Lecture with Ocean
Thalia woke up in a bad mood. Last night, they had sleep together, as in on the same bed. Apparently, Percy failed to mention that there was only one bed in the room.
Fortunately, the bed was rather big, all of them can sleep on it and still left plenty of room. Now, this won't be a problem for them since they always sleep together anyway except for one problem. Puberty.
Thalia had and still have a crush on the son of Hermes. The fact that they will sleep together caused her to be a blushing mess. Thankfully, Luke didn't notice it or she might accidently kill him from embarrassment.
Luke had proposed he sleep on the floor while the girls have the bed but Thalia outright refuse. She said they need to be at their best and sleeping on the cold floor will certainly not do that. In the spur of moment, she had suggested they all sleep on the bed, with a pillow to separate them. She forgot one important fact; Luke is a cuddler in his sleep.
Apparently, in his sleep, he accidently grabbed Thalia and pull her and cuddle her. Somehow, she didn't wake up from Luke's action. Only when the first ray of sun blasted their face that she woke only to realize she had been hugged by Luke. This caused her mind to broke for a few moments before she shrieked, waking Luke and Annabeth in the process, and electrocuting Luke before she ran to the shower to hide herself.
After calming herself, she went outside to be greeted by the sight of a burned Luke and a worried Annabeth, who keep poking the burnt demigod. The event caused the atmosphere to be awkward between them both. Annabeth only looked at them with worry as she didn't understand why things get weird between the older demigods and how to make it gone.
They walk to the main hall in silence. They look for their host to find him seemingly waiting for them patiently. Percy looked toward them and saw both Luke and Thalia look like they both trying hard to not look at each other. He wonders what happen but decided it's not his business to pry.
"Alright," he clapped his hand "I don't know why you guys acted like something happen between the two of you," his words caused the duo to blush. "Let's have breakfast first and then I will show you how to make a familiar," his words caused the group to be excited.
Thankfully, the atmosphere started to loosen up during breakfast, which is great for Percy. The awkward atmosphere really bothered him.
"Well, I'm going to explain how to make a familiar." Percy said, before pulling out a knife. Before the others could react, he made a cut across his palm. His surprised spectators trying to understand why on earth did he do that before watching him pulling out a ball of water and shaping it into a wolf.
He then willed the blood to fuse with the water, before concentrating on doing … something. The trio watched as the water glowed before the wolf eyes opened. Somehow, the colour of water at the eyes seemed to be different than the rest of the body. Not only that, the blood seems to clump together at the centre of the body before turning into a ball of denser water which slowly change it colour to whitish-blue.
He turned his attention to his … students. He knows that he chooses to teach them but it still fells weird to teach others. Probably because it is a new experience for him.
"You saw that right?" he asked. The nods he received give all the answer he need. "Unfortunately, it will take time for you to learn how to make a familiar," his words surprised them, not because it was arrogant, but because his tone spoke the truth.
"What did you mean it will take us time to learn it? I mean, you just dropped blood and it came to life, right?" Thalia asked, not understanding how hard it is.
Percy shocked his head. "It's not that simple. You have to concentrate and don't let your mind wander off." He explained, hoping they will not think it will be that easy.
"So, what you're doing earlier, it's focusing to make it, right?" Luke realized.
"Yes, it is. There are other factors to but concentrating your energy into the familiar is the most important part to make a familiar powerful and battle-ready," Percy told them, silently praising Luke for figuring out.
"What did you mean concentrating energy into the familiar, and why do we need to use blood anyway?" Annabeth asked, her curiosity piqued by the explanation.
He sighed, the theory he came up with was not short and it will take some times to explain it, and that doesn't always mean that they will understand.
"You sure you want to know?" he asked. The way they all paying attention to him answer his question. "Make yourself comfortable. It will take some times to explain it,"
(A very long lectures shall be given, Percy thought.)
He let out a breath he doesn't know he was holding. He gathered his thought before speaking.
"When I discover how to sense the presence of others by sensing their magical energy, I sense a sliver of godly energy, really small, inside of mortals. I dismissed it at first that the mortal might be a legacy. But I keep sensing it at everyone I meet."
