"You did what?!" Sophia whisper-yelled at him. It was the next day, and Charlie had just finished telling her what had happened the night before. They were sitting under a tree by the pavilion. It was secluded and pretty comfortable.

"He had already figured most of it out on his own. I just filled in the gaps and made sure he didn't tell anyone outright. With this fight, I have a chance to silence him forever." He reasoned.

She sighed. "Fine, but for the record, this is a bad idea."

"Noted. Doing it anyway." He retorted.

He got up and left her to go prepare. He walked over to the pier. His parents had told him this was where they had their first proper kiss as a couple. Well, not here, here. At the bottom of the lake.

He decided to take a swim. Thanks to his father, he could breathe underwater. Aside from looks and swordplay, that was about it though. He couldn't control water, like his sister, or cause an earthquake, like his father.

Thinking about his sister made him chuckle as he jumped in. While here, she had to pretend to be really bad at archery, and she hated it. She was probably better than most campers, but couldn't prove it because children of Poseidon aren't supposed to be good at archery.

That was something she got from their mother. Pride. Hubris. Charlie didn't know what his own fatal flaw was, but he knew his sister's. She got it from their mom. Charlie didn't think that he had gotten either of his parents' fatal flaws.

He wasn't overly prideful like his mother, and he wasn't as loyal as his father. Maybe some reflection would help.

It did not. 2 hours later and nothing was revealed to him. Well, no fatal flaws at least. Every time he tried to think about it, his mind circled around to battle strategy. During his first fight with Adam, he had gotten to see how he fought.

Whenever Charlie tried to think about what his fatal flaw could be, he got distracted thinking of ways to get through Adams' guard. It was frustrating. When he finally looked at his watch, he realized that there were only about fifteen minutes left before the fight.

He climbed out of the water, wished himself dry(that was the only other power he had gotten from his father), and headed towards the arena. All things considered, it was a nice day out.

The sun was out, for once, and the temperature was warmer than usual. Spring was still a ways off, but it was getting there.

He arrived at the arena a couple of minutes later. Adam was already there practicing. Three training dummies lay in pieces on the ground, and Adam was working on a fourth. Charlie walked over to a bench and sat down.

There were a few people milling around. As he waited for the fight to begin, a girl walked over. She sat down next to him and reached her hand out.

"Hi, I'm Prescilla." he looked at her for a second before shaking her hand. She had dark-colored eyes. He couldn't tell if they were black or really dark brown. Her hair was brown and went down to her shoulders.

'She looks kinda pretty' he thought, before mentally scolding himself. Out-loud, he said, "Charlie, but I guess you know that." she nodded but said nothing.

"You know, this fight is a bad idea." She said after a moment.

Charlie chuckled. "So I've been told."

She frowned. "Then why are you doing it?"

He shrugged. "I have my reasons."

She shrugged and let it go. They sat there in comfortable silence until it was time for the fight to begin.

He stood up and stretched. "Well, I've got to go. It was nice meeting you."

She gave a small smile. "It was nice to meet you, too."

He smiled and turned around. He walked over to the weapons rack and picked out the best one there. It wouldn't be as good as torrent, but it would serve. As he turned around, Adam made a noise of disagreement.

"No. if we're gonna have a good fight, you do it to the maximum of your ability." he lowered his voice, "use the pen. If it is like your father's, then it will be perfectly balanced."

Charlie growled. "Fine. but I need to go somewhere private to uncap it."

He pointed to the armory. "In there." Charlie nodded and jogged over. He slipped inside and placed the sword he had grabbed down. He pulled out Torrent and uncapped it. He put the cap into his pocket and went back outside.

He jogged back over to the center of the arena and stood a few feet away from Adam. they looked at each other for a minute, each sizing up the other.

Adam also wielded a sword. Torrent was about the size of Riptide, and Adam's sword was about 4 inches longer than Torrent

Adam made the first move. He rushed Charlie and tried to go for the legs. Charlie was ready, however, and blocked it, almost faster than the eye could follow. Charlie tried to swing the sword upward, but Adam dodged with equal speed. They went back and forth like that, neither able to get a hit on the other.

After several minutes, they were both panting and sweating. Their movements were starting to slow but were still incredibly fast. In his exhaustion, Charlie let a hit get past. A split second later, Adam also got hit.

Now they were both bleeding. This fight was going nowhere fast, so Charlie decided to try and end it. Charlie used one of the disarming moves he had been taught. His father had taught it to him early on, saying it was taught to him by a man named Luke.

He executed the move and… it worked. Adam's sword was now on the ground with Charlie's at his neck. Both boys stood still for a moment, breathing hard.

Finally, Adam broke the silence. "Fine… you win." he said in between breaths before collapsing. Charlie followed suit. He was exhausted.

"You know… one day… I will… beat you…" Adam told him, still trying to get his breathing under control.

"Yeah… I'm sure…" Charlie responded. "But for now… sleep."

"On that… we agree…" Adam relented.

About an hour later, after a nice nap, Charlie decided to go for a walk. He wanted to clear his head and walks usually helped with that. He wasn't looking where he was going, however, and accidentally bumped into someone.

He quickly apologized. "Oh! Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going."

The girl he had bumped into looked up at him. She had red, frizzy hair with green eyes. She smiled a little bit. "It's okay. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going either."

Charlie stared at her for a minute. She looked familiar to him. "You look familiar. Do I know you?"

She laughed. "I hope so. I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the Oracle of Delphi."

He made an 'O' shape with his mouth. "Got it." she stared at him.

"You look familiar to me. Do I know you?" she asked.

Charlie frowned. "Don't think so. My sister and I got here less than a week ago."

She frowned. "Maybe one of your parents?"

He shrugged. "My godly parent is Athena. Maybe that's it." he kept up a mask of nonchalance, but inside he was panicking. Enough people knew his secret as it was. He remembered his father telling him that Rachel was terrible at keeping secrets.

Her frown deepened. "No… that's not it." She was studying his face now. He decided to get out of there.

"Well, I have to go. I have a… thing. Very important. See you later." He stuttered. He turned and walked away, but he could feel Rachel's eyes drilling a hole in the back of his head.

When he told Sophia what had happened, she didn't seem surprised. "I had a similar encounter with Rachel. I also had one with piper."

Charlie turned away from the lake and looked at her. "You did?" she nodded so he continued, "I had an encounter with piper a few days ago," he told her the details.

"We're running out of time. Eventually, they'll figure it out. It's bad enough that Adam and Thalia already know. We have to figure something out."

He made a grunt of frustration. "I know, I know. Alright. Plan, plan, plan… we need a plan" he muttered. He started to pace back and forth. It didn't necessarily help, but it was something to do while he thought of a plan.

"What if we went to grandma Sally's house?" Sophia asked after a minute.

Charlie shook his head. "No. I don't want to involve her. And besides, if we told her about mom and dad…" he left it there, not wanting to say the thought aloud.

Sophia was quiet for another minute. "What about aunt Estelle?" Charlie stopped pacing. He ran through scenarios in his mind.

"That could work. But only as a last resort. I'd rather not involve her either if we can help it." He told her. She nodded.

He thought and thought and thought, but after 10 minutes of thinking, he couldn't think of a good plan.

"I guess we'll stay here and try our luck. For now at least." Sophia nodded. She got up, and we walked towards the pavilion. It was dinner time.

from now on, I will only write and upload on Wednesdays in order to prevent burnout in the future. also, to CommanderDuck14: let me know how this was. was the balance good?