One Slightly Bittersweet Goodbye

Once we stepped forth from Hestia and Poseidon's combined aura, I learned more about my father than I ever wanted. We didn't even have a chance to gather our bearings before he flashed himself towards the mass of nymphs.

"Oh boy," I said. "He's not wasting any time."

"Do I even want to know?" Annabeth asked.

I gave her a flat look which told her all she needed to know.

"Great. As if we didn't have enough cyclopes running around."

"Hey!"

"You know what I mean."

We followed after Poseidon, though some clearly weren't as eager as others. Phoebe was trying to keep her composure, but it was hard not to notice how badly her hands were shaking, despite Hestia whispering comforting words in her ear.

By the time we reached the nymphs, Poseidon was circling them, appraising each one like they were yachts on display.

"Pos— Lord Poseidon!" Thalia said, jumping up from a dryad, a twine necklace dangling from her hands. "We weren't expecting you."

A startled Cinder tweeted out in indignation from Thalia's shoulder before hiding behind her neck.

"Worry not, miss Grace. Though I believe I'm not the only one here who will surprise you."

She frowned and turned to see the rest of us. "How'd it go? Did the peacock queen get a good thrashing?"

"You have no idea," I said. "But… there's more to it."

"Yeah," Piper added with some hesitation. "There's… uh… someone who really needs to talk to you."

Her frown turned into an expression of concern. She turned to the rest of our group and froze.

"It… it can't…"

Phoebe wasn't much better. The moment she saw Thalia, she went as still as a Medusa statue.

"Zoë," Thalia muttered before clearing her throat. "Zoë! You need to get over here now!"

Seconds later, the former huntress burst out of the nearby forest, hunting knives drawn, with a dryad right behind her. It didn't even take three seconds before she locked in on one of our newest members… and quite possibly one of her oldest friends.

"Phoebe?" She gasped, dropping her knives.

In an almost literal flash, she zoomed right in front of Phoebe before taking her face in both hands, practically inspecting to see if she was real.

Thalia approached us, her face still pale, and forced a swallow. "Is it really…?"

"Yes," Phoebe choked out, her voice gravelly. "I'm alive… again."

That was probably the first time I'd ever seen Zoë and Thalia cry together. They both threw their arms around Phoebe, pulling her into a deathly tight group hug.

"How is this possible?" Zoë asked. "Thalia told me thou fell fighting Orion."

"Hades brought her back," Annabeth said. "He… traded her."

"Traded?" Thalia pulled away from the hug and scanned our group. "What are you…? Bianca and Hazel… Wait, they're gone?!... Wait… Traded." Her eyes widened in realization. "Phoebe… Oh, no. What in Hades happened while you all were there?! "

I tried to formulate a response, but Annabeth grabbed my arm. "I'll explain it. You might want to check on your dad before he does something… drastic."

With the reunion taking place, I'd almost forgotten my father going through the nymphs.

"Quite the selection you have," Poseidon said as I approached. "I've always been curious about trying a dryad for myself, but for obvious reasons, I don't tend to encounter them very often."

I grimaced. "Before you start treating them like cars in an auction, keep in mind that they're people too."

He turned to me with a curious expression. "Rocks, trees, and water. Quite the stretch to consider them people, but if it gives you some peace of mind, I still intend to hold up my end of the agreement. Not a finger will be laid on them before they become citizens."

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I let out a deep sigh. "Maybe we should just take them all back to camp."

"Nonsense!" He clapped my shoulder with a hearty chuckle. "At least give them a say in the matter. Obviously, I can only take oceanids and nereids, but that's still less stress on your hands."

"I certainly hope you're not planning on engaging in this slave trade," Hestia said, approaching us from behind. "It would set a poor example to your citizens for you to benefit from the actions of your greatest foe."

"Of course I'm not!" He laughed, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "I'm merely looking to welcome any who wish to contribute to maritime society."

"Right." She crossed her arms, clearly unconvinced. "And I suppose when the cyclops population grows over the next couple of years, none of these women will be involved."

"Well, I can't predict the future. Who's to say what will happen?"

"Or," I interrupted, "hear me out, maybe we don't increase the population of cyclopes, and you focus on your queen."

Both turned to me in disbelief.

"Ha! I knew you had your mother's sense of humor! Just imagine that! What a dry spell that would be!"

