Chapter 2

Luke had apparently saved me a seat next to him at the bustling Hermes table. He was at the very far end of the table, seated next to a burly Hispanic boy and a messy-haired Asian. A little blonde girl – maybe nine or ten was talking to Luke with a big smile on her face. Her grin almost immediately vanished when I made my way around the edge of the pavilion-like mess hall, skirting several brightly burning braziers as I approached the Hermes table. Luke flashed me a smile and gestured to the bit of empty bench beside him.

"Hello, bunkmate," he said, unusually cheery. I looked at him suspiciously before cautiously sitting down. "This is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena," he introduced the blonde girl, making her blush a little bit. I gave Annabeth a quick scan up and down, highlighting on her steely grey eyes, the trademark feature of Athena's children. I drew back a little – the children of Hecate and the children of Athena didn't always get along well… something to do with the fact that our mothers were both goddesses of knowledge and learning. We saw them as snobby know-it-alls, they saw us as sneaky backstabbers. To be fair, there was a more than a little bit of truth to both of those.

"Arian Black," I introduced myself, relieving the silence. Annabeth gave a quick nod and turned back to Luke.

"So you guys are in?" Her grey eyes were hopeful.

Luke gave a wry smile and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Stampeding drakons couldn't stop us." Her face was jubilant as she scampered back to the Athena table. The Athena kids immediately huddled around her blonde head as they all received whatever information she brought them. I rolled my eyes – everything was a battle plan for the Athena kids. I had met a few while travelling for Hecate… let's just say that we didn't play nice together.

I looked at him sideways. "In for what?" Luke returned a mischievous grin.

"Capture the flag, of course." I raised my eyebrows and opened my mouth to ask him more about it, but was stopped by a loud, attention-grabbing set of bangs coming from the head table that came from Chiron stomping his foot on the marble floors. Everyone went quiet as the centaur clip-clopped his way to the front.

"Welcome to dinner, everyone," he announced, gazing over the assembled campers, "Before we all get to the food, I have a few start of the week announcements to share with you, the first of which is to introduce our new camper." He looked over the crowded Hermes table until he finally found me, "Arian Black, would you please stand?" I didn't bother, staring directly at him as the kids around the mess hall turned their heads in my direction. Chiron's tail swished uncomfortably as he cleared his throat.

"Right, well… in other news, the lava dispensers on the climbing wall have been fixed thanks to Mr. Beckendorf," a burly kid at the Hephaestus table gave a quick nod as his siblings gave him rough pats on the back, "So all climbing times are now available for rescheduling. Also, the team leaders for this week's capture the flag game are the Athena and Ares cabins." A cheer rose up from the two tables mentioned and their respective allies. I noticed that the Hermes cabin seemed to be on the Athena side – as infuriatingly superior as they often acted, the Athena kids were good at planning and executing battle strategies.

Chiron turned to look at the short, chubby man seated behind him at the head table. "Is there anything you wish to add, Mr. D?" I smothered my smirk as I realized that it was Dionysus, the god of wine. I had never met him before now, but Hecate had told me about how he had gotten himself put in the godly version of a time-out when he chased after Zeus' favorite wood nymph. I saw it as just another example of the gods' classic pettiness. The wine god gave a disinterested shrug and went back to his soda.

Apparently that was the cue to eat, because a dozen nymphs whisked in and deposited several plates of food on each table. I noticed that the cups in front of us stayed empty, for whatever reason. Luke must have noticed my confused expression, because he tapped his own cup and said, "They fill up with whatever drink you want, with the exception of anything alcoholic. Personally, I think that the Coke doesn't taste the same, but whatever. Watch – cherry Pepsi."

I watched curiously as the inside of his glass seemed to be filling itself with a dark, fizzy liquid. Luke smiled as it filled up, sucking the foam off of the rim of the glass when it got too close to the top. I smirked at his soda-foam mustache before he had the chance to wipe it off. "You try it," he urged, placing some of the barbecued meat and a few grapes on his plate.

"Fine," I said, thinking about what I wanted. I was about to order a root beer when a memory came up. It had been a few years after she had found me, but I was still scared of the massive magic storms that hurled themselves against Hecate's palace. They happened often enough that I couldn't sleep while they raged against the magically reinforced walls around me. My mother had found me on one of those nights, wandering through the large dining hall. She gently took my eight-year-old hand and led me into the kitchens. To my surprise, it looked surprisingly human, down to the shiny refrigerator in the corner. She didn't say anything, but just poured two glasses of chocolate milk and sat with me next to the window as we watched the storm.

