Nothing is mine.

Percy sets fire to some fruit.

The Girl by the Fire

Percy poked damp pinecones into the flames, watching the little scale-like brown seeds smoulder, smoke and burn. 'I hope you like toast, dad, because that's pretty much all Clarisse left everyone.' He snagged a piece off his place and took a bite, licking sweet strawberry jelly off his lips. 'So, yeah, thanks for helping me, and I hope I keep making you proud.'

The slice of toast slipped through his fingers into the flames and caught alight, crumbling to ash and trickling into the bottom of the blaze.

'And…' He picked up the other slice and balanced it on his fingertips. 'For you, Hestia. I'm sorry I accused you of lying. It's all still to come, isn't it? And you knew. You know.' Percy dropped the toast into the fire and tucked his paper plate into the burning logs.

The heat scorched his fingertips, sending a faint tingling across the point between his shoulder blades.

Artemis. He dug his hand into his pocket, scooping out the handful of strawberries Katie had gifted him at breakfast. Please don't let me disappoint.

Percy held his hand out above the fire, watching the light of the flames shine on the glossy red strawberries in his fingers. 'And… and maybe, if you can, save Katie. I don't want her to follow me like Annabeth. I don't want her to die. I don't want anyone else to die. Not this time.'

No regrets. Me. Or nobody. He tipped the fruit into the fire.

'Who are the strawberries for, Brave One?' Hestia stepped from the smoke, her plain wool garb the same gentle brown as Percy's mom's eyes.

'Well, they're not for Aphrodite.' Percy mustered a grin through a little ripple of guilt. 'Actually, Aphrodite hasn't appeared to torment me for a little while now, not herself, that is…'

'Perhaps it is unwise to call out her name as if in challenge, Percy. She might be tempted…' Hestia's orange eyes glowed warm and soft as the embers of a fading beach bonfire as she sat down upon her white cushion and crossed her legs. 'Will you linger for a few moments and speak with me?'

'Of course.' He dropped down next to her. 'I… I am sorry; I shouldn't—'

'Too late to apologise, Brave One; you are already forgiven,' Hestia murmured, resting a small hand on his arm. 'A few half-heated words from the pain of losing one dear are a very small thing to forgive for someone suffering all the weight of the world.'

'Were they just great woe?' Percy whispered. 'Were Zoë, and Annabeth, and Bianca and Michael and Luke just great woe? Is it really all still to come?'

It waited for him somewhere beyond tomorrow, an endless dark looming in the distance like the silhouette of a great mountain; its shadow poured upon him, crashing onto him like a great wave, crushing him down, grinding him away like the weight of the waves upon a single grain of sand.

Stand.

He clung to Zoë's last smile and the fierce pride in Artemis's silver eyes. Their light lifted his heart up from that bottomless black, buoying it up to bob like a white feather across the sparkling sunlit summer swell of the sea.

Don't give up hope. Don't fall.

'Does it matter?' Hestia reached out, her slim stick sprouting from her fingers; she touched the glowing tip to Percy's chest, sending a flood of warm soft hope washing through him. 'You held the hope of heroes in your hands and stood tall before my father. You stood so tall that those lost to despair and suffering were inspired to choose well rather than fall. A piece of that hope still burns within you; so long as you keep it kindled, that spark will never die out.'

'But…' He took a deep breath and smoothed out the sea before the eye of his mind. 'No, you're right. It doesn't matter. I just have to choose well.'

She gave him a gentle smile and held out one small hand.

A slim black ring sat on her palm, gleaming like obsidian, but upon its band glowed the glyphs for Elpis, warm and bright as the first light of dawn breaking above the sea and across Montauk Beach. Something stuck in the back of Percy's throat; his heart snagged upon the sight of that gentle grace like a leaf caught upon the rocks of a rushing river.

'What does it do?' He mustered a grin. 'I'm too young to be married, my mom would go spare. She'd finally got to live a nice normal life and then suddenly I'm getting married before I'm sixteen. I'd be grounded until she was a grandma. Probably longer, if I was getting married so young.'

Hestia's eyes softened, crinkling at the corners. 'Take it, Brave One. Hope was given to you; this is the piece you ought to have kept for yourself.'

