Chapter Text
This was an old dream. He’d had it many times before.
Jerry, standing before the Roman Senate.
Mars, waving his hand. A lyre, appearing on Jerry’s arm.
Jerry’s prophecy: “Crowns will fall to ash.”
Jupiter, standing between the new augur and a towering statue of himself.
Apollo, standing between his father and his son.
Olympus, Apollo on his knees, trembling, electricity jumping over his arms.
A stranger’s face, dark and stony. He says something, but the words are quiet.
The doors of the Palace of the Sun. Chained shut.
Years of silence from his father. Nothing but this dream. Over and over again.
Will’s eyes opened to the darkness of Cabin 7. The first streams of daylight were peeking through the curtains, illuminating the sleeping bodies of his siblings: Kayla, Austin, Gracie, Yan. Only five, not counting Jerry at New Rome. There used to be so many of us , he thought miserably as he flipped to his other side and closed his eyes again. Sleep didn’t come.
Will heard Gracie shuffling in her bed as Will did his best to dress in silence. He looked up from tying his shoes to see his sister gazing at him through the darkness from under a blonde bedhead. “You too?” he whispered.
Gracie nodded. Will waited by the door as she climbed from her bunk and got dressed in equal silence. They stepped outside, the winter sun rising to reflect over the frozen lake. I wonder if this is the best we’ll get from now on , Will thought as the sunlight momentarily blinded him, but immediately felt guilty. He knew, really knew, that if his dad had any choice, Apollo wouldn’t have gone radio silent after only a year of his return to godhood. Two and a half years ago.
Gracie’s breath fogged the air in front of them as they trudged to the Big House. “I saw my mom’s headstone, this time. Right in between the stranger and the doors.”
Will didn’t say anything until they climbed up the stairs to the porch of the house. “I’m sorry I couldn't come to the funeral,” was all he said as he followed Gracie inside.
She shrugged. “Don’t be. You had finals.” Silence fell for a moment as they made their way to the infirmary. “How were they?”
Will snorted. “Missed my history final. Because my physiology exam was interrupted by a hellhound. Can’t wait to get those grades back… You know,” he shrugged as he plucked a stray gauze bandage off the floor from a particularly hectic game of Capture the Flag last night. “Just demigod stuff.”
Gracie’s smile seemed too forced. “Tell me about it. I had to leave my grandpa’s place earlier than I thought after a very strange conversation with a wind spirit.”
She wouldn’t meet Will’s gaze as he looked over. “How are you?” he asked, as gently as he could.
She sat on the nearest cot with a soft fwoomp, fiddling with a spare stethoscope. “It’s just…” Her shoulders rose so high they almost touched her ears. “Hard.” A sound escaped her, a mix of a sob and a laugh, like it had been punched out. She raised her eyes to the ceiling of the infirmary and Will saw tears brimming there. “And it’s so stupid, because now all I can think about is that I won’t have either of my parents a-at… anything. Because just for a second,” she said, bowing her head again as bitterness flooded her voice, “I thought both of them could be there. Like everybody else.”
Will crossed over to sit next to Gracie and placed a hand on his sister’s back. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. “Occupational hazard,” she mumbled into her hands before sniffing again and peeking at Will from over her fingers. “But I bet we’re the only half-bloods who miss our godly parent.”
Will offered her a small smile. “Probably.” He stood up again and tossed the bandage into the trash. For a while, Gracie helped him clean the infirmary, mopping the floors and changing sheets. He caught hints of one of the new songs she was writing, carried around the room in her alto voice. He idly thought of their father, who Will could easily remember humming random tunes in the year he had been close, just a prayer away.
When the bell rang for breakfast, they went over and saw the pavilion was unusually crowded for this time of year, so much so that Will had to skirt around it to reach the Apollo table, instead of cutting through like he normally would in the middle of December. Chiron must have been having the same thoughts, and Will saw his face twisting with something deeper than concern as he surveyed the amassed campers. Sure, mostly everybody was out of school at the moment for the holidays, but past years had never seen this big of an influx of campers.