"A noble attempt, Percy," Hestia said. "But I've failed to dissuade them all from infidelity for centuries."

"Just wait until you've had a few of your own under your belt," Poseidon said. "A few decades with one person is enough to ruin most couples. After a few millennia, you need to change things up just to keep your sanity."

"But—"

"Besides, with your harem as big as it is now, I don't think you're in much of a position to criticize."

"A harem I didn't ask for."

"Now, onto the present matter." He clapped his hands and stepped towards the group of nymphs, to which they took a unanimous step back.

"Don't stress yourself over this," Hestia said, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Some battles just aren't worth fighting, and I've been fighting this one for centuries."

I grimaced, but said nothing further while Poseidon addressed the group.

"Nymphs! My son has freed you from your bondage! Now you have a choice to make. For any oceanids or nereids, I offer you my home as yours with open arms! Become citizens of Atlantis, and you shall never have to worry about the likes of Phorcys ever again!"

To absolutely no one's surprise, the vast majority of them took his words with a degree of skepticism. Many turned to Hestia and I with nervous expressions.

"You need not worry," Hestia said. "Poseidon and his citizens will keep their hands to themselves." She turned to him, her smile only reaching as far as her lips. "Isn't that right?"

He cleared his throat. "Well, um… If something happens, we can—"

"Isn't that right?"

"Alright, alright. I swear upon the River Styx that I will not make any advances on anyone here who chooses to become an Atlantean citizen without their initial consent."

Thunder rumbled softly.

Hestia groaned. "That wasn't even remotely ironclad."

"With that out of the way, who among you would like to join me under the waves? "

To my surprise, a couple of hands went up. One was brought down almost immediately after, but that still left more than I expected.

"Wonderful!" He turned to us. "I trust they are ready to be transported?"

"Um, I think so."

I turned over my shoulder, searching for Zoë or Thalia. Both were at the edge of the forest with Phoebe, who was sitting on a log with her face buried in her hands.

"Let me check," I said. "I'll be right back."

I warily approached the former hunters, half expecting an arrow in the eye from our newest member. Much to my relief, she was too caught up in her own misery to even acknowledge me.

"How's… uh… how's everyone holding up?"

Phoebe tensed, to which Zoë immediately locked her arms in place with her own. Thalia hung her head for a moment before offering me an apologetic smile.

"I've got this," Thalia said to the others. "Try to keep her talking."

She stood and grabbed my hand before dragging me out of earshot from them. Once we were a fair distance away, she turned on her heel, nearly throwing Cinder off her shoulder.

TWEET!

He hopped closer to her neck and indignantly pecked at her earlobe; not that she gave much of a reaction. I still gave him a little scratch under his beak though.

"Is she okay?"

Thalia crossed her arms with a pained expression. "This is Silena all over again, just more intense. And unlike Silena, she's not riding on some post mortem guilt to motivate her into sleeping with you."

"I don't mean that. I don't care about whether or not she wants to—"

"But you should. Remember, she's now on a time limit. Her whole world just got turned on its head. She won't be ready to sleep with you in two years, much less two weeks."

I leaned back on a palm tree and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Any advice? I'm not going to force her. But I can't ignore the very real danger she'll be put in."

"Let me and Zoë worry about that for now. We're trying to make sure she doesn't go nuts from simply being alive again." She grimaced and turned to the rest of the group, who were talking among themselves. "By the way, who's the other girl? The one in the suit."

"Kinzie," I sighed. "She's an amazon who probably would have ripped my pants off after the battle of New Rome if I let her. Didn't know she was dead though."

"So Hades traded out his daughters for two women you barely knew. Nobody else traded though?"

"Most of them already slept with me, except for Drew and Khione. That was the condition. Khione didn't bother trying to get out, and it's not hard to guess why. Drew did, but… well… circumstance fucked her faster than I did."

She snorted. "For some reason, I'm not surprised. We'll need to keep an eye on her though. She caused enough drama the first time around. Now she has a fresh batch of spite to get off her chest."

"You don't think she'll do anything drastic, do you? I've still got her under the possibility of getting cursed. She just earned her way out of it."

Her lips tightened to a flat expression. "We'll just have to wait and see. Either way, if that's all…"

"It's not. How'd everything go with the rituals? Is everyone ready to get moved?"

