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Chapter Text

Odysseus sighed. “Is this really necessary?”

The man he was following barely glanced back. “You agreed to the conditions.”

Odysseus grimaced. “Well, yes, I did, but…” he wasn’t expecting to have to venture through a cesspit of crime and depravity to finally hold a meeting.

The man scoffed. “And so the word of a king holds so little weight. Color me unsurprised.”

Odysseus shut his mouth and tried to ignore the eyes that trailed after them as they made their way through the sketchy alleyway. Eventually, after taking too many twists and turns that even Odysseus’ prodigious memory couldn’t make heads or tails of, they ventured out of the dark alleyway and stepped onto a small, secluded port. Docked with thick ropes was one singular ship.

Odysseus couldn’t help but stare. He had heard of the infamous ship and her mistress, of course, but it did nothing to prepare him for actually seeing it in person.

The black ship with its magnificent pitch sails glistened under Artemis’ cool light. The model of the ship was peculiar, something Odysseus had never seen before. The ship was tall, taller than any other ship he had been on, and the sequence of oars that usually lined the sides of such vessels was missing. The eyes of the foreboding pitch-black pegasus figurehead seemed to follow them as they made their way up to the ship and boarded.

The man led him up to the captain’s quarters and held the door open for him. Odysseus nodded at him and stepped through. When his foot had barely crossed the threshold, the door slammed behind him.

Well. He supposed that he couldn’t expect proper manners with this sort of company.

Odysseus turned to observe the room, simple, functional, with a large bed with rumpled sheets and a handful of personal belongings, and finally, his eyes landed on her.

His breath caught.

Odysseus had only one true love, his darling Penelope. She was the light of his life and the only one he would ever touch. She would always be the most beautiful woman in the world to him.

But that did nothing to stop him from being stunned speechless.

Seated in front of him was an astonishingly gorgeous woman. She wasn’t traditionally beautiful in the classical Greek way, with girlish features and generous curves, nor in the Minoan way, with a stout, hardy build. No, this woman was tall, taller than was fashionable, with a leanness that belied the strength in her honed muscles. Her hair was as black as her ship, wavy from the salt spray, and was cut startlingly short, to end just above her collarbones. She wore curious clothes, with strange trousers adorning her crossed legs, and some sort of long, unidentifiable leather coat that fell to her knees. A strange hat rested on her head, the likes of which he had never seen before. The brim almost covered her peculiarly black-ringed eyes, probably to protect them from the sun and elements out on the open seas, Odysseus contemplated. The woman's features were sharp, with high cheekbones, hollowed cheeks, and a chiseled jawline, but rather than the combined effect being masculine, one couldn’t mistake her for being anything other than a woman.

But it was her eyes that truly revealed what he was dealing with. Standing out all the more from the black smears around them, her cat-like green eyes shone with uncontainable divinity, almost glowing in the dark of the night. She looked like a nymph, or perhaps a sorceress.

Or, in this case, like a goddess.

Odysseus shook himself out of his stupor. He lowered his head respectfully. “You have my thanks for taking the time to meet with me, Your Grace.”

The woman’s full, red lips pursed in displeasure. “Don’t call me that.”

Odysseus frowned. “I beg your pardon, then. Would you perhaps prefer that I address you by your title, My Queen?”

She scowled as she uncrossed her legs and stood. He was right- she really was unfashionably tall, perhaps even as tall as Eurylochus was. Fascinating.

Well, Odysseus mused, not that it made her any less intimidating. And intimidatingly beautiful.

“No. Call me Cordelia.”

Odysseus analyzed her. “Very well then. Cordelia.”

She began to pace. “And you can stop with the formal bullshit. I’m not a boot-licking politician you need to schmooze. Just get to the point. I got shit to do.”

Odysseus’ eyes widened at the informality, but he caught himself. “Alright then. I have a request.”

Cordelia continued pacing, barely sparing him a glance. Her fingers drummed a beat only she could hear on her thigh. “Yeah, no shit. That’s the only reason a king like you would make the trip all the way out here to visit me. So tell me, favored hero of the Wise One, what do you want from me?”

“I want you to lead us to Troy.”

Cordelia froze, all movement coming to a complete halt. She slowly turned to him. “What did you just say?”

Odysseus exhaled. “I’m sure you’ve heard by now, but there has been a major incident. Melanus’ wife, Helen, has been abducted, and now they both reside in Troy. As was the agreement, every one of Helen’s former suitors will set sail to reclaim her and return her to her lawful husband and kill the one who took her from him.”

Cordelia stared at him. “Yes. I understood that much. But I don’t see what this has to do with me. Are you under the impression that I was one of her suitors or something?”

Ha. “Of course not. To be honest, this does have nothing to do with you, at first glance.” Odysseus branded her with his penetrating eyes, so similar to his patron goddess’s. “This does not affect you directly, but this mortal war will soon be the parallel to a godly war, won’t it, Pirate Queen?”

Odysseus smirked bitterly. “After all, wouldn’t you know, with your connection to the gods?”

Cordelia’s pretty features morphed into a snarl, and her sea-green eyes glowed even more brightly. Odysseus felt the sharp tang of godly power fill the cabin.

“What do you think you know about me, you son of a bitch?”

Odysseus maintained his composure. “It is quite obvious that you are the daughter of the Brine Lord.”

Her eyes flashed. “So?”

Did she think that was all? Who did she think he was? “And, of course, there is the matter of your lover.”

Cordelia’s eyes narrowed menacingly. “Again, I repeat, so?”

That was enough for now. Even if he was a king, he was in a foreign land, on a powerful being’s territory. Best not to antagonize her too much lest he fall into the brine himself. Odysseus lifted his arms placatingly. “Peace, my Queen. Again, I am only answering your question. Please lead us to Troy. We desperately need your help.”

Cordelia stared at him for a few more moments before the weight of her power receded. She sighed, gracelessly flopped back onto her seat, and kicked a chair across from her. “Sit. Let’s talk.

Odysseus smiled and sat.

Chapter Text

People tend to forget that Sally Jackson is a remarkable woman. 

They dismiss her after their first impression. The pretty, young brunette who was stupid and irresponsible enough to get pregnant after opening her legs up to a handsome man. 

Pretty, but not pretty enough to make the man stay, leaving her with a daughter to raise by herself. 

Brave, but not brave enough to take initiative and make something of her life.

Smart, but not smart enough to know to use protection to prevent… that. 

Poor, poor little orphan Sally, whose parents left her too young and whose uncle never loved her, even after all the years he’s raised her. She never even had a chance. She was practically destined for teen pregnancy and single motherhood.

The thing is, they’re all wrong.

Let’s start from the beginning. 

When Sally Jackson met the god Poseidon, she fell in love with him, and eventually, she was gifted with a daughter more precious than anything she could ever own in her entire life.

That is a fact. 

But that wasn’t to say that he was her first love.

No, years before she met Poseidon, she had already fallen in love with something else.

Literature.

You see, Sally Jackson craved love and acceptance. She tried her hardest with her Uncle Rich, but even though he loved her, he always had to leave so that he could support them. 

Sally was left with a hole in her heart. One that slowly began to be filled with books. 

She would immerse herself in glorious tales, walk alongside noble heroes, and experience great, passionate loves that slowly began to fill the gap.

She knew that she was destined to write her own wonderful stories one day. She could feel it in her bones.

But, in the meantime, she had another beautiful gift that did more to complete her than a library full of books did. 

As she looked at her precious, darling daughter, several thoughts floated lazily through her mind.

Ever since she had fully understood what falling in love with Poseidon had meant, she was soul-crushingly worried about her baby. Her mind had furiously run through all the tales of Ancient Greece she had read. All of the kings, Gods, and heroes who met terrible fates. 

And no matter how much she hoped, she couldn’t help but feel that it would not be any different for her precious baby.

Poseidon had explained, “Names have power.” At the time, she didn’t understand, not fully, but she was beginning to. 

If Sally had a boy, she was going to name him Perseus, after one of the few Greek Heroes to attain a happy ending. 

But instead, she was blessed with a beautiful baby daughter, so full of life and love, and all of her previous plans fell away.

She had wanted to name her child a Greek name to honor Poseidon, but now, it didn’t quite seem to fit. 

Instead, her mind drifted to another name, one that had caught her attention years ago. 

A name that was bestowed upon a character who was known for her steadfast morality and courage, even in the face of losing everything dear to her.

A name that a courageous queen shared, who, upon having an empty throne before her, decided to step into leadership and protect her people.

A name that, funnily enough, meant two things in two different languages, but somehow still suited her daughter impeccably, meaning both ‘heart’ in Latin, and ‘daughter of the sea’ in Celtic. Sally would savor the irony for years to come.

A name that Uncle Rich had once confided in her before he’d passed, he’d have liked to have given to his own daughter, had he ever been blessed with one.

Sally Jackson smiled down at her beautiful baby girl. 

Cordelia Jackson.

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Cordelia was jerked from her slumber when she felt a brutal tug on her hair that snapped her head painfully back.

Her eyes snapped open, and she was able to take in her surroundings in a series of disjointed flashes.

The searing sun beating down on her exposed skin.

Grimy wooden floors slick with water.

Low railings pierced with a series of oars.

The thunderous splash of waves beating against walls of a ship. 

People, so many people, caked in filth, many of them in chains.

Chains.

Cordelia fought the strain in her neck and desperately tried to reach up to whatever was yanking on her hair, but she found her hands abruptly stopped short before she could raise them above her abdomen. 

She felt herself being dragged by her hair, her legs desperately trying to find traction on the slick floor, and she frantically tried to comprehend what was going on.

Chains!

She was chained. She was naked. She was being dragged by her hair. 

Oh fuck, Cordi woozily thought. This is not good.

Her hair was abruptly released, and she collapsed heavily to the floor. She scrambled to turn over, but found that her arms were chained together, and if that wasn’t all, those chains were attached to shackles around her ankles.

“What the fuck”, Cordelia rasped. “Where the fuck am I and who the fuck are you people?”

The last thing she remembered was defeating Gaea, and now, she was here, bare and helpless.

The man who had dropped her looked at her strangely. He had rough, tanned skin, typical of sailors, and his scraggly beard was disgusting to look at. When he opened his mouth, several of his teeth were missing. 

“The woman is speaking in tongues. This must have been why they abandoned her to the lord of the deep.”

Another man stepped into her vision. Like the first man, he too had tanned skin, however, he was a bit better groomed and wore slightly better clothes. He still had missing teeth, though.

“Almighty lord, what a waste of effort, fishing her out. We should have just left her for the scavengers to feast on. There must be something very wrong with her, otherwise, there’s no way they would abandon a pretty one like this.”

The first one side-eyed her. “Pretty, you say? Well, I suppose. She’s too skinny, though. She won’t fetch a good price. She looks just… bony.”

Cordelia gaped at them. 

Not because of what they were saying, which, what the actual fuck, but because they weren’t speaking in English, and yet, she understood every single word.

And no matter how dumb Annabeth liked to proclaim she was, Cordi was, in fact, not stupid.

There weren’t really a lot of situations in which people would fluently speak a dead language.

Maybe a really fucked up, immersive renaissance fair? An absurdly messed-up prank? An especially vivid nightmare?

No, Cordi numbly thought. It couldn’t be. 

Before she could fully absorb the ramifications of the only logical conclusion, the grimy man picked her up by the hair and began dragging her once again, this time towards a large group of shaking, chained-up people.

Another man was standing before all the cowering slaves, and this one wasn’t as tall as the other men. No, this man was wiry, balding, and clean-shaven. His eyes had a cunning glint to them.

Cordelia was dragged in front of this new man, but instead of being released, the pressure on her hair tightened, and her head was lifted until she was face to face with him.

The man’s eyes roved over her dispassionately. Cordelia stifled a shiver. He didn’t look at her sexually, but the sheer combination of indifference and evaluation sent a jolt of alarm down her spine. It was almost like he was dissecting her with his gaze alone. It was obvious that in his eyes, she wasn’t even a human, but was only a product. 

“So. This is what we fished out of the sea?”

“Aye, captain.”

“Hmmm.” The man continued to examine her. “She was unclothed?”

“Aye. She had not a scrap o’ cloth on her. Was as bare as the day she was born.”

The short man’s eyes zeroed in on her face. “Fascinating. Was she raped?”

Cordelia gritted her teeth. 

“Not sure, Captain. No one has touched her since we found her, if that’s what you’re asking.”

The Captain briskly nodded. “Good. Keep it that way. But did you see any other signs of rape or abuse?”

The man holding her hair shook his head. “No, Captain. A couple of scrapes and bruises, but no beatings.”

The Captain smiled. “Wonderful.” He made direct eye contact with her. “Girl. Are you married?”

Cordelia glared at him. The captain smiled and viciously backhanded her face. She felt a burn on her lip where his ornate ring ripped her flesh.

“I asked you a question, slave. Are you married?”

Cordelia furiously licked away the blood dribbling from her lip, but ground out, “No.”

The captain’s smile widened. “Splendid. A virgin.”

Cordelia tried to turn to him, but the hand clenching her hair jerked her head back. “What? I’m not-”

She was slapped again, and this time the sting of it brought tears to her eyes. Her head jerked to the side. A faint ring started up in her ears, and her vision began to go hazy.

The man sighed. “Stupid women. They never know when to shut up.” The man turned to his subordinate. “It looks like this one has a little attitude. You can discipline her, but make sure not to rough her up too much. I want her in good condition when we dock. She’ll fetch a pretty penny, that’s a guarantee. Just look at those eyes. Glistening like beautifully cut emeralds.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Do not rape her. I’m warning you. I want her untouched. She’ll be worth exponentially more untouched. I won’t say it again.”

“Understood, Captain.”

Cordelia was dragged away from the Captain, and soon her sight went dark as she slipped back into unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

Cordelia’s stomach groaned in agony as she gnawed on the shard of hard tack a man had thrown at her.

She was exhausted. 

But more than that, she was angry.

She had been chained on this infernal ship for what had seemed like a few weeks. It was hard to tell exactly how much time had passed, though, both because she was in a room below the deck, and the only hint of light she had was a few slivers leaking through the floorboards. But more than that, she slept for uncomfortably large periods of time, often being disoriented after losing large chunks if it wasn’t for the help of her fellow slaves.

Regardless, according to her roommates, she had been imprisoned for long enough for her to have turned seventeen.

Ha, Cordelia thought sardonically. Happy fucking birthday to me.

From what she had gathered, she was somehow back in the past. How far back, she didn’t know, but it was clear that the world that she had found herself in was very different from modern Manhattan. 

It was a small mercy that she could understand ancient Greek, but the thought brought her no comfort, not when there were other implications to consider.

She had been found floating naked in the sea and the ship of slaver scum had fished her out. 

She didn’t have a single scrap of cloth on her, but worse than that, she didn’t have Riptide.

When Cordelia wasn’t succumbing to her fatigue, she seethed. 

It had to have been Gaea. 

Right when they were about to defeat her, Gaea had screamed, a wail full of anger and fear, and her bloodshot eyes had made direct eye contact with the person who had been closest to her, which, after having Riptide impaled through her thigh, had happened to be Cordi. She whispered some words, her face filled with an unearthly wrath, and briefly, a cold gold halo surrounded her before she was vanquished. That was the last thing Cordi recalled before she was startled out of unconsciousness in her unpleasant new accommodations.

Cordelia would know the taste of that disgusting gold power anywhere.

Kronos.

That was what solidified it for her. Somehow, his mother had been able to invoke his power, and they had done something to send her here. Whatever that thing was, it completely sapped out all her power, leaving her absolutely helpless. She was barely able to stand and move around most days, and the shoddy rations they threw down at them once a day and the communal bucket of drinking water that over 15 people had to share didn’t leave her any way for her to regain her strength.

When she had regained consciousness for the first time after she had been taken to this new, dark room, she couldn’t do much more than sit up and scoot to a free spot against the wall. Even that small amount of movement had left her wheezing painfully.

Hours later, an older woman had dragged herself until she was next to Cordelia. The woman attempted to talk to her, but Cordelia could only shake her head when the language that the woman spoke wasn’t one she recognized. 

The woman sighed in disappointment, then removed her headscarf and handed it to Cordelia. The look of Cordelia’s confusion made the woman push the headscarf more emphatically into Cordelia’s hands and gesture to her body.

Ah.

The woman must have given up her headscarf for her so that she could have some semblance of clothing.

Cordelia couldn’t help but feel grateful. Even when they were in this horrible situation, people still found the strength to be kind. 

She managed to tear the cloth into two and clumsily wrap it around herself in a lopsided bikini. Well, at least she wasn’t naked anymore. Small mercies.

Afterwards, Cordelia attempted to befriend the woman. Through a lot of gesticulation, Cordelia was able to learn that the woman’s name was Faigel.

Faigel was able to speak a little broken Greek. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Cordelia to understand that she was a Jewish woman whose husband had died. Ah. So she must be speaking some sort of early Yiddish or Hebrew. She went to live with her daughter and her husband, but during childbirth, her daughter had passed. The baby didn’t survive more than a few months. 

Her daughter’s husband had sought another woman to be his next wife and then sold his poor mother-in-law into slavery.

Cordelia was furious on her behalf, but Faigel had simply smiled in resignation and kindly patted her on the head.

Faigel introduced her to the other occupants of the cramped room. Most of them were women, from their mid-30s to 60s.

As the days passed, Cordelia began to get to know a few women. They came from a variety of places, and the most exotic of them was a statuesque red-headed Gaul woman named Blanda and a stunning woman named Yun Bingyan from a place she called Shang. China? Probably, Cordelia pondered.

Blanda had been kidnapped at a young age and had been sold as a slave many times. She had already borne 3 children, she had sadly reminisced, but she didn’t know where they were now. She was a towering woman, taller than even Cordelia, who was an imposing six feet, and had luxurious curves and a face filled with freckles. The most distinctive thing about her was a huge, gnarled scar that diagonally bisected her face. It started above her left eyebrow and ran through her blind, milky-white eye and across her nose to end across her lip, leaving several of her teeth exposed from the gaping cut. 

Cordelia first saw her face after days of darkness, the first time Blanda had shifted under a sliver of light that had seeped through the floorboards. The sight of her gruesome wound left Cordelia’s stomach dropping, and when Blanda had noticed the attention, she had turned to Cordelia and had smiled sadly. She tried to turn away to hide her face, but Cordelia had lifted her weak arm and hugged Blanda’s waist.

“I’m sorry. You’re still super pretty, don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

Blanda’s smile held a bit more warmth, and she had opened up a little bit more to Cordelia after that. Her icy companion finally began to regard her as well.

Yun Bingyan had been a concubine to a prince. The prince had been deposed. That was all she would say on the matter.

She was as petite as Blanda was tall, barely clocking in at 5 feet. She almost looked childlike, if not for the icy look in her sharp eyes. She was uncommonly beautiful. To Cordelia, she looked like a fancy porcelain doll, even covered in rags and caked in filth. She held herself with quiet dignity, and even the chains around her limbs couldn’t take that away from her. She too spoke Greek fluently, however, unlike Blanda, she hadn’t been in Greece nearly as long.

She looked at the world with disdain, and every word out of her mouth was scornful. Cordelia wanted to be her when she grew up.

Other than Faigel, these were two of the only women who would talk to her. The others were friendly enough, but they already had groups that they had congregated into and kept their distance. That wasn’t to say that they were unkind, no. They just… stayed in their own corners.

Cordelia supposed that it made sense. These women were obviously outsiders, not of Greek origin. Even though the rest of the women were all enslaved equally, xenophobia was just too deeply ingrained.

Good ol’ racism. Even after three thousand years, nothing has changed. 

There were two other surprising members of the ‘outsider’ group, two young boys, around 12 to 14 years old, if Cordi had to guess. 

The first one was a very pretty boy of Indian origin named Ranganath. He spoke Greek very fluently, but he was painfully shy. He explained that he was born in Greece, in Thaumacia, to be exact. His mother and father were from Hindustan (“Bharat”, he quietly corrected Bingyan. “We call it Bharat.”) and recently, his family had found themselves in debt and had to sell themselves into slavery. 

Ranga looked painfully lonely when he told his story and looked pitifully happy to accept cuddles from Faigel and Blanda.

He was a cutie pie, and Cordelia was sorrowful to see him in this situation. 

And then the other boy.

Oh, this little demon. 

The other kid in their room was a tiny Greek boy with an angelic face with red-brown eyes and beautiful blond curls. 

He was a festering ball of rage and resentment and was an absolute little shit. He was caustic and nasty, and Cordelia wanted to wring his scrawny little neck.

His name? Diodore.

Cordelia really couldn’t believe her luck sometimes. 

She was stuck on a ship with the ancient Greek version of Dio Brando. And Gods help her if he didn’t act like the real Dio.

He was just so… murderous.

And the absolute kicker?

He had the distinct bite of divinity that she had experienced so many times. He was a demigod.

But not just any demigod.

She would know that rancid metallic flavor anywhere.

A son of Ares.

“Get out of the way, you emaciated buffalo.”

Cordelia turned to glare at Dio. “The hell did you just call me, you little booger?”

Dio glowered back at her. “Your bony elbow is digging into my ribs. Can’t you just do us all a favor and die so they can throw your corpse overboard and free up the space you’ve been taking up?”

Jesus fucking Christ, Cordelia thought incredulously. This kid is a literal psychopath. 

“Good God, where did you learn to talk like that?”

Dio sneered at her. “Your whore mother.”

It took a Herculean effort not to wrap her chains around his neck and pull.

On her other side, she could see Bingyan rolling her eyes. She sagged against Blanda and huffed. “Children.”

Faigel clicked her tongue. “Patience. Grow soon. Act baby now okay.”

Cordelia clamped her mouth shut. These ladies were already so nice to her. When they noticed how weak she was, all of them offered a little part of their meal, including the prickly Bingyan. Cordelia had tried to decline, but they had practically forced her.

Ranga had tried to give her some as well, but the other ladies wouldn’t let him.

Dio didn’t offer in the first place, the little shit, not that Cordelia would have accepted it from him either.

It was slow-going, but she could feel herself regaining her strength, a trickle at a time.

Ranga sighed. “Dio, please.”

Dio scoffed. “What? As if I’m lying. You all keep giving your food, but this mangy buffalo has no gratitude.”

That stung. Of course Cordelia was grateful. Every morsel of food that she was forced to accept tasted bitter due to her guilt of taking food away from them, but she had to eat so that she could regain her strength.

Blanda sternly swiveled her good eye to him. “Dio.”

Dio bared his teeth. “Tell me I’m wrong! You do everything for her, and she still doesn't even trust you enough to tell you where she is from! She really is a sea monster, just like the traffickers say!”

Cordelia clenched her teeth. “You know that’s not true.”

Dio whipped his head to her. “Well, do I? It’s not like you’ve proved otherwise, have you? All you do is take and take, and you never give. You're a selfish slut.”

Ranga gasped. “Dio! Stop it!”

“No! It’s not like I’m saying anything untrue!”

Cordelia felt tears burn behind her eyes, but the seething fury behind her breast prevented them from falling. “I know, alright? I know. I am being selfish. I am taking food and water from their mouths, and they just starve out of the kindness of their own hearts.”

She glared fiercely at Dio. “But don’t you ever dare imply that I’m ungrateful or untrustworthy. I know exactly how much they sacrifice for me.”

Dio glared back. “Oh yeah? Do you? Do you really? Then prove it.”

Even Bingyan had turned to them now. 

“If you’re so trustworthy, then tell us where you’re really from and why you were in the ocean.”

Cordelia felt the familiar itch in between her shoulder blades, her battle-honed instincts telling her that she was being watched. She had been plagued by this feeling incessantly throughout her enslavement, and for the life of her, she could not figure out what it was. Probably just one of the other poor women trapped in the room with her, harmlessly looking over when they talked. However, her instincts refused to listen to common sense and quiet down, and the dissonance between her logical brain and her animal brain was driving her up the wall.

Cordelia rolled her shoulders uncomfortably. “I’ve already told you, you wouldn’t know where I’m from.”

Dio didn’t let up, a dog after a bone. “That’s not good enough. Just try us. Between the lot of us, I’m sure that at least one of us would have heard something. Tell me. Ithaca? Pherai? Pylos? Troy? Kemet? Just where?!”

Cordelia ground her teeth. “None of them.”

Dio’s eyes flashed red. “Goddamn you, you stupid whore bitch! And you wonder why we see you as a monster.”

Cordelia’s entire body was sore from holding herself completely motionless. The urge to punch him until his stupid fucking mouth couldn’t spew any more words rose steadily, but all her years of self-discipline kept her from moving a muscle. “I’m not from any of them, you fuckin’ dick. I’m not from any of the places you listed. I’m not from anywhere near here, and even if you guess for a thousand years, you still would not be able to understand where I was from.” Maybe he would get it if he guessed for three thousand years, though, Cordelia thought humorlessly.

“I don’t know how I ended up in the ocean. But in the end, it doesn’t fucking matter, does it?” Cordelia turned away from Dio and gazed into the darkness. “Don’t say I don’t trust you. I’ve told you about myself. I’ve told you about how much I miss my friends and my family. I’ve told you about my mother and how she gave birth to a sister whom I’ve never met, and how it doesn’t fuckin’ matter because I’ll never see them again. Just what do you want from me?”

Cold silence met her words. Feigel cleared her throat and scooted over to rub Cordi’s back. “Have good hope. Can meet again. Life is long.”

Cordi just shook her head. “No. I’ll never meet my family again.”

Bingyan scoffed. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes. I do,” Cordelia stated with finality. “I’ll never meet my family again because I can never go home. Just like none of you can ever find it, neither can I.”

Cordelia closed her eyes and slumped against the wall. Her restless fingers started up the habit that she had picked up and started running over the links on her chains, counting as she went. ADHD was a bitch.

“Is that good enough for you, you piece of shit? Is that what you wanted to hear? That I have nothing? That I’m fuckin’ enslaved and might be raped to death if I’m unlucky?”

Dio scoffed but turned away. “This is why you’re stupid and no one likes you.”

“Well, I like her,” Ranga shyly piped up.

“Shut the hell up, Ranga, you like everybody, this is why you’re stupid too.”

Ranga slumped. “Oh.”

Faigel angrily batted at Dio’s head. “Stop.”

He flinched away from her hand. “The point is, you won’t be raped to death because you’re too valuable. Ol’ Aetios would never let you get raped because someone would pay great money for a woman like you.” He sounded bitter. 

Cordelia eyed him. “What about afterwards, then? After I’m sold like a fucking cow?”

Blanda wouldn’t make eye contact with her. “Stop it, you two. Enough.”

A stony quiet fell upon them. It didn’t need to be said out loud. The life of a slave was often short and miserable. 

Cordelia didn’t have any delusions that she was going to be one of the lucky ones. After all, she had never had Tyche’s blessing before; why would it change now?

Cordelia only had one option: get strong enough to take her fate into her own hands.

Resentfully, she went back to gnawing on her hardtack. Her eyes glowed with a determined light.

Soon.

She would get out of this. This would not be the end of her story.

Soon.

Chapter Text

“Alright, so… would you rather have to recite the Rigveda or the Samaveda from memory?”

Cordelia groaned. “Ranga, this isn’t how you play the game.” 

Now that she had mostly regained her strength after resting and recuperating for a few more weeks, Cordelia was bored out of her mind. It wasn't like the slavers were considerate enough to have enriching activities for an ADHD demigod on hand. Cordelia was forced to create her own entertainment. She had been steadily running through games that could occupy their time, but it proved to be a bit more challenging than one would expect when you were chained and in the dark. One can only play so many rounds of I Spy when there was literally nothing to spy. Cordelia was now attempting to teach her friends the concept of ‘Would you rather’, but so far, it hadn’t been going smoothly.

Ranga tilted his head. “But I don’t get it. This isn’t a good question?”

Cordelia sighed. “Well, I suppose it could work, but you’re supposed to ask funnier questions or questions that make you think.” And hopefully, questions that we actually have a frame of reference for. 

Dio twisted his mouth. “Oh yeah? Then why don’t you give it a try, if you’re so good at it?”

Cordelia huffed. “Fine then. Would you rather be ten feet tall or ten inches tall?” 

Dio scoffed. “What kind of brain-dead question is that? And here you say that you’re good at this game. There’s only one right answer. I’d rather be ten feet tall, obviously.”

“What? Why?” Ranga asked.

“So that I can beat people up. Obviously.” 

Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Yes, obviously,” she sarcastically drawled. Because what other criteria could possibly be important?

Dio obliviously nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, even the water buffalo agrees.” Cordelia’s glare bounced off him like a mirror.

Blanda’s low voice chimed in. “I disagree.”

Cordi turned to her. “Hmm?”

Blanda regarded her. “Being tall is not always nice. Between these two options, I would choose to be ten inches tall.”

“What, really?”

Blanda nodded. “Yes. Most of the time, it is better to hide than stand out.” Unconsciously, her hand drifted up to her face, but before it could touch it, Bingyan’s hand came up to catch and squeeze it. Blanda looked over to her and smiled.

Ranga tilted his head. “Ok, then. How about this: would you rather wear two left shoes or two right shoes?” He eagerly looked to Cordelia for approval. 

Cordelia’s smile was more like a grimace. “... Better, I guess?”

Faigel patted his head reassuringly. “Good try. Again try.” She opened her arm up in invitation and Ranga happily cuddled into her. She turned to the rest of the group. “Would rather be smart or good looks?”

Dio immediately piped in. “Neither. I would rather be strong. Who needs brains or beauty?”

Bingyan sneered at him. “I completely disagree. I would have both. Being without either is to be powerless.”

Cordelia sighed. “Guys. Please. This isn’t how you play the game.”

Bingyan turned her intense scowl to her. “These hypotheticals are incorrect. I am both smart and beautiful. I cannot imagine being without either one.”

Cordelia gazed emptily into the darkness. This is what I deserve for teaching these maniacs this game.

Blanda piped up. “Alright. Next question. Would you rather be able to fly or breathe underwater?”

Ranga perked up. “Oh! Fly, absolutely!”

Cordelia gaped at him, aghast. “Absolutely not, underwater all the way, baby.” 

Faigel raised her hand. “I fly like bird. Beautiful feather.”

Dio snorted rudely. “Being able to breathe underwater is much more useful. The sea lord’s domain is much larger than the land and you could catch and eat so much fish.” He pondered for a minute. “Plus, breathing underwater can be useful for sneak attacks.”

Again, of course, Cordelia sardonically thought. Because what else would be the priority for Ares’ spawn? Meatheads, the whole lot of them. Except for Frank, the darling. The only good egg in the lot.

Bingyan haughtily flipped her hair. “Flying is much more useful, foolish boy. Yes, the ocean may be vast, but flying will allow you to traverse across the land quickly, which is much more useful in the long run.”

Dio opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by Blanda’s soft voice. “I too would like to escape into the sea. It’s just so beautiful and everything is so peaceful below the water.” Her voice was wistful. 

Bingyan huffed. “Again, all useless hypotheticals.”

Cordelia kept a straight face. Yeah, hypothetical. Right. 

Bingyan continued. “Another hypothetical: Would you rather have a long, fulfilled life, but be lost to the annals of history, or have a violent, short life and be remembered forevermore?”

Cordelia’s stomach dropped. 

Faigel hummed in thought. “I think I understand. Live good life, but forgotten, or live bad life, but remembered. Correct?”

Bingyan nodded. “Yes. What matters more, a long, happy life, or eternal glory?”

“I don’t know… it would be nice to be remembered,” Ranga wistfully pondered.

Blanda shook her head. “No. There is nothing comparable to a full, healthy life alongside your loved ones.”

“Blanda is correct. Peace is most precious,” Faigel nodded in agreement.

Bingyan shook her head. “I disagree.” She looked at her hands and sighed. “We only live once.”

Ranga cut in. “Well-”

Bingyan turned a sharp look to him which silenced him immediately. “Fine, as most of us believe, we only live once.” Ranga smiled in contentment. “We only get a single opportunity to make something of ourselves. To do something that is worth doing. What is our purpose if not to leave our mark in history?” She clenched her fists.

“I think so, too.” Everyone turned to Dio. “What is the point of just doing nothing? Just being a useless fucking peasant, just eating and fucking and shitting and just taking up space, like fucking livestock?” His eyes burned with fervor. “No. I’d rather live a painful, horrible life, but be remembered because everything I worked for meant something. That I didn’t just die in vain, but I died fighting for something worth it. That I would be remembered for it, honored for it, long after my death. Yes. I would not run from death if it means that I am remembered for my sacrifice.”

Cordelia’s heart turned to lead.

This is a scenario that she never even had the opportunity to explore in the first place. From the first moment she stepped into the world of the gods, she had been slapped with a hard fact: demigods don’t get to have long, happy lives. They had to fight for the right to live against everything that wants to kill them, from other demigods, monsters, members of foreign pantheons, or even the gods themselves.

Cordi had fought for her life every single year since she had entered this horrible reality at the age of twelve. And she was one of the lucky ones. How many people has she known that have died before their time? Bob, Bianca, Beckendorf, Zoë, Silena, Luke? She has seen battle after battle, cut down monster after monster and defied god after god. 

She has had to fight for the right to live since she was a child. And now, she had to think about this?

This is the same dichotomy that Achilles had been faced with. Can Cordelia say that she would make a different choice? She didn’t know. She’s lost all her friends and family, her entire life. What did she even have to live for? At least before, even at the brink of death, she fought to see them again. 

She didn’t have that anymore. 

But that wasn’t to say that she was willing to die in a blaze of glory. She has fought too hard for the right to live to throw her life away for nothing. What did she need glory for anyway? As if she hasn’t earned enough of that bullshit through all her exploits, and look what good it’s brought her, being forced to fight in wars that aren’t hers.

“Cordi?”

Cordelia was broken out of her brooding by Bingyan’s voice. She turned to see all of her companions looking expectantly at her. “Yes?”

“What about you? What do you think?”

Cordelia swallowed heavily. “I can’t say.”

The others waited expectantly for her to elaborate, but she didn’t say anything further. 

Blanda smiled at Bingyan. “That was a good question.” Bingyan preened at the praise. “This is how I imagine the game is supposed to be played. Does everyone get it now?” 

The tension dissipated as everyone piped up in agreement. Cordelia rolled her shoulders, trying to alleviate the constant itch between her shoulder blades, and relaxed. “Alright then, who’s next?”

Dio smirked evilly. “It’s my turn. Alright. Would you rather have your teeth pulled out or have your finger and toenails pulled out?”

Jesus fucking Christ! This psycho fucking brat!

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the deadbolt holding the door to their prison shut. 

Cordelia sat up, alert, and saw the others do the same. It wasn’t yet time for their daily meal.

What’s happening?

Four of the sailors came in, all led by the disconcerting man that Cordelia had come face to face with when she was pulled out of the sea. The man’s cunning eyes roved over all of the room’s inhabitants, and they came to a stop on a duo of older, dark-haired ladies cowering in the corner.

Dio growled under his breath. “Fuckin’ Aetios.”

Aetios nodded his head towards the pair and the men sprung into action, each grabbing an arm and dragging the sobbing and wailing women out towards the door. 

Cordelia heard Bingyan swear under her breath.

Aetios’ eyes drifted over to their area until they fell on Cordelia. They narrowed on her before drifting over to Dio. They lingered disconcertingly for a moment, long enough for a chill to run down Cordi’s spine, but Aetios didn’t do anything but turn and follow his men out the door. 

The silence in the room was thick with dread.

Ranga’s whisper was so quiet it could barely be heard. “That wasn’t good, was it?”

Faigel’s voice was deathly serious. “No. Not good.”

Well, hopefully this isn't just an omen of things to come, Cordelia uneasily thought.

Unfortunately, as things so often seem to go for Cordelia, it did happen to be an omen.

Over the next few days, the men would come in, and many times Aetios would come down himself to personally scrutinize the women. Cordelia wasn’t able to see any rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes he would release the women after long minutes of uncomfortable examination, but other times would see him leaving with the woman wailing as she was dragged behind him, not to return.

Aetios didn’t speak much, but he was very particular about how the slave women acted. There was one woman who attempted to put herself before another woman with defiant protest, pleading for them to take her instead. 

Aetios’ lip curled in disgust and the men who were constantly accompanying him forcefully dragged the woman away and brutally beat her right in front of everyone. All of the other slaves could only watch on in horror as the woman was beaten to a pulp until all resistance left her. The only other sound that could be heard were the keening cries of the woman’s friend who struggled to reach her friend but was soon forced away from her through the ominous doors of the cell.

The beaten woman was just left there and ignored as the men went back to examining the other slaves like nothing was amiss. Once the door had been bolted after they left, Cordelia had hurriedly scooted over to the sprawled woman, only to find that she was deep in unconsciousness and her breathing was steadily getting shallower. 

She died within the hour and her corpse just laid in the center of the room for the entire night. Ranga violently shivered as tears ran down his cheeks, and even Dio’s normally poisonous eyes were wide with fear.

The next day, Aetios came in for his regular inspection, and upon seeing the body on the floor, he just wrinkled his nose and waved his hand dismissively before his minions sprung to action and dragged the body off. 

Throughout it all, Cordelia could only seethe. She had slowly but surely regained her strength and was biding her time until she had a golden opportunity to act.

Unfortunately, all her waiting was for naught, because a certain incident forced her hand.

Finally, the fateful day came for her group to be subject to the examination that the other women had experienced.

One by one they were lifted and examined like livestock, but the worst part was when Aetios’ cunning eyes gained a glint when they landed on Dio.

Cordelia wasn’t the only one to notice this, and Dio’s struggles became more and more desperate. 

The man holding him gave him a shake and readjusted his hold, but in that slim opportunity, Dio surged up and ripped the man’s cheek out with his teeth.

The room was filled with the horrified screams of the sailor who had dropped Dio in favor of cradling his mangled cheek, and Dio, using that chance, lunged at the other slaver close to him and latched on his leg with bloody, snarling fangs.

Then, this man began to scream as well and began to wail on Dio in an attempt to dislodge his iron bite, but like an alligator, Dio just clenched tighter and tried to shake his head from side to side in an attempt to rip a chunk of flesh off.

Dio was forced to release the man when he was struck with a whip, his mouth opening with his scream as the whip met his flesh and an inflamed welt rose up on his back.

Feigal shrieked, and Blanda tried to move to Dio, but it was Cordelia who reached him and was able to cover his body with her own before the second strike of the whip came down.

Cordelia groaned through her teeth as she felt the skin on her ribs strain under the force. She looked up and met Aetios’ cold eyes. 

“Move, girl. That was not meant for you.”

Cordelia stretched out over Dio’s trembling form so she could hide him from view to her best ability. “Fuck you.”

Aetios’ nostrils widened in fury, and his cheeks went red. “I will not tell you again.”

Cordelia spat at him and was satisfied to see it land on his cheek. 

Aetios turned to stone for a moment before he exploded into movement. He viciously grabbed her hair and ruthlessly began to drag her away. He didn’t even turn as he barked, “Bring the boy as well. We have some disciplining to do.”

Cordelia scrabbled to free herself from his vice grip, and absently she could hear the sounds of Dio’s furious curses and the rest of her friends’ desperate cries.

Cordelia was hauled up the stairs, and each step dragging against her torso made the welt across her ribs throb in agony. 

Cordelia flinched when she felt something cool touch her face. It took her a second for her to realize that it was rain. There was a light drizzle that gently washed over her, but the sound of it was drowned away by the splash of the waves breaking against the side of the ship.

Cordelia inhaled deeply and smelled the salt in the air from the spray. She felt a kernel of power awaken in her veins, responding to the call of the sea.

Finally.

She was pulled across the deck, and she vaguely felt the eyes of the people on the deck follow her. Dio’s voice got louder as he too emerged into the open. She heard the clinks of his chains as he furiously tried to struggle from their grasp.

Cordelia was dragged to the center of the deck before Aetios abruptly dropped her. Cordelia scrambled to reorient herself, skidding on the slick deck, her scalp throbbing with agony. Cordelia snarled at Aetios. I’m getting real tired of being manhandled. Especially by my hair.

A few moments later, Dio was dropped next to her. 

The men surrounded them in a loose circle.

Aetios stepped forward, his arms crossed across his chest. “Well. It seems that we have some work ahead of us, don’t we, Markos?”

The man that Cordelia had previously seen before stepped up next to Aetios, his mouth opened in an ugly gap-toothed leer. He loomed over the short man, but regardless of the menace he radiated, Aetios’ frigid expression sent more alarm down Cordelia’s spine. 

“Yes, sir. The little brat tore Yianni’s face apart and left Val’s leg bleeding.”

Aetios moved his hands to clasp behind himself. “Hmmm.” 

He circled around them, once, then twice. The entire time, Cordelia held herself still, even when her instincts prickled at having him at her back, but she made sure to give no sign that he made her uncomfortable. The same couldn’t be said of Dio, who attempted to turn to keep him in view at all times. 

Cordelia was reluctantly amused. He was a baby demigod and didn’t yet know how to temper his instincts. They must have been going absolutely wild with the clear threat that Aetios radiated from constantly walking into his blind spot. No wonder he was spitting mad.

Aetios finally came to a stop in front of them and clapped his hands together. “Alright then. First, we’ll deal with the boy. Lemi, go fetch the chain whip.”

Fuck.

Dio’s struggles resumed anew, this time with an air of desperation. Filth spewed from his mouth. “Let me go, you donkey-fuckers! Unhand me right now! Piss-mouth! Shit-eater! I swear to the gods, I will kill you whoresons if you don’t release me!”

Cordi could only helplessly watch as they easily subdued him against the deck as Lemi came back with the whip. It was a gnarled, twisted line of chain streaked with dried blood. Just the sight of it made her stomach turn.

Aetios looked at the whip and grimaced. “Disgusting. Why is there blood on my whip, Horan?”

A man standing to the side shrank down. “I’m sorry, Captain. Forgot to wash it, I did.”

Aetios sighed. “Incompetents. I am surrounded by incompetents.” He raised a hand to rub his temples. “Go on, then, Horan. Get it cleaned up, and show some haste while you’re at it.”

Horan rushed to do as he asked. The sound of Dio’s heavy panting was the only thing that punctuated the tense silence. Horan soon appeared, the whip dripping with water but clean of blood.

Aetios took it. “Finally.” He turned to Dio. “So sorry to make you wait, boy. Terribly rude of me.” He suddenly struck out, and Dio screamed, his shirt splitting from the heavy chains. Red lines ran along his back. 

Aetios observed Dio’s writhing form. “I so despise rudeness. It is the height of incivility.” He struck out again. Dio screamed. 

“You see, there is a reason that I am one of the most renowned in my craft all across the seas.” Another strike. Another scream. At this point, black bruises began to run down Dio’s back. 

Cordelia barely noticed her own struggles to get to Dio, so engrossed in the travesty occurring before her, but she was yanked back into her own body by a painful tug to her hair. The fucking hair again! These motherfuckers!

Aetios continued to monologue, his loyal crew obediently hanging on to his every word. “Dardanos is known for his exotic wares. You can purchase the most unusual products from him.” Another whip and scream.

“Clausius is known for his fastidiousness. He peddles only the most beautiful slaves. If they are not perfect, he will not even look at them.”

Another strike. By now, Dio’s back was looking raw, and a little blood had begun to dribble.

“But me? What do they say about Aetios’ wares?” He paused and looked straight into Dio’s eyes. “Young or old, beautiful or ugly, every single one of Aetios’ slaves is obedient.”

He raised his arm. “And you, little boy, are anything but. You are beautiful and young, yes, and would fetch a handsome price untouched. However, that is not my way. You are in need of training. I see that I need to break you.”

Before he could bring down the whip again, Cordelia broke free from her captors and made it to Dio’s side. She pulled him towards her and challengingly glared at Aetios. In her arms, Dio attempted to be fierce, but Cordelia could see the wounds getting to him, and he started to tremble in her arms. She pulled him closer and cradled him to her neck, and though Cordelia could see that he didn’t want to, he buried his face and nuzzled, trying to contain a sob. He made sure to give her a glare for good measure.

This hopeless little brat.

Aetios cocked his head at her, completely unaffected by her glower. “Ah, yes. Our mysterious guest. The Gods have delivered such a valuable specimen right into my arms, and I am grateful for the blessing. However, no blessing comes without some drawbacks. With you, my dear, I find myself in a similar position.” His calm, unaffected gaze penetrated through her. “I see that I am in need of imparting some valuable wisdom to you regarding your current situation.”

This time, his whip fell on her. 

Fuck. It hurt.

Invulnerability would be real nice right now, wouldn’t it? Thanks a lot, Little Tiber.

But compared to holding up the Sky, bathing in the River Styx, or walking through fucking Tartarus, Cordelia didn’t even feel it.

Aetios kept brutally bringing the whip down on her, over and over, but she didn’t even flinch. She refused to break eye contact with the slaver scum as he beat away at her.

Over and over.

Over and over.

Over and over and over. 

Cordelia refused to show even the smallest reaction, even as she felt the blood vessels bursting from the force of the hits into bruises and her ribs and spine creaking in protest.

Aetios finally lowered his hand and wiped the precipitation off his face. He, too, didn’t break eye contact with Cordelia. In her arms, Dio shuddered.

“Well then. It looks like our little gift requires something a little… stronger.”

He turned to his men, all of whom were leaning forward, hyenas surrounding their downed prey.

“Get me the thin leather.”

Markos grinned wolfishly as Lemi scurried off to do his Captain’s bidding. Cordelia was barely able to catch her breath before Lemi was back with a new whip.

Aetios slowly stretched out the new whip in his hand, and Cordelia noticed in trepidation how thin it got at the end.

“Now, my dear,” Aetios smiled grimly, “Let me make your position clear to you.”

He brought the whip down on her, and Cordelia’s back arched under the pain as she felt her skin split as if a blade had been taken to it. Dio released a strangled scream from underneath her. “Cordi!”

Over and over, Aetios whipped her, gashes opening under the force. Soon enough, Cordelia felt the blood flow down her back, mixing with the rain. 

It was agony. New cuts were rent in her flesh with no pattern, bisecting each other and leaving her flesh tattered and raw.

One particular strike split the back of her makeshift bikini top, causing it to slide down, exposing her breasts. Cordelia heard a man to the side laugh and felt Dio curl closer to her and spread his body the best he could to shield her from the slavers. He turned to snarl at them. “Perverted swine!”

Aetios chuckled. “Perverted swine, he says. Are you perverted swine, boys?” His men let out a round of laughs.

Aetios whipped her once more, and this time the end caught her cheekbone, perilously close to her eye. Cordelia’s expression tightened as she felt the blood run down her cheek. Aetios grimaced. “Drat. I didn’t want to damage her face, she’s quite pretty.”

Aetios sighed before going to strike her again. Another line of fire across her ribs. Cordelia could barely hold in a noise of pain. “Yes, my men are quite the ill-mannered lot, but much is forgivable due to their loyalty and obedience.” Aetios’ eyes pierced her. 

“My men have a lot of energy. Although sailing is a hard business, many of them find themselves with an excess of energy to burn off. But rather than them getting into fights or unnecessarily damaging goods, I allow them a more… healthy outlet.”

Another strike. Cordelia gritted her teeth against the agony. Blood flowed down her lower back.

“I allow my men to keep a certain number of pleasure slaves on board, but unfortunately, as our journey is quite a bit longer than many others, they unfortunately couldn't keep up with demands and we had to look for… replacements.”

Holy fuck, Cordelia woozily thought. These monsters had raped so many poor slaves to death and then had come down into the older women’s compartment to look for replacements. That’s what they were there for. 

Dio understood the same as she did and turned with eyes wide with fear and anger to glare at Aetios. “You disgusting rapists! You killed them! You raped those aunties to death! That’s why they never came back!” His face promptly turned pale, and he twisted in her arms to vomit bile. It splattered on the deck but was soon diluted by all the water pooled there.

“Oh, I am no rapist, boy. I have a wonderful wife who attends to my needs. My men, on the other hand,” Aetios smiled, “Well, look at it logically. To be raped means that there needs to be a lack of consent when engaging in intercourse. However, slaves are incapable of consent. Therefore, your sentiment is an oxymoron. My men cannot be rapists.”

“Why, because slaves aren’t human?” Dio snarled.

“Well, yes,” Aetios blinked at him. “Just like you can’t rape a dog, you can’t rape a slave.”

There was so fucking much wrong with that statement, Cordelia didn’t know where to start, but she had to make one thing clear. “I am not underneath you. You vermin are the ones underneath me,” she croaked.

All eyes fell on Cordelia, and she saw Aetios lose his smile. “What did you say?”

“You scum are beneath me. You can try, but you will never be able to break me.” A sense of power infused her words as they left her mouth, as if they were an oath, a death knell.

The storm began to pick up. Rain pounded down on the deck and winds howled around them, but through that, Cordelia was able to make out Aetios’ words as if he were standing at her ear.

“Is that so?”

The words should have sent trepidation through her, but Cordelia was done. She was beyond angry and now had turned completely cold. Her thoughts ran through her head in crystal-clear clarity as they had done so many times in battle. 

No more. This ends now.

Once again, Cordelia was dragged by her hair away from Dio. They struggled to hold on to each other, but the slick rain hindered them and they were pried apart.

Cordelia was dragged to a stop before Aetios by her hair once again. 

That’s it. That’s fucking it. I’m tired of this shit. See if they touch my hair one more time.

Men restrained her and brought her hands in front of Aetios. The Captain grasped some kind of tool, a hammer-mallet-looking contraption.

“Well, my dear. Let me educate you. You are a slave. You will always be a slave. You will never escape your fate.” He raised the hammer. “Let me demonstrate.”

He brought it down on her shackles, hard. Cordelia felt the blow down into her bones, and her teeth almost rattled from the force. She jerked her arms back in reflex, but the men holding her arms down didn’t let her get far.

If she had been purely mortal, the sicko would have completely obliterated the bones in her wrists. She would have been crippled for life.

Dio screamed and tried to make his way to her, but was easily held back.

Aetios brought the hammer down. Again, Cordelia’s wrists held under the force, but the simple iron shackles weren't as lucky. Repeatedly, Aetios brought the hammer down, and her shackles began to distort and deform until they lost their previous shape and began to constrict uncomfortably tight around her wrists and forearms. Cordelia’s face was a mask of pure stone, not allowing a single hint of the torment she was experiencing to show. The force and the vibrations ran through her bones, and she could feel her teeth creaking with how hard she was clenching her jaw.

Aetios brought the hammer down over and over, until he finally stepped back, satisfied. The shackles were mangled beyond belief and looked almost molded to her arms. Their keyhole was annihilated, and you couldn’t even slide a hair between her skin and the metal. Her hands shook from the remnants of the vibrations from the blows and the constriction of the metal.

“Let this be a lesson to you, my dear. You will never take these shackles off. You will simply not be able to without cutting your own arms off.” He smiled, sinister.

“You sick son of a bitch!” Dio howled. He struggled like a madman as he tried to fight off the savers holding him. Waves from the sea began to ram against the ship, tilting it from side to side as the squall whipped up into a frenzy. Dio’s eyes glowed red as he attempted to make his way over to Cordelia. “I’ll kill you all! Just you wait!”

Dio gained a second wind and managed to escape from his captors and lunged towards Cordelia. Markos caught him, and Dio deftly turned and latched onto Markos’ neck before he viciously pulled. 

Markos immediately dropped Dio and brought his hands up to his neck, futilely attempting to staunch the wound, but blood gushed through his fingers, and within moments, he fell to his knees as his skin took on a grayish tint as the light slowly went out from his eyes.

All of the men screamed and lunged at Dio. Aetios cursed. “Fucking whoreson!”

“Captain, he killed Markos!”

“Demon!”

“Monster!”

“Kill the monster spawn!”

Cordi attempted to move towards Dio but was held back as the men began swarming him. Aetios’ pleasant demeanor was nowhere to be seen, and he sported a savage snarl on his face as he marched to the teen.

“Alright. I’ve seen that I’ve been too lenient. Nobody can say that I don’t learn from my mistakes. My good men,” He turned to address his bloodthirsty subordinates, a cruel grin on his face. “I know that many of you have expressed an interest in him, which I have previously vetoed. But now,” He turned to make eye contact with Cordelia. “You are free to enjoy him. And remember,” He smiled at Cordelia, his eyes glowing with a sadistic light. “It is not rape because he is not human.”

Something shattered in Cordelia, something very similar to when she was in Tartarus. A piece inside of her just broke.

Dio screamed in terror as the men raucously cheered and began to rip his clothes off. He struggled with all his might but was eventually forced face down with his hips up, several pairs of hands holding his head against the deck. His bruised-black back was arched under their hands and his panicked eyes met Cordelia’s.

“Cordi! Help! Help me! Mommy, help me! Save me! Mommy! I want my Mommy!”

The men laughed at his helpless wails, and a man began to undo his britches. "Not so brave now, are you, boy?"

The ship bobbed and dangerously tilted to the side. A titanic wave crashed over the side of the ship and briefly engulfed them all in seawater.

Immediately, Cordelia felt a surge of power run through her veins, as if she had been injected with pure adrenaline. She felt the water staunch the bleeding in her back and felt every nerve in her body sing in response.

The water receded in a handful of seconds, leaving everyone on the deck sputtering out water.

Everyone but Cordelia.

Cordelia felt the all-too-familiar tug in her navel and caught the stream of water along her arm before it dribbled down. She allowed it to slide down into a razor-sharp blade at her palm.

She swung her arm up with all her strength and felt the tight pressure on her scalp release. Something thumped next to her,

Horrified screams erupted from the man behind her. He held the stump of his arm in the air and desperately tried to cover it. When Cordelia looked down, she saw the man’s severed hand still grasping a handful of her hair.

Cordelia whipped her head back around, meeting the eyes of Aetios and all of the other men who had stopped in their tracks and gaped at her.

She slowly stood up as the boat bobbed once more, and once again, another wave crashed over them, smaller than the first, but more than enough to fill Cordelia with enough power to flex her arms and pull.

Her body swelled with supernatural power. Her biceps bulged, and the shackles around her arms squeezed at her wrists brutally in protest, but in a split second, she snapped the chain binding her arms together.

The wave receded, and once again the men spat out the water and tried to regain their bearings. 

Cordelia stood tall, the chains swaying on both sides from her shackles. She was bloody and bruised, shackled and near-nude, her mutilated hair sticking to her face, but she had never felt more sure of herself.

“Cordi!” Dio’s voice was choked and weak, full of terror.

Cordelia smiled and stepped forward. 

