Lea was a little solemn as she read over the letter that her Mom had sent her and Percy. She didn't understand her brother really. He was conflicted about staying at the camp or going home, especially since Gabe was no longer around (And Lea had been pissed to learn about Gabe hitting Percy and her brother suspicions about him hitting their Mom. If he wasn't dead already, she'd kill him again).
Lea, however, was conflicted for an entirely different reason. She knew that she didn't want to stay at this camp. It was a prison filled with overwhelming stereotypes and it was also quite idiotic. It had been around for hundreds of years and no one had the bright idea to build homes around the place for those that were older than eighteen?
They'd have to clear out some spaces and move some things around, but they could have built a little town. What was the ancient ellinika word for towns? Polis?
Percy had gone out to do some training which she had rolled her eyes at. She didn't understand how he was so comfortable at this place even after he had assured her that it was not a secret trafficking location and that their Mother had known about it for years.
Another secret from her.
And that was conflicting with Lea also. Her Mother had known so much of the truth about them for years and kept it a secret under some misguided attempt at protection since "the more aware you become the easier monsters find you". Lea was faced with Gabe's highly uncomfortable stares even after her Mom had threatened him, Percy was being abused, and if her brother's suspicions were correct, then so was she.
Lea hated being lied to especially in regard to something so substantial.
She didn't have to tell them who their Father was, but at least telling them that their Father was supposedly a god would have been much better than growing up thinking she was a freak of nature. Lea had been tested for schizophrenia at least twice a year!
There was nothing that could excuse that. Lea had started to become so apathetic to things that didn't concern her and her brother and the few friends that she had and—and— and her Mother just stood there and watched. She tried to convert Lea into a religion that she didn't even believe in with nothing more than vague warnings of a time lost. Lea had never admitted because she didn't (And still doesn't) believe in gods, but she had wondered to herself why her Mother hadn't tried to force christianity down her throat since it was a more well known religion of the United States.
Lea loved her Mother. She did. But she didn't trust her… not after this.
That was the root of the problem.
Lea didn't trust either option. This camp or her Mother?
And she never had even met her Father so going to the sea wasn't a choice either.
There was a crackle of energy that pulsated out of her in waves and Lea turned just in time to see the way some of the things in the cabin slam against the wall. Arkas made a little chirping sound as he bit at the energy—mageia that was centering around the amulet. The ring, however, still sat calmly on the bed that she still refused to sleep in and glowed almost as eerie as the sea at night.
"Khaíre Leaneíras," she heard ringing out around her. Turning her head, she caught sight of familiar green eyes and only just then realized that slight burning from her soulmark.
Actually— "Will the mark stop heating up anytime soon?"
He made his way to her side and Lea blinked once she realized that he was holding a block of cheese in his hands. He passed it to her as he thought over his words. "The bond has not yet settled so it will continue to warm until it does of course, another way to speed up the process is something much more x-rated."
Lea's cheeks flamed red. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be off heralding or something?"
He snorted at her words and at her blatant topic change, form shifting into an age closer to her own. "I came to visit you," he said, shrugging as he sat atop of her bed, peeking down at her from the floor. He cast a critical eye over the room, raising a brow at the items that had become dislodge at the wave of energy coming from her. "Mageia, glikia mou?"
Lea blinked, heart fluttering at the foreign language before furrowing her brow. "What does that mean?" Despite how good it sounded; he could be insulting her for all she knew. She could read some of the language… she couldn't speak it.
He leaned closer to her, hand reaching out to grasp her necklace, Arkas making little chirping sounds at his touch. "Magic, my sweet," he translated. He looked into her eyes, "Tis not often I flaunt my skill in mageia. Those that focus on my skill in divination pay more attention to me, being the god of the interrelated arts of astronomy and astrology."
