Part 2
Aura glances around again, mist, magic runes, slight British accent and the golden lab that’s pattering up to her feet for scratches, clue her in. She bows carefully, partially because she’s a goddess but mostly to scratch the lab.
“Mother.” She says cautiously, Hecate is gazing around the grove not paying any attention to her.
“It’s a teleportation ritual. The stones draw energy into the runes on the floor and teleport the casters to another circle of stones. Of course the floor is covered in moss now and would probably need to be recarved. I'm claiming one of your brothers soon. Have Lou Ellen and yourself ready when the rest of your siblings arrive to pick you up. After Kronos wins the war you should bring your new brother here, he’d like it. It matches his pathway too.”
“Mother.” Aura says with a warning tone, standing up.
“I’m here for 3 things. That was the first, this is the second.” She says. In her outstretched hand is an earring, a blue book with turnable pages that’s attached to a sliver hook.
“It’s a spell book, complete with every spell available in the Wix libraries as well as a couple of my favorites from other places, I’ve marked the difficulty levels in green, yellow, red and everything in between. There are also potions, and rituals. There’s even my personal notes, and instructions. All the things that I thought you would like have a blue tab on their page, of course it’s mostly spells. The book is infinite, of course, so it will never run out of pages that way you can add your own spells and notes-“
“Mother! What do you want?” Hecate looked startled and turned to her.
“Aura, my darling daughter. Out of all my children you are by far the most powerful. Every single path that I see before you leading to magnificent achievements, I want to start you onwards.”
“So you want a piece of the fame?” Hecates face flattened immediately, a scowl forming.
“I know potential when I see it, my child. But I also know an argument when I see one, so I’ll get onto my last order of business. That.” She said, pointing at Princess’s brand.
“You must not let anyone see it, ever. You know the enlarging spell, correct?” She nods.
“Good. Enlarge your new spell book and find page 76.”
“Lasting glamour spell by projection off an object?” Aura read off the page, looking up, Hecate was holding out a gold ring with an onyx stone imbedded in it.
“It is an incredibly powerful spell. You’ll cast it on this ring, it will hide the mark.”
“So you’ll show to teach me how to hide a tattoo but not to fill me in on the first ten years of my life? Figures.” *1*
“Don’t be ungrateful daughter. Now start practicing.”
—After the Battle of the Labyrinth—
Aura took a deep breath and sunk to the floor. She’s in a nice sunlit, or rather moonlit at this hour, grove. It’s off the edge of the woods, not deep enough that monsters room through it, the dyards are nice if not friendly. Overall it’s a good spot to stand back and take in the day, and gods had it been a long one. Mother hadn’t lied, she had claimed a new kid. His name is Kaleb, he’s asleep in his sleeping bag, Travis, Conner and her had been talking about some floating bunk beds. Annabeth had promised back them up in the next Head Counselors meeting but for now all she could do is wait, that and tend to her injuries. Mother’s bribery present had been very helpful, Aura is fast and resourceful so she didn’t get lots of big injuries, just some cuts and bruises here and there. The other healers wouldn’t have let her help if they knew that she was hurt though, that’s where Mothers glamour charms had been helpful, and now in the quiet of the night she could heal up. A bruise on her chin, claw marks on her shoulder and a cut from a stray arrow on her forearm. Next to the cut is a message from Princess, ‘Alma? Are you ok? What’s happening??’ Aura chuckled and traced her bold script, butterflies in her stomach from Princess’s fretting. ‘Alma? Is that my new nickname? And yes I’m fine, sorry for worrying you.’ It wouldn’t be till a couple years later when Aura would learn what Alma meant, at the time she was only learning Latin and Greek. Soul. At the time it had probably meant to meant Soulmate but eventually it became her nickname.
