Dear Marion Carter,

Below is your progress report for the summer, which will be sent home to your parents. We are happy to report that your marks are passable, so you will not be fed to the harpies at the present time. Please review and sign for our records.
Sincerely,
CHIRON, ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR AND DIONYSUS, CAMP DIRECTOR

MONSTER-MAIMING (B):
Marion shows a great aptitude for lobbing off limbs, but her focus could be better spent on not screaming profanities between slices.

DEFENSE (B+):
Marion almost got killed several times this summer. Keep up the good work! However, she would benefit from practice in remaining at the camp for the duration of the allocated stay, so that she doesn't miss out on five years of valuable training. Or she could just not come back. Please disregard that last comment from our esteemed camp director.

SWORD-FIGHTING (A):
Marion has exhibited excellent swordsmanship throughout the summer. However, she should not over-depend upon her partially prophetic abilities to tell her when to dodge, as they are not always reliable.

TEAM SPIRIT (B+):
Marion has shown a great level of team spirit throughout the summer! However, this team spirit does not seem to extend to her use of language during activities like capture the flag. We would like to remind her that 'You ******* *******' is not an acceptable way of encouraging her friends.

GREEK SPEEK (A-):
Marion has made excellent progress with her Ancient Greek. Perhaps this is because of her time spent under Circe's tutelage, however unfortunate the circumstances may have been. Sadly, Marion seems to believe that this fast progression allows her to start researching Ancient Greek profanities. She is mistaken.

CHARIOT RACING (B):
Unfortunately, we have not had the pleasure of seeing Marion participate in a chariot race yet, but she has shown remarkable team spirit, even helping her younger brother to paint his face with her cabin colours.

FOOT RACING (A):
Marion excels in foot racing in her physical age group, coming in 7th place in one of her races this summer (disregarding the Hermes campers as outliers). She has even participated in individual practice with fellow camper Drew Tanaka, though we are still unsure why a can of pink face paint was involved.

ARCHERY (A*):
Marion, as expected given her parentage, excels at archery. She even managed to get a bullseye this summer. Well done, Marion!

JAVELIN THROWING (A-):
Marion has had little practice this summer, and could do with attending the sessions more frequently. However, when she can remember to turn up, like the rest of her half-siblings she has not often missed the target.

ROCK CLIMBING (B-):
Marion has managed to make it up the wall twice this summer, possibly because we have been told that falling into the boiling lava below is rather unpleasant and works as an excellent motivator. However, she, along with many other campers, seems to have developed a nasty habit of skipping this session. We advise that she rectifies this.

The reports had magically been on the everyone's bedside table in the morning. Mari tried not to ponder the idea of the harpies entering her cabin to deliver them.

All the rest of her siblings had stashed them in their bags unread, but Mari didn't have any parents to save hers for. She wondered if Chiron would be pissed offif she threw hers in the campfire.

"Hey, you know you can always IM any of us, right?" Will asked from beside her.

Mari tried to smile. "Yeah. I'll be sure to turn up in thin air while you're at school and give your maths class a rant about how not to fall in the lava pit."

Will laughed. "Well, that would be more fun than actual math." He made a face at that last part.

"Better you than me," Mari lied.

It was not that she wanted to go to school. In fact, she actually enjoyed the fact that apparently the only work Chiron made any of the year-rounders do was the occasional project whenever he saw a TED talk and got inspired. It was that she was curious as what secondary school was like. Maybe Will could tell her.

"Hey, I can send you copies of my homework," Will suggested, his eyes alight with mischief.

Mari snorted. "What an awesome idea! We can use it as kindling."

Will laughed. "I have to go. My mom should be waiting for me at the airport already."

Will was the last of her siblings to leave. Michael had departed the night before. Apparently he had to babysit his little sister, Gracie (who was also a daughter of Apollo, but apparently Michael's mortal father wanted her to learn how to count before she learnt how to kill monsters) and he had school the very next day. He was gone before even Mari or Will were awake.

Austin had left after that. His mother and step-parent had picked him up after breakfast at the border of camp, for a flight back to Washington. Then Sean had left on the minibus to go home to his Aunt in Kentucky. Just before nine, Lee had left to catch a taxi to the airport. His grandma was too old to travel on her own to pick him up, and lived in Pennsylvania (Mari had laughed at that, since she knew it was a state, but the only thing she could imagine was a giant pencil covered in tiny houses). Now, Will was leaving. He lived with his mother in Texas.

Out of all of her siblings, Mari was the only one who was staying at camp over the summer.

