"I got you something." a boy said to a girl, as they walked back behind a farmer's shed. His smile beamed. She nodded, encouraging him to go on. He held up a singular flower, a daisy.
"A daisy? Not a rose?" He frowned.
"Roses are cliche." he mumbled, and she slapped him, and threw the flower on the ground.
"Daisies are cheap. Am I cheap to you?" He shook his head, catching himself.
"I can still… kiss you, right?" He leaned in, kissing the girl. She craned her neck back, and his lips went there- her neck.
"Where did it go?" he stopped, looking back. There was no daisy on the ground.
"I thought you didn't want it." he said, and she groaned, shoving him backwards. She turned, walking into the shed, where she was met with another girl.
Blonde, grey eyes- gorgeous to anyone, even a blind man. She was easily five-foot-nine, and hair dirt on her face and her hair. She was wearing a knitted sweater and an apron. The farmer's daughter. The girl yanked her daisy back.
"Now it smells like horse shit. Dirty farmer." She growled. The guy ran up behind her.
"Calm down Rue- leave her alone."
"No! This fucking farmer freak ruined my flower." She growled, and shoved the blonde girl back, who tripped and fell onto her back. "Spying on us, you creep? You just sit back here and be a loner all your fucking life?" Rue walked to the blonde girl, while the boy stood back and watched. Rue got on top of the blonde girl and started to rough her around- pushing her into the ground, punching her body. The blonde girl struggled under Rue- and closed her eyes, clenching her jaw. She prayed to be anywhere but there.
And suddenly, she was. She wasn't on her father's farm. She wasn't in Tetun. She was in a cave, light beaming through a single hole in the ceiling. She slowly rose, and turned. There was a man, reading a book over a fire, his back turned to her. She stood, and he heard her, turning his head to see. She took a step back, behind her a rock where she placed her hand, grasping onto for dear life. She'd heard stories of what men did to girls who were alone. Ruined their lives.
"Who are you?" he said, only his neck craned.
"Am I dead?" she stuttered out. "Gods- am I dead?" she worriedly said. "How did I get here?"
"Seems to me like you've portaled in." the man said.
"What?"
"You know, portaled in. Tower of Knowledge, Azotela." he said, frowning. He stood, and approached her. He frowned, focusing on her eyes.
"You're a virgin?" he said, and she shot forward, slapping him. He shook his head, holding his jaw. "Not like that. You've never used magic before." he sighed. "But your backhand might be more impressive." He focused on her face again, before his became worried, and he stood.
"If you can conjure that portal out of thin air, she'll be coming for you." He said, closing his eyes.
"She? She who?" She asked, but it was to no avail, he'd started speaking a different language.
Behind her, water started to form a circle, floating in thin air. He opened his eyes. "This will take you back to where you've come from." He said. "You must go." She nodded, and ran to the portal.
"Wait, what's your name?" she asked, and the man sighed.
"Nico. Nico Di'Angelo." he said. "And you?"
"Annabeth Chase of Tetun."
X tw/selfharm
It was a new day. Annabeth was running around, doing her job on the farm. Today was different. She wanted to feed the chickens, but doing so required lifting heavy weight, and she didn't have the strength to do so, but she felt confident. She got one bucket to the coop, but when she got the second through the gate, she fell, and got mud all over her clothes. She clenched her fists in anger, thinking about the day prior.
How did she do that?
Her thoughts were interrupted by horse hooves clattering on the stone path. Her father was suddenly above her.
"Gods damnit Annabeth. You know damn well you can't be doing this." He growled, picking up the bucket, completely ignoring his daughter. The clatter of hooves got closer, and Annabeth saw a woman riding a horse approach the house. She dismounted, walking up to the front gate.
"How much for a pig?" she asked. Her father stopped with the bucket, turning to her.
"They'll be in the market tomorrow." He said, turning back down to the bucket.
"I'm here today." her father turned, and approached the woman. All that separated them was a half-fence for the chickens.
"That'll cost you." He said, and she shrugged nonchalantly.
"I can pay."
"A hundred credits." the woman hummed, before her focus locked on Annabeth for the first time.
"How much for the girl?" she wondered. Her father turned to Annabeth.
"Fifty credits." he said, and Annabeth gasped.
"Father-" his gaze shot back to her, and she didn't know how to react. Her father was going to sell her. For half the price of a pig.
"Twenty five."
"Frederick!" her mother shouted from the front door. "She's your daughter!" Annabeth appreciated her stepmother's attempts, but her father had his mind set.
"No child of mine. More of a burden than anything. Sold." he said, turning back to the woman, holding his hand out. She gave him the money, and Frederick walked to Annabeth, roughly gripping her arm, dragging her to the woman.
"She's a witch! You know what they'll do to her!"
"I don't fucking care." he spat back, and Helen, her stepmother recoiled in disgust. He threw Annabeth forward, and she landed at the feet of the woman. The woman turned, walking back to her horse. Annabeth stood, but didn't follow.
"Go with her." Her father ordered, and Annabeth realized she had no options. She followed the woman, and got on the back of the horse.
The next few hours were a blur for her- the horse ride to wherever she was being taken was nothing but flowing images of no detail in her head. She regained consciousness as she was being thrown on a cot and locked in a room. She shot up, running to the door.