The men snapped out of their stupor and stumbled to their feet, but Cordelia was waiting for them.

Cordelia was many things.

She was a Demigod, a loving daughter, a member of Cabin Three, and Tyson’s proud sister. She was a loyal friend and member of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. She was a born-and-raised New Yorker. She was the daughter of Poseidon.

Cordelia knew that she was an inherently kind soul, and knew that her Mother had done her best to cultivate that.

She was also one of the only beings that had survived Tartarus. She had massacred and slaughtered for days, until she was nothing but a machine, until something fundamental within her had broken.

Cordelia had killed tens of thousands of monsters. She had killed other Demigods, Gods, Titans, and Giants.

But she had never once taken the life of a mortal.

Cordelia knew that she had changed. She knew that before she had been abducted and abandoned at Camp Jupiter, before she was ripped away from her life, she would never have been able to even contemplate raising a hand against a powerless mortal.

However.

Cordelia wasn’t the same person she once was.

She had experienced unimaginable torture and torment, and this time, there wasn’t an Annabeth nearby to tell her to stand down.

Cordelia smiled grimly as she swung the chain around her arm. Poseidon was always said to be the father of monsters.

Why would I be any different?

It was over in almost an instant. Cordelia moved with intent and swung the chains attached to her shackles with devastating accuracy. She wrapped her chains around throats and pulled, snapping their necks instantly, and swung her chains hard enough to instantly pulverize skulls. The men before her were utterly helpless and barely had any time to even put up a fight.

A few heartbeats later, the deck was littered with dead and dying bodies, all but her, Dio, and Aetios.

The Captain had backed himself up as far as he could, but he still couldn’t contain his expression of contempt as she watched Cordelia kneel next to Dio and help him up.

Cordelia met his eyes and smiled humorlessly. She stood up and began to make her way to him.

Aetios didn’t even attempt to defend himself. He held his head high with dignity and looked down her nose at her, refusing to even flinch as she made her way to him, her chains clinking at her side with every step.

“So, I don’t suppose you’ll let me go.” Aetios looked completely unruffled.

Cordelia’s smile grew. “Not a fucking chance.”

Aetios didn’t break eye contact with her. “I didn't think so.”

Cordelia stopped a few feet short of him, then raised her hand. All of the remaining seawater on the deck rushed to her command and formed the shape of a huge ghostly hand. She heard Dio gasp behind her.

She clenched her fist, and the hand followed her command, engulfing Aetios’ face and lifting him off the ground. The first vestige of panic began to fill his face as he futilely tried to gasp for air and swing his feet. His face turned blue, and his eyes went out of focus as he drowned right before her.

Cordelia released the hold on her power, and Aetios’ body fell with a splash of water. He didn’t stir.

Behind her, Dio struggled to his feet and limped over to her. He was completely naked, but nothing could have ever hidden the look of sheer glee and bloodthirst on his face. He stumbled his way over to Aetios and spat on him, then proceeded to make a lap around the rest of the corpses and did the same.

What a fucking psycho. But I suppose that I’ll give him this. 

He tore his blazing red eyes from the fallen forms of all the slavers and turned to her, grinning maniacally, his face bruised and bloody and his chin dripping with spit.

“So, Cordi. It appears that you’ve been keeping secrets from us.”

Cordelia smiled at him. “It appears so.”

Dio’s grin widened. “Looks like we’re free now. What will we do now?”

Cordelia looked into the distance, the smile pulling her lips wider. “I have a few ideas.”

Chapter Text

Dio cackled maniacally as he dropped the bodies overboard one by one. Cordelia watched in concern as she stripped the shirt off of one of the nicer-dressed sailors. Well. Relatively nicer-dressed. Her options were pretty dismal in the first place. Well, whatever. At least she wasn’t almost naked anymore.

“Ahahahaha! How do you like this! I hope that you get fucked by a whale before it eats you!”

Ugh. Whale-fucking. Where the fuck does he come up with this shit? 

Cordelia turned to see him pull another corpse over the ledge and struggle against the limpness and mass of the body.

“Um. You know that most whales don’t eat people?” Cordelia interjected. 

Dio barely spared her a glance, finally maneuvering it so that it could tumble away into the depth. “Fine then. I hope that you get fucked then eaten by a whale that does eat humans.” 

He dragged yet another body and clumsily shoved it over the side of the railing. He watched with glee as it hit the surface and disappeared beneath the foam. “This is the best! They make the best splashes when they land on their bellies! I hope that they feel the pain in the afterlife!”

He happily marched over to his next victim. Cordelia warily looked at the remaining corpses. “Maybe you shouldn’t throw them over.”

Dio’s sardonic gaze met hers. “Why, so that they can just bloat and rot up the deck? Or do you want to defile them any further?”

Cordelia recoiled in disgust. “Ew, of course not.”

Dio raised his eyebrows mockingly. “Then shut up and let me enjoy this, water buffalo.”

“I swear to fucking-” 

Dio dropped the corpse and tried to dart away, but it didn’t save him from receiving a wicked noogie that left him cursing at her instead. He tried to scuffle with her, but Cordelia subdued him with laughable ease that just left him snarling. 

Eventually, Dio managed to clean the deck of all the bodies except for Aetios. He stood over the former Captain’s body with a blank look on his face. 

“I hope the Death King will bring justice upon you for all the souls you’ve hurt.” Dio’s expression twisted. “May your entrails rot for eternity.”

With that, Aetios was thrown overboard, never to be seen again.

Dio turned to her, all vestiges of anger gone from his face, leaving only a cheerful grin.

“What do we do now, Cordi?”

Cordelia regarded him. It probably wasn’t healthy for him to be so dismissive of this, but it wasn’t like she was the model for sanity and stability.

Oh well. She was sure that he’d talk to someone eventually and be able to heal in a healthy manner. Or he’d repress it and let the PTSD haunt them just like a normal Demigod did. Not her problem.

She turned to make her way back to the staircase leading to the underdeck, Dio happily trotting at her heels.

“First, we let everybody know that there’s been a change in management.”

“I cannot believe that you would be this stupid!” Blanda raged. 

Dio winced and rubbed his ear. Blanda and Faigel had been almost insensate with worry, and when Cordelia and Dio released everyone, they took the opportunity to relay their feelings very emphatically.

Faigel’s face was blotchy red from her fury. “Stupid child! No think!” She smacked Dio’s head and turned her glare onto Cordelia. “You! You stupid also! Reckless!”

In contrast to Blanda and Faigel volcanic fury, Bingyan’s displeasure was glacial. Her face hadn’t changed once from the cold mask it had been frozen in. “You can’t expect anything more from these idiots. Obviously they don’t care about whether they live or die and how it affects the rest of us.” Her icy stare pierced right through Cordelia’s heart. 

Even Dio recoiled at that. “What? No!”

“Well, it certainly seems that way. Otherwise, you wouldn't have acted thoughtlessly.” Bingyan asserted.

Dio made to protest again, but paused when Cordelia put her hand on his head. “We’re sorry. I know we worried you, but everything escalated too quickly. We did the best we could.”

Bingyan sneered at them. “Yes, we were comforted with that fact as we heard Dio’s screams as they tortured him, helpless to do anything but pray.”

Behind them, Ranga burst into tears. He frantically tried to muffle his sobs, but his body violently shivered and his knees went weak as he collapsed into a ball.

Blanda swore and crouched next to him and rubbed his back.

Ranga raised his head and tearily looked at Cordelia and Dio. “We could hear Dio shouting and I thought I would never see you again. I was so scared.” His lip trembled once more as his eyes welled up again.

Dio finally lost his defensiveness and he dropped down next to Ranga and pulled him into a hug of his own. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry. We’re okay.” Dio silently held Ranga as he sobbed into his chest. He looked wildly uncomfortable but that didn’t stop him from tenderly comforting Ranga as he slowly calmed down.

Ranga’s breakdown had done well to cool everyone’s tempers. Blanda sighed and rubbed her face. “You children. You don’t know how close you came to dying. You haven’t been enslaved for very long. You don’t know what you escaped.” 

Bingyan scowled at them. “Yes. You were foolish. You could have been severely punished. You could have been maimed, raped or killed.”

“Oh trust me, we’re fuckin’ well aware,” Cordelia growled darkly, “They fuckin’ tried.”

“How you free? What and how happened?” Faigel questioned.

Dio’s face morphed into a maniacal grin. “Oh, it was glorious. Cordi slaughtered all of them like the swine they were.”

Four pairs of confused eyes turned to Cordelia, who shrugged. “Yup. Sounds about right.”

“What.” Faigel deadpanned.

“All of them?” Blanda asked, flabbergasted.

Dio’s eyes danced with a shadow of eerie red light. “The sea bent itself to Cordi’s will and smited the scum. Her eyes glowed like a goddess! Who knew the water buffalo was actually strong?”

They all turned to Cordelia, who shrugged once again, uncomfortable under their scrutiny.

“Shang Di have mercy,” Bingyan breathed. “Are you…?” She trailed off.

Cordelia swallowed. “I have an affinity for the ocean. That’s all I can say right now.”

Ranga poked his head up. “Do you know Lord Posei-” 

Cordelia sharply cut him off by slapping her hand over his mouth. “Shhhh! Do not speak his name! Names have power!”

It was true that Cordelia was a daughter of the sea, but she wasn’t a daughter of this sea. She was a daughter of the sea three thousand years in the future. 

While she still felt an undeniable connection with the water, it roiled with a deep, ancient power that she was wary of. 

It was a constant reminder that she was back in the past when the Greek gods ruled the land, resplendent and glorious. They weren’t reduced to hiding like they were in her time. Here they walked the land and freely displayed their power as they wished.

This ocean was the territory of Poseidon, yes, but not the one she knew. Not her father, the one who wore stupid Hawaiian shirts and boat hats and had smile wrinkles around his eyes.

No, this Poseidon was the god who was in the prime of his power, who had committed countless atrocities. 

No, Cordelia corrected herself, He was still committing them now.

The thought sent a shiver up her spine. Yes, she was his daughter, and Poseidon loved all his children, but she knew what kind of horrors a god’s love could bring upon someone. 

No, Cordelia was a daughter of the sea, and a powerful one, at that, but she had no wish to attract her Father’s attention.

Bingyan glared sharply at a sheepish Ranga. “You know better, child.”

Ranga smiled apologetically. “Oops.”

Bingyan turned back to Cordelia. “But the sentiment remains. Are you familiar with the Lord of the Deep?” Her eyes flicked down to Cordelia's left forearm, where the image of a Trident rested above the SPQR branded into her skin.

Cordelia pursed her lips and made meaningful eye contact with the woman, who nodded sharply and turned away. “Alright then. Let’s move on.” She decisively turned and began to make her way over to the large group of newly released slaves on the deck. 

“Our next course of action is to get these accursed shackles off of us.” The rest of the group trailed after the tiny woman. 

“I would assume that any keys would be with one of the senior-ranked members of the crew, most likely with the captain. Now where would the captain’s quarters be?”

Bingyan’s questions did not need a verbal answer, as everyone turned as one to the large door at the end of the deck. It was clearly different from what was obviously the crew’s quarters, with a larger, fancier door that was decorated with fresh paint. 

Bingyan smiled and made her way over, the rest of the group trailing in her wake. Cordelia could feel the rest of the newly-liberated slaves’ eyes follow them as they made their way across the deck.

The small woman placed her hand on the knob, and to Cordelia’s surprise, it turned easily. 

Bingyan marched in and the rest stepped in behind her.

The Captain's quarters were luxurious. There were draped silks and several gold trinkets scattered across the room. A large desk piled with paperwork sat in the corner with a sturdy chair, but the thing that drew the eye the most was the huge, opulent bed sitting in the center of the room. It was piled with plush blankets and pillows, but that wasn’t all.

There was a woman on the bed, naked.

She was pretty in a homely way, with long brown hair and freckles. When the woman turned to them, she could see that her eyes were a deep, rich brown. Her face was blank.

“I assume that my husband is no more?” she asked hoarsely.

She struggled to sit up and winced, and Cordelia could see why. A steady trickle of blood seeped from between her legs.

Cordelia felt nauseous.

Blanda stepped before Bingyan and narrowed her eyes. “Husband?”

The woman nodded and pulled a blanket to wrap around herself. “Yes. My husband, Aetios. Is he gone now? I heard quite a commotion on deck some time ago, and now you all are entering his quarters, which he would have never allowed if he were able.”

“Yeah, we killed him. We killed everyone.” Dio smiled savagely.

“Hmmm. I guess that means that I’m a widow now. How unfortunate.” The woman’s face was still unreadable, other than the winces of pain whenever she shifted her position. “My name is Anysia.”

“Hello, Anysia. You were married to Aetios?” Blanda confirmed.

She nodded. “Yes. He selected me because it is believed that my bloodline will yield him many children.”

Bingyan regarded her with interest. “Your bloodline?”

She opened her mouth to ask more, but was interrupted by Faigel sighing explosively and shoving her way to the front to approach the woman. Anysia gazed at her suspiciously, but Faigel just sternly examined her.

“You blood. I help you. I am accoucheste.”

“You’re a what?” The brunette woman cringed away, and Faigel growled in frustration.

“I am like Shiphrah and Puah. I help heal you.”

Shiphrah and Puah? Cordelia tilted her head. Why do they sound familiar? I remember Annabeth researching something, ancient Egypt-

“Midwife,” Cordelia blurted. “She’s a midwife. Shiphrah and Puah were midwives who saved male Jewish newborns after they were ordered to be executed by the Pharaoh.” Annabeth had gone into a deep dive of Egyptian history and mythology after their run-in with the Egyptian Pantheon.

Ranga peeked out. “Pharaoh? The king of Kemet?”

Faigel brightened up. “Yes! Yes, correct! I am midwife! I help mom give baby! Like Shiphrah and Puah! They save baby in Kemet! I help you.”

The woman still regarded the group with suspicion, but finally deemed Faigel to be harmless and allowed her closer to aid her. 

As Faigel examined her, her face was twisted into distaste. “Very rough. You bleed very bad. Long time heal.”

The woman looked at her drolly. “This isn’t out of the ordinary. I was just performing my wifely duties.”

“Wifely duties,” Bingyan sneered. “Wifely duties shouldn’t leave you bleeding this much, girl.”

Cordelia stared at them. “What the hell? Wifely duties shouldn’t leave you bleeding at all! What kind of horrible sex have you all been having?”

The woman smiled at Cordelia. “How blessed you have been, that your husband is not rough.”

“Okay, first of all, I’m not fucking married, fuck that, and second of all, sex shouldn’t hurt.”

Faigel nodded in agreement. “Yes, Cordi is correct. Woman should no bleed with sex. But husband sometimes rough. Cannot stop, can only help woman.”

“Not that it matters anymore, anyway. My lord husband is dead, killed by you all, and now I am a powerless widow stuck on a ship that is full of my husband’s captives. I assume that I am to be killed?” Anysia’s eyes were blank.

“Well,” Dio pondered.

“Absolutely not,” Cordelia interrupted. “We’re not going to kill her.” 

Dio turned to her. “But she’s right. She’s Aetios’ wife. The rest of the slaves are going to want her dead when they find that out. It would save us trouble and save her pain if we just kill her now and be done with it.”

Cordelia glared at him, and then at Bingyan, who was nodding along to his words. “No. We’re not going to kill her. Just look at her, she’s worse off than most of us. She’s been raped by that monster and god-knows what else has been done to her.”

“How dare you, I have not been raped,” Anysia snapped at Cordelia, affronted. 

“Lady, I’m sure that the sex you’ve been having isn’t the fully consensual kind. It’s obvious from your fucking bleeding. That’s fucking rape. Shut the fuck up about it, just because you were married doesn’t mean that it wan’t wrong.”

All of the other ladies stared funnily at Cordelia, who crossed her arms defensively. “What?”

“Um, I don’t know if that’s-” Blanda began, but she was cut off by Bingyan.

“It’s okay, just let it go. Now is not the time to be arguing semantics about the definition of rape, not when we still have to decide what to do with Anysia.”

“If you decide to execute me, there’s nothing I can do about it, but I do feel that I have to warn you, if I am killed, I know that my mother will not be pleased,” Anysia said.

“Your mother?” Blanda asked.

Anysia sighed. “Yes. I am the daughter of the Lady of Harvest. She will be quite upset if I am killed.”

Cordelia’s eyes widened. Demeter. Anysia was the daughter of Demeter. 

“You are?”

Anysia nodded. “Yes. My father is a very wealthy farmer in Trikka. To protect me from being a nobody-bastard, he let it be known who my mother was. Aetios heard about me and asked for my hand. His bride-price was too much to turn down.” 

“Why did he seek you out specifically?” said Blanda.

Anysia looked at her like she was dim. “For the same reason anybody seeks out a child of the Lady of Harvest, I suppose. Fertility and power.”

By then, Faigel had finished her treatment and was helping Anysia clothe herself. She helped her stand up and straighten out. 

“So, have you decided my fate?” Anysia stood tall and looked into their eyes.

Bingyan sighed. “Oh, alright. I suppose that we can leave her alive. We don’t need any vengeful goddesses on our case on top of everything. We already have enough to worry about.”

“And because it would be wrong?” Ranga reminded her.

Bingyan waved her hand dismissively. “Yes, yes, and because it is morally wrong to kill another victim of circumstance, and so on. Now. Anysia, do you happen to know where your husband kept his keys? I would quite like to remove these shackles from myself.”

“Yes, my husband kept his keys in his desk drawer every night, but when he left the room, he always carried them with him.” Anysia gestured to the desk in the corner.

Slowly, Cordelia turned to Dio, who looked very nervous.

“Dio.”

“...Yes, Cordi?”

“Do you have anything to confess?”

“... Um, no?”

“Last chance, you stupid fucking brat.”

“...Well, oops, we’re gonna need a new way to get these shitty chains off of us?”

“Try again.”

Dio laughed nervously.

Blanda sighed. “What did you do, Dio?”

“Nothing!”

“You lying little brat!”

“What? It’s not like we could just leave the corpses there to rot! You said so yourself!”

“Yes, but I told you to wait!”

“You stupid water buffalo-!”

“Children!” Faigel snapped. “Stop fight and tell us what happen!”

Cordelia huffed in annoyance. “This shitty little brat threw all the corpses overboard before we could search all of them, and now we can’t get the keys to unlock the chains.”

Dio raised his arms up. “In my defense, did you want to be surrounded by dead bodies when we released you?”

The room went silent.

Before the room could explode in shouting, Ranga’s shy voice piped up. “Umm… maybe I can help?”

Cordelia was very impressed as she watched another pair of shackles clatter to the ground and the man rub his newly-freed wrists in satisfaction.

“Okay, Ranga, I can’t take it anymore. How are you so good at this?”

He looked up from the current lock he was fiddling with. Anysia had lent him some of her sharp hairpins, and he had been able to unlatch every single lock he had come into contact with. “Hmmm?”

“This. How are you so good at picking locks?”

Ranga stared at her for a long moment before he turned back to the lock. His lips pursed, and his eyes gained a wet sheen. 

“I learned it from my brother, Bala.” 

He was silent for another long minute as he finished unlocking the shackles he was working on. The chains fell, and the woman who was just released smiled radiantly and thanked him before the next slave stepped up to take her place.

Ranga licked his lips and began to speak. “My family moved from Bharat before I was born. My brother Bala was old enough to remember. Later, Bala got angry.” His lip trembled. “Really angry. He didn’t like how our parents had to struggle for money. He was really close to a lot of other boys, and they were from poor families too.”

He twisted his wrist, and the cuffs sprang open. The man laughed in glee and ruffled Ranga’s hair before he bounded off and another woman stepped forward.

“Bala and a few older boys started to get a lot of money. They got so much that we were finally able to go to see a doctor to help Dad. Mom asked him where he got so much money, but he just said that he found a good job.”

He paused to wipe his face. “One day, Bala took me with him. He made me promise not to tell Mom what we were doing. We met up with some of his friends, then we had to be really quiet and we snuck into the Magistrate’s house. We could get in because one of Bala’s friends was friends with one of the kitchen girls.” He made a face. “They kissed a lot and were gross. But yeah, then we had to be really quiet, and we walked through the huge house. Bala told me that I had a really important job and that I had to hide and keep watch and make sure that there wasn’t anyone coming. I had to whistle like a bird if I saw someone. We went to many huge houses.”

Ranga smiled at the woman as she tossed the opened chains off of her forearms. “One day, Leandrinos, one of Bala’s friends, hurt his leg, so he kept watch with me. He and Bala taught me all sorts of really cool stuff, and they showed me how to pick locks.”

His smile faded and his eyes had a distant look in them. He began to pick the next lock on autopilot, stuck in his memories.

Cordelia gently touched his shoulder and Ranga’s head snapped to her. She squeezed. “What happened?”

Ranga swallowed heavily. “We got caught. We went to a house one day, and people were waiting for us. Bala told me to run home and hide before they could see me. I ran and told Mom what happened, and she cried.” He sniffled. “The Magistrate was really angry. We had been stealing from many rich people, and they wanted their stuff back. They asked where their stuff was, and Bala didn’t tell them. They killed him.”

Tears streamed down Ranga’s face. Cordelia hugged him, but he didn’t even react. “They came to our house. Dad tried to stop them, but he was too sick. They took my mom and my sisters. Shyamala, Pooja, and Kavya had to marry the nobles. Mom and I were sold into slavery, but we were separated.”

Cordelia felt terrible. “I’m so sorry Ranga. That’s horrible.”

Ranga shrugged and wiped his face. “It is what it is. I probably won’t ever see them again. I guess we have that in common.” 

“Don’t say that. You might.”

Ranga paused his work and turned to look at her. His dark eyes were deadly serious. “Cordi, I’m not stupid. I know our situation. My sisters were forced to marry men who were notorious for torturing their lovers. My mother is old and weak. She’s probably not going to be treated well. My father is almost certainly dead. He was very, very ill, and without my mother and sisters to help him, he wouldn’t be able to survive.” His eyes were full of a cold certainty. “I was lucky to escape alive. I will not see my family again in this lifetime.”

He turned back to unlocking the shackles. 

This poor, poor child. Cordelia couldn’t claim to have had an idyllic childhood, but watching your family be killed and sold right before your eyes, unable to help? That was a hell that she couldn’t even fathom. 

Before she could think of anything to say, Ranga turned to her with a small smile. “It’s alright. I get sad sometimes, but I know that I can’t do anything about it. And now, I have you guys. You guys can be my new brothers and sisters.” He beamed at her, and Cordelia felt her heart throb.

This goddamn sweet brat. How can he be hopeful in a situation like this? He’s so much stronger than I am.

Cordelia reached out to him and Ranga continued to chip away at the line of people cuddled in her arms. Cordelia watched him methodically go through them all until he had freed every single person.

Finally, Ranga turned to Cordelia. “Let me see your arms.”

Cordelia extended her arms and let him examine her mangled cuffs. Ranga turned her arm this way and that and grimaced. He tried to insert his lockpicks into the warped lock but was immediately met with resistance. He tried to jiggle it, but it was futile. He attempted to slip his finger in between her shackle and her arm, but was barely able to fit his fingertip under it. He sadly shook his head. “I’m sorry, Cordi. I can’t do it.”

Cordelia smiled at him. “It’s okay, kiddo, I didn’t think you could. It just sucks to know for certain.” She raised her arms up to inspect them. “I don’t know how I’m going to be able to get them off.”

Ranga frowned down at them. “I don’t know either. I don’t think a smith could get them off either, they’re bound too tight.” He sadly looked up at her. “I’m sorry, Cordi.”

“I said that it’s okay, don’t apologize. You tried your best.” She ruffled his hair. “You did real good freeing everyone else, I’m sure that everyone’s grateful. If it wasn’t for you, everyone would still be bound.”

Ranga shyly smiled. “I’m glad I was able to help. I know that I might have hurt people before when I used what Bala and Leandrinos taught me to help them out, but Bala always said that it was okay because those people hurt other people first. But it’s nice to actually help people with my skills.” 

Ranga turned to hug her and Cordelia gladly squeezed him back. Gods, what a sweet kid. Nothing like the other demon.

Ranga smiled up at her. “I was so scared that I would never see you or Dio again. Thank you for helping him, Cordi.”

“No problem, kid,” Cordelia smiled down at him. 

Bingyan’s sharply raised voice met their ears. Cordelia turned her head to see her facing off against a tall man. Her arms were crossed and her face was filled with a cold animosity. 

Cordelia eased Ranga off of her lap and stood. As she made her way over, she could pick up the argument that they were having.

“-should be punished!”

“Silence yourself, you dumb brute. It has been deliberated, and a conclusion has already been reached: Anysia will not be killed.”

“Oh yeah? Deliberated by whom? Because it sure as hell wasn’t a consensus decision!” A few men behind him murmured their agreement. 

“I don’t see why we should keep another useless mouth on board. We owe no loyalty to her,” another voice piped up.

“Yes, you see! Now move aside, foreigner.” The man stepped forward. 

Blanda stepped forward as well, and the man balked at her height and the fearsome look on her scarred face. “Watch yourself, young man. Don’t threaten my friends.”

Cordelia stepped up next to Blanda. “What seems to be the problem?”

The man lasered in on her. “These women are protecting the fucking slaver’s wife. We are discussing how to deal with her.”

“I don’t know if you heard it the first time, but that matter has already been discussed. Nobody is touching her.” Cordelia crossed her arms across her chest.

The man scowled. “You as well? Who made the decision to leave her be?”

Cordelia raised her head. “I did.”

“You?” The man barked a laugh. “You made the decision for all of us? Who are you to decide for us?”

Dio finally managed to push his way to the front of the crowd. “Listen here, dipshit, I don’t like it either, but you’re not gonna fucking kill or fuck or do whatever the hell you want with Anysia. Just shut the hell up and mind your business. Didn’t Bingyan tell you assholes to go to the kitchens and see how much food we have left?”

“Watch your fucking tone, kid. This doesn’t concern you. Don’t speak that way to me, or I’ll have to teach you a lesson.” The man snarled down at Dio. 

“Or what, genius? What’ll you do, hit me?” Dio bared his teeth at him and shook Blanda’s hand off his shoulder. 

The man menacingly stepped forward. “Don’t taunt me, kid.”

“Big words coming from a man who was in chains just hours ago. You act so brave now that you’re free, but you were more cowardly than a fucking rabbit before you were freed, and now that there’s no slaver to whip you, you’re suddenly brave again? Pathetic,” Dio sneered at him.

“You wanna know who made that fucking decision about Anysia? It was fucking Cordi. She made the decision to have mercy on her, and she’s the only one with the right to make that decision because she’s the one that free’d your sorry asses. If it wasn’t for her, you would still be rotting in the dark in chains.”

The man’s face went slack in surprise, and he took a step back. “What did you say?”

“You heard me. If it wasn’t for Cordi caving in the heads of the slavers, you wouldn’t be free right now. Show some fucking respect and listen to her when she makes a decision.” Dio smirked up at the man.

The man turned his incredulous gaze to Cordelia and scoffed. “Her? You expect me to believe that this girl killed all the men in the crew?” He laughed.

Dio snarled up at him. “Don’t you disrespect her, you dipshit. You don’t have to believe it, but you do have to respect it. She may not look like it, but Cordelia is the daugh-”

Cordelia slapped her hand across his mouth and cut him off. “Shut the fuck up, you little brat, don’t go around telling people that shit,” she hissed at him.

The man regarded their exchange suspiciously but turned to Cordelia when she approached him. “Just like the brat said, you don’t have to like it, but you do have to respect my decision. Shut the fuck up and leave Anysia alone. It’s not like she wanted to be married to that pig Aetios. Just like I freed all of you by killing the slavers, I freed her too.”

Cordelia glared at the man until he turned away. She looked at the murmuring crowd. “Listen up, people. Is there anyone with extensive experience in sailing?”

Nobody responded. 

Cordelia nodded. “That’s what I thought. As of this moment, I am taking control of this ship. It appears that I am the only person that knows their ass from their elbow on this infernal ship. If you all want to survive, you need to listen to me. If you want to mutiny, go right ahead, but good luck finding land before the food runs out and you have to resort to cannibalizing each other.”

Bingyan made a noise of distaste. “Vulgar.”

Cordelia gave her a droll look. How was that more vulgar than how she’d been talking all this time? She was just being realistic.

The crowd murmured but settled down. Cordelia smiled. “Right, now that we’ve got that settled, I’m gonna need everyone to get organized. We have a lot of work to do if we want to survive.”

The man gave her one last glare before turning away to the group of men behind him.

Cordelia let Bingyan, Blanda, and Faigel wrangle the rest of the people as she turned to Anysia, who was subtly trying to hide herself in a corner. Understandable. Just minutes ago, there were people baying for her blood.

Anysia met her eyes directly. She looked much better than how they had found her. Faigel really was good at her job.

“Thank you. I am aware that it is an inconvenience for you to advocate on my behalf, but regardless, I am grateful.” She bowed her head to her.

Cordelia uncomfortably waved her off. “Stop that. Stop bowing to me, I don’t like it. You don’t have to be thankful. I’d try to help anyone in your position, but…”

Anysia smiled at her. “You don’t need to elaborate. The fact remains that it is by your word that I am allowed sanctuary on this ship, cousin.”

Cordelia jerked. “Cousin? You know-?”

“No,” Anysia cut her off. “I don’t know exactly who, but I can tell. But, based on your motivational speech, I think I can guess.”

Anysia regarded the ship with a critical eye. “Tell me, cousin, are you able to sail us to safety?”

That was a good question. Cordelia turned with her and looked at the ship. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and reached out with her power.

Immediately, she recoiled. The ship hated her. Hated her. She could feel its malevolence even after she had completely retracted her power. 

It was just so angry. It hated her for killing its beloved crew, and it detested the fact that the filthy slaves that her crew had worked so hard to discipline were walking free across its deck.

It wanted her dead. Cordelia could feel the strain of it against her will. It bucked and jerked against her will, but Cordelia forced it to subdue.

It wasn’t easy, though, and even after it bitterly conceded, she could feel its acidic resentment against them all. It would rather sink itself and take everyone on board with it than willingly transport them anywhere.

Cordelia opened her eyes with a shudder and wiped the sweat from her brow. “Yes. Yes, I can sail us to safety. But not easily. This ship hates us for killing its crew and wants to see us dead. If it had a choice, it would see us lost until we turned on each other.”

Anysia winced. “Ah. I have to say, I’m not surprised. My lord husband has had this ship for a great number of years and I imagine that if it had a voice, it would not be happy that you killed them.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what’s happening right now,” Cordelia scornfully said. “This piece of shit will not cooperate unless I make it, and even then it’ll be a fight.”

Anysia slowly nodded her head. “I see. So you can control ships, cousin. That is… unexpected.”

“Not really, no.” Cordelia grinned. “I can do a lot more. And, I’m sure, so can you.”

“Me?” Anysia looked surprised. 

Cordelia smiled at her. “Yeah, why not? I mean, you’re the daughter of an Olympian, too. I’m sure that you’re packing some power.”

Anysia looked contemplative. “I wouldn’t really know. I’ve never tried exploring my powers.”

Cordelia shrugged at her. “Well, it’s not too late. You can always try now.”

“Yes, that’s true. I suppose that nothing’s stopping me.”

“Good. That’s the spirit!” Cordelia clapped her on the shoulder. “Now, I have an important question: did your husband have a map?”

Although Cordelia could feel the exact coordinates of their current location, that meant fuck-all if she didn’t have any orientation via a map. It’s not like Cordelia was well-versed in Mediterranean geography off the top of her head.

Anysia grimaced at her. “Well, he did, but similar to his keys…”

Cordelia’s face went dark. 

“DIO! GET YOUR FUCKING ASS OVER HERE! You’re gonna pay for your sins, you fucking demon brat!”

She marched her way over to the blond child, who was frantically attempting to scramble away from her.

“Ahhhhhh! Stay away from me, you water buffalo! Release me! Reles- Ahhhhhhhh!”

“Cordi, you’re going to choke him!”

“Good, it’s what he fucking deserves!”

Chapter Text

“I see land! Right there! I see it!”

Dio’s excited proclamation drew everyone to one side of the deck as they leaned over and squinted to try and catch a glimpse of what Dio saw. 

Anysia came up next to Cordelia and crossed her arms over her chest. “Here’s to hoping that this one will be better than the other two,” she muttered under her breath. 

Cordelia nodded in agreement. This wasn’t the first island that they had stumbled upon. They had come up on two more islands, but they were uninhabitable. 

The first one was little more than a sandbank, and it couldn’t have been more than 800 square feet. It could barely have been called an island.

The second one they had stumbled upon was a little better, but it was still not suitable for going ashore. It was larger, but this too was just a larger sandbank. It had a few trees and a tiny freshwater lens, but it wasn’t even enough to bother with harvesting it. 

The islands were so small that it wasn’t feasible to disembark. 

The ship (which Cordelia had discovered was named the Golden Eel, ugh) wasn’t able to get close enough to be able to disembark in the first place. The shallows next to those islands were surrounded by rocky reefs, and the boat wouldn’t have been able to get close enough without the hull being scraped to shreds.

Not that Cordelia would have minded if it had happened. The Eel was truly a vile ship, and attempting to communicate with it always left her with a headache and mild nausea from the resentment and bitterness it exuded. But hey, not everyone was a child of Poseidon able to survive on the open seas without a ship, so Cordelia graciously made sacrifices for them.

“Fabulous. With Shang Di's mercy, we will finally be able to replenish our food stores and have a place to recuperate.” Bingyan stepped up to them, as always shadowed by Blanda. It was almost comical how short she was in comparison to Cordelia and Blanda. The top of her head barely reached their chests. 

As if she knew what Cordelia was thinking about, she shot her a vicious glare. Cordelia smiled and raised her hands in surrender. She’s just like a tiny scorpion, Cordelia thought in amusement.

“Yes, as we get closer, I can see that it has a considerable amount of green. Hopefully, some of the vegetation is edible or is fruit-producing.” Blanda squinted at the horizon.

Bingyan nodded. “I hope so as well. I must admit that I have grown weary of the subpar rations that those infernal sailors had aboard this ship. Not to mention that we have been admittedly running a little low.”

“Well, here’s to hoping.” Cordelia tilted her head as an idea struck her. “Anysia, can you tell what kind of plants are there on that island?”

Anysia looked blankly at her. “No. What are you talking about?”

Cordelia shrugged. “Well, you know. Don’t you guys have some freaky plant powers?”

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve never… wait. Have you met my siblings?” Anysia’s eyes widened.

Blanda and Bingyan turned to them in interest. Cordelia shifted in discomfort. “Well, sure. You’re telling me that you haven’t?”

Anysia stared at her. “Of course not. Do you have any idea how rare it is to encounter another Divine Offspring? What, do you think that there are dozens just running around?”

Uh, yeah, Cordelia snarkily thought. This is Ancient fucking Greece. The era of fucking Heroes. God knows exactly how many of Zeus’ spawn are roaming around, that degenerate dog. 

“In fact, you’re the only other Demigod that I’ve ever met. It’s extremely rare for Demigods to encounter each other.”

“Rare? I don’t know abo- wait, did you just say that I was the only Demigod you’ve ever met? What about Dio?”

“Dio? What does he have to do with this?” Anysia turned to look at him. The blond brat was trying to climb on the railings of the ship to get a better view, but was continually thwarted by Faigel pulling him off and scolding him.

Cordelia stared at her, wide-eyed. “What do you mean, what does he have to do with this? He’s obviously a Demigod too! Clearly it’s not too fucking rare to meet other Demigods if I ended up on a ship with two of them!”

Everybody stared at Cordelia in surprised disbelief. Cordelia frowned back at them. “Wait, you didn’t know? Blanda and Bingyan, I could believe, but Anysia? You couldn’t tell?”

“No! Of course I can’t tell! How can you tell?” Anysia was looking frantically between Cordelia and Dio. “Who is he even the son of?”

Cordelia scoffed. “Come on, you had to have felt the bloodthirst the moment you met him. He’s obviously the son of the Soldier.”

“The War God?” Blanda had paled, leaving her scar stark against her skin. “Dio is the son of the War God?”

“Yup. He sure is. I could tell from the moment I met him.” Cordelia wrinkled her nose. “The stench of rust and blood is unmistakable.” 

“What in Danu’s green earth- Cordi, you can smell Demigods?” Blanda’s voice had gone shrill in disbelief. 

Cordelia froze. 

Anysia stepped closer to her. “What do I smell like, then?”

Before Cordelia had time to think, a deep, earthy scent filled her nose. It was dark and rich, like freshly tilled soil after a light drizzle. 

“Petrichor,” Cordelia choked out. “You smell like petrichor.”

What the fuck. What the fuuuck. Cordelia’s mind whirred frantically. When have I been able to smell Demigods? Like a fucking monster? Cordelia stepped away from them and began to pace. 

Since Camp Jupiter? No, probably not, I would have definitely noticed. After Tartarus? Probably. Maybe I manifested a stronger sense of smell down there to help detect enemies. Maybe? Hopefully? Cordelia shuddered. Or maybe I’m turning into a fucking monster myself. 

“Well, this is certainly a fascinating development.” Bingyan looked at Cordelia in interest. She looked at Anysia. “I’m assuming from your reaction that this is not a common ability?”

Anysia shook her head. “Definitely not. I might not be as in touch with my powers as Cordi is, but I know for a fact that you cannot determine Demigods by scent. Usually, the only way a Demigod knows their lineage is if they know from their other parent or their Divine parent claims them.” 

“Or, if they accidentally use their powers,” Cordelia noted. 

Anysia shook her head. “No, even then, there is often a window of confusion. If a Demigod manifests a power, how are they to know if they are the descendant of an Olympian? It is equally as likely to be an offspring of a minor god or a nymph.”

Oh, that’s right, Cordelia realized. That would be much more common in this time period.

“Well. That’s certainly news to me.” Cordelia hoped that her voice wasn’t as hysterical as she felt. “How about we shelve this discussion and instead talk about what we’re going to do on the island, hmm?” Her smile felt strained on her face.

Anysia stepped forward. “Wait, I still have questions. When and where did you meet my siblings?”

She opened her mouth to ask more, but was interrupted by Blanda gently pulling her back. The redheaded Gaul gave Cordelia a pitying look. “Anysia, leave it for now. It is clear that the past few revelations have been… intense for Cordi. Let’s give her a minute to breathe while we go to the island.” By now, they had almost arrived. Thankfully, it appeared that while there were shallow reefs around a part of the island, it was also deep enough in some areas to be able to sail closer.

Anysia looked reluctant, but she acquiesced to Blanda’s coaxing. As they walked away, Cordelia was left with Bingyan. The tiny Chinese woman gave her a piercing look. 

“I hope that you know that I have many questions, Cordi,” she smiled sharply. “I’ll leave you as Blanda said, but be warned, I expect some answers.” She left with a flip of her luxurious hair.

Cordelia just took a moment to breathe. 

The past few months had been rather intense. Cordelia was used to stress and fervent activity, but she had never been exposed to constant stress so… prolonged. 

Although her numerous quests may have been life-or-death, they never lasted too long, and afterwards, she always had her family and friends to turn to for comfort. 

This was different.

Her body and instincts had been constantly at full throttle ever since she had woken up in Lupa’s den. She hadn’t been able to relax more than a few days, with having to amnesiacally stumble her way to Camp Jupiter, going on the quest to Alaska, then immediately after having to board the Argo II for the Prophecy of Seven quest then falling into Tartarus, and upon making it out, being thrust into the war against the Giants then winding up in Ancient Greece.

Cordelia was strong. Very strong, some would say. But she wasn’t indefatigable. 

She took another breath to center herself. It’s okay. Everything’s okay. You’ll have time to figure everything out later, just calm down.

Slowly, she could feel herself settling down. She turned to see that someone had dropped the anchor, and the Eel had come to a reluctant stop relatively close to the shore. People were already beginning to jump off the side of the boat and wade over to the beach.

Cordelia rubbed her face. Time to pull myself together. We got shit to do. I can spiral later.

She made her way to the side of the ship where everyone was jumping off into the water. An old man was struggling to make his way across the side of the ship, and Cordelia helped him over. She made sure that everyone was off the boat before she let herself slide into the sea.

Immediately, she felt a rush of power infuse her. The waves playfully licked at her thighs, and she could feel the currents gently brushing around her calves. She smiled. Even if this wasn’t her sea, the ocean was still happy to see her. 

She slowly made her way over to the shore where everyone was congregated. She slowly waded her way out of the shallows towards them.

The moment her bare foot fully left the water and touched the sand, an unbelievable agony tore through Cordelia.

Immediately, her knees felt weak and she collapsed. She heard a ragged scream that she vaguely registered as coming from herself. 

The pain was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. It was as if she were coming apart atom by atom. As if her bones were being ground to dust. As if her flesh was being peeled off strip by strip. As if acid was burning her away. As if a gaping wound was filled with salt. For Cordelia, who had endured the worst kind of pain, it was excruciating on another level.

Cordelia lost track of time as she was consumed by the torture. She couldn’t focus on anything other than the feeling that she was being unmade. She begged for unconsciousness, and when that didn’t happen, she begged for death, just to stop the unending agony.

A wave of cold washed over Cordelia, and she gasped deeply as the torment stopped. She was surprised when water filled her lungs. Disoriented, she took a moment to groggily sit up until her head rose over the surface of the sea. 

Before her, she could make out the shouts of the others as they argued. Dio was right next to her as he screamed up at the others.

“Shut up! Shut the hell up! This is the only way to help her!”

“You’re going to drown her, you stupid child!”

“No, I’m not, she needs the water! It’s the only way to help her!”

“She can’t swim in this state! She’ll drown! Get away from her so that we can help her!”

“No! Stay back! This is the only way!”

“She’s already been under too long! She’s probably already dead! Move!”

“No! Go away!”

Cordelia struggled to her feet, and the arguments around her began to die down. After glancing at her, Dio turned back to the others who were arguing with him and smirked triumphantly. “See? I told you it would help her!”

A man scoffed. “The only thing you did was almost drown her, you stupid child. It’s only by the grace of the gods that she still breathes.” He turned to her. “Are you alright?”

Cordelia shakily nodded. “Yes. I’m fine. Sorry for alarming you,” she croaked.

The man examined her, then nodded and turned away. Cordelia watched them walk back ashore as her lungs spasmed for air. 

Dio fully turned to her, his smirk melting away. “What happened?”

Cordelia shuddered. “I don’t know. One moment I was fine, and the next I felt like I was burning alive.” Her knees still felt weak and she struggled not to sway.

“Burning alive? Did you get stung by something? Like a jellyfish?” Dio examined her, looking for any signs of injury.

Behind him, Cordelia could see Bingyan and Faigel attempting to rein in the crowd of people. Dio noticed her gaze and scoffed. “Yeah, when you fell and began to scream, everyone freaked out. I don’t think they care about you, though. They’re more worried about who’s gonna sail them if you die.” He glanced back at them scornfully. “Selfish leeches.”

Cordelia still felt dizzy, but she was slowly recovering in the seawater. Not as fast as she would like, but recovering nonetheless. At least she didn’t feel like puking her guts up from the echoes of the unending agony anymore.

Dio tsked. “I don’t see any bites or scratches.” He made eye contact with her. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Cordelia swallowed heavily. 

They stared at each other before looking back at the beach. By now, everyone had gone further inland, leaving no stragglers by the shore. 

Cordelia slowly walked back to the shore on shaky legs, Dio shadowing her. “How did you know pulling me into the sea would help?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You’re a water buffalo, so water would help you.” He made a face at her. Cordelia didn’t even have the energy to glare at him. 

Cordelia stopped right before she hit the edge of the shore. She stared at the sand and crouched.

What if… it couldn’t be…

Dread began to roil in her stomach. She reached out and, with a single finger, lightly touched the damp sand.

Immediately, she yanked her hand back and cradled it to her breast, gasping for air. 

A ghost of the same pain.

Oh no. No. It couldn’t be…

When she tried again, the same result. 

Wrath flooded Cordelia’s veins. She screamed. The waves behind her roiled, and Dio stumbled into her.

“Cordi, what-?”

Cordelia could barely hear him. 

She finally knew what Gaea had been whispering about before Cordelia had been flung back in time.

That bitch had cursed her.

“So you can’t go on land?”

Cordelia grimly nodded. She looked up into the stars as if they would hold the answers for her.

Night had fallen, and almost all of the former slaves had elected to sleep on the island. All except her friends, who were sprawled out on the deck of the Eel with her.

It had been a very productive day, Blanda had detailed. They had explored the island, which was decently large. It was a small volcanic island, and it was rife with vegetation. There was an abundance of palm trees, especially coconuts, dates, and ice apples. Anysia was happy to note that she found several edible plants and tubers that they were able to harvest, and according to Ranga, there was a sizable bird population for them to hunt. 

What had excited everyone the most was the large freshwater lake at the base of the volcano. It allowed them to drink to their heart’s content after purifying it.

As Cordelia had circled the island and had tried to figure out the parameters of her curse, the rest of the people had worked hard to build a temporary shelter.

After hours of experimenting, Cordelia determined that she was unable to walk on land. She was fine if she was touching the sea, but once she left it, any contact with dry land left her in excruciating agony.

She was grateful to have Dio with her. There was many a time she had overextended herself and had collapsed, only for him to drag her back into the sea to recover. At the end of the day, his skin and hair were coarse from the sand and salt.

“I’ve been Davy Jones’d,” she bitterly muttered.

“Davy Jones? Who’s that?” Ranga tilted his head.

Cordelia heaved a sigh. “Davy Jones is a pirate. One of the most fearsome pirates to ever roam the seas.”

“Really? I’ve never heard of him.” Bingyan stared intently at Cordelia.

No shit. Cordelia chuckled. “I’m not surprised. Davy Jones was once a handsome young sailor. He was skilled and ruthless, and he easily took over a large portion of the sea with his fearsome crew on his ship, the Flying Dutchman.”

She gazed forlornly out into the horizon. “One day, he fell in love with a sea-goddess, Calypso.”

“Calypso?” Dio interrupted. “But she’s-”

“No, not that Calypso, a different Calypso,” She glared at Dio. “Don’t interrupt me, brat, you’re ruining the story.”

Dio grumbled but settled down.

“As I was saying, Davy Jones fell in love with a beautiful sea-goddess, and he was assigned some very important duties. He was to ferry the souls who drowned in the deep to the afterlife.”

Cordelia sighed. “It’s not easy to love a God or Goddess, and this was no different. Davy Jones’ love came with a price. As he fulfilled the duties for his beloved, he was unable to step onto land or see her for ten years.”

Ranga’s eyes widened. “Ten years?”

“Yes, ten years,” Cordelia nodded. “For ten long, lonely years, Davy Jones toiled, ferrying the souls of the drowned into the afterlife, faithfully counting down the days until he could be reunited with his beloved once more.”

Cordelia turned to look at her enraptured audience. “Finally, the day came. Ten years of service, and he was finally free to walk on land. He sailed to the island they had agreed to meet on, eager to reunite with his beloved.”

Bingyan’s expression darkened. She could tell what was coming next.

“But alas. All of his years of faithful service were for nothing. Davy Jones had a single day he could walk on land, a single day out of ten years in which he could be reunited with his beloved, but in the end, Calypso did not appear.”

Blanda made a mournful sound. 

Cordelia continued. “Davy Jones had been betrayed. Grief turned into anger. Davy Jones, with the help of other powerful pirates, trapped Calypso and bound her in human form. Calypso wailed in agony, cut off from her precious sea, and begged Davy Jones to help her.”

Ranga and Anysia winced.

“Davy Jones was betrayed, but he still loved Calypso. Her pleas cut through him.” Cordelia frowned. “And yet, they were not enough to move him. He cut out his own heart and locked it away so that he would never succumb to weakness ever again.”

“Awesome,” Dio breathed. Cordelia glared at him, and he quickly shut up.

“Even with Calypso sealed away, Davy Jones was still bound to his duty. He was still unable to step onto land except for one day in ten years. Davy Jones was forced to sail the seas. However,” Crodelia grimly continued, “Instead of benevolently ferrying them, Davy Jones began to collect the souls of the damned. He hunted them down and imprisoned them in his Locker. As he was forced to endure the salty waves, this time, without his goddess’ protection, the salt and scum began to seep into his skin and into the ship. The once-glorious Flying Dutchman, renowned for its splendor, became encrusted with barnacles and filthy with salt. His crew, following him so loyally, morphed to look more and more like the sea monsters they swore to hunt. And Davy Jones himself?” Cordelia paused meaningfully. “Well. Davy Jones was not exempt either. His sharp, handsome looks faded and his skin oozed with slime. His left arm, clenched in grief for so long, mutated into a gnarled, vicious crab claw. And his beautiful, glorious beard, the one he had tended to so carefully, matted together until they took on a life of their own and transformed into horrific tentacles. Davy Jones had condemned himself and his crew to live a torturous half-life, forced to exist in a horrific, monstrous state, roaming the seas in an eternal purgatory.”

Cordelia met her rapt audience’s eyes. “And so the legend goes, Davy Jones hunts down not just the souls lost in the deep, but also traitors and backstabbers. He seeks to punish the unworthy in an effort to redeem his own betrayal. Beware Davy Jones, for if you get too careless, he will snatch you too into the deep.”

The end of Cordelia’s story was met with a terrified silence. 

“Cordi,” Dio looked very concerned. “Does this mean that you’re going to grow a tentacle beard?” He looked terrified.

This motherfu- “No, Dio. I’m not going to grow a fucking tentacle beard.”

He looked pathetically relieved. “Thank the Gods. I was worried when you said that you were going to be like him.”

“No you fucking idiot, I said that I was Davy Jones’d because I can’t walk on land anymore, you dipshit!”

Dio looked annoyed. “Well, how am I supposed to pick just that part out? For all I know, you could be having a torrid love affair with a sea-goddess too.” He perked up. “Wait, are you? Is that why you can’t walk on land anymore?”

Cordelia closed her eyes, trying to conjure up some patience. “No, Dio, I’m not having an affair with a sea-goddess. And no, that’s not why I’m cursed. That was something else.”

“So you haven’t cut your heart out? I wouldn’t be surprised.” 

That’s fucking it. Cordelia lunged at him, and Dio screamed, trying to get away. She easily caught him and dragged him to the railing of the ship to dangle him from his ankles over the water. Their stupid antics finally broke the tense atmosphere enough for the rest of them to laugh. 

Faigel sighed and walked up to Cordelia and Dio, and finally managed to separate them. “You both, stop. Enough.” They came back to the group, still snarling at each other. 

Bingyan put her hand over her mouth, her eyes glinting with a sharp, analytical light. “So what does this mean for you, Cordi?”

Cordelia sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’d say that I’m luckier than most, because I’m right at home on the sea, but anyone else in my position would be much worse off. Take Anysia, for example.”

Everyone turned to Anysia, who shuddered in revulsion at the thought of being unable to walk on land, completely severed from her mother’s domain. 

Blanda finally sighed and stood up. “Alright, everyone, I think that’s enough for tonight. We’ve all had a long, eventful day, and we’re going to have another one tomorrow. It’s time for us to retire for the night.”

Ranga and Dio groaned in protest but had to acquiesce when Faigel joined Blanda in her decision. Reluctantly, they got up and began to shuffle off to sleep, Anysia following in their wake to herd them off faster. 

Bingyan paused before she followed after them. “So, I’d like to assume that this Davy Jones isn’t invincible.”

Cordelia smirked. “Yes, you’d assume correctly. But let’s save the exciting tale of Captain Jack Sparrow for another night, shall we?”

“Yes, let’s. I’m beyond intrigued,” Bingyan smiled back at her. “Are you joining us?”

“I will in a bit,” Cordelia said. “I’d like to be here for a few more minutes. Don’t wait up.”

Bingyan nodded and disappeared after the others. Cordelia sighed and walked up to the railing, looking out into the sea. It really was gorgeous, the calm waters reflecting the stars beautifully, so it looked like the galaxy spanned around her. It was serene, the only sound in the air was the soft splash of the waves breaking on the ship. 

Cordelia allowed her shoulders to relax and just breathed, taking in her breathtaking surroundings. 

“You know, I’m quite curious to hear about the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow myself,” a low, masculine voice whispered into her ear.

Instantly, Cordelia’s muscles tensed up, and she threw herself away from the owner of the voice. She didn’t get very far, stopped by the ship’s railing behind her, but she was able to see the amused smirk of the man who startled her.

Cordelia’s heart rate picked up even higher.

What the-!?

Cordelia had to crane her head up to meet his eyes. He towered over her, his tanned skin glowing under the moonlight. His hair was long and smooth and fell carelessly over his shoulders, and his inhumanly handsome face was amused. His glowing gold eyes bored into her own.

Who…?

Cordelia could feel the divinity radiate off of him. She unconsciously took a step back to distance herself from the sheer amount of power he emitted. It felt like she was standing next to a nuclear reactor.

“What the fuck?” was what came out.

The man frowned down at her. “Well, that’s not very polite.” He tilted his head and examined her. “Usually, mortals are bowing and scraping by now. Hmmmm.”

Cordelia’s mouth ran faster than her brain. “Listen, buddy, if you want me to bow and scrape, it’s gonna take a lot more than just a pretty face.” Immediately, her face flamed when she realized what she had just blurted out. God fucking dammit!

He looked stunned, then he began to laugh. The sound was deep and rich and seemed to raise the surrounding temperature by a few degrees. Cordelia took another step back.

“Did you just proposition me?”

“No!”

He continued to laugh. “You’re more entertaining than I thought.”

Cordelia could only stand in frozen horror as she waited for him to stop laughing. What the hell was happening right now?

Slowly, the man straightened out, an amused smile still pulling at his lips. “So. Captain Jack Sparrow? Can’t say I’ve heard of him.” He met her eyes. “He must be quite the special man if he was able to best the monstrous Davy Jones.”

Cordelia could only gape, and he smirked, satisfied at her reaction. “I must admit, you’re a decent storyteller. High praise coming from me, of course.”

“Coming from you…?” Cordelia stupidly echoed him.

The man crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me.” His smile dripped with confidence.

“Lord Apollo,” the whisper left Cordelia’s lips. Her limbs felt like lead.

“Yes.” The man, no, the God, grinned down at her. 

Cordelia’s mind whirred. It was undeniable. There was a God standing before her. Her hackles were raised to such an extent that she was almost unable to move.

“And here I thought the only interesting thing about you was watching you fall from the sky.”

Cordelia’s mind screeched to a stop. “What? Did you just say that I fell from the sky?”