"I'll see you at Christmas, hopefully." Will hugged her and waved, before setting off down the hill, dragging his suitcase behind him.

She was alone.

She glanced at the other piece of paper in her hand.

Dear Marnie Candler,

If you intend to stay at camp Half-Blood year-round, you must inform the big house by noon today. If you do not announce your intentions, we will assume you have vacated your cabin or died a horrible death. Cleaning harpies will begin work at sundown. They will be authorised to eat any unregistered campers. All personal articles left behind will be incinerated in the lava pit.

Have a nice day!
Mr D (Dionysus)
CAMP DIRECTOR, OLYMPIAN COUNCIL NO.12

Mari had told Chiron she was staying as soon as she'd finished her breakfast, mainly because she was very reluctant to test whether Mr D was being overdramatic. She would have thought he was, since none of the other kids seemed all that concerned about being eaten by harpies, but then again Mr D had also tried to turn her into a dolphin. A lot of things that happened at camp that would raise alarm bells if an inspector ever came to visit.

She headed down the other side of the hill, back towards camp, patting Thalia's ex-tree as she went.

Nobody had actually seen Thalia since she woke up. Chiron had picked her up without a word and galloped right back down the hill, leaving the rest of the camp very confused about what to do. They'd mostly waited at the top of the hill. Mari wasn't sure why, since Thalia was gone. A few people had tried to ask Annabeth what had actually happened, but she could only say that Thalia had appeared out of nowhere.

It had mostly dissolved into a bunch of panicked whispering about the fight against Kronos. Mari hadn't been able to fully tune into a single conversation since everyone was whispering over each other, but she heard the words 'Thalia', 'Kronos' and 'Percy' a lot. In a shocking turn of events, it had been Mr D who had broken up the impromptu gathering. He'd stomped up the hill and grabbed the arms of his two sons, before yelling at the rest of them for interrupting his sleep and giving them all five minutes to "get back to bed before I set the harpies on you ungrateful brats".

Thalia hadn't been at breakfast. Chiron had, but he had bags under his eyes and paid next to no attention, not even when Clarisse stole the food of three campers and dumped it as an offering to her father. Dionysus didn't look that fussed, just cranky and tired.

The Zeus cabin lights were on, though. Mari had never seen that before, and apparently nobody else at camp had, either. Mari probably wasn't alone in being unsettled by the Thalia drama.

"Marion!" An unfamiliar voice was calling her as a hand tapped her shoulder.

She froze on the spot, her muscles tensing. "What?"

The girl was familiar, but she didn't know her that well. She had brown hair, freckles, and very vivid green eyes. Mari knew the girl was a daughter of Demeter, but even though she was the oldest in the cabin, she wasn't the cabin counsellor. Apparently she just didn't want the responsibility.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to talk, I'm Flora Greene." Flora smiled at Mari nervously, patting her shoulder to try and alleviate the awkwardness.

"Uh... hi?" said Mari.

Flora led Mari over to the dining pavilion, getting them each a small bowl of strawberries to munch on as she began to talk. "I didn't want to bother you whilst you were getting to know your siblings and everything, but I think we can help each other."

Mari frowned. "With what?" she asked.

Flora smiled sadly, pulling out a flower necklace from under her shirt and glancing at it. "With Mason Ray. I'm... well, I guess I'm his ex-girlfriend, now."

Mari dropped the strawberry she'd been holding. Thankfully, it landed back in her bowl. Nobody had mentioned Mason having a girlfriend. Then again, most of her siblings either didn't talk about Mason in front of her, or weren't there before Mason left.

"I'm sorry, then," Mari murmured.

Flora nodded sadly. "I'm sorry, too. I'm guessing missing him is something we have in common, given your reaction when you found out he was... gone."

So Flora didn't say dead, either. At least there was one other person at camp who didn't pretend.

"Wait, how do you know how I reacted?" Mari's stomach shrivelled slightly as she remembered how poorly she'd treated Will. It didn't matter if he'd forgiven her or not, she'd still been horrible.

Flora shrugged. "I was in the infirmary. I got into a nasty fight with a hellhound that was after my little brother. It mauled my shoulder. I was due to leave when you got there for your hand. The yelling woke me, despite the drugs I'd taken for pain."

Mari nodded. Most of the people in the infirmary had been out by the end of the week after Clarisse put the fleece on the tree, but Mari hadn't known who was who at the time. It made sense that she wouldn't have recognised Flora there.

"Sorry, about waking you." Mari shoved another strawberry into her mouth to hide her embarrassment.

Flora didn't look that bothered. "That's not the point. I was thinking, we both want Mason to come back, right?"

