chapter 3! enjoy. review. thank you.
REYNA
"Are you sure it was a prophecy?" Frank asked for the third time, biting his thumbnail.
"It definitely sounded like one." Reyna replied darkly. "Didn't it?"
"Well, yeah." Frank conceded reluctantly, then glanced at Ella, who was busy cleaning between her toes. "Ella," he asked hesitantly, "Could you repeat that one more time?"
Ella looked up. "For Rome, for Greece, for gods, for earth. Beware the dark, avenge the hearth. By death, by scorn will heroes fall. Or night and strife envelop all." She recited, before turning back to her foot and dislodging a particularly bothersome bit of sand from between claw and toe.
"Do you think . . ." Frank started, "Do you think we should talk to Chiron?"
"No!" Reyna hissed, and her ferocity forced Frank back a pace. "You have to understand, Frank. We are Romans. We don't go crying to the Graecus for help. Maybe you don't get it because you spent so much time with –" she breathed and ran over the name quickly "Percy – and Annabeth and Piper and Leo. But the Romans and the Greeks will always be separated, two different things entirely. That is how it has always been, and how it always will be."
Frank nodded quickly. "Yeah – Yeah you're right."
"In a few days," Reyna continued, "The annual festival will be over and we will return to Camp Jupiter. There we can discuss the prophecy, but until then we should . . . enjoy our last days here."
"You're the Roman counselors, then?"
Reyna swore silently to herself as she whipped around – she should have heard anyone creeping up behind her.
There stood two boys behind Reyna and Frank, gangly and grinning. They looked as though they were the same person except that one was a few inches shorter than the other. Identical arched eyebrows and sharp noses gave them away as children of Mercury – er, Hermes. That explained why they'd been able to sneak up on her, then.
"Yes." Reyna replied rather haughtily, regaining her composure, "We are praetors of the Romans. And if you'll excuse us we were –"
"Oh, pardonusus praetorus" The taller one smirked in a mock bow, "We'll just tell Chiron you were too busy snogging to come to the meeting then."
"Hey!" Frank yelped, turning a magnificent shade of scarlet, "I have a girlfriend!"
"Hazel Levesque." Ella supplied, "Status: Demigod. Godly parent: Pluto. Hair: caramel. Eyes: brown. Height –"
"Yes!" Frank gasped, "That's her!"
Reyna bristled, partly at the touchy subject of significant others, and partly because of the fun that had been poked at both the Latin language and the praetors of Rome.
"Keep your knickers on, praetor." The shorter one grinned, noticing Reyna's icy aura and Frank's wild gesturing, "We're just the messengers. Chiron's called a meeting of the head counselors and he wants the two of you there."
"You don't want to miss it." The other one added, "Clarisse is in a snit after what we did to her heavy metal albums this morning."
"What would that be?" Frank asked tentatively, turning to follow the boys towards the Big House.
"Exchanged them for Vocaloid."
Reyna didn't know what Vocaloid was, but obviously it had been enough to cause the horrible ruckus that had erupted from Cabin Five that morning.
Inside the rec room of the Big House there were gathered several teens around a rather drab-looking ping-pong table. As the two boys crossed the threshold, one of the girls started from her chair, a snarl pasted on her features.
This, Reyna assumed, was Clarisse LaRue, whom she hadn't yet seen without armor on her body and a spear at her side. The girl was tall and well-muscled, like any Ares child, and her stringy hair was gathered in a sloppy ponytail that hung limply down her back.
"You filthy maggots!" Clarisse hissed. She looked like she wanted to elaborate quite a bit on that in a more colorful manner, then seemed to remember that Chiron was in the room and thought better of it. "Hatsune Miku is waiting for you in the Fields of Punishment." She promised, before sitting back down again and proceeding to glare at whatever happened to be in front of her.
"Well," Chiron spoke from the head of the ping-pong table after it became evident that Clarisse had said her bit, "Now that everyone's here we can get started. Reyna, Frank, these are our head counselors. One from each cabin except Hermes, for which we have two."
"Two too many if you ask me." Clarisse mumbled with a scathing look towards the smirking brothers.
"Thank you, Miss LaRue, that will do." Chiron cut in pointedly. Then, "Counselors, these are the praetors of Camp Jupiter, Reyna and Frank."