Apollo shrugged nonchalantly. “Yes. I was driving my Sun Chariot when my horses were distracted by something falling. First, I was irritated, but then I realized that what fell was a naked woman.”

He smirked suggestively at her, and Cordelia did her best to ignore it. Apollo continued. “If that wasn’t all, the woman survived that incredible fall into the sea and was found by slavers. It was enthralling,” he gushed. “What would she do? Would she escape? Would she succumb to the slaver’s will? But no!” His smile stretched in delight. “No, she slaughtered them!” He beamed at her.

Cordelia didn’t share in his delight. “So you’ve been watching me all this time?”

Apollo shrugged. “Well, not all of it. Sometimes it was pretty boring, like when you slept for days.”

Cordelia glared at him. So that’s why her instincts were going haywire. He had been creeping on her.

“Well, I hope that you enjoyed the show. I’m sure that you’ll lose interest in me now that we’re free.” She tried to subtly shoo him away. 

Apollo chuckled darkly. “Oh no, sweetheart. That’s not it at all.” He slowly stalked towards her, and Cordelia was forced to take a step back. “You see, the more I observe you, the more questions I have,” another step towards her. Another step away from him.

“How were you able to survive such a fall? How did you, as you so cleverly put it, become Davy Jones’d? And most importantly of all,” he leaned towards her, his eyes an ungodly, molten gold, “Why are your strings so strange?”

Cordelia swallowed heavily, captured by his gaze. “My what?”

“Your strings.” Apollo’s eyes traced around her, examining something that she couldn’t see. “Your strings of fate are the strangest I’ve ever seen.”

Cordelia’s stomach dropped.

“They’re twisted and tangled, but strangest of all, many of them just seem to… surround you. As if they can’t touch you. Some of them are severed and appear to float into nowhere.” He met her eyes intently. “Now, why might that be?”

Cordelia clenched her jaw shut.

Apollo leaned into her. “Tell me, young one, where are you from?” His eyes glowed with godly power.

Cordelia spat the first answer that came into her mind. “Sparta.”

“Ha.” Apollo smiled at her, sharp and vicious. “Is that so?”

Cordelia didn’t budge. Apollo raised an eyebrow and leaned back. “Very well, then. If you say so.” His face clearly indicated that she wasn’t fooling anyone.

“So. I’m curious. What is your name?”

Cordelia stared at him in distrust. “What do you mean, what’s my name? If you’ve been watching me all this time, obviously you’d know.”

“Oh yes, ‘Cordi’,” Apollo rolled his eyes. “I’m aware that isn’t your true name. I’m curious as to what it is.”

Cordelia scowled at him. “My name is Cordi.”

Apollo stared at her for a long second, his power rising and licking against her skin. Cordelia tensed, but before anything could happen, Apollo smiled genially and backed off. “Alright, then. You won’t tell me this either.” He smiled at her, good-naturedly. “Guess I’ll have to give you a name of my own, then.”

He eyed her playfully. “Let’s see? Free-faller?” He laughed at the look on her face. “No? How about the hair-cutter?” He eyed her massacred locks, his eyes dancing with mirth.

Hair-cutter? What am I, a fucking barber? Cordelia grimaced.

“No, don’t like that one either?” His gaze fell down to her arms.

“Hmmm, how about the Unshackled?”

His laughter died on his lips as a wave of power rushed from him to surround her. Cordelia could barely blink before she was surrounded by an intense warmth that dissipated just as quickly as it came.

Both Cordelia and Apollo stared at each other in shock, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

“... Did you just bless me?”

Apollo snapped out of his stupor to examine her, this time clearly more guarded. “Apparently. You’ve just been granted a new title, one I obviously didn’t mean to bestow.” His eyes gazed through her again. “The Fates seem to have acted on their own.” His golden orbs snapped to hers. “What other secrets are you hiding, Cordi the Unshackled?”

“Cordelia.” Her name was wrenched from her lips. She gasped and covered her mouth. 

Apollo grinned meanly at her. “Ah. Cordelia. What a lovely name. Evidently, I’m not the only one who is dancing to the Fates' whims.”

Cordelia scowled and prepared to retort, but was interrupted by Faigel calling her in to come in to sleep.

When she turned back, Apollo was gone.

Cordelia numbly trudged her way to the sleeping quarters, her mind in disarray.

She had thought that finally, finally, she could let her guard down, but apparently not.

Cordelia looked behind her even though she knew it was futile. She tried to see any indication of the god’s presence, but it was to no avail.

She shook her head and headed inside.

Apparently not.

Chapter Text

The fire crackled by the edge of the shore as the group sat circled around it. The sun seared down on them at the peak of the day, and the added heat from the fire made the heat almost unbearable, but none of them minded as they eagerly waited for their lunch to cook. Cordelia sat in the sea, the water brushing around her legs as she ate with her friends. They were afforded a measure of privacy as the other former slaves had formed their own camps further inland.

“This is delicious.” Blanda’s voice held a note of wonder as she ate.

Cordelia smiled smugly. “Of course it is. Crab and lobster are some of my favorites.” Cordelia had spent the morning scavenging the reefs around the island as the others gathered fruit further inland.

Faigel reached for another piece of lobster and handed it over to Cordelia, who easily cracked the shell for her. Faigel happily dug in. “Very good. I never eaten sea bugs before. Only very, very poor ate in my hometown.”

Sea bugs, Cordelia thought in amusement.

Ranga happily murmured in agreement and Bingyan side eyed him from where she was slurping a crab’s shell. “Aren’t you supposed to be a vegetarian?”

The Indian teen stuck his tongue out at her. “Well, yes, religiously I am, but at this point, I’m just grateful for any food at all. My family hasn’t been vegetarian in a long time, ever since we had to save money for my father’s treatment. It was hard, but we were forced to eat meat. It’s much cheaper sometimes.” He tilted his head in contemplation. “But I will not eat cow. No matter how hungry I am. That’s the line I won’t cross.”

Dio scowled at him. “I don’t know about that. Real starvation makes you eat anything. You’ll eat grass and dirt just for the chance to fill the ache in your gut. It’s not so easy to keep your morals when you’re about to die.”

“Hmmm.” Ranga didn’t say anything else, but Cordelia got the feeling that he still disagreed with Dio.

To be honest, she kind of did, too. She, too, had seen what people could be driven to in desperation, how far they could fall. When pushed far enough, people could become worse than animals.

But she also had a strict, unyielding set of principles that she would never break, even if it was at the cost of her life. Cordelia had committed her fair share of sins, but she made sure that she was still able to look her reflection in the eye without shame. Her firm morals were what separated her from the monsters and abominations that hunted her.

Anysia licked the juices from her fingers. “The others will be jealous. I know that some of them have only eaten dates for the past two weeks.” She turned to the pile of ice apples waiting next to her and began to pry them open with the help of a dulled knife they had found in the Golden Eel’s kitchen. 

Bingyan hummed in disagreement. “I’m not so sure that they would be willing to eat this. Like Faigel said, this is food only the desperate eat.” She seemed to have no qualms about digging in, though, and went for another crab.

Cordelia eagerly took the opened treat Anysia handed to her and almost moaned in pleasure when the sweet jelly reached her tongue. 

Gods, I miss sugar, Cordelia lamented. She wouldn’t say that she had the biggest sweet tooth, but she was craving her mother’s blue chocolate chip cookies something fierce. It was almost an ache, but Cordelia did her best to ignore it as she continued to slurp at the sweet juice that the ice apple spilled.

Cordelia continued to feast on her dessert as the others attacked the pile of crustaceans that had been roasted to perfection. It was almost amusing how much they ate, and Cordelia wasn’t surprised when it led to them all lying almost comatose in the sand, fighting the urge to drift off.

Bingyan grimaced as she attempted to shift to a more comfortable position. “Perhaps I may have overindulged a bit.”

“We all have,” Faigel sighed.

Blanda groaned in agreement. “Right, we still have a lot of work to do before we can stop for the day, but I suppose that we can take some time to digest.”

Ranga flopped onto his back. “Yeah, we’re going to have to, otherwise we’ll vomit it back up as we work.”

“Maybe we can take this time to talk.” Anysia cleared her throat meaningfully, and when Cordelia looked over, Anysia pointedly flicked her eyes over to Dio.

Cordelia grimaced. She was hoping to avoid this conversation, but Anysia had been hounding her ass ever since she had revealed Dio’s parentage to her. 

Cordelia looked plaintively at Anysia. I really, really don’t think this is a good idea.

She was met with a resolute glare.

Cordelia sighed. Fine. If you insist. Your funeral.

“Hey, Dio.” 

The menace whipped his head around to her, his cheeks puffed out, filled with coconut flesh and coconut water running down his chin. 

Ugh. 

“Uh, well, where did you say you were from again?”

Cordelia cringed as she felt Anysia’s glare sear into her for chickening out. Don’t judge me, lady. I don’t want to do this in the first place. 

Dio gave her a funny look. “What? Didn’t we already talk about this? Is your memory as short as a water buffalo's, too?”

He sniggered as he dodged the ice-apple shell Cordelia threw at him. “Just answer the fucking question, shitstain!”

“Yeesh, alright, alright! I’m from Sparta,” Dio turned away from her to dig back into his dessert.

“So, your mom’s from Sparta?” Anysia finally jumped in, scowling at Cordelia’s cowardice.

“Yup.”

Everybody waited for him to elaborate, but he continued to obliviously eat his coconut. Ranga finally nudged him and Dio rolled his eyes. “Fine. What do you guys want? You’re being awfully nosy.” He glared in suspicion.

“Tell us about your parents.”

Dio shrugged. “Not much to say. Mom was awesome. She took care of me and taught me how to fight. Died from the pox last year.” His voice was carefully even.

Jeez. “I’m sorry, Dio.” 

Dio snapped his scowl at her. “Yeah, well. It is what it is.”

“What about father?” Faigel asked.

“Don’t got one of those.”

I guess now’s the time. Cordelia sighed. “Well, actually, you do have a father.”

Dio looked at her as if she were stupid. “Of course I do, you cretin, how would I have been able to have been born otherwise? Did your mommy not teach you how babies are made? Do you still think that they grow in the ground and you pull them up like turnips?” He looked at her with pitying disdain. 

Cordelia flushed in embarrassment. “Shut the fuck up, you brat, that’s not what I meant and you know it!” She resisted the urge to splash a wave on him. The less she used her powers, the better.

Anysia interrupted before the argument could escalate. “What she meant to say is that Cordelia knows who your father is.”

Dio peered at her. “What? What do you mean?”

Cordelia winced. I really, really don’t think we should do this!

“You’re the son of Ares.” Anysia baldly declared.

Cordelia felt a sharp pang of alarm when Anysia spoke his name. Before she could react, she felt power rise. For a split second, the rusty smell of blood permeated the air around them before it was dispersed by the salty sea breeze. 

Cordelia felt a shiver run down her spine. This is why I didn’t want to do this. Now we’ve got their attention. Her instincts crawled under the scrutiny. Fuck! Just what I was trying to avoid!

Dio sat silently for a long moment, pondering the revelation. Finally, he looked up and met Anysia’s eyes. 

“Makes sense.”

“What?” Blanda’s face was incredulous. “What do you mean, ‘makes sense’?” 

Dio turned to her. “Just that. It makes sense. Back in Sparta, when I was training with the other boys, I was always better. I was always faster. Sharper. I thought it was because I just pushed myself harder. That I had a stronger will than them. But I guess that I could tell that I was always… more.”

The hairs on the back of Cordelia’s neck rose. A sinister chuckle sounded in her head. Judging by the others’ flinches, she wasn’t the only one hearing it.

‘Well, well, well… what do we have here?’ The voice chuckled again. 

The air was drowned in the scent of blood. Cordelia’s hand went to her hip on reflex, but she froze when she remembered that she didn’t have Riptide on her. Fucking hell. A wave of dread ran through her.

‘I was planning to wait before I claimed my cute little son, but it seems some meddling ants have forced my hand.’ 

The force around them increased, and Anysia collapsed under the pressure that was centered around her. Cordelia could see beads of sweat on her forehead and tears pooling in her fearful eyes. Cordelia stood, but she was unable to take a step closer to Anysia, her toes at the very edge of the shore. All of her instincts urged her to run to her friend’s aid, but her body stopped her from taking those few steps forward, successfully Pavlov’d into avoiding dry land after continuously enduring excruciating agony over and over again. I hope you rot in Tartarus, you fucking dirt bitch, Cordelia nastily cursed, as she could only watch helplessly as her friends suffered.

‘Well, no matter. You did good, boy, against those slavers. I wasn’t really fond of you calling for your mother, but Alkmini was a remarkable woman. I guess you’re still a child, so I let it go. But.” The scent of blood thickened until it was thick and cloying. “I was going to wait for you to prove yourself further.’

The pressure increased further, and Anysia whimpered, hyperventilating in fear. The gravity on Cordelia increased as well, but she refused to falter under the pressure. Sensing her defiance, it kept ramping up, going higher and higher, until her knees shook under the weight, but still she refused to kneel. As reluctant as she was, she drew strength from the sea and allowed it to fill her with power. 

This is nothing, Cordelia said to herself. This isn’t even a fraction as heavy as the Sky.

Cordelia refused to kneel to Ares. Over my dead body. He can go fuck himself, that titanic asswipe.

Before the pressure could increase to unbearable amounts and crush them all, a strong, fruity scent enveloped the surroundings and overpowered the stench of rusty blood. Cordelia felt the weight of a different power engulf them all. The taste of this power was not as menacing as the first, but was no less foreboding.

Demeter.

Anysia inhaled with a gasp, finally able to breathe. The others panted as well, overwhelmed by the clash of divine power. Cordelia swayed a little, thrown off by the sudden withdrawal of the weight around her shoulders.

The raspy chuckle sounded off in their heads once more. ‘Alright. I’ll leave it here for now. But you really need to teach your little blossoms proper manners, dear Auntie, before they offend the others more seriously.’

The fruity scent grew stronger and sweeter, and Ares laughed again. Cordelia felt his presence begin to recede, but before it withdrew completely, she felt it rush and coalesce around Dio, who startled, eyes wide.

An ominous red boar’s head materialized above his blonde curls, pulsing with bloodthirsty power.

‘I’ll be waiting for your show, my cute little son. Do not disappoint me.’

And with that, they were left on the beach, reeling from the shock.

Cordelia watched as everyone turned and vomited their lunch out in unison. 

Blanda’s remaining eye was wide with terror as she turned to Cordelia. “What was that?!”

“The power of the divine.” Bingyan rasped out before Cordelia had the opportunity to answer. 

Finally, the weight of what had happened seemed to truly set in. Faigel hugged herself and chanted the Shema prayer. Ranga closed his eyes and cradled his head while gasping his own prayers to Vishnu to protect them. Cordelia even heard Bingyan murmur Shang Di's name, her normally placid face white in fear.

“But…” Ranga trailed off, but everybody knew what he was trying to ask.

Cordelia shook her head. “No. The gods are not kind. They are not benevolent. They do not value us. Like he said, they see us as nothing more than ants.” She looked them all in the eye until she finally landed on Dio.

He looked shell-shocked but held her gaze. A fine tremble shook his limbs, and his eyes were slightly distant.

“A God’s attention is not something to be coveted, but feared.”

Cordelia was back in the reefs, trawling the seabeds. It had taken the others some time before they had been able to recover from the shock. Cordelia felt helpless as her friends were confronted firsthand with the ugly reality of the Gods.

She had been in their exact same position before, had experienced the same shock, helplessness, and terror, but she was unable to comfort them. 

After all, how do you comfort someone when they’re faced with the truth?

Her instincts wanted nothing more than for her to circle her friends like a shark and guard them from any more threats, but she was aware that they needed more food to eat, especially after losing most of it to the shock of the afternoon.

Once they were able to stand, the others had retreated further inland to forage for some tubers under Anysia’s lead. They had apologized for leaving Cordelia, but all of them felt the instinctual urge to flee from the shore and bunker down further inland in the heart of Demeter’s forests. 

Cordelia understood, even though a pang of loneliness pierced through her. They couldn’t help it. Demeter had helped them, in the end. But Cordelia wasn’t naive enough to believe that she was any more benevolent than the other Gods. Like any of them, she would smite them without warning if the mood hit her. But for now, the others were right to piggyback off of her favor for Anysia and surround themselves in her domain.

Again, Cordelia felt a pang of loneliness that was overshadowed by her anxiety of not being able to see them, but she forcefully shrugged it off.

It’s okay. Forget about it. Just enjoy the moment. 

Cordelia forced her attention back to the rocky reefs she was exploring. They weren’t the most conventionally aesthetically pleasing, but Cordelia easily saw all the beauty it had to offer. She saw schools of fish dart in and out of coral and kelp swaying elegantly with the current as jellyfish meandered by. 

Cordelia peeked into a little crevice and was met with the eye of a small octopus blinking at her. She mischievously reached in to poke it and grinned when it turned a vivid purple and yellow and squirted a plume of ink at her.

She moved on to her next spot and was rewarded with a large lobster that tried to snap at her as if sensing her intentions. She playfully wrangled with it, keeping her fingers in range of its claws and withdrawing them at the last second so she wouldn’t get pinched.

She had no warning before a supernova of power manifested behind her.

It was like she was being scalded on all sides, but without the heat. Almost as if she had been hit with a nuclear bomb and stood at the epicenter of the blast. 

Without her consent, Cordelia’s body slowly turned around to come face-to-face with a towering man dressed in flowing white robes with a gleaming crown perched on a mane of black curls.

The King of the Depths. 

The Lord of the Deep. 

The Keeper of the Abyss.

The God of the Sea.

Poseidon.

Dad, the thought unconsciously floated across Cordelia’s mind.

But no. That wasn’t quite correct.

This being of pure energy, of unfathomable power, was not the father she had known. The look in his green eyes, the same indiscernible shade of green as hers, was frigid with no recognition. They possessed not even an ounce of the warmth and fondness that she was so used to. He looked at her as if she were a stranger. 

Cordelia’s chest seized up, her instincts completely at war with themselves. Poseidon had always meant loyalty, exasperated fondness, and safety, but right now, the only thing she could feel was danger.

Poseidon continued to scornfully look over her. Cordelia felt a shiver run through her at his dispassionate perusal.

Emotion rose in her chest, rising higher and higher until it began to choke her. It threatened to overwhelm her, to consume her, and in that moment of weakness, she breathed out, “Father.”

Immediately, Cordelia knew it was the wrong thing to say. The water around her grew colder, and Poseidon’s eyes glowed as he sneered down at her.

“Father, you say? I don’t recall having a daughter so… unkept.” His deep, rumbling voice dripped with sheer contempt.

Cordelia’s blood froze. She became starkly aware of her bedraggled appearance, clothed in rags, hair butchered beyond salvation, and deformed shackles melded to her arms. A wave of self-consciousness washed over her.

“How could you claim yourself as my daughter when you’re shamelessly dressed with less modesty than a wench? And further,” He eyed the cuffs on her trembling hands in disgust, “How could a child of mine be enslaved to weak, pathetic mortals?”

The shock began to recede from Cordelia’s system as hurt and indignation replaced it. “Hey. It wasn’t like I could help it. I freed myself, didn’t I?”

That answer didn’t satisfy Poseidon. His lip curled in derision. “Yes, I suppose you did, after you were beaten like a filthy dog. You endured such indignity. Why didn't you liberate yourself sooner?”

Because I didn’t want to draw your attention. I didn't want to make any big moves or use my powers too obviously. Internally, she scoffed at herself. Looks like it was all for nothing in the end. Cordelia stayed silent, stewing in bitterness.

Poseidon’s brow furrowed at her refusal to answer. “Fine then. You claim to be my daughter. Who is your mother, then?”

Cordelia clammed up once more. There was no answer that she could give him that would satisfy him. Anything she said would lead to further questions until her entire situation unraveled. 

Poseidon’s face morphed into anger. The weight around her increased as his power flared. 

“Again, you refuse to answer me. You dare to defy me twice?”

The pressure around her increased, as if she had dived deep without preparation.

“Why do you remain silent? Are you ashamed of your mother? Was she a whore?” He eyed her makeshift clothes again. “That would explain why you are dressed so disgracefully, if she could teach you nothing but how to debase yourself.”

Cordelia felt the confusion and hurt inside her morph into anger. It lit an inferno in her belly, and she felt the blood heat as the familiar feeling of adrenaline flooded her veins.

How dare he-! 

“Shut up. My mother was a queen amongst women. Don’t you insult her. Even if you lived a thousand lifetimes, you couldn’t even be a fraction as noble and kind as she was.” Cordelia’s lips unconsciously pulled into a snarl, and she leaned towards Poseidon, her body already poised to leap into battle at a moment’s notice.

Poseidon’s scowl deepened. “Insolence! How dare you talk back to me? Disrespectful child!”

The god’s power ramped up again, but this time, Cordelia was ready. His power continued to expand until it felt like she was peering into a bottomless abyss. It continued on, unfathomable, endless.

“Choose your words wisely, child. I have no compunctions about dissolving you into seafoam right now.”

His voice reverberated until it felt like her skull was going to implode. She felt like she was looking into a giant sea-monster's eye, so incomprehensibly huge that her puny mortal mind couldn’t comprehend the sheer scale.

A wave of sheer existential dread was forced into her head. She was just an atom, a speck, in the face of this fathomless power. She was a weak little mortal who was better off succumbing to the Gods’ will. She was a precocious little girl who dared to question those far above her station. She was a weak, helpless being, no more significant than a single krill about to be swallowed by a whale.

Ỹ̴̱͑O̸̭̼͊̋̚͝U̸̗͓͂͆ ̴͕̖͌Ȁ̵̱̟̗̊R̵̡̈́̽͗́E̸̜̫͎̕ ̵̟̜̬̹̈́N̶̯̓O̸̱̥̚ͅT̸̹̹͍̋͊̅͠H̶̰̪̦́I̶̖̘̘̓̅̚N̶͕̯̓G̷͔͊̂.̷̼͎̼́͛ ̷̝̘̜͆͂̀͠Y̴̹̟͝Ḭ̷̮͖̲̓̋E̷̟͙̙̊͜Ľ̷̹̝̈́̽͝D̶̗̑͗͂ ̸̱̰̦͐͛̏T̷̞̣̖̹̄͝O̶̞̹͂ ̵̧̦̖̫͆M̸͇̾̿Y̴̗̖̐͝ ̴̢̛̰̯̓̃P̷̪͓̭͎͒͝Ō̵̙̦̹̚W̵̱̺̚Ḛ̸̖̫̏Ŕ̵̛̺̌.̷̧̡̩̿͜͝

Cordelia closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. “No. I won’t bow to you. You won’t kill me,” she ground out.

Poseidon’s deep laugh surrounded her on all sides, the vibrations rattling her bones. “Oh? You think I won’t kill you?” Another bone-crushing chuckle. “What gives you such unfounded confidence in your survival?”

Cordelia gathered all of her strength and looked the Lovecraftian abomination right in the eye. “Because you love all your children, even the monsters. You won’t kill me. You’re curious.”

The power engulfed her, as if trying to directly contradict her. It tried to crush her, suppress her, make her fear for her life, but Cordelia refused to bend to it.

She knew that she was right.

Poseidon laughed again. “How peculiar. I have never met you, and yet, you seem to know me very well. You know me well enough to defy me, knowing that I will not kill you.”

All of the power attempting to crush Cordelia withdrew in a split second, and Cordelia was left severely discombobulated, as if she had surfaced too quickly from a dive and her body was wracked with decompression sickness. Thankfully, it passed quickly, and she turned her attention back to Poseidon, who watched her struggle in amusement.

What a royal dick. He’s definitely not Dad.

The thought sent a pang through her heart, but she ignored it as Poseidon began to speak again.

“Alright, then. It seems that you are correct in that I will not kill you. I do love all my children.” His smile was cold.

Immediately with his acknowledgement, her awareness of the sea around her increased exponentially. It was like she was wearing noise-canceling headphones that had been yanked off and left her exposed to the full blast of a live concert.

The sea, which had once felt so ancient and foreboding to her, now felt as familiar as her own ocean back home did. She felt as connected to the water as she did back on the shores of Montauk and Camp Half-Blood.

Cordelia turned to look at Poseidon in shock, who looked smugly back at her.

Did… Did he just claim me…?

“Alright then, daughter. Come. Let us depart.” Poseidon turned away from her.

Cordelia was jerked back from her reverie. “Whoa. Wait a minute. What do you mean? Depart to where?”

Poseidon gazed at her condescendingly. “To Atlantis, where else? Let us return home.”

What the- “What do you mean? I’m not going to Atlantis with you!”

Poseidon slowly turned back around. His eyes began to glow, and the power began to seep out of him again. 

Oh fuck.

Cordelia hurried to correct herself. “Yet. I’m not going to Atlantis yet. I still have a responsibility towards the others. Father.” She tacked on as an afterthought to make sure she appeased him. “I can’t just abandon them here. I promised them that I would take them to the mainland.”

Poseidon’s eyes reduced their eerie glow and his expression turned contemplative. “Hmmm. The other slaves that you liberated. I suppose so.”

He turned to look her in the eye. “Fine. After you deliver them to safety, come to Atlantis.” His face hardened with eldritch power. “Don’t make me come retrieve you.”

With that final threat, he vanished, leaving Cordelia to try and curb her rising panic. 

Fucking hell! What have I gotten myself into?!

“Are you sure? You really don’t mind?”

Cordelia’s smile felt plastic across her face. “Of course. Please, don’t hold yourselves back on my account. Your comfort comes first. Don’t worry about me.”

Anysia’s face was open with relief. “Thank you, Cordi. You’re so kind.”

She turned back to the rest of the group. “Cordi’s okay with us sleeping in Mother’s garden tonight.”

The rest of the group looked worriedly back at Cordelia, but she waved them off. “Don’t worry about it, you guys. I’ll be alright. Sleep well and I’ll see you in the morning.”

The group murmured their gratitude and made to follow after Anysia, everyone except Dio.

He turned to look at her, his brown eyes piercing. He scowled.

“Take that disgusting smile off your face. You look like you’re made out of wood.”

Cordelia’s features relaxed into a familiar scowl. “Jeez, you can’t ever be nice, can you, you little demon?”

“Hmph. I don’t care about being nice. Being nice doesn’t save you from getting gutted by a spear.”

“Wow. Morbid, much?”

Dio tsked at her. “That’s your problem, water buffalo. You’re the one who’s too nice.”

Discomfort began to creep up her spine. “What do you mean?”

“Like I said. You’re too nice. You said that you’re okay with us leaving you alone and sleeping on the island when you’re really not, right?” His look was uncomfortably knowing.

Cordelia scoffed and turned away. “What are you talking about? Do you think that I can’t spend even a single night on my own? How helpless do you think I am? You’re more likely to get swallowed by a monster than I am, brat.”

“Cordi.” Dio’s voice was serious. Cordelia couldn’t help but look at him.

“What?”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

Cordelia crossed her arms defensively across her chest. “Then what do you mean?”

Dio said nothing but continued to stare at her for a few more seconds. Finally, he sighed. “Fine. I’ll come sleep with you.” He began to make his way into the water.

Immediately a wave of crushing guilt wracked through Cordelia. Was she so obviously lonely? Had she fallen so far as to let a literal child take on her burdens?

Gods, I really am useless, aren’t I? Some hero I am.

Cordelia’s arm snapped out, quick as a viper, and pinched Dio’s ear, who loudly yelped at the surprise attack. “Absolutely not. I don’t need a bratty pre-pubescent boy shadowing my every move. Go sleep with the others, you little shit.”

Dio glared spitefully at her. “No! Let go of me! Let go of me, you water buffalo!”

Cordelia pinched tighter. “No. I’m serious, Dio. I’ll be fine. Go and sleep with the others.”

Dio examined her for a few more long seconds before he begrudgingly nodded. Cordelia released him and he petulantly rubbed at his ear. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes. Go, you brat.”

Dio looked back at her as if she was going to change her mind and she impatiently shooed him away. She watched after him until he disappeared into the forest-line.

Finally, Cordelia allowed her shoulders to droop. 

Alright then. Time to stick to her words. She turned around to face the sea. It gleamed black, the tide rising with Artemis’ reflection glimmering brightly in the water. 

It was beautiful. Cordelia could feel it as if it was an extension of her own limbs.

She grimaced.

She loved the sea, it was a core part of her, but right now, she could barely stand the sight of it, with her encounter with Poseidon so fresh in her memory.

Even contemplating sleeping in the sea made her skin crawl. She had the irrational fear that if she closed her eyes in the salty water, she would wake up to find herself in Atlantis, locked away like a little bird in a cage until Poseidon’s interest waned.

No. Just no. 

Cordelia sighed. Only one option then.

She turned to the bobbing ship and her lip curled in disgust.

The fucking Golden Eel.

Reluctantly, she made her way towards it and boarded. Immediately she was bombarded with the ship’s hate and resentment, all the more clear from Poseidon’s claiming. 

Cordelia shut her eyes as a migraine manifested behind her temples as she tried to shut the ship’s feelings out. Great. Absolutely fantastic.

She looked towards the crew quarters but dismissed the idea immediately. She didn’t want to be surrounded on all sides by the Eel, especially all alone, the sole focus of the ship’s hostility.

Cordelia exhaled. Fine. That left the deck. She would sleep under the stars.

The floorboards were filthy. Cordelia pulled a wave of water and quickly scrubbed it to her satisfaction. 

Guess I don’t have to be careful about using my powers anymore now that that douche Poseidon knows about my existence. Hope he fucks himself on his shiny trident.

Finally, she was ready to settle down. She contemplated running inside to grab a blanket, but dismissed the idea. The weather was balmy and warm. She wouldn’t need it.

Cordelia laid on the deck and looked up into the dark night sky. The heavens bloomed with thousands of stars, a beautiful tapestry interspersed with glittering gemstones.

Her eyes searched across for any familiar patterns, but to her dismay, she was only able to see a few.

Orion. And there’s Argo. Where is-?

She gasped as it finally hit her.

Cordelia was in the past. She was so far back that many of the constellations that she had become familiar with didn’t even exist yet.

Even the stars have changed? The one constant that all sailors know to trust when they have nothing else?

That was the last straw.

Cordelia finally broke. Tears streamed down her face as she silently gasped for air. All of the grief and loss finally released itself from the little box she had been compartmentalizing and washed over her in an unforgiving wave.

Intellectually, Cordelia had known that she had lost everything.

But this is the moment she finally felt it.

She would never see her beautiful mother again. She would never be able to argue with Annabeth again. She would never be able to eat cheeseburgers with Grover again. She would never be able to tease Nico again. Never be able to go shopping with Rachel again. Never be able to feel Tyson's crushing hugs. Never be able to feel Paul braid her hair again. Never be able to cradle her little sister. 

She would never be able to brush Mrs. O’Leary’s fur or feed doughnuts to Blackjack. She would never be able to spar with the tiny kids at Camp again. She would never be able to graduate from high school or go to college. She would never be able to just walk through her home's beat-up streets and eat cheap chilli dogs, nachos, and cheeseburgers ever again.

She would never be able to cuddle in her Daddy’s arms and cry to him.

Because even he isn’t the same. The one constant that I have in this time, and he’s a monster. He’s not my Dad. He’s a force of nature who doesn’t care about me more than what I can do for him.

The sobs wracked through her as she suffered through wave after wave of grief. Time slipped away from her as she simply cried for all the things she had lost. 

Cordelia felt arms surround her as she was pulled into a warm chest. She snuggled in immediately and inhaled.

A clean scent that she could only describe as pure light and warmth.

Apollo.

He murmured to her and soothingly ran his fingers through her hair as she broke down on him. She knew that she should stop and push him away, but she was too tired, lonely and touch-starved. She greedily soaked up the contact.

Cordelia continued to cry long into the night, reminiscing about every part of her life that she had to say goodbye to, and slowly, as the waves of suppressed emotion ran their course, her breaths began to slowly even out.

Cordelia knew it wasn’t over yet. Oh no, not for a long shot, but at least now she wasn’t in danger of collapsing under the weight of her compartmentalized emotions. She had been in fight-or-flight mode for so long, and finally, when her body could take a break, it forced her to confront her feelings.

Apollo’s fingers still ran evenly through her hair, unfaltering even as Cordelia began to collect herself. 

Cordelia cleared her throat. “What time is it?”

“Three hours to dawn.” 

I guess he would know, Sun God and all.

Cordelia slowly pulled herself away from him, and he easily released her. She turned to him. He was still as obscenely gorgeous as he was when she met him.

“Why? Why did you help me?” This is suspiciously nice of him. 

Apollo looked at her for a long moment, his golden eyes glowing in the dark of the night. “I am the God of Healing, Cordelia. I soothe pain, no matter what form it takes. Emotional pain is still pain.”

Cordelia grimaced at him. “I’d prefer if you’d call me Cordi.”

Apollo’s eyes glowed in amusement. “Oh, but how could I? I am so fond of your name. Cordelia.” He practically purred her name, making her cringe away in discomfort. “Your name honors me.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Honors you? How?” Cordelia frowned at him.

“Ah, you don’t know? How fascinating,” Apollo’s smile widened. “Far be it for me to tell you about your own name. I am but a simple man. I wouldn’t dare overstep in such a way,” he retorted mischievously.

Yeah, right.

Cordelia huffed. Whatever. If he wanted to be a creep, she wasn’t going to encourage him. 

“So, Lady Cordelia, this humble man has a question. Where are your friends tonight? Why have they left you to suffer alone?” Apollo tilted his head.

“They didn’t leave me. I just wanted some space, that’s all.” Cordelia hunched over defensively.

“Hmmm. Is that so?” Apollo grinned at her, but this time, there was much less warmth, almost as if he was baring his teeth at her in challenge.

“Yes.”

Apollo leaned close to her. The smile on his face grew meaner. “Let me ask you another question, Cordelia the Unshackled. Do you know who I am?”

“Yes?”

Where was he going with this?

“Lovely! Now then, tell me what you know.”

Cordelia stared up at him. His face showed that he wasn’t going to budge.

“You’re Lord Apollo.”

He gestured for her to go on.

Alright then. “You’re the God of the Sun. You’re the son of Leto and Artemis’ younger twin brother.”

“I don’t know about ‘younger’, but continue.” Cordelia rolled her eyes.

“You’re an Olympian. You’re a master archer, along with your sister. Your best friend is Hermes.”

Apollo grinned at her. “Very good. But you’re missing some key details there.”

Cordelia racked her brain. What had she missed?

“You’re not just the God of the Sun. You also have other domains.”

“Like?”

“You’re also the God of Healing, like you just said. You're also the God of Plagues. Don’t know how that works.” Cordelia shrugged. “You’re the God of Prophecy, the God of Poetry, the God of-” Cordelia cut herself off as an unpleasant realization began to dawn on her.

“The God of?” Apollo expectantly asked. The look on his face was cruelly triumphant. 

“The God of Truth,” Cordelia whispered.

“Precisely. I am all of those things you mentioned, very well informed, by the way, I’m impressed. Your devotion to me has been noticed.”

My what? Cordelia blankly looked at him.

“But in this situation, there is one domain of mine that I want to focus on. I am the God of Truth. What does that mean for you?” He leaned in even further, the radiating heat from his body causing Cordelia’s own temperature to spike.

“It means that you have been a very, very naughty girl. You see,” Apollo’s lips quirked up, his flawless teeth a flash of white even more stark in the dark, “I truly adore Mortals. You’re all so creative and full of life, and best of all, you all know your place.”

Cordelia jerked back to glare at him, but Apollo only leaned closer. “But you. You know exactly who I am, exactly what I am capable of, and yet, you do not hesitate in lying straight to my face.”

His power leaked from him, and heat licked at her skin. His eyes glowed like supernovas and threatened to burn her to ash.

“I am the God of Truth. Again, do you know what that means?”

He leaned in.

“I can force you to tell me the truth.”

Immediately, Cordelia’s hackles went from zero to one hundred, and her power seeped into the ocean. Before she knew what she was doing, a titanic wave crashed into the ship and engulfed both of them in cold seawater.

Apollo sputtered in surprise, but Cordelia wrapped the water surrounding them into a sphere that enveloped both of them. Distantly, she heard the Eel’s indignation, but she easily blocked out its spiteful remarks.

The water roiled around them furiously, and Cordelia intently waited for Apollo to make any move towards her.

Fuck that. He wasn’t coming into my head. Under no circumstances.

Apollo easily regained his bearings, and Cordelia was irritated to see how perfect he looked even with the water buffeting him on all sides. His golden hair flowed aesthetically in the waves, and his robes clung even tighter to his skin.

Stupid vain jackass.

Apollo raised his arms in surrender, his lips twisted in an amused smile. “Alright, alright. You seem to have me outmatched, my dear Lady. I beg of you, please do not injure me. Have mercy on this poor soul.” He didn’t look alarmed in the slightest, the asshole.

“I promise you that I will not force you to tell me anything.”

Cordelia didn’t back down. Her lip pulled in a snarl as she channeled more power.  “Really? You’re giving up awfully easily.” 

Apollo chuckled. “Giving up? Perish the thought!” His eyes glowed in delight. “I simply received an answer to a bigger question than that.”

What? “What do you mean?”

Apollo grinned at her. “You, my Lady, are the daughter of my dear, cranky Uncle. How wonderful!”

Cordelia’s control over the currents around their sphere faltered as she looked at him in surprise. The flow dispersed and the waves clashed messily, but Apollo didn't seem to notice. He just radiated smug pleasure.

"A child of the sea! That’s how you were able to survive that fall into the ocean! That’s one mystery solved!”

Before Cordelia could relax, Apollo’s smile turned mean again. 

“But that just opens up another question, doesn’t it? Everyone knows that dear old Uncle only spawns monsters. I wonder, just which kind are you?”

With one last cruel smile, he vanished in a searing blaze of light. The water surrounding him completely evaporated into vapor, and Cordelia’s power was left emptily grasping at steam.

Finally, Cordelia lowered her hands and collapsed onto the deck. For once, the Eel was silent, as if it were speechless.

Yeah, me too, you piece of rotten driftwood. Me too.

A wave of pure fatigue hit her like a sledgehammer, all the exhaustion accumulated throughout the day converging upon her all at once.

Jesus fucking Christ. Guess that I can’t be too surprised that Apollo’s an unhinged creep.

She was too tired to even feel mad at the threats he made. Just dicks being dicks, as usual. 

Cordelia collapsed onto the deck, ready to pass out and forget this day from hell, but was stopped when she heard a crinkling noise.

She looked down and couldn’t help but laugh.

Oh, that absolute rat bastard.

He had left her a map, but not a normal map, no. At first glance, it looked like a series of incomprehensible squiggles, but Cordelia immediately recognized the symbols as denoting wave currents.

The asshole had left her a map to the mainland that only a child of Poseidon could read.

Cordelia laughed and laughed until she passed out under the rays of the rising sun.

Chapter Text

“-and so, she heads over to the war camp where she has to pretend that she’s a guy. But unfortunately, she’s really bad at it. She immediately makes an enemy of a soldier named Yao-”

“Yao? That’s his name? Is that his surname or given name? How is it written?”

Everyone groaned at Bingyan’s interruption. She glared back at the rest of them and contemptuously raised her nose in the air. 

Cordelia sighed and rubbed her face. “I don’t know. I just know that his name was Yao. So anyway, she immediately fucks up and makes an enemy of him and his friends Chien Po and Ling and they-”

“Hold on! Ling? Is his name Ling? That’s it? That’s not a real name!”

Ranga buried his face in his hands and whimpered. “Please, Cordi. I can’t take it anymore. Tell us a different story.” He side-eyed a fuming Bingyan warily. “One that won’t make anyone upset. Maybe Peter Pan again?” He asked hopefully.

Faigel nodded in agreement. “Yes. We leave Mulan and talk different. Peter Pan good. Or maybe Mr. Darcy? I like that one.”

Anysia perked up. “Oh! What about the 101 spotted puppies! That one was beautiful!”

“Hey, no fair! If we’re going to listen to stories we’ve already heard, I wanna hear about the killer shark again!” Dio piped indignantly.

Bingyan’s face turned an alarming shade of red. “I will eviscerate each and every one of you,” she enunciated. “Cordi is going to finish her tale of Hua Mulan, and she’s going to answer each and every one of my questions in the process.” Her tone carried a deliberate threat.

Cordelia felt her forehead throb ominously. 

Blanda clutched the seething woman’s shoulder and tried to soothe her. “It’s alright. Don’t worry, we’ll hear the rest eventually, but for now, why don’t we relax? We all need to get a good night’s sleep anyway.”

After Cordelia had shown all of the former slaves her map, she was met with resounding joy. Immediately, everyone whipped up into a frenzy trying to prepare for the journey to the mainland. Fruits and vegetables were thoroughly scavenged, and a variety of wild birds and seafood were caught to add to their stores. 

There wasn’t much non-perishable food they could find, but Cordelia didn’t think it would be a major issue. According to the map, they were a few weeks out from a port. The supplies would easily last, especially now that everyone had been gorging themselves on the food that the bountiful island had provided them with for over a month now, and weren’t a stiff breeze away from starvation.

They had planned to finally set sail the next morning, right when the tide was set to give them a nice boost for the start of their journey. It wasn’t strictly necessary, but every ounce of assistance helped, especially when dealing with that wretched chunk of flotsam that was the Golden Eel fighting against her at every turn.

Cordelia was the Captain and the only one capable of navigating through the map of sea currents. Her word was final. If they didn’t like it, they could cry her a river or take their chances swimming back to the mainland. She was already doing them a favor when she didn’t have to sail that piece of dogshit anyway and could just float through the currents.

Dio grumbled as he crossed his arms and Ranga pouted cutely. “Come on, Blanda, please? It’s still early! We just want a complete story, it doesn’t matter which one!”

“Yeah!” Dio nodded emphatically. 

Blanda regarded them in exhaustion. “Alright, fine. We’ll finish this story, and then we’re turning in for the night.”

Cordelia blinked heavily. Gee, guys, thanks for volunteering me, glad my opinion means so much, love you too.

“Yeah, sure, like Bingyan will stay quiet long enough for Cordi to finish the story,” Dio scoffed.

Bingyan practically hissed at him, and he recoiled in alarm. Blanda’s strong arms held her back from lunging forward any closer. “Watch your mouth, you little insect. I shall not be stopped from learning what I want to know!”

“See?”

“She’ll be fine,” Blanda dismissed. “Cordi, finish the story. So Mulan got into a fight with those three men?”

Cordelia sighed. “Yes. So Mulan gets into a fight with them, and they end up in a brawl that upends the pot of rice meant to feed the entire camp. Meanwhile, the General’s son, Shang, has been left in command-”

“Shang?! What is his family name, that can’t be it-”

Cordelia groaned.

The air was filled with the sound of activity as many people deposited the last of the supplies onto the ship. Shouts rang out as men communicated among the rush of bringing the ship up to sailing standard. The deck was filled with the bustle of people scurrying to and fro, a chaotic mess of action as ropes were pulled in and supplies were stowed away on the lower decks.

Cordelia stood near the bow with her arms crossed, snapping instructions to the rest of her temporary rag-tag crew as they jumped to do her bidding. “Make sure that all the oars are accounted for and that there’s no water damage or warping. There also shouldn’t be any excessive creaking when moved. Let me know if any of you see any bloat on them!”

A cry of affirmation met her orders, and she watched on as she observed a group of ladies wade back and forth through the shallows, bringing the last bundles of food. 

Over on the shore, Bingyan was directing the efforts. The tiny woman looked up and met Cordelia’s eyes and nodded, confirming that they were just about ready to set sail.

Just in time, too. The sun had crept up over the horizon and was just beginning to warm up the humid sea air. The tide was just swelling with the moonset, and Cordelia could feel waves eagerly caressing the sides of the Eel, which, by the way, was very, very unhappy with them all being on board it once again.

Cordelia mentally commanded it to shut up, which it did, but not before sending a pulse of resentful hostility that made her grimace.

She examined the skies, pleased to see that they were clear and adorned with only wispy cirrus clouds and no foreboding nimbostratus or cumulonimbus rain clouds that could cause them trouble. The dawn was beautifully painted across the heavens in shades of pink and orange, and Cordelia appreciated the good omen for their journey.

As if Apollo could hear her thoughts, a beam of sunlight brushed over her playfully, leaving behind a trail of warmth in its wake. 

Cordelia scowled in response and stepped into the shade. Stupid blonde showhorse.

The sun only twinkled as if it were laughing at her.

Cordelia shook her head and decided to ignore the voyeuristic pest. She turned back to Bingyan, who she saw was ushering the rest of the people towards the shore. Cordelia observed as the most elderly of their group trailed behind, hobbling slowly from the island into the sea. She kept a close eye on them, ready to jump into the water to help them out if they struggled, but the others supported them until they all boarded safely.

Cordelia turned back to the shore and saw Bingyan looking expectantly at her. At her questioning eyebrow raise, Bingyan tilted her head towards Anysia.

Cordelia looked at the brunette, who looked uncharacteristically nervous.

What now?

She regarded the rest of the group on the ship. “Alright. We’re just about ready. I’m gonna head to the shore and wrap everything up. We set sail in fifteen minutes!”

A cry of acknowledgement met her orders, and Cordelia nodded in approval. They’re no sailors, but at least they can follow instructions.

Cordelia swung herself off the side of the ship and landed in the sea with barely a splash. She made her way over to the shore, where Bingyan and Anysia came out to greet her.

“So, we’re all done here? Ready to head out?”

Bingyan nodded, turning around to do one last calculating sweep. “Yes. Everything is finished on the shore.” She turned back to Anysia. “Well, almost everything.” She gave Cordelia a meaningful look before she hugged Anysia.

“Take care, darling.”

Bingyan turned away and made her way to the ship with Cordelia and Anysia looking after her.

Cordelia turned back to Anysia. “Okay, then. Ready to head out?”

Anysia broke eye contact and wrung her hands. She looked anxious. “Well, about that…”

Cordelia tilted her head. “What’s wrong?”

Anysia took a deep breath. She tried to meet Cordelia’s eyes but couldn’t hold them for longer than a few seconds. She cleared her throat. “So, cousin, I’ve been thinking…”

She nervously trailed off again. Cordelia waited patiently for her to collect her thoughts.

“I’ve been thinking that maybe… I… I want to stay here.”

“Huh?” Cordelia blinked at her. 

“I want to stay here. On this island.”

Cordelia gaped at her. “Here? Alone?” she clarified.

Anysia nodded.

“Why?”

Anysia pondered the question for a long moment. “Firstly, I must make it clear that I love you all dearly. You have all treated me so kindly, even after everything my Lord Husband has put you through, even though you had no reason to. We’ve only known each other for a few months, but I have come to care for you all deeply. This is not a decision I have made lightly.”

Cordelia pursed her lips and nodded for her to continue.

“You must understand that I married my Lord Husband at a very young age. I have been at his side for almost two decades. I have accepted my lot in life, but I never contemplated that I would be widowed so soon.”

Cordelia’s face contorted in disgust. Disgusting pedo pig. 

“To be quite frank, widowhood has been surprisingly liberating. I always imagined that when the time came, I would be out on the streets begging for alms, but clearly I have been blessed with an incomparably better situation. I have been enjoying myself immensely, but none more so than when we arrived on this island. I have not had a stronger bond with my Lady Mother since my early childhood.”

She smiled softly and radiated a quiet joy. Her skin had tanned beautifully, and the freckles adorning her cheeks had blossomed into a constellation. Her warm brown eyes twinkled in the light of the dawn.

She looked… happy.

“And then… I made the blunder of inadvertently summoning Dio’s sire.” 

Fuckin’ Ares. Cordelia scowled at the reminder.

Anysia’s hands shook slightly as she recalled the encounter. “That was… I was once again reminded of my position in this world. That, regardless of my divine blood, I am still a mere speck in the eyes of the gods.”

She looked down. “I was terrified beyond belief, but resting under my mother’s watchful eye brought me peace. It allowed me to heal and grow courage.”

Anysia took a deep breath and met Cordelia’s eyes, this time holding it steadily. 

“I don’t have anything waiting for me in the mainland, Cordi. I wish to stay here and explore my heritage under my Lady Mother’s eye. I don’t want to ever board the Golden Eel ever again.”

Anysia held her breath as she waited for Cordelia’s response.

To be honest, Cordelia thought that she would be deeply wounded that Anysia would want to leave them after everything they’d been through together. She had been in this same position before, like when Thalia left them for the Hunters, and at the time, it had hurt.

Like, a lot.

But now…

Cordelia smiled warmly and pulled Anysia in for a hug, which the other woman enthusiastically returned. “I understand. I won’t force you, Anysia. If this is your version of freedom, then that’s that.”

I guess I’m growin’ up. Mom would be proud. 

The thought was bittersweet.

Anysia beamed at her, and tears of joy, sorrow, and relief spilled down her cheeks. “Yes. This is what I want, Cordi. This is where I will be free.”

They both embraced tightly again. “Will you be alright? I just don’t want you to be alone.”

Loneliness and isolation were insidious killers, Cordelia knew better than most.

Anysia nodded. “Yes. I’ll be fine. And besides,” she smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes, “I don’t believe that this will be the last time we’ll meet, no?”

Cordelia grinned back. She’s right about that. Advantage of being Poseidon’s daughter. “I’ll make sure to visit you, count on it.”

Anysia pulled back and pressed a tender kiss on her forehead. Cordelia swallowed down a ball in her throat when she was reminded of how Sally would do the same.

Gods, I miss Mom.

“Thank you, Cordi. Without you, I would not be here. You freed me and showed me mercy. You have allowed me to find freedom and happiness. Now, go and find your own.”

The ship bobbed steadily against the beat of the waves, cruising at an even speed, just as it had since the day they had set sail. The deck was fairly calm as people went down to the mess to eat their lunches.

Dio sighed noisily next to her.

Cordelia ignored him.

A man walked up to Cordelia and nodded at her. “Rations are looking good. They’ll last us a while yet. Nobody’s complainin’, at least. Bellies all full.”

Cordelia nodded in approval. “Good. That’s what I anticipated. We’re on track.”

The man hummed in agreement. “Saved a portion for you.” He tilted his head towards the kitchens. “Wan’ me to bring it up for you and the boyo?” He eyed Dio’s limp form.

The blob next to her sighed dramatically again.

“Thank you. That would be nice.”

He nodded and walked away. 

Soon enough, they were armed with bowls of seafood stew made with coconut milk. They each had a small chunk of coconut to munch on as dessert. 

Strange combination, but surprisingly, not bad, Cordelia concluded as she slurped on her lunch. The cooks onboard were remarkably skilled at making decent-tasting food out of their mishmash of ingredients.

Regardless, it was leagues better than the hardtack gruel that they had eaten day in and day out before they had found the island. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Dio sighed mournfully again in between shoveling spoonfuls of stew into his mouth.

Cordelia tried to tune him out, looking back at her map to make sure that they were still on course, but was interrupted by Dio sprawling despondently next to her and sighing again.

“Alright, fine, what do you want, you needy brat?”

Dio didn’t look at her. He looked mournfully into the horizon. “You’re always so mean to me. If Anysia were here, she wouldn’t talk to me like that.”

Cordelia’s eye twitched.

“It’s been days, you little shit. You’re still hung up on that?”

Dio shrugged. “Well, what can I say? At least she was nice to me. She listened to me. Trusted me enough to share things with me.”

Motherfu- “No, Dio, for the last time, I won’t tell you where I got the map from.”

“Oh, come on! Just tell me!”

“Ya know, there’s a famous saying where I come from.”

“Yeah, and what’s that?”

Cordelia glared at him. “It’s real simple. It goes a little something like this: ‘How ‘bout you mind your own fuckin’ business before you get your teeth kicked in?’ A real poignant saying. Why don’t you let it marinate a bit before you come asking again.”

Cordelia could practically feel Apollo’s amusement as Dio slouched. Fuck off, you sunny dickhead, you’re not makin’ anything easier for me by gifting me miraculous maps. 

She watched Dio sulk before he turned to the bow of the ship with a considering gleam in his eye.

“And again, no, you can’t hang off of the figurehead!”

“But why not~?” Dio’s composure finally broke as he whined pathetically. His big, reddish brown eyes stared plaintively at her, and combined with his blonde curls, gave him a deceptively angelic air. 

Cordelia wasn’t fooled for one minute.

“Because idiot, if you slipped and fell off, you would be immediately run over by the ship. Quite happily, as it tells me.”

The Golden Eel pulsed maliciously in bloodthirsty agreement.

“Fall off? Who do you think I am?” Dio scoffed at her. “You underestimate my power.”

“Yeah, sure, power of being a pain in my ass, maybe,” Cordelia mumbled.

“You dirty water buffalo, I heard that!” He tried to tackle her, but Cordelia easily pushed him away.

Dio huffed in frustration. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“That!” He gestured to her. “How can you fight me so easily?”

Cordelia regarded him condescendingly. “What, like it’s so hard? You’re like, twelve. Like you could ever beat me.”

“Okay, first of all, you better watch your back, jackass, because that’s a fucking lie, and second of all, I was the absolute best trainee in Sparta! I could even beat the instructors! There’s no way you can beat me so easily.”

Cordelia regarded him skeptically.

“I was! I really, really was! I even saw Queen Leda! I was so good, I was in a showcase for her!” Dio practically stomped his foot at her.

“Queen Leda? What, is she the current Queen of Sparta?” Cordelia wracked her memory but was granted a fat load of nothing. I bet Annabeth would know the exact time period she was in with that one name, she pondered wryly.

“Of course she is, you stupid water buffalo. How can you not even know that?” It was Dio’s turn to look condescendingly at her.

Cordelia rapped her knuckles against his crown with lightning speed, and his smug sneer fell away with a cry. 

“I already told you that I’m not from anywhere around here dingus, so how would I know who the current rulers are?”

Dio looked at her skeptically. “What, so, like, do you not know who any of the leaders are? Are you, like, super sheltered, or something?”

“That’s not it, I just don’t know any of the current Greek kings.”

Dio raised his eyebrows mockingly. “Oh really? Just the Greek kings, huh? Fine then. What about the King of Troy? Or maybe of Bharat or Hindustan or whatever you call it, then? Or in Shang. Name any of them. Just one. It’s not like they don’t have a lot of them.” He stared her down provocatively. “Go on then. Just give me one. I dare you.”

Cordelia ground her teeth. “Alright, if you’re so smart, who’s the ruler of Kemet, then? I notice you didn’t mention it at all in your little speech.”

