The day Leilani left, they sent her off with what Cassia called 'the self-esteem gauntlet,' which was just them lining up in two rows to form an aisle that one of them would walk down. Since it was her day, Leilani got to go down first, with red cheeks and a smile so wide it looked like it hurt.

Kieran patted her shoulder. "Thanks for all those times you stayed with me out in the veggie field."

Elliot smiled at her. "You'll look like a queen when you grow up."

Jet gave her a high five. "You're gonna kick ass when you get back to school."

Amna blew her a kiss. "You were a treasure the whole time you were here."

Percy squeezed her hand gently. "You did amazing and I'm really proud of you."

Rose didn't say anything, but she stepped forward to hug her and then stepped back.

Alfie gave her a wink and then grabbed her hand to kiss it like a princess. He was blushing when he let go, but he still said, "Good luck out there."

By the end, she was giggling helplessly, glowing with bashful delight. She took her place at the end of one line and said, "I'm gonna miss all you guys."

It was awkward at first, but Percy enjoyed it a lot more than he might've thought; he was already used to complimenting people when he could, but here they were practicing accepting them too, and no one brushed them off or cracked a joke about it. They just looked pleased.

Then it was Percy's turn, and suddenly he was nervous again. But he tried to take it with the same grace all the others had, even as he found himself moving slower and more uncertainly.

Rose grabbed his hand and held it for a moment. "You're a ray of sunshine and don't let anyone tell you different."

Alfie clasped his hands behind his back and gave Percy a shy smile. "You're literally the nicest person I've ever met."

Leilani clasped his arm and squeezed tightly, looking him in the eye. "You're gonna be okay."

Less than halfway through, Percy's throat was tightening dangerously, and he had to force himself to keep walking. Each step felt like wading through mud, which was a weird reaction to the fact that his chest was about to burst from happiness.

Kieran high-fived him. "Your teachers can all go fuck themselves because you're smart as hell."

A snicker escaped Percy, and he realized his cheeks were hurting from grinning too.

Elliot tapped his fingers together nervously, then just said, "You deserve good things."

Jet high-fived him too. "You're wicked hot for a high schooler."

Finally, Amna smiled at him. "You're really kind and I'm so glad you're here."

Percy laughed, and before he consciously registered why, he was reaching up to rub the tears out of his eyes. Amna squeaked, covering her mouth.

"I didn't mean it like that!" she protested.

"It's not that," Percy assured her hastily, trying to get himself under control. His chest was bubbling with mixed emotions, delight and incredulity and the good kind of embarrassment that he'd forgotten existed. "I'm just really happy. Thanks."

Despite his best efforts, Percy's eyes stayed wet for the rest of the (admittedly abbreviated) session, though his voice stayed steady and the others politely ignored it. Elliot, Jet, and Amna took their turns, and the mood was buoyant as they finally wrapped up, Cassia praising all of them for their thoughtfulness.

As they were leaving, Cassia held Percy back.

"Percy," Cassia called, making him freeze. She smiled at him, warm and understanding. His face was still wet, his breath hitching oddly. "Do you want me to get Raine?"

"No!" Percy snapped, but that was all it took to realize that the outpouring of unbridled happiness was for some reason souring into confusion and frustration. "...Yeah." Therapy had taken time to get used to, but after two weeks, he couldn't help but associate Raine with clarity and reassurance.

Cassia disappeared without another word, and Percy sat down hard in a corner of the room, rubbing at his cheeks and bitching at himself silently. Stupid. How had he gotten to the point where he couldn't even be happy without upsetting himself? What kind of fuckup did that make him?

By the time Raine got there, Percy had stopped happy-crying altogether, and he was failing to suppress all the whimpers that wanted to escape. She sat on the floor a few feet away from him and asked gently,

"Can you tell me how you're feeling?"

"I'm mad!" Percy snapped childishly. "Why am I crying so much?"

An odd flash of fondness crossed Raine's face, and she prompted, "How were you feeling before you got mad at yourself?"

Percy groaned and tucked his forehead against his knees, trying to think. "I don't remember."

Then he started crying again.

"Alright," Raine said softly. "Alright. We'll talk about it after you're done crying. Let it out. It's alright."

As if he'd been waiting for permission, Percy did, stifling gasps and cut-off whines into his arms. It took a while, stretching on and on, getting worse the more he tried to stop it. Raine didn't seem to mind, doing something on her phone that he didn't bother trying to figure out, and eventually his breath evened out again.

