Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: Hi, guys! Welcome back! Not much to say about this chapter; just gotta say I hope you enjoy, and I'll see you next week.
Sincerely,
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
~The Finding Home Saga~
~Finding Home~
~Chapter 35: Are Two Times Really A Coincidence?~
"So...are we not gonna talk about what Despoina said?"
"No," I said immediately.
Clarisse glowered. "She said you're together with Luke," she grumbled, ignoring my request. "You're with that traitor?"
She, Silena, and I were sitting in the kitchen of the yacht, while a wind spirit – basically an invisible person you could only see by the movement of their leaves – fluttered about, collecting us drinks. It was kind of weird, but I was choosing not to think much of it. I had better things to worry about: first Clarisse, and second the exhaustion that was tugging at my bones from forcing the yacht out of the sand earlier, as it had been beached. An unexpected complication while trying to get away from the harpies, to be sure.
I ran a hand over my face. "It's not like that that," I replied quietly.
She sneered. "And why should I believe you? You said that 'somebody has to make up for Luke's mistakes,' and you think it's you! Did you know that he was going to betray the gods? Did you know he was going to poison Thalia's tree? Huh, did you? And you said nothing?"
"Clarisse," Silena chided, grabbing her arm.
Clarisse shook her off. "No, I want to hear him answer!"
I'd never really imagined what people were going to do when they found out about my relationship with Luke, not in this scenario. Last summer, I'd been wearing rose-tinted glasses, the idea that I wouldn't be able to bring him back over to the gods' side never really occurring to me. And after, I'd been too depressed to ever wonder about it. I felt like I was out of my depth, like the floor had been pulled out from under me and I was falling into the sea without my powers.
"I knew he'd already betrayed the gods," I told Clarisse softly, my voice barely above a whisper. I looked her dead in the eyes, to make sure she knew I wasn't lying. "I didn't know about Thalia. The last time I saw or spoke to him was last summer, when he almost killed me."
If you expected the reminder of my injury to quell Clarisse some, then you would be sorely mistaken. "You covered for him, after he did that?" she roared. Her arms jerked, sending the glass of Coke the wind spirit had just set next to her toppling. The liquid sloshed, but before it could fall completely the wind spirit caught it. I could practically feel their disapproval as they set it back on the table, further away from Clarisse.
"Μὰ μητέρα, Clarisse, just let him finish, will you?" Silena snapped.
Clarisse redirected her anger. "You knew he was with Luke, too, didn't you?" When my best friend didn't respond, the daughter of Ares' nostrils flared. She was practically vibrating in her fury. "Fine," she spat. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't turn you in at the end of this quest, Jackson."
"Demeter and my dad already know," I informed her. I had the pleasure of watching how her face rippled with shock. "Yeah, bet you weren't expecting that, huh? It was the other thing that Despoina said that you didn't pay attention to – well, she implied it. Demeter is my patron goddess, and I'm her champion. I became hers so that Luke and I would have some immunity after I brought him back over to our side. It just...didn't work out."
"That's why you got the dream about Katie, isn't it, Percy?" Silena asked. I had a feeling she was asking more for Clarisse's benefit than her own. "Demeter connected you to her."
I nodded.
"And you knew, all of it?" Clarisse demanded to her. "Last summer?"
She shook her head. "Not everything. Percy told me the rest of it afterwards. But I did know that he and Luke were together; it was kind of an open secret in our friend group..." She trailed off, her eyes misting a little. "It was because of them that Percy got me and Ally together..."
Reaching over, I grabbed her hand. She squeezed back.
Clarisse stared at us, the cogs in her head almost visibly turning. Finally, she gave a snort of disgust. "I can't believe this," she muttered, standing up. "I can't believe you." She walked out of the room and headed off towards where we'd discovered the bedrooms to be. A beat later, there was the slamming of a door.
I flinched.
"She'll come around, Percy," Silena attempted to comfort me.