Dio laughed. “Too easy. The current Pharaoh is Seti, and the heir from his first wife is Ramesses, but he was born just a few years ago, so he won’t be Pharaoh for a long time, gods be willing.” 

Cordelia’s jaw dropped.

Dio grinned smugly. “See? You’re the one who’s dumb, not me!”

That’s it.

Dio screamed in surprise when she pushed him overboard, but she didn’t wait more than a few seconds before she used her powers to dump him back on the deck, hissing and spitting like a drenched cat.

“Who’s the dumb one now, huh?”

“You evil fucking water buffalo! I’ll fucking kill you!” He scrambled to stand up and tackle her, slipping in the puddle of water he was dripping.

Cordelia meanly cackled as she dodged all his attempts. “You’re gonna have to do better than that! No matter how good you are, you’re not gonna touch me! I’ve fought in wars against opponents you can’t imagine, brat, you’re not even a blip in comparison!”

Immediately, both Cordelia and Dio froze at her slip.

Shit! Shit shit shittt!

Dio gaped at her. “What the fuck? You’ve fought in wars? You? You’re a fucking veteran?”

Cordelia shifted uncomfortably. “Uh…”

“How? You’re, like, thirteen!” 

“Hey! I’m seventeen! In what world do I look like I’m a pre-teen?!"

“I don’t know!” Dio exclaimed. “But still! How can a seventeen-year-old even be a veteran?!”

Cordelia’s good mood abruptly vanished. Dio noticed immediately, the perceptive little shit, and his face became serious as well.

“It’s because of them, wasn’t it?” 

Cordelia nodded stiffly. Dio regarded her with eyes that were more perceptive than she liked. 

“So. Does that mean that-” He cut himself off, but it was clear to both of them what he was going to say.

Cordelia’s chest grew tight. A nauseating mix of fear and anger coursed through her. She turned away from him, but couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. 

“I don’t want to lie, Dio. But… it’s gonna be hard from here.”

Dio stepped up next to her and silently waited for her to continue. It took Cordelia a long second for her to gather her thoughts. 

“People like us… we don’t get to have easy lives. We have to fight for the right to live.” Another wave of anger washed through her and she gritted her teeth.

“The older we get, the more monsters will be drawn to us. You’re good, but all it takes is just one slip, and then-” She cut herself off and clenched her jaw. 

Dio swallowed heavily. “Monsters? Like, the ones Heracles had to fight?”

“Yeah,” Cordelia nodded. “A lot of them won’t be as scary as the ones he had to deal with, but trust me, even the smallest and weakest of them can kill you easily.” She glared intently at him. “You always, always need to be careful. Like I said, all it takes is one single mistake and it’s all over. And it’s not just the monsters, either. Any Divine being can smite you in a second, and not to mention members of foreign Pantheons who will kill you without any remorse.”

Dio glared back at her. “Like I said, I’m the best, you stinking water buffalo. Don’t think I’ll die so easily.”

Somehow, Dio's defiant attitude soothed the upset roiling through her. It was illogical, because Gods know how many Half-bloods were victims of overconfidence, but Cordelia felt like this little gremlin was simply too stubborn and annoying to die.

Cordelia grinned at him, shark-like. “Good. That’s the attitude you need, you stupid brat, especially now that you know you’re a Demigod. Your ignorance was the only thing protecting you before. Now that you’re aware, do you think you’ve encountered any monsters already?”

Dio leaned back and pondered. “I don’t really know. I mean, there was this really nasty badger that I encountered in the forest one time when I was hunting a few years ago.”

Cordelia giggled. “A badger?”

“Don’t laugh! It was really weird, like it was a mix of badger, squirrel, and wolf! It was really hard to kill!”

“So, how did you get away?”

Dio smirked up at her. “I led it into a pit trap, then I threw rocks at it till it died. It took hours. Kept trying to jump out.”

“Huh.” Cordelia’s eyebrows raised. “Weirdly smart for a War God kid.”

Dio frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded.

“Well, come on, it’s not like you’re the brightest star in the sky, are you?”

Dio swung at her. “Take that back, ‘bitch who doesn't even know who the king is’!”

“I told you, that’s different, I live far away, I have no way of knowing-”

They were interrupted by frantic cries. “Ships! Ships off in the distance!”

Cordelia immediately disengaged from Dio and spun around to look. Sure enough, there was a trio of ships that she glimpsed.

She walked over to the other side of the Eel so that she could see them better. She squinted. No, scratch that, there were four. One was lagging behind.

It looked as though they were furiously rowing. 

Rowing away from something. 

“Gods above, they’re being chased by a sea-monster!”

Oh, the irony. Cordelia really was Fate’s favorite chew toy, wasn’t she?

The waves behind the ships roiled, and they all watched on as a massive maw emerged from beneath the waves to take a chunk out of the fourth ship. Faint cries could be heard from the distance as the ship immediately flooded with water and began to sink.

The other ships didn’t heed the victims’ cries and continued to furiously flee from the monster, abandoning the poor souls to their watery demise.

The monster lingered a bit to scavenge through the wreckage and gave the other three ships a bit of a head-start, but it wouldn’t stop the monster from catching up.

“Gods above, we need to move! Everybody out, now! Drop your food! Man the oars! We need to escape!”

The deck exploded into chaos as everyone swarmed out of the mess. Cries of fear rang out as people caught a glimpse of the sea creature terrorizing the other ships.

“We need to get away!”

“Grab the oars! We don’t have time!”

“We have to move!”

Cordelia’s voice cut sharply through the chaos. “No. We go towards them.” 

There was a moment of pin-drop silence before a frantic frenzy broke out.

“Are you crazy?!”

“Didn’t you see the sea-beast!”

“She’s lost her goddamn mind!

Cordelia scowled darkly. “Shut the hell up, idiots! If you sit and think for five seconds, you’ll realize that we don’t have a choice!”

That made the crowd quiet down after a few seconds.

At her side, Dio whispered, “Cordi, tell me this isn’t another bleeding-heart moment like the one you had with Anysia. This is so much different. That monster is gonna eat us!”

Cordelia sent him a nasty glare before turning back to the crowd. “Look at the ships, they’re heading straight towards us. They’re on a direct course, and they’re coming in at full speed. They'll reach us in about 20 minutes. There’s no way we can outrun them, they’ll overtake us in no time, and guess who’ll be fish food then.”

Yeah, there was absolutely no way to shake them off. Even with Cordelia's powers helping them, the Golden Eel was a small ship, not built for speed. If she pushed too hard, it would collapse under the strain. And that's not to mention the Eel actively fighting against her, doing everything in its power to slow them down, the piece of shit.

The crowd burst out in panic. “What do we do, then?! Are we just going to die?!”

“Calm down, you useless sheep! We’re not going to die! We need to head towards the other ships and take the monster out. It’s our only chance, if we take it head-on.”

That just sent everyone further into a panic.

Oh, for the love of-

Cordelia seized control of the Eel and forced it to bank hard to starboard. The sudden turn destabilized the crowd of people and they yelped as they stumbled to keep their balance.

Cordelia raised her hand, and the creaky old oars began to cut through the water. 

The Golden Eel fought against her control, as usual, but underneath that, it exuded a sense of excitement. It was eager to confront the sea-monster and have it eat the disgusting people on board, even if it meant that the Eel was destroyed in the process.

This sick, sick boat. What a vile piece of shit. Well, you can go fuck yourself, because that’s not happening today.

Cordelia wrestled control from the ship and forced it to accelerate.

“What’s happening?!”

“The ship is moving on its own! It’s been possessed!”

“The sea monster has possessed the ship and is pulling it closer! We’re doomed!”

Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Shut up! Everything’s fine! We’re gonna be okay! Just everyone calm down!”

“How can we be calm when we’re sailing to our doom, woman?!”

Alright, that’s enough, goddamn it.

“Blanda, Faigel! Take everybody below deck! I don’t need people panicking and falling overboard, I have enough to worry about already.”

Their faces were white with fear, but they did Cordelia’s bidding and began to ferry the other passengers away. 

Cordelia barely noticed the activity, her eyes scanning the deck for the thing that would help them.

Aha.

In a corner near Aetios’ old cabin was a contraption. It was fairly small, barely coming up to Cordelia’s chest, made out of wood that was brittle from the sea salt.

It was a catapult of some kind, but as Cordelia perused it, it was clear that it wasn’t in a condition to be used. The ropes were dangerously frayed in some areas, and the joints looked like they had swollen with water damage.

But that wasn’t what mattered to Cordelia. 

Next to the catapult was a small pile of spherical stones around the size of a bowling ball. But, resting to the side of them was a large, rusty harpoon.

Bingo.

“That?” Dio looked at the harpoon with incredulity. “You’re gonna use that to kill the monster? That rusty piece of scrap metal?”

Cordelia grinned down at him, the familiar feeling of adrenaline beginning to pump through her veins in preparation for the fight. “Oh, trust me, brat, this is more than enough.”

“You’re not serious,” Dio gaped at her. 

“I absolutely am.”

Dio stared up at her. “How?”

Cordelia looked over to the ships. They were a few minutes out. Plenty of time.

“Okay, Dio. Rule number one: the best measure against monsters is weapons. But not just any ol’ weapon will work. The only sure-fire way to kill a monster is to use a Divine weapon.”

“A divine weapon,” Dio repeated. “Like the Sky King’s bolt? Or the Master Smith’s Hammer?”

“Hmmm. Not exactly.” Cordelia twisted the harpoon in her hands, trying to wring some rust off it. “It doesn’t need to be a legendary weapon. Any ol’ knife made of Celestial Bronze will do, as long as it can deal damage.”

“Celestial Bronze?”

“Yeah. It’s a special alloy that’s been blessed. I don’t know the details. The point is, with a Celestial Bronze weapon, your chances of survival increase exponentially.”

“Alright then. Where do you get a Celestial Bronze weapon?”

Cordelia smiled. “See, now that is what I don’t know.”

In the past (or is it future? What a clusterfuck), there had been a collection of Celestial Bronze weapons that had been easily accessible at Camp Half-Blood, free for any Demigod to use. While rare, it wasn’t unobtainable, like, say, Adamantine.

Even then, it wasn’t an issue for her because she always had trusty old Riptide in easy reach.

Gods, I miss Riptide so much. 

“Now, see, that leads me to my next point. If you don’t have a weapon made of a Divine metal, there is one other way to kill monsters. Much harder, sure, but another way nonetheless.” Cordelia grinned down at Dio. “Want to take a guess?”

The gears turned in his head, and soon he matched her smile with a bloodthirsty one of his own. “Pure brute force.” His eyes took on that eerie red tinge she had seen once before.

“Exactly.”

The shouts of the passengers of the approaching ships were finally audible. They were urging them to turn around and flee from the monster pursuing them.

Cordelia raised her arm in acknowledgement.

It’s showtime.

She turned to Dio, who was gazing at the sea monster with glee. “Watch closely, brat.”

Giving the Eel instructions to keep the course, she took a running leap overboard.

Immediately, as the cool water washed over her face, the familiar power of the sea filled her veins. She turned towards the approaching sea monster and examined it.

According to the amount of water it displaced, it wasn’t so bad. Maybe about the size of a Minke whale?

Cordelia took control of the water and zoomed up to it. It appeared to notice her approach as it slowed down slightly. 

Up close, it was a strange creature. It looked like a strange amalgamation, with the head of a mosasaurus, a large turtle shell on its back, and the rear of a stingray.

It snarled with hostility, its beady eyes sizing her up.

Cordelia decided to be diplomatic. Grover would be proud.

“Hello there.”

“PUNY DEMIGOD. I WILL DEVOUR YOU. YOU WILL MAKE EXCELLENT CHUM FOR MY OFFSPRING.”

Okay, jeez.

“Whoa. Calm down, buddy. Is there any way I can convince you to turn around and leave us alone?”

“REJOICE IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT YOU WILL BE SLAIN BY ME, CERINTUS, THE SON OF THE ALMIGHTY CETUS.”

“Well, alright then. Can’t say I didn’t try. Wait a second. You’re the son of Cetus? Wasn’t he killed by Perseus? Or was it Heracles? I forget.”

The monster snarled in offense. “CURSE YOU, ARROGANT MORTAL! I SHALL KILL YOU FOR YOUR DISRESPECT TO MY HONORED SIRE!”

The creature lunged at her with surprising speed, but Cordelia easily moved out of reach. The waves propelled her away, and Cerintus chased after her, snapping at her heels.

Cordelia grinned at it. “C’mon, is that the best you got?” she goaded.

Predictably, the monster blindly followed her. It unhinged its massive jaws and tried to swallow her whole, but a quick nudge of the sea effortlessly pushed her out of harm’s way.

“STAY STILL, TASTY DEMIGOD! ALLOW ME TO SWALLOW YOU!”

“Yeah, no thanks. I’m gonna pass on that one.”

Cerintus maneuvered her until she ended up cornered against the side of a ship. 

“I HAVE WON, TINY HUMAN!”

Cordelia was reluctantly impressed. The sea-creature led her into a trap. If she escaped, the monster would hit the ship, which would undoubtedly cause it to sink. Clever little trickster.

She threw her arms out in front of her and yanked hard. A brutal current caught Cerintus and sent him tumbling away from the ship.

As it tried to regain its bearings, Cordelia positioned herself towards the side of it.

“Alright, playtime’s over, bud. Time to say goodbye.”

Cordelia drew her arm back and allowed the power of the sea to rush into her veins. She lifted the harpoon up and positioned it, ready to throw. Behind it formed a small, concentrated vortex that would add a kick.

She inhaled deeply and threw.

The harpoon sliced through the water like a laser, easily cleaving through the monster’s skull and exiting out the other side, till it drifted into the dark depths.

Cerintus was frozen in shock before it began to dissolve into gold dust that quickly got dispersed by the waves.

Cordelia looked at the monster’s remains in satisfaction. 

Her first monster in ancient Greece. Not too shabby.

Cordelia drifted up to the surface, quickly making her way back over to the Eel, where Dio was intently peering down into the water. She smiled wickedly as she urged the sea around her to surge up and rise till it deposited her safely on the deck. The water splashed indiscriminately, completely drenching Dio.

He angrily sputtered as he tried to cover his face. “Goddammit, Cordi, again? I was almost dry!”

“Oh, come on, it’s not so bad,” Cordelia laughed. “So, what did you think?”

“I could barely see anything,” Dio snorted as he wrung his shirt out. “I could only see shadows as it chased you. And I thought I saw something at the end. Like a flash of a silver arrow or something?”

“Yup, that’s basically the gist of it. I tried to make it go away, but it still wanted to eat us, so I speared it through the head. The end.”

“Gods, you make it sound so anticlimactic,” Dio said. “You kill a monster and act like it’s just some everyday thing.”

“That’s because it is an everyday thing, Dio,” Cordelia stressed. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Soon enough, you’re gonna have monsters comin’ after you, too. You’re strong, they’ll be able to sense that and want a piece of you for themselves.”

Dio gaped at her in abject shock.

“What?” Cordelia asked.

“You just admitted that I’m strong! I knew it!”

Cordelia groaned. “No, you piglet, not in that way. You fucking reek of blood. It’s unmistakable that you’re the spawn of the Soldier. Your stench will draw all the fucking monster in the city to you to take a bite.”

“No, you can’t take it back! You have acknowledged my clear superiority and skill! Soon enough, you too will bow before my overwhelming power.”

“In your fucking dreams, you stupid brat! And you’re missing the entire point! You have to be careful!”

“Let them fucking come,” Dio scoffed, crossing his arms. “I invite them to try. Let them bring their armies and I will tear them down and feast on their entrails until their descendants speak of me in the dead of night to scare their young.”

Oh my God, he’s crazy.

The other boats began to pull up next to the Eel, calmed slightly at the sign that Cerintus was no longer in pursuit.

A man walked up to the side of his boat and called out to them. “Hail, passengers! I wish to speak to Aetios. I require one of you to summon him with haste.”

Cordelia and Dio looked at each other. Oh shit.

Cordelia cleared her throat. “Um, may I know who is asking?”

“Tell him that it is Laserios. He is required to pay the tithe in order to pass safely. Also, tell him I have news from Clausius about some product that he would appreciate.”

Clausius? Where have I heard that- 

Oh.

These men were slavers, too. Or pirates. Pirate slavers? Whatever. It didn’t matter in the end.

Dio’s head snapped up like a bloodhound at Laserios’ words, and his eyes turned an alarming shade of red.

Oh no.

“Too late, assholes! We already killed that slaver scum Aetios and his whole perverted crew, and now, we’re gonna do the same to you!”

Before Cordelia could react, Dio sprinted and leapt towards the other ship. He hit the railing hard, but that didn’t stop him. He scrambled up over it like a scrappy cat and immediately attacked the nearest man, who shrieked in alarm.

“Oh my god, Dio, what are you doing?!”

He pulled a sword out of the man’s scabbard and immediately stabbed his victim before moving on to the next one. He easily cut down another two men before they were able to regain their bearings and unsheathe their swords.

Goddammit!

Cordelia took a running start and easily leaped over the gap to land heavily on the other ship. Dio was doing well fending off the attacks for now, but it wouldn’t be long before he was overwhelmed. 

Cordelia cursed and scooped up a sword that a dead sailor was wielding. It was poorly made and the balance was frightfully off, but it had a sharp edge.

It would do.

A large man crept behind Dio and raised his sword to cut Dio down.

Cordelia didn’t think. She just reacted.

The blade was not nearly as sharp as Riptide had been, and yet, she sliced through bone and sinew like it was butter. The man’s head rolled off his neck and hit the deck with a wet splat. 

Cordelia barely noticed. She was thrown back into battle. Her focus was on keeping the little psychopath alive, but in the back of her mind, a disturbing thought flitted through before she forcefully buried it.

Killing humans is no different from killing monsters, isn’t it? Easier, certainly.

Within a few frantic minutes, Cordelia and Dio were the only ones left standing. 

Cordelia panted and stared down at her arms, which were splattered with viscera.

Killing monsters isn’t this messy.

Dio beamed up at her, his face drenched in blood, matching the manic gleam in his glowing red eyes. “If only my Mother could see me now. She would be so proud!”

Cordelia stared at him. “You are completely unhinged.”

Shouts from the other two ships reached them and got louder as the boats slammed together, allowing the men to board. 

They ran at them with their swords drawn, screaming obscenities and vowing to avenge their fallen comrades.

Dio giggled gleefully and swung his sword in invitation. “Come on! I’ll take on all of you! Your blood will bathe my blade, and your corpse will feed the worms for all eternity! Rejoice in the sweet suffering of death!” Power practically wafted off of him, bloodlust radiating like a miniature sun.

The men swarmed them, and Cordelia easily fell back into the familiar motions of battle. At her back, Dio cackled maniacally as he maimed and killed their opponents.“This is the best! Death to all slavers! Rot in the Underworld for all eternity!”

“Shut your fat fucking mouth, this is what I hate you, Dio! You’re the worst! Literally, the worst!”

I take it all back. This psycho idiot is sooo going to die young, I guarantee it, because I’m the one that’s gonna kill him.

Chapter Text

The port was bustling with pure chaos. Sailors scurried around, fishmongers shouted to draw attention to their wares, and beggars zipped through the crowd to pinch pennies from pockets. The salty sea breeze wasn’t enough to wash away the stench of tar, unwashed man, and pungent overripe fish.

The glorious port of Megara, everyone.

Cordelia crossed her arms as she observed the proceedings. She stood on the deck of the Eel and looked over at the cluster of former slaves standing before the harried official. Apparently, you couldn’t just dock and enter the city with appropriate identifying documents or a guarantor who vouched for you. Who knew? 

The devil works hard, but the border patrol works harder.

Cordelia wasn’t worried. She watched as Bingyan stood at the forefront and stared the sweating man down sternly. It was only inevitable that he, too, would yield to her unstoppable force.

The group was quite large and seemed to be causing an obstruction. The locals parted around them like a stream, sending them irritated looks. 

It turns out that the other slaver pirate ships had indeed housed a collection of slaves. Unfortunately, some of them did not react very well to being liberated and almost caused a mutiny. They didn’t seem to take orders coming from two blood-soaked teenagers very well. Thankfully, with Blanda, Faigel, and Bingyan’s assistance, they were able to talk them down and de-escalate the situation before Cordelia was forced to begin to throw people overboard.

It was a bit of a challenge managing so many new people. Yes, they had overstocked food and water on the island, but with so many ravenous new mouths to feed, food began to deplete quickly. It was a race against the clock for Cordelia to sail them all to the mainland before their rations ran out. 

Cordelia could admit that steering the miniature fleet wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences, because she now not only had to be constantly connected to the rancid piece of shit that was the Golden Eel, but now another three other bitter, disgusting slaver ships on top of that. Every night, she went to bed with a wicked migraine and dread about how far the ships would attempt to drift off-course while she slept. Connecting with the ships always made her feel like she needed to be sprayed down with a firehose to wash the filth off. 

Cordelia really, really wanted to just stay in the sea while she directed the ships to land, but she knew that she was already on thin ice. Many of the other passengers were already side-eyeing her and Dio because of their combined freakiness, and the only thing that kept them from immediately mutinying again was how absolutely inoffensive Ranga was. The angel just smiled guilelessly at anyone giving them dirty looks until they guiltily turned away. Bless him.

And so they chugged on until finally, the nightmare could finally end. No one was more excited to see the port of Megara than Cordelia was.

“Hmmmm.” Next to her, Dio had his arms crossed as well. His face was contemplative as he looked on towards the dock. “This may pose a problem.”

Cordelia glanced at him. “What might?” She scanned the group again, searching for signs that trouble might be brewing. No, Bingyan was still tearing the official a new asshole. Were those tears? Was he crying? Yup, he was crying, poor guy. Wouldn’t be long now.

“I wonder how we’re going to get you on land without you clawing your face off,” Dio frowned.

Oh yeah, Cordelia realized. That was a good question.

Thankfully, that was an issue for Future Cordelia.

Present Cordelia had her own problems.

Which, being the super mature and responsible almost-adult she was, she hadn’t told anyone about yet.

But in her defense, she knew that the news was going to lead to an unpleasant confrontation, and she could tell that she wouldn’t handle it well with the added stress of controlling the four ships at the back of her mind. She knew that if she was yelled at, she would snap back and say some nasty things, so hey, she was actually being responsible by procrastinating. 

However, it finally appeared to be time to spill the beans. 

She decided to rip the band-aid off.

“I’m not going on land-”

Dio turned to look at her like she was crazy. “What do you mean, you’re not going on land? Do you plan to live the rest of your life as some sort of freaky sea witch on the beach?” 

He stared at her for another few seconds before his face twisted in pity. “Cordi,” He spoke slowly as if he was talking to an especially stupid child, “You do know that you can’t just live in the shallows, right? That would make you a squatter, which is illegal. Even if your dad’s a God, you don’t actually own the beaches, you know? Not to mention, it would be creepy!”

Cordelia rubbed her temples. “Goddammit, you stupid jackass, you’re so fucking annoying. Would you let me finish my fucking sentences before you jump to conclusions like a moron?”

Dio looked offended.

Cordelia took a deep breath. Oh shit, here we go. “There’s something I didn’t tell you before. Funny you brought up my dad, because I have to go visit him now. He made me promise to go after I delivered you all on the mainland.”

Dio gaped at her, and for a second, Cordelia hoped that he would just roll with the punches, but then, his face slowly morphed. He fiercely scowled at her, but not before she saw hurt shine bright in his eyes.

Awww, shit. This is what she was afraid of. 

Before he could explode, she reached behind him and tightly gripped the hair at his nape and yanked, forcing him to look up at her. His lips were twisted into a snarl, and his brown eyes blazed.

“Listen to me, you idiot. I’m not leaving you.”

“Yeah? Well, it kinda fucking sounds like you are. What, we not good enough for you anymore? Off to run to your big, strong daddy so you don’t need to be around filthy slaves any longer?” He nastily spat.

The little psycho had imprinted on her like a duckling, and she could understand why. He had no one else, and she had accepted his bloodthirsty nature without cringing or forcing him to change. Instead, she met him beat-for-beat and even encouraged him. She had freed him from slavery and had saved him from getting raped. She was an older demigod who looked after him, took care of him, and watched his back. Cordelia had seen many such bonds back at Camp Half-Blood, but here? Dio only had her. She was it for him.

Cordelia would never, ever admit this out loud, but she had grown attached to the little gremlin, too. She still had a raw, gaping wound in her chest from the whole life she had lost, but Dio managed to fill it just a tiny, tiny bit.

Cordelia shook him hard. “Listen to me. Hey! Listen to me! I swear I’m not leaving you forever! Do you think I want to go? Do you think that I want to leave you?” She bent down to look him directly in the eye. 

Dio just stared at her, his eyes swirling with anger and hurt. The glisten of tears made his eyes shine, but Dio was too stubborn to ever let them fall.

“I’m coming back, you shitstain. I promise.”

Dio shuddered in her grasp. “What if he won’t let you?”

Cordelia’s heart stopped as she processed the question, and when it restarted, it thundered with the rhythm of the waves. Every breath she took birthed a devastating hurricane. The inescapable pressure of the sea was encased within her bones. An untamable tsunami flowed through her veins.

She leaned forward till her forehead rested against Dio’s. He trembled finely, and she pressed him closer.

Her voice was barely a whisper, but her breath fogged with power as she breathed, “He can’t stop me.”

Cordelia rubbed Ranga’s back as he sobbed into her belly. He wasn’t the only one with wet eyes, either. Faigel had tears running down her cheeks as she murmured Jewish blessings for her safety, and Blanda’s freckled cheeks were blotchy.

Even Bingyan’s eyes held a slight sheen. “Is there anything we can do to make you stay?” she asked sadly.

“No,” Cordelia shook her head. “I told him I would go.”

A shiver ran down her spine as she recalled the unearthly way Poseidon’s eyes had glowed when he warned her, “Don’t make me come retrieve you.”

Yeah, no.

“Look at it this way: If I go of my own volition, that means that I can leave when I choose, too.”

Blanda nodded. “That is the best we can hope for. It would not do to break a promise with the Divine.” Her face paled at the thought. She wrapped a comforting arm around Bingyan, who curled into her.

Faigel finally finished her prayer and stared mournfully at Cordelia. “Sad you go. What about-” She cut herself off as she stared over at Dio, who was on the other side of the deck, deliberately not looking at any of them.

Cordelia sighed and lowered her voice. “He’s… not taking it well.” She made eye contact with each of the older women. “Look, I know that you guys already will, but can you guys keep an eye on him till I come back to pick him up?”

Blanda smiled at her. “You don’t even need to ask, Cordi.”

Bingyan sniffed and imperiously looked down at Cordi. “Make sure that you come and visit us often.”

“I will.”

Ranga burst into a fresh set of tears. “I’m gonna miss you! Don’t go! Don’t leave us!”

“Hey, hey.” Cordelia hugged him tighter. “It’s okay, bud. I’ll be back before you know it.” She lifted his head so she could meet his beautiful tawny eyes. “You need to be strong, you hear? You need to make sure that Dio doesn’t do anything stupid and make sure that nobody bothers the ladies, you hear me?”

Ranga sniffled. “Yeah, I got it. I will.”

“Good boy.” Cordelia hugged him again.

The others smiled at the interaction. Cordelia met Bingyan’s eyes. “You mentioned something about the ships?”

Bingyan smirked, shark-like. “Yes. I have plans for the ships. I’d like to use them, unless you want them.”

Cordelia shook her head. “No, you can have them.” She paused for a second. “Wait. You can have the other three, I have my own plans for the Golden Eel.”

Bingyan contemplated that for a second. “That shouldn’t be an issue. Three ships should do just fine, indeed,” she grinned.

Cordelia smiled at them. This is how she wanted to remember them, happy and looking towards the future, not crying after her. “I’ll miss you guys, but I promise I’ll be back before you know it.”

“And you’ll visit,” Blanda reminded.

“And I’ll visit,” Cordelia confirmed.

She gave each of them a tight hug before waving them goodbye.

Finally, she was left on the ship alone with Dio. He still refused to look at her. 

What a brat, Cordelia thought fondly.

“Hey, glue-sniffer.”

Dio turned to her in affront.

Ha. Gotcha.

“What the fuck does that even mean?” He snapped before he remembered that he was supposed to be ignoring Cordelia. He glared extra meanly at her for being so easily baited.

“I’ll be back soon, you stupid brat. I promise.”

He just stared at her for a long moment before his face hardened. “You better, you fat water buffalo,” he ground out before he turned to march away.

This stupid brat, Cordelia thought fondly. He's so uncute.

She watched him walk off the ship without a glance back until he made his way over to the waiting group. They waved bye to her, and Cordelia raised her arm in response.

She took a deep breath and turned around.

Fuck. Better get on with it. No point waiting around.

Cordelia took control of the Golden Eel and drifted away from the dock. After they passed by the shallows, she allowed the Eel to pick up speed. Of course, it fought her and sent her waves of acrimony, but this time Cordelia welcomed it.

Bring it on, you piece of shit. Ohhhhh, you don’t know what’s waiting for you. Do your worst, she taunted gleefully.

Cordelia sailed out onto the open sea in silence, not noticing her unwelcome passenger until he spoke.

“Atlantis, huh?”

Cordelia turned to look at Apollo leaning against the mast, looking as gorgeously unruffled as ever. 

“Yup.”

He just laughed and continued to watch her. 

“What’s so funny?”

Apollo just grinned at her. “Oh, darling, you’ll absolutely hate it there. Have fun!” Between one blink and another, he disappeared as if he hadn’t been there in the first place.

Cordelia turned back to the front, not sure whether she had daydreamed the interaction or not. Either way, now her anxiety had risen.

Thanks, dickhead.

Cordelia sailed on till she deemed that she was far enough from the shore. Perfect. No witnesses.

She grinned evilly at the Golden Eel. “Finally, you fucker.”

The ship sent the equivalent of a hateful question mark to her, but Cordelia closed her eyes and raised her arms. 

Immediately, she felt the sea respond to her call.

Two titanic waves rose out of the sea on either side of the Eel, and Cordelia could feel its alarm.

She relished it.

Pushing more power into the ocean, she gained more control of the water until the gigantic waves took the shape of two ghostly hands.

She reached down on either side of the Eel and grasped. 

The Golden Eel wailed and raged at her.

With a clench of her arms, the watery arms snapped the Eel’s keel.

Cordelia could feel the ship’s immeasurable agony, the equivalent of a human getting their spine broken, but she didn’t feel an ounce of pity.

She knew that Bingyan had planned to sell the ships to do something, but Cordelia couldn’t in good conscience allow anybody else to sail on the Golden Eel. It had sailed for so long under Aetios and had absorbed the rancid personality and values of the disgusting slavers. It just emanated malice and ill will. Nobody deserved to be subjected to that kind of corruption.

No, this is what the piece of garbage deserved. 

She stood on the deck and observed the ship’s death throes as the waves slowly overwhelmed it and the wreckage sank under the waves.

“Rot for eternity in Davy Jones’ locker along with your master, you piece of shit.”

The Golden Eel sent her the mental equivalent of a Fuck You and Cordelia laughed before flipping the bird at the sinking debris.

She watched in satisfaction until the remains finally disappeared into the dark depths, then turned around to see that her demonstration had attracted a small crowd of marine life. A school of fish wandered by her, and a family of sea turtles waved to her before going on their way.

Cordelia waved to her surprised audience before her gaze landed on a Barracuda that was eyeing up the school of fish.

“Hello, sir, can I ask you for a small favor?”

The sea grew steadily colder and darker as she made her way down. The pressure increased exponentially, but it didn’t bother Cordelia at all. She simply noted it like a change in the weather.

Eventually, after leagues of craggy sea-floor, she saw it.

Atlantis.

Previously, Cordelia had been invited over to Atlantis and had spent some of her summers there, especially to see Tyson after he had gotten his internship at the forges. It didn’t occur to her then, but it was quite modernized, with tall, underwater buildings and a sprawling metro.

But this?

This was the Atlantis of legend.

A beautiful city of glass and marble sprawled before her. The buildings had graceful arches, and the roads were cobbled with a mixture of coral and seaglass.

Merfolk and sea-creatures gracefully swam between the tall marble pillars. The surrounding sea was dark, but a sliver of light from the surface managed to make its way down to the depths and dance magically across the iridescent seaglass and mother-of-pearl windows.

Surprisingly, the water surrounding the area was surprisingly warm, and a moment’s investigation revealed a warm amber light coming from a corner of the city. Cordelia looked closer and was rewarded with the chaotic clanking and metallic smell of the cyclops' forges.

At the center of the city rose a towering castle that shimmered like a pearl. Simultaneously elegant and foreboding, the glorious building sported looming towers and parapets, but was built in a peculiar way that would never be possible on land with the constraints of gravity. Large, open doors were scattered throughout the surface of the palace, which was easily accessible to merpeople. A constant stream of imposing guards armed with spears methodically swum around the castle, their sharp predator eyes looking for any hint of trouble.

“Will this suffice, my lady?”

Cordelia turned to the Barracuda, who hovered impatiently near her. She smiled at him. “Yes, thank you for your help.”

The Barracuda nodded before it zipped away.

Cordelia turned back towards the city and noticed that she had attracted some attention. Some Merpeople were looking at her in curiosity and fascination. A little kiddo with two purple tail fins pointed at her, and his mother scolded him as she pulled away.

Cordelia could understand their curiosity. Merpeople came in a variety of shapes and sizes and displayed all the colors across the rainbow. Some had one tail, some had two, hell, one with the lower half of an octopus swam by on her right. Some possessed human features and some looked like a hybrid of fish and human, with slimy skin, bulging eyes, and serrated teeth.

Nobody batted an eye at the variety of forms that people had. However, she suspected that she was attracting attention because she looked especially plain, like an ordinary human who had somehow drifted below the surface without drowning or being crushed by the weight of the water.

Also, Cordelia noted in amusement that she had broken chains attached to shackles swinging from her arms and was still dressed in ill-fitting rags. She probably looked like an escaped convict.

A guard warily made his way over to her. He towered over her and had scaled, dark orange skin. A nictitating membrane slid sideways over his white eyes. When he opened his mouth, he had two sets of teeth. He was dressed in silver armor and carried a javelin and a sword strapped to his side. He didn’t wear any shoes, and his toes had webs in between them.

“Can I help you, miss?”

Cordelia cleared her throat. “Uh, yeah. I need to get to the palace.”

“The palace, miss?” The guard looked at her in suspicion.

Cordelia nodded. “Yes. Can you help me?”

“May I ask what business you have with Lord Poseidon, miss?” He gripped his javelin tighter and frowned at her.

“Ummm. He’s expecting me?” Cordelia said.

“Hmmmm. Do you have an invitation from him?”

“Um, no?”

“Any sort of missive or package for him?”

“No.”

The guard sighed. “Miss, you know that you can’t just swim up to the palace and expect to be welcomed. The Royal Family doesn’t have time to welcome commoners at all times of the day. You’re going to have till tomorrow to make a petition to him.”

“I’m not going to make a petition. I’m supposed to be a guest.”

The guard raised an eyebrow. “A guest?”

Cordelia nodded. “Yeah. He told me to come after I finished my task.”

“He told you to come. Lord Poseidon told you to come here,” the guard enunciated.

“Um, yeah?” Jeez, this guy was like a dog with a bone.

The guard crossed his arms. “If you don’t mind me asking, what is your relationship with Lord Poseidon?” He looked over in poorly disguised disgust.

Wow, rude, much? “He’s my Dad.”

Immediately, the area went dead silent. A heartbeat passed, and another, then a flurry of whispers erupted. Heads poked out of buildings, and passersby halted to catch a glimpse of her. 

Wonderful. Hey guys, my name’s Cordi, your resident freak-show, at your service.

The guard’s face opened up in surprise before he hastily bowed to her. “I apologize for my rudeness, my lady. Right this way, I’ll lead you to the palace immediately.”

The crowd parted around them like the Red Sea, but that didn’t stop the people from gawking at her and whispering behind their hands. 

“My apologies for my rudeness again, my lady. I was under the impression that you were one of Lord Poseidon’s… nightly visitors.”

What the fu- “Gross! What the hell, man?!”

The guard solemnly nodded. “Indeed.”

They continued on in silence, and the palace began to loom over them as they drew closer.

“Just outta curiosity, is that kind of situation common?”

The guard was silent for a long moment. “It’s not… uncommon, my lady.”

Gross. Gross! GROSS! What the fuck, Dad?! 

Finally, they arrived at the main door. It was a huge open archway, wide enough for a group of merpeople to swim through. A duo of huge, imposing guards floated on both ends, carefully keeping track of who was entering and leaving. When Cordelia looked up, she saw a retracted metal grate that folded over the ceiling. 

The guard leading her nodded to the other ones and swam through without stopping. Cordelia followed after him, feeling their curious gazes trailing after her.

The castle was even prettier on the inside. The walls shimmered with mother-of-pearl, and tasteful decorations of coral and pearls were scattered throughout the sprawling walls. Huge windows of sea-glass let the glowing lights of the forge in, illuminating everything with a soft, warm glow.

Cordelia found herself in a cavernous marble throne room. It was spotlessly white and sharply beautiful. It also felt cold, devoid of any warmth. There were a number of seats on the sides of the hall, a few of which were filled with elderly-looking fishmen. Most of them were in fancy, flowing robes that waved in the current and were adorned with coral and pearls.

On an elegant throne sat Poseidon in majestic blue robes, his magnificent crown on his drifting mass of black curls. He leaned his head on his arm, obviously bored with what the current courtier was saying, but that didn’t detract from the sheer power he exuded. 

The guard swam up to him and waited to be noticed, which didn’t take long at all. As soon as Poseidon caught a glimpse of him, he shooed the courtier away with a flick of his wrist. “Ah, Gilleroth, did something happen?”

“Yes, my liege.” Gilleroth bowed deeply to Poseidon and gestured to Cordelia. “I bring a guest.”

Poseidon’s face lit up when he caught a glimpse of Cordelia. “Daughter!”

Exclamations of surprise sounded from the group of politicians on the side of the hall, but Poseidon ignored all of them as he rose off his throne and floated his way over to her. He grasped her shoulders and examined her.

“Welcome to Atlantis! Come, come, you will join us for dinner to meet the others! But before that,” his face twisted in distaste as he took in her current state, “I’ll have one of the maids lead you to your room and make you presentable for polite company.”

Gee, thanks, Dad. Let’s see you escape from slavery and sail for months, then come out smelling like roses.

A pretty mermaid with a single pale pink tail and pink hair made her way over and bowed to Poseidon before turning to her. “Right this way, princess.”

Cordelia sighed and followed after her. She was led to a beautiful room with a wide glass window that overlooked the city. A luxurious bed outfitted with sea-silk sheets sat in the middle of the room. There was a sitting area that housed chairs and a table, and a small doorway led her to an empty closet.

“This way, princess.” Another arch led her into an ensuite bathroom. 

“Please remove your clothes and sit, my lady.” The maid swung the door closed with a firm click.

Cordelia slipped her rags off and sat crouched over on a small stool. She startled slightly when she felt fingers in her hair. The maid tsked as she took in the butchered state. “This is an… interesting hairstyle, my lady. Is this the current fashion up on the Surface?” the maid asked, hesitancy and doubt in her voice.

Cordelia sniggered, despite herself. “Yeah, no. My hair is just a hot mess. It’s okay, you can say it.”

The maid giggled, then gasped and covered her mouth. “My apologies, my lady. I did not mean to laugh at you. Please forgive me.”

Cordelia grimaced. “Yeah, call me Cordi. And please, laugh at me all you like, I like to think that I’m pretty funny.”

“Oh no, I could never, my lady!” The maid immediately busied herself with massaging a product in her hair that felt a lot like shampoo. It lathered up, and soon enough, she was rinsing it out. The maid reached over and brought a seashell near her head and pressed the back of it, which mysteriously caused it to suck up the sudsy water.

“What is that?” 

“Oh, this? This is a shower shell.”

“How does it work?” Cordelia stared at the innocent-looking shell.

The maid hummed. “I’m not quite sure, to be honest. I know that the mage guild creates them, and they filter the water when washing.”

Huh. Ingenious. 

The maid, who was named Naida, continued to wash her up, which Cordelia was pretty uncomfortable with, but the maid absolutely insisted. She massaged an oil into her hair that left it feeling sleek and shiny, even if it was still hideously uneven. She fussed over the shackles on Cordelia’s arms, but in the end was forced to leave them be.

Cordelia was dressed in a beautiful lavender gown cut in the Atlantean style. It dipped low in the front and had no sleeves, but flowed elegantly in the current around her. Naida tried to strap a heavy pearl necklace around her neck, but Cordelia put her foot down.

Finally, it was time to go to dinner.

Naida led her through the winding halls until they finally made their way to an open dining room. There was a long table with seats on both sides, however, only four seats were currently filled. 

Poseidon sat at the head of the table, and to his right sat Triton. He looked the same as she remembered, with emerald-green skin and long black hair tied in a ponytail. His sharp green eyes glared at her.

At Poseidon’s left sat Amphitrite, looking every inch the regal queen. Her mint-green skin was smooth and dewy, and her long, wavy black hair was covered in a delicate net that was woven with pearls. Her iconic crab-claw horns peeked through her hair. Her dark eyes coldly regarded Cordelia.

To Amphitrite’s left sat a beautiful woman with powder-blue skin and sea-green eyes. She had straight brown hair that fell down to her hips, which was interspersed with an intricate network of braids and coral. Her robes were a soft ivory that contrasted gorgeously against her skin. Cordelia was grateful to see her smile kindly at her, and she smiled back.

“Ah, daughter! Come, sit, and let us finally eat.”

Cordelia awkwardly sat next to Triton, who radiated the warmth of a glacier. 

Yup, that was her brother, all right. Two thousand years did little to change him.

The servants filed in and began to place the dishes on the table. They served them up and bowed deeply. 

Poseidon took his first bite, after which the rest of them started eating. Cordelia stared down at her plate. She didn’t recognize anything, but that didn’t bother her all that much. It came from a childhood of growing up poor. She lifted her silverware and began to eat with the finest table manners she knew, though she probably still looked like a bumbling infant when compared to their effortless grace.

The food was delicious, even though she still did not know what she was eating.

Poseidon’s voice broke the silence. “So, daughter, let me introduce you. My queen, Amphitrite, my heir, Triton, and Rhode.”

Rhode smiled congenially at her, but Amphitrite’s face didn’t shift an inch. Triton’s scowl grew more pronounced as he scraped his plate with his spoon.

“Nice to meet you?” Cordelia swallowed heavily and tried to smile, but was sure it turned out more like a grimace. She wanted to ask where Kymopoleia was, but she knew that question would probably open a can of worms.

Poseidon continued on, seemingly oblivious to the tension. “Benthesikyme is away for now. She’s traveled down to Varuna’s court to negotiate a contract for a new current.”

“Varuna?” Cordelia hesitantly asked.

Poseidon rolled his eyes. “Yes, my Hindu counterpart. Quite dull, if you ask me. Luckily, Benthesikyme has much more patience for diplomacy than I do.”

Cordelia looked over the others’ faces. “Is she, like, traveling around Africa?”

“Africa?” Rhode tilted her head. “What’s that?”

Cordelia shifted uncomfortably under the weight of four pairs of godly stares. “Um. You know. The continent connected to Kemet? The one that goes south?” she tried to explain.

Triton scoffed at her. “You mean Alkebulan.”

“Um, sure. Does she need to travel around it, or…?”

Triton sneered down at her. “Of course not. That would take months. She takes the Canal of the Pharaohs.” 

“Oh.” Did he mean the Suez Canal? Maybe an ancient version? 

Cordelia was desperately trying not to make a fool out of herself, but everyone probably thought that she was a nimrod anyway. So much for making a good first impression.

 “Hmmm.” Amphitrite hummed as she delicately cut a piece of meat. “Where did you say you were from, child?”

Cordelia stared at her and was met with inscrutable eyes. “Uh, I don’t think you guys know it.”

Amphitrite made deliberate eye contact as she elegantly chewed.

Cordelia wanted to lie; she wanted to lie so desperately badly, but something in her lizard brain told her that if she did, she wouldn’t like the consequences.

“It's… a place called Manhattan. In New York. Very, very far away.”

The room was silent save for the sound of silverware as the gods contemplated her answer. 

“Never heard of it,” Poseidon announced around a mouthful.

“Neither have I,” said Rhode.

Poseidon turned to Cordelia. “Did I meet your mother there?” 

Next to her, she could feel Triton stiffen, and his hand tightened around his spoon till his knuckles whitened. Cordelia gulped. “Um, I don’t know. She never said.”

Poseidon examined her in contemplation as he took a sip of his drink. “Hmmmm. Peculiar.”

Cordelia was under the sea, surrounded on all sides by seawater, and yet, she felt like she was sweating absolute buckets.

She couldn’t be more relieved when the conversation turned away from her and moved on to more mundane things, such as the latest drama within the noble circles in Atlantis. Apparently, a prominent minister’s daughter had gotten pregnant by his political rival. Scandalous.

Finally, the food was all cleared away, and a servant brought a large pitcher over and poured each of them a mystery liquid in ornate gold cups. 

Cordelia stared down at the drink and brought it up to her lips.

Immediately, the thick, familiar taste of her mom’s special peppermint hot chocolate coated her tongue. It was what they used to drink in the winter when she was little, when they couldn’t afford to pay the heating bill. They used to cuddle up together in blankets with the hot cocoa warming their hands while their breath fogged in their apartment, giggling at Christmas movies until sleep finally claimed them.

Nectar.

It took everything in Cordelia to maintain her composure as a wave of homesickness and grief washed through her.

She kept her hands steady as she slowly sipped the Nectar, savoring the small reminder of home as she waited for everyone else to finish their own cups.

Finally, Poseidon set his cup down and looked at her. “Alright, daughter. You will rise early tomorrow for your lessons. You will meet with Triton in the morning for combat training and in the afternoon with Amphitrite for etiquette. Is that understood?”

He didn’t even wait for a response before he rose from his seat and walked out of the dining hall. Triton stormed out behind him, barely restrained rage clear in his movements. 

Amphitrite nodded at her before she too rose, Rhode shadowing her footsteps.

Cordelia sat in her chair and gripped the gold goblet in her hand until the designs began to cut into her skin. 

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck all of this, fuck Poseidon, fuck Atlantis, fuck every single fucking inch of this stupid place, gods, I just want to go home, I just waNT TO GO H-

“Princess?” Naida hesitantly whispered.

Cordelia let go of the goblet and stared down at her hand. It was pallid from the lack of blood flow, and the gold carvings of the goblet were embedded in her skin. She closed her fist and clenched it, relishing in the sting.

“Let’s go.”

She followed after Naida till she was back in the gorgeous room. Naida offered to help her prepare for bed, but Cordelia waved her off and shut the door. 

She stepped out of the gown in a daze and crawled into bed.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, but her heart pounded in her chest, reminding her with every beat that she was painfully, unfortunately alive, and worst of all, alone.

Ba-thump.

Mom.

Ba-thump.

Paul.

Ba-thump.

Annabeth.

Ba-thump.

Grover.

Ba-thump.

Blackjack.

Ba-thump.

Mrs. O’Leary.

Ba-thump.

Ba-thump.

Ba-thump.

Dio.

Gods, she missed them. She missed them so much.

Cordelia fell asleep with tears in her eyes, surrounded on all sides by incomprehensible luxury, but pitifully, wretchedly lonely.

Cordelia inhaled deeply and the sweet scent of strawberries intertwined with the fresh, salty tang of the beach coated her tongue. 

She opened her eyes and was met with the gorgeous sight of a beach she knew very well.

Camp Half-Blood.

She was sitting on the shore, the warm summer waves drenching her cut-off jean shorts and her ratty orange T-shirt. The edges of the sky were blurry in only the way dreams were.

Cordelia closed her eyes and enjoyed the scene of home. 

It allowed the small, deep part of her that gaped like an open wound to begin to mend. It was slow, oh so slow, but it was a beginning.

“Beautiful,” a voice whispered. 

Cordelia turned to her left to see the relaxed form of Apollo. His eyes were already on her, and when she met his gaze, he smiled. 

Cordelia’s lips ghosted with a smile in return, and she turned away back to the sea.

They sat in silence for a long while, digging their toes into the damp sand, enjoying the warmth of the sun upon their skin and the waves lapping against their legs.

Finally, Cordelia asked him, “Why are we here?”

“I don’t know.”

Cordelia turned to look at him. His beautiful golden gaze was blank as he stared into the horizon, his mind obviously whirring.

She just watched him as he thought. She observed how his long golden hair swayed in the breeze and the way his hands idly dug into the sand, picking a handful up and allowing it to crumble through his fingers. His damp bronze skin was flawless under the heat of the summer sun. He radiated heat like a furnace, an ever-burning flame manifested in human form.

“Did you bring us here?”

His intense gold eyes snapped to her. She almost shivered under the weight of it.

“No.”

He may have been the God of Truth, and that may have been the reason she heard the pure honesty in his voice, but whatever it was, she believed him.

Cordelia sighed and closed her eyes. They enjoyed the beach in silence for a while longer.

“How are you liking Atlantis?”

She grimaced. “It’s simply peachy.”

Apollo chuckled, his voice a deep rumble. Cordelia turned to look at him and caught him grinning at her, his flawless teeth white against his tan skin.

“I told you so.”

Cordelia snorted. “Yeah. You did.”

She sighed deeply and fully laid down. She enjoyed the feeling of the sea flowing through her hair, tangling it up in the currents. Apollo hummed softly next to her, his ethereal voice as clear and flawless as a bell. His voice weaved a beautiful tapestry, even without words, and left Cordelia feeling breathless over his sheer skill.

Finally, he looked down at her. “Is it home?”

Was Atlantis home? Cordelia exhaled roughly. She had been there for only one day, and yet, she already knew the answer deep in her bones.

“No,” she breathed out.

Apollo gazed at her, a frown pulling at his perfect lips. “Then where is home?”

It broke her heart, but, “I don’t have one. It’s gone.” She closed her eyes as her heart panged in grief.

She felt a shadow cover her face and opened her eyes to see Apollo leaning over her. His golden eyes intently examined her face, and his hair flowed down like a curtain over his shoulder.

“I could take you there.”

Cordelia smiled at him sadly. “No. You can’t. My home is gone forever.”

His gaze felt like it seared through her soul. Cordelia had no strength left in her to fight it.

Finally, he leaned back. “Could you tell me about it?”

Cordelia contemplated it. Tell him about it? What could she tell him? She couldn’t tell him about Manhattan or Camp Half-Blood. She felt too raw to talk to him about all the people she had left behind. What else was there?

An idea popped into her head, and she smiled. 

There was one thing she could share with him that she was sure he would appreciate.

Stories.

“Once, there lived a pair of sisters named Lilo and Nani…”

Apollo was enthralled, as she suspected, his golden eyes dancing in delight. He was the perfect audience, gasping when she described how Stitch was snatched by Jamba and angry on Nani’s behalf when Lilo was almost taken away from her. 

As Cordelia’s tale came to a close, she felt a feeling of hope and determination rise within her. 

If Stitch could find a new home, a place to belong, then so would she.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Cordelia followed Gilleroth as he led her through the winding halls of the palace. Dawn had not yet broken, and the only light in the deep sea was provided by the glow of the forges. It proved a homey, if eerie effect, everything bathed very faintly in orange and amber. 

Despite the early hour, Cordelia wasn’t tired. She had woken up with crusty eyes that were easily washed away by the water around her, but she felt awake and alert. She had mentally spent the entire night with Apollo, but her body seemed well-rested. Or perhaps, it was the effect of sleeping in the ocean? Cordelia couldn’t be sure.

A ghost of a smile pulled at her lips as she reminisced about her conversation with Apollo.

Damn, but if he isn’t a handsome bastard. He looked much different from how she was used to, back in the future. There, he looked like a pop star, with well-groomed curls, eyes usually hidden behind sunglasses, broad shoulders clothed in skin-tight shirts and jeans, and a cloud of strong cologne following him. Very Hollywood chic, flawlessly hiding in plain sight. 

But this Apollo? 

A memory of his long blond hair, sharp white teeth, bronze skin, and piercing gold eyes made Cordelia bite her lip. This Apollo carelessly radiated heat like the Sun he embodied and wore his godly power like a cloak, loud and unmistakable. Attention-grabbing. Radiant. 

Deadly.

No, they couldn’t be compared. Not at all. But it was so, so easy to forget when he was so charming.

“What is an ‘alien’?”

“An… alien?”

“Yes. You said that Stitch was an alien. What is that?”

“Oh. Aliens are creatures that come from outer space. They usually look different to humans, with weird-colored skin or multiple limbs, but they don’t have to be humanoid. They can look like beasts and monsters. They’re like a different species from humans, you know?”

Apollo blankly stared at her. “Outer space?”

“Yeah, you know, beyond the sky. You can see it when it’s dark. All the stars are in outer space.” 

“Aliens live on stars?” His voice was filled with awe, and when Cordelia turned to look at him, his golden eyes danced in delight. She was charmed by his obvious childlike joy. To think that even an all-powerful god could make expressions like this, could be excited by the concept of an alien.

“I guess?” Cordelia wasn’t sure how else to explain the concept of planets and galaxies to him. It was a little hard to explain to people who thought the Earth was flat and was at the center of the universe.

“Marvelous,” he breathed. “To think that there are beings born of stardust. How beautiful. Have you ever met an Alien?”

“No,” Cordelia shook her head.

“I would very much like to. A child of the stars.” He grinned at her, and Cordelia couldn’t help but smile back.

Gilleroth’s gruff voice interrupted her reverie. “Your Grace, we have arrived.” 

Cordelia looked around to see that she was at the entrance of a training field. Huge looming walls surrounded the area, and Cordelia could make out spectator seats at the top of them. Strange symbols that Cordelia couldn’t recognize were engraved within the stone. Equipment was scattered around, blunted weapons, simple-looking weights, training dummies. 

A few young fishmen and mermen were gathered in the center of the field and quietly chattered amongst themselves as they stretched. They didn’t seem to be as bulky as some of the guards Cordelia had seen, but they were all taller and broader than her.

“Your Grace…” Gilleroth trailed off. Cordelia grimaced at the address and looked up at him. He towered over her, his orange scales glinting with the gentle light of the forges. He solemnly regarded her, his nictitating membrane sliding sideways over his eyes. 

“Yes?”