"Let me out!" She screamed over and over, but nobody answered. She sobbed into the door, turning her back to it. She looked around. The room was like a prison cell, a dull red brick in every corner, a singular window ten feet high that nobody could reasonably climb to. A singular mirror and sink.
Mirror.
Annabeth walked to it, and looked inside. She saw herself, but she only thought of her father. Sold her for twenty-five credits. Twenty-five. She'd heard tales of women-prostitutes of the lowest kind being sold for more than triple that. She just felt pissed at the world, at her family, at herself.
She punched the mirror.
It fluttered down in numerous pieces, some falling into the bowl below it. Annabeth grabbed a piece that was no longer than five inches, with a jagged edge. She looked at the piece of glass, then to her wrist, and back to the piece of glass. She took a deep breath, and brought the piece to her wrist, slicing horizontally on her forearm. She hissed in pain, but after a few seconds, the pain was gone. There was no feeling, just blood flowing. She did the same for the other side, wanting to be anywhere but there, anything but alive.
She awoke to sunlight beaming down on her. She didn't feel dead. She looked up, and the same woman who bought her stood over her.
"Who are you?"
"Artemis, Rectress of Azotela." Annabeth sobbed, tears streaming down her face as she remembered the day prior. She looked down, clothes on her wrists.
"You should've let me die. At least I had control over that." She spat, and Artemis laughed.
"That's cute. You weren't in control of anything at that moment. You were losing it. Be in the greenhouse in twenty minutes."
Annabeth entered the greenhouse, and there were five other girls dressed just like her. She ran to the empty podium, the last one available, and on each podium sat a rock. After she, entered Artemis.
"Chaos is the most dangerous thing in this world. It is all around us, all the time, it is what allows us to control and utilize magic. Normal humans cannot control their chaos, but you six girls showed a speciality for controlling and being a conduit for chaos." she said, pacing around the six podiums, each of which contributed to a circle. "Jess- you saved your father from choking on ham with your mind." A tall girl to Annabeth's left shuffled uncomfortably, Jess, she assumed. "Thalia, you froze your cat." The girl opposite Annabeth's head shot up.
"On accident." she said, her black hair covering most of her face.
"I want to go home." a girl to Annabeth's right said. Artemis stopped at her side.
"This is your home." she growled, turning back to the main group. "Listen closely, your survival depends on it."
"Magic is organizing chaos." Artemis said, walking in the middle of the circle to a grander, empty podium to the left of Thalia. "And while oceans of mystery remain- we have deduced that this requires two things. Balance, and control." She said, placing her hands at each side of the podium.
"Between your flower and your stone, lies a balance. Lift your stone without touching it." Artemis said, analyzing the six girls. "You should feel an almost pull in your chest, trust your powers and focus on achieving your goal." Annabeth stared down her rock, focusing and thinking of lifting it. Just as Artemis said, she felt a tug in her gut, and followed it, believing she could lift the rock. The rock started to shake on the desk, before lightly coming upwards, about a foot into the air. She smiled, and as soon as her mind wavered, the rock clattered back onto the desk.
"Amazing job, Annabeth. You see, as soon as you stop believing you can do it, your goal is no longer within sight."
The days since her first trial had blurred together. There were other trials, some of serious challenge, others which Annabeth completed with ease. Today, Artemis sat each girl across from one another. Annabeth sat opposite Thalia, who'd she started to become good friends with. Thalia was the exact opposite from Annabeth. Her father was King Zeus of Olympiad, and she was a princess. At first, she was jealous of Thalia, but after she explained how horrendous her father was, she realized they weren't so different after all. Zeus ruled with an iron first in the Olympiad, much different from his father, who encouraged freedom among everyone. Zeus hated elves, slaughtered any elves who dared attempt to reside on his land.
"Seek to understand your partner's deepest fears. Their greatest desires, and when you're done, I want you to tell me." Artemis said, before taking a seat in a corner of the room, opening a book.
There were girls who did it almost immediately, but no pairing had completed it fully yet. Thalia had figured out Annabeth's greatest desire- Power. Annabeth had found her deepest fear, her father, but the deeper she dug into Thalia's eyes, the less she found.
"Jess has a fear of cats." a girl said, and Annabeth's eyes looked over, and indeed, Jess was crying, Annabeth assumed she was thinking about cats. She looked back at Thalia, who was frowning, staring into Annabeth's eyes.
It was midnight, and they'd still found nothing. Another pair of girls had completed the trial, so it was just Annabeth, Thalia, and another pair of girls who were struggling equally as much as they were. Annabeth felt hopeless, searching the empty space in Thalia's mind, looking for anything. She sighed, and looked into her lap. She thought of her father, and the fateful day where he'd sold her off to Azotela. She'd thought of it as sealing her fate, but realized now that she was just given an opportunity. She took a deep breath in, and looked back at Thalia. She searched the spaces she'd already searched, until she found a memory- a dream she hadn't seen before. It was of her, and what she assumed to be the Olympiad royal family, but they weren't living so- royal, rather, they looked like regular citizens, regular people. Annabeth's heart jumped.
"Thalia's greatest want is to live with her family, but not as royals, as regular people of a kingdom." Annabeth said, staring at her friend. Artemis rose from her seat, walking to the two. She stood behind Annabeth, looking at Thalia.
"Good job, girl." Artemis said stiffly, before walking back and taking a seat. It was no declaration of pride from the teacher, but Annabeth felt on top of the world.
shorter. longer coming up