-Melissa Whitaker-
Supper was exactly what I thought would happen. Members of Camp Jupiter eye us the whole evening. That hadn't bothered Kane in the slightest though, not to any of my surprise. His role working under his father's orders resulted in him being adjusted to critical judgment by others. I learned that from the one mission we did go on years ago.
The man that greeted us from before had been quick to join us once a few members of the camp settled on the fact that we were here whether they like it or not. I ended up keeping myself busy eating, zoning their immediate dive into the Egyptian pantheon out. I was on alert once the words Chief Lector entered the conversation.
Kane explains that he had segmented that role once our Pharaoh decided to take his official place in ranking. Theo seems interested in diving further into our politics. My eyes narrow as I note that Amos hadn't thought it odd that the man knew enough to ask about the Chief Lector position in the first place.
"I think you should give us that tour now," I interrupt swiftly.
Theo is quick to take the hint, a nervous smile my way. "You're right, my apologies."
He gets up after promising to be back to show us around. That earned me a glare from the General of Armies. "Are you going to be acting like this the whole time?"
"I don't understand how you can be so comfortable around him?" I give him a questioning look.
"You're reacting like when we went to make that deal with our clay supplier."
"They were slave owners Amos. And they were not appeased with the whole idea of replacing their workforce with shabtis. You knew that before we even walked in." If he's going to bring it up, then I'm going to unleash my review of that mission.
I crossed the line; he raised the palm of his right hand toward me in response. "I'm not getting intentionally kidnapped here, you can settle down now."
"With a supply of weapons to start an uprising," I mutter under my breath in annoyance. The whole mission was whacked, and the only apology I received was from Desjardins for keeping me out of all of the details of their plan.
"I was following my orders," Amos is quick to remind me. Because Iskandar asked him to give those people their presentation for a fourth time despite the past three never coming back to Cairo. And Desjardins sent me as protection detail. "You did your part as well, even more so leading that uprising without any prompting."
"You were still drugged," I remind again with an annoyed eye-roll.
Amos nods with a slight smile on his face. "I see you're still annoyed by all of it. Even despite getting full credit."
"That's the part that actually annoys me," I take a sip of water. "Can't even tell people how much of an idiot you are."
"You told Caroline," He humors.
I tense, eyes back on the General. He's talking about her. I chose to not ask anything after how he reacted to seeing the art museum earlier. Worse that I uncovered guilt for his brother's death. I wasn't going to upset him further.
I snort at him, "Someone had to warn her."
"Evening!" We were swiftly interrupted by a teenager with sharp blue eyes and short blond hair. "Chief Lector, it's been a while."
"It's just Amos," he insisted immediately.
"Pretty humble for a guy that risked his life to try and get a giant to play hide and seek," the kid is quick to call him out, and Amos crosses his arms over his chest in response. "I wanted to make sure to greet you to Camp Jupiter before the day is over. Sorry I wasn't able to greet you myself earlier, but Theo assured me he had it covered."
"Theo made sure we felt welcome. Should I be thanking you for the housing, Grace?" Amos asks.
The kid's right side of his mouth lifted a bit at that. "You should consider it my apology for stabbing your nephew. And my thanks for not acting as anyone would expect from it. I know you were concerned that a publicity stunt would end up happening to start a fight between us."
I know I stand in the dark when it comes down to what happened when our pantheons crashed into each other. In the one meeting we did have in the middle of it all, Amos looked tired and in pain while explaining what had happened so his nephew wasn't to the demanding eyes of Nome Leaders looking at them for answers. Only a few Nome Leaders had caught on that the Chief Lector looked worse for wear, but most of them didn't much care.
Camp Half-Blood, the demigods that were there during the ordeal hadn't mentioned much other than Gaia being put back 'in her place'. 'With the helpful hands of the House of Life,' Jackson made sure to add just about every time it was mentioned briefly. Chiron even briefly mentioned that Julius had ended up in their camp, earning a nervous laugh from his younger brother in response. "He never really did shut up about that."
I didn't know that a Roman demigod had stabbed Carter. Obviously, this was kept quiet, the uproar the House would have if they knew would mean our visit not being friendly to any degree. Amos knows that the fool has been involved in way too much politics. My eyes settle on the General.
"It wasn't your fault, we all know the manipulation that was applied for that outcome," Kane reassures swiftly. "Jason Grace, Melissa Whitaker," he quickly introduces. "Grace is one of two Praetors; Mel is the Nome Leader for Miami."