"Almost. Hestia was invaluable after we showed her, especially with the cloud nymphs, but we ran into a slight issue." She pointed to the edge of the forest, where two bodies rested together. "We have no clue where her life source is. We were hoping she might have told you at some point."

My shoulders sagged, and I offered her a sad smile. "Yeah. I know where it is. I'll ask Hestia to take me there. Do I need to take Palírroia with me?"

"Yes. Unconscious or not, she needs to be present. There are a couple of sigils you need to paint on her, but after everything I've seen you two do at the dinner table, I don't think either of you will mind if you end up touching her tits a little."

I gave her a flat expression. "That's what you're thinking about?"

She tried to keep a straight face, but burst out laughing a few seconds later. "I'm just messing with you. You will need to paint her though. Hestia can walk you through it when you get there. Or she could do it for you."

"No. Palírroia trusts me. She sacrificed a ton of her life force just to give me a fighting chance to rescue the other nymphs. The least I can do is help her with this one last step so she can be free."

She crossed her arms, a wide grin on her face. "Free from here, maybe. But she's still part of your harem. Though I doubt she'd take an offer to leave at this point."

I shook my head. "That's besides the point. But outside of her, the rest are ready to go?"

"Yes. Your new cloud nymph was a pain to track down, and one of the dryad's had her fig tree pretty much destroyed, but all the others are ready to leave."

I frowned. "She's not… dying, right?"

"Oh, she's in pretty bad shape, but thankfully, her roots and about a third of the tree were still intact. We're planning on getting her some proper medical attention back at camp."

"Vlackas. Is there anyone I don't end up hurting?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"The boar attack. It was— Never mind. This is a topic for later. I need to tell my dad that his new 'citizens' are ready to go."

"Oh, boy. Are you looking forward to having some more siblings?"

"Ha ha. Very funny."

She gave me a shiteating grin before giving my shoulder a light punch. "Just playing with you. I'll let everyone know we're wrapping things up. Maybe we might be able to find some clothes or something to salvage still. Only half the house went down after all. Plus, I need to get back to Phoebe."

We parted ways to carry out our respective tasks.

My dad was pretty eager to get moving along. The moment I told him the nymphs were free to go, he gathered his group up and they all vanished in a cloud of sea spray.

While the last traces of sea mist faded into the breeze, I turned my attention to Hestia, who was consoling a shivering naiad.

"Thank you," I said. "From what Thalia told me, we wouldn't have been able to help all of them without you."

She offered me a gentle smile while rubbing the naiad's back. "Think nothing of it. I've blinded myself from these kinds of atrocities for too long. If not for my interest in this new family you have developed, I would never have known about any of this. You deserve far more credit than I."

"Agree to disagree," I said with a smirk. "But I hear we have one more left."

"Yes." She nodded solemnly. "Your head handmaiden. No one present knows where her life source is, and she's still unconscious."

"I do. Just found out earlier today. Are you willing to help me one more time?"

Her smile turned playful. "I think I can suffer through it. Just let me finish up here."

I nodded and turned away to retrieve Palírroia.

With Poseidon no longer around, a number of the other girls made their way to the nymphs and started checking on them. Oddly enough, Reyna and Kinzie seemed to have the most success in calming the more fidgety of them. One dryad in particular clung to them like a lost puppy.

While some played damage control with the nymphs, others were scavenging through the remains of the mansion. Among them were the huntresses. Zoë and Thalia guided Phoebe through the ruins, possibly looking for clothes. Or weapons. Either option was equally possible.

It was quiet when I reached Palírroia. No nearby chatter. No songbirds in the trees. No waves lapped at the shore. All was silent save for the crunching of the sand under my feet.

Both Palírroia and Calypso were intertwined, clutching to one another like they were all that tethered each other to the world. As much as it pained me to disturb such a serene moment, I untangled their arms and legs from one another as gently as I could. Calypso moaned out, but didn't wake. Palírroia was completely silent, drawing the quietest of breaths.

I scooped up Palírroia, silently thanking the gods for her light weight. One arm held her from under her knees while the other wrapped around her back. Her head leaned against my chest, and the slightest of sighs escaped her lips.

Despite how much I didn't want to leave Calypso alone, I didn't have much of a choice. At least, not until Annabeth approached me from behind, the crunching of sand giving her away.