He shrugged humbly. "My maternal Grandfather, Atlas, is the Titan who turned the heavenly constellations on their axis, and my mother, Maia, one of the starry Pleiades. There is also my skill at being the god of the birds of omen, birds despatched from heaven under the divine inspiration of prophetic Apollôn, who also after I traded my shepherd's pipe gave me knowledge of where to learn the rustic art of divination by pebbles, practised in the highlands of shepherds and cattle-herders from Thriari."
He crossed his legs comfortably and for a moment, Lea could pretend that this was just friends hanging out like how she, Medea, and Trent had done back at Yancy Academy. She needed to reach out to them. They must have been worried.
"Dreams of omen were messages sent by the gods and the ghosts of the dead. I also presided over those, both in my role as the Herald of the Gods, the God of Sleep, and as Guide of the Dead. I could also be invoked in nekromankia—the summoning of ghosts. As you know, Hekatê was the source of the magical powers of the witch Medea. Most of her magic is described as nocturnal and/or necromantic in nature. And I am Hermês Khthonios."
What can he say? His Father and the Moirai gifted him well with domains.
Lea snorted, voice mocking as she said, "For someone who is sometimes said to have taught mankind their many tongues, and so was the god of the "babelisation" of language you talk as if someone just plucked you from the 16th century."
His features lit up, a teasing smile on his face. "I see you've been studying me."
Lea rolled her eyes. "If I read all of your stories like fairy tales, it makes my own life feel normal."
"But they're not fairytales," he pointed out. "It's fact. It's what helped shape your world."
Lea hummed, grimacing just a little. "My world. The entire planet is a 'body' of a 'goddess'. The air I breathe is also a deity. The water that surrounds the planet is both the 'god' and 'goddess' of the sea. There's also the primordial 'Titan god' Ôkeanos who rules over all of the earth's fresh-water - rivers, wells, springs and rain-clouds."
He laughed and she found herself staring at him. She wondered what would have happened if she met under more natural circumstances and not when she dealt with a mental breakdown. In a way, she supposed she understood the Archives from the Trojan War.
He had the beauty that ancient wars were fought over.
"I suppose you are correct," he said after a while. "It's easier to believe you're standing on a rock than the body of a living being. Still, it matters not. Mortals all come from the bones of Mother and what they once were they shall be again."
Lea was sure that his Mother was now twinkle-twinkling in the sky so she didn't really understand that, but sure, okay.
When he held his hand out to her, she didn't hesitate to place hers in his even when every instinct of self-preservation that she had from living in New York told her not to. "Walk with me," he asked, and she couldn't bring herself to decline.
She blinked, feeling something washing over her, a dense mist, —it was similar to when Alabaster practiced his powers except much, much stronger.
"A mix of mist that covers the eyes of mortals to keep them from seeing the truth and the mist of the divine that's even stronger than regular mist that keeps demidivine blinded from the truth. And a sprinkle of mageia."
"So," she drawled, uncaring but unable to help herself. "You don't want to be seen with me."
He blinked, looking at her in shock, furiously shaking his head. Lea snorted, patting him on the arm. "It's okay, dude. I'm perfectly fine with this. I'm really not feeling the attention being your soulmate brings me."
"Ahh, sorry about that," he told her, looking actually apologetic, but she waved it off. Like she said before, they couldn't help what rash they got on their skin.
He led her out and about the camp, making comments here and there about past demigods and antics that happened that Ethan and Alabaster wouldn't know about. He led her into the pegasi stables, a calming hand on her shoulder that blocked off the symphony of voices from the animals.
Now Lea understood why Drew had warned her off from the place even muted by his power, she still had a small headache.
When he snapped his fingers, strawberries and celery appeared before them covered in peanut butter. The animals went wild, cheering in her head, but her attention was drawn to the pure white pegasus that stood proud and regal near the end of the stables. It looked at the snacks in amusement, snorting lightly before turning its head back to her. It was a mare that stood at seven feet, proud in its stance.
Lea would say that she was in love but apparently, horses ran in the family, and she wasn't taking any chances with that.
"Not a fan of peanut butter," she muttered as she moved closer. Her soulmate cast her a curious glance, but he was distracted by the other pegasi that were all clamoring for him to feed them.