Worn out, Percy sat up, rubbed the tears off his face, and spoke without looking up. "Okay. What did you ask again?"

"I asked how you were feeling," Raine repeated, putting her phone away. "Can you walk me through what happened?"

"I don't know," Percy said petulantly. "I walked through the compliment thing and then I started crying. And I couldn't stop."

Raine smiled at him gently. "Cassia does love her self-esteem gauntlet, but you'd be surprised how many times this has happened. How did it make you feel, getting all those compliments?"

"I liked it," Percy said, frustrated. "It felt really, really nice and I was really happy. I know I started crying because I was so happy. I don't know why I started getting mad."

"It's easy for emotions that strong to tickle problems we didn't know existed," Raine reassured him, and Percy managed half a laugh at her choice of words. "How did it make you feel to be so happy?"

Percy groaned in annoyance, but tried his best. When he figured it out, he felt worse. "It didn't feel right. I got all confused 'cause it didn't make sense that I was so happy. And then I couldn't figure out why I was confused about being happy, and I got mad at myself." He looked up at Raine. "What's wrong with me?"

"It's alright," Raine soothed him. "You got overwhelmed. There's nothing wrong with that. You got overwhelmed, and then you got upset because you weren't expecting it."

"That's stupid," Percy snapped.

"It's not," Raine disagreed. "You don't have enough nice thoughts about yourself, so hearing that many directed at you was more than you could process on your own." She smiled at him. "It'll get easier as you get used to believing in yourself. Cassia runs that exercise every week that a patient graduates."

"Oh, gods, I hope I don't react like this every time," Percy muttered.

"If you're alright with it," Raine said, at the beginning of their next Tuesday session, "I'd like to move on from self-worth and social skills to more... delicate subjects."

"Fuck, this was the easy part?" Percy groaned, rubbing his face. Raine gave him an apologetic smile.

"It's about the same amount of navel-gazing," she said humorously, "but if you're ready, we could start exploring the things that actively upset you."

"Instead of things that passively upset me," Percy deadpanned, and sighed when Raine just shrugged. "Do I have a choice?"

"Of course," Raine said firmly. "Moving on before you trust me enough to speak honestly and willingly would do more harm than good."

That made Percy feel a little better. He thought about it, letting the quiet sit for a few minutes as he fidgeted, playing with a disconnected controller in his lap; they were still sitting in Raine's office.

"Like what?" he asked.

"I'd like to initiate trauma counseling," Raine explained, smiling apologetically when Percy groaned. "That's why I asked you to bring those pictures today. Lucas tells me you've been working on them diligently, which I appreciate, and I think we're ready to begin."

"Why do we need to talk about any of it?" Percy protested. "It's not like I'm getting flashbacks or panic attacks or even really bad nightmares. I'm fine."

"Unprocessed trauma often has far more subtle effects than those typically associated with it," Raine said gently. "Even if there's nothing that obviously stems from a memory, it can still damage your self-esteem, turn your views more pessimistic, or..." She inclined her head toward him. "Cause suicidal ideation."

Percy groaned. He'd heard that term enough times to last him a lifetime. "Gods, fine, okay. What do I need to do?"

"We're going to go over each of these memories-" She tapped the stack of drawings. "-and discuss what happened and how you felt about them. Developing a thorough understanding of how you felt before, during, and after an event is how your brain is able to settle down and file it away. This is what psychologists mean when they speak about processing a memory."

"Okay, I think I get it now," Percy frowned. "And what, you think I haven't done that for these?"

"You might have for some of them, and those are the ones we'll get through quickly," Raine allowed. "But for most of them, I suspect not. You live a chaotic and fast-paced life, Percy. That's not really conducive to processing trauma."

Percy snorted, amused. "Okay, I guess not. What are the pictures for?"

"This should only take the first ten minutes," Raine said, "but the first step we're going to take is to seal all of these away, and take away their power to hurt you. Can you get the wooden box from that shelf over there? With the brass clasp."

Percy glanced over, got up, and brought it back with him, setting the smooth wooden chest between them. Raine smiled at him.

"This is the box that you're going to put all of your trauma in," Raine explained. "I recommend you take it to your next art block and decorate it however you like." She tapped it. "As long as your memories are in this box, they can't hurt you. When you want to confront one, you'll take it out, and leave the rest inside."

"O... kay," Percy said, but he opened the box and put the pictures inside anyway. Raine chuckled softly.