"If it is a single person, I might thoughts it as coincidence but for everyone to have it, unless gods decide to sleep with every mortal in the nation, the most likely explanation is that every being have this magical energy. I latter test it at animals and nymphs and it turned out they have it to except it is less compared to human."
Thalia cut him off, "What does mortal having this … uhm, magical energy have to do with anything?"
"That is the thing. How did mortals, animal and nymph have this weird energy when they did not have godly bloodline? Then, I remember the tale of Prometheus and how he created humans from the earth. I also remember that when Ouranus was chopped to pieces, a part of his body fell into the ocean and Aphrodite came to existence," he did not say which part though, mostly because he still grossed out when Lelantos told that story.
"The point is, if a body part of a primordial, the oldest and most powerful can create a goddess when he was dying, and how a titan create the first of the human race from mere dirt, then there is possibility that a mortal can create a living being," he explained before catching his breath, the long explanation winded him a little. He then takes a deep breath before continuing his lengthy explanation.
"Besides, mortal had done something similar to this, ages ago. In the Dark Age, evil magic practitioner often associated with killing people to get certain body parts, to use in their spell or potion. In some stories, there are tales of witches and wizards performing human sacrifices to create powerful spells."
"Even in Ancient Greece, there something similarly done, except with animals instead of humans. They will bring an animal into the god's temples and sacrifice it at the altar to offer it to the gods."
"But what that has to do with anything?" Luke asked this time.
"I will ask you a question. What does human sacrifice and animal sacrifice have in common?" Percy asked them, wanting to see if they figure it out just like he did during his travels across the country.
The trio quickly went in a deep th… oh just kidding, they attempt to answer it 5 seconds after he asked that question.
"A soul was loss,"
"A life was loss,"
"A meaty part was loss,"
"No but close, Luke, you're answer almost the same as Thalia, and Annabeth, what does that even mean?" he replied, some answer (cough Annabeth cough) was a little weird and he didn't even think the girl knew what it even meant, not like he has any idea either.
"The correct answer is blood was spilled. There is no story of human sacrifice strangle to death and animals, well I never know someone killing them without a weapon except for Heracles."
"But what does blood have to do with making a familiar?" the ever-curious daughter of Athena asked, not seeing that much connection.
"To make this short, sacrificing humans and animals can grant you some power, from making spells to create curse that desolate a land for decades, but it depends on the amount of celestial energy of the creature," he was interrupted by Annabeth again.
"What is celestial energy?" she asked, the other 2 to shift their focus to him once more, eager to know about it to.
"Celestial energy is the name I gave to the energy found in all living beings, including immortals. I – "he stopped when once again Annabeth raise her hand "Oh, and can you guys do me a favour and let me FINISH MY EXPLANATION FIRST BEFORE ASKING QUESTION!!!!?" he yelled, a bit annoyed by the constant interruption.
After receiving scared nods, he continues his explanation (lectures), "I named it celestial energy because this power originated from the oldest gods to the younger gods and finally their creation, human and animals alike," he paused for a moment "Also because it sounds cool,"
"As I was saying, celestial energy existed in every living being, though gods possess huge amount, while mortals have a very, very small amount. Celestial energy is what give gods their godly power. Their celestial energy is so pure that they able to do things like creating creatures out of almost nothing, turning people to anything they want, and give powers and blessing to person of their choosing,"
"Humans and demigods have celestial energy but we never use them. Mostly, because we didn't know much of its existence, much else using it at our own will."
"It took me 1 year to even able to control it, much less mastered it. To control celestial energy, focus is the main key. When I train myself to use celestial energy, I can barely concentrate because of ADHD. I have to learn how to tame my ADHD or I will never able to use celestial energy,"
"When I able to control my ADHD, I able to control my scent and conceal it from any monster. By channelling celestial energy to certain body part, I can increase my strength and speed. Here let me show you," he said, not leaving much of an argument.