"How are you holding up?" she asked, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Not sure yet." I turned to face her. "Ask me again in a couple days when I process all of this."

She snorted. "Tell me about it. Nothing quite like a little divine interference to spice up your life." Her smile faltered for a moment, and she turned to face the lake. "Is it wrong that a part of me is going to miss this?"

"The island?"

"No. Well… maybe. But this sense of adventure. The adrenaline, the danger, the sense of… purpose. Like we're really making a difference out there. When we finally do settle down and live a calm life, I can't help but think we'll struggle with it."

"Maybe, but we can struggle with it together. It's not like we're in any rush to get everything figured out."

She turned to face me with a smile, her eyes gleaming. "Good. And while I may not always make things easy for you, I'll always have your back." She pressed a kiss to my cheek, which may or may not have caused a raise in my body temperature.

"That goes both ways," I said. "We both know I can make your life difficult."

"Very true," she chuckled. "But before you start making it difficult for me, I think you were in the middle of something." She gestured to Palírroia.

"Right. So, uh… keep an eye on…" I nodded towards Calypso, who replaced Palírroia with a piece of driftwood as a cuddle buddy.

Her smile softened. "Of course."

She gave me a parting kiss and took a seat at Calypso's side. While she brushed her knuckles over Calypso's cheek, I carried Palírroia back to Hestia.

The hearth goddess welcomed me warmly and smiled down at the oceanid in my arms. "So where is this life source of hers?"

"Well, do you remember the chamber where you found all the nymphs?"

Thank the gods I didn't have to swim back to the underground fortress. Well… one of the gods anyways.

Hestia and I stepped out of her flaming pillar with Palírroia still cradled in my arms. Her warm touch on my bicep was a fair contrast to Palírroia's cool skin, though unlikely as severe as it would have been with the likes of Khione.

The surrounding chamber was in ruins. Dilapidated pillars and rubble piles scattered across the far side of the room. Not to mention, the molten crater of Cinder's supernova stood out like a festering blister among the cool stones. Steam wafted up from the water channel stretching from the throne to the opposite end of the chamber.

"So how exactly do we do this ritual?" I asked, laying Palírroia on the ground.

"There are four steps to complete. I will walk you through the first two. It's best I do the third and fourth, unless you're fluent in ancient Greek."

"Um… I'll go ahead and leave that one to you."

"Very well. The first step is to bind her life source to her body."

"Um… Aren't they already bound?"

"Indirectly, yes. But in this case, we need a stronger bond. Think of it like a bridge across a chasm. While taking on a humanoid form, the bond is like a rope bridge spanning a mile wide gap. With this step, we can change the rope bridge to one made of stone. It's not exactly essential to this ritual, but it helps prevent any complications. A stone bridge can withstand a strong wind far better than a rope bridge after all."

"Complications?"

"I'm afraid Thalia didn't explain that part. Nor did I really want to know. It's irrelevant either way, given we are binding them."

"Okay, how do we do this then?"

"A number of sigils need to be applied to her body. Apparently, the most archaic way to do this would be through carving the skin. Fortunately, over the millennia, a more… humane approach was developed."

She waved her hand and let out a ring of fire. From the flames appeared a small bucket filled with a thick black liquid which reeked like burning rubber. A fine paint brush stuck out of the goop.

"Gah, what is that?" I pinched my nose.

"A number of ingredients, but it consists primarily of tar. You need to apply a number of sigils to her body. Specifically on her brow, over her heart, and along her spine."

I shook off my nausea from the fumes. "What sigils?"

"I'll show you."

Over the next five minutes, she laid out a number of symbols and patterns I needed to copy by painting them on the ground. Apparently, it was some weird mix of Minoan, Phoenician, and some kind of weird magic circles, but I couldn't begin to translate it.

When I was relatively sure I had the symbols figured out, I grabbed the brush from the bucket and reached for the upper portion of Palírroia's chiton. At the last second, I hesitated and turned to Hestia.

"I, uh, don't want to come across as rude or anything, but could we have a bit of privacy? This feels a bit… intimate."

She smirked for a moment before shaking her head and laughing. "It's not as if I haven't seen half of the nymphs' bodies, but if you wish it, I'll step away for a moment. I'll want to see it afterwards though, to make sure it's correct."

"Fair enough," I sighed.