Grace extends his hand to shake hands with me, and I make sure to not hesitate. "Kind of surprised you didn't bring that Sebastian guy with you. Isn't he closer than Miami?"
Amos gets uncomfortable fast to that. "He is, he's the Nome Leader for San Francisco. I forgot that you met while I was busy."
"Yeah, he seemed cool, not to say that you don't appear that way, Mel." Grace sits where Theo had been earlier. "Speaking of which, you never did say why you were out for that."
"There was an internal issue with the House that I had to attend to," Amos chases water down after saying this. "Did something happen that I should know about?"
"Actually, yeah," Jason peers around him before facing us again. "Reyna had her bulking folder with her. Kurtz kind of stumbled when she asked him about a museum explosion that occurred close to our camp about twenty years ago."
"Sounds about right," Amos mutters in annoyance, then quickly realized that he still had an audience around him. "Apologies, I take it then the event will be reviewed again?"
Jason nods, "She has to be able to trust people. Right now, she's not very happy with the fact that I arranged this and pushed for you to get housing within our camp. However, I was able to negotiate a bit for her to try. Theo helped with his input."
"I thank you for the effort."
"Again, not a big deal in the grand scheme of things," the teenager pauses before continuing. "Just so the story stays straight though, Carter and Sebastian told us you were not around to start making headway on fixing your First Nome in Cairo. I figured they were probably lying at the time, but I do not want Reyna to catch the difference in your stories."
Amos and I both take a moment to take the kid in again, who just smirks at us before standing on his feet again. "Let me know if you have any questions, General."
"Noted," is Kane's response as the kid walked back to where he had come from.
I chuckle a bit as I process what the kid had just done. "He really wants these negotiations to be smooth."
"I can't blame him, our prior history with Rome has been a mess." Amos finally faces me, still seeming a tad rocked that the kid had called him out on his lie. "If we pull this off, we're better at making alliances than Julius Caeser and Cleopatra themselves."
"Oh, I was starting to wonder if you were a son of Narmer or not," I tease.
"I think what you meant to say is a son of Jabari," Amos corrects immediately. "Narmer's bloodline isn't set on being arrogant asshats every breath we take. Ignore the Starrs too when I say this."
"Oh, is that why the two of you are getting along now?" I ask. I knew Trevor was Blood of the Pharaohs as well. Like many of us, he didn't say which line. Julius and Amos were screwed from the start however since their old man just had to brag about who they are.
"His daughter is on the line, and how else will she get the proper assistance and knowledge to maintain her hosting?" Amos pauses. "He was properly spooked having Friedrich in his home. That's another one to also ignore to my argument, by the way."
Oh. Oh. Trevor hadn't mentioned he had also dealt with the man as well. That explains his immediate support of Amos' actions against Torsten then. I could see Friedrich forcing their past rivalries to die.
"You're going to have to point out a Narmer that is an example to your argument, Amos." I tease to try and lighten the mood some.
"Easy, Carter and Sadie." The pride this man has in his brother's kids. Probably the only reason he even gets up in the morning anymore.
Theo approached; the conversation died. The tour was fine, but Amos was seeming to get comfortable again despite the warnings I'd tried to give already. Whatever, he'll just say something about alliances as an excuse. The issue I have is something he is failing to see in himself.
In other instances of meeting someone new, Amos is respectful and friendly. His walls are still up, however, and not willing to lay his cards out unless it deems important. Theo, however, has destroyed such walls. Suddenly this guy we just met is in best friend territory with our General of Armies. I'm not even in said position, and I'm willing to bet that Kyra herself would be alarmed by this. I'd value Julius Kane's weighing in on the matter as well.
Dusk had us wrap the tour up, and I was not happy with the type of conversation being held between the two by then. "So, may I ask what came of this Chief Lector Iskandar?" Theo asks.
"Absolutely not," I butt in quickly, and that tensed Amos right out of the comfortableness he had going.
"I think Mel is tired, sorry for her intensity," Amos quickly excuses. "His health got the worst of him, so it's a bit of a sensitive subject for the Per Ankh." Oh good, he can take a hint.
"Oh, sorry," the Roman apologizes. "You sounded like you knew him to some degree. But that would make him, what, about two centuries old?"
"We did know him," I cut in before Amos can. "And it is a sensitive subject, so stop prying."