—A year later—
Dolores Umbrige had been visibly happy when Aura was caught outside of her dorm after curfew. Aura was usually very cautious, either using an invisibility spell or her animagus form when heading to and from her dorm at night. That night however she was in a rush, a hellhound had apparently taken refuge in the Forbidden Forest and had seen the lone demigod training near its borders as a perfect midnight snack. She had to cut her training short and rush back to the school’s protective borders. *2* Annabeth had been telling her since she was 10 that she needed to work on her awareness of the areas she was in and as always with the daughter of Athena, she had been right. Filch had found her and dragged her to Umbridge, instead of Professor Flickwick, her house head. Professor Flickwick was one of the 4 teachers in the school that knew her heritage, he and Dumbledoor had both given her permission to train after curfew. When she tried to explain this to Umbridge however, Aura was accused of lying. That’s how she ended up in detention today. Arriving at Umbridge’s office, she had been told to sit down and write lines. With no ink. Honestly she’d see weirder, maybe Umbridge unlike the rest of the Wix population had finally realized they can just enchant ink into the quill. She puts down her book bag and starts writing. As Umbridge demanded she began to write “I do not have special privileges.” Dotting the ‘i’s. She focuses on making her writing as beautiful as she can to spite Umbridge. It’s not till the 11th *3* line that she starts to feel something odd. Scratching quickly at the back of her hand she keeps writing. The ink is an odd color, crimson red, if she looks at it from a certain angle it shimmers gold too. 5 more lines and the back of her palm starts to bleed. On the next one she lets out a yelp, Umbridge’s smile looks sinister. She lasts 20 more lines before she’s excused. Her hand is dripping blood, the pain is almost unimaginable, she’s walking back when she feels a different sensation through the ache. It feels like the tightening of a fabric or wrap around her wound. Likely Princess trying to stop the bleeding. Her medical skills are almost sad, it does make sense. Aura has been the one to take care of their injuries over the years. When she gets back to the dormitory Luna is passed out over her potions homework. Aura grabs some gauze and wraps her hand, before eating some nectar. The end result leaves her with a few white scars that trace some of the letters. It’s not complete enough for someone to know what the words are but it’s too neat to be random scars. She’s done all she can and now all she can do is hope that Princess didn’t get the chance to read the sentence. To Aura’s luck her prayers were seemingly answered, Princess never questioned the odd placement Of the scratches.
(Little did she know, somewhere on the other side of the world Reyna was replaying the statement over and over again in her head. That night she made herself a promise, once she finally met Alma in person, Reyna would do everything in her power to make her feel as special as possible.)
—2 years later—
Reyna had been in a Senatorial meeting for the past 4 hours. The Senate was discussing all the post war battles and despite how simple it seemed, just rebuilding and recovering from the war, they couldn’t seem to agree on anything. She and Jason were leaving the Senate House when he spoke up.
“Honestly I think that being a praetor during war is easier then being a praetor during peace.”
“Gods, esos tontos *4*” Reyna spoke, letting her fake American accent drop. She knew that many people in the senate would doubt her if they knew about her illegal immigration here so she hide her accent. Jason on the other hand was her best friend, if could trust anyone it was him, and Alma of course. Alma, who she really wanted to sit down and write to. She had a way of making everything seem better.
“Hey, I found this cafe in New Rome. It’s a little hole in the wall sort of thing, small business and what not but they’ve got a great hot chocolate.” Jason sang, he knows her weakness for hot chocolate. She laughed and said
“Ok, you got me. But let’s head back to the praetor apartments first. I want to change and maybe grab a, uh a, pluma, a PEN!” Jason laughed at her and her English fumbling.
“Wow. That senate meeting must have really fried your brain. I haven’t seen resort to Spanish since that one time when you had just woken up, and that was years ago.”
“Oh haha, yeah well what about that time with the rice noodl-“ Reyna started teasing him back when a girl tripped in front of them. A really cute girl. She looked to be a couple inches shorter than Reyna, brown eyes with green at the pupils rims. Underneath them are heavy eye bags, the kind you get after not sleeping for quite some time. Her checks flushed pink making her look even cuter, and she scrambled up.
“Oh gods, I’m so sorry praetors. I haven’t slept in a minute and my brain wasn’t exactly present yet. I’ll get out of your way, sorry again!” She said, frantically trying to neaten her space buns. She had a pretty voice, it was musical almost. Gentle with a hint of an accent that she couldn’t quite grasp, something about the girl made Reyna freeze. Her speech patterns were almost familiar but she had never heard her voice before. Jason seemed to notice her brain’s pause and stepped forward to speak.
“No problem, ma’am. Get some rest soon, can’t have soldiers falling asleep on the job!” Jason said half playful half serious in a praetor tone that only he could pull off. The girl nodded with a smile and turned to the remains of her drink which lay on the ground.
