The next day was the final day before the hunt was scheduled to reach Camp Half-Blood and quite frankly, Artemis was beyond distracted. She was running along with the hunt right now, sure, but her mind was elsewhere. Talking to Percy yesterday had given her plenty to think about and she was still processing some of it. She could accept that he had fought gods together with the Egyptians. It made sense, there had been a few powerful immortals that had established a seat of worship when Egyptian and Greek culture clashed so given that Percy had somehow met the avatar of Horus before, meeting him when dealing with a threat to both of their pantheons was an understandable scenario.
Hearing that Percy had defeated said god was more surprising. In fact it was rather shocking as even she wouldn't be able to stand against him, not when he was fully awakened and she was considered to be among the stronger Olympians only falling behind the children of Kronos. Hearing that four mortals could defeat a god that strong in a straight-up confrontation. Sure they had divine blood and divine help but they were still up against an insanely strong deity.
From there it had only gotten worse. Percy somehow becoming the avatar of an Egyptian goddess was to her just ludicrous. It being Nekbeth of all gods only made it more unbelievable as the goddess despised the Greek pantheon with all her heart as she had been one of the main protectors of the pharaoh and one of Egypts key patrons. Her willingly taking a demigod from the Greek pantheon as her avatar was unheard of, no matter the circumstances so Percy had essentially buried a large part of the grudge between their pantheons from that act alone. It was simply laughable. Even the grudge between the Greek and Romans had taken the seven and a major prophecy to settle and that was a fight between aspects of Olympus. This was a war between completely different gods and divinities that was basically resolved by two avatars and two demigods. A bloody war that had lasted for millenia and cost millions of lives. It honestly made her feel slightly silly that none of them had ever managed to make peace earlier.
After he was finally done telling her about his involvement with the Egyptians though, Artemis had thought herself safe. It was a lot to take in, sure, but surely that was it, no? Nope, there was more. Apparently Annabeth Chase had a cousin who was a child of the Norse. Percy had managed to meet with a pantheon that even she had never interacted with. From what she heard from Hermed, the Norse were notoriously evasive, almost never leaving Asgard. She had no business entering any of the other worlds and she had never gone far enough out of Olympus' range of influence to encounter the Norse pantheons. As such hearing that Percy, who was only a fraction of her age, had somehow met and travelled with a Norse demigod, an Einherjar too. He was somehow more aware of the Norse pantheon than her and even knew the rough locations of important sites.
So yeah, Artemis had a lot to think about. Not to mention that she was still fairly sure Percy hadn't told her everything about his encounters with other pantheons. At least she didn't expect him to tell her everything just like that.The only reason why she was still able to confidently lead her hunt was because Percy had also told her that the Norse usually stayed outside of Mitgard bar a few exceptions so she didn't have to worry much about them. Still, suddenly finding out that another pantheon, especially one as large and powerful as the Norse, was still around wasn't the most comfortable thing to find out. Not to mention her family had long since made a habit out of antagonizing other pantheons which sure didn't come in handy here.
Because of that, Artemis was stuck in her head for the entire trip to New York. They could make it to camp today but Artemis had agreed to stay just outside the Camp's borders for one day to let Percy prepare himself for what would surely be a tumultuous return. When they went to the Roman camp she had been able to help him because of the strict hierarchy its inhabitants adhered by but the Greeks were known to not care about that at all so while she could defend him it would be a lot less useful this time.
In all honesty, Artemis was worried about tomorrow. She didn't know how it would go but she knew that it had the potential to go very wrong and given that they would depart with Poseidon's entourage in the evening, there was even a chance for it to escalate further all the way to her uncle personally involving himself. Not to mention Percy himself could also come out of tomorrow anywhere from fine to utterly broken and she definitely didn't want him to suffer through that. Too often had she seen betrayal rip through hearts and souls before and too often had she picked up the pieces afterwards, had she tried to heal those deep wounds her hunters would sometimes carry. She didn't wish that on anybody, especially not someone dear to her.