Mari nodded eagerly.

Flora's smile got a little more grim. "Good. Then we both have a common goal. And, I was thinking we could help each other."

Mari frowned. How were they supposed to help each other? Clearly, Flora was a year-rounder, which meant that she couldn't leave to go find Mason, since none of them were allowed to leave the borders without permission, and Mari was even less useful. "I'd like that. But how?"

Flora's smile disappeared. "That's the part I'm not as sure about. But if you really do have those powers over the mist, then-"

"Wait, how do you know about that?"

Flora waved a hand. "Oh, everybody knows. Clarisse told Silena, who told Beckendorf, and someone overheard her telling him, yada yada. You get the picture. Point is, you're the only demigod who does. I mean, nobody has ever left Circe's island. You're the first. There's no way that Chiron isn't going to realise that. Trust me, he'll send you out for something... and, I was thinking, that's our best chance."

"Best chance to find Mason?" Mari asked.

Flora nodded. "Exactly. And, when you find him... I wanted to make sure you won't give up on him."

Mari frowned. "What do you mean?"

Flora looked at the necklace again. "He's been gone for over a year now. And, he might be different than the brother you remember. Gods know how long Luke has been whispering lies into his ear." She spat out the name Luke like a curse word, which made Mari feel a lot better about believing her.

"I know that. It's everyone else who doesn't." Mari kicked the ground as she spoke, scowling.

Flora smiled. "True. But think about it. If he switched sides once, he can do it again. He can switch back! We just have to not give up on him. It's the least he deserves, after especially after everything he's done for me. He's the one who brought me to camp, you know. He saved my life twice."

Mari was still. She'd known it. She'd known it, and she'd been right! Mason was good, he could come back to camp. He couldn't be bad, not if he'd saved Flora's life. And, she wasn't the only one who thought so. They just needed to convince him. And when he did come back, he could spend summers with her, since he was a year-rounder. She wouldn't be alone.

"I won't let you down, I swear," she promised Flora.

The older girl nodded. "I know you won't. It's nice that at least someone else sees sense."

"Flora! We need you, Taylor lost control of the strawberries and now the roots are trying to strangle them!" Katie was calling from the other end of the pavilion, her face flushed from running and panic in her eyes.

Flora shot up like a bullet, and began to frantically follow Katie, before she turned back to Mari. "Thank you for helping me."

Mari grinned up at her. "Thanks for helping me, too."

Flora nodded at her. "Don't ever hesitate to ask if you need anything." Then she dashed out after Katie, yelling something about giant tweezers and ointment. Mari decided she didn't want to listen too closely to that.

She just began walking to her cabin to grab one of the spare bows, so that she could head to the archery range and try and get a second bullseye (one day, she was absolutely going to beat Michael at it. One day) when she was stopped again, this time by the clip clopping of hooves.

"Marion!" Chiron galloped towards her, stopping about a metre away. "Are you alone, child?" he asked.

Mari nodded. The area around the cabins was mostly empty, since so many campers had gone home. A few of the others were off training, but Mari was pretty sure most of them were at the beach, trying to enjoy the last of the summer sun. And her siblings were gone. So yeah, she was alone.

"Good. There's something I need you to do, in the infirmary." Chiron began walking as he talked, and Mari took that as her cue to follow.

"What?" she asked.

Chiron sighed. "I am sorry to burden you with this, child, but you are the only demigod with healing abilities currently at camp, and I would appreciate the help."

Mari nodded, but then stopped. "Uh, Chiron, I don't know how to use those very well. I, uh, I've only done it once and I don't even remember how."

Chiron nodded. "That is common. All of Apollo's children have the power of healing, but most may only access it instinctually during times of great stress. Few can call upon it naturally at any time. Your brother Will is rare in having that ability. That's why I brought this." He was holding a book, though it was more like a pamphlet. It was yellow with a shiny gold border. On the front was gold picture of a lyre.

"What's is it?" Mari asked.

"A book of healing hymns. I, personally, have never been able to quite understand how it works. However, that is the point. Only Apollo and his children are able to make use of these. Most of your siblings have picked just a few to memorise. Will, of course, is able to recall all of them perfectly with no memorisation required. It is quite impressive. But, I'm getting off track. I would very much appreciate your assistance in an important matter." Chiron had arrived at the infirmary, where his wheelchair was already waiting, and lowered himself into it. He gestured for Mari to push the door open for him, which she did, and both of them stepped in.

Thalia was lying in one of the beds, snoring loudly.

"Oh..." Mari trailed off.

