part 3
—A week later—
Aura’s sitting at a table with Jason, Gwen and Marie *1* at lunch for the thrid day in a row. Marie is the only one that she can confidently say is her friend. The other two are more Reyna’s friends than hers, she was just a tag-a-long who had brought along one of her own. Not that Marie was having any problems, she was easily chatting Gwen and Jason. Reyna was Aura’s usual lunch partner but she seemed to be skipping lunch for her second time this week. Jason making a comment about how “this is one of her better weeks” when he notices her concern, is what jumps her into gear. She grabs her stuff and lets the others know she’s going to try and find Reyna.
Aura finds Reyna in her office, which in hindsight was probably the first place she should have checked. She pulls over a chair and admires Reyna’s determined face before talking.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jason do this much paperwork” Aura jabs her head at the stacks of papers next to Reyna’s hunched form.
“He doesn’t.” Reyna replies. Aura can hear hints of a Spanish accent that’s heavier than she is normally privileged with. She almost doesn’t notice the subtle slurring of her words, once she does alarm bells ring. For all the time she’s known Reyna, which granted hasn’t been very long, she’s been perfectly composed.
“Reyna?” Aura calls alarmed.
“Hm?” She hums without looking up.
“Are you ok?” She asks, desperately turning her head trying to chance a glimpse at Reyna’s face.
“I’m fine, Aura.”
“Why doesn’t Jason take over a bit of this work and you come join us for lunch?” She tries gently. Reyna finally looks up. She looks exhausted, eye bags appearing and her usual put together praetor look is nowhere to be seen. She looks at Aura for a few seconds, her eyebrows turned up and eyes almost soft then she speaks.
“Aura, Jason is the face of the legion. Everyone knows him, his job is pretty much just to sit around and look strong and powerful. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy. Mierda *2*, he’s my best friend! If he knew just how much work I do he would be shocked and throw himself into helping, but I can’t do that. Imagine, the son of Lord Jupiter himself, sitting in a back room doing paperwork. No. The work falls to me. That’s how it has to be. I appreciate you worrying over me but really, I’ll be fine.” Reyna turns back to her work like nothing happened while Aura sits reeling. Then she reaches into her bag and pulls out an apple.
“At least eat something. You’re no help to anyone if you waste away back here.” Reyna’s soft look comes back and she takes the apple. Aura pretends not to shiver when their hands brush.
—the next week—
Reyna has never been fond of deathball. The name itself gives red flags. Who even came up with the game? Shooting acidic paintballs at each other till someone wins? She understands that the legion has to be battle ready but it’d be pretty hard to ward off a full scale attack on Camp Jupiter if most of their soldiers are in the infirmary with acid burns! Nevertheless it’s a traditional game and she can’t stop it from showing up in the battle games rotation. She doesn’t however have to like it. Neither does Jason, by the way he flinches at every pained scream.
The new augar, Octavian, doesn’t share Jason’s sympathies. He grins cruelly every time someone from the 4th or 5th gets hit. Reyna lets out a sigh that quickly transforms into a gasp at the sudden burning on the back of her shoulder.
“Praetor, are you alright?” Octavian asked in a sugary fake tone. She ignores him, tugging off her cape then pulling up the sleeve of her right arm.
“Reyna?” Jason asks. He turns away from the game and his eyes zero in on the red blistered burn on her shoulder.
“By the gods! Someone hit Praetor Ramirez-Arellano!” Octavian cries.
“No. If I was hit then my clothes would have been burned.” Reyna mumbles loud enough for Jason and Octavian to hear. She prods at the edges of the wound to test it and Jason seems to light up all of a sudden.
“I guess this solves the mystery of whether Alma is a mortal.” He states, eyes mischievously twinkling.
“Alma?” Octavian pipes up. Jason goes to answer him and Reyna tunes out their conversation as she puts her cape back on and surveys the field. In her quest for Alma she finds something else instead. In one of the back corners Aura has been boxed in.