As she stepped away, I returned my attention to Palírroia, and pulled down the upper half of her chiton. With her naked body bared to me, I took a breath and painted the first stroke.

"Well done," Hestia said fifteen minutes later. "Your circle is a bit wobbly, but that's still perfectly acceptable."

"Good," I replied. "Now to just turn her over."

"Of course. You need only— Oh my!"

Palírroia's ugly scars presented themselves to us. A permanent reminder of her past traumas. Hideous as they were, they only scratched the surface, literally and figuratively.

"Poor girl," she crooned. Her fingertips brushed over the lines criss crossing her back. "I could remove them… if you want."

I'm not going to lie to you when I say it was a tempting offer. This part of Palírroia's life was done. No more beatings, lashings, or anything. With her father gone, she could finally live in peace.

"No."

Hestia straightened, clearly taken aback by my reply. "But—"

"Not without her say. This is her body. Unless she says she wants them removed, we shouldn't touch them."

She pursed her lips. "Need I remind you of the symbols you're painting on her body? What of her consent to that?"

"That's different. We're giving her something to free her. Also, it isn't permanent."

"Very well. Let's continue."

While I painted the lines of tar over Palírroia's back, I prepared myself for the inevitable sound of her pained whimpers. The fact that she remained completely still and silent didn't fill me with much confidence. Thankfully, she was still breathing, obviously asleep, and yet I couldn't help but worry.

"Ease your worries, Percy," Hestia said, placing her hands on my wrists to guide my strokes. "Your hands are trembling."

"It's just… I'm worried about her."

"I know. And you will have time to care for her. For now, focus on what needs to be done immediately.

She was right, obviously, but it was easier said than done.

When every symbol was in place, I gently blew on her back. Within seconds, the thick paint was dry. Whatever was in it, I really didn't want to know. She didn't even flinch. No shiver. Nothing. For all the life I've seen in her eyes, she looked unnervingly dead in the moment. Nonetheless, I picked her back up and sat her on my lap.

"That's the first step. The next is simple, if a bit cruel." Hestia pulled forth a small obsidian shard, roughly the size of a fingernail. "Press this against her forehead. You will have to break the shard under the skin until it is nothing but powder."

"Wait, I have to—"

"Cut her. Yes. It's distasteful, but there's apparently some reason for it." She handed the sliver of obsidian to me. "The shard is as thin as I could risk without it losing integrity just from us holding it. It should break with relative ease."

A part of me wanted to throw the shard at her. Another part wanted to use it to slit the throat of whoever came up with the ritual. Unfortunately, a grim part of me chose to steel my resolve and go through with it.

With my eyes squinted, I pressed the edge of the shard against Palírroia's forehead and carved a small notch into the skin. From it spilled a small rivulet of deep indigo blood.

Head wounds look worse than they actually are. Just finish it.

With the small cut in her head, I turned the shard on its side and pressed it against the opening, as if trying to staunch the bleeding with it. The blood rolled over her brow and dipped in her lips. Thumb held firmly against the shard, I pressed it into her forehead. Seconds passed as the shard shifted and creaked under my thumb before it shattered into dust.

A smudge of blood was on my thumb, but I'm pretty sure it was more from Palírroia's head than from the shard cutting me during its tiny explosion.

"What next?" I asked, trying to take my mind off what I just did.

"Simply place her into the water. I will take care of the rest."

So I did. Well… Sort of. Instead of just placing her in the water, I stood up with her in my arms and stepped into the channel. When the world turned blue, I sat down and cradled her, gently rocking her back and forth. With a sigh, I closed my eyes.

"Master?"

My eyes shot open to take in the sight of Palírroia stretching in my lap. She blinked away the blood drifting off her eyelashes.

"Wha—" Her breath hitched. The black paint glowed white, as did the center of her forehead. She lunged forward, throwing her arms around me. Part gasping, part hyperventilating, she clung to me and pressed her face into my chest, her nails digging into my shoulder.

The moment passed. The glowing faded.

Palírroia shivered against me, her grip tight. "Is… it over?" She pulled away to look at me, which forced me to do a double take.

The cut on her forehead was gone, along with the lines painted all over her body. There was no sign they ever existed. But that seemed like a rather small concern compared to my next realization.

The water in the channel, her life source, which we were submerged about ten feet under the surface, was gone. Not a drop was left.

