Percy: Helping to rekindle a old flame
I was on patrol to make sure that my group had not been spotted yet when I realized that my shift was almost up and soon it would be Nico's turn. Thalia would be returning at the same time to give her shift over to Gabriel in order to keep us safe until we were ready to make a move. I turned around on the trail I was at (for the sake of confidentiality, I will not name it but it is near Mount Tam) and returned to our little mini-camp immediately. But just before I got to camp, a voice called to me and I was forced to follow in order to find the source of it.
I went through camp and at first, Nico thought I was being a klutz but Gabriel stopped him before he could stop me. "No Nico, I recognize this for what it is since I've had it happen to me before. The goddess of the dawn is calling him to her as she once called me," Gabriel added. "Then where do I go to find her?" I asked.
"You go to where you hear her voice the clearest then you wait for her to take you to her realm. But be warned, fail to heed this and you will never have a chance to talk to her until the next dawn. And I'm pretty sure we're running out of time at an unreasonably dangerous rate," Gabriel answered. I did as was instructed and followed the voice to where it was loudest then waited for Eos to come to me to take me to her domain.
Then something that felt like a gentle hand closed my eyes and I apparently fell asleep for the ride. When I awoke a few minutes later, I was in a cemented stadium with a garden to one side and stairs leading to some sleeping chambers on the other. "Come Perseus Jackson, I await you in my chambers," the gentle voice of the goddess called. I walked up the stairs leading to the sleeping chambers and soon, I arrived at a massive chamber that had at least twelve enormous beds that had curtains to pull over for privacy at night.
Six beds were on each side but there was an equally large bed in the middle with the goddess Eos sitting in it. "Welcome my friend to my Palace of the Dawn in the Western end of the Earth," Eos greeted me. "The honor of meeting you is all mine, Lady Eos," I replied as I tried to kiss her hand in formality. "Oh please, I'm not Aphrodite nor do I need such formality however polite it is," Eos assured me.
"Then if it is not too rude, I would like to ask you why you brought me here. Could you not have brought Gabriel here or maybe one of my friends from Camp?" I asked. "I brought you here because I have no courage to ask Gabriel what I wish to ask you in person," Eos answered. Somehow I knew this was going to involve the relationship between Eos and Gabriel before I met.
"Does this involve what you two had in the past or no?" I asked. "It does and it especially involves what happened toward the end of our relationship," she answered. I knew better than to ask what happened but I guess she must have been reading mind since she knew I was curious to find out. "Just four days before his service to me ended, after we had had our nights of pleasure as a means of me moving past my father, Zeus came to me and told me to tell Gabriel the truth about his mother," she began.
"He told me that all he remembered of her was her name and the sound of her laughter," I said. "And that was all he knew of her until Zeus stepped in during his service to me," she said with a nod. When I urged her to do so, she continued with what she had to say. "Over the next two days, I continued to share my bed with him but even the love I made with him was not enough to keep me from thinking about what Zeus had me tell him.
"On the night before his final day of service to me, I told him about his mother and about why he only remembered her laughter and name. She had not died at birth like he had been led to believe by his uncle and his aunt but rather, she died protecting him. Protecting him from his father Kronos when he came to destroy Gabriel that is," she explained. She inhaled deeply then exhaled slowly as she told the tale from Gabriel's past.
"Mary ran to the shrine she had built for me with baby Gabriel cradled in her arms and prayed to me for protection. I took Gabriel into my arms but before I could save his mother, Kronos separated us and killed her. But I assured him that she went down fighting that wicked Titan with valor and courage. He was not even a year old when Kronos had tried to destroy him and I knew that I couldn't hold on to him as Zeus forbid such a thing.
"I took him to his mother's brother and his wife for safekeeping. Since they reeked of mortal stench, Gabriel was protected for years from his father and the other Titans. When I told him that what he had went through was to protect him from the greater evil that is his father and the Titans, he made a new vow. By this time, he had vowed to avenge his family but he made a new pact specifically deigned to deliberately see his father disgraced.
"This new vow was that he would hunt down any Titan who was not affiliated with Olympus even if he had to spend the rest of his life doing so. I cried because he had dedicated it not only to his family but also to me for I had never had never been added to a list of dedications for a quest to glory before. He and I made love one last time then he left the next day to begin his service to my sister Selene," she told me. I listened to her story but found it extremely difficult not to cry as she told it.
