Alexis
After her fight on the beach with Treya, Alexis wandered down to the lake. There, she found Hans watching the water. They were now waiting for Chiron to set up a meeting spot. Usually, the camp meetings took place around a ping pong ball table. Alexis still didn’t quite understand what ping pong was, but she had found that rather unprofessional, especially having been to the First Nome, Camp Jupiter, and Hotel Valhalla. Camp Half-Blood already paled in comparison to them and she didn’t want them to look even worse. She had told Chiron that they should turn the dining pavilion into the meeting spot instead.
As she sat by the lake, she thought about the fight. At the time, she’d been willing to overlook Treya’s outburst, but the more she thought about it the more upset she was. That was the thing about her friend. She never thought anything through. It was always Alexis who had to do the thinking for both of them.
“I’d never thought I would say this, but sometimes I miss Ogygia,” Hans admitted, interrupting her thoughts. He stretched out on the beach.
“I get it,” Alexis said. “Life here is so fast.” She thought of all that had happened in the last couple of days. “And this sand isn’t nearly as soft as Ogygia’s sand.”
“Oh yeah. It’s all rocks.” Hans dragged a hand through the coarse sand.
“So what do you guys plan on doing?” Alexis asked Hans. “Like, are you going to leave camp and explore the world?”
“I think so. Chiron said he could set us up at schools in the city, so we could get a normal finish to our childhood. I mean, as normal as possible.” Hans said thoughtfully.
Alexis nodded and stared out over the water. Across the shore, Alexis noticed Quinn standing alone. Hazel must have left him to be with Percy and Annabeth. Alexis had heard that the three of them had been part of a major quest together a while back. It must have made them all very close.
“Come with me.” Alexis grabbed Hans’ hand and dragged him up.
“What are we doing?” He asked, but Alexis didn't respond; she just pulled him after her.
“Hey, you all alone?” Alexis had taken Hans to where Quinn stood. He was tall, about six feet with broad shoulders. He had curly hair, similar to Hans, but it was brown rather than gold. His eyes were a similar brown, just like Alexis'. Quinn’s lips were pink and he smiled at Alexis and Hans as they walked over.
“Yeah, Hazel’s talking to Percy and Annabeth,” he said looking toward the Big House. “So. That was quite the show,” he said, looking back at Alexis. She rolled her eyes.
“I don’t want to talk about that. Would you like a tour of camp while you wait?” Alexis offered.
“You know what, sure.”
“Great. Let’s go.” Alexis led the two guys to where the cabins stood. “These are the cabins. There used to be one for each of the main 12 gods. Now there are a ton. I’m not really sure why.”
“Can we see your cabin?” Hans asked.
“It’s Poseidon right?” Quinn recalled.
“Yup, and as of a few days ago I am its official head counselor,” Alexis told everyone.
“Congrats. That’s a big deal right?” Quinn said.
“Thanks, but not really. There’s only one other camper and he's my younger brother.” Alexis said. Hans laughed at her and Quinn smiled nervously.
“Alright, here’s the cabin.” It was long with low walls. The outer walls were covered in rocks and pieces of seashells. Alexis led everyone inside. It was her first time inside the cabin. She’d had a cabin right after the war, but it had been rebuilt since she’d stayed here.
“So these are the beds.” Alexis waved her hands to a few empty bunks. She supposed one of them now belonged to her. One bed had sheets and a pillow. A few items were scattered across it. Alexis assumed this was Percy’s bed.
“I like how you’re telling us this as though you’ve been inside here before,” Hans joked as he looked around.
“Shush. Don’t be giving away my secrets.” Alexis faked annoyance.
“It’s nice,” Quinn said. He ran his hand along a fountain that appeared in the middle of the cabin. It had a long crack through its center, as though it had been broken in two pieces and then repaired.
“Ok. Let’s move along.” Alexis led her little group out of the cabin. To the left of the cabin area was a large circular arena. “This is an arena. I would assume people fight there.”
“That is what tends to happen in arenas.” Quinn nodded. Alexis started to lead everyone to the armory and stables, making up a story about them as she walked. Quin and Hans were trying to ask questions that she couldn’t possibly know the answers to so she made the answers up along the way. Alexis was laughing along with the boys and was starting to forget about disappearing gods and meddling centaurs. Alexis led the group inside the stables to say hello to Zebra and Brownie, but they were stopped by Malcolm Pace, the son of Athena.
“Are you back to supervise me?” Alexis asked.
“No. I’m back to tell you that the meeting is starting.”
“Oh. All right.” Her worries crept back into her mind.
