"I have something for you," Will said. He sat a box down in front of me.
"We're not together anymore, Solace."
"This was Chiron's idea anyway. Think of it as an early birthday present."
"But I don't- have… a birthday."
"Come on, open it."
I took the lid off and inside there were papers and a piece of concrete. I couldn't tell if he was being funny or not. He took the concrete out and gave it to me. "Keep it. That's important for later."
"What are-"
"Just trust me, okay?" He took out a leather bound journal and flipped it open. Inside the cover was a single black and white photo of my mother and sister. It felt good remembering that they had actually been in my life once. I could have gotten lost looking at the two of them if Will hadn't distracted me.
He tapped the third person in the photo and said, "Nico." I looked at myself and looked at him. "Will!" He nodded and held out his hand for the concrete. I looked at it in my hands and laughed even though tears were burning my eyes. I decided to keep it for myself.
"Chiron's been putting this together for months," Will explained. "I helped him find a few things. Like, we've worked out that the year was somewhere between 1933 and 1937 but the record keeping was not the best back then so since you're about to be sixteen-"
I shook my head. "I'm not. I just turned fifteen." He smiled at me in that way of his and said, "That's great. It even adds up. January 28th. And that year isn't important anyway. You would have been born in 2008."
That was when I realized that Zeus was his grandfather. And Kronos was mine.
He took out a folded sheet of paper. "This is a letter that your mom wrote to her parents when she was living in Cypress." He slid it back into the front of the journal.
"Chiron suspected that you would feel the way you do so he had some things made for you. Since we had the year 2008 to work with we were able to get you a birth certificate and social." He took them out of the box and added them to the journal. "You have to go in person to get your learner's permit but you can let Chiron know when you're ready for that." He gestured to the concrete I was still holding and told me, "This can be your foundation, Nico." He glanced at the box and said, "I wonder what else is in there."
I rolled my eyes. It was a weird globe on a pedestal and at first I thought it was a witch's looking glass. "It's a plasma lamp," Will said. "Turn it on." He pointed to the electric outlet.
Streaks of blue and purple lightning danced harmlessly inside. The way they flowed like water and fire reminded me of Percy and Jason at the same time. "Now that you're living in the Apollo cabin you might as well start making it yours too. Check this out." He ran his finger along the side of the lamp and the lightning followed it.