Then I heard something that I knew was not true. "He probably thinks ill of me for revealing what the truth to him. Does he ever talk ill of me for what I had told him on his final night of service to me?" she asked. I hesitated, unknowing of what to say to her to make her happier and more comfortable about Gabriel.
Then I knew what to say since I remembered something that my mother told me when I was a little boy. "Son, whenever you are dealing with people in love, sometimes it is best to know one and use your knowledge of that person to comfort the other. However, it's even better if you do it in the simplest of words to the person requesting knowledge of the ones they love," she told me. At that point, I knew what I had to say to make Eos feel better about Gabriel's feelings for her.
"He still loves you but he does not know if you love him back. He worships you everyday by watching the sunrise," I said. She looked up to me like she couldn't believe what I had just said but we both knew it was true. "Thank you Percy for wiping my fears away from me. I have one more favor to ask of you, son of Poseidon: will you take this necklace back to him when I take you back to your camp?" she asked as she unlatched a golden necklace with rubies on it.
I extended a hand and she put the necklace in it, telling me that Gabriel deserved to have it back as proof of her love. "I'm sorry but he deserves to have it back?" I asked. "He had Hephaestus make it for me once, he wore it for a while but he decided to give it to me before he left to serve my sister. Tell him that the powers of the dawn and the sun will spare no mercy to Prometheus on that day when Gabriel finally confronts him in a final battle for the world as long as he wears this necklace," she answered.
I nodded and said I would do all she asked then she gave me a gift of her own. It was a pale-blue emerald with a chain around tied to it for me to wear around my neck. "Keep this or give it to your beloved Annabeth, this is my gift for you to use as you please," she told me. I thanked her and was guided back to the hall where I had been when I entered her domain.
Shortly thereafter, I was taken back to the camp with all the gifts that Eos had given me and Gabriel asked me how the conversation went. At that point, I could not talk since I knew how he would react if I said anything about the conversation and instead, I handed the necklace to him. "She still loves you and she wants you to know that the powers of the dawn and the sun will spare no mercy for Prometheus as long as you wear this necklace," I said. Gabriel looked at the necklace after taking it into his hand for a long time then said that he had had Hephaestus make it for her a long time ago.
"She wanted me to give it back to you as a gift from her," I told him. He held it in his hand as he clenched it hard and a tear fell from his eye as he held it close to him. Then I saw him put it around his neck and vow that he would make sure that Prometheus faced him under such conditions. "But not today, today we will focus on defeating Ouranos and stealing the Sky Sword from him," he added.
I nodded and kept my necklace safe in my shirt pocket before going back to the tent to rest from the patrol. "Percy, can I tell you something real quick?" Gabriel asked. I nodded and I asked him what it was he wanted to say. "Thank you," he said and that was it.
I told him he was welcome and then saw him off to the patrol that he had to undertake. Nico also underwent the patrol and I sat with Thalia in the tent to talk about anything. Normally, she would not be working with men as her mistress Artemis forbid even the slightest amount of contact with a man. But this time, we had something that we were both thinking about that we wanted to talk about: Gabriel.
"When I first met him, I knew we were going to be friends if we were not fighting each other. He's one of the best I have had since Charles Beckendorf or even my friend Grover," I said and that was true. "When I first encountered him, this feeling of warmth and comfort with him came over me like a high-paced tsunami. I am still not sure if it was love or if it was even just a temptation that he created for me," she said.
"Well, one thing I will say: you certainly don't want it growing large enough to make Artemis suspicious of your loyalty," I told her. "I have been making strives to keep it from growing too much because I know his heart belongs purely to Eos now that he has laid Nadine to permanent peace in Elysium. I just wonder for him and wonder if he is really truly safe from the threats that surround us," she assured me. "What threats do you mean exactly because I'm pretty sure he's safe from any threats the Titans can make to him," I said.
"Unless it's against someone he loves (of whom he does not have that many) you're right. But I am seeing how he is trying to get over the guilt caused by his family's deaths but his guilt is winning over his psyche," she said. "I hope it doesn't come as a distraction when he finally fights Prometheus," I said. We agreed on that then rested from our work earlier on in the day before we were told it was time to begin the assault.