"Now that's out of the way," a boy who Reyna recognized as Will Solace began from the corner of the ping-pong table, "Let's talk about the prophecy."
Reyna shared a glance with Frank which did not pass by Chiron without notice.
"Something wrong, praetors?" he asked with the patronizing tone of one who knows exactly what is going on but still wants to hear it said.
"No." Reyna replied rather quickly. Frank, who had been about to say something, closed his mouth. She relaxed, then gestured to Will. "Please, continue."
"Last night Rachel delivered a prophecy outside the Hermes cabin." Will stated formally, "For Rome, for Greece, for gods, for earth. Beware the dark, avenge the hearth. By death, by scorn will heroes fall. Or. . ." he sought to remember the last line.
"Or night and strife envelop all." Frank supplied quietly, ignoring Reyna's furious glance.
Will looked momentarily surprised and then nodded. "Yeah. That's right."
"So you Romans got the prophecy too then?" Pollux, the lone camper in Dionysus's cabin, asked carefully.
Frank nodded, "Ella delivered it to Reyna this morning."
"And you didn't tell us?" Clarisse asked coldly, "Is Camp Jupiter turning against us again?"
"Sorry to disappoint you Clarisse," Reyna answered with equal iciness, "We bear no ill will to Camp Half-Blood. But Rome's business is Rome's business, why should we have to report our every breath to you?"
"In case you haven't noticed," Annabeth cut in from beside Percy, "The prophecy mentions both Rome and Greece. And that is why you are here, Reyna. Not because we Greeks seek your advice, but because we believe it is your right to know about a prophecy that concerns you."
"Enough." Reyna felt the charmspeak wash over her and instantly felt more relaxed, the tension leaving her. "Bickering won't get us anywhere." Piper added less forcefully with reproachful looks at Reyna, Clarisse, and Annabeth.
"As I was saying," Will said after a pause, "Rachel delivered the prophecy last night, and I guess Ella this morning. Now the question is, what does it mean?"
There was a long silence. Then Clarisse tapped her finger on the arm of her chair. "I had a dream last night."
Reyna listened as Clarisse explained her dream, noticing how Chiron's face darkened more with each passing moment. By the time the girl had finished, his hooves were tapping restlessly on the floor.
"I am afraid," Chiron said slowly, "that we will do nothing until we have more information on the matter. I will speak to Dionysus tomorrow." He turned to leave as Clarisse leaped up.
"But –"
"The decision is final, Clarisse!"
And that was that.
HERMES
Hermes tapped the butt of his staff against the marble floor, winged shoes fluttering at his heels. Martha hissed at the unwelcome jolting and George flicked his tongue.
"Well?" Zeus's eyebrows seemed to have become permanently fixed in a severe manner over the past few days, and his beard twitched as he spoke.
"From what my sources have gathered," Hermes flicked a tongue across his lips nervously, "Her aura radiates from the darkest depths of Tartarus. That is all that we know for sure."
"Nyx!" Zeus snarled, beginning to pace, "The –"
"We don't know that for sure, father." Hermes reminded him. It went in one ear and out the other.
"Of course it's her!" Zeus snapped, "Who else would be so delusional?!"
"Kronos?" Hermes ventured doubtfully.
"Too weak." Zeus answered. He was beginning to cool now, and go rather quiet. It was the calm before the storm, "And he has felt my wrath twice now. He would not risk it again. No, only Nyx is confident enough to try that."
"She has overestimated herself." Martha added venomously from the staff.
"That she has." Zeus was putting on his pinstriped jacket, a sure sign that he was getting down to business.
"I'll gather the Olympians for battle." Hermes promised, "We will descend into Tartarus at once."
"No," Zeus corrected, "I will descend into Tartarus. The rest of you will wait here for my and Hestia's return. I should be back in a couple of days at most." He turned his back and proceeded towards the elevator that would take him to the lobby of the Empire State Building.
"But father, your power is weakened the further you go from Olympus!" Hermes protested, running after him.
"It is more than enough to deal with Nyx." His father replied ominously, silver hair flapping behind him.
And then he was gone.
yay for evilnyx!
-oldsoul