The mighty beast turned to her with a raised brow, mind carefully blank which she could only be thankful about.
"I don't blame you," she said honestly. "It may be tasty to others, but I'm allergic to peanut butter. Well to peanuts." At those words, the snacks that were sitting outside of her stable was coated in mist before it faded away to show strawberries, apple sauce, mango, and celery. She cast a glance back at her soulmate before firmly ignoring the adorable sight of him feeding the pegasus foal. She took one of the mango pieces for herself, groaning lightly at the taste before she offered one to the mare.
The animal looked at her in righteous offense as she ate one of its treats, but she only smiled, pulling the mango back to dip it in apple sauce and offer it to her once more. She looked over her, huffing slightly. Lea was sure she would roll her eyes if she could before she leaned forward to accept the treat. She smiled in amusement.
"I wonder what's your name," Lea mused as she gave the animal another treat. "Something regal. Like Jieva or Ginevre. I'm not too sure though. Those are just names that my friend, Medea, wrote about what she'd name her future children. Why she was thinking about that, I don't know, but Dea's weird like that."
The animal had paused as she was speaking, eyeing her suspiciously.
"What? Did I guess your name or something," she snorted. "I don't actually want to know until you tell me. It's your name, you know. Mine, however. It's Leaneira. Leaneira Jackson, but you can call me Lea."
"We have to go soon, Lea," her soulmate called out and she cast him a slight scowl. "I didn't say you could."
There was a tittering sound in her head and Lea turned back to the pegasus to see amusement in her eyes. "Oh? You were laughing at that?" Lea smiled. "Don't mind him. He thinks because I've been branded like cattle that he has ownership of me or something."
"Khaos-blessed," she heard. Lea's voice went dry, "Doesn't feel like much of a blessing."
"It will," another voice chirped. Lea turned to see another pegasus, this one a stallion, pressing close to its stable doors. "They always do in the end."
"We'll see about that," Lea responded.
Once they left the stables, they passed by the lava climbing wall. Lea wrinkled her nose at it, but he gave it a go easily overtaking the satyrs on it. Lea smirked. She should have placed some betting money on it.
Drew manned the camp store and their incredulous overpriced Loukoumades which Lea learned were Fried Honey Doughnuts. And no amount of sweet talking managed to get the girl to give her a discount.
Still, Lea flushed and pushed the alien-shapeshifter away when he approached her for a congratulatory kiss.
"I have a question," she asked as he led her near the camping trails of the woods. Alabaster said that all that magoi or well, practitioners went on excursions within woods to find herbs and plants and bones and a lot more things that sound disgusting out of context for spells. They claimed it was better to find their own things than to buy it from the camp store or anything that the Fourth, Seventh, Eleventh, and Twelfth Cabins sold. (Apparently, the kids of the Seventh Cabin and Eleventh Cabins were sweet talkers. And due to their Fathers being gods of agora—the marketplace—and best friends, trying to get better deals was like trying to sweet talk a Seirên in the middle of song.)
"Ask and I shall do my best to answer honestly," he told her. Lea raised a brow at that. She was pretty sure that he was the god of trickery… they were supposed to be good liars.
"Well, I was wondering," she started when yelling caught their attention. The tree spirits—dryads, she learned— were carrying a body through their branches so quickly it was like a conveyor belt on high-speed.
It took her a bare second to realize that it was her brother.
She took off before she could stop herself, but her soulmate was already there. Their disguises shed as he cradled her brother in his arms before taking off towards the Big House. Lea followed right after him, not minding the way the campers exclaimed in alarm at the sight of them.
Chiron met them at them there, in his wheelchair looking more like Mr. Brunner. Annabeth and Alabaster and another one of the many blondies around—Lee, she thought his name was— was a step behind them as they all converge into a medic room within the main halls of the place.
