A/N: It has taken me a while but I finally got a new computer and got to finish WIP chapters that had been underwork when my old one went kaput. This is the first chapter finished. Next will be Leap to Relatively Unknown and after that one of my newer SI-OC fics (LitD, AtSC or LCfD).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 13: In which it has already been a year

15th August, 2005

The summer approached its end. It was all celebrated with bonfires and fireworks and of course with a camp bead. The bead was dark blue in color and had a golden arrow and a white silhouette of a horse painted on it.

"Seriously?" I asked Luke. The older and taller boy shrugged.

"It has been a quiet year. And your deceiving of both Chiron and Mr. D was quite impressive. The vote was unanimous." The son of Hermes explained. I could only stare at him in disbelief but decided not to comment on it any further. What was done was done and in the end it wasn't that big of a deal. Other than Luna getting an opportunity to tease me to the end of earth. Not that she didn't already do it enough…

I put the new camp necklace around my neck and leant against a stone at the beach.

"Any plans for the upcoming fall?" I asked, changing the topic. Luke shrugged again.

"Nah, aside from taking some courses in online, I'll just stay here and train. You?"

"Gonna visit my sister this week. I missed her birthday… But when she starts school again, I'll be back." Luna had sent me a letter filled with swear words and creative curses for that. It was quite amusing considering that she hadn't been serious when writing it.

"She was at that school for problem kids, right? Yancy?"

"Yeah, she is repeating a grade for her own amusement. Amazing that none of the teachers caught on that she was failing purposefully…"

"Or that you two are living alone in a weird house in the middle of the woods."

"Mist, Luke, Mist is taking care of that." Thought now that I thought about it, there probably should've been some sort of enquiry for adult presence. I hadn't been able to check on Luna as Eric Cykes after all… I probably should ask her if she'd done something.

"I know, but Luna is still mortal and Mist doesn't always exactly aid half-bloods either." The older boy frowned. I glanced at him and the obvious dark turn his thoughts had taken. Kronos's influence no doubt. Every time Luke mentioned or heard from someone else something negative about being demigod, something that had directly or indirectly to do with the neglect experienced from their parents, a shadow passed across his face. While Luke might've had negative thoughts on his own given his past and experiences, Kronos was the one amplifying them.

"I've heard stories." I hummed in agreement. "I've also heard that it's because some half-bloods abuse the usage of Mist and throw veils upon mortals everywhere. So it backfires on some of us as retaliation."

"Is that so…"

"It could be just hearsay but thus I've heard."

16th August

"Excuse me… But what?" I stared at Luna. And the trio of immortals around her.

"We got relatives!" My sister chirped. I blinked. And blinked again. The three adults did not vanish. I turned to address them as it seemed obvious that Luna enjoyed my confusion and was not forthcoming with answers.

"My lord, ladies…" I began as I did not know their names but it was obvious from their auras that they weren't mortals or half-bloods either. "Could you please tell me what my sister means and how did it come to… whatever it is?"

The only male of the group smiled gently. He had long straight golden blond hair and light blue eyes. He was dressed in a dove-grey suit with soft blue tie.

"My apologies, I knew young Luna was going to introduce us to you but I had no idea she'd give you no prior warning." The man got up from the couch and approached me. With only two long steps he was in front of me, standing straight and head tilted slightly to the left as he regarded me. "My name is Lelantos. These are my sister Leto and daughter Autere." He indicated at the woman at the couch who had that same colored hair than… well, himself and her son Apollo which also I had inherited through Silas. Leto had opted to wear a white summer dress and a light blue thin gardigan over it.

The last woman in the other hand… She looked remarkably like Luna. But there was something else… Some other conjunction that I recognized her from.

"Lila Cykes?" I blurted out, staring at the young woman. Same light blue eyes than Lelantos and Luna had. The honey-blonde hair that wasn't quite as bright and harsh as her father and aunt's hair. She was wearing a lilac-colored long-sleeved t-shirt and navy-blue jeans with… tabi-socks? The pair of waraji in the entrance hall probably belonged to her then. I shook the stray thought away. All in all, she looked like a grown-up version of the girl from Luke's photo. And actually older than what the five-year time-span between taking of the photo and the present day suggested. Well, immortals, go figure…

The younger goddess smiled from her seat in an armchair. "Exactly, it's one of my aliases in mortal world. And considering that you two are living in my house and your sister is using the surname of that alias, I thought it only fitting to visit. Father and auntie Leto decided to tag along on the first time and…" She made a vague motion with her hand, indicating that everything just rolled on from there.

