Amphitrite was first and foremost a mother. The bounty and fertility of the sea was by her blessing, so that all mothers might nourish their babes. She was the gentle coastal waters that children played and laughed in.
But she was also the Orca, who would slaughter indiscriminately for her calves. She was the horrors of the abyss that pulled wretches to the depths, kicking and screaming, when they incurred her wrath by preying upon little ones.
And her own sweet babies always brought that out in full.
While her wonderful serpents could hiss and spit at the image of Percy's tormentor, she chose a different approach. Cold leached into the water, the darkness of Poseidon's making eagerly bending to her will. She bayed them to strangle the light that Iris' rainbow spawned from.
The Anna-child shrieked, "What have you done to Percy! What have you cursed him with!"
Percy whimpered and tightly wrapped his lovely blue-green-white tail around her arm. If the situation wasn't so dire, she would have taken a moment to savor having a child young enough to stress grip as he did. It had been milenia since she'd had a babe clinging to her like a seahorse.
As it was, a whining-click of a distressed hatchling crying for his parent's protection from danger slipped out of Percy. The sound tore at her heart, and she could see all six of Poseidon's dilated eyes focus on their son. He soothed Percy with a purr below the human audio range as she ran her fingers up and down the child's spine to help him relax.
"A curse?" she demanded coolly. "This is no curse. This is a child finding himself. This is the birth of eternity. This is a blessing."
Amphritie's last pregnancy had been so hard on her and the baby, and Kym's birth had been so violent, that she thought never to have another child to call her own. Yet, miraculously, here was Percy, clinging to her with a distress call uniquely attuned to not just Poseidon, but her as well. One last baby to have and to hold, millenia after all but her oldest had left the den.
Her ministrations and voice seemed to calm Percy, whose hold on her loosened to that of a child drinking in comfort, rather than seeking protection. Good.
"He has a tail. You twisted him, allowed his darkness to burst free and now he's a monster!"
Triton snapped his teeth, eyes dark and merciless, and Apollo's wrath twisted the plants about them, turning them poisonous and grasping. In the dimming light of Triton's dying garden, they appeared to be the very monsters the mortal accused her sweet one of being.
"Enough of this," Poseidon boomed, obviously out of patience. "What care I for the opinions of a deplorable mortal? You, who would force my pearl to cut away parts of himself for your own comfort. You, who would assert yourself so wholly on a lonely, hurting deity. Be gone from my waters and take your blathering with you."
Amphitrite guided the darkness to fully snuff out the rainbow and dissolve the lowly mortal's visage. It filled her with a viscous satisfaction to do so, though not as much as it would if she could smother the wretch in her choking waters. To rend her to parts, splinter her bones…
Ah, but she forgot herself. Wide green eyes set beneath a shining silver circlet pulled her back fully into her mortal shell.
Percy's brow pursed face as he sleepily prodded at his tiny fangs with a green-tipped, clawed, finger. Soft, confused chirps seemed to burble forth without the child realizing it. Watching him think so hard was just darling.
"'S weird," he lisped with a pout. Blessedly, it seemed he had been too lost in himself to notice the she-witch's interruption.
Poseidon laughed, but she caught the tinge of hysteria. It had been a trying day all round; Percy's life had almost slipped from their grasp several times, whether the little one realized it or not. Echoes of that terrible day all those centuries ago surged forth to cut anew.
Well, that simply wouldn't do.
Amphitrite ensured that Triton and Libya were taking care of each other before passing Poseidon their youngest. Her ridiculous husband suctioned onto Percy like a limpet to a rock, a spare arm or two making an appearance to help situate the now far too large chiton- what a treat it would be to make Percy new clothes that complimented his lovely scales.
"My bright one," she said warmly as she turned to face Apollo, "mightn't you help your mother and turn down the den?"
A beaming grin split his face as he took on the aspects of Epactaeus Apollo, the god of coasts and sailors. His honeyed skin lighted to a cheery buttercup, speckled about with bits of violet and gold like paint splatters, his eyes slitted like a snake's. Needle-like fangs poked out of Apollo's mouth, while his legs became the long, scaleless tail of an eel. Golden locks floated about in the water until he pulled it back in that fashion sailors had been fond of in Greece.
He was up and off in a flash, most likely anticipating what was to come. They hadn't denned as a family since Kym had stormed out almost seven centuries ago.
It was easy enough to prod Triton and his wife towards their quarters to have a few moments together and freshen up. Libya looked faded and waifish, her inner turmoil disturbing her visage.
Three of her four children accounted for, Amphritite turned to her husband, who was cooing and clicking away at Percy, babbling nonsense about how he treasured his precious pearl more than all the riches in his kingdom.
Percy's face was pinched, like he couldn't decide if he should be embarrassed or pleased at the attention. He seemed to settle on overwhelmed, as his eyes caught her's, beseeching.
She swept forward to her baby's aid, as any mother would. "Oh, you are simply the loveliest, my sweet one. Blessed am I to be called 'Mother' by you."