"It will become more true as you practice it," she explained. "Compartmentalization is a very real coping technique that helps people such as ER doctors deal with the trauma of their careers. I suspect you already practice it in your daily life, but this will help you direct it – it's the same process that mentally separates your demigod life from your mortal one."

"Oh, okay," Percy said, with more enthusiasm. "What then? Do I pick one out for today and take the picture out?"

"Yes, exactly," Raine agreed. "Shut the clasp on the box once you've picked today's topic."

Percy grimaced slightly, but dove into the box and flicked through the pictures. There weren't any good options, obviously, because they were all specifically the worst moments of his life, but he tried to keep an open mind.

He paused, lingering over one of them. "Um. I didn't know what they were for, so this is more of a topic than a real memory. But it's important. Is that okay?"

"Of course," Raine said. "I'm here to help you with anything you need to heal from."

He exhaled, then showed it to her. Four symbols: a trident, a lightning bolt, and a skull-and-crossbones set in a triangle, with a sun in the middle.

"I don't know why I got so philosophical with this picture," he said ruefully, "but I'm kind of overdue to explain why the Big Three took the oath. Can we still go outside for it though? I don't wanna sit still for this."

"Alright," Raine agreed, grabbing her clipboard and standing up to join him at the door. They went down the hall and out the front doors, and Percy let them get almost to the creek before he started talking.

"Not to be dramatic, but this-" He shook out the paper. "Is literally the worst thing that's ever happened to me, because every bad thing that's ever happened to me happened 'cause of this."

He glanced up. Raine was frowning, but she gave him a nod to show she was listening. Percy sat down by the creek, and Raine sat beside him. He stared at the water.

"I'm guessing Letitia explained the war with Kronos to you, but not the Great Prophecy," Percy said at last. He gestured meaninglessly, setting the creek swirling and splashing in light motions.

"Exactly right," Raine said, sounding mildly surprised. "She said I should hear about the Great Prophecy from you."

Percy sighed. "Yeah, probably. So, the reason they gave for the oath was that children of the Big Three are too powerful." A lot of people, especially mortals, wanted to laugh when he said that. Rachel had, and Paul. But Percy knew the truth of it too well to find it funny. He gestured, and a tiny whirlpool formed in the middle of the creek before dissipating. "And that's kind of true. But the real reason is that after World War II, the Oracle made another Great Prophecy. See, most prophecies come true within days or weeks – demigods get them for specific quests. But Great Prophecies can take decades to come true. This one took almost a century."

He pushed. The creek flowed in a wave to splash against the opposite side, and then fell back into place, rocking and rippling reassuringly.

"It said, a half-blood of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against all odds, and see the world in endless sleep; the hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. A single choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze." Pause. "Gods, I wish I had nightmares about those words. At least then I'd only think about it at night."

He paused, glancing over at Raine. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he was satisfied with what he found: Raine looked serious, and nodded in understanding when she met his eyes. He looked away again and beckoned, and the creek lapped at his calves.

"They, uh, didn't let me hear the whole thing until a few weeks before my birthday," Percy said uncomfortably. "For... pretty obvious reasons, I think. But the prophecy made one thing clear, or it seemed to, anyway. The next half-blood child of the Big Three to turn sixteen would be able to choose whether to protect Olympus or destroy it. So the gods made the oath to prevent that from ever happening."

There were a couple minutes of quiet. Percy wished it were raining. He gestured harder, and the creek splashed up to his knees.

"That didn't work, obviously," he said at last. "You can't avert a prophecy, just delay it. Zeus broke the oath first, and my dad a couple years later. Hades put his kids in the Lotus Hotel so they wouldn't age, and then took them back out." He exhaled, closing his eyes. He'd expected that explaining this would hurt more, but it just made him really tired. He wondered if he could take a nap during CBT workshop, just this once. "Thalia, daughter of Zeus, never turned sixteen, and she never will. Hades took his kids out of the Lotus a couple years ago. But I was the one that turned sixteen."

"A few months ago," Raine said quietly.

"...Yeah," Percy agreed. "The fighting started before that, but the choice was made on my birthday." He hesitated, eyes on the water, and his fingers twitched to make it swirl again. "I don't think it was mine, not really. I think... I was always going to give Luke the knife. It was his choice to kill himself, or Kronos with him, or to... not do that, I guess." Percy exhaled, long and shivery. "And he did it. Even after everything, he did the right thing." Pause. "Sorry. I think I went off-topic."