"I'll take this as another success."

Palírroia and I looked up to find Hestia staring down at us from atop the ledge. She dropped down to us and crossed her arms with a satisfied smile.

"Awake as well? That's good."

"I don't understand," I said. "Where's all of the water?"

"It's… complicated. In a manner of speaking, you could say she absorbed it all, just not physically."

"The… water?" Palírroia turned her head both ways. A few seconds passed before the realization settled in. "My life source?!"

"Yes." Hestia rested her hand on her shoulder. "We've performed a ritual to bind your life source directly to you. Normally, you would be able to summon it back, but that requires more time to—"

"Like my chain?"

We all went silent.

"What do you mean?" Hestia asked with a frown.

Without even blinking, Palírroia held up her hand, and a length of black chain appeared within it.

"Oh, you poor thing…" Hestia backed against the wall. "What horrors have you known?"

Palírroia hunched her shoulders, shying away from a response.

"I can unbind it if you want." Hestia said, reaching her hand out. "I was about to do that with your water."

She looked down at the chain in her hands and brushed her thumb over the links.

"No. Master killed Aeron with it. I want to keep it… as a reminder."

Hestia grimaced, practically chewing her lip. "And your… scars?"

Once more, Palírroia shook her head. "I would rather not lose them. They show my past, and I would rather never forget it."

Hestia clearly wanted to say more on the matter, but nodded without pushing the matter any further.

"Then let's go ahead and extract that shard."

She raised her hands and began chanting in ancient Greek. Her words were lost to me, but Palírroia gasped out and pressed her fingers to her forehead.

I grabbed her free hand and wrapped my arm around her. "You can do this."

"It… tingles."

Seconds later, Hestia finished and lowered her hands. "Done. If you would be so kind…" She held out her hand.

Palírroia returned a confused look and yelped as she looked into her own hand. A small piece of smooth obsidian, roughly the shape of a tear, rested in her palm.

Hestia grabbed the small stone before pulling some threads from the sleeve of her dress. She twisted them into a small rope and wrapped it around the stone, fastening it with tiny crosses and knots that I could never pull off. When it was finished, she handed Palírroia the newly formed necklace.

"How does she bring her source back then?"

Hestia merely gave me a smile. "I'll explain on the way back. There's a camp you need to get to if I recall correctly."

The pink sands of the crescent bay crunched underfoot. Soft winds rustled through the lush forest and rattled the stray coconuts dangling in the palm trees. Where once the waves crashed on the shore in a mix of foam and sea spray, only a placid lake stretched as far as the eye could see; glossy as a polished mirror.

"All better, I see," Annabeth said, marching up to our little group. She turned to Palírroia. "I'm happy to see you're awake and moving. Do you need anything?"

Palírroia may have been standing, but she was still using me as a support. "Maybe a little bit more time with Master? A half-hour perhaps? Just enough time to—"

"Oh, no no no!" She waved her hands back and forth. "I meant before we leave. Any personal items you might have stored in the undestroyed part of the mansion."

"Oh!" Palírroia's cheeks flushed. "No… I do not own anything of value. At least… Nothing not already on me." She thumbed her new necklace.

"Well in that case, we're all ready to go." She turned to me. "The medics at camp should be able to help your new nebulae. Better than we can at least."

"Can we not say it like I own her? Or anyone here for that matter?"

She crossed her arms. "Like it or not, you do own us. And at this point, none of us are holding it against you. You're going to have to get used to it."

"On this, I agree," Hestia said. "You must take charge and lead them if there is to be peace. You may not be at fault, but you are responsible for them now."

"Alright alright, message received." I clamped my hands over my ears.

Palírroia smiled at my discomfort and leaned her head on my chest. "Consider me happy to be owned by you."

Annabeth gave me a shiteating grin. "Let's get a move on before his heart explodes. Not sure how much more it can take after today."

Fifteen minutes later, we stood in a huddle of two rings. The inner ring consisted of myself, Hestia, and the actual harem members. I couldn't help but take in the scene, what with all of the faces I'd come to know… more intimately.

Calypso lay in my arms, curled against my chest and breathing softly.

Annabeth stood to my left, her hand grasping my wrist. She flashed me a content smile and gave my wrist a reassuring squeeze.

Thalia took her other hand. Despite her calm demeanor, the occasional spark in her hair gave away her inner turmoil regarding recent events.