As she continued her train of thought and continued to run along with her hunters subconsciously, she didn't even notice when they arrived at Long Island, almost running past her hunters only to stop at the last second as she snapped back to reality. They were at the edge of a forest just next to the beach. As far as Artemis knew, it was a private beach but no mortal could spot her camp when it was shrouded in mist so that would hardly be a problem. Not to mention their guest later would also have enough influence to cover for them even if the owner of this beach happened to be clear-sighted. She didn't know who would come, but Percy had told that his father would send someone to talk to them later today.
Given how close they were to Camp Half-Blood, there were barely any monsters nearby, none at all in close proximity and so Artemis chose to give a day off to her hunters. There was barely anything productive to be done right now anyways and they had had a hard time for the last few months with barely any rest days on their journey east. They deserved a break. This news was received with a loud cheer and before long the motivated group of girls had set up their tents and were running around to play. Her older hunters were watching from the sidelines, laughing at the younger girls' antics and joy while her younger hunters were split between playing in the sea and on the beach.
Artemis considered joining her older hunters in watching over the rest but before she could even do that, the trio dispersed and ran towards the beach as well. From the looks of it, Maria had said something that ticked Thalia off as her lieutenant was chasing her around, trying to catch up to the nimble girl. Maria however just so happened to be a spirit of nature, of a river in northern Italy to be exact so the moment she reached the sea she just disappeared, zooming off and away from the shore and leaving Thalia to angrily watch her trail. As if that wasn't enough, Thalia was then grabbed by a tendril of water herself and flung a decent distance from the beach as Percy joined in, not wasting a single moment to annoy Thalia even more.
She wasn't sure when this had happened but Percy had started to get along well with not just Thalia but Pauline and Maria too. Admittedly, she had missed this entirely somehow but by now they were close enough to joke around with each other and Artemis could only so much as guess what had prompted the change of heart in her oldest hunters. Maybe she didn't need to know either though, it wasn't like she had to know every little thing about them.
Them being able to joke around however caused Percy to be on the receiving end of a quick tackle as he surfaced after flinging Thalia away just to be pushed down by Pauline again. Unfortunately for the daughter of Ares though, Percy was a son of the sea and very slippery to hold on to as he escaped her grip and in an instant reappearing next to Maria, both of them so far from shore that the others couldn't reach them. By now a few of the other hunters had joined in, mock fighting in the waves and with a sly grin Artemis decided to join in too. Sure, the sea wasn't exactly her home ground but she was the goddess of the moon, she could pull the waves.
And pull she did as both Maria and Percy were caught off-guard, launching them both back towards the shore and into the reach of Thalia who immediately grabbed the first one to enter her range and from the looks of it gave a decent shock to Percy upon contact. Maria on the other hand was pointing at her, shouting something that sounded an awful lot like 'unfair'. Her grin grew larger as she decided to join them. The next hour was spent chasing each other around the shore, though after losing her element of surprise it mostly became a matter of trying to catch Maria and Percy with everyone else chasing them. Her hunters all knew how to swim and Percy played fair and didn't manipulate any currents to throw them off either but somehow they still couldn't catch him or Maria. They got close, sure, Artemis even grabbed Maria by the ankle once but the girl just twisted her body, dove down and broke free.
It was refreshing to just enjoy a game like this and it brought her away from the brooding mood she had been in earlier so it was more than welcome but she had to admit that it was frustrating to not be able to catch either Percy or Maria when neither were using their powers much. By the time they left the sea the sun had also started its descent and Percy quickly went around, drying each huntress with a touch of his hand. She had enchanted their clothes to not stay wet but their hair was another story so Percy's help was much appreciated. As he made his round, Artemis couldn't help but marvel at how things had changed. Just one or two months ago her hunters would have turned down Percy's offer out of pure spite and now some were even joking with him as he went around. Not every girl had grown to like Percy, sure, but even those still critical of him had accepted his presence. It was abnormal to see them change so quickly, even with most of her hunt being very young still.
As her hunters returned to the camp, she stayed behind on the beach with Percy next to her. They hadn't planned this ahead of time but Artemis was decently sure that whatever envoy Poseidon planned to send would arrive soon. As if to confirm that, Percy also wore an absent look, his consciousness somewhere further from the shore where he had presumably sensed something.