Alexis felt a little worried as she started walking back to the pavilion. She wasn’t quite sure what would happen once the meeting started. Hans decided to stay by the lake saying that he wasn’t needed for the meeting. Malcolm had rushed off to find Castiel and Treya, who had gone to check out their old cabins. Alexis was left alone with Quinn as they walked toward the dinner pavilion.
“So how long have you been at Camp Jupiter?” Alexis asked him to break the silence.
“My whole life. I was born there.,” he replied.
“Really? Families live at your camp?” Alexis was surprised. Camp Half-Blood was just for teens and even then most kids only came during the summer months.
“Yeah. Some people have never even left camp.”
“Wow. That’s crazy. I can’t imagine choosing to stay in one place your whole life.” Alexis shook her head. People were so strange.
“You were born in Italy, right?” Quinn asked.
“Yup. To some bitch who couldn’t handle being a single mother.” Alexis said.
“That’s right, you were adopted by Abudanita. What’s it like to be raised by a goddess?”
Most days Alexis forgot that most gods didn’t raise their children. Her father was never a part of her life, but he was not the first man to leave a woman alone to raise a child. Maybe that was another reason Alexis hated her dad so much. A woman who wasn’t even related to her cared about her more than her actual father. Sometimes she wondered what would have happened if Abudantia had never found her. Would her father have done nothing while she died on the streets or grew up all alone?
“I don’t know, it was a pretty normal childhood really. My life wasn’t any different from anyone else. Romans fought on the Confederate’s side so they weren’t welcome to live here in New York and since Abudanita is a Roman goddess, most people didn’t know she wasn’t mortal.” Alexis explained to him.
By then they had reached the dining pavilion. Alexis said a quick goodbye to Quinn and went to meet up with Castiel, Chiron, Percy, and Annabeth. Treya was over talking with Sam. She looked up as Alexis walked in, giving her a playful smile. Alexis returned it, even though she was still upset with her friend. Magnus and Alex sat on the left of the table. The Egyptians sat across from them on the right end. Hazel and Quinn sat in the middle along with Treya, Alexis, and Castiel. Castiel sat as far away from Alex as possible.
“Alright, first off I want to thank everyone for traveling here.” Alexis began. “I know it’s a lot to take in at first, trust me I get it. We just witnessed 150 years of human advancements in a couple of days.” Alexis gestured to herself, Treya, and Castiel. The joke didn’t get the reaction she had hoped for, but with the current state of the world maybe that was to be expected.
“Something is happening to our world. Something that is causing gods to disappear and magic to weaken. The power of many gods kept us all locked away, and yet it’s broken now.” Treya picked up the story.
“This is perhaps the first problem to stretch across all of our worlds.” Alexis spread her hands to encompass everyone at the table. “I think that means it’s a big issue, and we all need to be involved.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Hazel said. Everyone’s eyes glanced her way. Alexis was taken by surprise. From what Chiron had told her, Hazel seemed the most likely to help them. She had been very close to many members of the camp.
“What reason could you possibly have for not helping us out?” Alexis questioned.
“Well, for starters, the Romans really have no stake in this. For the past few years, we have been under constant danger and attacks. Everyone is ready for a break.”
“Just because you want a break doesn’t mean you get one,” Treya said.
“I’m not finished,” Hazel said. “There are three of you.” She pointed to Alexis, Treya, and Castiel. “One with direct blood of the Egyptians, one a child of Loki, a Norse god, one a child of Poseidon. Notice how there is no Roman blood involved.”
“My mother was a Roman goddess.”
“Not your birth mother,” Hazel said. “Beyond that, we Romans were not involved in any of this from the start. We were told about you only as a courtesy. When the considerations were made about how to handle the three of you, we were not involved. The Romans were left out of this from the start. We don’t have the strength right now to clean up a mess we did not make.” She hesitated, turning to Percy and Annabeth with pain in her eyes. “I’m sorry, truly I am. But I have to make sure Camp Jupiter comes first. You all will be fine without us.”
“Hazel, wait,” Percy said, holding his arm out to keep her from leaving.
“Percy, Annabeth,” Hazel said, addressing her two friends. ”You know I love the both of you, but new Rome can’t go through this again.” Hazel’s voice broke. “Not after Jason.”
Percy stepped back. He didn’t say anything else as the Praetor and guard left the dining pavilion. Annabeth pulled him back gently, putting her arm around him comfortingly. Quinn turned around for a moment to look at Alexis and then he followed Haze out.
“How dare they,” Castiel said indignantly. “They’re just as much a part of this as everyone else.”