Truthfully, I didn't care if Clarisse did or not. She wasn't my friend; hell, half the time, I couldn't even stand her. Still, to humor Silena, I patted her arm. "I know. You should go get some sleep. I'm taking first watch." Even with all three of us having ἐνδέσματα, it wouldn't be a good idea for us all to just sleep while alone out at sea. Even I had no idea what could be underneath the surface.
Silena's mouth thinned. "Are you sure? You used a lot of your powers after not using them for a while. I can – "
"I'm sure. Promise."
I followed her to the bedrooms, making sure she went into hers before going into my own. It was nice. There was a decent-sized bed which looked comfy, clothes in the wardrobe that weren't Camp Half-Blood t-shirts and jean shorts. But mindful of what Despoina had said, I didn't take too much time in enjoying it. We wouldn't be on this boat for long.
Grabbing a blanket off of the bed, I folded it up and tucked it under my arms. Then, meandering back to the kitchen, I grabbed myself a can of Coke. The wind spirit there, now busy in the process of cleaning up after us, paused, and did what I thought was the equivalent of tilting its head. I waved it off. "See, I can get what I want myself."
It went back to cleaning.
The yacht had a small deck that one could enjoy. Going out to it, I unfolded the blanket and laid it out, wincing some at how my entire body seemed to be sore from the usage of my powers. I sat down on the blanket and popped my Coke. As I took a sip of the sugary drink, I looked up at the sky and all of the stars that were there. Like the back of my hand, I picked out the constellations, thinking on their stories.
"Beautiful night, isn't it?"
Considering that one deity had already interrupted me like this tonight, I don't think I should have been as surprised as I was. Choking, I coughed up soda as I glanced up, wiping at my mouth as some of it spilled down my front. Way to go, Percy. You've just made yourself look like a complete idiot in front of a god. Well, actually, you've done that before too, haven't you?
I didn't immediately recognize him. The god looked familiar, but when your pantheon was built on generations and generations of incest, that was a given. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, clean-shaven, with blonde hair tinged silver by the moonlight – or maybe he really did choose to have a couple of grey streaks coming through. I couldn't see his eyes or get a good look at his face, but he was wearing a dark blue sweater over a pair of brown slacks and there was a phone in his right hand. I thought he looked hot – temperature-wise. Even out on the ocean at night, it was still like seventy degrees Fahrenheit.
I regarded him with wide eyes. "You're not Apollo, are you?"
In my defense, it made sense. Blonde hair, appearing right after Despoina, one of my other half-siblings – it was feasible that was who he was.
But the god only chuckled. "No. I get that a lot, though. Mind if I sit down?"
I scooted over a little.
The god sat down, crossing his ankles, and let out a sigh. "Feels like it's been ages since I've gotten to relax. Ever since the telegraph – rush, rush, rush. But, you don't want to hear about that." I could hear the smirk in his voice, even though I couldn't see it. "Do you have a favorite constellation, Percy?"
I blinked. Despite my fascination with them, I had never thought of the patterns in terms of "favorites" before. "Uh, I guess Hercules?"
"And why is that?"
...Jeez, this guy was really putting me on the spot.
I turned away from him, craning my head back up at the stars. "Hmm...because he had rotten luck, even worse than mine. It makes me feel better."
"Not because he was strong and famous and all that? Or handsome?"
"No."
"You're an interesting young man."
I had a feeling he meant to say more than that, but the ringing of his phone cut him off. Cursing, he opened up his phone, and as I glanced back because of the noise I saw that it glowed with bluish light. When he extended the antenna, two green snakes began to wriggle around it, no bigger than earthworms.
He didn't seem to notice them. "Yeah," he said as the snakes writhed around the antenna, right up against his ear. "Listen – I know, I don't care if he is chained to a rock with vultures pecking at his liver for all eternity, if he doesn't have a tracking number, we can't locate his package...A gift to humankind, great...You know how many of those we deliver – oh, never mind. Listen, just refer him to Eris in customer service. I've got to go."
He hung up. "Sorry about that, had to take it. The overnight express business is just booming. Now – "
"You have snakes on your phone," I stated, my brain still trying to process that fact.