Cinder was tucked into a jacket pocket with his head poking out, but tweeted enough to make his displeasure known.

Speaking of which, Phoebe had a deathgrip on Thalia's other hand. Her attention was focused on the ground beneath her feet. What little comfort there was from being alive clearly hadn't done much to settle her nerves.

One of those comforts, Zoë, had hold of her other hand. She whispered comforting words to Phoebe, but they were clearly falling on deaf ears.

Silena had hold of her free hand, and was likewise consoling a recently acquired friend of her own. Though unlike Zoë, she was leaning on her partner of choice, courtesy of her still tender leg.

Khione clearly didn't have an issue with being used to keep her upright. However, she was berating herself incessantly regarding how she could have done more to protect everyone during the invasion.

Nimba took hold of her other hand, practically shaking from excitement of our new adventure.

Where Nimba was shaking from excitement, Rose had a veritable pile of petals at her feet from her anxious shivering. She evidently didn't share her girlfriend's enthusiasm about going up in literal flames.

Likewise, Ashe kept looking around, trying to find anything capable of distracting her from our method of travel.

Thŷella was perfectly still. Whether she was calm or having a panic attack was anyone's guess. She stared blankly towards the center, her hands locked on the elbows of both girls next to her.

Palírroia offered some encouraging words, but her attention was clearly focused on carrying Sierra. She gave me an occasional glance, to which I offered my best comforting smile.

Hestia offered her own hand to help support both nymphs. She gave her a gentle smile and spoke softly, calming everyone around her.

One person who could definitely use some calming was Drew, who stood to Hestia's other side. Evidently, the presence was doing wonders, seeing how she no longer looked like she was planning Zeus' assassination. Where once there was pure mania, her face was one of resigned acceptance. Whether or not that was a good thing, I had yet to decide.

Unlike Drew's silence, Katie was chatting amicably with Rachel. Given their expressions, I'm going to assume they were in a very serious discussion about large scale flower arrangements.

Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't as entertaining as the conversation Kinzie and Reyna were involved in. The two of them spoke in hushed whispers, and Kinzie's grin grew ever wider.

Whatever the case may be, Piper certainly wasn't offering me any details. Instead, she gave me a mischievous smile and squeezed my arm.

The outer ring consisted entirely of the recently liberated nymphs. Just about everyone in the inner ring had two nymphs holding onto them from behind, with the exception of our more… volatile members.

I even managed a pair of my own nymphs. One of them was a dryad I wasn't familiar with, but the other was clearly Echo. Despite my inability to see her clearly, much less with her behind me, there was no mistaking the overly affectionate nibbling and nuzzling along the back of my neck.

With everything going on, I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or cry or scream. Sue me. It was a long day, and we still had more to do.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Hestia called.

Despite the very mixed emotions of everyone present, nobody offered a word against our next move.

"Very good. Remember, keep hold of those next to you. You'll feel a bit warm, but otherwise, this shouldn't cause any issues. This will take but a moment."

With that, a flash of crimson flames spread from her hands over those next to her. The flames leapt from one person to the next within a near instant.

Still, it was long enough for me to give one last glance to the mansion. From where we stood, we couldn't even see the wrecked portion of the building. The building loomed over the island. What once was an intimidating view seemed more cathartic at the moment than anything else. Whether it was a prison or home in our minds was irrelevant.

Hestia's warm embrace reached me. The flames licked me for an instant before my vision went white.

For better or worse, this chapter of our lives was over.

A/N: This time around, I actually am posting a new chapter. Nobody a panic about the latest "update." I was simply deleting "chapters" that weren't part of the story and making some edits to previous chapters.

So, how's that for cathartic? We are finally done with the island! No longer shall the harem be moored! But where shall they seek refuge? Will they find a home in time for Percy to plow the brains out of those who need it? Or will he have to claim them on the road to their destination? Only time will tell.

You've all been down this road before. We have a server. We have a community. And we have artwork. Tons of it! By all means, come on by and check it out. Our artist, Untitled-Expression, is even setting up some deals that are first come, first serve!

In the meantime, you won't have to wait nearly as long for the next update. It's already written! Just need to go through the editing process. Give it a week or so to let people catch up to this chapter, and you'll get to see the beginning of the next phase of the harem! This is Ronin signing off.