He continued to stare at her for another long moment before he sighed. “Nothing, Your Grace. I will be here to lead you back to the palace to meet with Her Majesty in the afternoon.” He stiffly bowed to her before he turned and swam away.

Cordelia watched him disappear behind some buildings before she turned back to the front. The other trainees stared at her, but when she looked at them, they startled and quickly looked away.

Cordelia smirked. Alright, then. It’s showtime.

She made her way over to the trainees, who stiffened up at her approach. They fought not to make eye contact and fidgeted when she drew closer. 

Shy, aren’t they?

“Hi there, I’m gonna be joining your training this morning. My name’s Cordi, what’s yours?”

The merman closest to her, colored a rich brown with a single glittering tail, stuttered and turned an alarming shade of red. “Uhhh. Uhhh? P-Princess? Huh?” He frantically turned to his companions, but they were carefully ignoring his desperate pleas for help.

Wow, okay. Really shy then.

Thankfully, the poor mer was saved from further humiliation when a sharp voice cut through the water.

“Alright, chum! Line up!”

The men scrambled to obey, quickly forming themselves into a perfect line, standing shoulder to shoulder. Cordelia quickly moved to follow, placing herself at the end and facing forward like the others. 

Cordelia subtly glanced around, but she couldn’t see any sign of Triton. Not that she was upset by his absence in any way, the further she was from her dickhead brother, the better.

A grizzled old merman with the lower half of a seahorse drifted in front of them. A gnarled scar bisected his face and gave him an unsightly look, combined with his matted beard and yellow teeth. He was absolutely gigantic, his muscles rippling like a bodybuilder’s, and Cordelia noticed that he was missing two fingers on his left hand.

“You might have noticed that we have a guest here today! However, in complying with His Highness the Prince’s orders, we are not to show any preferential treatment! In fact, we are to treat Her Grace with the same respect we treat all you chum! Is that understood?!”

“Yes, Commander!” The recruits barked.

The old Commander looked at Cordelia in challenge, and Cordelia bared her teeth at him. I’ll show them I don’t need any preferential treatment. I’m leagues better than all of these stupid scaredy-cats, anyway.

He grinned meanly at her and nodded. “Alright then! Get a move on! I want twenty laps before we go through conditioning. After that, we spar.”

“Yes, Commander!”

Cordelia was easily able to keep pace with the rest of the recruits. She didn’t feel challenged at all as they went through the conditioning exercises and even witnessed a few of the others struggle and shake.

A small kernel of pride bloomed in her stomach. I’ll show you all ‘Her Grace.’ See if I’m so graceful now, huh?

Finally, the time for them to spar came. One by one, they collected a blunted sword and assembled in a line again. As she waited, Cordelia swung the sword in a circle and gave it a few practice slashes. She grimaced. The balance was wildly off, and it was stupidly heavy. It wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle, however.

“Alright, chum! We’re going knockout-style today! We go till yield or incapacitation, understood?”

“Yes, Commander!”

The old man drifted down the line. “Which one of you still has enough energy to go first?” When his question was met with silence, he scowled. “None of you weaklings? Looks like I have to increase the training if that little bit of exercise was enough to tire you all out!”

The recruits looked comically alarmed, and Cordelia had to fight not to laugh. She decided to take pity on them and step forward. “I’m ready, Commander!”

The man’s beady eyes fell on her. “You’re volunteering, are you, Your Grace?”

Cordelia scowled at him. “I prefer to be called Cordi, Commander.”

He guffawed, an awful scratchy sound. “You do, do you? Alright then, Miss Cordi. Step into the ring.”

Cordelia made her way over to the open ring as the Commander called behind her. “Since all of you guppies are too spineless to step up, unlike the Princess, you’ll all stand in a line and go one after the other! Is that understood?”

“Yes, Commander!”

Cordelia was faced with a trembling fishman who looked like the mix between a human and a hammerhead shark, with a wide head with far-set eyes and razor teeth, but human legs. The poor recruit quaked in his boots as he shakily held his sword in the ready position.

Oh, poor guy.

“Begin!”

It took barely three moves for Cordelia to disarm the sharkman and hold her sword against his gasping throat.

“Miss Cordi’s win!”

Before the Commander could give him leave, the sharkman hastily swam back into line, hiding behind his peers in embarrassment.

“Next!”

This time, a beautiful maroon merman swam up, his long red locks flowing behind him. He didn’t tremble, but his stance wasn’t stable.

“Begin!”

Cordelia disarmed him again in three moves. 

“Miss Cordi’s win!”

Slowly, Cordelia made her way through the entire line. Barely any of them gave her a challenge; the only one was an especially quick marlin fishman, which took her a whole two minutes to subdue. He was a cut above the rest, Cordelia had to commend, even if he was one of the shyer ones.

It was past noon by the time she defeated her final opponent. She was feeling mildly sore, but more because of the garbage sword than actually fighting the others. She felt pretty hungry by the time she spotted Gilleroth standing on the side of the training ground.

The Commander scowled meanly at the other merman. “Useless, you lot! I can see your current training is not nearly enough, if you all got so easily defeated by a soft little Princess!”

Cordelia was vaguely offended. Soft little Princess? Please. This soft little princess kicked all of those soldier’s asses.

As the Commander continued to shout at the others, Cordelia made her way over to the waiting Gilleroth. On the way, her eye caught a glimpse of Triton looking down at her from atop the wall surrounding the arena. His face was placid, no hint of the antagonism he had shown her the previous night present on his face.

Cordelia made direct eye contact with him and raised a challenging eyebrow as she smirked at him. Piece of cake.

Triton’s face didn’t change, but Cordelia paid it no mind as she turned away and made to follow Gilleroth. 

The guard nodded respectfully at her. “Your Grace. Her Majesty awaits.”

“Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Gilleroth led her through the winding neighborhoods to the palace.

“You are very skilled, Your Grace.”

“Thank you. And please don’t call me that. I prefer Cordi.”

Gilleroth smiled wanly. “I’m afraid that I can’t do that, Your Grace. It is imperative that you be addressed with the respect your station deserves, otherwise, it reflects badly on Lord Poseidon. Still, it’s not every day a surface-dweller can defeat an Atlantean, even if they are adolescents. Biologically, we are hardier, especially underwater. They say that an Atlantean warrior possesses around ten times the strength of a surface-dweller warrior. It is quite impressive indeed.”

It was like a record scratched in her head. Cordelia whipped around to look at him. “Wait, what did you say? Adolescents? The recruits?”

“Yes?” Gilleroth regarded her in confusion at her abrupt attitude change.

“Those guys were all adolescents? Like, pre-teenagers?”

Gilleroth warily nodded. “Yes, Your Grace.”

“But how?! They were huge!”

“Mer and Fishmen tend to physically grow very, very quickly, Your Grace, much more quickly than our human counterparts.. It will be quite a few years yet till those boys grow into maturity.”

Cordelia gaped at him. “So this whole time I’ve been feeling like hot shit, I’ve been beating on middle schoolers?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what that means, Your Grace.”

“Why am I training with fucking pre-teens?!”

“His Highness the Crown Prince ordered it so, Your Grace.”

“Of course. Fucking Triton. Of course it’s his fault.”

Gilleroth observed her warily as he nodded. “Just so, Your Grace.”

Cordelia seethed as they made their way through the palace towards Amphitrite. God, now I feel like a goddamn bully, kicking all these pre-teens asses while the Commander screamed at them to step into the arena. Fucking Triton! This is all his fault!

Cordelia did her best to wrangle her foul mood as they stopped before Amphitrite’s quarters. Gilleroth drifted forward and firmly knocked on the ornate carved doors. 

“Begging your pardon, Your Royal Majesty, Her Grace Princess Cordelia has arrived.”

Amphitrite’s voice clearly sounded from behind the door. “She may enter.”

Gilleroth inclined his head at her and floated back. Cordelia nodded back to him in gratitude and took a deep breath, letting the subtle burn of the salty water fill her lungs before she exhaled in a huff. 

She entered Amphitrite’s chambers and clumsily bowed. “Um. How do you do, Your Majesty.” I think I got that right?

Amphitrite regarded her with cool, dark eyes, seated in front of a small round table holding a few small pastries and a pitcher. She was just as flawlessly put together as she was the previous night. A deep blue gown adorned her, the ends drifting elegantly in the water. A beautiful necklace of fat gray pearls hung around her neck, and another delicate lacy hairnet sparkled over her thick raven locks. Her mint-green skin was perfect, as usual, and if she wore any products, Cordelia couldn’t detect them. 

Not that Cordelia was the best at makeup anyway, despite Rachel’s best efforts. The redhead had eventually thrown her hands up and given up after cursing Cordelia out, saying that her and Annabeth didn’t even need products anyway, you lucky bitches. Cordelia still laughed whenever she thought about it, but she certainly didn’t feel like laughing right now.

“Sit, child.” Amphitrite elegantly gestured to the seat across from her.

Cordelia carefully lowered herself down as gracefully as she could. Amphitrite regarded her in silence for a long time. The seconds dragged on and on until Cordelia’s ADHD reared its ugly head with a vengeance, and she violently fought the urge to fidget. Despite her best efforts, her knee bounced under the table, and her fingers ran over the chains on her shackles, the nasty habit she hadn’t been able to shake ever since her enslavement. 

Amphitrite’s eyes followed her fingers’ ministrations impassively, and her full lips turned down in distaste as they landed on the mangled manacles. She hummed softly before meeting Cordelia’s eyes again. “You may serve us.”

Cordelia glanced at the pitcher, then looked back at Amphitrite in askance. The Queen raised a single perfect brow and nodded once. Cordelia reached over to the pitcher and grasped it. Inside was a liquid with the same thickness as Nectar, but it was instead colored a rose pink. When Cordelia poured it into their goblets, it was smooth. Cordelia still had no idea how it was even possible to pour liquids when she was under the sea, but it was probably some Poseidon power bullshit. The whole city seemed to run on magic, according to her understanding of basic physics.

Amphitrite tsked. “Your lessons start here, child. When you serve, you always serve others before you serve yourself. Keep your elbow below your hand and never fill the glass more than half.”

Cordelia nodded. 

Amphitrite elegantly lifted the cup to her lips and tasted the drink. Cordelia followed her example and took a sip. Immediately her face screwed and she looked up at Amphitrite. “Is this alcoholic?”

“Yes,” was Amphitrite’s calm reply.

“Um. I can’t drink alcohol yet. I’m too young.”

Amphitrite blankly regarded Cordelia. “Hmmm. How old are you, child?”

“Seventeen.”

“And at what age would you say your culture will allow you to drink alcohol?”

“Twenty-one.”

Amphitrite nodded. “I see. While you may not be old enough to consume alcohol in your country, it is imperative that you learn to drink now, especially as you will be representing the Atlantean throne.”

“But-”

“Cordelia.” Amphitrite set her cup down and looked at her. The coldness in the Queen’s eyes sent a shiver down her spine. “You are a full-grown woman, and I will treat you as such. You have been acknowledged as my Lord Husband’s child, and so you are an honored guest. However, guest rights go both ways. We will afford you the respect a Princess deserves, but it is imperative that you, too, must make efforts to act becoming of your station. As such, I will instruct you so that you will not bring shame upon our house, and you will learn. Do I make myself clear?”

Cordelia gritted her teeth. “Crystal,” she mumbled.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I understand.”

Amphitrite nodded. “Good. Drink your Kykeon. Take small sips. Savor it. Do not gulp. This is how you hold the cup.”

The lesson went on, Cordelia doing her best to absorb the lessons Amphitrite imparted to her without making further mistakes. The alcohol clouded her head, but she did her best not to slouch or slur her words. A constant low hum of irritation at the situation buzzed at the back of her mind, but she successfully compartmentalized it and ignored it.

Finally, after an entire afternoon of taking small sips of the Kykeon and a few dainty nibbles of the flaky pastries, Amphitrite finally dismissed her to get ready for dinner.

Cordelia was especially grateful, as she was absolutely starving from not having eaten anything substantial the entire day, and her hunger was causing her to get hangry. The lack of food didn’t make it any easier not to get drunk. She didn’t want to even contemplate the fallout if she snapped at Amphitrite due to her hunger. 

Naida helped her prepare for the meal, and again, it was just as awkward as the first one. Thankfully, Cordelia was ignored, and she focused on practicing the table manners that Amphitrite had imparted on her that afternoon. She listened to their conversations but usually couldn’t make heads or tails of them, confused by the constant stream of new names and the discussion of policies and problems that she had no frame of reference for. She constantly cringed as Poseidon made rude and unthinking remarks, obviously upsetting Amphitrite and Triton and leaving Rhode with a strained smile. It was an absolutely miserable experience, saved only by the wonderful food and the Nectar at the end.

For a few weeks, her schedule followed a similar vein, waking up early and absolutely demolishing the fetuses in the training ground, then meeting up with Amphitrite for the Queen to coldly teach her about courtly manners and expectations. Cordelia was growing more and more frustrated because she couldn’t even take out her stress on the baby cadets lest she again feel like a bully, and so she silently seethed as she went through her routine.

Thankfully, the day came when her routine changed. Instead of leading her to her normal training ground, Gilleroth took a right and led her to a neighboring ground, adjacent to the first one. The grounds shared a wall, and Cordelia realized that the grounds were arranged side by side, like petals on a flower. A series of staircases led up the wall so that spectators could easily observe the activity.

“Where are we going, Gill?” After being ferried to and fro daily, Cordelia insisted on making friends with the strict Royal Guard. He strongly resisted, but Cordelia could tell that she was slowly wearing him down. Whether it was in genuine affection or irritation, Cordelia still didn’t know, but she decided to be optimistic.

“His Royal Highness has conferred with the Commander and has concurred that your training can be intensified.”

A smile broke out over Cordelia’s face, the first one in days. Yes. Finally.

They swam through the arches, and Cordelia was faced with a line of enormous Fishmen and Mermen. She even spotted a female Fishman, an absolutely massive woman with serrated teeth, striped brown and gray skin, and rippling muscles. They stood with quiet confidence and didn’t bother chatting with each other. Despite the early hour, they all looked awake and alert. As one, their eyes turned to Cordelia and Gilleroth, but their expressions didn’t change at all.

“Line up.”

Triton’s calm voice sounded through the silence. The soldiers immediately snapped to attention and stepped into a perfect line.

Cordelia nodded at Gilleroth and rushed over to stand at the end of the line. He raised his hand and swam back out of the arch after a final look back.

Triton stood before them, dressed simply in a sleeveless shirt and a loose pair of pants that allowed his twin tail fins to gently tread water. His hair was in its customary high ponytail, his long black locks flowing behind him. He had his arms folded across his chest, and he looked directly at Cordelia. His expression was as blank as it was those days ago when she had seen him observing her. 

He turned away from her and addressed the rest of the group. His voice was even and low, but he didn’t need to raise it to make himself heard. “Another trainee will be joining us, but we will proceed as normal. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Just like Triton, the soldiers’ voices weren’t raised. They spoke firmly, but didn’t shout.

Triton nodded. “Good. Alright, we’re going for laps today, then we’re practicing forms.”

“Yes, sir.”

Triton glanced over to the side. “Sylvie, if you would be so kind.”

A tiny merman with beautifully iridescent twin tails, waiting in a corner, bobbed his head and touched the wall. One by one, the symbols engraved into the surface slowly lit up a bright white-blue, circling the entire arena till they joined seamlessly to complete an intricate magic circle.

Immediately, Cordelia felt a strong force press down on her. No, that wasn’t quite right. Rather than pressing down on her, it was pulling her, engulfing and compressing her. Cordelia’s limbs felt unnaturally heavy, and it felt like she was suspended in syrup. 

What is this…? Cordelia strained against the unnatural force. Artificial gravity? Or maybe extra water pressure? Something else?

None of the other soldiers looked fazed in the slightest. Triton tilted his head. “Come, follow.”

“Yes, sir.”

The other soldiers easily kept stride behind Triton as he set a quick pace around the track running along the wall. The soldiers moved smoothly behind him, with Cordelia at the end of the line.

It was like she was swimming through molasses. It was hard for Cordelia to describe the feeling. The closest she could relate to was running through sand on the beach. Initially, it would be fine, but the further you went, the more your calves screamed at you until it escalated into an all-consuming agony. You couldn’t take your concentration off of it, though, otherwise you would twist your ankle and collapse, and therefore, the pain was inescapable.

She wasn’t able to move herself forward through the water like she had done so often in the past, letting the currents cradle her and sweep her along. When she reached for her power to aid herself, she found that the water didn’t heed her call, as sluggish and unwilling to respond as the syrup it now resembled.

Cordelia was forced to swim the old-fashioned way, by kicking her legs and cutting through the water with her arms. She was able to keep pace with them, but she expended a lot more effort than the others, who were able to move with much greater ease due to their webbed feet and tailed fins. Cordelia huffed. Fucking human anatomy, not made for swimming. This blows!

It didn’t even take two laps for Cordelia to become winded. She inhaled gallons of cool seawater through her mouth, the chill and the salt burning her lungs, but she refused to slow down. Every so often, she could see Triton glance back for a second or two to see if she had fallen off the pack, but Cordelia would rather die than give him the satisfaction.

Cordelia scowled at his back as she internally ranted to herself. It’s obvious what his thought process is: ‘Oh, she complains that her training with the cadets is too easy? Well, alright then, let’s show her how out of her league she is so that the weak human bastard will go back to kicking pre-teen butts. Then I can pretend that she doesn’t exist, except for mean-mugging her at dinner when Dad isn’t looking.’ Yeah, no. How bout he can go fuck himself. I can take anything the stupid dick throws at me, just fucking watch me. Mom didn’t raise no quitter.

Cordelia breathed through the pain and paced herself behind the others, making sure that she stayed with the line. She focused on taking stroke after stroke, refusing to even acknowledge the fatigue that weighed her down like a cloak.

Piece of cake, she chanted to herself.

Finally, Triton peeled away from the track running along the edge of the arena and made his way to the center, where he stopped. The soldiers neatly lined up before him, none showing signs of exhaustion more than some minor panting. 

Cordelia stood tall and straight and carefully regulated her breathing. She made sure not to show even the slightest hint of strain. She noticed Triton looking at her and made direct eye contact before she raised her chin in challenge. She was able to see his eyes narrow slightly before he quickly turned away from her. 

“Alright. Go pick up the training weapons. Swords and spears today.”

“Yes, sir.”

The soldiers uniformly swam to a corner of the arena where a shed-like structure stood. One of the soldiers went in and started distributing the practice weapons to the waiting line. When it was Cordelia’s turn, the man nodded at her before handing her her practice sword and spear.

She nodded back at him and hurriedly swam to catch up with the others, who had assembled themselves into a loose grid. She took a free position towards the back. 

As the last few soldiers arranged themselves neatly into formation, Cordelia examined her equipment. The sword was very similar to the one she had been using with the cadets, large and top-heavy with a poor balance. The spear was similar, with the tip dramatically weighing down the already stupidly heavy shaft. 

Cordelia grimaced. She could already tell that she wasn’t going to have fun in the upcoming training. She was an absolute prodigy with a sword, but a spear? She was not nearly as talented. Not to say that she was as hopeless with it as with a bow (God forbid), but that didn’t mean that she was good by any means.

Triton floated up to the front, showing absolutely no reaction to the increased force enclosed within the area. “Has everyone collected their gear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” He nodded sharply and grabbed a sword of his own. He turned to the side of the arena. “Sylvie, the swords. Standard resistance.”

The tiny jewel-toned merman hastily put the document he had been reading down and sprang up from the bench he had been sitting on. “As you wish, my liege!” He raised his arms towards them, and to Cordelia’s surprise, her sword began to feel heavier. She looked down to see that the same strange symbols that adorned the walls were engraved into the blade and were shining a bright white-blue. The sword grew heavier and heavier in her hands, and soon she strained to hold it.

Oh shit. 

Cordelia looked up to see Triton’s eyes on her, and she immediately schooled her features into a placid mask.

Jesus fucking Christ this thing is heavy. Why is this thing so heavy?! This is fucking stupid, who uses a heavy-ass sword like this in battle?! Only an idiot, that’s who! Goddammit, it’s only getting heavier! But I won’t show him even an ounce of weakness. I’d rather die than admit that this is too hard. 

Cordelia smiled sweetly at Triton, though she ground her teeth to hide the pain. 

Don’t let him see my arms shake. Don’t let him see my arms shake. For the love of everything holy, don’t let him see my arms shake.

To her alarm, Triton smiled back at her. 

Oh shit, what now?

“Alright, everyone, we’re going to do three hundred overhead swings. I want to see proper form from everyone, otherwise we will repeat the count until I am satisfied, are we clear?”

“Yes, sir!”

Cordelia felt dread well up inside her. Oh no. 

“Don’t forget to conserve your energy, because we will be doing five hundred spear thrusts before you are released for lunch!”

“Yes, sir!”

Ohhh noooo.

“Into the stance!”

As one, everybody smoothly fell into the starting ready stance, with their right leg back and their sword held out in front of them. Cordelia mimicked them and clenched her jaw as she fought to keep the sword at the right height, the top-heaviness of it actively fighting against her to tilt the tip towards the ground.

“Half-blood!”

Her head snapped up at Triton’s voice. He was looking directly at her, his face blank but something mocking in his eyes that made her want to snarl. 

“I said proper form! Straighten your elbows out, otherwise we’ll be here all morning! Do you want to be here all morning, soldiers?”

“No, sir!”

Cordelia’s cheeks reddened in mortification. Dick, she seethed. Dick, dick, dick! She wanted so badly to back-talk him, but she knew that it was an immensely bad idea. This wasn’t like Camp Half-Blood. If she mouthed off there, the worst punishment she would receive was a disappointed look from Chiron and no dessert that night. 

But here, everything was run with military precision. This is what she imagined the ancient version of boot camp was like. There was a strict hierarchy, and though she had been acknowledged as a daughter of Poseidon, she was more than aware of how precarious her position was. 

The Demigod human bastard who’s only here because of the great Lord Poseidon’s endless compassion and grace. The poor, weak creature who would be so helpless without his pity, Cordelia bitterly recalled. Yeah, she had heard the palace staff and the common folk talking among themselves when they didn’t know she was nearby. Of course, nobody ever said it to her face, but it was clear that she wasn’t very well-liked and was seen as a direct insult to Amphitrite. 

I didn’t ask for this, she fumed. I didn’t ask for any of this! And yet, I’m still being jerked around like a stupid puppet on a string and being blamed for it, as if I wanted this!

So no, no matter how tempted she was to respond to Triton’s blatant provocations, she held her tongue and focused on the burn in her arms. She was going to ache something fierce at the end of the day, but that was a concern for later. First, she was going to get through this training without giving Triton anything to complain about so that he could boot her back to training with the plebs. You’re not gonna win that easily, bud. 

Triton looked disappointed that he wasn’t able to get a reaction out of her, but he turned back and focused on giving the orders.

“One!” 

Altogether, everyone raised their sword above their heads and held it for a long second.

“Down!”

They swung the blades down hard but stopped precisely at the starting position. Cordelia had to clench her muscles hard in order to attain the speed required to cut through the viscous water. Her shoulders screamed in agony as she fought to stop the momentum. 

“Two!”

The burn spread down her shoulders into her back as she hefted the sword above her head again. “Shit,” she quietly moaned under her breath.

This is not gonna be fun.

Cordelia was in a very, very bad mood.

Ever since she joined the training with the new group (which she learned from Gill was the elite group of soldiers who were training to go into the Trench Troop, which was Atlantean equivalent of Special Forces like the Navy SEALS, she was quite proud to note, very different to beating up fucking Cadets to be sure), her days were constant, unending agony.

She didn’t dare complain about anything. She knew that if she did, she automatically lost the fucked-up mind game that was being played by Triton and Amphitrite. She knew that if she complained or gave up, it was over. She would forever lose whatever respect she had and would be regarded as nothing more than human scum, a product of Poseidon’s lapse of judgment, a constant reminder of his infidelity and broken vows. 

She didn’t complain when the resistance in the arena increased to such an extent that she struggled to even inhale enough water to breathe. She didn’t complain when she was forced to do unlimited squats, her knees absolutely screaming at the abuse. She didn’t complain when she was made to do a never-ending sequence of hellish ancient burpees, vomiting bile from the exercise, and still forced to continue. She didn’t complain when she was forced to push an artificially heavy boulder until she collapsed and barely managed to avoid being crushed by it rolling back down. She didn’t complain when she was made to climb a never-ending rope till the skin on her palms peeled off, and she struggled to grip the rope, her hands slick with blood. She didn’t complain when, immediately after, she was forced to grip a sword with her bloody hands and swing it for hours and hours till the only thing that she could comprehend was pure, unadulterated agony. 

She didn’t complain when she was starved after her hellish morning training sessions and served nothing but Kykeon and wine, her stomach screaming at her for sustenance. She didn’t complain when subjected to long, dry lessons on Atlantean history and Politics, struggling not to fall asleep from the alcohol or the tedium. She didn’t complain when she was subtly insulted by sly, passive-aggressive comments by the gorgeous courtiers and highborn ladies. She didn’t complain when she was scolded for eating too much at dinner, the only meal in the day when she was able to truly sustain herself.

Naida, the sweet girl, did her best to help her by bringing her a few fruits and pastries in the morning when she came to wake her up. It wasn’t much, as Cordelia suspected that there were orders not to allow her to eat outside of dinner time, but it still helped, though oftentimes she would throw it back up again from the strain of the exercise in the morning. 

Gilleroth did his best to help her out in his own quiet way, allowing her to duck into an alcove and collect herself when the situation got too much for her, when the prospect of heading to another morning of torture or being subjected to the cruel tittering of Amphitrite’s ladies-in-waiting became too much to bear. 

The only respite she had from it all was her occasional nightly visits from Apollo. She didn’t see him every night, but when she did, it filled her with an overwhelming sense of joy and relief. She was finally released from the constant pain and hunger that she was subjected to every waking moment. She felt true peace sitting on Camp Half-Blood’s shores in her ratty old shirt and shorts, free of pain and worry, just enjoying the beautiful sky and breeze. Apollo never stopped asking her about her previous home, but he was equally delighted in her never-ending library of stories. 

She told him of many gorgeous worlds, describing how a kind young woman could look past a monstrous beast’s outer shell enough to fall in love with him, or a young Japanese girl's frightening adventure in the Spirit World. She described the vast African savanna and how a scarred lion tried to chase away his nephew from his birthright after killing his own brother. She talked about how four siblings entered a magical winter world through a wardrobe and fought against the icy oppressor. She detailed the devolution of a teacher with a terminal illness and how, during his final months, he created a drug empire.

With the visits, Cordelia was able to slowly, slowly heal. By recalling the stories that she had fallen in love with in the past and sharing them with someone who was just as enthralled in the plethora of new tales, she was able to distance herself from the never-ending grief and homesickness and focus on the beautiful memories rather than just the sad ones. With each new story, she felt the tiny crumb of wonder that she'd feared died years ago bloom again from the state it had withered into when she was thrust into this world of death and madness years ago.

Spending time with Apollo was… fun. Over the years, she had forgotten how to simply have fun. She had so much responsibility thrust upon her at a young age. When she witnessed her mother being taken by the Minotaur, she lost her innocence and was forced to grow up. At the tender age of twelve, she was responsible for the lives of others. She had witnessed so much death and pain. So much blood and war.

Apollo was annoying, but he was also just so charming. She didn’t have to put on airs. She could be just Cordi. She didn’t need to be the responsible Camp Counselor. She didn’t need to be the unstoppable war machine daughter of Poseidon. She didn’t need to be the athletic but weird girl skulking at the edge of school. She didn’t need to be the special needs kid, the one with a learning disability who everyone thought was stupid just because she couldn’t read very fast or sit still. She didn’t need to be the perfect Atlantean princess, grateful for the Atlantean Royal Family’s graciousness to be allowed at court.

She could just be Cordi.

She could be just a girl who could befriend a being of unfathomable power, not because of her looks or lineage, but because of the wonderful stories she had fallen in love with and now shared with him.

“How do you know all these stories, Cordelia? Were you a bard in your previous kingdom?”

She had just recounted the tale of Manny, Sid, and Diego’s adventures in returning a small human child back to its people, and she was smiling sadly at the memory of a baby taking its first steps to say goodbye to the beasts that had so tenderly taken care of him.

“A bard? What do you mean?”

“Not a bard, but perhaps a record-keeper of some sort?”

Cordelia turned to him. He was examining her intently. 

“Hmmm. I’m not a bard or a record-keeper. I was just nobody.”

Apollo scoffed in disbelief. “Nobody? Surely not.”

Cordelia smiled and nodded. “Yes. I was a nobody. I wasn’t anything special.”

She thought she heard him mumble “Preposterous,” under his breath, and laughed. “Yup. I was nobody and no one. Not a bard, a record-keeper, or anything else. I was just a normal girl trying to get through my day. No one special.”

“Then how do you know so many fantastical tales?”

Cordelia gazed out into the distance and smiled softly. “My mom.”

“Your mother?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “My mother loved stories. She loved them so much that she actually wrote a story of her own. She loved diving into new worlds and meeting all sorts of characters, the good and the righteous, and the morally bankrupt, all of them. She loved all of them,” she sadly whispered.

Cordelia turned back to Apollo. “You see, I can’t read.”

“You are illiterate?”

“Well, no, not quite,” Cordelia shrugged, “I can read, but not all that well. When I try, the letters move around on the page or they turn upside down in my head. As you can imagine, it was quite difficult for me to read stories. And so, my mother read to me.” 

Cordelia smiled sadly as the memories flowed through her. “She would spend hours after work just reading to me, taking me with her into those wonderful worlds. Even when she was tired and exhausted, she always made time for me. She’s the one who showed me how to fall in love with stories. She showed me how we see ourselves within the characters and how we can learn from them. She was the one who showed me just how beautiful they can be. Afterwards, when I got older, we watched movies together and explored even more stories.”

“What are movies?”

“Hmmm. They’re like captured plays. You can view the recordings at your convenience. And don’t ask me how it works, I don’t understand the technology behind it. I told you, I was just a normal person.”

“Recorded stage-plays,” Apollo whispered in awe. “What a beautiful society, where everyone has access to view and experience stage-plays at their leisure, within the comfort of their homes. Ingenious. No wonder you are so radiant. You are the Library of Alexandria herself.”

Cordelia blushed and scowled at him. "Shut up, stupid." She pulled a wave to drench him and scowled harder when he only laughed.

She pouted as the red stain in her cheeks refused to subside. Stupid blonde show pony.

The next afternoon, Cordelia finally lost control.

She had endured an especially brutal training with Triton and the Trench Troop and was beyond exhausted. They had been made to grasp their (not artificially weighed down, thank the gods) swords and hold them parallel to the ground without letting them dip. If anybody’s arms sagged, they were all forced to drop and do thirty push-ups before starting it all over again. It was hell. Just straight, unending agony.

Afterwards, Gilleroth had been forced to stop for her on their way to the palace because Cordelia’s head was spinning wildly due to the glucose drop in her bloodstream. She wretched pitifully as Gilleroth awkwardly tried to hold her messy hair out of the way as she spat up bile.

She was so hungry. She was literally shaking from her hunger and fatigue, and her mouth tasted bitter from her vomit. 

Wordlessly, Gilleroth handed her a pastry. It was layered with Filo dough and stuffed with dates, pistachio nuts, and cream, and Cordelia almost moaned at the taste. It wasn’t enough to satiate her hunger, not nearly, but it did take the edge off and inject some much-needed sugar into her system. 

“Thank you.” 

Gilleroth curtly nodded and turned away, but Cordelia knew that he felt bad that he couldn’t do more. He really is a sweetheart.

They made their way over to the palace in silence, Cordelia easily ignoring the chaos of activity of the Atlanteans around her, going about their daily business. 

Cordelia did her practiced song and dance of showing proper respect to Amphitrite and noted with some relief that Amphitrite’s tittering ladies-in-waiting wouldn’t be joining them today.

That relief was short-lived when, after a few glasses of Kykeon, Amphitrite coolly looked at her and began to ask her questions.

“So, what do you recall from the previous lesson about the line of succession?”

Cordelia fought to keep her posture perfect and answer without a slur. Today, it felt like the alcohol was getting to her head more than usual. Perhaps they made it stronger than usual, or I’m just especially fucked up today because of training. I wouldn’t be surprised by either.

“In the event that my almighty Father, His Royal Majesty Lord Poseidon, is unable to rule, the throne gets passed down to His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, Triton. If he, too, is incapacitated, the throne is then passed to the Princesses. Her Royal Highness Benthesikyme will be lower in the hierarchy as she has married a sea-god of Alkebulan, and that relationship could be seen as a conflict of interest for the well-being of Atlantis. Her Royal Highness Kymopoleia will similarly not be considered due to her marriage to Briares. Her Royal Highness Princess Rhode will be the next candidate.”

Amphitrite nodded minutely. “Good.”

Cordelia breathed a silent sigh of relief. Hurdle one: jumped.

“What is your opinion on the current order of succession?”

Shit. Asking her opinion? This was going to get ugly.

Cordelia elegantly lifted the glass of Kykeon to take a sip and used the moment to compose herself. 

“I do not agree with the requirement that male heirs are considered superior to female heirs. As you have shown me, in Atlantean culture, there is no requirement that females are lower-class citizens in comparison to males. This practice is something that has been introduced to us by Olympus. I do agree that Triton has the skill and temperament to rule, so he is suitable to be Crown Prince, but from what I’ve heard, Benthesikyme is very similar. I have not met her, but from what I’ve gathered, she is a very wise and decisive woman. Many people respect her, and she is older than Triton. There is the issue with the potential conflict of interest with her husband, but if she is as wise as I have heard, I do not believe that it will be a problem.”

They sipped at their drinks in silence for a long minute before Amphitrite inclined her head.

Yes! Hurdle two: jumped.

“What about Rhode?”

Cordelia looked back at Amphitrite. “I beg your pardon?”

Amphitrite stared coldly at her. “What is your opinion on Rhode?”

Well, that was an open-ended question. Time for round three.

“I believe that Rhode is a very nice and skilled lady, but I do not know how well she will be able to navigate the complex politics of the Atlantean and Olympian courts. She is an impressively skilled mage, but I do not think that she would be well suited to lead Atlantis successfully in the event that she needs to ascend the throne.”

Amphitrite smiled at her.

Shit! That was a miss. I fucked up. Cordelia braced herself for the repercussions of her mistake.

“I agree with the majority of your statements. The concept of males being favored over females in the line of succession is an Olympian concept, but because your father and his family are Olympians, that is what is expected to be followed here in Atlantis. Triton is a worthy heir, and Benthesikyme would make an excellent ruler, but out of all my children, Rhode would rule Atlantis the best.”

Cordelia blinked in confusion. “What, Rhode? Seriously? But she’s so…”

Amphitrite grinned at Cordelia. Her teeth were sharp. 

“Out of all my children, she is the most ruthless. She would not allow anything to threaten Atlantis. If she ascends the throne, that means that both My Lord Husband and Triton are unavailable to do so, which would invite attacks from parties that deem us weak without male rulers. Rhode would disabuse them of the notion immediately.”

Cordelia sat in stunned silence as she absorbed this new information. Amphitrite continued. 

“All of my children have inherited something from me. Benthesikyme inherited my tenacity. Triton inherited my cleverness. Kymopoleia inherited my wrath. And Rhode inherited my cruelty. Just as my children mirror me, you too mirror your own mother.”

Immediately, Cordelia’s entire body tensed. “My Lady?”

“You inherited your weakness from your human mother.”

Cordelia’s hand tightened on the crystal glass.

“It’s clear that you have the blood of my Lord Husband running through your veins, that is obvious to see. Just your coloring… you resemble him more than my own children do. But that’s not to say that you are a copy of him. No, there is enough of your human mother in you to be worrying.”

Worrying? Worrying?! The part of her that was Sally was the best part of her, goddammit!

“And what part would that be, My Lady?” she ground out through her teeth.

Amphitrite looked at her in amusement. “Where should I start? Of course, first off, there is your weak human mortality, then, of course, your annoying pride and arrogance. But most of all, you have inherited her useless morality and kindness.”

With every word Amphitrite spoke, Cordelia grew angrier and angrier. The alcohol running through her veins clouded her head and made her hands tremble in rage. The Crystal goblet in her hand shattered underneath the pressure her and a dozen tiny shards sliced into her palm. She didn’t even notice it under the force of her rage.

“See? No control. Always unable to sit still and restrain yourself. Weakness inherited from your mortal mother.”

Cordelia was done. She was fucking done with simply taking this shit.

“Shut up. Just… shut the fuck up. I’ve followed all your rules. I’ve played all your little games. I’ve taken every fucking thing you’ve thrown at me and not complained even once. I’ve let you all break my body every day. I’ve let you all starve me. I’ve let all of those fucking people talk about me like scum for things I can’t fucking control. But this? I won’t take this from you. You keep my mother’s name out of your filthy mouth. She was a queen among men, worth more than ten times the amount you are!”

Cordelia was breathing heavily, her vision red. God, if she gives me just one more reason, just one more, I swear to god I’m gonna kill her. I don’t care anymore. Just fucking watch me. C’mon bitch, just give me a reason and I’ll show you fucking mortal weakness.

Rather than getting angry, Amphitrite laughed. She laughed harder than Cordelia had ever seen, lifting her hand to cover her mouth as her shoulders shook with mirth. Cordelia grew more incensed the longer she continued to laugh.

“What’s so fuckin' funny?” Cordelia barked.

“You, child. You are.” She wiped a tear from her eye as she turned to look at her, her dark orbs sparkling in mirth. “After all this time, I was beginning to suspect that you didn’t have a spine. It turns out that you will allow yourself to be abused without saying a word, but a single word against your mother will rouse you like a sea snake.” 

She shook her head as more giggles spilled from her lips. “I cannot believe that I was so foolish. Of course, it is obvious that your fatal flaw is Loyalty. After all, you disobeyed your father just because you promised to help your slave friends find their way back onto the mainland. Backing you into a corner was never going to work. It would have been such a waste if such potential had been drowned out by spinelessness.”

The confusion from this diatribe caused Cordelia’s fury to calm a little. “What the hell are you saying? Have you been starving me on purpose? What the fuck?”

Amphitrite shrugged.

“Why?!”

“You never asked.”

Cordelia stared at her. “I was allowed to ask?”

Amphitrite nodded. “Well, yes. You’re a princess of Atlantis, even if you are a bastard. Guest rights say that you could always ask. It was simply your pride that prevented you from doing so. You were willing to break yourself down just for the sake of not conceding power, which I commend, however, you went about it completely in the wrong way.”

Cordelia slumped back into her chair as her head spun. “What the hell? What are you even talking about? I have no idea what’s going on anymore.” She sprang forward when a sudden thought occurred to her, causing Amphitrite to raise an eyebrow at her. “Wait a second, does this mean that Triton was doing the same thing? Was I meant to say something when it became too much in training?”

“No, Triton is acting according to his own interests. He has an agenda separate from my own. You were correct in concluding that any complaints about the training would result in severe consequences affecting your standing in court.” Amphitrite shook her head.

“What the fuuuuck.” Cordelia slumped back down into her chair. “What is even happening right now? One minute you were a raging bitch insulting my mother, and the next you’re suddenly all friendly talking about my potential? Is this real? Am I in an alcohol-induced coma right now? I’m gonna wake up any minute to a boulder about to roll over me, aren’t I?”

Amphitrite laughed again. “You’re amusing, child. I do believe that I will enjoy our future time together.” She gestured to Cordelia’s injured hand. “Now come, give me your hand. Let us clean your wounds before they fester. We have much to get through today, and I am not going to let an infection cut our time short.”

“Yeah, okay, whatever. But before that, can I please have something to eat? I’m so hungry.”

“Yes, child. You can eat.”

“Thank god.”

Chapter Text

The Royal Family had been served oysters for dinner, and Cordelia was trying in vain to eat them neatly. Somehow, her family managed to elegantly slide them into their mouths without a sound.

When Cordelia tried to do the same, she was met with a resounding mess that she quickly glanced around to assess who saw. Amphitrite raised a mocking brow, and Rhode grinned at her.

Cordelia sighed and resigned herself to slurping the oysters as silently as possible. The surrounding seawater didn’t help, embarrassingly amplifying the wet sounds of her sucking. Even the fantastic taste of the oysters didn’t distract her from her self-consciousness, and she almost missed it when the conversation took a turn.

“-been hearing quite a bit from the court about Cordelia’s training. I’m told that she has been keeping up quite well with the Trench Troop trainees, quite impressive for a mere human, but I expect nothing less from my progeny. Hmmmm, now that I think about it, Blizeron said that his son was able to watch her during her training and apparently, he found her passably attractive, despite her lack of fins. Of course he would, she’s my daughter, obviously she’s pretty despite her human blood. I anticipate that he will approach me with an offer for her hand before too long, that power-hungry shark.”

What the- Cordelia sucked in a breath in shock and managed to inhale the oyster she was holding at her lips, lodging it firmly in her throat. 

She tried to choke as silently as possible, thumping her chest frantically with her eyes watering.

Cordelia frantically looked to Amphitrite for help as she desperately tried to pull in air, and the regal Queen rolled her eyes at her. Yup, even though they’d been cordially chatting for a few weeks, she was still the same raging bitch as she ever was. Cordelia knew that looking at Rhode would achieve nothing except the older princess giggling cluelessly, the goddamn ditz.

Well, guess I’ll die.

As her vision began to go spotty, she heard Triton sigh noisily from next to her. He slammed a fist at her back, which pitched her forward into the table and dislodged the oyster from her throat, sending it flying across the room till it landed with a wet plop against the wall. 

Everyone stared in silence at it. 

Rhode’s lips twitched, and Amphitrite sighed and rubbed her eyes.

Cordelia wanted to dissolve into bubbles from the embarrassment. 

Poseidon cleared his throat. “Ahem, what was I saying? Oh yes! Cordelia’s training. From what I’ve heard in court, Cordelia is working well with the Troop trainees. That’s all well and good, but I wanted to ask you, Triton, how goes her combat education? My courtiers’ sons apparently can’t stop adulating how beautiful she looks as she pushes rocks around like a hermit crab, but I’ve heard nothing about her battle prowess. Why might that be, Triton?”

Cordelia held her breath as Triton ground his teeth next to her. “Father, as you know, she trains with the Troop cadets in the morning and leaves to learn from Mother in the afternoon. Morning sessions are for conditioning, and we spar after lunch.”

The surrounding temperature of the water went frigid in an instant. The hairs on Cordelia’s arms rose.

“Do you think that I am a fool, Triton?” Poseidon’s voice was still jolly as he raised an oyster to his lips, but his green eyes were as cold as ice. When he smiled, there wasn’t a hint of warmth.

Danger, screamed all of Cordelia’s instincts. Danger, danger, danger, get out!

“Of course not, Father.”

“So why do you insist on acting as if I am, my dear son?”

Triton took in a deep breath. “Father-”

“What were my orders, Triton?”

“To train her.”

Poseidon’s eyes narrowed. “To train her how?”

Triton clenched his fists under the table, and Cordelia was the only one to see it. “To train her till her filthy mortal weakness was erased and she was worthy of being a part of the Royal Family.”

A pang of hurt washed through her, but was quickly washed away with a wave of anger. Filthy mortal weakness, huh? You’re a fuckin’ dickhead. I’ll show you fuckin’ weakness.

“Precisely. Have you been doing that, my son?”

Triton raised his head in defiance. “Her training with the Trench Troop is representative of the fact that I have, Father.”

The temperature dropped further till it was positively arctic. Cordelia shivered.

“You will personally train her in combat, Triton, effective immediately.”

Triton sat up. “But Father, I have a responsibility to the trainees. They will be under my command when I do my rotation in the Trench, I cannot simply abandon them to-”

“Is that clear?”

A heavy silence fell over the dining hall. Triton was still, akin to a block of marble, his features unreadable. “Yes, my King. As you command. Please excuse me, I have arrangements I have to make in preparation for tomorrow.” He stood up smoothly and bowed to Poseidon before making his way out of the hall, movements serene and unhurried.

A feeling of deep anxiety in her gut killed Cordelia’s appetite, but she forcefully pushed it away with rage and defiance. She could take anything he threw at her. Bring it on, butt-face.

The next morning, rather than making their well-traveled path to her regular training grounds, Gilleroth led Cordelia away from the city. As she swam after him, she watched as the buildings grew sparser and sparser until they reached the outskirts. They eventually arrived at some open rocky fields that were clearly well-groomed and maintained. As Cordelia drifted by, she noticed that they were marked with dark sand, clearly lining a fighting ring.

Despite the early hour, Triton was already waiting in the middle of the field. He barely spared her a glance and only regarded Gilleroth, who bowed to him. “My apologies for my tardiness, Your Royal Highness.”

“I was simply here early. No need for apologies, Gilleroth.” His voice was warm as he regarded the stoic guard. 

Cordelia scowled at him. She felt a brief burst of envy at the kindness he showed Gill, but it was quickly drowned out by a sardonic voice whispering, So he can make expressions other than his constant constipated face, who would’ve thought?

“As you say, my Prince. Her Royal Majesty has instructed me to collect Her Grace at noon for her lessons.”

“Very well. I will expect you here at noon, then. Please have a pleasant morning, Gilleroth. Make sure to eat something, you understand?”

“As you say, my Prince.” With one final bow and a glance at Cordelia, he swam away.

As Cordelia watched his bulky figure recede off into the distance, she felt a heavy object slam into her side, sending a burst of pain through her ribs.

She rubbed the ache away and looked down to find a practice sword lying at her feet. When she glanced up at Triton, he was already regarding her with a sneer.

“What are you waiting for, Half-blood? Pick up the sword. Lazy in the morning, aren’t you?”

So much for being the charming prince, huh? I guess that’s reserved for non-bastards, Cordelia thought bitterly. 

She bent down to pick up the sword. It was the same as the ones she had been using during training for the past few months, large, unwieldy, and top-heavy. But in the end, a blade was a blade.

Cordelia could be accused of many things, but she could never, ever be accused of not knowing how to wield a blade. 

She knew how people talked about her back in the past. She could always hear the whispers, the murmurs behind hands about the tall brunette with cutting sarcasm and the thick New York accent. 

They said many things about her, and inevitably, some things got muddled. Travis and Conner were happy to tell her that people thought that her mom had met her dad on a year-long cruise upon which she was conceived and born, that Hurricane Katrina had formed when she had a tantrum as a toddler, and that she had a crew of Somali pirates that had sworn their undying fealty to her. The funniest one was that The Godfather was actually a documentary, and that she was Michael Corleone’s granddaughter. Together with her sea powers and her Mafia heritage, she was going to take over the East Coast underworld and become the princess of crime a-la-Joker. Annabeth was supposedly her Harley Quinn, the mastermind who would lead to her meteoric rise and eventual tyranny.

Annabeth almost threw up laughing from that last one.

However, no matter how wild the stories got, there was one thing that they never got wrong: Cordi Jackson is a demon with a sword.

Cordelia slowly swung the training sword in her hand, adjusting herself to the intricacies of the blade. As always, it wasn’t nearly as good as Riptide, but then again, which blade was? She breathed in deeply, allowing the cool, salty water to enter her lungs and let the familiar power of the ocean run through her veins. She allowed it to fill her slowly as if she had chugged some espresso shots and the caffeine crawled through her veins, gradually waking every neuron until she was bright and alert and could see the individual plankton floating by, her muscles tensed and ready to react.

Triton watched her, swinging his own sword in a wide loop. He donned the same training clothes he always wore, a far cry from the beautiful, ornate robes he wore for dinner, loose, breathable garments that would allow for a full range of movement without getting in the way. Thankfully, she was dressed the same way. Naida, the sweet, sweet mermaid, had made sure to bully the tailors into making her several similar sets of workout clothes that were leagues better than what she had been previously wearing.

Slowly, Cordelia and Triton circled each other. She observed his stance. He was perfectly stable, even if he looked deceptively casual. His movements were firm and sure, and he swung the sword in his hand with an easy confidence. He was huge, towering over her already considerable height. His arms were twice the size of hers, packed with rock-hard muscle, and his twin tails cut through the water with languid, sure strokes. 

He was bigger, stronger, and faster than her, but Cordelia had one thing that he didn’t.

She was a goddamn prodigy.

“What’re the rules?”

Triton continued to stare at her with cold, analytical eyes. They circled each other once, twice, before he deigned to speak to her.

“We keep going till someone yields.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Quick as a whip, Triton lunged at her, practically materializing before her in a split second. His sword came at her from the side, the same spot where he had thrown the sword at her previously.

Cordelia easily blocked him and grinned at the slight narrowing of his eyes. It’s not gonna be that easy, ya dick.

Drawing from the power of the sea, she used all her strength to push him away. The sudden force sent him drifting back in the water, and Cordelia used that opportunity to swing her own sword at him. 

Again, he too blocked her strike, but something in his eyes changed. Matching stormy sea-green eyes were locked with each other, one pair narrowed in a glare and the other crinkled in a challenging smirk.

After that, the spar went from structured and methodical to outright chaotic.

Cordelia used all her experience to match Triton. She hated to admit it, but he was good. Really good.

But, Cordelia grinned to herself, I’m better.

He attacked her with a flurry of moves coming from every direction, and Cordelia kept her eyes on his chest and used the smallest ways his muscles clenched to anticipate his strikes. His blows were heavy, rattling her joints, but rather than meeting them head-on, she precisely angled her body and blade so that his own forceful blows deflected off the side of her sword.

Triton’s arms swung down from overhead in a devastating downward blow, but Cordelia easily tilted her sword so that it deflected with a metallic screech and safely bypassed her. In a smooth motion, she sliced through the water at his chest, but he easily batted her strike aside and lunged forward with a thrust to her neck.

Cordelia spun around to avoid the tip of her blade and used the momentum to bring her foot up to deliver a devastating roundhouse kick at his exposed side.

She smirked as Triton snarled at her, cradling his abdomen. “This is supposed to be a sword fight, Half-blood.”

“Yeah, right, stupid. The only rule is that we fight till someone yields. Are you yielding yet?” she mocked.

His eyes went hard. “I was trying to be civil, but if you want a real fight, then I’ll give you one.”

They lunged at each other again, but this time, the intensity shot up. Triton used his powerful fins to dart around her, coming at her from all angles. This threw Cordelia off for a minute or two, all too used to fighting on a level, 2-D plane on land, but Triton added the third dimension of space into his attacks.

His unpredictability left her with a few blows that she could already feel blooming into bruises, but Cordelia allowed the power of the sea to flow through her to numb the ache and give her a boost. Thankfully, the practice swords were blunt, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt when they made contact.

Cordelia grinned when she got her own blow on him, a direct shot into his diaphragm when she used a clever bit of flexibility to deflect his strike with a kick toward his hand.

Triton glared at her as he caught his breath. “You’re surprisingly skilled for a Half-blood.”

Cordelia smirked cockily at him. “I am good, Triton. I’m very good. And don’t call me Half-Blood, my name’s Cordi.”

Triton scoffed at her. “I don’t know about ‘very good’. You run purely on instinct. You have no true skill of your own, only the guiding hand of your heritage.”

A wave of sharp offense burned through her. “Wha- what the fuck did you say to me?”

Triton sneered at her. “You are like a beast. A strong beast, granted, but a beast nonetheless. No control. No discipline. You have some training, that is clear, but you run mainly on instinct. You react. If you actually used your intellect, you would have noticed that there were many openings that you could have taken advantage of. There were many ways you could have maneuvered me to back me into a corner. Instead, you wait for me to attack, and you react to my movements. You were never in control of the fight, simply reacting as how frantic prey responds to a predator stalking it.”

With every word, a deep, boiling rage boiled in her belly. She could feel her face twisting into an ugly snarl. How dare he? How DARE he? 

Cordelia has worked hard for her skills. She shed blood, sweat, and tears to earn her mastery in swordsmanship. She stayed behind in the training grounds for hours to practice, long after everyone went to sleep. She practiced on the dangerous, looming terrace of her Manhattan apartment during the school year, fearing for her life if an opportunistic monster came looking for a snack. She forced herself to improve, even when her body couldn’t handle it, the images of Luke and Kronos and other monsters burned into her eyelids, her lips pulled back in a snarl when she thought about all the lives that had been lost in the wars. She broke her body down and built it back up into a weapon that could defend her friends, all for the sake of protecting the people important to her, then this fucking shithead has the absolute gall to say that it was all because she was Poseidon’s bastard? 

“Yeah, big words from someone who is losing to this Half-blood ‘beast’. What, aren’t you ashamed to be losing to someone who isn’t even twenty years old when you have fuckin’ centuries of experience under your belt? And a weak mortal, on top of that?”

Triton scoffed at her. “That has nothing-”

But Cordelia wasn’t finished. She was on a roll. “What would you know, a coddled little prince that everyone loves. What, did you actually think that you were skilled when people praised you? Oh please, you have to know that everyone around you will tell you what you want to hear. Every single friend that you have is an ass-kisser that doesn’t care about you and is only using you to get ahead.”

Triton’s face turned to stone, and his green eyes shone with an eerie light, but Cordelia didn’t notice, too caught up in her own fury to pay attention to the brewing storm.

“You know nothing I’ve been through. All of you and your friends are immortal, so you’ve never lost anything in your blessed, privileged life. You just use your shiny little sword skills taught to you by actual soldiers to play at training so that you can pretend to be someone actually important and hide from the fact that you’re an immortal prince who’s never gonna see the throne. Everything you have has been handed to you, and you are literally a product of privilege. You have no right to lecture me about my sword skills when you've never seen battle, never seen your friends die right in front of you, so shut the fuck up, you sheltered little princeling.”

The two stared at each other in silence, their matching green eyes shining in fury, and if Cordelia really looked, she would have seen that the way Triton was holding himself was completely different from how he had been, stiffer, more intent, more dangerous, but her vision was cloaked in a red haze of fury.

“Well then. I suppose that words do not work on a ‘beast’. I will just have to show you.”

The two leaped into battle, but unlike last time, this one wasn’t friendly. This wasn’t a spar. There was no civility left in this fight. This time, they were out to draw blood.

Both of them attacked each other like feral dogs. Cordelia’s senses screamed at her, Triton’s overwhelming killing intent lighting every single nerve she had on fire, and her instincts were running haywire, telling her that she was surrounded by danger from every side.

Her instincts both hindered and helped her, confusing her as to where the actual threat was coming from, but cranking her vigilance up to a hundred, allowing her to react to every attack that came her way.