“Cas,” Alexis whispered softly, “Not now.” She felt embarrassed about how everything had gone down. It was her job to be a strong leader and bring the worlds together, and she felt like Hazel had walked all over her.
“So what do we do?” Alex asked. “About the gods disappearing and stuff.”
Alexis stopped to think. Why hadn’t she thought of a plan before the meeting? Alexis felt her heart rate speed up as the weight of her failures started to overcome her. She should have been planning what to say instead of wandering around camp with Quinn and Hans.
Luckily, Treya stepped in to save her. “The oracle!” Treya exclaimed. “It can give us a prophecy. Then we can go from there.” Alexis took a deep breath and shook off the bad thoughts that had started to creep into her brain.
“Yes! You’re a genius,” Castiel said.
“What's the oracle?” Sadie wondered aloud. Chiron cleared his throat.
“Why don’t you three go up while I explain?” He waved at Treya, Alexis, and Castiel. “Do you remember where it is?”
“The cave, right?” Castiel replied. Chiron nodded in confirmation.
They quickly made the trek across camp to the cave of the oracle. It was the same place the Oracle had lived when they had first come to camp. The cave was now covered with a velvet curtain embroidered with snakes.
“Hello!” Alexis called. After a long pause, a voice answered her.
“Come in!” Treya pulled the curtain aside and they entered the cave. Inside the cave, a girl stood with her back to them. She was tilting her head and looking at a canvas painting. It was clear that the painting had just been done by the girl. She twirled a still-wet brush in her fingers and her clothes were covered in splotches of paint. She finally set down the brush and turned to see her visitors.
“Ah. I’ve been expecting you.” She said. Her hair was a crazy mass of red curls. They bounced and bobbed as though they had their own life. A splatter of freckles raced across her nose, that were not unlike the splatters of paint on her pants.
“We need a prophecy. Can you help us?” Treya asked the girl.
“In a moment it will come,” Rachel said.
“What will-” Castiel started to ask but stopped as it became obvious. Rachel had slumped back onto a nearby stool. Her eyes had rolled up in her head until there was nothing but whites. The room around them suddenly changed. It dropped in temperature and gave Alexis the feeling that someone was running a cold finger up her spine. From Rachel’s mouth rushed a cloud of green spoke. When she spoke her voice was not that of a young girl’s like it had been only seconds ago. It was old and raspy.
Three shall travel down to the pit of the dead
One shall stumble and become mislead
The lord of the skies, newly arisen
Strikes from within his eternal prison
The powers awoken bring doom to all
As one by one, the gods shall fall
As quickly as it had come, it was all over. Rachel’s pupils were back and so was her voice.
“Did it happen?” She asked. “Was it a good one?” Alexis nodded, but she wasn’t focusing enough to answer. She was too busy making sure to remember each line exactly. It did not sound like a promising prophecy. The gods shall fall. It was a promise, not a suggestion. Did it mean they were doomed to fail? Treya spoke to Rachel first.
“Do you always give out such…dark prophecies?”
Rachel raised a brow. “I mean, prophecies aren’t usually very upbeat, seeing as they come in times of hardship. Was this one particularly bad?”
Treya shrugged. “I wouldn’t know, I’ve only ever heard the one.”
Castiel scratched their head. “Can we get, like, a written version? I’m bad at remembering things.”
Rachel laughed. “Sadly no. I don’t actually know the prophecies, and I don’t exactly get a receipt.”
“Ok.” Alexis had been working to memorize the lines of the prophecy. She looked at Treya. “Do you have it?”
Treya nodded slowly. “I think so.” Even when they had been kids, Treya’s memory had been remarkable. Her time memorizing Egyptian spells had probably only made it better.
Alexis was pretty sure she had the prophecy herself, but it was always reassuring to have a backup plan. She looked back at Rachel, who had picked a paintbrush off the floor and was now twirling it.
“Thank you, I think. We’ll bring it to the others.”
“Of course. I hope it treats you well.” With that foreboding statement, the three friends walked out of the cave, leaving Rachel to her painting.
“Well that didn’t sound good,” Castiel said once they had gotten a good distance from the cave. “One shall stumble…that doesn’t mean one of us, does it? We’re not going to…” They didn’t finish the sentence, but the ending was implied.
“No,” Alexis spoke harshly. “No. We just got each other back. We won’t lose someone.”
“Agreed,” Treya said, her expression dark.
“You’re right,” Castiel agreed. “I’m just being paranoid. That cave freaked me out, that’s all.” The three nodded to one another, but none of them looked convinced.