Percy inhaled before focusing his celestial energy to his hand before punching the ground. The trio jaws dropped when they see cracks on the stone floor while the hand that punched the said floor only bruised, no sign of bleeding whatsoever.
He shows his fist to his students "Celestial energy can also make your skin more durable. That doesn't mean you're bulletproof. It means that if somebody throw you to the ground or punches you, you able to shrug it off with ease and only suffer minor bruise,"
"The most important of able to control celestial energy is you can use your parent's domain beyond what you can usually do,"
"For example, my father is Poseidon, God of the Sea, thus I can control water. But Poseidon also the Earthshaker, and Storm Bringer, meaning he has some control over earth and storm, which created from lightning and wind,"
"When I able to control my ADHD, my control over water, earth, wind and lightning become stronger. I also able to form image of my 'domain pool',"
"Domain pool is something I created by willing myself to imagine a form of my power over my father's domain. Domain pool is important if you wish to control or strengthen a possible power you might have,"
"For example, Poseidon is Greek God of the Sea, but he is also god of earthquake and storm. While earthquake is a destructive force, it is very hard to create and control. The bigger the earthquake, the harder it is to make and control,"
"But, if you look in a way, earthquake is caused by the movement of earth, the vibration caused by the earth's movement caused the earthquake. When I trained my earthshaker power, I able to grasp how to control the earth and not just make earthquake. By using this base, I trained myself to create small earthquake by moving some part of the earth together. By training myself to improve my control, I can later manipulate the earth. In other word, my power improved from only creating earthquake to geokinesis,"
"The same thing for storm. The elements in a storm are electricity and wind. I did the same thing with how I master my geokinesis. I trained to make small storm and improve my control to be able to manipulate electricity and wind separately. In other words, my stormbringer power turned into aerokinesis and electrokinesis,"
"Control is important, but you also need power. By constantly training on using all my power, I able to use my power at a greater scale. For example, I can raise and move a huge boulder from only able to do that to a pebble,"
"This might be a bit early but you need to have great control and power. If you only have power but no control, it will be useless. Same as having great control but no power,"
He then clapped his hand together, "Now, we will discuss about all of your possible power and potential you might have,"
He then pointed toward Thalia, "I want you to list all domains of Zeus you know," He said, before a thundering noise was heard. The trio flinched, thought Percy just looked annoyed.
"Great, thunder pants get self-conscious when someone said his name," he muttered.
"Alrighty, Thalia, continue to list down thunder pants domain. Luke, you do the same with Hermes and Annie, you do it with Athena. Considered this your first assignment," he ordered them and give them each a piece of paper and a pencil, before laying himself on the floor.
Few minutes later, he felt tapping on his left arm. Begrudgingly, he forced himself to a sitting position before looking at a sheepish daughter of Athena.
"Here," Annabeth said, giving her paper to the older demigod and watch him scanning her answer.
"Well," Percy begin, "You got right about the wisdom, but other things you wrote almost fell in the same category," he said, reading things like strategy and intellect on Annabeth's paper.
"Ooh," he cannot ignore or handle a crestfallen daughter of Athena so he decided to help her more.
"You know Annabeth," his sudden change of tone made the little girl to look at the son of Poseidon, "Athena has other domain than wisdom," the younger of the two suddenly pay more attention to the more experienced demigod.
Percy shook his head fondly before continuing his speech, "Athena is also the goddess of war, weaving and crafts, while crafts doesn't seem like a good skill in combat, it had many potentials in helping in combat," he looked at the daughter of Athena to see a very focused look. He smiled fondly before continuing his explanation, not realising his other students started to focus more on his explanation.
"For example, you can weave a scarf and channel a bit of your power making it a magical item, weak one but still a magical item. It probably can only handle weak attack but some protection is better than none. Of -course the strength of your scarf depends on how much power you channel to it and the strength of the material you use,"
"The same thing can be said about your crafting domain. You can make something and add a bit of celestial energy and turn it into a magical item. The same principle as with weaving,"
"As for the war domain, you probably can will yourself to emit some kind of battle aura or simply be stronger and other things. There are many possibilities that even I don't know where to start,"
"The same thing with wisdom, wisdom is related to mind so there is a slight chance you can have telekinesis though it might not be true or if you have it, it will be weak. Mind also connected to memory, you can train yourself to have eidetic memory or something like that, though it just speculation,"
"Alright," he exclaimed, "Do you do what I told you to do?" he turned towards the two older demigods.