Just moments later when Artemis was just about ready to sit down in order to wait for their guest, a giant wave rose to at least twice her height, hitting the shore to create a wall of sea foam. As the wave disappeared, the foam however didn't and instead formed a silhouette before finally taking a form she was familiar with. Bowing her head quickly in greeting, she watched as her uncle stepped out of the sea and onto the beach, the same ever-present smile on his lips that he always wore on casual occasions.
He waved off her greeting too, clearly not caring for formality right now as he in turn greeted his son with a small hug, both grinning. That was when Artemis finally realized that they were already talking using telepathy and their domain. She never interacted much with her uncle given the obvious distance between them that resulted from her past actions and transgressions but right now she got the feeling that Poseidon was somehow even more mischievous than his son. And that was in spite of the fact that Percy had thrown his cousin into the ocean out of nowhere just an hour ago.
As it would seem though, the sea god still had some semblance of seriousness in him as he turned to her to greet her, indirectly putting a stop to whatever shenanigans he and Percy were up to in their conversation. "Artemis, it is good to see you." Those were empty words, no emotion behind them but at least they allowed her to start the conversation somewhere. "Poseidon. I didn't expect you to come in person."
Artemis always had trouble reading her uncle properly. His face and posture was usually easygoing and relaxed but she had seen that disappear in an instant more often than she could count. Maybe she was paranoid seeing how unbothered Percy was when interacting with his father but for Artemis the sea god was one of the most terrifying gods to deal with in their entire pantheon, even more so than her father or Hades. "I wouldn't want to miss a chance to see my son again. It has already been three months again after all." This time Poseidon's words were less empty, a bit of truth behind them. "Besides, you two need to know how the events tomorrow will proceed or you might miss your ride to Atlantis. Especially you, Artemis."
He probably added that last part because Percy knew where Atlantis was and could swim there but Artemis still couldn't help but see it as a veiled threat. Before she could interject however, Poseidon continued. "The situation in my kingdom is a bit unstable right now so I will not be able to fetch you personally but you don't need to worry about your safety. Nothing that is happening under the sea right now is severe enough to be considered an actual threat."
From the looks of it, the last part was directed more at Percy than it was at her since the demigod had already opened his mouth, most likely to offer his help in dealing with the problem. Something told her this was probably not the first time this has happened. Again, she couldn't speak up as Poseidon continued his explanation before she had the chance to. "Artemis, you will most likely not receive much kindness while you are in my kingdom. My people rarely forget when they are wronged and you have wronged us many times before. They won't openly attack you because of myself and Percy but they will hold you in contempt."
This she had expected. Artemis had been the weapon of choice for Zeus to use against his brother repeatedly and she couldn't blame the people of Atlantis for not forgetting that. She didn't know how bad it would actually be but it was something she had to accept. She had brought it upon herself after all. When she gave a nod of acknowledgement to her uncle, he decided that it was time to reveal his biggest surprise yet. "In addition to that, one week from now your betrothal will be publicly announced by Olympus. You and Percy will need to be there for the announcement as per my sister's wishes."
This time Poseidon had his voice guarded again, though Artemis could tell it wasn't because of her. He hated the betrothal that was forced upon Percy with his entire being and his ire right now was clearly targeted at his sister who was using them almost as toys to play with. Artemis didn't have to ask which sister. Despite her earnest wishes to somehow ruin Hera's fun though, Artemis felt exactly what the elder goddess presumably wanted her to feel. Dread. She didn't know how the announcement was set up but she knew full well to prepare for the worst. From their faces alone she could tell that Poseidon and Percy thought along similar lines too.
Apparently, that was all Poseidon had come to tell them though as the sea god offered his goodbyes right after dropping these news on them, his body returning to the sea foam it was originally created from. For a moment Artemis's eyes followed the receding wave, watching Poseidon's departure. "Well, sounds like it's gonna be a fun time." Percy's comment was oozing with sarcasm and for once Artemis had nothing to add. Dancing to Hera's tune was always a pain.
That's it for this chapter. It was mainly setup for the next three chapters that will focus on Percy's return to Camp Half-Blood, the arrival at Atlantis and finally the announcement of their marriage. I don't have much to say for this chapter so thank you for reading and until next week. Bye!
-M