My eyes watered a little bit as I thought of my home in the Place. I hadn't lived in my mother's palace for at least a year, but I still visited since she had built me a little house right on the border of the Place. The house's foundation was anchored somewhere in the thick forest outside of Seattle, Washington, but I could easily make the transition to the Realm of Magic from there. Careful not to let any of my emotion show, I quickly said, "Chocolate milk," and watched as the cup filled with the creamy liquid.

Luke cocked an eyebrow. "Chocolate milk, huh? I would have pegged you as a lemonade sort of girl." I gave a soft huff of laughter and began to fill my plate. I was just about to start eating when I noticed that all of the other campers were beginning to stand up and walk towards the large brazier at the far end of the pavilion. I followed Luke, carrying my plate with me.

"We give a portion of our meals as a sacrifice to the gods," he explained, scraping a bit of meat into the fire. I nodded in understanding and did the same as I passed the fire. To my surprise, the smoke coming from the burnt offerings didn't smell like burning meat – instead I caught the scent of pine trees, a salty sea breeze, and a thousand other smells I couldn't identify.

As I headed back to the Hermes table, I sent a silent prayer up to my mother, wishing more than anything to be back home where I belonged.

Luke had apparently taken it upon himself to be my personal guide around the camp, even going so far as to sit next to me at the sing-a-long after dinner. His two friends must have been part of the package too, because they sat on either side of me and him. I learned that the quiet Asian kid's name was Ethan Nakamura, who was unclaimed like I was. The burly Hispanic boy was definitely a son of Hermes – if it weren't for his darker skin and hair, he and Luke could have passed for brothers.

The next few days seemed to fly by as the rest of the Hermes cabin tried multiple different ways to find out which god I belonged to. A couple of them even had a betting ring going on, wagering on who the newbie's godly parent would be. When I was asked, I told them that my dad was mortal and an entire chorus of cheers went up. Luke later told me that many of them had bet heavily on Athena or Aphrodite being my godly parent. That, and it also meant that I wasn't another child of Hermes. I at least had a small chance of leaving the crowded Cabin Eleven behind if I was claimed.

"I disagree," he said while we were heading to the archery range for my newest round of tests, "Now, no offense, but I don't think that you're the kind of pretty that the Aphrodite kids are and you act nothing like the Athena kids."

"None taken," I shrugged, shouldering my blue bag.

"I first thought maybe you could be from Demeter, but your shining personality smashed that to the ground," he continued, oblivious to the dirty look I shot him, "Well, that and you hate cereal. I swear, if you say even one thing about 'whole grains', the Demeter kids get all up in arms about it… probably the only thing they're willing to argue about, anyway." By now, we had entered the archery range and were skirting around the Apollo kids that usually spent their free time here. "Then I started thinking… maybe you're the daughter of a minor god."

I stopped abruptly in front of an empty target lane, dropping my bag on the ground. Luke was the first person to really say what I had been thinking for the past few days. I didn't really want to go out and say who my mother was, as nearly all children of Hecate had almost as bad of a reputation as the children of Hades. Almost, but not quite. I nocked an arrow as Luke started spouting off the names of minor goddesses behind me.

"Iris, maybe? No, you don't look like the rainbow-hippy type. Tyche is the goddess of luck, but you don't seem particularly lucky to me… to be fair, most demigods are pretty lucky to have lived this long. I could see you as a daughter of Nemesis – the whole revenge thing and all that. You look like a person who's the vengeful type…"

He finally stopped talking as I shot an arrow near the center of the target. Compared to the Apollo kids around me, it wasn't a good shot, but it wasn't bad by most demigod's standards. "Nice shot," he said, nodding approvingly, "Too bad you aren't in Apollo." I rolled my eyes – I wouldn't have wanted to be in Apollo anyway. While I could see the benefit of their athleticism and impressive aim with just about any projectile, I could only put up with the music for so long. I couldn't play any instrument worth my life, and my singing voice was painfully average. Apollo was definitely out.

Eventually, I could tell that Luke was getting bored sitting on the stump while I shot arrows, so I suggested that we swing by the arena on our way back to the cabin. His face immediately brightened as I packed up my archery equipment. He practically skipped over the grass in his excitement as I hurried to catch up with him. This wasn't my first time seeing the arena, but I had no doubts that Luke would ask me to spar with him. I fingered the sword-shaped charm on my silver bracelet that would summon my sword, Argyros. Three years ago, I had found the celestial bronze blade inlaid with silver veins amongst the hoard of treasures hidden deep in my mother's palace and claimed it as my own. After many failed attempts and much research, I finally managed to cast the spells needed to connect it to a charm and ensure that if I ever lost it, the sword would return to its place on my bracelet.