"Magicians live longer lives. Iskandar is the oldest magician we know of anyway. My own father passed almost hitting four hundred. Mother was half his age. Our Chief Architect is close to hitting one hundred herself."
"Interesting, and how old are the two of you?"
"I'll be forty come April," Amos answers. "And no one asks a woman for her age."
Wise, for I would have smacked him upside his head if he said it. Even so, he's said too much as it is. "Thank you for the tour, we should retire for the night," I dismiss Theo.
He took the hint and said his farewells, leaving a slightly annoyed Kane glaring at me as I opened the door. "You really don't like him?"
"He's asking too many questions for just meeting," I answer as plainly as I can.
"I'm not exactly happy about the questions I know you have of me either, Mel."
Like a bolt of electricity hit my spine, I stand straighter as Kane passes me to enter the house. I turn on my heels and watch him hesitate to face me again. "You can enter, close the door behind you too, yeah?"
I quickly but gently close the door behind me, turning the lock as my eyes stayed on the General. He huffs and goes to remove his hat to rest on the coat hanger. "Sebastian dug, didn't he?"
"Don't come after him," I manage to finally say.
"I'm not blaming," Amos' eyes land back on me. "The Romans asked, he did what anyone else would have."
"Kyra asked him to dig," I correct quickly. I didn't even know that the Romans had asked about it as well, to be honest. Sebastian didn't think it was important to know obviously. "He still loves her."
"She knows as well then?"
"He said there was too much happening at the time. He didn't know how to tell her."
"But told you?"
"He told her father, something you've been unwilling to do for twenty years," My eyes narrowed. "At least someone has closure in mind."
I remember the look on his face as Derrick accused them of lying. They said she disappeared, and after two weeks the trail had turned cold. Angry with how easily it seemed they hadn't tried; I too faced a wall in my findings. Derrick continued for a year to find his daughter to also turn up with nothing. Then swiftly turned his attention back on Amos, knowing damn well he knows. Worse, Desjardins was more than happy to block any attempts to question Jabari's son. It's a giant cover-up, that kid did something to my daughter!
"Why didn't you tell us?" I finally ask the question that's been bothering both of us after Kurtz had left.
The last words she had said in his arms, and the way he wept as her body disappeared within his grip. He loved her, and I'm willing to bet he still does. It's not like we wouldn't have understood, she was clearly possessed in the footage. So why? Why lie and keep all of it to yourself and allow yourself to be a target for so many years?
"I was fine with taking the blame for her death," Amos confesses. "I was ignorant at the time, you know? I should have done more, could have saved her, that kind of nonsense. Set showed me how arrogant I am thinking that way. I'm not strong enough to pull anything off like that."
"That doesn't answer the question," I point out quickly.
Amos tsks at me in annoyance at prying. "I didn't want anyone to think lower of her."
I'm struck dumb for a moment, but managed to ask, "What?"
"It was better that no one knew what happened. Smith being angry was better than him knowing. At least it meant she was still respected."
I'm still confused. "Why wouldn't we respect her?"
Amos finally takes a moment to take me in. "Get some decent sleep, Whittaker."
I watch him leave for the master bedroom of the place. I'm annoyed that I have further questions now. I inhale and exhale sharply before turning on my heels for the room I've taken over for now.
'Decent sleep' was like a cruel joke slapped down by the General of Armies. At least I wasn't alone when I spotted him dozing off at the table. The coffee in his hands was almost taken out by his face if it wasn't for me greeting him. Realization hits him and he safely sets the mug on the table.
"I see you slept about as well as I did," I point out after his tired greeting. "We could just skip the activities the Romans had laid out today."
"No," he straightens himself in the chair a bit. "No, that would be rude."
"So would dozing off," I point out as I grab myself a cup of coffee as well. "Amos, want to duel so and so next? Oh, you're drooling on yourself instead? I didn't realize we were that much of a bore, General."
"So long as they're not getting up in arms over a yawn, I think I can manage to not drool on myself, thanks for your concern." The man takes a sip of coffee before gesturing for me to join him. "I'll be fine, my first month as Chief Lector was rough enough that this will be fine. Just need to wake up a bit."
"Did you piss someone off by yawning? That sounds like it came from experience the way you just said it," I sit at the table across from him and take a sip of coffee.
"Brayan Palacios demanded an audience, I forced myself out of some much-needed sleep that I got twenty minutes worth of. He stormed off and tried to claim that I thought his concerns about my leadership were boring."