He peered down at his phone, or rather I thought he did by the movement of his head. His face continued to be imperceivable. "What? Oh, yes, they don't bite. Say hello, George and Martha."
"Hello, George and Martha," one of the snakes hissed with a rasp, distinctively male. I was only mildly surprised at how I could understand it.
"Don't be sarcastic," said the other, female.
"Why not?" the one I was presuming to be George demanded. "I do all the real work."
"Okay, let's not get into that again!" The god stuffed his phone into one of his pants' pockets. "Sorry again, Percy. Where were we? Oh, yes, you're an interesting young man. I can see why my son's fallen for you."
And then, just like that, it clicked.
"You're Luke's father," I said. "Hermes."
The veil of darkness fell away from his face. In the moonlight, he almost looked exactly like Luke. They had the same elfish features, the same glacier-like blue eyes...only the lack of scars set them apart.
Hermes gave me a small smile. "'Luke's father,'" he quoted. "Normally, that's not the first way people introduce me. God of thieves, yes. God of messengers and travelers, if they wish to be kind."
"They rarely ever do," piped up George, his voice muffled from the pocket.
"Nobody except Mistress ever appreciates our Hermes," Martha agreed.
Hermes rolled his eyes. "I suppose you want to show off now, do you?" As they gave hisses of assent, he took his phone back out of his pocket. With godly magic, it glowed a brilliant blue and stretched into a three-foot-long celestial bronze staff with sapphire stones embedded and dove wings at its top. George and Martha, full-sized snakes, coiled together around the middle.
It was a caduceus, the symbol of Cabin Eleven.
"I'm sorry to approach you like this," he apologized. To his credit, he did sound genuinely remorseful. "I've been wanting to come to you for some time now, but there's never been a good moment. I'm a busy god, and Iris would have my head if I slacked off in my duties. Literally." He laughed at his own jokes. "But, anyways, I saw Despoina have her little chat with you and I don't know when I'll have a time like this again, so I decided to come visit. Is that alright?"
I didn't have the impression that it was like the gods to ask questions like that, unless they were my dad or Demeter. "Uh, sure." Then, a horrible thought occurred to me. "Wait, you're not going to give me the shovel talk, are you?"
"Mortals and their obsession with death euphemisms," George complained. "We hear it all the time."
"Don't mind George." Martha flicked her tongue at me. "He's just bitter because Hermes likes me best."
"Does not!"
"Does too!"
"Behave," Hermes warned. "No, this isn't a shovel talk, Percy. You're not in trouble. I'm just curious as to what your...intent is with my son."
I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. "That sounds a lot like code-word for a shovel talk."
"I assure you, it is not." His smile widened, becoming so much like Luke's it was almost hard to breathe. "Do you remember what you said last summer, before you left camp and went home?"
"I don't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday," I wanted to say.
Seeing the expression on my face, he said, "I guess not. You said, if I recall correctly, that you would 'come back next summer and find Luke and bring him home, somehow, someway.'"
Oh.
Now that he said it, I did remember saying that.
"I was just wondering if you intended to keep your word."
I didn't know how to answer him.
"I won't be mad if you say 'no,'" he said. "I understand what he did is not something easily forgiven."
"He tried to kill me."
"I don't deny that. But, ah...let me tell you a story of a boy once, far younger than you. A mere baby, really."
"Here we go again," George hissed. "Always talking about himself."
"Quiet!" Martha snapped. "Do you want to get set on vibrate?"
Hermes ignored them. "One night, when this boy's mother wasn't watching, he sneaked out of their cave and stole some cattle that belonged to his cousin, Apollo."
"Did he get blasted to tiny pieces?" I asked.
"Hmm...no. Actually, everything turned out quite well. Their fathers couldn't stop laughing about it. To make up for his theft, the boy gave Apollo an instrument he'd invented, the lyre. Apollo was so enchanted with the music that he forgot all about being angry."
I tried to think about what he was trying to tell me. "So, what's the moral?"