"Right…" I resisted the urge to pinch my nose and instead took a seat next to Luna who hadn't stopped grinning at me the entire time. "You said relatives." I stated to her. Luna nodded.

"Yes, when they came to visit me on my birthday…" At the stressed word, I earned a mock-glare. "We devised a coverstory. And with a bit of manipulation of Mist, the folks a school believe it too."

So Mist was indeed in the play.

"I'm all ears."

"Since your special situation and the fact that Clay can't pretend to be adult all the time when needed at Luna's school, we're stepping in." Lelantos began. "The law doesn't apply to this situation because Luna is mortal and you Clay aren't any of us son and are most of the time at the Camp Half-Blood anyways."

"The idea is that your cover-story parents died in a car-crash which explained Luna's abysmal grades at the end of the school year and the repetition of the grade." Leto added then. She had a gentle disposition and slight crinkles at the corner of her eyes for smiling so much. Well, she was the Titaness of Motherhood and Demurity so it wasn't exactly a surprise. Lelantos in the other hand was much more mysterious. Not to mention Lila. Or Autere as the titan had addressed her as…

"In consequence, we – Eric Cykes's brother and sister – took you in. The names are Lewis and Lena Cykes." Lelantos continued. "Autere is still Lila Cykes and looks after the orchard we have at Connecticut."

"The oranges sell well." Autere shrugged. "And I can covertly keep an eye on May Castellan. Hermes is a friend of mine and I owe him several favors…"

That answered a couple of questions but still left most of her purpose and general information in the dark.

"Why all this?" I asked. "I'm thankful for this all but I don't understand why you would want to bother with us. We are just a demigod and a clearsighted mortal after all."

"Oh, you are so much more." Autere smiled. "The prophecy you heard from the Oracle is one that I have crafted from what I read from the stars."

Right, Lady of the Dusk, shared domain with Astraios. Thought…

"I've never heard of a goddess named Autere before. And mythology states that Lelantos only had one daughter, Aura, who was a counterpart for Artemis." I stated, remembering what I had learnt on mythology lessons at the camp.

"That's what they think, don't they?" Autere smirked. "There are reasons why my titles are Sleeping Goddess and Lady of Dusk. And no mortal knows them."

I looked her in the eye. There was something in her expression that indicated that she wanted to tell me. But all the same, there was a steel-clad resolve to take her secrets to grave. Interesting.

"Ahem." Lelantos interrupted our staring competition. "In the future, not much of your life will change. Just occasional contact from one of us. And I think it's more than obvious that we'd appreciate if you wouldn't mention our real identities to the Olympians."

'We'd appreciate', my ass. That was a threat and everyone in the room knew it. Though I didn't mind it. I had no intention of tattling on the titan siblings and the elusive Lady of Dusk.

And the life went on again. Luna started new school year, Lelantos drove her to school, we said our goodbyes and I went back to camp. Armed with a box of Leto's cookies and a basketful of Autere's oranges which I shared with my cabinmates (ahem, siblings).

It was wonderful to be back at cabin seven and on my first day back, we had a huge pillow fight. I snatched back the top bunk I'd used during the last month of the summer season of the camp. It was wonderful to have room for myself and not fear that my possessions would be stolen. And now someone was sleeping in the bed I'd used at Hermes cabin…

So the life went on, like I already mentioned. Luna messaged me later that she'd managed to get Perseus Jackson under her wings and was getting irritated since Grover Underwood tried to get close to Percy but couldn't stand Luna. So it was a bit of tug-of-war between the two of them with Percy as the rope but the boy was dense enough that he probably hadn't cottoned on it yet.

Then Chiron left the camp to teach Latin at Yancy. Mister Brunner was his alias. Luna didn't even know his 'first name'.