"It's alright," Raine said gently. "It's clear you needed to talk about it, and we're here to talk about whatever you need to talk about. Have you ever spoken with anyone about this before?"

"Not really," Percy said. "Not in detail."

Raine visibly contemplated the situation for a minute, and Percy let her, watching anxiously.

"How did you feel about that?" Raine asked at last. "That it wasn't your choice in the end."

Percy exhaled, pressing his hands into the water, deep enough to go halfway up his forearm. He stared down for a bit. "You know, I was mad at first? Rachel, she's the Oracle now, but she came back to New York in the middle of the siege to tell me that I wasn't the hero. And I was mad. The year leading up to that sucked a lot, I couldn't stop thinking about Kronos for five minutes together. I don't think I went two days in a row without a nightmare that whole year. What the hell did she mean, I wasn't the hero?" He sighed. "I'm not really mad anymore. I think I'm just sad."

"Why are you sad?" Raine prompted, when Percy didn't elaborate. He flicked his fingers again, splashing water across his thighs as he thought.

"Luke," Percy said softly. "Gods, I hated Luke so much. But we were- I don't know if we were close, exactly, my first summer at Camp Half-Blood, but he was really nice to me. He was kind of... Annabeth and Chiron gave me my tour of camp, but for most kids, it was Luke that did it. Everyone there adored him. But it turned out he was working for Kronos. And it wasn't..."

Percy trailed off, reached up, and rubbed his face. This was exhausting. Why was this so exhausting?

"He wasn't evil," Percy said after a bit. "I mean- I thought so for a couple years, I never really forgave him for trying to kill me for his stupid dramatic exit. But he was..." His throat tightened, and he cleared it. "I get it now, you know? He never liked Kronos, he was terrified of Kronos, but he hated the gods. And I know it probably sounds stupid to you, especially working here, but shit, gods are terrible parents."

"How so?"

"When I got to camp, there were two dozen kids in the Hermes cabin whose parents had just never bothered to claim them. There was this one kid, Chris- he was a Hermes kid, living in the Hermes cabin, unclaimed. That's so stupid." Percy swallowed, scowling, chest tight. "And Luke was counselor to all those kids for five years. He comforted every kid that cried because their parent didn't care enough about them to snap their fingers. And I get it. Hell, a couple years after he left, I was doing that." He pushed his hair out of his face. "Luke screwed up, big time. But gods. It didn't have to happen."

"You're sad because you can empathize with Luke," Raine concluded quietly. "You're upset that he was driven to that point, and that it had to end in such a terrible way. And you miss him."

Percy's breath hitched, then evened out. "...Yeah. I guess I do. I mean... I really liked him when we first met, and Annabeth loved him. It sucks that the camp doesn't have him anymore. He was good for it, before everything."

"And in the end, he was the hero in the prophecy," Raine said. "Is that right?"

Percy sighed and nodded. "Yeah... yeah, he was. The gods gave me the credit for it, in the end, but I hope people remember him as a hero anyway. He deserves it. Despite everything, that was a really noble thing he did." A gentle click of Raine's tongue made him jerk his head up and scowl at her. "It was!"

"It certainly was," Raine soothed, studying him contemplatively. "It was also an act of desperation. There was no other way to save the world, was there?" Percy shook his head. "And he made a dozen choices leading up to it where he could have averted the situation before it got to that point."

"Don't you badmouth Luke," Percy warned, bristling. "I'll get up and leave. Seriously."

"I'm not," Raine promised. "But I'm concerned that you're idealizing what he did. It sounds like it was an act of terrible necessity. You don't need to follow his example to be just as good a hero."

"...Oh," Percy murmured, the wind falling from his sails. "I never thought about it like that. Promise."

"I believe you," Raine said gently. "But it's important to maintain perspective. Luke's final action was noble, but it was terrible too, and it shouldn't have come to that."

"Yeah," Percy sighed, unable to disagree. "Yeah..."

A minute passed in silence.

"You said that last year was difficult for you," Raine said at last. "Can you tell me about that?"

"Not really," Percy admitted. "It was just... I was petrified, you know? Nico came to me on my fifteenth birthday to suggest swimming in the Styx. I had so many nightmares about that. I saw the Styx on my first quest – it, gods, it looks like death. Dark and inky, like an oil spill, and it's full of broken dreams. Charon said the dead cast them off as they pass through. Ripped-up diplomas, and torn baby clothes, empty book covers." Incredibly, he laughed, reaching up to rub his face. "Gods. Do you know how scared you have to be to willingly walk into that? I had to be more scared of failing than I was of the Styx. And I was really, really scared of the Styx."