"'Moral?'" he repeated. "Goodness, you act like it's a fable. It's a true story. But the lesson I'm using it to teach you is this: people are complicated. You mortals even more so over us gods. My wife would insist you feel love greater than we do. Your lifespans are so short, you burn with it, whereas we – to use an astronomy metaphor – are at an equilibrium. And just because you hurt one another, it doesn't mean you love each other any less."
"You're saying you believe Luke loves me?"
"No, I know it," he corrected. "My son never does anything in halves. When he gives his heart, he gives it entirely."
Silence lapsed between us. I played with the threads at the end of the blanket for a little while, not saying anything. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I understand part of the reason why you're going on this quest is to save your friend, Katie. But I want you to save Lukeas well," he said simply. "I know it can seem easier to give up on somebody than to fight for them, but in truth it's the opposite. Giving up on them is the harder choice, no matter how tempting they make it. So, you must fight for him, for yourself, for your love."
The "for me" part went unspoken.
"And to thank you for not giving up on him," Hermes continued. "I'm willing to give you some gifts."
Abruptly, I jerked back. "Please don't kiss me!"
He startled. "What? Oh, Despoina, yes. Don't worry, Percy, these are nothing like that. Martha?"
Martha opened her mouth – and then kept on opening it until it was as wide as my arm. She gagged up a stainless steel canister – an old-fashioned lunch box thermos with a black plastic top. The sides of the thermos were enameled with red and yellow Ancient Greek scenes: a hero killing a lion, then the same hero lifting up Cerberus.
"That's Hercules," I said. "But how – "
"Never question a gift, Percy," Hermes chided me. "This is a collector's item from Hercules Busts Heads, the first season."
"Hercules Busts Heads?"
"A great show," he sighed. "Back before Hephaestus-TV became all reality programming. Of course, the thermos would be worth much more if I had the whole lunch box – "
"Or if it hadn't been in Martha's mouth," added George.
"I'll get you for that!" Martha cried. She began chasing him around the caduceus.
Tentatively, I picked up the thermos. I nearly dropped it because it was freezing cold on one side and burning hot on the other. The weird thing was, when I turned the thermos, the side facing behind us – north – was always the cold side.
"Is this a compass?" I wondered.
Hermes looked surprised. "Very clever. I never thought of it that way. But its intended use is a bit more dramatic. Uncap it, and you will release the winds from the four corners of the earth to speed you on your way. Don't do it now! And please, when the time comes, only unscrew the lid a fraction. The winds are a bit like me: always restless. Should all four escape at once...ah, but I'm sure you'll be careful. And now my second gift. George?"
"She's touching me," George complained as he slithered around the pole.
"She's always touching you," Hermes retorted. "You're intertwined. And if you don't stop that, you'll get knotted again!"
The snakes stopped wrestling.
George unhinged his jaw and coughed out a tiny plastic bottle filled with chewable vitamins.
"You're kidding," I marveled. "Are those Minotaur-shaped?"
Hermes picked up the bottle and shook it. "The lemon ones, yes. The grape ones are Furies, I think. Or are they hydras? At any rate, these are potent. Don't take one unless you really, really need it."
"How will I know if I really, really need it?"
He winked at me. "You'll know, believe me. Nine essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids...oh, everything you need to feel yourself again."
He tossed me the bottle.
"Um, thanks," I said.
"You're welcome." He stood up, looking down at a watch which materialized on his wrist. "Oh, I must be going."
"You have sixty calls to return," Martha said.
"And over a thousand emails," spoke George. "Not counting the offers for online discount ambrosia."
"Don't remind me." He turned back to me, giving a melancholic smile. "Do not doubt Luke's love for you, Percy, or my approval of your love for him. My son hasn't had many good things in his life, and I am to blame for some of them. But you've given him something greater, something good. I think he just needs time to realize that, and what is truly worth living for."
I didn't see Hermes leave. Briefly, I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, he was gone. I was alone on the deck, with only my gifts, my Coke, and the stars for company.
Too late, it occurred to me I never did answer his question.
I was only beginning to realize I didn't know the answer myself.
Word Count: 3,313
Next Chapter Title: We Board The Princess Andromeda