In September many other things happened too. Will Solace arrived to camp and was immediately claimed by Apollo. He got the bottom bunk below mine. The kid was quite young and apparently his mother had gotten him almost to the border before saying goodbyes. That was rare.

The new kid was great at healing and passable with other Apollo talents but healing was where he truly excelled at. In the other hand when I tried to take part to healing classes, resulted only me getting banned from the infirmary. It… stung. Everyone else could do something to help there. Even Melody could seal a papercut! But I… I only could cause burns and worsen it all.

Plague…

There was a flip-side to every aspect of a god's domains. There was light and there was dark. There was balance in every immortal and no one was inheritently evil. The villainous deeds were found in every god and goddess, some more high-lighted than others. I shouldn't take it so heavily.

When Luna heard of the incident, she sent me a t-shirt. It was black, with the Camp Half-Blood logo in it on golden yellow. Tasteful.

I took wearing the t-shirt anytime possible. Especially when I was spending my time reading medical texts in the front-room of the infirmary. It was the backroom where the patients where that I was forbidden to enter. But in the end, I had decided to take the best I could get from my situation and I'd become a walking encyclopedia of medical jargon. The black t-shirt was a reminder for everyone who I was and what I could do. It was a beacon among the orange shirts of other campers.

Thalassa was about to strike again. The target was Surf Stone. It was triangular blue sodalite that was embed into a diadem. The stone would rest on the wearer's forehead with one tip pointing downward. The stone was Poseidon's and would grant the user mild water control. Or alternatively enhance already existing control.

I fingered a black stone attached to my bracelet. During my visit home, Luna had given them to me. The bracelet had room for four godless stones and Shadow Arrow, the obsidian stone of Hades, was my first one. It was an interesting one and complimented me and my abilities. It could form arrows our of shadows for my use in the case I ever ran out of projectiles to use with my bow. It also could cause 'absence of light' and thus render things invisible just like I could when bending light away from objects. Like how I had tricked people during that one Capture the Flag game.

It was almost a year since then. Weird…

And weird how it was the stone from the Underworld that would aid me the best.

The winds were picking up. Meteorologists tried to pin it on climate change and fall storms but people at the camp and some mystics knew the truth. Snatcher Gale was on the move again and it meant that the great thief Thalassa was about to strike again. The police and security guards were trying to guard the stone at the collector's manor but many were sure it would all be in vain. In an hour or two the stone would be gone, with the headpiece or without it. Apparently, the only reason Thalassa had removed the Shadow Arrow from its frame was because the bracelet had been fixed to the display by the security advisor (aka Athena) and thus would've been harder to remove.

I probably don't even need to mention that Thalassa was indeed successful with her heist. And most likely Poseidon didn't mind as neither the weather nor the ocean changed afterwards. Not even unnatural stillness that'd preceed greater storm.

I turned on the volume on my headphones and listened to Luna's dubious music choices. This time PMMP, another Finnish band (a girl-duo really) and their song Rusketusraidat ("Tanlines"). I could deal with it all. It was hard to believe it had been almost been a year since I entered the camp. Despite the canon story still ahead, the past year had been surprisingly busy. And I'd like to think I'd grown as a person too. At least a bit.

And I probably would continue to grow and change during the up-coming years and the war at the horizon waiting for us all. That was the nature of humans.

People were at the arena, clashing swords despite the eve darkening to dusk. I glanced at my watch. It was taking a bit too long. Lady of Dusk, Autere, was probably extending the time of dusk again. She was another mysterious figure in this world. A variable. I'd never gotten a straight answer from her about her existence in shadows… And I had a feeling that I wouldn't for a while. The lines of the prophecy given to me were ringing in my head.

Champions of Dusk and Dawn.

Dusk obviously referred to Autere. Dawn… was a mystery. At first Luna and I thought of Eos but that had indicated Astraeus as Dusk then. But if he wasn't in the equation directly…

I frowned. I probably thought bother with the prophecy that much. It would be fulfilled one way or another and there was no stopping of speeding it up. That was how the Fate worked in this world.

And us mortals were just playthings for them.