Lea hadn't been there since she first awakened and refused to go near it afterwards. She had clocked it as the traffickers' base of operations, but if they could help her brother, who was turning so pale that she could see his veins, then she would abandon all other thoughts.
Her soulmate started barking out orders to Alabaster, while the peacock man—Argus—gestured for her and Annabeth to leave the room, which yeah, Lea did not agree with. That was her brother, and she didn't even know this girl that was acting like she was a concerned wife.
"Leaneíras," her soulmate called to her, eyes not leaving the mixture that he and Alabaster were making while a book hovered in front of him. She barely took note of the lettering—Ασκληπιος —Asklêpios, she would recall later— on it as her gaze focused on him. "I will do all my power and more to save your Brother. He will not die here today."
"Promise?" And oh, how she hated how small her voice sounded. Lee was doing chest compressions on Percy.
"I swear it," he assured. "I will not lie to you."
Lea allowed herself to be led out of the room and she paced up and down ignoring the blondie that was staring at her.
(She would learn years later that the girl saw her and Percy as the best of both worlds, a two for one deal, a buy one get one free, the people that set her pansexual clock on horn-ee which was crazy when the context of none of them being romantic soulmates, but Percy and Annabeth would be platonic soulmates. And that well— nevermind.)
She needed to get her mind off the fact that her brother was dying. She knew this place was bad news. She should have dragged him home the second he crossed the fucking border.
Lea turned towards Blondie— Annabeth. "Hey, I got a question? Why doesn't Haidês have a cabin here?"
The girl and a giant peacock man started before Blondie blinked. "Um, No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." she shuddered, eyes lost to her own memories from their little human trafficking across the country adventure. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."
"That's bullshit," Lea snapped. She still had her book clutched in her hand, and she flipped through the pages quickly. She had used a blue highlighter for Haidês because of the Disney movie, so it didn't take long to find it. "In Homer, the Illiad something that my, uh, Father says is: '"We are three brothers born by Rheia to Kronos (Cronus), Zeus, and I [Poseidôn], and the third is Aidês [Haidês ] lord of the dead men. All was divided among us three ways, each given his domain. I [Poseidôn] when the lots were shaken drew the grey sea to live in forever; Aidês drew the lot of the mists and the darkness, and Zeus was allotted the wide sky, in the cloud and the bright air. But earth and high Olympos are common to all three." '. So no, it would be pleasant and let's not forget…"
She flipped to the back of the book where she had tapped some paper to it to make a little notebook. "That asshole Ovid says in the Fasti which why the fuck is latin so hard to read, but anyway, he says that Uncle Zeus says: 'My rank is no greater [than Haides]. I hold court in the sky; another rules the sea [Poseidôn], and one the void [Haidês ].'". And then some other asshole Statius says in something called Thebaid, that Haidês was "The Warden of the Larvae (Shades) [Haidês ] and the third heir of the world". You all are just mean and prejudiced and not respect him as you should and that's stupid because if you're going to worship them, then you should do it correctly, because why would you not give him the same amount of respect as his siblings. Like you're doing nothing but pissing off the god who rules over the dead and the underworld and can very much bypass the three judges and fuck your afterlife up!"
It wasn't until after she stopped ranting that she realized that she was crying and breathing a little funny. The others seemed to realize this too.
"Lea," Blondie asked.
"Not my name," Lea croaked because she had priorities. Give someone an inch and they'll take a mile. Why was her chest hurting so much? She clutched at her chest, but all she managed was to lay her hand on her necklace.
Her knees buckled.
"Leaneira," Annabeth pressed as Lea felt all her energy leave her in a rush. "Leaneira, breathe please."
Her voice sounded faraway, drifting around her like streams of smoke. A cold tremor raced up her spine and Lea wondered if she was in shock—she had only heard about it in passing. Darkness edged her vision, threatening to overwhelm her, and Lea found herself embracing it in its entirety, a familiar setting edging into the corner of her mind.
"Leaneira!"
And she fell to the demos oneiron, where the tribe of Oneiroi attended to her.