I eyeroll, "Palacios? That makes sense, if anyone was to cry. He tried to start a fight with the Twenty-First because he wanted a room to himself."
"Yeah," Amos sighs, "and now Carter has a problem with him. He's walking on eggshells around the Pharaoh. The man tried to offer his Nome for the wedding. 'It's the most beautiful place you can imagine! You'd be a fool to not get married there!' Zia shot him down immediately."
"At least Zia is comfortable enough to tell off people trying to brown nose."
"She was shy around me when we first met. I think Nephthys was the switch to change that."
"Uh, no," I take a sip as I watch Amos give me a look to continue. "She's always been like that, especially around her peers. Doesn't help that Iskandar was her guardian, and Desjardins was encouraging that behavior. I am surprised that she didn't show that side of her to you when they would visit."
"Huh," he takes a sip of coffee before putting the mug back down on the table. "Probably Desjardins' fault then?"
"I could see that," I agree quickly as he goes to stand from the table now.
"I'm going to make myself wake up some more before Theo starts knocking."
"My suggestion is still available, you know."
"You can if you want, Mel."
I do want to take the day off, thanks. That's not the point I'm making here. I promised Carter I'd watch his uncle while we are here. How do I explain taking a break to catch up on rest while Amos is out giving his life story to that Roman that seems to think that twenty questions are how to have a conversation?
I sigh in annoyance and chug the rest of my coffee. Washed dishes and I decided the idea of taking a small walk around would be a good idea. At least get some fresh morning air into my brain to wake up some more. Once I came back around is when Theo was at the door knocking.
-Amos Kane-
Breakfast with the Romans was the same as dinner had been. Demigods sizing us up from afar. Fair enough, the Field of Mars showed me why they are like this. While an interesting activity, I'm uncomfortable with the trenches. I wasn't even around during WWII, but the fact that Desjardins never wanted to discuss what he experienced of it is enough.
The Coliseum, while expected, was interesting to see in person. They seem to train there, which Jason had offered us to experience with them, but we turned him down. Julius would have loved the chance though, I'm sure. And I'm certain Mel would have as well, but she's still tired from lack of rest.
Maintenance on siege weapons, I'm slightly surprised they still have these and keeping them in working condition at that. Tasks to keep the hygiene of the camp in top shape. Classes discussing inventions, building defenses, military formations, and something of a 101 on animal care.
And that's how we ended up meeting the war elephant we had seen them use on the Field of Mars. "Hannibal?" I am quick to pick up on the humor of his name.
"After the Conqueror from Carthage," Theo confirms as he pats the side of the elephant. "We respect him to this day; he taught our generals how to fight."
"I feel like I'm missing something here," Mel pipes in.
"He used war elephants to attack Rome," I sum up.
"I don't see that being effective. They're big and bulky-"
"He can take down walls like it's nothing," Frank Zhang approaches us. "Long time no see, Chief Lector."
I'll probably never forget this kid, after all, we took on the Bane of Mars together. "Nice to see you again. It's General now."
"Promotion?" His eyes seem to light up to the idea.
"Demotion, actually."
"Sorry to hear that. Was it because of what happened on-"
"Oh no, I requested to step down, and it wasn't from Mount Olympus. I was stretched too thin with the internal affairs of the House of Life," I explain briefly.
Frank nods in acceptance of that summary. But it is more to it than that. The Kane and Menshikov families have stepped forward as allies now rather than enemies. I've handed Vika responsibilities if I'm to disappear again, at least enough that she can feel comfortable enough to protect the Pharaoh when needed. In turn, Vika followed through and ended the curse on Walt Stone despite the deal being she be the next Chief Lector.
This blatant alliance has the Per Ankh on edge. Someone they thought was on their side is very obviously not anymore despite the deception she was more than happy to keep. Most respect her enough to back off for the moment. I guess I hadn't noticed how much I valued this move, considering we just had Friedrich make a show of us first. Made it look like it was easy work, enough for those interested to do a killing blow to swarm the Twenty-First. So long as no one is trying to deceive my brother's kids again.
An elephant trunk taps my right leg, I go to pet him in response. Frank gets Theo's help in feeding Hannibal. The elephant's left eye peering down at me puts me slightly on edge again. However, I just pet him a little more and keep it to myself.
Sadie's vision has been itching in the back of my mind, and I've been for the most part ignoring it. I shouldn't, but I know there's nothing I can do to change what the outcome ends up being. Let alone the fact that Astarte and Anat are emerging sooner rather than later, despite Set's best efforts.