The furious clanking of their swords reverberated through the water, and the two combatants didn’t let up, completely immersed in their fight. Cordelia’s hawk-like eyes saw everything, the gentle currents against her skin flooded her head with useful information, and, after a blow to the face that left Triton snarling at her as ichor dissipated into the sea, she could smell exactly where he was coming from.

Her instincts ramped higher and higher, and even though she could land glancing blows against him, he dealt the same amount of damage to her as well. They were well and truly evenly matched, and it pissed Cordelia off.

Cordelia allowed Triton to get within her guard and land a heavy hit against her knee, but the opening was enough for her to deal a devastating blow to his collar.

As he hissed and backed away, she bared her teeth and laughed at him.

“Not so mighty now, huh? After all that big talk, you have yet to ‘show me’ the error of my ways,” she mocked. “Look at you, all talk. I bet I could beat you with one arm tied behind my back.”

Triton’s eyes flashed as he stared at her. In the back of her mind, she noticed that he looked a little different, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She didn’t dwell too hard on it, focusing instead on his body language, which had once again changed.

“Is that so?” Triton drawled. “Well, let’s put that to the test then, shall we?”

In a furious flurry of moves that Cordelia’s instincts desperately helped her avoid, she was herded back to the ocean floor from where they had drifted. With a few strategic swipes, Cordelia had to twist and roll herself away from him and found herself against the surface.

Triton’s eyes glowed as he thrust his sword at her, his muscles bulging as he grunted in exertion. Cordelia leaned over to the left, and his strike landed on the side of her.

Her eyes immediately saw the gaps in his guard from the powerful missed blow, and she lifted her arms to take advantage of his mistake, but instead, her arms came to a painful, abrupt stop halfway up.

Cordelia looked down to see that Triton’s sword was firmly wedged in the thick stone of the arena through the links of her chains, firmly anchoring it to the bedrock.

She looked up to see him regarding her with a cool expression that was betrayed by the electric look in his eyes.

“What was that you said, Half-blood? You could beat me with an arm tied behind your back?”

He drifted closer to her as he cracked his knuckles. The pops echoed eerily through the water, on beat with her pounding heart.

“Well. Here’s your chance. Show me.”

With no warning, his fist flew out. Pain exploded across her face as her head snapped back from the force. She shook her head to get rid of the disorientation and glared at him. “You fuckin’ dick. You stupid cheating fuck.”

Triton raised his eyebrows mockingly at her. “Cheating? Why? Didn’t you say that the only rule was that we go till yield?”

“Stop throwing my words back at me, you smarmy dick,” she snarled. Cordelia tried to dislodge Triton’s sword, but even with her strength enhanced from the sea, it didn’t budge an inch, deeply embedded into the rock like a fucked-up Excalibur.

Triton grinned nastily at her and hit her again. It felt like her brain rattled around in her skull. 

“Why don’t you stop me? I thought you were ‘very good’? Go on, then. Beat me with your arm tied behind your back.” He spread his arms open mockingly. “You have me at a disadvantage. You still have your sword, and I am unarmed. Show me how good you are.”

“Fuck you,” Cordelia spat at him, desperately pulling at her chain.

The next two hours were spent in a haze of pain as Triton absolutely pulverized her. He beat her over and over and waited the few minutes it took for her to heal from the seawater surrounding her on all sides.

Cordelia swung her sword at him with her left arm, but Triton easily side-stepped around it or brushed off the blow with a clever attack to her hand or elbow to deflect it away from himself. Other times, he casually stood just out of reach and watched in amusement as Cordelia ferally tried to swipe at him.

His fists met her face with perfect accuracy, and Cordelia suspected that if she wasn’t surrounded by the sea, she would have suffered some serious brain injury. Each hit left black spots drifting across her eyelids and rattled her enough for her thoughts to grow soupy and sluggish before she was healed enough for it all to start again.

It was torture. Triton’s expression was placid, with him raising an eyebrow whenever she hissed out a particularly inventive or vulgar insult, but the only thing he asked her was if she wished to yield.

Each and every time, Cordelia spat at him and refused, and Triton continued to beat the absolute shit out of her.

“You stupid sadist,” she would sneer at him.

“Do you yield?” he would return.

“Get fucked, you sadistic cheat.”

And he would deal another round of bare-knuckle blows that would make her almost pass out from the pain before it started up all over again.

At one point, a particularly hard hit by one of his tails after a missed strike against his torso knocked her head back, and she felt her nose and mouth explode in pain.

When she finally regained her bearings, she brought her hand up to feel that her nose was absolutely fucked, and she felt some funny foreign objects in her mouth. As her tongue prodded the mystery object, her blood ran cold. She spat them out and turned to him in a fury.

“What the fuck, what the FUCK, you MOTHERFUCKER, you broke my nose and you knocked my fucking teeth out! WHAT THE FUCKKK!”

Triton looked down at her condescendingly. “Calm the hysterics, Half-blood, they’ll grow back.”

Cordelia shook in absolute rage and disbelief. It wasn’t just any teeth, but two of her front teeth. “No they won’t, you fucking idiot! Mortals don’t grow their teeth back! Holy shit, you’ve Mike Tyson’d me! What have you done?! You absolute fucking idiot! I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you! You’re dead! You’re fucking DEAD!”

Triton stared at her gap-toothed snarl and burst into absolute hysterics. He bent in half and laughed until he wheezed. “M-Mortals don’t…?” He burst into giggles every time he looked at her face.

Thankfully, Gilleroth came to rescue her from her absolute humiliation, but he stared blankly at her face for a long minute before he helped Triton wrench the god-forsaken sword out from the bedrock. Unfortunately, the royal guard held her back from lunging at Triton like a screeching cat ready to claw his eyes out and whisked her away back to the Palace.

As Cordelia sat in front of Amphitrite’s judgemental gaze, she tried not to squirm in her seat.

The regal Queen lifted up her cup of Kykeon and took a sip. “So, I suppose that I don’t have to ask how your first private session with my son went.”

The familiar feeling of discomfort and embarrassment rose up in Cordelia as she thought about Triton. “Your Royal Majesty, may I speak freely?”

Amphitrite eyed her over the rim of her glass and raised her eyebrow in intrigue. “You may.”

“Your son is an irredeemable dick.”

Amphitrite sputtered in surprised laughter. 

“He’s a dick, your Majesty. A stupid fuckin’ dick, nothing more than a glorified cock and balls. The ultimate dick. A royal, godly dick, which is worse than all other dicks, lemme tell you, just look at Zeus, yeesh.”

Amphitrite was wheezing, so similar to how her son had just an hour ago, which did not endear Cordelia to the similarity at all. She felt her grumpiness and frustration grow stronger.

“Your Majesty. Please. Look what he did to me! Look!” She gestured emphatically at her face and bared her teeth at her, sending the Queen into another round of hysterics as she took in the comical gap in her teeth.

"Ssss-Stop, child! Stop! Just- Just give me a moment. Oh, gracious.” She elegantly fanned herself, letting the water cool her cheeks.

Cordelia tapped her foot in impatience. “Well, what am I gonna do now? I look like a fuckin’ clown. I’m fucked.”

Amphitrite took a deep breath and gestured for Cordelia to swim closer. “Come here, child.”

Cordelia swam up to her and allowed Amphitrite to cradle her face and twist it this way and that as she examined the damage. Cordelia couldn’t stop the pout from forming on her lips.

Quick as a viper, Amphitrite reached out, grabbed her nose, and snapped it back into the correct position. Unfortunately, in the time that her nose had been broken, the sea had ever-helpfully healed it in the wrong position, so she felt the agony of having her nose re-broken and almost threw up from the pain.

Amphitrite patiently waited out Cordelia’s wailing curses and allowed her to calm down. The queen flicked her hand and sent a small current to ring a bell positioned off to the side, and immediately, a neat merman in the palace uniform drifted in through the door.

“How may I aid you, my Queen?”

“Fetch a Bone Tonic.”

“From the guild, Your Royal Majesty?”

“No, go ask Rhode to make it. Hers is stronger. She should be free today. Have it delivered to Cordelia’s room.”

“As you wish.”

Before Cordelia could ask what that was about, Amphitrite gave her a firm push toward her chair. “Sit. I believe now is a good time for us to have a discussion I’ve been meaning to have with you.”

Immediately, Cordelia’s hackles went up. She cautiously sat in her chair and nibbled at a seaweed roll. “Yes, my Lady?” She braced herself for some kind of scolding or preaching about how Triton could do no wrong or yet another lecture about how she was dishonoring the Royal Family with her strange mannerisms, and that no, it wasn’t acceptable for the staff to call you Cordi, child, stop terrorizing them.

“What is ‘power’?”

That was definitely not what she had been expecting. Cordelia took a long moment to recalibrate to the question. “Uhhhh, what do you mean?”

Amphitrite gave her a look that she reserved for Cordelia when she was being especially stupid. “I mean, what is ‘power’?”

Amphitrite waited in silence as Cordelia collected her thoughts. 

“Uh, well, power is… um, I don’t know. Power is the thing that gods have. The, um, the godly energy?”

Amphitrite pursed her lips. “Well… you’re not wrong, I suppose, but I was asking in a broader sense. Gods do possess power, more than anyone. But mortals possess power as well.”

Amphitrite’s little clue unlocked the riddle. “Oh, well, I guess that power is the ability to make people do stuff.”

Amphitrite smiled, slow and satisfied like a shark. “Precisely. Now you’re beginning to understand, my dear. Let us go back to the gods. Yes, they possess power, unimaginable amounts of it. But they do not possess just one kind of power.”

“Huh? What do you mean, one kind of power?”

“There are many kinds of power, my dear. As you said, power is the ability to make people do something. How can that be achieved? It can be achieved through pure physical force, it can be achieved through faith, through military power, through laws, through money, and the list goes on. What kind of power do the gods have?”

Cordelia thought about it as she chewed on another seaweed roll. “Well, they obviously have physical power. They can just vaporize people, and that makes them scared. They listen to what the gods want them to do so that they and their families don’t die. I suppose that they have the power of religion, if you look at it that way. People will do crazy things in their name, just ‘cuz they think it’ll make the gods or their priests happy. And of course, their being immortal and basically indestructible allows them time to gather and keep power.”

“Yes. Good. That is a good start to understanding the power of the gods. Let’s move on to mortals. What kind of power do they have?” 

“Well, obviously, the kings have power. I don’t really get how it works, but they have power because people listen to them if they make a ruling. And having a lot of money is also a way, obviously. People will do anything if the price is high enough.”

“That is a cynical way of looking at it, but I suppose you are correct. The basis of power is that it is built on the belief of value.”

Cordelia was confused. “What does that mean? Isn’t power, like, you know, solid? Stable? You either have it or you don’t. How can it be based on belief?”

Amphitrite shook her head. “No, child, power is definitely not absolute. Power is always changing. Let me give you an example. Let us take the mortal kings, who rule over kingdoms but do not possess any further power other than their birthright, unlike gods. Why do they hold power over their subjects? After all, in the end, is a king not simply a man, just like them? What makes them different? What gives them the right to rule other than luck and the grace of the gods to be born into the royal line?”

Amphitrite leaned forward, her voice intent. “It is all belief, child. The subjects believe in the Crown. Their belief affords the king the power over them. It is through their belief that the system exists in the first place.”

Cordelia swallowed heavily. “What happens when they stop believing?”

Amphitrite smiled coldly. “Why, they lose their power, of course.”

And Cordelia understood. She thought of the revolutions and rebellions by the people who lost their faith in the power of the crown. In the end, the king is simply a man, and a man can always be overthrown and replaced with another man.

Power is based on faith, huh? 

“And money is obviously the same way, right?”

“Yes. What is the inherent value of currency? It is what we prescribe to it. Gold is simply a metal. You cannot eat it, and it is useless when you try to shape it for tools because of its softness, but it is considered valuable because of its rarity and luster. If, one day, every single man had a heap of gold, it would lose all value because the rarity is gone. Another form of power, dismantled.”

Inflation, Cordelia thought. She was talking about inflation. Paul tried to teach her, but she didn’t quite get it. Until now.

“What about the other kinds of power? That can’t be it, can it?” Cordelia asked.

“Smart girl.” Amphitrite nodded in approval. “Yes, there are other kinds of power, but they are not as tangible. There is the power of ideas.”

“Ideas?”

“Yes. Suppose a man decides that he does not wish to wear his shirt. A rather silly concept, but this is what he decides. His neighbor asks him about it, and he insists that wearing a shirt is silly and that everybody who wears a shirt is a fool. His neighbor believes him and removes his shirt as well. And yet another person comes along and becomes convinced of their logic. Soon, more and more people join their little group, and eventually, the word spreads that wearing a shirt is foolish. People who wear shirts are mocked, and eventually, even if they disagree, they too remove their shirts just so that they will not be singled out. And that, my dear, is power at work, forcing other people to act according to your will.”

Cordelia’s head swam with all the new information. “Why are you telling me this?” Cordelia whispered.

Amphitrite regarded her, her dark, dark eyes giving nothing away. 

“Let us go back to physical power. As you said, gods possess immense physical power, both through martial might and through magic. They have esoteric powers that they can harness through their domains. Pure energy. They shape and mold that energy according to their will, and thus, they are able to exert power over others.”

“My lady. Why are you telling me this?”

Amphitrite continued as if she didn’t hear her. “The same could be said with physical or martial power. It too has to be collected, harnessed, and directed in a productive way. Cadets need training and direction. Armies need practice and discipline. Without those, whatever potential power they can possess is null.”

“Amphi. Why. Are. You. Telling me this?”

Amphitrite stared at her intently. “Control.”

Cordelia’s jaw clenched.

“Power is nothing without control, child.” She delicately took a bite of a crab roll. “If you have the most powerful weapon to ever exist, but you can’t control it, then what good is it?”

“But I’m not-” Cordelia cut herself off as her throat closed up. I’m not a weapon. I’m not. I’m a person. 

“I know you’re not, child.” Amphitrite’s eyes were compassionate. “But the point still stands. True power lies in control. If a weapon is reliant on whether it is attacked first, then it holds no power. It invites destruction. It will only possess the potential of being the strongest weapon, but what good is potential in the face of reality? It needs to be able to be fired when it desires. Refined. Harnessed. Do you understand?” Amphitrite asked gently.

“Yes,” Cordelia whispered. 

“Hmmm. I believe that is enough discussion for today. You may be excused. It will take some time for Rhode to finish brewing the potion, so you may take your dinner in your quarters tonight, if you wish.”

“Yes, please.”

“Rest, child. We shall speak tomorrow.”

Rhode didn’t finish the tooth potion or whatever it was that night.

Cordelia went to sleep and was quite unhappy to open her eyes to see herself back on the shores of Camp Half-blood.

Apollo sat sprawled across the shore next to her, his damp robes clinging to his perfectly sculpted body. His hair was damp as well, charmingly sticking to his forehead and neck as it slowly dried into salty waves.

His golden eyes turned from the waves over to her and almost burned her with his familiar intensity, a pair of captured twin suns in an ethereally beautiful face.

Cordelia’s heart pounded. 

Oh no.

“Good evening, my Lady. It’s been a few weeks. I missed your company.”

“Mmmmm,” Cordelia hummed in agreement, carefully keeping her lips pursed together.

“I am eager to see what wonderful tale you will regale me with tonight.” His golden eyes danced with an excited light, and he leaned closer.

“Hmmmm.” Cordelia turned away from him, carefully making sure that he couldn’t see her face. “Um. No story tonight, Apollo. Sorry.”

The god remained silent for several long moments, and when the curiosity finally became too much for her, Cordelia turned back to see him staring at her with a strange expression, something in between bewilderment and humor.

“Hmmm?” Cordelia asked.

“What happened to your teeth?” Apollo asked.

Cordelia’s eyes widened. She casually turned away from him, pretending to look at some canoes docked over by the shore. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Cordelia felt hot fingers gently grasp her chin and turn her head back towards Apollo. He stared intently at her lips, which made her cheeks heat up.

“Oh, really? You don’t know what I mean, huh?” His eyes flickered back up to hers.

Dammit. God of Truth.

Cordelia wanted to die from the mortification. She brought her hand up to cover her mouth and said, “Well, I guess it’s obvious. My teeth are fucked. My dentist is gonna be very upset with me.”

“Dentist?”

“Tooth healer.”

The baffled look on Apollo’s face didn’t change. “You have tooth healers in your kingdom? Fascinating. How does that work? Is there a god of teeth? Are the healers priests? Do they-”

“Apollo. Focus.”

He shot a blinding smile at her. Cordelia felt a wave of resentment at the sight of his perfect white teeth. Just rub it in, why don’t you.

“What happened?”

Cordelia scowled. “My dick of a half-brother did this to me.”

“Who, Triton?”

“Yeah.”

“Impossible.”

Cordelia looked up to see Apollo regarding her with a skeptical expression. “The fuck you mean, impossible? The stupid dick broke my fuckin’ nose and knocked my teeth right out.”

“What did you do?”

Cordelia bristled in indignance. “What do you mean, what did I do?! I didn’t do anything! He’s just a dick! He’s always been a dick to me! Are you seriously taking his side?!”

Apollo tilted his head thoughtfully. “Triton’s always been a soft touch. You must have done something to piss him off.”

Cordelia seethed. “I can’t believe this. My own friend thinks that I’m the one at fault for getting my own teeth knocked out. Unbelievable. Fucking unbelievable. I hate this place and everyone in it.”

Apollo chuckled. “Calm down, Cordelia. I’m not saying that it’s your fault, I’m just saying that this doesn’t sound like the Triton I’m familiar with.”

“Oh yeah? Know him really well, do you?” she snarked.

Apollo gave her a droll look. “We might have talked a bit in the past few centuries.”

Cordelia huffed as her cheeks warmed. “Whatever. I don’t care. Right now, you’re my friend, not his. You’re gonna sit here and hear me talk shit about him, because that’s what good friends do, get it?”

“Alright then. But before that, I need to check: what happened to your teeth?”

“What do you mean? Are you having a stroke? We already established that they were knocked out, keep up, Apollo!”

Apollo sighed. “No, Cordelia, what happened to your fallen teeth? Do you have them with you?”

“Uh, no? I think I spit them out or something.”

Apollo frowned. “Make sure to go and find them. If you like, I can keep them safe for you.”

Cordelia gaped at him. “What the hell? You’re a real creep, you know that?”

“No, you don’t understand. Mages can do frightening things with body parts, especially teeth. Blood magic, dark magic, spells that can do real harm. I could keep them safe.”

“Oh. Uhhh, I’ll think about it, I guess.” Great. Now she had to go and trawl the arena for her two tiny incisors. Super fun, exactly how she wanted to spend her free time.

“Do think about it,” Apollo implored. “But in the meantime, you know what you have to do, right?”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

Apollo smiled at her, but this time it was a sharp, predatory thing. “You have to pay him back for the insult he had inflicted on you.”

Cordelia felt her own mean smile stretching across her lips, for the first time uncaring of how it exposed the gap in her teeth.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that.”

The next morning, Rhode still hadn’t finished the potion. 

Cordelia was fine. Really, she was.

She channeled all her frustration into her upcoming battle with Triton, and by the time Gilleroth had led her to the training grounds on the city’s outskirts, she was practically radiating bloodlust.

Gilleroth didn’t waste any time in bowing to Triton before darting away.

Neither Cordelia nor Triton noticed, too involved in analyzing the threat in front of them.

“Rules?”

“Same as yesterday.”

“Super.”

They lunged at each other, as feral as two lions fighting for dominance. Immediately, Cordelia went for his neck. She wanted to tear his stupid throat out, making him bleed out that sweet, sweet ichor that smelled so rich and good and like prey-

Triton’s eyes shone with an eerie green light, and his lips were pulled back in a mean snarl, his canines long and sharp like fangs. His hair swayed unsettlingly, eventually bursting from the ribbon it was held by as Cordelia’s missed strike split the fabric. His emerald-green skin began to glow with bioluminescence, and faint pale markings resembling stripes began to show up along his arms and cheekbones.

As Cordelia fought to rip him apart, she felt the beast prowling deep within rising up as well. All her instincts were dialed up to a hundred, and she began to rely on her nose more and more as she drew more ichor from him, completely ignoring the scent of her blood as it began to saturate the water as well.

“Is that the best you have to show, Half-blood?” Triton spat when she missed a strike because one of his fins nearly batted the sword out of her hands.

“Don’t call me Half-blood, you inbred fuck, my name is Cordi, or are you too stupid to remember that?”

Triton snarled at her. “Cordelia. Disgusting name. I don’t know what your fool mother was thinking when she cursed you with such an ugly name.”

Cordelia snarled back at him, a fresh wave of bloodlust running through her veins. “Don’t you talk about my Mother. Don’t you ever talk about my Mother.”

“I’ll do what I like, Half-blood,” Triton sneered. “Your whore mother slept with a married man. She is worth nothing more than a prostitute.”

Cordelia saw red. “SHUT UP! Shut the fuck up!”

“Your mother disrespected my own lady mother by lying with her husband, and now you, a physical manifestation of that disrespect just- just, waltz in and insert yourself into my family like it’s nothing!”

“You stupid fuck, do you think that I want to be here?! I didn’t ask to be born! I hate this fucking place, I hate all the fucking people, I hate Dad, that stupid fucking idiot, and most of all, I hate you for hating me for things I can’t control when you’re so nice to everyone else! Why can’t you be nice to me, huh?! Is it because I’m fucking mortal! That’s what you said that night, wasn’t it? Train the stupid, filthy mortal weakness out of me?!”

“I don’t CARE that you’re mortal!” Triton roared at her as he lunged at her with a strike from below. “I don’t care that you’re mortal or that you’re a girl or that you’re a bastard, I care that you’re coming in and taking Kymopoleia’s place as if she never existed! As if, if Father ignores her enough and brings in a perfect new daughter to take the place of her, then it’s as if she was never born!”

Cordelia’s eyes widened, but she quickly glared at him as she sent him a kick. “I don’t want to replace Kym! I don’t want to even be here! I want to go back up and be with Dio and Bingyan and Ranga and Faigel and Blanda and I just want to GO HOME, but I can’t because I’m stuck here because Dad wants me to be here!”

Triton laughed meanly. “So you’re just dancing along to Father’s whims as well, aren’t you? I don’t know why I’m surprised. Let me tell you a secret.” He grabbed Cordelia’s sword from where it was pressed against his and pulled it in, forcing Cordelia to drift closer. He looked almost monstrous, with his glowing green eyes and skin, deadly fangs, and hair that swayed independently like tentacles.

“Did you never think of the shackles around your wrists?”

“Well, what about them?” Cordelia snarled. 

“We have the best forges in all of Greece right here in Atlantis, save for Hephastus’ own workshop, and yet, why do you still swim around the city with them still on?”

Cordelia paused, the question breaking through her bloodlust, forcing her to use her brain to contemplate the question.

“I always thought it was because it was dangerous to take them off. They’re too mangled to remove with any tools.”

Triton scoffed at her, his green eyes flashing in disdain. Slowly, slowly, his beast-like appearance was beginning to recede, the pale stripes along his skin slowly disappearing. “You little fool. Your precious, precious Father was the one who oh-so-lovingly forbade anyone from removing them until he willed it.”

He watched in satisfaction as his words sank in and Cordelia’s expression fell with confused betrayal. “But… But why?”

Triton grinned at her with a mouthful of needle-like fangs. “Rejoice, dear sister, because just like the rest of us, you are now the recipient of our almighty Father’s cruel, cruel love. Why did he insist on the shackles staying on? Ah, yes, to remind you of your filthy mortal weakness.” 

He nodded in malicious glee at her wide eyes. “Yes, Cordelia, those are his words, not mine. He means to punish you for falling so far as to be enslaved by weak mortal scum, regardless of the fact that you liberated yourself. A constant reminder of just how far you once fell. And now, here we are, with me struggling to keep you alive and safe from threats because you are now my sister and I would do anything to protect my sisters, anything, even if they are cruel little Half-bloods who accuse me of never suffering anything in my unending immortal life, disregarding the fact that I am the buffer between our Father’s insane whims and my mother and sisters.”

Cordelia’s heart felt like lead. “Triton-”

“And of course, what was it that you said yesterday? That everything I achieved is because I was born a spoiled princeling? That I was blessed to be an eternal prince who will never see the throne and who has to suffer from the whims of an immortal mad king who can smite the entire city, the entire world if he wishes it? Powerless to do anything except damage control when he mortally offends sea-gods of other pantheons and has my limbs cut off in punishment for overstepping?”

“Triton-”

“And then, on top of wrangling the power-hungry nobles that Father surrounds himself with for entertainment, I have to lead young men and women to die in the Trench in the eternal battle against the foul beasts escaping Tartarus. I have to watch legions of young soldiers die in a senseless crusade to prevent them from overrunning Atlantis, but no, no, I’ve never lost anyone in my life, I’m just a spoiled little princeling that-”

“I’m sorry.” Cordelia hugged him tightly. His sword hung limply from his hand. “I’m sorry, Triton. I’m sorry.” 

She didn't know why she was hugging him. He was mean and cruel, and he hated her, but he was hurting right now, and Cordelia did the only thing she could to make it stop.

He just breathed heavily against her for a few long minutes, and Cordelia fought her tears. “You were right. I was cruel.”

Triton sighed heavily and dropped his sword. He slowly lifted his hand to rest it gently against her back. “I apologize as well. It was wrong of me to project Kymopoleia’s situation upon you and treat you unkindly.”

Cordelia sniffed. “Yeah, you were a dick.”

He huffed a laugh. “I forgot just how infuriating it is to have a teenage younger sister.”

“Oh, shut up. You still knocked my teeth out, you dick.”

“Well, you can’t blame me for being surprised. You are able to channel so much godly power that it wouldn’t be unusual for you to have a regenerative factor. It’s more surprising that you don’t.”

“Yeah, well, not all of us can be god-spawn. Some of us are unfortunate little bastards who are mean to their dick older brothers.”

Triton chuckled. “Yes, I suppose so.”

Cordelia felt strangely shy as she looked up at him. “So… does this mean that you’ll stop being so mean to me?” She felt strangely delicate as she held her breath and waited for his response.

Triton heaved a sigh. “I will try, Half-blood, but I cannot guarantee that I will never be unkind. It is in my nature.”

Cordelia felt a small wave of relief and hope wash through her. “Yeah, well, I can’t promise that I won’t be a little shit, either. It’s in my nature, too.”

He glared at her, and she giggled at him. “And I already told you, stop with the ‘Half-blood’ shit. My name is Cordi. Cordelia’s okay too, if you insist.”

Triton grimaced in disgust. 

“Jeez, man, chill out. Why do you hate my name so much?” Cordelia glared up at him. Her mom loved her name, which in turn made it special to Cordelia, especially because it was one of the last things she had left of her.

“It may mean something different in your ‘Manhattan,’ but here in Greece your name means…” He looked like he swallowed a lemon. “It means ‘Girl of Delos’, or, more worryingly, ‘Girl for Delos’. Which implies that you will one day belong to one of the Celestial Twins.”

Immediately, Cordelia’s mind went to what Apollo had told her when he learned her full name.

“I am so fond of your name. Your name honors me.”

Cordelia’s cheeks burned a searing red, and she moaned in mortification. “What the hell?”

Triton nodded solemnly. “Exactly. So I have decided. I shall refer to you as ‘Cordi’, despite the fact that it is terribly rude and informal.” He nodded in satisfaction and looked absurdly pleased with himself.

“Yeah, sure, dude. Whatever makes you happy.”

Cordelia swam away from him and began examining the rocky surface of the arena. 

“What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for the teeth you knocked out yesterday,” Cordelia replied as she swam slowly near the surface.

“Oh, that. I already collected them yesterday. You only lost two, correct?”

Cordelia whipped her head around to stare at him. “You did? Yesterday?”

Triton looked offended. “Of course I did. I wasn’t going to leave your teeth lying around, ripe for any old blood-mage to pick up and curse you with. You do know how dangerous that is, correct?”

“Well, yeah, but… I was an asshole to you yesterday.”

Triton turned his back on her. “Even so. Regardless of our disagreement, I couldn’t expose you to that kind of risk.”

Cordelia watched as he swam away, guilt blooming in her stomach. Yeah, sure, he was still a giant dick, a Dickasauraus Rex, if you will, but he still looked out for her. So he was a nice dick? Or maybe she should promote him to ‘Asshole’ now. 

God, this sucked. One nice action did not excuse being an absolute jerk to her. Sure, she was mean to him, but he was even meaner to her! But he said that he was also protecting her? From what, some stupid, slimy politicians, maybe? But he trained her and beat the shit out of her! That is not sparring, bro, that is assault! ASSAULT! Ughhhhh, fuck, it was all so confusing!

Cordelia pondered the very important quandary as she made her way to the Palace after Triton, and was happy to see that Rhode had finally finished the stupid tooth potion.

Fortunately, the magic potion helped her missing teeth grow back in.

Unfortunately, it made all of her teeth regrow. Which meant that she was in absolute agony as an entire set of new teeth pushed out all of her current teeth. She was in a stupid amount of pain and had the overwhelming urge to gnaw on furniture like a teething baby, which was what she basically was at the moment. She needed to be sure that she caught all of them so that they couldn’t be stolen to be used as some kind of potion ingredient in an ancient Greek Ursula’s potion. Eye of newt, tooth of Cordi, bada-bing, bada-boom, you’re now a dumbo octopus.

As she suffered from the itchy pain, Cordelia finally made up her mind.

Yeah, no, Triton is still a dick. Fuck him.

Chapter Text

The morning after the last of her new set of teeth grew in, she went to see Poseidon.

As she drifted over to the throne room, she ran her tongue over her new chompers. There weren’t proper mirrors in ancient Greece, no big surprise, but they came pretty damn close with hammered-out bronze sheets that reflected light pretty well. In Atlantis, where the general ambiance was dark and any potential reflection on the wavery, watery side, it was a little hard to pick out specifics.

Cordelia could swear that her teeth were different. But no matter how closely she looked into the mirrors in the Atlantean bathrooms, she just couldn’t figure out what it was. 

It was driving her bonkers.

That, combined with the events in the past few days, had finally pushed her over the edge. She needed to get out of this god-forsaken kingdom immediately. It felt like she was about to burst out of her skin. Every nerve screamed in oversensitivity, and the little voice at the back of her brain constantly whispered that something was wrong. 

She stood elegantly in the corner, folding her arms behind her to hide the ever-present shackles (that he was forcing her to wear, he’s not my daddy, he’s not-) and waited for the current debate over the funding for the sea-silk guild. Apparently, they were in a feud with the sea-leather guild and were viciously fighting each other for imperial funding. Fascinating.

Cordelia tapped her foot in impatience but made sure to present a calm, pleasant front that gave nothing away. That unruffled demeanor was one of the first things that Amphitrite had beaten into her, and though it galled her to say it, she found the use of it. When she had once made the mistake of fidgeting in front of one of Amphitrite’s ladies-in-waiting, she had been passive-aggressively mocked so ruthlessly that her cheeks had been red for hours. There was no room in court for weakness of any kind, and the best thing that Cordelia could do to survive was to pretend to be a statue. It was absolute torture for her ADHD, but hey, what can you do?

Finally, when the room cleared out for lunch, she finally approached Poseidon.

“Good day, Your Royal Majesty.”

“Ah, daughter. Nice to see that your teeth have finally grown back in. Finally ready to graduate to solid foods, eh?”

Cordelia laughed fakely. “Haha. Please stop. You’re so funny, Father. I can’t handle it.” 

“Yes, I am so funny, aren’t I?” Poseidon preened.

Uh-huh, sure. Cordelia cleared her throat. “So, father, I’d like to make a request.”

“Yes, yes, what is it? New dresses? Colored pearls? A pet baby octopus? Whatever you want, it’s yours.”

A pet what? That might actually be a little fun… No, Cordi, don’t get distracted. “Uh, no, Father. I would like to visit the surface.”

Poseidon’s smile slid off his lips, and he turned to bestow her with the full force of his stare.

“What was that?”

Cordelia gathered herself up. Courage, she could hear her mother whispering in her ear. Put that little lion heart to good use. “I would like to visit the surface, Father. I need to check on my friends.”

The water around her grew colder. “Why would you need to see those weak mortal slave scum? Haven’t they dragged you down enough already? You’re far too soft, daughter, allowing them to take advantage of your kindness.”

Cordelia felt anger well up inside her, but she carefully didn’t let it show. She knew how to handle this. She could do this. 

Filthy mortal weakness, she repeated to herself. 

“Yes, Father. They are all very weak. But I’ve already made too much of an investment in their survival to let them get killed off by other mortals.”

Poseidon looked thoughtful. “An investment, hmmm?”

Disgust roiled within her at how she was perverting her beautiful, precious friendships, but she gathered herself and didn’t let a hint of her discomfort show. 

“Yes, Father. An investment. Especially the son of Ares.”

A hint of interest bloomed on his face. “Go on.”

Cordelia almost felt physically sick at what she was about to say. “If I can tame that beast, Father, then he will be a worthwhile weapon. He’s powerful, but still a child. Easily moldable. I need to see him to make sure he turns out the way I want. Cultivate his potential into something useful.”

It took everything in Cordelia to not scream that no, Dio wasn’t a beast, who even cared that he was the son of Ares, he was her brat, goddammit, her precious brat to pick on and tease and protect. She wanted to rail and cry about how disgusting it was that this was the only language that gods understood, but she didn’t.

Control.

“Hmmmm. Alright. You may visit them today.” Before she became too joyful, however, Poseidon smiled humorlessly. “You may visit them one day every six months. That is all I will allow. I will not have you wasting your time on lowly mortals when it is better spent here.”

Cordelia clenched her jaw but managed to smile politely. “Thank you, father.” Calm down. Calm down. Small victories. Take it and go. Arguing will solve nothing. He’ll only take it away.

“Yes, yes, I really am too gracious, aren’t I? Really, your human weakness must be rubbing off on me!” he chortled.

“Haha. You’re too funny, Father. Stop, I can’t take it.”

“Heh, I really am, aren’t I?”

Cordelia stood on the shores of Megara, the cool seawater brushing around her ankles. She stood off to the side of the beach where people milled about, hauling catches of fish and loudly advertising their wares. Rather than the dock that she had pulled into previously, this one didn’t have as many sailors. Instead, this seemed to host more merchants and tradespeople.

Cordelia felt trepidation run through her as she eyed the teeming crowd. How was she supposed to find her friends in this mess? This was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s not like she could actually go on shore and look for them. Who’s to say that they were even still in Megara in the first place? 

Was she ever going to see them again? If so, then how?

She took a deep breath to calm herself down and pull herself back from the edge of despair. Turning away from the overwhelming crowd, she looked out into the sea and lifted her face up to catch the rays of the sun. She would never tell Apollo this, but the feeling of the warm sunlight on her face was almost euphoric. Humans inherently craved warmth, and it just felt so good.

She didn’t realize just how… cold she was down in Atlantis.

But that’s just Atlantis, isn’t it, that little voice in her head whispered. A cold city in the cold depths, filled with cold, heartless people.

Cordelia shook her head. That was an unfair generalization. There were some spots of brightness. Just look at Naida, who so happily giggled over the young new guard that had caught her eye that morning. She had celebrated with her when Cordelia’s last tooth had finally come in. Naida fussed over her clothes when Cordelia told her that she was going to see her father, insisting that she look like the princess she was so that she could steal favors from the king just like she deserved.

And Gilleroth. The quiet old soldier who was stoic and gruff but always, always kind. He secretly brought her street food when she asked and left her with little trinkets that he picked up along his patrols. He, too, fussed over her health, grunting reminders about eating properly and sleeping well, insisting that she was little more than a fry and that she had much growing to do, regardless of how many times Cordelia protested that she was fully grown.

Cordelia blinked tears away from her eyes. No, not so cold.

But everything else? Every other person she had to interact with left her feeling unmoored. The people who were supposed to be her family-

“Ay, girlie.”

Cordelia turned around.

A lady stood in the sand, her crossed arms emphasizing her considerable breasts. She wore a faded brown dress that was tattered at the edges and her curly black hair was pulled up into a messy bun. Her dress was shockingly short for ancient Greece, ending just below her knees. She was quite pretty, but the signs of wear and tear showed clearly on her face. She had deep lines around her mouth, but that didn’t detract from the intense look in her black eyes. 

“Yes, you, girlie. You happen to be a ‘Cordi’?” 

Cordelia blinked at her. “Yes.”

The woman examined her for a long few moments, then nodded her head sharply. “Wait here.”

Cordelia watched as she melted into the crowd. She didn’t have to wait long before she came back with a familiar face.

“Ranga!”

“Cordi!”

The Indian boy dashed towards her, carelessly splashing through the waves before he collided with her. She crushed him into her chest, and he hugged her tightly in return. 

The seed of hope and relief finally bloomed and swept away the all-consuming fear that had threatened to overwhelm her. She bit her lip and closed her eyes tightly, fighting not to let the tears escape.

They’re here. I haven’t lost them. I’m not alone.

I still have something left.

Ranga sobbed into her belly and she could barely make out his broken sentences as he fought to burrow into her. “-missed you so much! We all did! Dio was the worst, we couldn’t even talk to him! Do you know that he spent weeks staring into the sea, just waiting for you to come back? Weeks! Bingyan had to pull him away! It was horrible! But then it got so much better after we took over the brothels-”

“Whoa, woah, slow down, bud, what are you talking about? Brothels?” Cordelia’s mind spun at the barrage of information.

Ranga sniffed and pulled away from her. “Yeah, you’ve missed a lot. Come on, lemme take you to a better spot, I think people are starting to stare.”

Sure enough, their little display had drawn quite a few curious gazes. Yeah, it was probably a good idea to move somewhere else.

Ranga led her to a secluded little cove that was almost impossible to access except for a singular, steep path down the steep rocky cliffs. Apparently, he, Dio, and Fionn had found it when they were running from some thugs after they had burned down their base.

What had these idiots gotten themselves into while she was gone?!

“Fionn?”

“Oh, yes! He’s Blanda’s son!”

That only led to more questions than were answered.

“Blanda’s son? What?”

“Yeah, it was a real coincidence! He was a slave to the previous brothel Madam, and I was the one who found him!” he proudly proclaimed.

By then, Cordelia heard some shuffling sounds and muffled curses as people began to make their way down the steep, crudely carved footholds that led down the steep cliffs into the cove. 

Cordelia beamed brightly as Faigel, Blanda, and Bingyan slowly made their way towards her, as a tall, solemn-looking red-headed teen held their hands and supported them down. Ah, that must have been the aforementioned Fionn. He looked to be a couple of years younger than her. He was tall and reedy in the way that kids were when they underwent a drastic growth spurt but didn’t have enough time to put any meat on their bones. His pale, icy blue eyes were the same shade as Blanda’s remaining one, but unlike his mother’s, his were sharp and held no warmth as he examined her. After he helped the last of the ladies down, he stuck himself to Ranga’s side and pointedly ignored her.

None of her friends cared about how wet they were getting as they bundled her into tight hugs and showered her with loud smooches. Faigel ran her hands over her face, and Blanda stroked a hand through her hair, and Bingyan clutched her fingers till they lost all feeling, and none of them let go of her for a second. They grasped her in their warm arms and swayed with her and pressed gentle, gentle kisses to her forehead.

This. This is what true love felt like. Cordelia would never fully fill the hole in her heart that Sally’s absence left behind, but the sheer love she felt from these women… it came pretty damn close.

But. Someone was missing. Someone important.

“Where’s Dio?”

The ladies carefully looked at each other, and Blanda sighed. “We didn’t know you were visiting today, Cordi. He’s off on an errand in the next town over. We sent a runner, but he might not be back till tomorrow.”

It felt like her ears were ringing. “Tomorrow?” she breathed faintly.

“Yes! You meet him tomorrow! Not long at all!” Faigel smiled encouragingly. 

Cordelia heavily swallowed the ball in her throat. “... I can’t stay till tomorrow. I only have today,” she croaked out.

They looked at her in pity and distress. Ranga sniffled. “But-!”

Cordelia forced herself to smile, even though it felt like a part of her was rotting from the inside out. It was okay. She still loved that she was able to meet the rest of her friends. She loved them, too! There’d be no point in bringing down the mood. She would enjoy what time she had away from Atlantis! She ignored the feeling of her heart crumbling in her chest and decided to enjoy what she could have.

“So, what’s this I hear about a brothel?”

As Ranga had said, they had acquired a brothel. But obviously, as with anything involving this menace of a group, it wasn’t nearly as simple. No, no, simply walking up to the owner and paying them for the rights to the business would be too pedestrian for these freaks.

After Cordelia had left for Atlantis, Bingyan had sold the three ships that Cordelia had left with her to obtain a sizable sum of money. 

By a stroke of bad luck, some thugs had witnessed the exchange and had thought it would be a fine idea to try to help themselves to some of her shiny new gold.

Bingyan politely tried to refuse.

They didn’t listen.

Things got a bit heated.

Dio showed his emphatic displeasure by disemboweling them in the middle of the street. 

Turns out that one of the idiots happened to be the kid brother of a prolific crime lord who desperately wanted vengeance.

Of course, they also had to go on the run from the royal enforcers who couldn’t look past such a public, egregious act of violence. 

Due to how distinctive the group was with their obvious foreign features, they were forced to split up to hide. 

Faigel disappeared into the streets and made a name for herself as a competent midwife and healer. She helped all who came in her path, poor prostitutes and beggars, and accepted anything they could pay her. One day, after hearing the whispers amongst the lower class about the miraculous midwife who helped anybody, a minor noble tracked her down and begged her to help out his wife, who was going through a breech birth. She had been in labor for almost a full day, and she was barely hanging on. Thankfully, Faigel was able to save the young lady and her beautiful new baby girl, and the noble was profusely grateful. He rewarded her handsomely and chased off the guards who were closing in on her. With his endorsement and offer of patronage so that she could practice without worrying about the costs, a lot of new doors opened up for her, especially with the merchant and upper class.

Dio and Bingyan went on the run together and methodically began to pick off the members of the gang. With Bingyan’s comprehensive education in strategy and Dio’s prodigious skill and sheer bloodthirst, they carved a bloody swath through the city.

Wow. In the few months that she’d been gone, Dio had apparently turned into the Red Hood. That was… alarming to hear. 

Or would it be more appropriate to compare him to Damian Wayne instead, based on the fact that he was an unhinged, murderous 13-year-old? Yeah, no way he was cool enough to be compared to Jason Todd, fuck you, Dio. 

Ares, that talking, walking war-crime, must have been simply delighted. Cordelia cringed just thinking about it.

Blanda boldly marched into the most popular inn and demanded that the owner give her a job. The proprietress, a stout, no-nonsense woman late into her 60s, bluntly asked her about her ghastly facial scarring, and Blanda made up a sob story about having an abusive husband who recently died in battle. She said that she had been thrown to the streets, and she wanted to make something of herself rather than resort to begging. The pragmatic innkeeper approved of the initiative and offered her a job as a cook. Apparently, Blanda was an absolute beast of a chef, and within a few short weeks, they were drawing an absurd number of new customers. Her position at the inn allowed her to eavesdrop on all the gossip and rumors that were spreading through the city.

Ranga, scared and alone and on the run, caught the attention of an idle prostitute who was working the streets.

She took him back to the brothel where she stayed, and the rest of the ladies cooed over his teary brown eyes and pretty brown skin. They made sure to hide him whenever the brothel’s Madam was around, knowing that nothing good would result from their meeting.

That was where he met Fionn. Ranga immediately noticed his resemblance to Blanda, and, after gathering all his courage, he managed to corner the red-headed teen when he was washing the Madam’s clothes and asked him about it. Of course, he was met with immediate suspicion and distrust, but nobody was immune to Ranga’s charm for long. He tried to talk to Fionn, but the older boy was mute.

Ranga explained how a few years ago, as a punishment for attacking his then-master, Fionn’s tongue had been cut out. Cordelia’s shocked eyes darted to the teen, only to find him scowling murderously at her. Well, okay then.

Over the weeks that they spent together, they formed a special bond until Ranga could understand what Fionn wanted to say. 

Faigel was able to meet Ranga when a venereal disease outbreak ran through the city, and the Madam hired her to examine all the prostitutes. When Faigel entered a closet to grab a rag to wipe up a mess, she found a curled-up Ranga looking up at her with terrified eyes. 

They weren’t able to say anything to each other, as the Madam was in the same room as them, breathing down the midwife’s neck. However, Faigel was able to get a good look at Fionn, and like Ranga, she immediately put two and two together, easily deducing that the boy that was a dead-ringer to Blanda was one of her long-lost children.

Though she and Ranga weren’t able to speak, it was still very good information that Faigel was happy to pass on to the others. Blanda was overcome with joy at news of one of her long-lost children and almost blew her cover by marching over the brothels, and it was only a very stern talk with Bingyan that prevented her from going through with it.

For a couple of tense weeks, the entire situation was at a stalemate, the last of the gang warily facing off against Bingyan and Dio’s devastating attacks. The entire city seemed to hold its breath to see who would break the strained peace and incite the final conflict.

Unfortunately, one day, the boys made a mistake. While Ranga and Fionn were off gathering water from the nearby well, they didn’t hear the Madam’s calls and her footsteps growing closer and closer until she stumbled upon the two of them.

That was when she got her first glimpse of Ranga.

Long story short, she really liked what she saw. She immediately had him seized and locked up like a bird in a cage.

The Madam very publicly announced that she was going to auction Ranga’s virginity off to the highest bidder. She sent invitations to all the bigwigs who lived in Megara, nobles, high-ranking army officials, actors, courtiers, merchants, and criminal royalty, she invited them all.

Cordelia’s eyes widened in horror. “What the fuck? The gross bitch did what?”

Obviously, this sent the rest of the group into a panic. They all worked hard to save him.

Blanda collected information and desperately relayed it to the others. The streets were abuzz with gossip and speculation about the gorgeous young Hindustani boy who bewitched any who looked upon him. People whispered behind their hands that he was obviously a child of Aphrodite and that this whole auction was going to invite the fickle goddess’s wrath.

Cordelia turned a wary eye towards Ranga and examined his sheer cherubic adorableness. All signs indicated that he could grow up to be an alarmingly beautiful man, which was very bad news if people were already making comparisons to the gods when he was barely a teenager. That was how people went on stupid quests to the underworld or were stuck marrying a man whose face you could never see. Cordelia examined him worriedly. Ranga seemed like the type who could pull off stupid-ass clothes like those goddamn runway models. Shit, she was in trouble, wasn’t she? She should probably give him a yee-yee ass haircut, that might be the only line of defense he had to being turned into a fucking shrub or something.

Faigel used her new upper-class contacts to gain an invitation to the event for herself. She tried to use her status as a healer to perform a check-up on him, but she was denied access to the Madam’s shiny new jewel, just like everybody else. The Madam allowed nobody to even get a glimpse of him, save for herself. 

In a final act of desperation to free Ranga, Fionn attacked the Madam and took down six of her guards before he was overpowered and beaten almost to death. The remaining few hired guards she had dragged his broken body and thrown him off the pier. 

Dio, on the way back from hunting down more criminals, was walking back to the safe house where he and Bingyan were staying. In the dead of night, when the streets were abandoned and not a soul was around, he heard a faint splash, and his instincts told him to look into the water. There he found Fionn, barely clinging to life. 

Having heard of the Blanda’s long-lost, red-headed son that Faigel had informed them of, Dio quickly put the pieces together, fished him out of the water, and rushed him over to Faigel, who spent days tirelessly working to bring him back from the brink of death.

The reunion between Blanda and Fionn was very touching, Faigel tearfully recounted. They hadn’t seen each other for almost seven years, and Blanda was heartbroken to see how he had been beaten and maimed, but loudly proclaimed that she was very, very proud of him. Sadly, they both determined that they still didn’t know the state of Blanda’s other two children.

Fionn’s violent attack deeply unsettled the Madam, and she went running to the same gang leader that Bingyan was after.

Huh. Small world, Cordelia mused.

Apparently, they were childhood sweethearts who hadn’t been able to get married due to both of their families’ disapproval. Supposedly, the two families worshiped different gods? Either way, while their paths in life diverged, they never truly separated and were allegedly still lovers. The gang leader reassured the inconsolable Madam that he would save her, giving no hint of the fact that his numbers had been steadily whittled away by Dio’s sharp blade over the past few months.

He declared that he would use his men to protect her and that her precious event would go without a hitch. No threat would ever hurt her with him around. Soon, with the astronomical price for the pretty little Hindusthan boy’s virginity, she would be one of the richest people in Megara. With that sort of money, they could do anything. They could buy a ship and run away together and start a new life together in Ithaca.

“Wait. How do you know they said that?” Cordelia asked, skeptical.

“Guards hear everything,” Blanda gravely informed her. “They are notorious gossips. Get a pint or two into them and they sing like songbirds. Where do you think I got most of my information from?”

“No way.”

“Shhhh!” Ranga chided. “We’re getting to the best part!”

All the chips were on the table. If there was a single word that could describe Bingyan, it was opportunistic. She could use this information to their advantage.

And use it she did.

The day of the auction finally arrived. 

Blanda stayed with Fionn as he was still bedridden from his injuries, though he had healed up rather well in the short timeframe. Both of them were rather put out that they wouldn’t be able to go and rescue Ranga, but they begrudgingly agreed that it was for the best for them to stay behind.

All of the guests arrived at the brothel in all their best and shiniest clothes. The building was cleaned until it practically glimmered in the sun. The Madam was resplendent in bright silks and gold, giddy and triumphant. She greeted all the guests and ushered them in, offering food and drinks while they waited for the auction to get underway.

Faigel went in and mingled with the famous, wealthy, and noble. She kept a careful eye peeled for any surprises as she smiled and socialized with the crème de la crème. In the few months she had been rubbing shoulders with the elite, she had managed to endear herself to them. She was the perfect combination: a kind-looking older woman who was very competent but also strangely cute in the child-like way she spoke, due to her broken Greek. Very mom-shaped. 

Many merchants and nobles were eager to make her acquaintance, especially because she had repeatedly demonstrated her expertise several times over. Without modern technology, giving birth was a massive, massive risk to both the mother and baby, and a good midwife was worth her weight in gold.

In the meantime, Dio picked off the guards surrounding the brothel one by one. He slit their throats and pulled the bodies into alleyways to hide them before moving on to the next one till he took care of them all.

Bingyan waited in the shadows for him to finish up, and when the coast was clear, she led the way into the building through the servant quarters. 

They stealthily made their way through the halls to the room that Ranga was held at. 

Standing guard before the door was a very bored-looking gang leader, the Madam trusting nobody else to watch over her precious prize. Or rather, he looked bored until they showed up. After that, he was positively frothing with curses and violence.

Bingyan taunted him and gloated that everything had gone perfectly according to her master plan and that all along, he had been dancing along to her whims like a puppet. That she had anticipated each and every desperate action he took, that was how she had so easily outmaneuvered him at every turn.

“What, really?” Cordelia asked, wide-eyed.

Bingyan scoffed. “Of course not. That was all a load of horseshit. But he didn’t need to know that, did he?”

They traded insults back and forth, and he grew increasingly unstable the more Bingyan demolished him with her sharp wit. Finally, his face a blotchy red and his eyes wild, he called her a slit-eyed cunt that was the perfect height for sucking his cock.

That was apparently the last straw. Dio’s eyes glowed red, and he chopped his head off. 

“It was rather anticlimactic,” Bingyan complained. “We’d been hunting him for over three months, killing his best men one by one and herding him into a corner, and that’s how he died? Pathetic.”

They quickly unlocked Ranga’s room and held him as he sobbed and wailed into their chests. They reassured him that everyone, including Fionn, was alright and waiting for him. They comforted him as he cried even harder at the good news, the weight finally falling from his shoulders.

Dio dragged the gang leader’s body into the room, and the trio hurriedly cleaned the hallway up, making sure that there were no signs that anything was out of the ordinary.

They patiently waited, and finally, the time came for the auction to begin. 

A huge cheer sounded out from below them, the guests eager to meet the little boy who was rumored to be so beautiful that he could give Aphrodite a run for her money.

It was showtime.

The Madam waltzed into the room and barely had time to gape at the unexpected intruders before Dio sliced her head off as well.

The guards that had trailed in behind her simply froze in shock, which allowed Dio to easily dispatch them as well.

It was a bloody mess, and during the commotion, the three of them were splattered in viscera.

It was just what Bingyan had wanted.

She instructed the boys to follow after her as she grabbed the decapitated heads of the Madam and the gang leader and led them down into the crowd.

“Uh, well, actually, you gave the heads to Dio. You said that they were too heavy to carry,” Ranga corrected.

Bingyan sniffed and flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Semantics.”

It caused quite the uproar, walking into the main room with the heads of their host and a notorious, dangerous criminal clutched in the hands of a maniacally grinning boy. It was pure chaos, people drawing their swords and shouting in confusion and fear, but Bingyan didn’t pay attention to any of it. 

She simply kept her head held up high and walked straight to the Madam’s chair and reclined herself on it like a queen.

“There’s been a change in ownership of this fine establishment. I do apologize for the confusion. Please, do not feel obligated to stop the festivities on my behalf. Eat, drink, be merry. However,” Her voice sharpened to the tip of a razor, ready to cut. “There will be no auction today, nor will there be any in the future. Rest assured, there are plenty of other services we offer.”

She gestured to the assembled prostitutes, who, after receiving an encouraging nod from Ranga, began to mingle and disperse through the dumbfounded crowd.

It was clear that no one had known quite how to act. Many people wanted to protest, but the overwhelming killing intent emanating from a blood-drenched Dio quickly cured them of the urge.

And so, that was how her friends both acquired a brothel and managed to cement themselves as big fish in Megara’s underworld in one fell swoop.

Cordelia simply stared at them, dumbfounded. “Oh, wow. What the actual fuck?”

“Indeed,” Faigel intoned, a mischievous spark in her eyes.

“So that lady who found me… was she-?”

“Ah, yes, Gillonie. Sharp woman. Once we took over, we set a rotation that would watch over the shores in case you showed up. The girls are all happy to volunteer, especially because it means that they can earn a few extra coins for keeping an eye out as they enjoy their days off on the beach,” said Blanda.

And here Cordelia was panicking about how she would ever find them again when they already had it all figured out. When would she ever stop underestimating them? 

“Well, enough of us. How goes your time?” Faigel affectionately nudged her.

All the amusement drained from her, and she fought not to let it show. Cordelia’s stomach dropped. And here we go. 