Percy picked it off her palm and slid it onto his left forefinger. Kind of like your bow, right, Zoë? He gave it a twist.

The drakonscale shield sprang into his left hand. Elpis glowed upon it, bright as starlight, bright and golden as the full autumn moon hanging over the sea.

He swallowed hard.

'You have taken to leaving it behind,' Hestia murmured. 'Do not forget hope, Percy; you will have need of all of it soon enough. The world remains restless. We had brief peace after Thalia Grace's metamorphosis, but upon your coming, all was torn asunder.'

'Sorry,' Percy muttered.

She laughed a quiet, soft laugh. 'You are a son of Poseidon, Percy. You are storm-born; your fate is to break upon the world, shatter its peace, and sweep all from your path. It is who you are.' Hestia's glowing orange eyes lingered on him. 'Perhaps the world is restless because it senses your coming, like the quieting of the birds at the rumble of thunder.'

'It's restless because a change in the nature of the world is coming,' he whispered. 'It's all still to come. I…' Percy's fingers crept to Anaklusmos. 'I don't want it to be someone who follows me this time.'

Hestia reached out and cupped his cheek. 'Be brave,' she murmured. 'Don't give up hope. When you feel that weight upon you, remember what you have done before. After standing strong for so long, just a little longer is not so far.'

He weighed the drakonscale shield on his arm. 'Er… How do I put this away?'

It shrank back into a slim dark ring upon his finger.

'Neat.' Percy glanced up.

Smoke drifted through the air beside him, spiralling up into the sky.

'Thank you, Hestia.' He pushed himself to his feet and stared into the soft, warm glow of the word upon the ring. 'I guess we should start getting ready. If it's all still to come, we should be prepared.'

Percy made his way through the cabins, peering around, and Clarisse's cackle rang out from near his cabin and the lake.

Why is she down there? He hurried around the Hades cabin, jogging to the foot of the pier.

Clarisse shook bits of squashed marrow out of her hair, flicking seeds off her sleeveless white sports top as she cackled at a bright-red Katie. 'Alright, alright—'

Katie jabbed the battered end of the marrow into Clarisse's stomach.

'Hey,' Clarisse growled, cracking her knuckles. 'You got your fair shot, no cheap ones unless you want to go for real.'

Katie's green eyes caught Percy and the colour climbed a little further up her cheeks; she clawed her blonde hair back, tugging her dark green hoodie straight and brushing dirt off her torn jeans.

'Oh.' Clarisse snorted and spun around. 'I get it.'

Uneasy little waves stirred in Percy's stomach as he strode down the pier. 'You two okay?'

'Yes,' Katie blurted.

A broad grin spread beneath Clarisse's sharp nose. 'I got violently assaulted by this vegetable-wielding psycho again.'

'Violence just makes you happy, though.' Percy glanced between them. 'Katie?'

'It's fine,' Katie whispered. 'Really. She's not being mean at all. Just…'

'Unlike your dense sea-brain, I know what the cucumber joke taboo is about.' Clarisse snickered. 'And I nailed my guess—'

Katie sent Clarisse into the lake with a sharp shove. 'Shut up,' she hissed as Clarisse surfaced, spluttering and splashing around as she swiped water from her face.

Percy sighed. 'You're going to have to cover my eyes again now.'

Katie scowled, her cheeks bright pink. 'Stay in the water, Percy doesn't want to see—'

Clarisse wrapped one arm across her chest and hauled herself up onto the pier, dripping water everywhere. 'There, Plant-Princess, he's not seeing anything this way. You will still be—'

'Were you looking for us for a reason?' A soft glimmer of hope shone in Katie's grass green eyes. 'Or… me?'

Percy's heart sank like a stone. 'Things are about to get dangerous again.'

Katie gulped.

'Dangerous how?' Clarisse demanded. 'We won.'

He shook his head. 'We beat Kronos, but he… he's just a herald of greater conflict, part of the unrest of the changing world. When it starts to get restless, some people want to go back to his golden age and be free of Fate, but… we can't. Not really. So he always loses. It's all still to come.'