I hadn't used Argyros since I had to vaporize a pair of dracanae that were slithering a little too close to my house for comfort, but I still trained with it. I hadn't had a chance to really train since I'd come to Camp Half-Blood, but there was no way in Hades that would stop me now.

When were entered the arena, I was thankful to find the stands and the sandy ground empty of demigods. I could find evidence of their presence though – scattered water bottles and towels, poorly stacked shields, and the scuff in the sand all said that the previous class had just left. That was just fine by me… I wasn't too fond of audiences. Luke pulled a sword from the rack and twirled it expertly.

"You up for a bit of sparring?" he asked mischievously, stretching his shoulders. I snorted and placed a hand on my bracelet, twisting the head of my sword charm and triggering the magic to summon Argyros. Luke stared unabashedly as the sword grew from a charm that was half the size of my pinky to its full size in the blink of an eye.

I took my place in the ring across from him, not failing to see his awed expression. "I'm always up for a bit of practice." Luke shook off his amazement at the sudden transformation and settled into position, a grin creeping over his face. Luke was obviously a skilled fighter – or too cocky for his own good – to be so confident. I would have to find a way to bring that confidence down a notch or two.

Remembering my lessons from fighting against the empousai that were often my opponents, I bared my teeth in a feral grin. The sudden change on my features must have startled him a bit, but he hid it well as he advanced slowly. As we circled each other, gaging our opponent's strengths, I couldn't help but notice that his footwork was impeccable – I could say much worse about my own. He could definitely overpower me with strength, but I might have the advantage of speed and agility. There was only one way to find out.

With a loud war-cry, I swung my blade at him. Argyros would have slashed directly through his chest if he hadn't nimbly jumped out of the way. I cursed myself mentally – fighting another demigod was much different from fighting against a couple of monsters, and I didn't have too much experience with that. To be honest, I'd sooner use my invisibility charm to skirt around an unfriendly demigod than meet them head-on in a confrontation. Before I could recover the momentum of my strike, Luke was almost on top of me, forcing me backwards with a blindingly fast combination that left me reeling.

He backed off a bit when I almost clipped the side of his ear with a quick lunge. Okay, maybe he was a bit faster than I was… clearly he had been rigorously training since he'd come to camp three years before. I'd have to play this wisely if I was going to win. I reengaged with a wide, sweeping blow that would leave me open on my left side. Luke had apparently noticed this too, and went right for my exposed shoulder. At the last second, I sidestepped out of the way, allowing his momentum to carry him past me.

Luke stumbled only for a moment, a new light of grudging respect flickering in his eyes before he was back on the offensive. I knew that he was far too clever to fall for the same trick twice – children of Hermes were notoriously hard to deceive on account of their father being the patron of thieves and general trickery. We exchanged cautious blows with each other, still warily trying to probe the other's defenses. I was the first to find a hitch in his system – a small opening just below his right shoulder that appeared whenever he tried to block low cuts. Without hesitating, I went for it, faking like I was swinging low then whipping the point of my sword to his shoulder.

The next few seconds passed like I was moving in slow motion. I could only watch as the mischievous light grew in Luke's eyes when he neatly sidestepped my blow, almost exactly mirroring the fake I had pulled on him not two minutes before. Before I knew it, I was rolling on the sandy ground. When the world stopped spinning, I opened my eyes to see Luke's blade pointed in my face from where I lay on the flat of my back, a huge grin splitting his face.

"Now I know you aren't a child of Athena," he teased, helping me up as I brushed sand from my jeans, "Even Annabeth could have seen that coming from a mile away!"

I rolled my eyes. "Well, it's a good thing I'm not Annabeth, then," I drawled as I shrank down Argyros to its charm size. He stared at it for a moment before placing his borrowed sword back on the rack.

"A charm, huh?" Luke asked, eyeing my bracelet, "A friend of mine had something like that once. Hers wasn't a sword, though… her bracelet grew into a seriously scary shield."

"It's easy to carry and small enough not to be noticed," I defended, "Definitely worth the energy used to create the charm form." Luke gave a small nod.

"Well… it suits you," he finally said, before cracking a smile, "Come on, let's head up to the pavilion. All this sparring made me hungry!"

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