They chatted deep into the afternoon, with them grilling her about how Atlantis was. Cordelia couldn’t bring herself to tell her how it really was down there. She just described the beauty and how different all the Mer- and Fish-people looked and how fancy the food was at the Royal Palace. 

She talked about how gorgeous and regal her father, stepmother, and half-siblings were and all the fancy clothes and jewels they wore. They oohed and aahed about the paradise under the sea, and Cordelia refused to enlighten them.

What’s the point? What can they even do? If I do tell them, what will it accomplish other than driving them insane with worry?

So Cordelia spent the hours of the afternoon lying by omission while she soaked up the motherly affection from the trio of women. It was a balm on her soul, and though she felt her worries prodding at the back of her mind, she refused to let them ruin the scant few moments she had with them.

Eventually, as the sun began to set, they were forced to make their way back before the darkness made the treacherous path back up the cliffs too dangerous to traverse. 

The ladies and Ranga gave her tight hugs and extracted promises for her to keep herself safe and healthy and to visit soon. She happily hugged them back and swore to do so. Ranga and Fionn helped the three older ladies back up the stairs, holding their hands and instructing them on where they could safely place their feet on the slick rock. Cordelia intently watched them as they slowly climbed out of sight.

Cordelia sighed and turned back to the sea in dread. 

Well, I guess it’s time to head back to wonderful, beautiful, flawless Atlantis, she bitterly thought. 

Before she could make her way deeper into the water, she heard the familiar scuffle of feet dislodging rubble as they came down the slick pathway into the cove.

“Did you guys need something else?”

“Hah! Need something? Who would need anything from a useless water buffalo like you?”

Cordelia’s heart stopped. She slowly, slowly turned around and was met with the sight of a very sweaty and disheveled Dio. His clothes were stained with dirt and sweat and his blonde curls looked like they had been swept through a tornado.

Cordelia opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Dio grinned cockily at her. “Got nothing to say?” His expression went from smug to alarmed in a split second. “Cordi-”

Cordelia felt something cold on her cheeks. Absently, she brushed it off, and her hand came back wet. 

Tears.

She turned back to Dio, who was warily approaching her. “Cordi? Are you okay?”

She opened her mouth to reply that, of course, she was okay, what a dumb question, why wouldn’t she be-

And a sob ripped out of her chest.

“No,” she whispered.

Dio slid into her arms.

And the dam finally broke.

Deep, heaving sobs were wrenched from her chest, and she couldn’t see from how blurry her eyes were, but she buried her face in his ridiculous curls and inhaled. Sweat, lye soap, lily oil, and the rusty scent of blood that was just Dio.

Her knees buckled, and she leaned heavily into Dio, who easily supported her weight and carefully lowered them down to the shallow water and crawled into her lap until they were wrapped around each other so tightly that you could barely tell where one ended and the other began.

She wept all of her loneliness and frustration and loss into his hair, and by the dampness of her chest and Dio’s shuddering breaths, he was doing the same.

They simply held each other as the sun went down and the moon rose over the tides, turning everything touched by its light a cool, muted silver.

Even after the tears finally dried up, the two sat in silence, just hugging each other while listening to the sounds of the waves lapping at the shore. 

“I thought you wouldn’t be able to come,” Cordelia whispered. “They told me you were out of town on an errand and wouldn’t be back till tomorrow.”

“I stole a horse,” he said.

Cordelia laughed softly. “You what?”

“When the messenger found me, I stole the nearest horse and rode for hours till I returned to the brothel. Gillonie told me that you were meeting here, and I ran so that I wouldn’t miss you.” He hugged her tighter. “I’m so glad that I was fast enough,” he whispered.

Cordelia’s eyes filled with tears again. “I’m so glad you were, too.” She pressed a soft kiss into his hair.

“I missed you so much. During the war with Iesis’ gang, I thought about you so much. About how it would have been easier if you had been there. How you would have stopped innocent people from being killed by them. How you wouldn’t have gotten hurt while fighting them.”

“Oh, Dio.” She was sobbing again.

“I killed so many people, Cordi. And I don’t regret it, because if I didn’t, they would have hunted down and killed the others.”

“Dio, you brat, did you think I would judge you? There is nothing that you could do that would make me stop loving you.”

Dio’s face crumpled, and tears began to drip from his beautiful brown eyes. “R-Really? You swear?”

“I swear.”

And the worst thing was, Cordelia knew that to be true. Dio could commit horrific, monstrous crimes, he could become the most hated person in history, with generations of people spitting upon his name, but Cordelia wouldn’t care a bit.

He was her person. Hers. There was no force on heaven or earth that could change that. 

People always scoffed when they learned that her fatal flaw was Loyalty. “Must be nice,” they jeered, “to be so moral and righteous that your fatal flaw is loyalty. Your heart must be so kind and pure.”

But people didn’t really understand what that meant.

Cordelia would burn down the world for her people. If she came up here to see that Dio had been injured or killed by the gang leader or the brothel Madam, she was honest enough with herself to admit that she would have no qualms about wiping Megara off the map. Tens of thousands of lives, wiped out in an instant. All it would take is one wave. Just one, single wave, and she would send Megara into the annals of history. 

If this city didn’t take care of Dio, then why should she take care of it?

She knew that this was an awful way to think, but Cordelia just didn’t care anymore. She was just so tired. She had lost everything. If this one, final person was taken away from her, she wasn’t sure she could ever recover. 

“What happened down there?” Dio asked.

Cordelia’s throat closed up. “I…”

“No,” Dio snapped. “Don’t lie. Tell me the truth. You’re the strongest person I know. What happened down there that hurt you enough for you to come up here and cry?”

Cordelia bit her lip. She knew that she shouldn’t be unloading this on Dio, a literal thirteen-year-old child, but she was just so tired.

The entire story exploded out of her, how cold and cruel the royal family was, how unwelcome she felt by the commoners and the palace servants, how Amphitrite’s ladies-in-waiting mocked her viciously, how excruciatingly painful the training and conditioning was and how she couldn’t show any weakness for fear of weakening her already precarious position at court, how she was forced to starve for weeks, how Triton beat her down over and over and how she couldn’t give in to him, because that would mean that all of her struggle and suffering was for nothing, how Poseidon was cruel, cruel, cruel, seeing her as nothing more than a shiny new trinket that he dangled in front of the court, how she was so confused and conflicted on her feelings on Triton and Amphitrite and how it was killing her to not know if she could trust them or not, but oh, how she wanted to trust them, she wanted to trust them so desperately, she just wanted a family again, but she was just so lonely and tired…

Through it all, Dio just held her and ran his fingers through her hair as she gasped and sobbed out all her pain and confusion, and anger. He said nothing, but his face was fixed in a firm scowl that highlighted the slit of his livid red eyes.

When she was finally done, she felt clean and light, as she had lanced a festering abscess nestled into her heart, finally relieving the painful, unbearable pressure by letting all of the pus and scum out.

“All done?” Dio asked, his voice carefully level.

“Yeah,” Cordelia breathed, inhaling the crisp, salty air greedily, allowing the chill of it to calm her down.

“Feel better now?”

Cordelia nodded against his curls.

“Good.” His voice turned hard. “I’m going to kill them.”

Cordelia pulled back. “What?”

“I don’t care that they’re immortal. I’ll find a way. I will kill them for what they’ve done to you.”

“Dio, wait, hold on-”

“I realize that gods aren’t like us. They don't see us as anything more than insects. But what they’ve done is unforgivable.” Dio was trembling in rage.

“What they’ve done?” 

Dio looked her directly in the eye. “They’ve made you doubt yourself.”

Cordelia’s heart fell into her stomach.

“What?”

“They’ve consistently treated you like shit, bending and scraping to their whims, and then they’re trying to convince you that everything is your fault? Not strong enough, not fast enough, not smart enough, not Atlantean enough, not graceful enough, not refined enough, just… to them, nothing is enough. And they’ve managed to convince you that you aren’t enough.”

A spear of pain shot through her chest.

“And your brother. He’s the worst.” His eyes narrowed to slits.

“It’s all well and good that he’s trying to protect you from your psychopath dad and his sycophants, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t hurt you first. He deserved all the things you told him!”

“But I was wrong about him,” Cordelia whispered. “I made assumptions that were wrong, and I hurt him-”

“Bullshit!” Dio snapped. “Sure, you might have hurt his feelings, but did you hurt him more than he hurt you? Forcing you to train beyond your limits? Beating you till your teeth fell out? Huh?!”

Cordelia struggled to swallow. “But I-”

“Stop apologizing for him! Just because he was right doesn’t mean that you’re wrong!” Dio snarled.

Cordelia felt like she was hit by a bolt of lightning. Every one of her nerve endings felt like they were on fire.

Just because he was right doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.

It was like everything clicked into place. 

Just because he was right doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.

“They’re trying to break your spirit so that you’d be nothing more than a pretty Atlantean lady under your stupid dad’s power, and I won’t have it! I’ll go down there and show them who you really are all by myself!” He was practically frothing at the mouth.

Just because he was right doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.

Cordelia cut off his rant by squishing him back into her chest. “Thank you,” she breathed. “Thank you.”

Dio grumbled at her. “What for, water buffalo? For being a decent fucking human being? For showing you how dumb you were being? For being an absolute badass who rules the entire city? Yeah, I accept your thanks for all of them.”

This fucking brat. “Technically, that’s Bingyan.”

“Hmph. Semantics.” He pouted.

“Wow, she’s really rubbed off on you, huh? You even sound like her,” Cordelia teased.

“Shut up!”

The two bickered late into the night, relishing in each other’s company. Cordelia was fascinated to hear about the takeover from Dio’s perspective, and his version of events was unsurprisingly a lot bloodier than the version the others described.

Cordelia suspected that it was because Dio didn’t share a lot of his gory kills with the others in the first place. To be honest, she understood why. She loved all of them with a fierce passion, but she and Dio were just different.

They were both demigods who constantly fought against the pull of the bloodlust that sang to them like a siren. Their brain chemistry simply allowed them to kill without guilt or reservation. They were bred to be war machines, which is especially true for them in particular because of their parentage. 

Cordelia knew why she loved Dio because he was the light in one of the darkest times of her life, but she suspected that Dio loved her in return because she simply understood him. 

She didn’t recoil in disgust, judge him, or try to change him. She simply listened and understood. She understood his thought process and trusted in his judgment. When he said that someone deserved to die, then they deserved to die. End of story.

“Bingyan becoming the new Madam was made a lot easier by the rest of us. Well, maybe not me, but the others. Blanda’s still super popular for her food and she actually opened up a diner in the Brothel, and damn, lemme tell you, that has attracted a lot of new customers. Faigel really helped out too, because of her, the girls are all now super healthy cuz she looks after them so well. But really, we were only accepted so easily because of Ranga and jizz-face vouching for us.”

What the- Cordelia laughed. “I’m assuming you mean Fionn?”

Dio’s lips pulled back in disgust. “That piece of shit. Won’t let any of us come near Ranga, he’s like a human guard dog. Feral as one, too.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Yeah. Hate him and his stupid red hair. Fuckin’ asshole. But yeah, anyway, one of the girls is going to give birth and Faigel is shitting herself because she’s having twins, and after what happened to her daughter, she’s not taking any chances.”

“Wait a sec, what do you mean, ‘her daughter’?”

“You didn’t know? Her daughter had twins, too. She was only able to give birth to one but died before the other one came out. Faigel’s super traumatized because she couldn’t save her. Really fucked her up.” Dio’s eyes softened.

“Oh my god. That’s horrible,” Cordelia gasped. “Didn’t her piece of shit son-in-law sell her into slavery after that, too?”

Dio scowled fiercely. “Yeah, after the baby died. Said that she was useless and sold her. If I ever get my hands on him…” His eyes glinted murderously.

Cordelia agreed with the sentiment. “Make sure you help her out, brat.”

Dio scoffed at her. “Of course I will, you stupid water buffalo. You make sure that you show those fucking idiots below the surface who you really are.”

Just because he was right doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.

Cordelia smiled. “I will.”

They clung to each other until it was finally time for Cordelia to make her way back.

“Six months?” Dio asked.

“Six months,” Cordelia confirmed.

She watched him head up the rocky path with a smile.

This wasn’t a goodbye.

No, this was a promise.

Cordelia turned back to the sea and made her way into the depths.

She had some work to do.

Chapter Text

As Cordelia drifted deeper into the depths towards Atlantis, she reminisced about her time with Beckendorf.

Annabeth, Grover, and Rachel were her best friends at Camp Half-Blood, but she was very close with many other campers. Nico, Tyson, Thalia, the Stoll brothers, Katie Gardner, Lee Fletcher, Silena Beauregard, Will Solace, and though it galled her to admit it, she didn’t quite hate Clarisse as much towards the end.

But Beck. 

She had loved him.

When she was scared and alone, he was always kind and gentle. She had initially been a little wary of his looming size and gruff demeanor when she first entered Camp Half-Blood, fresh off her experiences with Smelly Gabe, and she watched the veritable giant with a suspicious eye.

Beck had recognized it and had immediately demonstrated how gentle he was. He gifted her an ornate statue he had forged of a beautiful seahorse to decorate her empty, lonely cabin and had smiled softly in response to her distrustful gratitude. When they played Capture the Flag, he listened to her opinions and didn’t force her into the attacking force if she didn’t feel like it. During the campfire, he gave her his marshmallow when he noticed her staring at it for too long. When it was her turn to clean up the sparring ring, he would hang back and help her, saying that it was unfair for her to do all the work of an entire cabin alone.

Beck was the older brother she never had.

He had the kindest, gentlest soul. Even when bitchy Drew Tanaka had scoffed at him and called him a hideous troll, he still smiled at her and complimented her on her hair and had wished her a wonderful day.

Cordelia had put turtle piss in her conditioner for that. Drew complained for two weeks straight that something was wrong with her curls, but she couldn’t figure it out, and it drove her insane. Fuckin’ bitch deserved it.

After the Battle of Olympus, when things finally calmed down, there were mean laughs and mocking insults about how beautiful, model-like Silena had seriously downgraded. I mean, from hottie-but-crazy Luke Castellan to nice-but-unfortunate-looking Charles Beckendorf? God knew what was going on in that traitorous bitch’s mind.

It made Cordelia angry. Silena and Beck were two of the kindest, purest souls she had ever known, and for both of them and their beautiful relationship to be simplified to just their looks? 

No. No. It was unacceptable.

But alas, Cordelia couldn’t force people to change their minds. Even if she flooded them with toilet water or beat the crap out of them, she couldn’t change their opinions. The other people close to the couple felt her pain, too. Jake Mason tried to defend Beck and Silena’s relationship, but people scoffed at him and mocked him that he was only doing so because Beck was his brother, and that Jake was ugly, too; it would be a cold day in Tartarus before he snagged an Aphrodite chick as well. Tiny little Lacy fiercely defended her beloved big sister Silena, but over time, her protests got quieter and quieter as bruises appeared under her sleeves, and Drew Tanaka looked on smugly as Head Counselor of Cabin 10. If anyone said a single thing about Silena in Clarisse’s presence, she would absolutely pulverize them, just as Cordelia would for Beck.

Outside of battle, it was the first time Clarisse and Cordelia looked at each other in complete understanding, on the absolute same wavelength. 

When things got too overwhelming for her, when she felt the anxiety and panic rise up like a Tsunami, threatening to drown her, Cordelia would withdraw from everyone. She loved her friends and family, but sometimes, it was all too much.

Cordelia knew herself. Sally raised her well, but she was still a mess of a person with too many razor blades hidden underneath her skin, ready to slice the next careless person who came too close. 

During those times, when she didn’t have the energy to prevent her sharp edges from hurting others, the best thing to do would be to retreat into a corner until she could get herself under control.

Isolating herself away from everyone was the smartest thing to do, but that didn’t stop her from getting lonely.

Beck had seen that. During the moments when it was all too much, he would lead her into Cabin 9 and take her down into the bunker, where he and his siblings had constructed a fortified room that allowed internet access but prevented the signal from attracting any nearby monsters. Each member had built their own PC from scratch and was fiercely protective of it, the bunch of nerds. The room contained a mini-fridge, a Keurig, popcorn, and cotton candy machine (yes, it was all in one; Cordelia didn’t know how that was even possible), a projector in front of a cushion-filled pit, and a complex gaming system that they all proudly babbled about when Cordelia asked.

The room was quite the feat, and it required more blessings from Hephaestus than they wanted to admit to get it completely right and safe from detection by monsters, Nyssa had confided. It was a closely kept secret and Beck had made her promise to not even tell Grover or Annabeth, which was moot in the end because the nosy buggers in Cabin 6 had already figured it out for themselves. The Athena spawn eggheads had held weekly meetings on how to blackmail Cabin 9 to be allowed to use the room for their own nefarious purposes before the truth had leaked out.

Beck had simply rolled his eyes at the uproar and swore them to secrecy as well for (strictly supervised! The blacksmithlings were unbelievably protective over their custom PC’s) use of the room for two hours on the weekends. 

Of course, Cordelia was happy to smugly rub it into Annabeth’s face that she was allowed to go whenever she wanted with Beck. Annabeth had put wet seaweed into her pillow for that.

Cordelia silently curled up next to Beck and watched him play games during the times when she was barely hanging on by a thread. Somehow, Beck always knew if she was in the mood for him to talk to her or if she simply wanted his calm, steady company.

He played Call of Duty, Warhammer, Minecraft, or any number of the latest video games that had been recently released.

But her favorite was when he played League of Legends.

Yes, yes, it was toxic as fuck, Cordelia was aware, thank you very much. That’s what made it so fun, duh.

There was a reason that it was so popular.

It was always so colorful and full of activity and excitement, pure crack for their ADHD. League had such a wonderfully rich world and lore that Beck would tell her about in his deep, soothing voice as he played. He talked about the beautiful nations and the absolutely colorful cast of characters who were all so intertwined and yet separate. 

It was funny, in a way, that even though League was such a mess of a game, playing it with Beck was almost peaceful. Beck’s utter zen was unable to be pierced by even the sheer toxic waste that the game exuded, and with him as a buffer, it was inevitable that Cordelia eventually fell in love with the game and the world.

He talked about the frozen wastelands of the Freljord and how the people struggled to survive. He illustrated the magical wilds of Ionia and all the exotic races it housed. He mentioned the fearsome nation of Noxus, where might was power, and how they sought to expand their empire. He detailed the white kingdom of Demacia and how noble and righteous they were, but how they hid a deep, dark secret under the glimmering surface. He described the arid deserts of Shurima, the ancient, celestial nation of Targon, the phantoms haunting the Shadow Isles, the lush jungles of Ixtal, the adorable Yordles in Bandle City, the eldritch creatures residing in the Void, the war between the technological twin cities of Piltover and Zaun, and, her favorite, the pirate cesspool that was Bilgewater.

Cordelia was always a sucker for pirates. Sue her. It was her right as a daughter of Poseidon, and she refused to take any teasing about it.

She adored watching Beck play the matches, and though she didn’t know much, she could tell that he was really good, ranked Challenger, whatever that meant. When she asked him about it, he just shrugged and told her that with his dextrous, nimble craftsman fingers and demigod reaction time, it wasn’t all that hard. 

When Cordelia started playing for herself, she experienced just how difficult it really was. Under his tutelage, she learned the mechanics, but she wasn’t anywhere near as good as he was. She didn’t really enjoy it like he did. Video games weren’t quite her thing, and she liked exploring the lore more than actually playing.

After Beck died, Cordelia played League to remind herself of him. She still majorly sucked, barely able to climb past Bronze rank, but she loved telling her Mom and Paul the same stories that Beck had once shared with her. Tears would fill her eyes as she told them the lore of rarer champions who were selected to play alongside or against her, remembering how Beck used to murmur the same stories to her years ago.

Cordelia had her favorite champions, for sure. After all, it was practically a requirement for any League player. 

Beck’s had been Ahri and Ornn. Ornn, Cordelia could easily understand. He was a huge, beastly-looking blacksmith who was quiet and gentle, but would fiercely rise up against a threat when warranted. Ornn was literally Beck, it was almost too on the nose.

But Ahri?

When Cordelia had found that out, she had mercilessly teased Beck about it for a week. I mean, come on, the sexy nine-tailed fox? Basic, much?

It was only later that Cordelia had realized that he had loved Ahri because just as Ornn was Beck, she was a perfect parallel to Silena. She remembered all the soft, gentle smiles he would wear as he selected Ahri from his list of champions, his eyes full of love. It broke her heart, and she couldn’t look at Ornn or Ahri for months without tearing up.

Cordelia had several favorite champions. She guiltily had to admit that she really, really liked Yasuo, because he was a really cool swordsman who was also a Samurai. Just. To a swordsmanship nerd like her, he was catnip. Of course, just as Cordelia had teased Beck about Ahri, he teased her about Yasuo about how disgustingly basic she was for having him as her favorite, but Cordelia refused to be ashamed. Yasuo was the best, alright? Cool wind Samurai go nyoom.

She adored Riven because she was an epic swordswoman who swung around a big-ass sword and hated authority, but unfortunately Cordelia couldn’t play her for shit because she was still an absolutely ass player.

Sejuani was an ice queen, Sett was funny and hot and a fellow mama’s boy, and she loved Tahm Kench, the demon toad with a voice as smooth as silk. To be honest, though, she pretty much adored every single Bilgewater champion, with their dingy, dirty pirate and scumbag aesthetic. It scratched a deep, deep itch in her brain and made her smile like a gremlin. Thanks, Poseidon, for giving me a pirate kink, really appreciate it.

As Cordelia approached the gates of Atlantis, she looked down at her chains and thought of her final favorite champion.

Sylas.

Cordelia had previously never been able to properly verbalize why she connected so deeply with Sylas. Sure, he was hot, and the fact that he went around without a shirt didn’t hurt, no sir.

But it went deeper than that. 

Sylas had been born in Demacia, one of the greatest nations in Runeterra. However, instead of being born into the rich nobility, Sylas had been born into the slums.

Demacia was a wonderful nation, prosperous and righteous, however, they had one single thing that they didn’t tolerate.

Magic.

Magic was illegal and reviled within Demacia. Mages were hunted down and imprisoned. 

To be a mage in Demacia meant death.

Unfortunately, Sylas had been born with a special magic. He could see magic in others and around him, and when he touched another mage, he was able to absorb their magic and use it for himself.

His parents, loyal Demacian citizens, turned him over to the Mageseekers, who forced Sylas to detect other mages with his gifts. From when he was a child, Sylas was forced to hunt and kill his own kind, even when he could clearly see that all they wanted to do was hide themselves away and seek an honest, innocent life.

The guilt and misery plagued him, and he began to ask himself if Demacia, the wonderful nation that he loved and fought for, was actually in the right.

One day, a young teen Sylas and his handlers found a child in the countryside with powerful magic. Sylas tried to defend the young girl as the other Mageseekers prepared to execute her, but when he brushed against her skin, he accidentally absorbed her magic, and it rushed out of him uncontrollably, killing both the girl and the Mageseekers.

Sylas, horrified and guilty, tried to run, but he was labeled a vicious fugitive and declared the most dangerous mage alive.

He was apprehended and sentenced to life in prison, where he spent over a decade in thick, magic-nullifying petricite chains and eating rats to survive in the dark.

One day, a noble girl named Luxanna Crownguard came into his dark cell to talk to him. Lux had also been born with powerful light magic, and every day, she struggled to hide it, lest she too get arrested and imprisoned as a mage. She approached Sylas and asked him to teach her how to control her magic.

Over time, a bond of trust began to form between the two. Lux snuck out to meet him and brought him food, water, and books as he taught her to control her powers. 

In one specific book, he discovered that rather than nullifying magic, petricite absorbed it, and once the limit was hit, it would break.

Sylas realized that that was his ticket out of prison.

Before he could escape, the Crownguard family caught wind of their secret meetings and sentenced Sylas to death for the crime of corrupting Lux, the anticipated future queen.

Sylas knelt at his execution stand, his arms chained back, with hundreds of citizens who had come out to jeer and throw trash at the notorious criminal who was finally being executed, just as a filthy mage like him deserved. 

Lux broke free from her family and ran to Sylas, throwing herself over him, begging for mercy on his behalf and proclaiming that she was the one at fault, but nobody would listen to her desperate pleas as they readied their executioner's sword.

Sylas siphoned Lux’s overwhelming light magic and overloaded the petricite chains confining him.

The chains broke, but because of the staggering power and overload, it caused an immense magical explosion that killed a majority of the gathered crowd.

In the chaos, Sylas mournfully apologized to a horrified Lux and escaped from the city. He aimed to recruit mages to storm Demacia to demand better rights for themselves, and he sorrowfully resigned himself to facing Lux and her family opposite the battlefield, as the Crownguards had served the throne for centuries and Lux was honor-bound to face the threat to Demacia’s core values, regardless of her own status of a mage.

Sylas was a morally ambiguous character. There were many people who deeply disliked him. Sylas was described to be in his mid to late twenties, while Lux was described to be in her late teens. They argued that he took advantage of Lux’s kindness and manipulated her for his own benefit. People argued that Sylas reveled in killing non-mages and radically insisted that they should be enslaved instead. They argued that solving the issue with violence further perpetuated the negative perception against mages and that using force would change nothing overall. People argued that he was created as a caricature of a revolutionary and that his wants and motivations were shallow in comparison to reality.

Cordelia understood. Though she disagreed with many criticisms, she really understood where they were coming from. Sally had always taught her that a story could have many viewpoints, and that one perspective wasn’t better than another. She taught her that she should listen to all viewpoints before forming her own opinions and that she should never be afraid to change her views if she receives new information and perspectives. Objectivity and understanding, Sally stressed.

Just… Sylas’ story resonated so deeply with Cordelia. Sylas wasn’t a good person, but neither was she. Just like him, she had been a scared, lost kid forced by the world to grow up into a hard, cold adult. She, too, was born into filth and poverty. She, too, had to hide herself from her peers, wishing that she was different, that she had just been born normal. She, too, had previously lost control of her powers, hurting both herself and others. She, too, had been unjustly villainized and blamed for things out of her control. She, too, had been forced to fight and kill her own kind, even when everything within her was screaming that it was wrong. She, too, had been imprisoned against her will and vilified when she broke away. She, too, had been looked at like a monster for using her powers to defend herself. She, too, was angry with the hierarchy and wanted things to change. 

Now, she too walked around with chains around her arms, a constant reminder of what she had survived.

But that wasn’t it, was it? Sylas didn’t simply survive. He used his chains, the physical reminder of his imprisonment and injustice, as a symbol, a weapon.

There shouldn’t be any reason that Cordelia couldn’t do the same.

After all, what was there for her to be ashamed of? For being enslaved while she was weak and unconscious, unable to fight back? For being unable to unlock her cuffs after she had endured the beating to help Dio while wisely trying not to draw godly attention to herself by flagrantly using her powers? For it to remain as a constant reminder of her filthy mortal weakness?

No. Cordelia refused to be ashamed. She, a weak mortal, had rescued herself and her friends, and her shackles were a physical reminder of that. A reminder of her strength. A reminder of her protectiveness. A reminder of her will.

Apollo’s deep voice echoed in her mind, and she smiled.

Just as she had inherited Sylas’ chains, she had also inherited his title.

Cordelia the Unshackled.

Sylas rose from the rubble of his imprisonment to stand tall and fight for his rights, even against the people who were important to him. Even when it hurt him, he stood strong and unyielding.

Dio’s snarl rang through her head. “Just because he was right doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.”

Beck’s rumbly voice echoed in her ears. “Go get ‘em, tiger shark.”

One older brother that she had to say goodbye to, but would always remain with her. One younger brother that she had to fight to walk alongside in the future.

Cordelia smiled and swam into the city.

Cordelia sipped the last of her Kykeon, careful not to discourteously tip the glass too far back. 

Amphitrite sat before her, contentedly sipping on her own glass of wine. They had been joined by her ladies-in-waiting for a draining lesson on Atlantean dancing. It took a little adjustments for them to teach her the traditional dances as she didn’t have colorful fins to flare or scales to fetchingly catch the light. 

Finally, after the exhausting session was over and the ladies had taken their leave, Amphitrite insisted that she take afternoon tea with her before she left back to her quarters to prepare herself for dinner.

“My Lady.”

Amphitrite’s dark eyes flicked up to her. “Yes, darling?”

“That other day, why did you give me that lesson on control?”

Amphitrite hummed and poured herself more wine. Cordelia watched how the blood-red liquid swirled through the seawater and neatly flowed into her goblet. “I don’t seem to recall, dear. My lesson was on power, not control.”

Cordelia refused to show her annoyance on her face. Always with the stupid word-games. “Fine, then. Why did you give me that lesson on power that ended up alluding to control, or specifically, my lack thereof?”

Amphitrite regarded her. “What brought on the sudden interest, dear?’

“Hmmm. Let’s call it personal curiosity,” Cordelia smiled humorlessly.

“Well, I would have thought the answer was obvious by this point,” Amphitrite looked at her reproachfully. “As a princess of Atlantis, it is imperative that you have a thorough understanding of this topic. The way you conduct yourself reflects on all of us. You are seen as a representation of the Royal Atlantean Crown now that your father has claimed you and formally acknowledged you.”

Cordelia tilted her head back, which immediately brought Amphitrite to a halt. “My Lady, may I speak freely?”

Amphitrite frowned at her. “You may.”

“Please don’t deflect, your Majesty. That wasn’t the real reason. Why did you give me that lesson at that time?”

Amphitrite was silent for several long seconds. “Alright, then. While what I stated about your position in court wasn’t irrelevant, the main reason I deigned to have that particular conversation with you was because of your particular status as my lord husband’s daughter.”

“Please elaborate, Your Majesty.” Cordelia’s eyebrows furrowed, but she had a feeling she knew where Amphitrite was going with this.

“My husband has collected many titles over the years, some of which he is not as fond of. Earth-shaker. Storm-bringer. King of the Depths. Lord of Salt. Horse-master. The list goes on,” Amphitrite took a sip of her wine. “But the title I am most concerned with today is Father of Monsters.”

And there it is. 

“My husband is powerful, very powerful. His power runs true. However, nothing comes without a cost. The same could be true for his brothers. They come from a powerful line, after all. For all their sheer physical might and power, Zeus’ progeny carry his same weakness of character. Succeptable to lust and greed, the dishonorable wretches. Persephone keeps a tight leash on Hades, that sly shrew, but when he is able to escape, Hades sires destructive children. Whether they destroy themselves or the people around them, no one can ever predict; they dance to the Fates’ whims.”

Amphitrite leaned closer, as if she were divulging a secret to Cordelia. “But Poseidon? Oh, your honorable father sires the strongest children, but there is a catch. His blood runs strong and true, but there is madness within his blood.”

Cordelia felt cold.

“All of Poseidon’s children are born with so much potential. They grow up brimming with power and talent, until inevitably, one day, the madness creeps up on them and they lose control. Once they lose themselves to their power, the monster within their bloodline finally manifests.”

Cordelia took a deep breath. “So what?”

Amphitrite sneered at her. “So, foolish child, that is why I am emphasizing control so much. Your siblings went through the same training. They have to keep a tight hold of themselves lest they too lose themselves within their own power and devolve into beasts. You’ve seen how easy it is, how much of a slippery slope. Each one of Poseidon’s children is capable of drawing on his power, and as they draw more and more, it doesn’t leave the body unchanged. During your last bout with Triton, he informed me that he was enraged enough to begin transforming into his monster form. Triton has centuries of experience not to lose himself within the bloodlust and the seductive call of the beast. But you, darling, have nothing. You’re young, and worse than that, you’re mortal.”

Cordelia regarded her and said, “No.”

Amphitrite raised an eyebrow, her face cold. “I beg your pardon?”

Cordelia didn’t falter. “No. I see where you’re coming from, but I will never lose myself to my power.”

“Foolish, arrogant child,” Amphitrite hissed. “Your father is among the strongest beings in the world, but his blood is wild, feral, and tainted. He has sired some of the most monstrous beings that exist today. Look at my husband’s Cyclops bastard, Polyphemus on Thrinacia. Look at that man-eater, Charybdis. Look at that savage mad horse, Arion, causing death and destruction wherever it goes. His blood runs strong, and with it, his madness. His immortal children fall under its sway so easily, you, a mortal, will fall so much more easily.”

Amphitrite’s power flooded the room, turning the water thick and soupy. The water felt almost noxious and poisonous, but Cordelia didn’t falter. She sat straight and sipped at her cup with perfect manners, just as Amphitrite had taught her months ago. Cordelia saw Amphitrite’s jaw tighten and her nostrils flare in anger as she remained unreactive to the provocation.

This? This level of power was nothing. Cordelia was used to standing toe-to-toe with Olympians. Amphitrite had to step up her game if she wanted her to bow. The only reason they wielded power over Cordelia before was because she allowed them to.

No more. Cordelia refused to put up with their shit any longer. The only one who could tell her what to do was Poseidon, but even then, if he pushed her too much, then he could go fuck off, too.

You make sure that you show those fucking idiots below the surface who you really are.

There were very few people whose opinion truly mattered to Cordelia, and unfortunately, the way her family had been acting towards her made sure that they were removed from that list. 

She was sick and tired of being stepped on, and it was time to let the world know it.

“No,” said Cordelia, her posture and manners picture-perfect. She refused to allow even an inch for Amphitrite to criticize her. 

“Do you have any idea what it’s like living as a demigod daughter of Poseidon? I am a literal jar of Greek fire. If I shatter, I will burn everything around me. You say I need control? Well, I already have it, because I don’t have the luxury of possessing an all-powerful, immortal body to contain all this vast godly power. No, as you like reminding me, I was born with a fragile mortal body to contain it all. Did you think that just because I’m a demigod, I’m any less powerful than your precious godly children? No.” Cordelia laughed, a raspy, threatening sound. 

She stared Amphitrite in the eye. “I’ve made gods more powerful than you kneel before me. I am not like any other demigod you’ve ever met. I’m sure that you know that too, my wonderful treatment at the palace tells me that it’s unusual for Father to invite his bastards into the Royal Family.”

Amphitrite’s lips pursed, and Cordelia smiled at the confirmation. “Poseidon might be my dad, but it’s my power. Mine. I will not fall to it. Only I alone will control it. If I become a monster, it will be because I choose to.”

Cordelia rose from her chair and looked down her nose at Amphitrite. “All of you gods, talking about mortality this, mortality that. You look down on me because of my human blood, but it’s that same human blood that will always prevent me from falling and becoming a monster. That same weak, human mother that you insult and degrade was the one who taught me the skills to ensure that I will never fall. You look down on me, but in reality, you gods are the true monsters. A being doesn’t have to be ugly or beastly to be a monster. All of you beautiful, flawless gods, sitting pretty on your thrones, playing with mortals' lives just because you can. Like we’re toys for your pleasure. Like we don’t have wants and feelings, and dreams ourselves. You treat us like we have no other purpose than to serve you, and kill us like bugs when you feel like it. Despicable. All of you are worse than monsters.”

Cordelia put her hands on the table and leaned forward. “Do you know what heroes do?” 

She bared her teeth in a vicious smile that was more comparable to a snarl. “Heroes slay monsters. And I… Well, I am a very good hero, My Lady.”

Amphitrite stared at her, her face akin to a perfect block of marble, but she didn’t care. She was Cordelia the Unshackled. She was the slayer of some of the most legendary monsters that ever roamed the earth. She fought toe-to-toe with gods. She has felled titans and giants. She held up the sky. She survived a volcanic eruption. She walked through Tartarus himself.

No. Cordelia was done taking this treatment. She was the Hero of Olympus. One of the Seven. Praetor of New Rome. She was Cordi fuckin’ Jackson. The gods didn’t know her in this time, but ohhh, they would. They would come to know her name, just as they had before.

Olympus to preserve or raze.

Cordelia smiled at Amphitrite, as sweet as pie, and bowed in a perfect curtsey. “Have a good evening, Your Majesty. I’ll see you at dinner.”

She turned and left, her head held high.

The metallic sounds of swords clashing together reverberated through the water. It was a cacophony of noise, each strike leading into the next in a fluid dance. 

Both Cordelia and Triton were once again at a stalemate. Again, Triton was stronger and more experienced, but Cordelia’s skill and honed battle reflexes put her on a level playing field. 

Like hunting sharks, they both drifted away from each other and circled around the arena, predatorily eyeing each other for weaknesses to exploit.

Cordelia’s adrenaline was pumping in response to the battle, but her mind was clear and calm. Triton had noticed her change in demeanor and had tried to goad her into losing her cool by making snide comments about how their previous spar had ended, but she refused to get provoked.

“You owe me an apology.”

Triton’s face twisted in surprise and confusion, and she used that moment to lunge at him and strike at his chest, which he was able to deflect in the nick of time, parrying with a slash toward her legs.

“An apology? Absurd. Your honorless tricks to distract me will not help you win this spar, sister.”

They fell into a familiar flurry of blows, attacking and counterattacking without a pause. 

“It wasn’t a trick. I’m serious. You owe me an apology, Triton.” Cordelia glared at him as she used the currents to push herself into a more advantageous position to aim at his blind spot.

Triton scoffed as he used his long fins to deflect her strike before he swiped at her, forcing her to duck to avoid the blow. “For what? I have nothing to apologize for.”

“Yes, you do.” Cordelia spun around and lashed out with a sharp kick that made contact with Triton’s elbow, causing him to recoil with a grunt. “Don’t tell me that you’ve forgotten how our previous fight went already.”

“Ha! Of course I haven’t! One could say that perhaps you have forgotten how that fight went, with how unafraid you seem to challenge me after how thoroughly I demonstrated my superiority.”

Cordelia growled. “Yeah. So you haven’t forgotten how you beat the shit out of me. Answer just one question for me: would you ever, under any circumstances, treat any of your other sisters like that?”

Triton’s mouth opened, but nothing came out, even as seconds ticked by, which told her everything.

Cordelia scoffed. “Of course you wouldn’t, because you don’t see me as a real sister.”

“Don’t speak for me.” Triton scowled at her. “That’s not true. You’re mortal. You’re weak. You need to learn that the world will break you down. There’s danger everywhere. I’m protecting you. I’m teaching you how to defend yourself. I kept your teeth safe so that you can’t be attacked with blood magic. I keep the nobles sniffing around you away. I stop them from kidnapping you, poisoning you, or locking you into marriage contracts. Do you have any idea just how many people want to take advantage of you? Show a little more gratitude.”

Just because he was right doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.

Cordelia slammed her sword into Triton’s, and his eyes widened as she pushed him back. 

“Gratitude? You want gratitude for fucking abusing me? So, to teach me that the world will break me down, you break me down first? In the name of protecting me, you’re cruel? What kind of fucked up logic is that?!”

Cordelia wanted Triton to be a real brother to her so badly, but… that wasn’t how brothers were supposed to act. Beck always projected comfort and safety. Tyson would rather die than ever hurt her. Nico wasn’t afraid to apologize whenever he was wrong. And Dio would never allow her to feel so small and weak.

No. Triton may have been her brother, but he didn’t see her as a real sister.

And that hurt.

She lunged at him, her attacks vicious, and Triton hastened to parry her blows.

“Be honest. Even if I weren’t mortal, would you have treated me any differently? The bastard who dared come in and take a place in your family?”

Triton was silent. 

“Ahhh. There it is. No more hiding behind excuses. You owe me an apology, Triton. And after that, you owe me your respect.”

Triton sneered at her. “Respect? Respect isn’t owed. It’s earned.”

Cordelia stared at him for a long moment. 

Fair enough. What he said wasn’t untrue.

Cordelia suddenly went on the offensive, taking him off guard. She attacked with a flurry of blows that Triton was forced to defend against, and steadily pushed him back. 

She focused not on her powers of the sea, but on her combat abilities. She may have inherited her battle-sense from Poseidon, but what good was a sword without sharpening and polishing it? She was a goddamn prodigy and one of the best swordsmen Chiron had ever trained. As a demigod, she was born with heightened reflexes, but she took her talent and refined it until it shone like a gem. She didn’t coast by on the instincts that were given to her because of her lineage. She took her gifts and made them her own.

Yes, she was Poseidon’s daughter, but all of her strength was her own. She worked hard for her power, and she refused to let it be attributed to genetics and luck. 

Earn his respect? 

With pleasure.

She slowly, slowly overpowered Triton with her sheer skill. 

Each strike was lightning-quick, but only a few glancing blows met Triton, offering him no serious injury. 

As they drifted closer to the sea-bed, Triton pulled his sword back and forcefully thrusted to the right of her torso.

Ohhhhh, not today, asshole.

With a flick of her wrist, the chain snapped to the side, away from the line of attack. Triton’s sword missed it completely and embedded itself deep into the earth, just as it had the last time.

“You stupid dickhead, did you think that trick would work on me again?” Cordelia snarled as she kicked him. Without his sword, he only had his arms to defend himself, and he sailed through the water with a grunt.

“Do you know why I will never envy you gods?” Cordelia rushed to him, refusing to give him an inch. “It’s because all of you are stagnant. Mortals are forced to continuously change. They don’t have the blessing of immortality or invulnerability. We have to adapt and grow if we want to live. You’re fucking stupid if you think that I would just sit there and let you trap me again!”

Triton fell into a fighting stance and snarled at her. “Yes, yes, defeating me while I am unarmed will not cause me to respect you, sister, but rather will cement my opinion of your dishonorableness.”

Cordelia laughed darkly. “Wait a second, you’re the one who lost your weapon, don’t blame it on me. There’s nothing dishonorable about taking advantage of your dumbassery. But hey, if that’s the way you want to play it, fucking fine.”

Cordelia dropped her sword and took up a fighting stance. In her head, she could hear Annabeth’s snotty voice. “Arms up, seaweed brain. No weak spots. Keep the targets small.”

Cordelia wasn’t nearly as versed in hand-to-hand as she was in swordsmanship, but she wasn’t worried.

Her gut told her that she was going to be just fine.

They lunged at each other, punching and kicking in a wild flurry. 

Triton easily overpowered her, raining powerful blows down on her that left her arms rattling from the force, but she didn’t need to withstand the barrage forever. 

She just needed a single moment.

Just one single… there!

Darting behind him, Cordelia spun around and used the momentum to spin her chain around his neck in a full loop and grasped the other end, pulling it like a garrotte.

Triton gargled as he struggled to remove the chain choking him, scrabbling uselessly at the metal. He tried to buck her off, but she used her long legs to securely wrap herself in a tight piggyback and pulled with all her strength.

Triton bucked and struggled like a wild stallion, but Cordelia refused to release him.

“Do you yield?” she panted.

Triton growled. “No weapons. Dishonorable,” he grated out.

“Fuck you. These chains are a part of me, and nobody can keep me from using them. I am Cordelia the Unshackled, and you will yield.”

She wrenched with all her might, and Triton choked beneath her.

He was a god. This wouldn’t kill him.

But damn if it wouldn’t hurt. Getting your throat crushed would stop even Typhon in his tracks.

Yeah, hurts, doesn’t it? Not very fun, huh? 

Cordelia gritted her teeth, her legs throbbing from enduring Triton’s brutal hits to dislodge them and her arms vibrating under the strain of pulling the chain taut, but she refused to let go.

“YIELD!”

Finally, finally, after what felt like an eternity, his struggles began to slow down.

He weakly raised his hand and tapped hers twice.

Finally.

She let go of him, and he bent over and gasped and retched raggedly. She dispassionately watched him struggle as she drifted before him.

Cordelia met his furious gaze and looked down at him like the princess she was.

“Remember this day, Triton. Regardless of my mixed blood and mortality, a weak Half-Blood defeated you fair and square. If you don’t give me your respect, I will simply take it from you. Back in my home, I was powerful. I was feared. And now, I am going to show you all why.

She turned, put her sword back in its rightful place, and left.

When Cordelia opened her eyes, she was back on the shores of Camp Half-Blood.

As always, Apollo was beside her, humming softly. His deep voice was beautifully melodic and almost hypnotizing.

He smiled at her. “Ah. There you are. I haven’t seen you in a while. I was afraid that you were too embarrassed to come see me.” He grinned, his teeth blindingly white. 

Cordelia scoffed. “Yeah, you wish. You know I can’t control this thing.”

“Yes, yes, of course. You misunderstand me, I would never assume that a Half-Blood had the power to bewitch a god. Heavens, what a concept.”

Cordelia blinked, slow and cat-like, and turned to him. “What do you mean?”

“Come now, darling, don’t be obtuse. I was simply teasing you about your new set of teeth. Which have grown in fully, that is good to see. Not that you weren’t adorable before, with that cute little gap between your teeth.”

“Not that, Apollo. What do you mean, a Half-Blood could never bewitch a god?”

Apollo raised an eyebrow at her. “My dear, are you well?”

“Obviously.”

“Then why would you ask me such an obvious question?”

“Because it’s not obvious. What are you implying?”

“Cordelia.” He frowned at her, his golden eyes examining her. “Why are you acting like this? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just want to know. Just why can’t a demigod compare with a god?”

Apollo warily looked at her. “...Because we’re gods. A Half-Blood simply doesn’t have the power to challenge a god. Cordelia, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Oh, really? Is that so? What about Hercules, then?”

“Who?”

Cordelia blinked. Had she gotten it wrong? Had Hercules not been born yet? But that couldn’t be right, she could have sworn that someone had once made a reference to his Twelve Labors…

“Do you mean Heracles? My half-brother?”

Relief swept through her. “Yes, him.”

Apollo stared at her. “Well, what about him?”

Cordelia growled. “He was strong enough to stand toe-to-toe with you gods. You can’t say that Half-Bloods don’t have enough power when he’s Exhibit A to the contrary.”

“Well…” Apollo’s eyes darted away. “That doesn’t count.”

Fury filled her. “What?! What do you mean? He beat Thanatos fair and square!”

Apollo scowled. “Heracles is an exception.”

“Oh yeah? An exception? In what way?”

Apollo pouted and looked away. “He just is, alright? And in the end, it doesn’t matter anyway. He attained godhood. He was destined for greatness from the start.”

An all-encompassing rage filled Cordelia. The sea before her began to softly roil in response. 

How dare he? Sure, Cordelia wasn’t the biggest fan of Heracles, the gigantic raging asshole, but to just dismiss all his accomplishments like that? To not even give him the credit he deserved for standing up to the gods as a mortal, because since he became a god in the end, it all simply didn’t matter?

Absolutely unacceptable.

“Apollo, do you remember my stories about Superman?”

Apollo looked thrown at the sudden change in topic, then he perked up like a puppy. “Yes! Clark Kent, correct? The alien god! How novel! A god made from stardust! And with such interesting morals and motivations! A truly fascinating character!”

Normally, if Apollo had called Superman a god, Cordelia would have scowled and corrected him. But, for the purpose of her argument, she was more than willing for him to make the comparison himself.

“Yes. Precisely. And you also remember Batman, correct?”

“Of course. The fascinating, wealthy vigilante orphan who was covertly trained by assassins. Another compelling character. Very interesting in his self-imposed rule of not killing.”

Target, locked and loaded. “Okay, then. Tell me, if they fought, who would win?”

Apollo looked incredulously at her. “Is this a trick question?”

“No, idiot. Just answer the question.”

“Obviously, Superman would win. Batman wouldn’t last even a second against the power of a god.”

Cordelia smiled, shark-like. Bullseye. “Wrong.”

“What?” Apollo looked taken aback.

“You’re wrong. When they fought, seriously fought, Batman killed him.”

Apollo gaped at her. “What? No.”

Cordelia grinned meanly. “Yes.”

“You’re making that up.”

“I’m not.” Cordelia waved her hand at him. “Go on, use your fancy truthseeker powers to verify.”

Based on Apollo’s furrowed brows, he did just that, and oh boy, did he not like the answer.

“How? That’s impossible. A man can never kill a god.”

“But he did. Batman is a genius. He is a mortal man with a mortal body, but he made thorough contingencies for every single threat he saw.”

“Not that. How?” Apollo’s voice was filled with irritation.

Good, Cordelia thought savagely. It’s not so nice being on the other end now, is it?

“He used Kryptonite, his sole weakness.”

Apollo barked out a laugh. A smile was on his face, but his eyes were hot and angry. “Of course. That makes sense. Of course, Batman would need a special, made-up tool to defeat Superman. A mortal could never defeat a god otherwise.” He grinned at her, but it was cold and unfriendly.

Cordelia smiled harshly back at him. “Yeah, but it isn’t made up, is it?”

“What do you mean, Cordelia?” His voice was unfriendly. A shiver ran down her spine. She had never heard him sound like that to her.

“Come on, Apollo. Don’t be dense. The god of Art and Poetry wouldn’t miss the metaphor I’m trying to make.”

“It’s precisely because I don’t miss it is why I’m asking.” Heat radiated off of him, a furious inferno rather than the warm hearth that she was used to.

Cordelia leaned closer to his face, reveling in how his beautiful gold eyes burned. “Gods can be killed, Apollo. You would do well to remember that, along with the fact that mortals aren’t weak.”

His eyes bored into her, his breath steaming hot against her lips. “Impossible. Even Grandfather couldn’t be killed. If there was a way, wouldn’t they have used it?”

Cordelia grinned. “Oh, my dear, dear Apollo. Have you forgotten Ophiotaurus?”

Heat exploded out of him like a supernova. Faster than humanly possible, he stood and loomed over her. His beautiful, perfect features were severe, and his rich, dark skin glowed with a threatening gold light. It hurt to be near him; the heat he radiated was so intense that it felt like being burned, but Cordelia didn’t care. 

She stood up as well and looked into his livid eyes. They looked like supernovas in their wrathful intensity.

“Where did you hear that name?” His voice was chilling in its perfection, booming like a gong. It was a sound that mortals weren’t meant to survive after hearing, too pure and powerful for their bodies to handle.

Cordelia smiled. “You told me.”

That was a bit of a white lie, since it wasn’t him exactly who told her of Bessie’s existence, but it was the Olympians as a whole who deliberated on Bessie’s fate, so she was sure that his fancy truth senses would be confirming her words. On top of that, it was a prophecy that declared the Ophiotaurus’ threat to the gods, and remind her again, whose domain was prophecy?

Sure enough, his brows furrowed in confusion.

The waves lapped at her ankles, reassuring in their coolness. She walked up to him and looked up into his eyes. Slowly, she reached her hand out and put it on his chest. 

It felt like it was being seared, as if she had placed it on a hot griddle. She didn’t flinch.

“You’re a good friend, Apollo. But.”

She pushed him hard while at the same time pulling at the waves around his feet to destabilize him. He tilted over with a flail and landed in the shallows with a loud splash of water. The water sizzled and steamed from where it touched his skin.

He looked up at her in bewilderment as she approached him.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking that gods are infallible or that mortals are weak and helpless.”

His brow furrowed, and he leaned up on his elbows to sit himself up, but Cordelia stopped him. She lifted her foot and stepped on his chest, pressing him back down into the water. 

Apollo stared up at her, his eyes wide and mouth open a sliver to let steaming breaths out. His chest was firm and unyielding and hot beneath her foot. His wet hair clung to his forehead and neck and left trails of seawater running down his chest. His eyes were a blazing gold, focused solely on her.

She put more pressure on her foot as she leaned in. “Please don’t make me have to take you out. It would break my heart.”

Cordelia closed her eyes, exhaled, and when she opened them again, she was safely in her dark bedroom, hearing the faint sounds of Naida quietly swimming around, preparing for her new day.

Cordelia smiled and stretched.

Chapter Text

Once Cordelia decided to say 'fuck it’ to her annoying family dynamics, she felt so much freer. 

Wow, it was almost like the weight of expectations really bogged her down, huh? Inconceivable!

She decided that she was gonna ignore all the bullshit and just have a good time. 

There were things that she had a choice about and things that she didn’t. 

It was up to her on how she was going to react.

Yes, her dad was forcing her to be down here in Atlantis instead of letting her be up with her friends.

Rather than pouting or futilely trying to escape, she decided to use this invaluable opportunity to acclimate to the world she had been unceremoniously thrust into. She had the time and privacy to mourn everything and everyone that she had lost, and she made plans for her future because she’d be damned if she was stuck here in Atlantis forever.

Soon, Dio, Cordelia chanted to herself. Soon. Wait for me.

She was forced to attend horrible lessons on politics and etiquette with Amphitrite.

It was a real slog, but Cordelia decided to go all in and absorb as much as she could. Even with her modern education behind her, she recognized how invaluable this opportunity was. She didn’t have to like it, but it would be wise to use the opportunity to learn all that she could. 

Annabeth always lectured her on the power of wisdom, and if for nothing else, she would do it for her best friend’s sake, because Cordelia knew that if the annoying blonde was here to watch her squander the opportunity her privilege gave her, she would probably shank her. 

And her combat training? 

It was undeniable that it helped her grow in leaps and bounds.

Cordelia made sure to devour all the food that she could get her hands on whenever she had the chance. Of course, she received quite a few snide comments about her healthy appetite, but she honestly didn’t give a fuck.

She was burning an absolutely insane amount of calories with each training session she went through. Before, she would only spend a handful of hours out in the training arenas before she was whisked off to her lessons, but as the months slipped by, more of her time was taken up with a weapon in her hands. It became more common for Cordelia to clock in over ten hours on the grounds.

She honestly loved it.

She adored the opportunity to stretch her muscles and push her instincts to the limit, all while she pushed Triton to use more and more of his power to stand on even ground with her.

It was incremental, but Cordelia could feel herself getting stronger. Perhaps it was her simply passing into maturity as time passed, but she suspected that the steady stream of intense sparring and the frankly insane amount of food that she was consuming allowed her to finally grow.

Cordelia also realized that there was no point in her just stewing in her own misery. Who was she, Nico? She didn’t sit and sulk. Ugh.

She made her way over to the forges and made friends with the Cyclopses who tirelessly worked all hours.

They perked up like puppies and babbled happily at her, and Cordelia felt her heart ache as she saw Tyson’s gentle and exuberant nature reflected in their manic personalities.

Sure, a few of the smarter ones were a bit more formal and distant towards her, but overall, they were like a herd of overgrown puppies that loved to babble about their days and the new ideas that they had cooked up.

It became a bit of a refuge for her, hanging out in the blazing forges, surrounded by the water heated by the lava burbling up to the surface, finally chasing away the chill in her bones.

Just sitting there with them, the clangs of their hammers on the anvils reverberating through the water as her skin tingled from the heat… it was almost like being at Beck’s side as he absently told her the new stories from Warhammer while he forged new weapons for the campers.

It felt a bit like home. 

She also took Poseidon up on his offer for a pet octopus. 