"Was it as bad as you thought it would be?" Raine asked.

"It was worse," Percy said without hesitation. "But when I crawled back out, I ripped through Hades' skeleton army and put my sword to his chest. For a while I thought I'd never be scared of anything ever again."

"Why would you do that?" Raine asked, her professional tone briefly dropping in favor of surprise. Percy snorted, turned around to face her and sat cross-legged in the water. She looked embarrassed at her outburst.

"Ah, he started it," Percy said sheepishly. "He wanted Nico to be the prophecy kid, so that Olympus would be forced to acknowledge him as a hero, and Hades by proxy." He shrugged. "Nico's twelve right now. If Hades wanted him to be the prophecy kid, he had to make sure I never turned sixteen."

Raine ran her hand through her hair, visibly refocusing. "Do you know why you're the one that turned sixteen?" she asked after a moment.

"Luck," Percy snorted. The creek started rippling around him. "Dad wouldn't let Zeus kill me without a reason, and I never gave him a reason. Every quest I got helped the gods, so every year they'd say we should kill you for being born, but we won't, as a personal favor." He jerked his head, annoyed. Splash. "Two years ago they even voted on it."

"In front of you?" Raine asked. Percy nodded. "How did you feel about that?"

"Fuck," Percy snapped, but he leaned back onto his hands and tried to answer. It took him a few minutes. "I didn't fully process it until later. 'Cause they were talking about the Ophiotaurus too – uh, this cow fish that gives you the power to destroy Olympus if you sacrifice him. So they were debating killing him, so that wouldn't happen."

"How do you know that they were voting about you, then?" Raine asked, carefully neutral. Percy swallowed, his mind instantly drawn back to the grand throne room on Olympus.

"They talked about me at the same time," he said. Why was his voice so hoarse? "And they voted along those lines. Lady Artemis voted to save Bessie even though she was hunting him before that." He cleared his throat. It was getting hard to breathe. "And Lady Athena said it was dangerous for either me or Bessie to live. She even came up to me afterward to tell me again."

Gods. Gods. The goddess of wisdom still thought that Percy was too dangerous to exist. Why was he letting anyone try to convince him otherwise?

"Mr. D voted with Athena and Zeus," Percy said without looking up. "I knew he didn't like me, but I was surprised he hated me that much. I, I thought... A-and Bessie was such a sweet little thing. Cute. He, uh, he..."

"Percy, take a deep breath," Raine said sharply. Percy obeyed on automatic, and found it was harder than he'd expected. "Hold it... now let it out. Focus on the water."

Belatedly, Percy realized he was verging dangerously close to a panic attack. He'd helped other campers through them, and Alfie, but he'd never had one himself before. He felt dizzy. He buried his fingers in the gravel and mud, listening to Raine coach him through a few more breaths as he tried to slow his racing heart. He bumped his chest irritably with one fist, like that would force it back into rhythm. Water lapped at his thighs and calves, reassuring and steady.

It didn't take long to subside, thankfully.

"Are you alright?" Raine checked, voice quiet. Percy nodded without looking at her.

"Yeah," he said breathlessly, grimacing. "Sorry. I guess that scared me more than I realized."

"It would scare anyone," Raine agreed. "What else?"

Percy took a deep breath, just to prove he could. "Gods. I was asking them to let Bessie live, you know? I appealed to Dad and everything. Fuck. I was begging for my life and I didn't even realize it." Breath. "No one else asked. Just me. And Bessie was innocent. Just a, a little calf."

Raine joined him in the water, letting it soak into her jeans, and grasped Percy's hand, squeezing tightly. Percy guessed that she'd been hearing from Cassia.

"And they agreed," Raine said softly. "You lived, and so did Bessie. They listened."

"Yeah." Without thinking, Percy pressed closer, pushing under her arm and against her side, drying her with a thought. She stiffened briefly, and then dropped an arm around him. He shivered, but the warmth and weight of her body was already soothing him, and slowly the tension drained out of him. Several minutes later, a thought occurred to him. "Sorry. I should have asked."

"You're just fine," Raine assured him. Percy relaxed, though he was still trembling. "Have you talked to your friends about this? Your mom?"