That seemed to tip the scales firmly to "embarrassed" as plump cheeks flushed a gentle gold color. Good. Better he be embarrassed and know their love, than feel alone as he panicked about the day's brutal changes.
The time for crying and tears would come, but not then. Not that night.
Amphitrite smiled a bittersweet thing as she took Percy back into her arms and he subconsciously latched his tail once more. The behavior was usually displayed in children too young or uncoordinated to manage the delicate, precise movements needed to stay stationary in the currents. By her estimation, Percy was too developed to need to latch for practical reasons. The fact that he still did it spoke of an inherent sense of instability that came with traumatic childhoods.
With two wars, countless quests, and Athena's byblow looming in her sweet one's past, it was little surprise that he behaved thusly.
Percy's two attendants were waiting diligently at the door to the little prince's chambers, looking far more imposing than half the palace guards. Kassandra's eyes widened at the sight of her charge, as slight as he was with a black cloak of purring abyss. Alexios just looked on with a touch of fond exasperation.
Poseidon made a sign with his clawed hand for them to stay at their post as they slipped into Percy's rooms. The rainbow of venomous fish settled back into their nooks, sensing the protective aura the lord of the seas was pumping out in waves.
It was easy enough to settle their youngest into a lounge chair made of a giant clam shell, his little claws reaching out to fiddle with the lacy fins on his tail.
"Careful, my pearl; your fins will be very sensitive." Her husband's smile was indulgent, warm and syrupy.
"My love," she called as she situated herself on the edge of the clam shell. "Help me? It is tradition…"
When she had first bore Poseidon a child, she had been too weak to manage looming something for Triton to wear. Poseidon was far from fashion-savy, even then, but he had let her guide his hands in weaving clothing into existence from their baby. Since that first child, Poseidon had helped welcome each of their immortal children by twining his power with her own to make garments.
Percy was far from a baby she had just birthed, but he was her child all the same, freshly delivered from his looming mortal death. It was only right that they make something new for Percy to mark the occasion.
She took inspiration from both the little lord of the summer sea's domains and his beautiful personality, stitching it together with all the love she and Poseidon overflowed with for him. Thin as gossamer and strong as steel, a line of pearls along each shoulder, the soft tunic, styled after the ones marine parents favored for centuries, took shape. The color shifted from jade to azure to a foamy cream.
Percy watched on, visibly mystified, as they pulled and shaped the water into something wearable. After they had removed the far too large chiton and placed the child in his new tunic, little claws moved their attention to the garment, picking and plucking. At least he didn't seem to find the fabric uncomfortable.
Poseidon hadn't been remiss in his cautioning; new scales were incredibly sensitive and prone to chafing.
She bundled Percy back into her arms and scritched his scalp. A rush-hum of cresting waves burst forth in greeting, and she answered in kind. Percy perked up and looked at her with wide eyes, as if he was hearing a song that he'd previously only heard a few hummed bars of.
"I love you, sweet one," she couldn't help but say, heart far too full of affection.
Her husband was quick to pull both of them to him, planting a kiss on Percy's forehead before nuzzling her cheek. He was ever so sappy each time they welcomed a new child.
Percy let out a confused chirp, but didn't protest as Poseidon took the child and guided his head to rest on his broad shoulder. His lovely green eyes blinked slowly, registering the move, before melting into his father.
Leaving them to have a few quiet moments to decompress together, Amphitrite wove through the halls towards the heart of the Royal Wing, the family den.
It was a sort of sunken bowl into the bedrock of the palace; the removed material had been used to build Poseidon's half-blood cabin when they moved to America. The walls were lined with sprawling patterns made of shells, bronze, coral, and pearls. Cushions, silks, and her little guppies filled the bowl.
Triton was leaned up against the lip on the far side, Libya curled against him with her head on his shoulder and hand over his heart, both dozing lightly. Her son's trident was within reach, betraying his disquiet. Apollo was splayed out in the middle, his hands busy pushing and pulling material to his satisfaction. Her sons' tails were twined around each other in the same manner they did as young children.
Apollo perked up and chirped in greeting, a few strands of hair floating about him wildly. Triton cracked open an eye and rumbled a welcome, but quickly went back to dozing.
"Mother, help me? I'm trying to fix the blankets," Apollo pouted.
She laughed and joined her child, grabbing a stubborn sheet and draping it over her oldest and his wife. It was nice to do something with her sunshine child after so long.
They were tucking in the last of the pile by the time Poseidon and a sleepy Percy finally made their appearance. Apollo made grabby hands for the baby, which Poseidon obliged with a quiet reminder to be careful.
Guppy in-hand, Apollo curled up into the little pillow cave he'd made, leaving nothing visible but two sets of glowing amber eyes and a bit of his tail. He started up a lullaby, something soft and silly.
Large, rough hands grabbed her waist and Amphritrite found herself tangled up with her husband nearby, blushing like a schoolgirl. Poseidon laughed in her ear and, magically, all was right in the world.