan in the face of a Kindly One?" But Percy looked confused as well as he grasped it in his pocket.
"Sounds like a very hands on teacher," Magnus said with distaste, imagining his friends slapping him every time he got a sign wrong.
"Fastest way to learn," Jason was smiling, like he'd enjoy having a chat with Luke.
"If only you'd articulated those thoughts, the toilets wouldn't have been the anomaly," Nico scoffed.
"I still don't think we would have believed it until the sign," Will shook his head.
"And that was a splash of fresh water and your first practice," Thalia congratulated. "You're a menace now a days."
Percy smiled at the compliment, he'd never imagined himself that good at anything before.
"Is there a god of sword fighting?" Alex continued to faux play they had no clue what was coming.
"God of weaponry, Hephaestus," Will admitted, "but building and using the tools isn't the same thing, so it's not a sure bet."
"Take over the world," Magnus grandly announced.
"Don't tempt me," Percy put on a posh voice, "you've all agreed I'm already lord of the bathrooms."
"Oh we're doomed," Thalia laughed.
"At least you still had your eyebrows," Alex said.
"So believable, like snow in July," Jason frowned.
"Is that like, a hunting license?" Jason asked in surprise.
"What's he searching for?" Magnus added.
"No, and no," Thalia answered, and then reminded why she wouldn't keep answering.
"That's at least more fair than I was imagining," Magnus said, "I was beginning to wonder if Mr. D. was going to make him vanish in the night."
'He didn't strike me as the serial killer god,' Hearthstone said, 'more like eternal suffering being trapped there.' Luke had just said there were no quests on the horizon after all.
"Depends how you define useful," Alex's tone was one of threatening anyone to disagree with her, but she also had this defensive edge like she was trying to stand up for the craft. She was a mystery like that. Magnus kept finding the ability less and less to look away from her. She was holding the book, so obviously she should have all attention.
"I'm told it was a nightmare trying to construct her's and Apollo's at the exact same time," Will chuckled.
Nico arched a very distasteful brow at the only culprit in here, and Percy was both glad Grover wasn't here to share that look, and envious of it. "What, it's not like I said it."
"Why would it be so bad?" Magnus asked.
"I honestly have no idea," Will frowned. "The Gods have made a pretty big deal about mirroring our camp with Olympus, the layout and position of the cabins, but that's the only reason I can imagine. The place hasn't exactly been swarmed by the undead since we put one up."
"Not getting on Zeus's bad side seemed like a good enough reason I suppose," Nico looked away from Percy with a careless shrug as if the whole thing fell right back off his back, that he wasn't still fighting off the urge to yell at the heavens and earth for starting him as the opposite of everything he could ever wish to be.
Thalia gave a very sardonic laugh while Nico's face turned darker than stygian iron. His father had not broken that vow, the only one to have done so, and yet still he was treated as the pariah.
Alex paused and looked up at said girl, who simply stared right back without blinking. She hadn't expected her past to be shown like this, especially so early, but she did not let it phase her and simply shooed the girl to keep going.
'One that she had to get herself out of,' Thalia did not consider her tale a tragic one, but she didn't wish it on any other children of Zeus either. Perhaps her baby brother had been the lucky one.
"Fair," Alex laughed without humor. "Since when does the universe ever care who's at fault?"
No one disagreed, none of them would exactly stroll around calling their lives fair.
Thalia made the gesture for warding off evil once more, wishing it would be a powerful enough symbol just to spare Grover these memories, though they would never fade for her no matter how much time passed.
Percy alternately studied the book and Thalia, a thought right on the edge of his mind there was some detail he was missing of this story, but it wouldn't solidify to him as he looked at Thalia's grim face, the exact same expression Grover had held while telling him this. That Grover had messed up once before... he hissed in pain and frustration while Thalia met his eyes in understanding. He knew she wasn't answering because it would only make his head hurt worse, but she didn't deny the rising understanding simmering in him.
Alex looked up from the book right at Thalia with pure respect, something she hadn't felt for another person in a very long time.
Hearth wondered if a Valkyrie had been there to witness such an event if a Greek child would make it into Valhalla, and how she'd come back to life. She'd mentioned being a hunter for her goddess, he very much hoped to hear how that story had interlaced with this sacrifice.
Magnus opened his mouth with extreme curiosity upon the girl sitting before them, before glancing at Hearth and closing it. He wasn't sure if it was rude or not to ask someone how they'd gotten out of a tree, but she didn't look in the talkative mood regardless.
"No need to compare us Perce," Thalia grinned wickedly, already causing Percy to roll his eyes before she even finished, "we all know who'd win one v one."
"You really want to go air head?" He laughed. "Down here?"
"Just you wait," she chuckled. Their only fight had been interrupted, but she was still confident she could have shocked him unconscious if not.
Percy sighed, his shoulders slumped, all the fight and joshing drained out of him like someone had found his plug. Thalia looked quickly away to stop herself bursting into speech his mother was safe at home. She'd never wanted to hug Percy before, but he looked like he needed one now.
"Houdini was a demigod!" Magnus demanded, more just to break the tension in the room.
"You have no idea," Will grinned.
"Oh, good, I was worried for a second," Nico sighed, wishing he could throw in Percy's face about stopping him from trying to bring back Bianca when he'd been trying to do the same thing at his age!
"I doubt anyone needs to know you well to guess that, let alone your thoughts," Jason nodded, Percy had it written all over his face now.
'Because technically you did,' Hearth nodded his approval of how casually Percy had managed that.
Even if the proof of it hadn't already been confirmed, none of them would have really believed that either. Things just lined up too well.
Jason sat up straiter with interest, his mind spinning already on strategic ways of winning this game and wishing he had a layout of the camp and the list of rules at hand now.