Chiron smiled thinly. "Yes. Oh. As I said, I am sorry to put this all on you, but I'm afraid there is nobody else."

Mari frowned. "But... didn't the fleece heal her?"

Chiron nodded. "Yes. It brought her back to life and healed her injuries. But even the fleece cannot heal extreme atrophy. Thalia has been lying still for six years. Her muscles have wasted away so much she is unable to move."

Mari studied Thalia. When she'd first been freed from the tree, nobody had looked closely at her before Chiron rushed her away, and it had been dark anyway. But now, Mari could see exactly what Chiron meant. Thalia's arms and legs were smaller than they should be, like the muscle itself wasn't there anymore.

She gulped. She didn't even know if she could heal more than a surface wound, let alone a complicated thing like that. Gods, if she couldn't do this, was Zeus going to smite her right then and there?

"What do I do?" she asked in a small voice.

The centaur wheeled to one side of Thalia's bed as he answered. "I don't know. I have never had to deal with a demigod with atrophy before, since it's necessary for you all to stay active and in shape for survival. My suggestion would be to consult the book."

Mari opening the pamphlet and began flipping through the pages. Everything was in Ancient Greek, which felt familiar to her. There was no Table of Contents but the title of each hymn was written at the top of each page. She stopped at a hymn towards the end of the book.

Metanoia.

Mari didn't know why, but this felt like the right one.

It was a lot shorter than the others, which were mostly six or seven lines long. This one was only three lines, to be repeated as needed.

Mari nodded to Chiron. "I think I have one."

"Alright. Most of the time, when healing, it's best to simply follow your instincts. I'm sure you will find that concept more familiar than most."

Mari nodded, closing her eyes and slowly putting the palms of her hands on Thalia's left shoulder. She opened them again, glancing at the hymn, and began singing.

Mari wasn't an exceptional singer, but she was good. Then again, all of her siblings were. Even Sean, who sang in the shower to the entire camp and earned a lot of ire for it. Nobody complained because he sounded bad. They complained because he sang at 3 a.m. But her singing did the job.

She finished the hymn, and then simply repeated it again. After the third time, her head started slightly hurting, and she felt tired, even though she'd only gotten up a few hours earlier.

By the sixth repetition, her head was hurting badly, and her eyes were closed again, but this time it was because she was struggling to keep them open.

She managed to sing it eleven times before she had to face the fact that she could barely stay awake. When she did open her eyes, everything was just a little blurry. "Can I sit down?" her voice sounded faint.

"Of course." Chiron was slightly hazy in her vision, but she could make out the fact that he nodded.

She pulled up a chair and glanced at Thalia. Already, she looked a lot better. Her muscles were still lean and thin, but that seemed like her natural build. They weren't as... squished-looking. Mari hoped the improvement would be enough to stop Zeus from murdering her.

"Thank you, Marion. She should be able to recover much faster now. I'm sure she'll be up in a few days." Chiron smiled.

Mari nodded, curling more into the very comfy pillow on the seat.

"I would advise you leave once you are able. Annabeth Chase will be back soon, and I'm not quite sure Thalia is ready to see anyone else until we explain to her what's going on."

Mari hadn't realised Annabeth was still at camp. Didn't she have a father outside? Mari was pretty sure she mentioned that. She'd said she lived in Virginia.

Mari left the infirmary a little later, partly because Thalia started whispering and Mari didn't want to be on the receiving end if she did choose that moment to wake up. And also partly because it felt empty without anybody else from her cabin there.

Mari still felt a little light-headed, though, so she headed to the dining pavilion to grab an apple. She'd just sat down and taken a bite when something hit the back of her head. She whipped around to see a giggling Drew Tanaka, waving a clump of grapes. "What are you doing?" Mari asked, rubbing her scalp.

Drew shrugged. "Wanted to get your attention."

"You could have just said hi."

"Hi."

The Apollo and Aphrodite cabin tables were actually right next to each other, so Drew just scooted to the end of hers. "Why aren't you on a plane?" Mari asked.

Drew scowled. "My Dad thought it would be a good idea to take a three month business trip to France without telling me until an hour before noon today. Do you know how hard it was to haul seven suitcases back up half-blood hill and still be on time to tell Mr D without becoming Harpy food? He threw these at me when I told him!" Drew brandished the grapes in the air to emphasize her point. "Plus, I don't even have my fall wardrobe here."

Drew played it down, but Mari could tell she was pretty upset. She tried to comfort her, "Maybe it was a really unavoidable trip?"

Drew shook her head. "Oh, no, he's just having a fling with a business woman there and he wanted to spend more 'quality time' with her, but she doesn't know he has a daughter so he can't invite her here. Her name is Greta. My Mom told me."