It's good to see that even Rome respects Canaan to some degree. I'd be surprised if they didn't respect Hannibal, his strategies meant him winning nearly every time. Rome decided to learn from their enemy on the matter. Leading us to a war elephant being treated like a king in the middle of a Roman demigod camp.
Theo decides we should move on now to see something else of the camp. Mel is more than happy to get away from the animal. I'm hesitating a bit, noticing his gaze is still on me. I bow in respect to Hannibal and follow the others.
Lunch, then a tour of New Rome. A very different aspect of the demigod life compared to Camp Half-Blood. They expect to live longer than the Greeks do. Have an education beyond the legion, and have a family. Tapping into the human side of themselves.
I explain how the House of Life compares for Theo to understand, much to Mel's annoyance on the matter. "It's amazing how our cultures have survived what would be considered destruction!"
"To some degree, there will always be someone that survives, whether it be god or human," I add on. "We were lucky to have Chief Lector Iskandar for as long as we did."
Mel decided that she has the energy to duel Grace after all in the coliseum. An interesting fight, but Whittaker had to admit defeat in the end. He offers to duel me next, and I kindly turn his offer down.
Dinner again. Roman demigods are still watching us from afar, but are slowly adjusting that we are here. I can barely keep my eyes open, so I was grateful that Mel wanted to retire early as well.
We woke up and were on alert as we noticed the door to the house was wide open. Mel gestured for me to stay back as she pulled her khopesh out to walk in. An auditable gasp when she got in, but no clashing happened after. I slowly walk in, iron staff not extended yet but still in my right hand.
In the middle of the room was a very dead donkey with pooling blood around it. The walls are coated in words painted in probably the animal's blood. There's a mix of different threats in different dialects. I can see English, French, Arabic, and Hieroglyphics easily. Greek I barely recognize from studies, and I finally process its several languages thrown against the walls.
The one that burned out of all of it was the Pr beside the hieroglyphic of Ha-di. My eyes were just stuck on it amongst the messages of unwelcome, get out, death. Whoever took the time to do this knows Ancient Egyptian. I'm reminded of Sadie's vision again, the potential god with gold hieroglyphics surrounding him.
"We're leaving," Mel's voice instructs to snap me out of it.
I raise an eyebrow at her, and that just annoys her further. "This isn't just harassment, Amos. This is targeted at you. We are leaving."
"This is just someone trying to spook," I got to reassure. "We can easily clean up and pretend it didn't-"
"There's a fucking dead donkey in the middle of the room, Kane!" Mel glares at me to test her patience on this. "They picked Set's animal representation to slaughter to get their message across."
Yeah, because it's harder to get your hands on a sha to do the same thing. But it's humorous anyway because he is an ass. My eyes go back to the donkey, and I feel for him for having to endure what he did.
"I'm here to protect you, and that's what I'm doing now. We're going to head straight back to the Sixtieth Nome. I'll contact Pharaoh on this once we get there."
"Absolutely not," Mel's eyes narrowed to my disagreement. "That's exactly what they want. This happened before with outsiders trying to cause a problem between Rome and Egypt. We're not allowing them to do so again. This is just a mess that needs to get cleaned up and left unspoken."
"Before being a Roman demigod stabbing your nephew? And you choose to not let the House of Life know about it?"
"Exactly that. Someone is trying to stir up a problem so that we are back in arms with each other. And the last time we did that, Egypt lost and went underground."
She seemed like she understood my point, but there was still a snarl trying to happen on the edge of her lips as she takes in the walls again. "Sorry Amos, but my point still stands. We are not staying. The Romans can puzzle out who did this and decide if they want to act on it or not."
"You'd rather we run from a basic threat?" I question the combat magician.
"I am keeping you safe on our Pharaoh's orders," she is quick to answer. "Questioning my want to fight doesn't work on me as well as it probably did for Julius, sorry."
"Carter didn't give such an order-"
"It's an implied order that if I don't, I'll be interrogated for," Mel glares at me to challenge that.
I sigh in annoyance. "Okay, let's meet in the middle then, we can go back to Kurtz's nome, but not let anyone know why."
"You swore to your nephew that you would stop lying to him," Mel reminds.
"Yeah, and he's still a kid."
That hit and landed on something for her, her expression softened somewhat. "Damnit Amos, fine. Let's leave now though before anyone sees us."