'Of course Annabeth had let him in on the plan,' Thalia realized without surprise the part of the story her friend had left out.
Her insides flared like a poker had just twisted her guts into spaghetti. If only they'd all known, right then, how much could have been spared...
"Diabolically evil!" Jason chuckled. "How do the alliances work? Does it have to be split even?"
"No," Will answered casually enough like an old friend hadn't just reared up and kicked him, "we've done it multiple different ways, each cabin brings a unique bit to each side, the campers have even been known to sabotage from within, it all depends."
"Sounds awesome," Jason was clearly delighted at the idea of war games. This was the first thing about this camp that truly felt familiar to him!
"Don't underestimate them," Jason disagreed while Alex grumbled about stereotypes. "Venus is very good at manipulation, that can play well in both offense and defense if done right."
Thalia caught his eye and to his surprise, grinned. She seemed to have decided that wherever he was from, she'd enjoy picking his brains and not killing him, for now. He felt guilty all of a sudden, like he was exposing something far greater than just how his mind worked, which in itself should have felt dangerous in such a no man's land to him.
Yet he just smiled back and turned for more with no fear.
"You know the rules, let me tell you the rules anyways," Alex mocked.
"Are those the only rules," Jason confirmed, his own strategy tightening up nicely.
"That, ah, prisoner thing may or may not get abused now and again, but yes," Will shrugged.
"Was I the only one concerned the no killing and maiming had to be specified?" Magnus asked, and was ignored.
"Maybe she does think you're a child of Hermes," Nico laughed.
"Or just been hanging out with them too much," Will groaned, one to many kids left that cabin from being unclaimed to long still thinking that was the norm.
'Next to the creek,' Hearth repeated without surprise.
'She's definitely trying to prove a point' Magnus agreed, hoping it worked out for her, though he worried what would happen to Percy when it did. What would the camp do exactly to a child that shouldn't exist? Thalia seemed testy because of her status, and there was definitely more to that story.
Will gave a very awkward laugh that would have been funnier if he'd been trying to actually laugh that off.
'Because it had been told to,' Thalia couldn't help but wonder what Luke had been out here doing at the time. He'd tried to kill Percy once before alone in these woods, perhaps he'd been about to try once more even earlier at such an opportune moment if he hadn't been interrupted.
She was the only one who remained fixated on such a minor detail, the others were all instantly riveted when the other threat came onto the scene. Alex read the battle with glorious enthusiasm for the fight, clearly not fearing any of those maimings were coming from a group already bested by toilets since the monster had never made an appearance, perhaps the others even guessed Clarisse herself had made the growling noise. She twisted her bracelet and scolded herself for lingering on him again, whatever Luke had or hadn't been planning was long in the past now.
Percy clenched the muscles in his arm in disgust, grateful the feeling didn't actually come back even if he did remember the sensation with great unpleasantness.
"Looks like we are going to see Percy versus your powers," Nico looked a bit too ecstatic for this.
"Those idiots have nothing on me," she scoffed. Even before she'd been made the Lieutenant with an ethereal grace, she could have disarmed them without so much as a scratch. "Anyone can throw around electricity, I can summoning lightning," she leered with such absolute assurance they all glanced nervously to the ceiling for a moment to make sure it wasn't going to arc down on them now.
"Didn't sound like they needed Percy's assistance with that," Alex rolled her eyes.
"Nobody ever said the smart thing and the right thing to do is the same," Magnus grinned.
'Nobody call the Greek god of teeth,' Hearth cringed and ran his tongue over his own at the idea.
"Is that really the punishment?" Alex couldn't seem to decide if she wanted to laugh at that or not.
"What's Chiron supposed to do, send them to time-out?" Will looked more resigned than anything, and no one could really tell if he was joking.
"I give her credit for original insults," Nico was just glad she'd never directed those at him.
"You haven't heard the half of it," Will agreed, she could be quite liberal with them.
Nobody seemed truly surprised Annabeth had stuck around to observe her own plan, though all four of the non-greek kids were fascinated at the hat!
"How far back was she hanging exactly," Alex didn't seem to think much of the double-cross even if Percy had never been in real danger from those idiots once he'd gotten in the water.
"Close enough," Thalia said with complete confidence. "Just because she wields a knife doesn't mean you should underestimate her range."
Magnus whistled at the idea of being able to heal like that. "Now there's something I'd trade a pen-sword for."
"I have a bad idea about the limits of it," Percy rubbed his arm where the cut had once been, not at all enjoying the notion his brain offered this was the least of his injuries he'd be remembering.
"The sky may be more vast, but the ocean has more unknown," Jason murmured.
His heart sure was, creating a new rhythm all its own as he longed to grab her hand and pull her away with him, to throw up a wall of water, whatever annoyance had been there kindled and burst into the shield of his arms he wished he could throw around her, yet she wasn't the one in danger.
Will scowled at himself for it feeling so obvious in hindsight, it couldn't have been more in their face- there was just the smallest pressure in his side that drew his attention to Nico. He didn't seem to have moved at all, but the sharp jab of his elbow was still felt in a lingering way. Lee and Michale had both been head counselors and worked with Luke even before him and had never suspected a thing, he refused to blame himself for something even Chiron had never figured out.
Alex's hand twitched on instinct, to reach out and punch this idiot in the face. She didn't even like Percy that much, but this petty move riled her up enough she wished she could hit something.
"I'm guessing all campers don't get such a grand introduction like that," Alex frowned as she looked up at the end.
"Guess I'm just lucky that way," Percy said as he got up to take the book. He didn't feel grand, or important, or very godly in that moment. He just felt determined to come full circle, and find out what else he always should have known.