—The next day—
Aura’s eating her lunch on a hill near the Camp borders. The sun is shining, and the breeze feels amazing. She’s writing a letter to Annabeth, the basics, schools going ok, she’s doing well and is considering getting a tattoo, “because YOLO you know?” She chuckles while writing that part because in her mind’s eye Aura can see Annabeth’s annoyed expression. She dips her raven feather quill, a gift from Kaleb, Will was horrified *5*, into the ink again when she feels a shadow over her.
“This is a beautiful spot.” Praetor Ramirez-Arellano says causally. Aura is frozen in shock, not only has the Praetor of Camp Jupiter come to her spot but now she’s making small talk? The afternoon sun is hitting her at the perfect angle and she looks stunning. Obsidian black eyes that are dangerous yet regal. Eyes that are now turning to her due to the lack of response.
“Um, yes. No offense Praetor but, do you need something?” Aura asked hesitantly.
“I thought I would check up on you after yesterday. Did you sleep this time?”
“Oh! Yes, I did. I’ve just been working on a project lately that has been taking up quite a bit of my time.” Aura throws a little laugh at the end of her sentence to make it more convincing. She hadn’t been lying, all of Camp Jupiter was her project right now. Mother wanted to her to scout around and make sure that Luna would not be exposed as a Greek here, of course her idea was to send Aura as a test run. Mother also insisted that Aura was to be an Ambassador not a member of the legion, and while it had upsides like no legion tattoo and the freedom to come back and forth. The were downsides too of course, the one she’s currently working on was finding someone to vouch for Luna when she got there, they would have to be a member of the legion so Aura couldn’t do it. Praetor Ramirez-Arellano raised an eyebrow, she looked intimidating but kind of hot. Focus Aura! That’s your boss!
“Ok I slept 5 hours. But it’s fine! I’ve gone on less.”
“You know that doesn’t make me feel any better, right?” The praetor’s lip twitched upwards and for a moment she seems human. Not like the cold emotionless monster some of the legionaries describe her as. The praetor turns and starts to walk off when Aura speaks.
“I don’t suppose you have plans for lunch?”
“Truth be told I was planning on working through it. I forgot my food.”
“Oh that won’t do. I have a few spare kabobs, why don’t you join me?” The praetor hesitated for a moment then walked over to her and joined her on the blanket. Aura smiled brightly and reached over to grab a kabob as she asked,
“Do you have any allergies, praetor?”
“Reyna.” Aura frowned and searched her brain for any allergies like that. Praetor Ramirez-Arellano looked amused and told her,
“You can call me Reyna.”
“Beautiful name.” She commented in reply, truly meaning it. She liked its Spanish heritage, although she liked anything to do with Spanish. It always made her think of Princess. *6*. The praeto- Reyna was honestly gorgeous. Chocolate skin, black hair tied back in a braid and little white crisscrosses of scars that seemed to only add to her beauty instead of mare it. The conversation was a bit stiff with them being strangers but the company was quite pleasant.
*1* Aura, being a Ravenclaw, has (deadly) way with words, it’s not prominent right now but when she’s older she’s been know to knock people down a few pegs when she gets going. She also can be quite persuasive even without the mist or charm speak (yes I said charmspeak, apparently in cannon children of Hecate can use charmspeak, it’s just rare. Amara would have the best chance with it because her pathway is the Mist but she doesn’t really use it much, only when she or the Band need to leave school, and only in very important situations (Amara once used it to let her teach leave class in the middle of the day because Amara forgot to study for the test that day, Aura practically chewed her head off when she found out so know Amara only uses it when she has a good reason) Aura has used it once or twice in an emergency but always unintentionally, Luna has no interest, Lou Ellen gave up trying a couple years ago, Casey isn’t interested in it, Kaleb and Lila are both in the process of trying to learn it, and Derek well… I’m sorry but it’s called charm speak for a reason.)
*2* Aura is not a fighter. She avoids fighting whenever she can. She’s a healer instead. That’s why she retreated instead of fighting it.
*3* Demigods have a slight resistance to magic, it’s not big enough that spells don’t affect them, the spells are just weaker when used on a demigod hence why it took longer for the quill to cut into Aura’s skin
*4* translation (hopefully) “those idiots”
*5* Ravens are Apollo’s sacred animal.
*6* this oblivious idiot