Thalia and Luke nodded before sit near Annabeth and showed their papers to their teacher.
Thalia began first, "Well, my father domains is the sky, lightning, air and wind,"
"Well Thalia, your father domains are probably the easiest to know what you can really do. For example, by controlling wind, you can make hurricane or blow someone away or even made a wind blade," Percy explained before Thalia raised her hand. He looked amused and ushered her to spoke.
"What is a wind blade?" Thalia asked, not knowing the thing he spoke of.
"I'm not surprised you didn't know. Let me show you," as he said those word, he made a disc of wind on his hand, to the surprise of the others. Unperturbed, he threw the disc. As the wind flew from his hand, its transformed in mid-air to a blade before hitting a boulder that come out of nowhere (seriously, that thing just appear). What even surprised them is the fact when the blade impacted, instead of disappearing or pushed the boulder, the wind seemed to pass through the boulder, at least that was the initial thought before the top of the boulder fell to the floor.
Percy turned his head toward the other demigods to be greeted with few jaw-drops. He decided to snap his students out of it. "That is a wind blade. Any more questions?" he asked.
Thalia shook her head. Luke tried to reattach his jaw. Annabeth just looked at him with awe.
"Well Thalia, that is one thing you can do with wind combined with celestial energy," he said. He continues, "To even achieve something like that, you need to train more on your aerokinesis and learn to channel celestial energy, do you understand me?" he asked the daughter of Zeus.
"Oh, ok," Thalia grumbled. If the training is necessary to master that ability, she will go through it. Even if it is hellish. She will do it to become stronger, to protect everyone she loves.
"For lightning," he continued, not noticing that the daughter of Zeus was thinking to herself. "It is best to assume that you will gain ability to control electricity or electrokinesis, if you mastered control. Lightning is a form of electricity, just at a massively ridiculous scale. If you can learn control, you can do stuff like this," he said before making a few balls of lightning from his palm and made it rotate around his hand.
Thalia only nodded in awe. The boy in front of her, who is younger and not even a son of Zeus, display control over electricity in ways more creative and incredible than she ever thought.
"Wait. How did you control electricity if you are not a son of Zeus?" Luke asked.
"Huh," Percy sighed, he just told them earlier and they, no, Luke already forgot. "My father is Poseidon, and one of his titles is Storm Bringer. Storm is made of lightning made wind so that why I can control both elements. Any more questions?" he asked with annoyance in his tone, repeating himself is troublesome.
Luke shake his head. From the way Percy act, he deduced that the guy was annoyed by his question but can you blame him for asking that.
"Also, Thalia, you might have atmokinesis, the ability to control the atmosphere, though it won't be useful in a fight much unless if you up against flying opponent," Percy said. Thalia nodded, understanding the idea of using her power in a way.
"Well, Luke, what about your father domains?" he asked the oldest demigods in the room, similar to the way a teacher ask in a classroom.
"My father's domain is travel and thievery," Luke said, clearly know about his father domain.
"Although that answer his more famous domains but it is still correct. It better to start with the one you know the most. For example, travel. Hermes is known for his speed, and considered to be the fastest Olympians. If you train that part, you likely be faster than most monsters and demigods," Percy said, explaining with details about the possibility of mastering Hermes domain.
"For his other domain which related to being a thief, you most likely can become almost invisible and undetected to mortals and monsters. Thief often associated with stealth and cannot be seen. Well, the good one anyway. You can sneak attack stronger opponent and defeat them much easier," he said wisely, causing Luke to think for a moment.
"You sure you're really 9 years old, and not a god that like to look like a child?" Luke asked seriously, the way this child in front of him act make he look wiser and smarter than most adult he ever met.