"Annabeth and Thalia were there," Percy murmured, without moving away. Gods, he felt exhausted. "But we haven't really talked about it. I only told my mom about Bessie. I didn't want to scare her."

"Think about it," Raine instructed gently. "It's clear you need the comfort." She tapped his arm. "And consider adding Luke's death and the Ophiotaurus conversation to your box. I'd like to address those more thoroughly."

Percy nodded and didn't otherwise reply for a moment. "Raine? Can I skip CBT and take a nap after this?"

"I'll write you a pass," Raine promised. "Put it on the door and they'll let you sleep."

Until now, Percy had never understood how Annabeth had the patience to sit down and spend hours on architectural plans, making careful lines with a pencil and ruler and protractor. Percy himself usually only got that kind of focus for sports and video games. But he sort of got it now.

Painting had started as just a way to pass art block, like Rose rubbing charcoal on her hands, but the more he did it, the more he liked it. And decorating the trauma box – well, it felt important. It was easy to draw things from the sea, too; anything else he needed a reference for, but he could draw sharks and blowfish and octopi by heart, loyal creatures that would guard anything he asked them to.

"I can tell you want to ask something," Percy said, without looking up. "What's up?"

Alfie made a small, sheepish noise of surprise. "Sorry. I was trying to imagine what your life must be like, with all of those..." He gestured to the pile of pictures beside Percy, set aside while he worked on the box. "You can't be much older than me. Where do you even find time for it all?"

"Heh." Percy smiled a little, kicking his feet in the air. He wasn't usually able to sit still, let alone lay on his belly and draw quietly, but it was starting to occupy enough of his interest that he barely noticed the restlessness. "I've been on more quests than most demigods, and quests are pretty busy. You'd be surprised the number of near-death experiences you can pack into a week."

"How?"

Percy looked up. Alfie had a coloring book in his lap and gel pens scattered around him, and he smiled bashfully when Percy met his eyes.

After a second, Percy smiled back and returned his attention to his drawing. "Lots of reasons, but mostly because kids don't make the best decisions when they're wandering around unsupervised, and ADHD kids are even worse." He smiled fondly at the shark he was outlining by the clasp. "My first quest took me, Annabeth, and Grover all the way from Long Island to Los Angeles. No adults, no supplies, nothing. We were twelve. Honestly, it's a miracle we didn't run into any mortal problems, but I guess the monsters just kept getting to us first."

"That's horrible."

Percy blinked, looking up again. Alfie had gone pale. Percy stared at him in confusion, and then a thought occurred to him.

"Oh, we weren't sent out without supplies or anything," he said sheepishly. "The bus we hitched a ride on at the very beginning blew up, and we lost them then. That was our own fault, honestly – we shouldn't have put them out of reach."

"Weren't you scared?" Alfie asked. It occurred to Percy that Alfie looked young. Really young. He knew Alfie was actually a year or two older than him, but...

"Of course," Percy said after a moment. "I was on a quest to the Underworld to confront a god and prevent a war. I was as scared as I'd ever been. But you get used to it, you know? You can't be scared forever. At some point, you have to get over it and do what you need to do."

"You just... live with it?" Alfie asked weakly. Percy nodded.

"It's not so bad," he reassured Alfie. "They're family, you know? All of my friends from camp are amazing, and I'm really lucky to know them. There's no one I'd rather fight beside." He shrugged. "Besides, this has been my life since I was twelve. At this point, I don't really know anything else."

Alfie stared at him long enough to make Percy uncomfortable, and then looked down at Percy's trauma box. Percy frowned.

"You know," Alfie said at last, startling Percy, "I think I get it now, why the clearsighted adults talk about demigods the way they do."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"Like... like you would talk about a friend with a bad family," Alfie explained. "A kid you know is being abused, but can't do much to help, so you worry a lot instead. You do as much for them as you can, and you don't feel like it's enough."

Percy set his cheek on his wrist, considering that. It... fit, kind of, with the way he'd seen most clearsighted people behave around him. Even Rachel did it a little. "It's not a big deal. We know what we're doing. We train for it every summer, remember?"

"You know what I spend my summers doing?" Alfie asked, and then, without waiting for a response, "Building sandcastles. I go to the beach and dig holes and complain when the wind blows sand in our food."

Percy didn't want to get his point. But he kind of did anyway.

"Yeah," he agreed softly. "No one at camp has been a kid in a real long time, I think."