She’s kneeled down tending to one of the two injured that she has been trapped by. There’s about half a dozen people aiming their fire at her spot with more soldiers on their way. None of the “deathballs” hit her however, in fact none even come close. All stop and spatter against some kind of invisible barrier.
“Look.” Reyna says, strongly to catch the attention of the boys with her.
“That probatio hasn’t even taken one shot!” Octavian cries offended on behalf of his fellow men. Reyna feels a flurry of pride at Aura, those were known to be the more ruthless of the legion and she was holding them off with her back turned. Octavian stomps his foot and demands,
“There has to be rules against that! She’s cheating!”
“There are no rules against using magic Octavian. She’s the Ambassador of Trivia, let her do what she does best.” Jason says stubbornly and Reyna carefully angles her face away from Octavian to hide her smirk. Once she’s gathered her composure she speaks up as impartially as she can manage.
“If she were a real probatio and not an ambassador then I would have made her a full member for what she’s doing. Not only is she proving her capabilities with that force field holding off 14 of our best but she also took the time to provide medical aid to two of her fallen allies.”
“Quite a feat. I agree Reyna, it’s very impressive.” Jason says, before Octavian can but in. He withers and closes his mouth, not willing to talk back to both of his higher ups.
— A month later—
Aura wakes up at the right time for once. 8:00 straight down to the breakfast hall, Luna had been delighted. Her back is still burning from the tattoo she got the last night but she doesn’t regret it one bit. She’s proud of her decision, her recent adventure to Camp Jupiter for Luna has proved her love for her family and she wants a permanent reminder. The Greek symbol for family on her back between her shoulder blades in black. She’ll have to check if it affected her animagus form. As far as her knows it’s still a black cat with hazel eyes, she’d been hoping for something more dangerous when she’d done the ritual at 14 but in the past two years the cat had grown on her. Speaking of family she wanted to reach out to her new cabin, number 17. She’d recently gotten another sister, Amara Crock. With Luna, Amara that brought their numbers up to five including Aura herself. Amara had been quite homesick the other night and Aura had been her best to comfort her, or at least distract her. *3* As Aura is grabbing her breakfast she notices a note from Princess on the back of her hand. ‘Is this your revenge for the brand, Alma?’ She smiles, truthfully it had been a bit of her pettiness that gave her the final push to get the tattoo. Aura picks up the pen she keeps in her pocket and writes back. ‘You could have at least given me a warning! But no. Not fully at least.’ Luna nudges her as she finishing and reminds her that breakfast ends in 10 minutes.
—
Reyna smiled at Alma’s response, in truth she didn’t mind the tattoo. It being a Greek symbol had made her eye twitch but she found the fact that it meant “family” adorable and reminded her that this woman would grow old with her. The woman she is destined to love and honestly she might have already fallen. From Alma’s cursive script to her compassion to her scribbled to do lists. Speak of the devil, she started writing another list.
‘- Check up on siblings. - finish Prof. McGon’s essay -water plants -order new anatomy book -buy sleeping nettles 4 Ellie -do DADA homework -send Will a sample of the bone regrowing potion.’ Reyna had long since gotten used to Alma’s odd notes. Not to mention her overflowing schedule, that girl did not know what free time was, much less sleep. Reyna had the same problem and didn’t mind but when it came to Alma she would always make exceptions. She picked up her pen and added her own addition to Alma’s list, ‘take a nap or free up some time for reading.’ Alma was a fond reader, from medical textbooks to historical fiction *4* and Reyna never tired of hearing her mini story rants. She took a minute to appreciate their handwriting side by side, her own being bold but neat with a professional sense to it and Alma’s thin cursive words that tilted just slightly to the side giving it an intricate and elegant look.