When I reach sixteen despite great woe.

Clarisse rolled her eyes. 'Just tell me what to do straight, without all the nonsense.'

'We need to keep an eye on the borders of camp,' Percy said. 'Don't go beyond them alone, just in case. I'll ask Metea and her sisters to watch out for monsters so we know when they turn up and then I'll deal with them. If unrest keeps stirring, everyone will come back to camp for safety and those monsters will all be drawn here too.'

'But why?' Katie whispered. 'Why isn't it over? What's happening?'

'I don't know what.' He shrugged. 'I guess we'll find out soon though.'

'It's not fair. We were still here and — and…' Katie bit her lip and something wilted in her warm green eyes. 'And it's not fair...'

I'm sorry. Percy felt his heart hit the bottom of the seabed like a lump of lead. I'm sorry I'll never be sorry enough.

Clarisse wrung water out of her hair with her free hand. 'So that's it for now?'

'We watch the camp, get rid of any monsters that stray close, and help anyone trying to get here.' Percy's fingers crept to the slim line of Anaklusmos in his pocket. 'We can't fight their battles for them, but we can show them how to choose well and what it means. We—' the words snagged on the memory of Zoë's last smile '—we can be kind.'

'Yes, strategos,' Clarisse murmured.

Katie edged forward. 'What about you, Percy?'

'He'll be fine.' Clarisse grimaced, reaching out to rest one hand on Katie's shoulder. 'Wherever he goes, I follow. To honour and immortality.'

To a beautiful death. Percy caught the glint of fierce determination in Clarisse's dark eyes. No. Not this time. Nobody is following me to die ever again.

Katie's lip quivered. 'But… you already did so much,' she whispered. 'Isn't it someone else's turn? Why can't it be someone else?'

A small smile crept across Percy's lips. 'I would disappoint if I just left everyone else to struggle. It doesn't have to be me, or anyone, but I choose to help because I should.'

And live or die without regret, right, Zoë? His haze strayed up past the clear morning sky to the invisible stars. That's what she showed us. How to choose well. And why.

Katie blinked hard, her green eyes brimming with tears. 'Percy, are… will you…' She wrung her hands. 'Please,' she whispered. 'Please be careful.'

Percy watched her flee back along the dock and up the slope toward Demeter's cabin, all the weight of waves dragging his heart down into that bottomless black. He took a step after her.

'Don't.' Clarisse strode past him. 'I'll make sure she's okay.'

'I just…'

'Yeah, just go talk to your nymphs, Sea-Boy. You'd only make it worse if you go and twist the knife trying to make her feel better. She gets it now. You're not going to just decide to go off and get a job and a mortgage and a house and have kids with some girl she would quite like to be her.' She shook her damp hair out, dripping water along the dock. 'You're Achilles. Or Heracles.'

Percy stared down at the fading shadow of her wet footprints. 'I am bound to the mortal world. As long as I'm bound, I'm not Achilles or Heracles or anyone who fell.'

Clarisse snorted. 'Right. But in the end…' A sharp grin flashed across her face. 'Glory and immortality.'

I don't know. If I never abandon what they showed me, I can't be killed. It churned in his head like heaving, foaming waves. It doesn't matter. Just choose well.

Percy dropped down at the end of the pier with a long sigh, trailing his fingers through the water. 'Metea,' he murmured.

She rose from the lake before him, her clear blue eyes fixed on his. 'My lord.'

'Would you and your sisters do me a favour?' Percy asked. 'Just a small one.'

'For you, my lord, anything.' Metea flashed him a smile as bright as the summer sun shining upon the lake surface. 'Command me as you desire.'

'If you or your sisters see or sense any monsters, would you warn me?' He placed his palm flat on the surface of the lake.

'Of course, my lord.' She pressed her slim hand to his from beneath the water. 'Will you stay here with me for a little while? It's nice to feel all the endless blue of your strength wrapped around me.'

'Yeah, I think I should probably stay here,' Percy muttered, flopping into the cool water beside her. 'Before I do any more harm elsewhere.'

AN: Loads more of my stuff can be found here!

linktr . ee / mjbradley