Mari didn't know if it was weird or not that Drew's Mom was still checking in on her ex's love lives. It definitely seemed like and Aphrodite thing to do, goddess of love and all.

"I'm sorry," Mari said.

Drew put her chin in the palm of her hands, and pouted. "I'm not even mad about the fling. I'm not. I just wish he wasn't so embarrassed about me."

Mari frowned. Why would anyone be embarrassed about Drew? She was one of the nicest people Mari knew. Admittedly, that list of people included a creepy snake-woman and evil island sorceress , so maybe Mari's perspective was a bit distorted. No, Mari told herself. It didn't matter. Drew was still awesome.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to tell her about the whole demigoddess thing?" Mari suggested.

Drew shook her head. "What, so he can't just tell her he has a daughter who goes to a summer camp?"

She had a point. Mari reached across the gap between the tables and put her hand on Drew's shoulder. "Well, I think you're great. And your Dad is being dumb."

A small part of Mari was glad that at least Drew was still there, just for a few months, but still. She wouldn't be entirely alone.

"Why did Aphrodite tell you about it, anyway?" Mari asked.

"Oh, Mom keeps up with the love lives of all her exes. She asked me to warn my Dad not to use Greta's yacht, for some reason."

Mari's mind clicked onto why. "It must be because of Luke. He's training all the demigods who left on a yacht. Annabeth and Percy told me."

Drew made a face. "Luke has a yacht? That's so unfair! Why do the people training to destroy the world get a yacht? We should get a bigger yacht."

Mari shook her head. "Yeah, no. I am sticking to dry land, thank you very much."

"Why?" Drew asked.

"I don't want to run into Luke. Besides, nothing good has ever happened to me on an open ocean. I say, leave the water stuff to Percy." Mari tried not to think about the various sea monsters (she was including Circe in that definition) which had starred in a few of her nightmares over the summer.

Drew nodded. "I guess that makes sense. I mean, there are some sea monsters still outside of the sea of monsters. I wouldn't want to have to fight any of them."

More sea monsters? Mari had to hold back a shudder.

"So, do you think that Thalia is still at camp?" Drew asked her.

Mari frowned. She probably wasn't allowed to mention that she knew exactly where Thalia was, right? "Where else would she be?" Mari asked.

Drew raised an eyebrow at her, but didn't say anything. "I thought maybe she'd be going somewhere with Chiron to train. Well, Silena thought she would be."

"She's probably... just, you know, resting in her cabin."

Drew looked even more unimpressed. "You're really bad at lying."

That wasn't true. She'd lied beautifully to her teachers and foster parents about her grades and about whether she was actually sleeping or not for years, and nobody picked up on it then!

Drew was still looking at her expectantly.

Mari sighed. "Fine. I don't know if I'm even allowed to tell anyone or not but she'd just in the infirmary, with Annabeth. Chiron asked me to try to heal her. She had atrophy."

"She had a trophy?" Drew asked.

Mari shook her head. "No. Atrophy. One word. Basically, her muscles had grown weak because they hadn't been used for so long. Look, I don't know if Chiron wants people knowing where she is to bother her, so please don't tell anyone because he'll know I told you."

Drew rolled her eyes. "Relax, Mari. I only spread interesting gossip. No offence."

Mari made a mental note never to tell Drew if she ever did anything particularly scandalous. Secretly though, she suspected that Drew didn't want to be smited by and angry lightening god either.

Mari wondered if something weird had happened with Thalia's age. Maybe the two of them had that in common? She wondered if Thalia would understand the strangeness Mari experienced. If she felt out of place, too. Maybe Mari was getting ahead of herself, after all, Thalia was currently unconscious in the infirmary. Unconscious people weren't very good company. But, maybe, if they could talk, and someone understood what she meant... maybe it would help Mari feel a little better.

Like Flora said, people could help each other. Mari could help Flora and they would both get Mason back. Maybe she could also help Thalia and they'd both feel a little more like they belonged.

"Mari? Hellooo...?" Drew was waving a hand in front of her face.

"Sorry. Got lost in my thoughts for a second." Mari smiled.

Drew nodded. "Well, I asked you if you wanted to go and find a hellhound or something to practise on in the woods. I don't want to lose practice just because I don't have access to my private gym and most of the camp is back in the mortal world."

That was a good point. Mari had mostly avoided practicing after the whole nearly getting killed over summer thing, but she did need to stay in shape.

"Okay." She grinned at Drew, pressing her hand to Drys. "Let's go."