— 3 days later —
Aura feels guilty. She’s lying to everyone and now she has dragged her sister (?) into it too? What makes it worse is that she’s good at it, no one had blinked twice when Aura had explained that Luna could only stay for a week before they had to leave to “go back to school.” When in reality Aura was taking her to the Wolf House. Katie and Will, her best friends had pouted, or Will had, but told her to meet them at Cabin 4 later. Percy had ruffled her head and even Annabeth, the person she had known the longest, couldn’t tell something was off, she’d just smiled sadly and reassured Aura that they had plenty of time. Katie and Will are sitting on the rocking chairs of Cabin 4 when she arrives, Jax waves to her as they walk down the steps and she waves back. Will immediately turns to her and starts to talk.
“Ok so, the Katie and Travis situation is even deeper then we thought.” He says. She puts down her purse and sits in the rocking chair next to him.
“Oooh, do tell.”
“There’s nothing to tell! I hate him and he hates me! THATS ALL!” Katie demands from Will’s other side.
“Sure. That’s why he’s always playing pranks on you.” Aura says sarcastically.
“EXACTLY!” Comes Katie’s response, and Will cuts in.
“I swear I saw him flinch when you stubbed your toe the other day.” Aura squeals, but Katie’s quick to shut it down.
“No way. Travis Stoll is not my soulmate.”
“You know there’s an easy way to settle this. Just write to your soulmate.” Aura suggests. Katie shakes her head.
“No, I wrote to my soulmate when I was younger remember? He was just some annoying kid who constantly cracked lame jokes.”
“Sure, because that doesn’t sound anything like Travis Stoll.” Will says sarcastically and he and Aura exchange looks.
“I don’t need a soulmate. They’re just a waste of time. We’re demigods, I’ll probably die in a couple years anyways.”
“Woah! Dark.” Will back leans into her space and she nods her head along. Katie glares back.
“Would it really be so bad?” Aura speaks even though she knows Katie won’t change her mind. While Will and her had fallen in love with the idea of soulmates Katie had always hated it.
“If it turns out to be Travis. Yeah.” Katie’s eyes roll for the 3rd time in this conversation.
“AH HA! So you’re considering it!” Will crows jabbing his finger in Katie’s face. A face that is quickly turning a violent shade of red. She slaps his finger away and says.
“WHAT? No I’m not!”
“Sure.” She and Will say unconvinced.
“Seriously! I’m not!” Katie defends.
“And we believe you, hon.” Aura croons reaching over Will to pat Katie’s hand. She and Will share a smirking look as she leans back. Katie’s eyes narrow.
“Drop it you two.”
“Fine!” Will says, hands up to signal surrender. He turns to her and asks, “So Aurie, so you and your soulmate still write all the time?” A smile creeps its way onto her face as she nods proudly. Will crosses his arms back pouting.
“Lucky! My soulmate never writes me back anymore. They used to be so sweet when we were kids. Always writing me, “What’s your favorite color? How was your day today?” Now it’s just radio silence all the time!” Katie laughs.
“I remember those days! It was back when you first came to camp, you couldn’t go a day without checking your arms for a new message!” The group shares a laugh. Aura had missed this, just her and her best friends. Laughing and teasing each other about the smallest things. She chimes in.
“His arms were almost black with all the ink! And remember how he used to refuse to jump in the lake with us because he didn’t want to mess the messages up!” Katie snickers and Will’s pout grows.
“Oh yeah, laugh up you two!” He says bitterly. They spend the next couple hours chatting and catching up. Before they know it the dinner gong is ringing and with arms linked, the trio makes their way to the dining pavilion.
—
*1* Marie Taylor, a Roman medic. Great granddaughter of Apollo. Fun fact; her mother is a mortal and her cousin (on her mom’s side) is actually a daughter of Athena (Maise Brown) but neither of them know that the other is involved in the godly world.
*2* crap/sh*t
*3* future story coming up about Amara’s first night in Camp Half-Blood.
*4* idk why but I feel like Aura’s character just kinda vibes with historical fiction for some reason