Will wondered, and it was only a matter of time before someone else said it out loud, if this had something to do with the increase of monster attacks in the past few months. The demigods had enjoyed relative quiet in the past three years (which had, if anything, made his dad’s absence more prominent), but it felt like the world around them seemed to have a problem with the silence. Will suspected that many campers had fled to the safety of the camp enchantments as their last ditch efforts to stay alive.
The same went for Will - he had already been planning to be at camp over the break to be with Nico, who had stayed at camp while Will went off to college (long-distance was working fine for them, thankyouverymuch Kayla), but he had to admit that not being attacked by a monster every other day was making him reconsider going back to school. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about making this move permanent, and dropping out to stay at camp full-time again, but he knew Nico would fight him on that, tooth and nail.
Speak of the devil…
“Hey,” Nico mumbled through a yawn as he sat down next to him and accepted Will’s daily good morning cheek kiss. “You weren’t in your cabin?”
“Infirmary,” Will said as shook his head and he rose again to scrape part of his breakfast off his plate into the fire. Come back soon, Dad , was all he sent up with his offering, the same prayer as every other day for the last couple of years.
Nico eyed him as they sat down again, clearly taking note of the silence at the table. Austin, Yan, and Kayla picked at their food as well, still half-asleep. “The dream, again?”
“As always,” Yan muttered.
After breakfast, Will fell into his usual routine: Inspection, restocking the infirmary and trying not to get his head caved in by low-flying pegasi. After lunch: watch Nico train the younger campers in sword skills, and pull an unfortunate amount of splinters out of Rosamie’s foot while Malcom Pace watched, wincing. Yan backed out and let Will take medic duty, saying “I deal with this all year, it’s your turn.”
“Why were you barefoot? It’s the middle of winter,” he asked as he lowered his sharpest tweezers to the skin.
“Technically, winter doesn’t start for two more days,” Rosamie grumbled.
Will resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course an Athena kid would walk barefoot on the docks and then nitpick his word choice regarding the specific time of year. “Doesn’t explain why you weren’t wearing shoes.”
A satyr stumbled into the infirmary just as Will sent Rosamie and Malcom off, accompanied by none other than Chiron and Grover Underwood. The satyr had a bloody gash over his eyebrow, and was leaning heavily on Grover.
“This is Mike,” Grover said in a way of greeting him as he guided the satyr over to the nearest cot.
“What happened?” Will said as he hurried over and leaned over the satyr, who’s eyes had slipped closed as soon as he had laid down. “Hey, it’s not sleepy time.”
Grover stepped in to explain. “He and the demigod he was with have been being attacked since they left Maine. I don’t think either of them have slept.”
“This isn’t too deep, you should be okay,” Will said as he examined the cut, making sure Mike’s eyes stayed open. “Where’s the demigod?”
“Here,” Chiron said, guiding forward a little girl. She was pretty small, no more than five years old, with short brown hair poking out in pigtails from underneath a green bucket hat, buried in a pink sherpa coat, with her arms wrapped around an orange backpack.
Will handed Mike a cup of water before he knelt down in front of the girl. “Hi, I’m Will. What’s your name?”
She whispered something, but Will didn’t hear.
“Margo Hernandez,” Mike said from behind him, sitting up. “Maggie.”
“Are you hurt, Maggie?” Will asked, as gently as he could. She shook her head, the hat threatening to fall off. Will could only watch as Maggie silently walked over to the nearest empty cot, laid down, and promptly fell asleep.
Chiron sighed. “I will have Paolo assist when she wakes.” He and Grover simultaneously turned to Mike. “Tell us everything.”
“Well, I was tipped off that there was a demigod in the area, in northern Maine,” Mike started.
“By whom?” Chiron asked sharply.
Mike shrugged, then winced. Will stepped closer to examine the bruises along his shoulders. “It was anonymous,” Mike continued as Will worked. “I heard from a dryad, and she didn’t know either. But I could smell monsters everywhere, so that’s how I found her.” Mike shook his head, and glanced over at Maggie. “When I got to the apartment, the monsters had found her and her family already. Her parents were both dead, and she was hiding in the closet.”
“Parents?” Will asked before he could stop himself. “Like, plural?”