"Yup, I'm absolutely positive that I'm a 9 years old boy," Percy said cheerfully.
"Besides," he continues, "You should worry more about you're training. Let just say that it will push you to the very limit, both mentally and physically," he said with a smile, but the tone he used sound demonic to the trio. They sure they're hallucinating, but they could have sworn that they saw horns on the son of Poseidon head.
"Let's get going then," Percy said, his voice cheerful but to the three demigods it sounded similar to the order of the executioner in charge of their death or the Grim Reaper. They gulped and shivered uncontrollably.
*
The three demigods lay down on the ground, too tired to move anymore after their intense training session. Percy was right. The training, from meditation to make them able to control their celestial energy, to physical training that so strenuous that it left their body in a jelly-like state. The only one that doesn't suffer much is Annabeth, who was exempted from some more 'strenuous' training, mostly because she is much younger and cannot handle most of the physical training.
Overall, though their training was a success, they all able to understand the technique and training to manipulate celestial energy, and even able to control a bit of celestial energy. The most important achievement though, they able to supress their ADHD and control their mind easier. Not to mind, their ADHD still there, just that their focus improved and they were less jumpy.
Though, the training is torturous, Percy force them to sit in a meditative post for 3 hours, not allowing them to move or risk being hit by a broomstick. Their ADHD prove to be a hindrance, making them uncomfortable and unable to stay still, causing the stick to smack them in not so small amount of time. The bruises left will definitely bother them for a few days. Their physical training is much worse, they were force to perform simple exercises practice many times, leaving them in an exhausted state after the training is over.
"I can't feel my legs, and arms, and pretty much everything else," Luke complained. His body practically a twitching mess, from the bruises inflicted by the annoying stick, to the strict training, leaving their body in a sorry state.
The other two grumbled in agreement. Even Annabeth, who didn't do some of the tougher training, sprawled on the ground, tired from the physical training that Percy actually allowed her to do.
"Well, well, well," the three demigods turned their heads in terror to source of the sound. To others, it might be voice of a 9 years old child, with a hint of amusement and mirth in the tone but to them, it the voice of the devil, the one that will drag them to deepest part of Tartarus, all while laughing merrily.
While the trio still shaking and hugging each other in terror, Percy decided that after tortu- I mean training them, the best thing to do is to be as close as possible to the probably traumatised demigods. It's not like he do it because their reaction to his presence was funny. Nope, not at all.
"Well, today's training is over. Go back to your room and take a rest. And a shower while you at it," he said, earning a sigh of relief from his students. He about to say something until he heard a grumbling noise.
"Maybe dinner first," he said thoughtfully, the trio red faces showed that they were responsible for the noises earlier.
The demigods didn't have to go anywhere, Percy's familiars bringing the food to them. Those things are seriously convenient.
"Man, that's the stuff," Luke said while devouring his second helping of steak with mash potatoes.
"Agreed, Thalia replied, stuffing her face with a cupcake.
"Hhmm, hhmm," Annabeth also nodded, her mouth filled with ice-cream. She is allowed to have dessert as long it's in moderate amount.
Percy looked at the three demigods with a smile. Its only been two days but he already felt like they were his family. Granted, in a way they all are family but he rarely counts the godly side anyway, the insanity that is the god family tree should be left alone for the sake of their mind.
"I'm happy that you guys enjoy the meal," he said with a smile, truly grateful for his present company. "Because you going to need it for tomorrow's training," his tone became darker and scarier while still having the same smile on their face.
Luke, Thalia and Annabeth all have the same look on their face, look of abject terror of course. They tremble as their mind suddenly feel like that it's a good time be a little imaginative and starting to picture tomorrow's torture like. All the while Percy look at them with a smile befitting for the devil.
Author's Note: This is the end of the first part. I made this to announce that I made a account. For anyone interested in supporting me, p atreon. c om/ keeper of time, remove the spaces then you will found my page. I'm just starting so go easy on me. The first chapter of the next story already posted there. So anyone who want to read the early access, become a . Anyone who don't can wait for next monday before it posted on fanfiction.
With that, Sword of Solomon out.