“One was probably a stepparent, but not knowing which one makes it difficult to determine who her godly parent could be,” Chiron offered. “Hopefully, whoever it is will claim her soon, rather than wait for her thirteenth birthday. She’ll have to be a full-time camper, and I would rather she be with her siblings.”
Will nodded slowly as Chiron continued. “What concerns me most is her age. She is much too young to be noticeable to monsters, so how did they find her?”
Grover’s brow furrowed. “You don’t think she was being targeted? Who would target a five-year-old?”
Chiron’s hoof clopped loudly on the floor. “I believe the identity of her godly parent will illuminate the situation. Now, if you will excuse me, I will go fetch Paolo.”
Grover tottered for a moment as well, before he spoke loud enough that the retreating Chiron would still hear him. “Well, what if she was born after the Oath of the Big Three was rescinded? That would explain a lot, and she’s in the right age group.”
Chiron turned around again, and gazed at Maggie for a moment. “I’m not sure. And there is also the question of who tipped Mike off.” He eyed Will. “Still no news of Apollo?”
Will shook his head, trying to tamp down his rising feelings of bitterness. “Nothing but the dream.” Chiron’s look pierced him, so much so that Will felt like Chiron was reading his mind. The look didn’t stop, so Will stumbled through his next words. “It’s nothing, but I just… I mean, it’s been two a half years. If he could get a message to a dryad, you’d think we would have heard more from him than just one repeating dream.”
Chiron hummed as he turned to leave again. “I think you’re right.”
Grover placed a hand on Will’s shoulder before he followed. “Hang in there.”
“Thanks,” Will mumbled.
As promised, Paolo showed up a little while later and guided a yawning Maggie out onto the grounds for a tour. Will couldn’t help but laugh as she waved at him over her shoulder. “Bye, Willy!”
People huddled for warmth in the pavilion during and after dinner, and Nico needed no excuse to pull a spare blanket over Will and himself as the campfire was lit. Gracie pulled out a guitar and started singing ‘Ouranous the hellhound’, in which the hellhound went to the vet to be neutered. Nico snickered from beside him as they watched the other younger campers’ faces frozen in varying looks of confusion and disgust.
He watched Maggie from across the fire, sitting with Connor Stoll and Paolo, giggling like there was no tomorrow. Will was glad to see it, although he also hoped she didn’t understand the joke of the song.
The sun had set hours ago at this point, and it was nearing ten o’clock by the time the songs ended and the remaining s’mores ingredients had been squirreled away by the Hermes cabin. The younger campers were yawning, wide-mouthed as their counselors started to whisk everybody off to bed.
But before anyone could truly make their way back to their cabins, a terrible, monstrous shriek rent the air, echoing across the lake and making everybody jump. Peleus, up on the hill, lifted his head and lowed in return. The demigods all rose to their feet, some picking up weapons that had been carelessly thrown to the ground. Beside Will, Nico placed his hand on his sword, clearly not wanting to draw it and risk hurting anyone in the crowd. Dionysus, lounging on the deck of the Big House, stood and, staring into the sky, slowly walked towards the campfire, while Chiron’s hand drifted to his quiver.
“Die immortales!” someone said from behind Will, but he couldn’t figure out why everyone was gasping - he couldn't see anything.
“Will!” Austin roughly pushed his shoulder. “Look!”
Will turned around and saw. Illuminating the crowd with a golden light was a symbol, floating in the air above Maggie’s head. She stared up at it, the glow illuminated in her eyes, the shape instantly recognizable: a lyre.
“No way,” Will muttered, but he couldn’t find anything else to say before the shriek sounded again, this time followed by a louder, more terrible screech. It was definitely coming closer, and campers started spreading out from around the fire, giving themselves space to draw weapons. Will threw off the blanket from around his shoulders to run around the fire, grabbing Maggie and pulling her onto his hip while Connor pulled out his knife.
Maggie began to protest, but Will quickly hushed her as Nico appeared on his other side, his sword drawn. “Let’s get her up to the Big House,” was all he said.
All the campers were silent, waiting for the next sound, trying to gauge where it was coming from, and the shriek sounded yet again: “FREAAAAAAAAAAAK!”