Hey, since he offered, right?

He was delighted and wanted to make it a father-daughter trip of sorts. Seeing his excitement made Cordelia smile. It was clear that he was thrilled for the opportunity to spend some time with her. It was almost like she had her daddy back again.

Apparently, octopi were very popular pets down in Atlantis. Their wide variety of colors and patterns, as well as their remarkable intelligence, made them loyal and entertaining pets.

Poseidon took her down to an octopus hatchery that boasted the best pure-bred octopi, guaranteed to have long lives without any diseases!

Huh, even in Ancient Greece, the craze of pedigreed pets still prevailed. Who would have thought? 

However, while they were perusing all the tiny little octopi fry, Poseidon hemmed and hawed in discontent. As he examined all the little babies, he began his stream of quibbles and complaints about the quality of the octopi that were being sold. He was exceptionally picky to the extent that the hatchery owner looked to be near tears, and Cordelia furiously apologized as she pulled her complaining father out of the shop.

Holy shit, Cordelia was absolutely mortified. Even being a wickedly powerful Demigod who could summon Hurricanes and Tsunamis didn’t excuse her from the sheer embarrassment of having a Karen parent.

Afterward, Poseidon pouted as Cordelia tore him a new one over his rudeness. She went on an impressive rant as she shamed him for putting that poor octopus breeder in a tight spot when he caused a scene in front of everybody. Poseidon looked hilariously harried as he tried to sputter that he was the King and that he could do whatever he wanted, but that just made Cordelia hiss at him like a cat and fling some plankton in his face. His eyes widened as she swam into her room and slammed the door behind her.

At dinner, he tried to talk to her, but Cordelia made sure to pointly ignore him as she had a pleasant conversation with Rhode about the latest potion she was working on.

Well, perhaps that was a little disingenuous. It wasn’t all that pleasant, since Cordelia didn’t know half of what Rhode was saying when she alluded to complex magics, and the princess dazedly went off on tangents every few minutes that left Cordelia struggling to follow. Either way, it was effective in giving her an excuse to ignore her father.

The next day, Poseidon called her down and presented her with a little creature.

It was about the size of a beach ball and looked like a cephalopod, however, it had way more tentacles than a standard octopus. It was just a round head attached to a writhing mass of limbs and a pair of big black eyes that blinked up at her like an owl. As she watched, it turned from a neutral beige to a blushing pink and wriggled a tentacle at her.

Cordelia stared down at it.

Oh my god, it was so cute she wanted to die.

“Daughter, I called you here today to meet your nephew.”

Um, excuse me, what?

“My what, now?” 

The little octopus-squid thing blinked at her, and little spots appeared on its head. As she watched, a gorgeous ring pattern bloomed across its skin.

Poseidon nodded down at the creature. “This is Epidextros. He is the son of my daughter Charybdis.”

“The son of Charybdis?” Cordelia’s brows rose in incredulity. “The son of Charybdis and who?” What kind of monster had the balls to impregnate an eldritch being like her older half-sister??

The octopus thing blinked at her and slithered a tentacle towards her hand. Cordelia extended her fingers and allowed the little limb to twine through them. It was so satisfyingly soft and squishy and the little suckers tickled where they inquisitively brushed at her skin.

A squeaky voice echoed through her head. “None of your business, you rude, puny mortal.”

Cordelia stared at it as a limb sprouted from its head. It swayed at her hypnotically before it was sucked back in with a wet schlop sound.

“Since you are insistent on having a pet, I have decided to entrust your nephew into your care.” Poseidon nodded in satisfaction. “Yes. This works out splendidly. I am an outstanding father, much better than my brothers,” he turned to drift away back to the throne room. “I cannot wait to display my superiority over them in the next solstice. This is much better than gifting skeleton cats and doves to offspring. Once again, I am the lamb.”

“Um, I think you mean GOAT, Father.”

“Ah, yes, that. Well, enjoy your time together. Do not get into mischief.”

Cordelia and Epidextros stared after Poseidon as he disappeared around the corner, then turned back to each other. 

“I am not a pet. I will outlive all of your descendants until the essence of godly blood fades from their veins. I will watch on, everlasting, while humanity slowly crumbles as they lose faith in the gods. In turn, the gods will abandon the weak mortals and will watch on in silence as they futilely pray for salvation when the reckoning claims them.”

“Oh. Wow. Uhhh, can I call you Dexter? You really look like a Dexter.”

He nipped her hand and sucked in the few beads of blood that leaked out. “I now have your scent. You shall never be able to escape me. I will hunt you down till the end of the world and feast upon your remains. In the end, all return to the sea, and I am the being that will stand at the end of time as the earth is eroded under the merciless strength of the waves.”

“So… is that a yes?”

He stared up at her with unfathomable eyes. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he blinked. “Yes. You may refer to me as this ‘Dexter’. I shall deign to respond.”

“Awesome. Amazing. Spectacular. We’re going to be the best of friends.”

“Can an insect look upon the boot that crushes it and proclaim itself its friend? Can its feeble mind comprehend the sheer vastness of the other’s existence before it is driven to insanity?” A third eye popped up from a tentacle and stared into her soul.

“Oh my god, you’re the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Can I please hug you?”

“I see that you possess no survival skills or instincts. Your frail mortal body will wither to the unceasing erosion of time, and your flesh will be devoured by worms as your bones bleach and splinter. I can see that Grandfather has entrusted me with an insurmountable task that I will inevitably fail in, as you too shall succumb to the frailty of your mortality. I will allow you to embrace me with the hope that some of my insurmountable power and might will osmose into your pathetic human body. You may now touch me, half-blood Aunt.”

“Oh wow, this is the best day of my life. I love you already.”

“You may now unhand me, weak mortal Aunt.”

“Just a little bit longer? Please?”

“...If you insist.”

Things really started to change one day when she was in the middle of a spar with Triton.

They were locked in an intense sword battle, and Cordelia could feel her killing intent leaking out, staining the surrounding water. Triton wasn’t any better, his animalistic, monstrous features beginning to peek out beneath his emerald skin. 

They both ferally snarled at each other before they pounced and furiously aimed at any weaknesses in the other’s defense. 

When Triton tried to slam his sword down overhead to make her buckle, Cordelia just bared her teeth at him and laughed. It seemed that those hellish leg conditioning workouts and her steady intake of protein had finally shown some results. Bye-bye thigh-gap, hello watermelon-crushers.

“C’mon dickface, is that all you’ve got?! I’ve taken shits that’ve made my legs shake more than this!”

A cackle of wheezing laughter pierced through their bloodlust and turned their attention over to the side of their deserted training grounds, where a woman was bent over in half, absolutely howling with mirth.

Cordelia’s mouth fell open.

This woman was huge, like, over 30 feet tall from head to tail. She was ethereally beautiful, with snowy white hair, and she had a single, pearly white mermaid tail that swished with her laughter. Her skin was as pale as alabaster, and her features were so inhumanly perfect, as if she were one of Bernini's marble masterpieces.

When the gigantic woman finally wiped her eyes and looked up, Cordelia could see that they were a remarkable light green color. Her pale lips were pulled back in a grin, showcasing her startling black tongue and gums and serrated white shark teeth.

Cordelia just stared as Triton actually dropped his sword. “Kymopoleia! You shouldn’t be here!”

The gorgeous woman just crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Oh, relax, big brother. I was just curious. You’ve told me so much about our precious little sister. With how you moped about after you told me how she defeated and soundly scolded you, I simply had to meet her.”

Cordelia blinked at her as her brain struggled to reboot. The adrenaline was still flowing through her system, making everything feel soupy and slow. “Uh. Wha- huh?’

Kymopoleia turned her attention to Cordelia as Triton sputtered in the background and critically looked her over. “Ah. He described you quite well. Funny that you’d be the spitting image of our dear old father when you’re a half-blood bastard. Oooh, the irony helps me sleep at night.”

Kymopoleia slowly circled around her. “Hmmm. Not to mention, you’re quite funny, too. And you know how to put our dear brother in his place whenever his head gets so fat that he risks floating up to the surface. And the cherry on top, your entire existence is an insult to the throne.” 

Kymopoleia smiled sharkishly at her. “Oh, yes. You’ll do quite nicely.”

Triton floated over to Kymopoleia and glared at her. It was a little comical, with their height difference. Kymopoleia towered over him, but Triton was somehow able to radiate disappointment and displeasure. Probably a special older sibling ability. “She’ll do nicely for what?”

Kymopoleia smiled at him. “Oh, for befriending, of course.”

Triton began to sputter again. He looked ridiculously harried, and it fascinated Cordelia, who had rarely seen him look anything other than perfect. Sure, she was able to rile him up during sparring, but she didn’t feel that it really counted. 

This was something new. Apparently, Kymopoleia had the ability to get under his skin.

Hmmm. Interesting.

Unbidden, Apollo’s voice rose from her memory.

“Triton has a… hm, what was that interesting term that you used? Sister compound?”

Cordelia blinked at him, incredulous. “A sister complex? Are you saying that Triton has a sister complex?”

“Yes, that’s correct.” Apollo nodded in satisfaction. “He is rather obsessed with the safety and well-being of his sisters.”

Cordelia scoffed at him. “A bit rich coming from you, isn’t it? We’ve all heard the stories about you and your twin.”

Apollo wrinkled his nose. It was adorable. Cordelia hated it. All-powerful Sun gods with the power to spontaneously immolate mortals shouldn’t be adorable, it was against the laws of nature. 

“Yes, but he takes it to a rather extreme level. If I may say, my darling, do everything you can to include yourself within that group. You will have a vicious guard dog in your corner that is second to none.”

Cordelia scoffed. “Yeah, no thanks. I can fight my own battles, thank you very much. I’m not sure how successful he’ll be in protecting me when he goes around beating me up and making fun of me.”

Apollo simply hummed an impossibly musical note that seemed to color the air with magic. “If you insist, darling.”

Looking at how frazzled he was right now, Cordelia could admit that it seemed like Apollo was right about Triton. Sure, she had seen some of his interactions with Rhode, who he affectionately tended to treat like a big, dumb dog, giving her plenty of head-pats and praises and providing her with ample treats. 

It appeared that his relationship with Kymopoleia was very different. 

It intrigued her.

Cordelia smiled brightly at the large goddess. “It’s my pleasure! Please, call me Cordi.”

Kymopoleia smirked. “Then you simply must refer to me as Kym. Ah, yes, Triton has regaled me quite thoroughly on how much he dislikes your name. You should know that he’s deathly afraid that Artemis is going to swoop in one day with the tide and spirit you away into her merry band of Virgins.”

Triton wheezed. “No, that’s not true. Kymopoleia, cease your falsehoods-”

Kym grinned like a gremlin. “Yes, I was able to witness the hours that he spent picking up pebbles in an effort to find your little human teeth. Rather delicate, aren’t they? Not nearly as sharp as mine. Oh, yes, they’re in my care, by the way. You’re welcome. Be grateful that I’m not the type to use your body parts to enslave you to my will like our beloved older sisters.” 

She flipped her curtain of white hair over her shoulder, and it cascaded artfully in the current. “He has also thoroughly described all of your faults, and I must say, he did not fib when describing the abysmal state of your hair. Simply ghastly, dear half-sister. Your accent is quite the acquired taste, he wasn't exaggerating that, either. But I do feel as though you made a bigger deal of her chains than needed, Tri, just teach her how to utilize them. She already showed you that she was willing to use them as a weapon, isn't that what you've been waiting for? Honestly, with all the griping you do, I would assume that you actually teach her rather than just try to beat her head in with that blunt sword.” 

Cordelia’s head spun with the barrage of information. Triton’s skin glowed a bright green, and to Cordelia’s astonishment, she realized that he was blushing. She had never seen him blush before. 

Oh wow. This was gold.

Cordelia still hadn’t fully forgiven Triton. Like, okay, he had beaten the Jesus out of her, but it wasn’t inaccurate to say that she had similarly dangerous training sessions before. There was a lava wall at Camp Half-Blood, for cryin’ out loud. Kids had died during Capture the Flag because they had used sharpened Celestial Bronze weapons. They had to receive a steady supply of Nectar and Ambrosia from Olympus to treat all the mortal wounds they regularly received.

No, Cordelia was angry at him because everyone and their mother went around preaching about how wonderful and perfect a brother Triton was, and when he wasn’t wonderful and perfect towards her, then it was her fault, obviously.

Yes, she was a Half-Blood. She was built for a life of battle and war. Getting a few silly TBIs that would heal immediately in the seawater wasn’t the breaking point. It was Triton daring to say that he cared for her the same as his sisters when it obviously wasn’t true. 

She was a bastard, but it wasn’t her fault. 

She was mortal, but it wasn’t her fault. 

She was forcefully inserted into the Atlantean Royal Family, but once again, it wasn’t her fault.

And fuck Triton for taking his frustrations out on her, because he would never do the same to his other, real sisters.

Cordelia still hadn’t forgiven him, but she had learned to live with the heartbreak and crushed hopes. She learned to ignore the hurt that speared through her heart whenever she saw his eyes soften when they landed on Rhode or when Benthesekyme’s name was brought up.

It was clear that she wasn’t ever going to get Triton’s love and regard, so she would settle for his respect. She would use her time with him and learn all that she could so that she would be as strong as possible when it was finally time to make her way back into the world above.

But Kymopoleia?

Perhaps… perhaps, Cordelia had it in herself to open her heart to another friend. Especially one that so easily antagonized her asshole older brother.

Understandably, Amphitrite’s demeanor had cooled a little towards her, but it was nowhere near as frigid as it had initially been. While she still conducted Cordelia’s lessons, she didn’t chit-chat as freely. She spent a lot of time disconcertingly observing Cordelia.

Just… silently watching. All the time.

It was a little disheartening to lose the camaraderie that they had slowly built up, but Cordelia didn’t regret her actions in the slightest. 

As Dio reminded her, during her time in Atlantis, all the people around her were trying to mold her into what they wanted, and every time they did so, she came up lacking.

She was done playing their petty games.

When she took tea with Amphitrite’s ladies-in-waiting, she made sure that she possessed impeccable manners, but she was done bending and scraping to their whims.

“-slim figure and flawless skin are in style, this upcoming season. The royal tailors are being commissioned to make new gowns that showcase these charms!” A young, pink coral-toned mermaid gushed. She was the youngest daughter of some minister or the other. Cordelia didn’t really care enough to remember.

“Ah,” her older sister, a pretty mermaid sporting shades of jade green, politely refilled her glass, wisps of lavender magic emanating to ensure the surrounding seawater didn’t mix with the drink. “Perhaps we should speak on other topics, as some people wouldn’t be as suited for the new style this season. Don’t be rude, sister.” 

She didn’t give any indication that she was talking about Cordelia in particular, but her younger sister glanced at the demigod and giggled. “Oh, that’s so true! How insensitive of me!”

Cordelia sighed. Enough was enough.

All of these bitches were getting way too comfortable with taking potshots at her. 

She opened up her body language and drew everyone’s attention to herself as she grabbed the pitcher of Kykeon. She made direct eye contact with the jade mermaid as she lifted the pitcher up high and smoothly poured the drink into her glass.

The mermaid’s cheeks turned a darker shade of green when not a wisp of visible magic appeared. The higher the visibility of magic indicates the greater the effort and the lack of control; the visible energy waste. It was rather like a gas exhaust pipe: if you could see fumes, then it was lower in quality. 

People under the sea didn’t need to drink beverages to stay hydrated. Like normal sea creatures, the majority of them evolved to absorb the required moisture as they breathed the water.

So, one had to ask, what was the point of even drinking fluids under the sea when they didn’t even need to?

The short answer was to emulate their Olympian counterparts, but the factor that everybody actually cared about was bragging rights.

Not every mer- or fish-person possessed control over magic. It was a skill that was cultivated with lots of practice, rather like sculpting or coding. It was a mixture of art and science.

Like swordsmanship and ballroom dancing, it was seen as a courtly skill that those who had the time and money for tutors to refine cultivated. Yes, there were those who possessed extraordinary innate talent, but overall, the higher the level of skill of magic, the higher the status, basically.

Cordelia didn’t know shit about magic, and to be honest, she really didn’t care to learn. She cared a lot more about her swordsmanship and would rather spend her precious time refining her interests than wasting them on things like learning how to brew potions and cast hexes. 

But. Cordelia was a daughter of Poseidon. 

Controlling water was in her blood. It was as natural to her as blinking.

Cordelia stared the mermaid sisters down as she poured the Kykeon until it overflowed over the rim of her cup. 

“Oops,” she monotonously intoned. “I appear to have made a mess. How clumsy of me. Allow me to rectify it.”

Without breaking eye contact, she flicked her hand, and the spilled, undiluted Kykeon smoothly flowed back into the pitcher, as perfectly preserved as it had been. Her control was simply exquisite. Even Amphitrite’s eyebrow raised at the display.

The pair of sisters stared at her, eyes wide. 

Cordelia loudly slurped her drink. “Hmmm. Delicious. Say, didn’t I hear Gilleroth say that one handsome young guard was caught in some coral with that one girl? You know, the Minister of Coin’s middle daughter, light purple marlin fishwoman, I’m sure you know her.”

A soft snigger covered by a cough came from one of the other ladies, and the jade mermaid’s jaw clenched. 

Cordelia absently swirled her cup as she pretended to ponder it. “Scandalous. Hmmmm, how unfortunate, I can’t seem to recall the guy’s name…” She dramatically tapped her chin in thought.

The jade mermaid looked like she was carved from marble. “Vlasis of the Kondellis line.”

“Oh, yes, that was it!” Cordelia snapped her fingers and nodded in satisfaction. “Vlasis! Haha, I’m surprised you remembered his name, honestly, I couldn’t be bothered.

The mermaid’s fist clenched as a quiet titter went through the group. 

Of course the girl knew his name. He was her fiancé. 

Cordelia took another sip to hide her shark-like smile.

The pink-toned mermaid shot her a loathing glare as she clasped her sister’s hand.

“So, Your Grace,” she began saccharinely, “I’ve been curious! Surely you have an invite to the ball, but we still don’t know who you’re bringing yet!”

All eyes turned over to the girl, who swirled her pink hair in her fingers and opened her eyes wide and doe-like. “It’s so rude of us to speak about our partners and not even inquire about your own! Come now, Your Grace, don’t be shy!” A glint of malice belied her innocent mien, and she gasped theatrically. “Oh! Perhaps you don’t have an escort yet!”

Cordelia narrowed her eyes and hummed noncommittally. 

The pretty pink mermaid covered her mouth with her hand and adopted an apologetic expression. “Oh, surely not, Your Grace! It’s inconceivable that no one in the kingdom has seen the charms of Poseidon’s newest daughter! Even if you don’t possess typical charms, at least your exotic features should turn at least some eyes!”

Uh-huh, real original. Yeah, she’s Poseidon’s bastard and she didn’t align with Atlantis’ beauty standards, tell her something new. 

In her periphery, Cordelia noticed some ladies pursing their lips to prevent smiles from blooming on their faces. The jade mermaid’s face had regained some color, and she looked interested in watching her sister humiliate Cordelia.

Not today, bitch.

Cordelia coolly popped an eel canapé in her mouth. “Yes, you would be correct. I have had several men ask me to the ball, including that one musician, you know, the half-octopus one? The pretty boy? Yeah, didn’t leave enough of an impression on me to learn his name.” 

That had to sting, as Cordelia had previously noticed the pink mermaid fluttering around that guy while he looked off to the horizon in disinterest. To her satisfaction, a shock of fury morphed her face.

A cream-colored merwoman piped in. “So, my Lady, are you going with him?”

“No,” Cordelia sighed in disinterest. “I didn’t accept anyone’s invitation.”

An elderly angler-fish fishwoman tutted at her. As she opened her mouth to eat a pastry, her needle-like teeth gleamed in the low light. “You’re a fully grown woman now, Your Grace. It’s about time that you begin thinking about marriage.”

Cordelia fought not to grimace. Jeez, she was just eighteen, hardly older than a fetus. It wasn’t the first time she had heard it, and unfortunately, it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

“Of course, Madam,” Cordelia respectfully demurred. “However, I feel that I have the privilege of being picky.”

Everyone turned to Amphitrite, who made no reaction to her statement, which basically meant that she agreed.

Ha, even when she was ticked off at Cordelia, Amphitrite still had her back. Cordelia kinda disliked the fact that it made her respect her more.

“Oh, exciting!” The pink mermaid piped up again. “Now we simply have to know: what kind of criteria does our youngest princess have? You simply cannot tease us like this and leave us hanging, how cruel!” 

Jeez, she really was a dog with a bone, wasn’t she? The yappy bitch was just waiting for Cordelia to say something to implicate herself. If she made one slip-up and implied too closely about a person, then Cordelia would bet her entire (substantial) allowance that rumors would be spread throughout the kingdom within a few days.

You know what, fuck it, let’s go all in. She didn’t care anymore.

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly…”

“No, no, we insist!” The girl practically vibrated in her seat. “Please, my lady, don’t be shy!”

Cordelia pretended to be at war with herself for a moment, then she sighed dramatically. 

“Oh, alright, then. Only if you promise not to judge me.”

“Oh, never, my lady! Please, we are all ears!” She looked hungry, and even the rest of the ladies present looked rather intrigued.

“Go on, darling,” Amphitrite drawled. “I, too, find myself rather curious as to what qualities you look for in a husband. Enlighten us.”

If you say so. “Well, you see, I have been training with my dear brother for over a year now,” Cordelia fought not to roll her eyes at how the majority of the room swooned at the mention of Triton, “And the thing is, I find that as the days go on, the gap in our skill grows smaller and smaller.”

Cordelia theatrically looked off into the distance. “The godly power that my honorable lord father has blessed me with grows stronger every day, and most simply put, I am looking for a man that I can’t crush between my legs.” She slyly grinned.

The room exploded into titters, and the pink mermaid looked like she had bitten into a lemon. 

“Ah, well… is that right?”

Cordelia flicked her fingers, and the girl’s eyes went round as a thin, steady stream of Kykeon rose up from the pitcher like a snake and flowed into her glass. A little gauche, but a very impressive demonstration of magical control. Eat your heart out, bitch.

“Yes. You see, I will only choose such a man who can handle the untamable power from my divine inheritance. Perhaps,” Cordelia took a sip as she stared the pink mermaid in the eye, “He wouldn’t mind that I am not so slim and my skin is not flawless, but he will appreciate my strength because when our enemies attack us, I will run a sword through their spine and drown them in their blood.”

She allowed a hint of her power to flood into the room and suspected that her eyes were growing that eerie green that Triton’s did whenever he began to shift into his monster form. Several of the women tensed up and shivered.

The silence in the room rang out almost deafeningly loud, and Cordelia leaned back comfortably on her chair. “I have yet to meet a single man within Atlantis who can meet my criteria, so no, I will quite happily be going to the ball alone, beholden to nobody but myself.”

Everybody stared at her, but Cordelia only had eyes for the pink mermaid, who gazed at her in poorly concealed fear.

Cordelia smiled. 

And off to the side, Amphitrite watched on, silent as ever.

As expected, the Ball was mind-numbingly dull and tedious. 

Cordelia was dressed in her best gown and adorned with jewels. Her hair had finally grown out enough so that Naida could finally give her a haircut that actually flattered her face.  It was a rather modern style, vaguely like a long bob. It was still short, yes, but Cordelia found that she kind of liked it. It framed her face and softened her features since she had finally lost the last of her baby fat and thus sported cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass. Poseidon had curled his lip and had spat something about how the Kemet style didn’t suit her and that it was a disgrace for his progeny to emulate such fashions, but of all people, Rhode had been the one to hush their father’s protests and force him to leave her alone. 

Thank god for that. Poseidon would have rather had her bald. Rhode had thankfully strongly disagreed with the sentiment. Bless.

Cordelia’s hairstyle was different from all the long, elegant updos that literally everyone else in the kingdom sported, but that didn’t bother her one bit. She wasn’t one of them, after all. They should all just be grateful that she didn’t swim around with that hideous, butchered hairstyle anymore.

The best part was that she didn’t need to worry about it getting in her way in combat. Also, it was funny to see the older mer- and fishwomen clutch their pearls when she swam by with her hair unbound. It was the little things in life, ya know? 

Naida had made sure to doll her up as best she could, even scrubbing at her chains until they gleamed in the low light. Haha, who was she kidding? Like that would give anyone a better impression when she had literal shackles engulfing her wrists.  

Sometimes, Cordelia wondered what went on in Naida’s brain. 

Her dress was noticeably tighter than it had been the last time she had worn it. Apparently, she had put on a considerable amount of muscle, enough for Nadia to tut and let the seams out. Hehe, she was getting gainz. Hell yeah.

Cordelia just hovered in the corner with a plate of entremets. She glared at any young men who got a bit too close and let a bit of her bloodlust out to saturate the surrounding water when they didn’t take the hint.

To her pleasant surprise, she didn’t get many men asking her to dance. Only the exceptionally stupid ones and the ones forced to by their power-hungry parents actually came over to her, but quickly skittered away when they felt the warning brush of her power.

It appeared that the bitchy coral-pink mermaid and her jade-green sister had successfully spread the news that Cordelia was dissatisfied with the quality of the young men flitting around Atlantis. From across the throneroom, Cordelia could see them shooting her triumphant looks at the fact that she hadn’t been asked to dance even once.

Ha. Joke’s on you, I’m into that shit.

From up on his throne, Poseidon looked supremely bored as his Councillors and Ministers came up one after another to give long, monotonous speeches about how resplendent Atlantis was, all thanks to Poseidon’s wise rule and his generosity and all that rot. 

From next to him, Amphi appeared to be engaged and interested, but Cordelia could see that it was a front and that she was just as bored as her husband, but for politeness's sake, she was at least trying to pretend that she was listening. 

As per usual, Triton was swarmed by hordes of eligible young women, but he looked completely uninterested in all of them. In fact, he looked rather disgusted by them. Heh.

No surprise there. Kymmie had confided in her that he already had a lover that he was loyal to, but that Poseidon refused to let him marry, so here he was, a juicy bachelor prince that every mother was desperate to catch for their pretty young daughters. 

Kymmie had conspiratorially leaned in to tell Cordelia who his little girlfriend was, but Triton had swooped in with a hiss and refused to allow her to elaborate.

Jeez, alright then. So he didn’t trust her. Cordelia felt angry at herself when she felt hurt. 

Whatever. It didn’t matter anyway. 

Triton caught her eye and desperately scrunched his eyebrows, begging for a rescue. 

Cordelia turned away and pretended that she didn’t see him. Fuck you, dude.

From beside her, a tinkling laugh chimed through the water. Rhode floated nearby, seemingly immune to the low level of bloodlust that Cordelia was emitting to keep everyone away. She looked absolutely resplendent in her lacy white dress, and her powder blue skin looked plump and dewy. Her sea-green eyes were lined with kohl, making them pop.

“Oh my,” she raised a hand to her lips to cover her smile as they watched Triton struggle to extricate himself from the throng of thirsty women. Cordelia eyed her long, graceful nails, which were painted a deep blue that contrasted gorgeously with her skin. Her brown hair had dozens of tiny braids that were pulled into an elegant knot. She looked annoyingly perfect, as always. 

Her eyes flitted to Cordelia. “How cruel, sister, leaving him out to dry.” 

Cordelia shrugged and ate a little date pastry. Mmm, yummy. “I dunno what you’re talking about.”

They both watched in silence as Triton politely tried to remove a woman’s hand from his butt. This was the third time. Oh look, there it went again. Was that a squeeze? From the way he jerked, it probably was. 

“So, how’s it going with that one man, you know, the one that’s been bothering you about stepping down from the Mage Guild?”

Rhode smiled. It was like the sun had come out from behind the clouds. From her periphery, Cordelia could see some of the eligible young bachelors perk up and slowly drift toward them, despite Cordelia’s increase in killing intent. 

Goddammit, Rhode.

“Oh, are you talking about Savvas of the Cosmellis lineage?” Rhode elegantly pushed a loose braid behind her ear. 

“Mm-hm.”

She smiled, her pearly white teeth sharper than Cordelia had ever seen them. “Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about him much longer, dear sister.”

Cordelia turned to her, intrigued. “What do you mean?”

A strangled scream echoed through the hall, and everyone turned to see a small lobster Fishman clutch at his throat and convulse. White foam bubbled from his mouth and dissolved into the surrounding water. 

Everyone just stared as his twitches slowly died down and came to a halt. His limp body just morbidly floated in the water and bobbed gently with the current. 

There was silence before Poseidon sighed in irritation and barked, “Can someone take him away? He’s going to foul the water and, most importantly, put me off my dinner.”

A pair of guards bowed deeply and pulled the corpse out of the room, and after a long moment of silence, everyone began to chatter like nothing had happened. 

Cordelia’s eyes were wide, and she turned to Rhode.

Her sister was the picture of sorrow as she clutched her cheek. “Oh, how dreadful. I always did tell him to be careful. Lobsters can be particularly susceptible to Neurotoxins. Maybe the fish he was eating was infected with some Dinoflagellates? What a tragedy,” she absently tapped her nails against her skin.

Neurotoxin, huh?

Cordelia distinctly remembered how a few weeks ago, Rhode had excitedly babbled about how she had finally been able to purify Tetrodotoxin that she had extracted from some pygmy Pufferfish and how she was working on mixing it with other compounds to thicken and concentrate it. Later on, she asked Cordelia about differences in make-up and cosmetics, and seemed very intrigued when Cordelia described nail extensions and acrylics and the elaborate patterns that women used to paint.

Cordelia looked at Rhode’s nails, which were coated with a thick layer of blue pigment.

Rhode met her eyes and smiled. Her teeth were sharp.

Huh. Apparently, when Amphi’s estimation of Rhode’s deadliness wasn’t exaggerated.

Good to know.

Cordelia scooted away.

The months flew by now that Cordelia had resolved to have a good time during her stay in Atlantis. She looked forward to each new day, eager to learn and grow as much as she could.

She spent time with Dexter, who still frighteningly spouted off about existentialism and the inevitable fall of humanity, but he was adorably cuddly and happy to play with her. She spent many an evening with him on her lap as she slowly, methodically sewed and embroidered the projects Amphitrite assigned her. Not her favorite pastime, but Cordelia recognized the value of the skill, so she kept at it without complaint.

The Cyclopses were always warm and welcoming and provided a welcome refuge when her limbs ached from her training. The warm water of the forges was simply heavenly, and it was always fascinating watching them fold molten metal and grasp it with their bare hands. 

Kymmie was a fantastic confidante and friend, and Cordelia adored going to her palace to visit her. She stayed in a small castle on the outskirts of Atlantis and rarely swam into the kingdom. Her relationship with Poseidon was currently abysmal, and from what Cordelia knew of the future, it was only going to get worse from here.

Kymmie refused to speak about her husband. 

Ever.

Cordelia never made the mistake of asking again. 

Kymmie put on a strong front, but she did tend to get lonely. That was why Triton insisted on holding their practice spars out in the middle of nowhere. That way, Kymmie could see them from her castle. 

Cordelia was stunned when she found out. She hadn’t even realized that they were being watched all this time. All this time, Kymmie had seen everything. Cordelia was gratified to learn that she disapproved of Triton’s beatdown of her, but she also raised an eyebrow at Cordelia’s stupidity and weakness for getting caught in the first place and deemed it an apt lesson to never do so again.

Fuckin’ gods, man. They were just the worst, sometimes.

Of course, Triton and Cordelia still circled around each other. They were forced to be cordial because Kymmie insisted on it. Slowly, Cordelia’s instincts stopped being so aware of his presence, and soon, she was so desensitized to him that she even found herself relaxing when he was nearby. 

Absolutely horrifying. Cordelia couldn’t believe that her instincts had deceived her in such a way. 

Trust nothing, betrayal is forever!!!

Speaking of. 

Apollo.

Well. 

Throughout her entire time down in Atlantis, he was there. His company helped. 

Her meetings with him were unreliable, but after she blew up at him, the way he looked at her changed. 

Before, he was fascinated by her because she had a library of stories to tell him. She was novel and new and was guaranteed to entertain him when they were together.

But now, he simply listened to her. 

And Cordelia liked that. She liked it a lot. 

Sure, she still liked to tell him stories, but now their meetings were more than that. 

He started to open up to her, too. The day he flopped down in frustration and began to complain about the argument that he had with Hermes was the day that Cordelia finally felt that last piece slide into the puzzle.

She trusted Apollo. 

Huh. When did that happen?

Cordelia knew how the gods were. They were selfish and cruel. They never cared about anyone but themselves. Hell, most of the time, they didn’t even care when they committed atrocities, all for the crime of inconveniencing them or annoying them.

But somehow, as Cordelia spent time with Apollo on their little shore at Camp Half-Blood, a frail, delicate bond of trust was incrementally woven between them.

Apollo was her friend. She could confidently declare that, and for some godforsaken reason, she could wholeheartedly believe that he would confess the same.

Out of all the things that she had experienced in the past, somehow, this was the thing that surprised her the most.

However.

Even with all of the connections that she had so painstakingly formed, Cordelia’s heart ached for Dio. 

She was only able to see him twice a year. Each time, it broke her heart to see how much he had grown up without her.

Her only consolation was that he seemed to miss her as much as she missed him, and he had the rest of the gang to keep him company.

When Cordelia turned nineteen years old, Poseidon asked her what she wanted as a present. 

She asked to go up to the surface to celebrate the day with her friends.

Poseidon was absolutely incensed that she wanted to spend her birthday with some filthy mortals and that foul Ares spawn rather than her own family. He forbade her from going up to the surface to see them for an entire year as punishment.

Cordelia screamed and railed at him, but his eyes just grew brighter and his wrath intensified. 

In the end, Triton forcefully pulled her away and led her furiously sobbing form over to Kymmie’s home. Cordelia cried and wailed as Kymmie comforted her and Triton stoically stood at her side, looking out the window so as not to witness her grief and helplessness. 

It made Cordelia the tiniest bit grateful that he was affording her that tiny shred of dignity. 

Cordelia cried herself into exhaustion. When she awoke again, she wanted to Iris Message Dio to let him know that she wouldn’t be able to see him, but Kymmie sternly warned her against it.

“Father will know,” she cautioned. “It’s been tried before, but because we’re in Father’s realm, he can block the communication, and trust me, if he catches you trying to communicate with someone he disapproves of, he will only grow more livid. The repercussions will be dire.”

From Triton’s clenched jaw, Cordelia could only imagine the consequences.

The only thing Cordelia could do was grit her teeth and move on.

She rolled over like a dog and accepted Poseidon’s verdict without a word of complaint.

But it was building. 

She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take.

In the end, it turned out that Amphi was the one who came through. 

Cordelia was especially monosyllabic when the date of her second missed meeting with her friends passed by, and Amphitrite grew more and more frustrated at her unresponsiveness until she sighed.

“Cease your sulking, child. Your mortal companions are fine.”

Cordelia said nothing. 

Amphitrite rolled her eyes. “Lay your useless worries to rest. I have informed that savage Son of Ares about your absence. He was rather upset, but ultimately understood that there was nothing he could do but wait.”

Cordelia felt her world tilt on its axis. “You- you went up to Megara and met Dio?"

Amphitrite examined the snacks that the chefs had made for the day. “Why, yes. Someone had to keep him informed, and poor Triton was too busy looking over your distraught, hysterical form. Honestly, have I taught you nothing? How many times do I have to emphasize the importance of control to you? Just be grateful that I was able to soothe my Lord Husband's vexation before he decided to send a Hurricane over to that quaint little town.”

Cordelia felt herself go light-headed at the implication. 

Amphitrite just eyed her and huffed. “There is no use in fretting, dear. This battle is your loss. Move on. Focus on regaining your Father’s favor so that he will allow you to see your little friends soon.”

So that’s what Cordelia did. She gritted her teeth, kept her head down, smiled at her Father’s awful jokes, and wanted to shoot herself in the head the entire time. 

Her rage just increased and increased, and the only thing that kept her from snapping was the fact that when she left, she would likely never willingly come back to Atlantis. After all, it was a prison for her for years.

When she left, she would probably never see Naida, Gilleroth, the Cyclopses, and Dexter again. She would rarely be able to talk to Kymmie, especially now that she had learned that Poseidon was able to interfere with Iris Messages. 

She wouldn’t be able to bicker with Triton, roll her eyes at Rhode, or feel secretly pleased when she impressed the fastidious queen.

So Cordelia ate, trained, and counted down the days while she sought to make happy memories before she left.

Because trust her, she was going to leave. And soon.

Chapter Text

The night before Cordelia turned 20 years old, she had dinner with her family. 

It was like any other usual dinner, except for one thing.

“My Lord Husband, have you thought of a suitable gift for your youngest daughter?”

Poseidon gaped at Amphitrite. He blinked, then blinked again. 

“A gift?”

“Yes.” Amphitrite gracefully ate a bite of her fish. “For her birthday.”

Poseidon’s eyes bugged out. “Another one? But… didn’t she just have one?”

Amphitrite hummed. “Yes, she did. A year ago.” 

“Ah…” he appeared to be thinking deeply. “Perhaps… perhaps a pet octopus?”

Rhode giggled. “She already has Epidexteros, father! He’s better than any old pet!”

“Oh, of course, of course… another gown?”

“You just commissioned new dresses for her last month, sire,” Triton monotonously intoned.

Poseidon looked harried. “Ah. Right.”

The room was filled with an awkward silence. Cordelia sipped on her Nectar.

“If I may, my lord?”

Poseidon looked grateful when Amphitrite spoke up. “Of course, my darling, speak freely.”

“The best gift may be allowing her to do whatever she wishes tomorrow.”

Poseidon paused for a moment, then nodded, relieved that they weren’t pestering him anymore. “Of course. For your birthday tomorrow, you may do as you wish, daughter.”

Amphitrite’s face didn’t change as she took a sip of her drink. “Even if she wished to visit the surface?”

Poseidon’s hands stilled, and the room chilled abruptly. 

When he slowly turned to look at them, his eyes were a bright, eerie green, but his face was unreadable. 

After what felt like an eternity, he nodded his head. 

It was a victory, but somehow, it didn’t feel like one.

Cordelia closed her eyes and waited. 

She waited as the palace slowly wound down to rest for the night and the graveyard shift patrols wandered through the calm water.

Finally, when midnight passed, Cordelia darted out of her room, ready to make a break for the surface.

She jerked to a stop.

Waiting in front of her room was Triton. He had changed out of the formal robes that he had worn for dinner, and he simply leaned against the wall in front of her door. 

They said nothing to each other. 

A heartbeat passed, then another one.

Finally, he nodded at her and moved to the side. 

She eyed him as she drifted around him, but he did nothing.

He simply watched her. His green eyes glowed in the darkness.

With a curt nod, she turned away and raced down the hall, letting the currents carry her away.

By the time Cordelia arrived at Megara, the sun was just beginning to crest the horizon. The late-summer air was cool but humid. The fishmongers were hauling their wares onto their stalls and setting up for the day.

Cordelia patiently sat off to the side and waited as the cool water lapped at her legs. She watched all these mortal people greet their friends, bicker about prices, and just live out their lives. She received a few funny looks from people who wondered why she would sit in the cold water so early in the morning, but everybody just left her alone and went about their business.

Cordelia's eyes caught on a yawning, stunning middle-aged lady who made her way over to the shore. Though she was older, she was still classically beautiful and turned more than a few heads. 

She made a cursory sweep over the shore, and her eyes landed on Cordelia, who waved at her and stood. The woman’s eyebrows rose, and she approached. 

“Good morning.”

The woman nodded her head. “Miss Cordi, I presume?”

“That’s me.”

The woman examined her and smiled. “I will let them know you’re here to see them.”

Cordelia grinned, her veins filled with anticipation and excitement. “Perfect. Let them know I’ll be in the cove, will you?”

“As you wish, Miss.”

Cordelia zipped over to the cove and impatiently waited for her friends to arrive. 

She felt a wave of heat wash over her and turned to squint up at the sun. Another wave warmed her, and she felt Apollo’s surprise and pleasure at seeing her up at the surface.

A breeze washed over her and whispered, “Happy birthday, darling."

Cordelia grinned.

“Hey stupid, why are you smiling up at the sun? Have you gone crazy after a year without it?”

Cordelia whipped around in excitement.

“Dio! I missed you so- WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?! WHAT IS THAT?!”

Her bratty little piglet had changed so much over the year she hadn’t seen him.

He would be about 15 years old if she remembered right, but what the actual fuck?

He had hit an insane growth spurt and had grown taller than even her, and she stood at a very respectable 6 feet. Jesus Christ, he probably still had room to grow, too; he was barely in his mid-teens. Gosh, here in Ancient Greece, where people were shorter on average, they both probably looked like they had fucking giant blood or something.

Though he was still kinda gangly, he had put on a shit-ton of muscle, too, compared to his boney little frame from when they were both slaves. His features were still padded with some baby fat, but he had undeniably changed from looking deceptively angelic to undeniably handsome and masculine.

His skin glowed with a healthy tan, and his wild blond hair was shiny and had bleached a shade lighter from the sun. His hair had grown out and the curls puffed up flatteringly around his face and fell into his eyes, but-

“Is that a fucking mullet?! Wait, before that, what the fuck happened to your face?!”

He had parallel scars running over his left eye, through his cheek and jaw, and down the side of his neck. It wasn’t all that macabre, having faded to pale, smooth scar tissue, but it was definitely noticeable at first glance.

Finally, Dio had walked close enough for her to touch, and Cordelia took his head in her hands and turned him so she could see better. “Were you fucking mauled? What happened?”

Dio scowled at her but patiently suffered through her fussing. “As a matter of fact, I fucking was.”

“What?” Cordelia screeched.

“Yeah. A few monsters have popped in here and there, but I was able to take care of them, no problem. But a few months ago, there were reports of a village being terrorized by some kind of big cat thing, and they came to Bingyan for help, so she sent me over.”

His eyes went distant, and he lifted a hand to absently rub over the scars. 

“Yeah, when I got there, apparently some cumstains had raped a poor young girl to death, so the Huntress had sent down some kind of lion thing to kill them. It didn’t have a mane, but it had spots and big ears, like a rabbit. Only, after the rapist filth was taken care of, it started attacking everyone else and killing the rest of the villagers, right? So I had to go put it down.”

Cordelia’s jaw was open. “What did you do?”

Dio shrugged nonchalantly. “I went over and fought it, but my sword did fuck-all against it, just pissed it off. So then, I ran, and it followed me, which was good, so it couldn’t hurt the others anymore.”

This goddamn idiot. “Then what?”

“It hunted me for a few days. Eventually, I got tired of running and hiding, so I just decided to wrestle it since my weapons weren’t working, and I strangled it. It burst into gold dust and disappeared.” He puffed his chest out and preened.

“Oh my fucking god.”

Dio laughed.

“You goddamn idiot! You could have fucking died!” 

He smirked smugly. Cordelia wanted to punch him.“Well, it turned out alright in the end, didn’t it?” 

He lifted his arm to show her his hand, where a thick, chunky bronze ring rested. Nestled in the middle was a gigantic blood-red gem that glittered menacingly. “My dad was watching, and he seemed happy that I killed it, though he did make fun of me for getting scratched. He did something which made that red boar ghost float over me again, then he gave me this.”

He twisted the ring, and a huge Celestial Bronze labrys axe appeared. It was massive, around four feet long, and the double blades were thick and sharp. It was forged in the Minoan style, so the blade wings were wider than normal labrys axes, and they were engraved with detailed grooves. It looked like it was over 20 pounds, easily.

Dio grasped and effortlessly twirled the axe around with no issue, one-handed. Holy shit. Her little kiddo was pretty strong now, huh?

“So what you’re telling me is that your dad watched you almost die from getting mauled by a leopard-thing, then he shit on you about how you sucked, and then blessed you and gifted you a Celestial Bronze weapon?”

Dio tilted his head as he thought about it for a second, then he nodded. “Yup, that about covers it. Oh, while I was bleeding out, he threw a fudgy square at me and told me to eat it. It tasted like my mom’s disgusting mink stew, but it made me feel a lot better after I took a nap.”

Cordelia stared at him. “After you passed out, you mean.”

Dio sniffed at her. “Hmph. Semantics.”

Cordelia rolled her eyes and pulled back so she could take him in better. 

His face wasn’t the only thing that was scarred. He also had scratchmark scars running down both of his arms, and she could see a few peeking out from under his shirt.

Before she could react, Dio’s fingers came to give her waist a sharp pinch, and she yelped.

“Enough about me, what about you? I don’t see you for a year, and suddenly, you get fat? What the fuck?”

Cordelia physically felt her blood pressure spike. Her eye twitched. She took a deep breath.

“What. Did you just say?”

Dio critically examined her and sneered. “You’re all fat, now. What, did you just sit and eat like the water buffalo you are?”

“I am not fat,” Cordelia ground out. “It’s all muscle.” She had the physique of an MMA fighter! She had abs, for fuck’s sake! Abs!!! She had a low body fat percentage, okay?! Sure, she might have gained a cup size or two and her hips were curvier, but she was not fucking fat!!

Dio condescendingly poked at her hip, and she hissed at him. “Oh, sure, all muscle. What about those udders you’ve grown? You call that muscle?”

He looked down at his chest, then back at hers, and smirked when he met her eyes. 

“Well, even after you’ve gotten fat, mine are bigger than yours. Ouch. That has to suck,” his voice was falsely sympathetic. “I’m not even done growing yet, but I already have better tits than you. My condolences.” His grin was evil.

That’s it. 

She pulled the water around over them and splashed Dio with a wave of frigid seawater, and he sputtered. She tackled him into the water with a resounding splash and did her very best to drown him in the shallows while he kicked and laughed as he fought against her.

They wrestled and splashed at each other, and Cordelia fondly looked on as he belly-laughed, his face open and happy, as he futilely tried to pick the sand from his hair. He looked so young and healthy and full of life, so different from the near-feral, emaciated child that she had left behind years ago.

He looked so happy.

The realization hit her.

Holy shit.

Dio… he almost…

Cordelia tracked all the deep claw marks that the leopard-rabbit hybrid monster left on him, and her gut twisted.

She could have lost him. She almost did, if he was close to bleeding out before Ares had given him Ambrosia to help heal him.

The thought frightened her. It chilled her down to her very bones.

Dio was growing older, and it was clear that he was growing into his godly inheritance. 

Just like Clarisse, he was beginning to radiate that particular, metallic, bloodthirsty divinity that Cordelia associated with Ares spawn. Towards the end of their battle with the giants, even Frank had begun to emanate it.

Dio was strong.

If she could sense it, so could all the monsters around him.

It was fantastic that he now had a Celestial Bronze weapon, but… Cordelia knew firsthand how easy it was for one simple, careless mistake to cost you everything. 

No matter how good he was, he was alone. 

And that was a death sentence.

Eventually, no matter how good he got, sometime in the future, it was likely that he would get overwhelmed. A sole demigod is a dead one. 

Not anymore.

Cordelia leaned against her precious little brat and smiled when his weight leaned back against her.

He wouldn’t be alone for much longer.

She beamed when the ladies, accompanied by Ranga and Fionn finally made their way down the steep stone footholds into the cove, all while her skin prickled under the warmth of the sun.

Happy birthday to her~!

As Cordelia made her way back down to Atlantis, she was filled with warmth and happiness.

That was…

It was a bit bittersweet to be unable to spend her birthday with her mom, but this… this was pretty damn close.

Being able to see Dio and the others again…

Her heart felt like it was going to burst from happiness.

This.

There were so many people within Atlantis that she really, truly cared about, but none were able to make her smile like that.

Still high off her trip to the surface, Cordelia didn’t notice the dark, oppressive atmosphere that shrouded the city when she swam through.

She made her way into the castle, and to her surprise, Gilleroth was waiting out front for her. To her surprise, he looked almost… afraid.

“Gill?” Cordelia whispered.

He just shook his head. 

Gill silently followed after her as she entered and made her way through the winding halls.

They were devoid of anyone, which was rather unusual. 

It sent a wave of trepidation down Cordelia’s spine.

Almost as if summoned by a magnet, Cordelia found herself drifting towards the throne room. 

Gilleroth’s huge hand grasped her shoulder, and she peered up at him.

Again, he was wearing an expression she had never seen on him before. 

“My lady…” he breathed. His hand tightened on her shoulder for a moment, and he swallowed heavily. Slowly, he removed his hand and bowed deeply.

“My lady, I would just like to say that it has been an absolute pleasure serving you for the past three years.” He crossed his spear over his chest and lowered his head further.

A ball of nervousness began to bloom. Cordelia smiled at him and swam forward to pull him into a tight hug. He remained stiff and unmoving, but Cordelia felt him gulp again.

“Right back at you, Gill.”

She turned and entered the cavernous hall.

It was empty, save for two people.

As she approached, their conversation floated over to her.

“I am begging you, Father. Please reconsider. I will take any punishment you deem fit, but please spare her.”

“No, Triton.”

“Please. It is her birthday, Father. Do not do this. I am begging you. If you have any love in your heart for her, please do not do this.”

“Ha! What do you know about love, son? It is precisely because I love her that I have to keep her from straying down the wrong path. As her father, it is my duty to discipline her so that she does not turn to deviant behaviors.”

“This is not discipline, Father, this is torture. Please stop this madness. She will not survive this.”

“You underestimate her, son. She is of my blood. This is nothing.”

“Father, please-”

Cordelia finally swam into view, and their conversation ceased as they both turned to her.

Poseidon sat on his throne, and Triton was before him. When they saw her, they both schooled their expressions, but Poseidon’s power began to seep into the water around them. His eyes began to glow.

“Ah, daughter, how nice of you to join us!” His voice was cheerful, but in contrast, the look in his eyes was positively glacial. She shivered.

Cordelia inclined her head. “Did you need me, Father?”

Poseidon smiled. “Of course! I am glad you made your way to me yourself. Saves me the time of tracking you down for your punishment.”

Triton’s jaw clenched. 

A swoop of nervousness ran through Cordelia’s stomach. “Punishment? For what? I didn’t do anything.”

Poseidon’s eyes were hard. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes!”

Poseidon’s power flared, and his eyes flashed. “What was it I granted to you last night?”

Cordelia set her jaw. “You said that I could do whatever I wished for my Birthday.”

“Yes.” Poseidon’s lip began to lift into a snarl. “So why is it that I see you have taken advantage of my graciousness and left the safety of Atlantis hours before your Birthday began?”

"Take advantage of- what are you talking about, Dad?” Cordelia was baffled and angry.

“Did you or did you not leave the city before sunrise?”

Cordelia lifted her head in defiance. “Yes, I did.”

“So you admit that you left before the day began.”

“No, I-” Cordelia froze. 

Oh. 

That’s what this was about.

She was used to keeping track of time the modern way, when the day started at midnight. 

Apparently, it was different in Ancient Greece. Years ago, when she had just freshly arrived, Blanda had mentioned something about the day starting at dawn, but after that, the topic had never once come up again. 

Oh.

Triton swam forward. “Father, please. She just left early to enjoy the start of the day with her friends. You never said that she could not-”

"ENOUGH, TRITON.”

Poseidon's voice boomed through the hall like a gong. A shiver ran down her spine.

He turned to look at Cordelia. “You have wilfully disobeyed me, so you will be punished. I cannot allow you to take advantage of my affection for you.”

Cordelia gritted her teeth. She didn’t willfully disobey him, but either way, she still did fuck up.  

Shit.

“I will allow you three options. You may choose, as Triton keeps reminding me, it is your Birthday, so I will allow you this leniency.”

Triton’s tails swished in agitation.

Cordelia warily nodded. 

“Option one: You will take one hundred strikes from a flail crafted from box jellyfish tentacles.”

Cordelia’s blood ran cold. 

Triton clenched his fists. “Father, please. She can’t survive that. She’s mortal. Please-”

Poseidon looked at him, and his power spiked. Triton’s mouth snapped shut, and he glared at the floor.

“Option two: As your brother has so desperately and pathetically been begging me to allow, I will allow him to take your punishment for you.”

Triton looked relieved, but Poseidon continued.

“As long as you are the one to administer the strikes upon him.”

A wave of pure ice froze her from the inside out.

“I will not allow you to simply sit aside. You will need to feel firsthand what your actions have caused. Perhaps this will allow some of that mortal squeamishness to fade.”

Box jellyfish. 

One of the most venomous animals in the world.

The venom of one large jellyfish can kill 50 people in under two minutes.

When the tentacles come into contact with something, it triggers the explosive discharge of nematocysts, which are like little darts that inject extremely potent and rapidly acting venom into the victim. The venom causes hemolysis of red blood cells, exploding them, and locks the heart in a contracted state. It also raises blood pressure to such an extent that it could cause brain aneurysms. 

And it’s painful. 

So painful that people would rather die to end the pain. It would just build and build until you felt like a knife was stabbing you whilst being burned by fire from the inside out. Even opioid painkillers didn’t work. The only option was to ride it out.

Even in the future, with antivenoms developed, this was still one of the most deadly creatures that still existed on the planet.

Cordelia was a daughter of Poseidon, true, but…

She knew in her heart of hearts that what Triton said was the truth.

There was no reality where she could survive one hundred strikes from a box jellyfish’s tentacles.

But the alternative?

She fought not to vomit.

“And finally, option three: You will spend two months in the Trench.”

“No!” Triton barked.

“Perhaps this will teach you to be grateful for all that I have provided you here in Atlantis.” Poseidon smiled and reclined on his throne.

“No!” Triton turned to her. His eyes were wild. “Choose the second option. I can take it. Let’s just be done with it.”

Cordelia stared at him in confusion. “But it’ll hurt you.”

Triton sneered at her. “So what? I’m a god. I can handle it. Like your puny, weak strikes can hurt me anyway.”

It was a lie. 

Cordelia could feel it in her bones.

Even Triton couldn’t walk something like that off. Maybe a dozen or two, but a hundred? Not a chance in hell.

“No.”

Triton snarled at her. “Just choose it! I command you!” He turned back to Poseidon, who was watching on with an amused smile on his lips. “She’ll choose option two. Have a guard fetch the flail.”

“It’s her birthday. She gets to choose,” Poseidon drawled.

“No!” Cordelia roared. “No! I won’t do it!”

Triton sneered. “Oh, just get over yourself. Don’t be so sensitive. Stop being so squeamish and just do it!”

Cordelia whipped around and got in his face. Up close, she could see the swirl of anger and fear in his eyes.

“I will never do it, Triton,” she softly snarled. “Don’t you remember? I was a fucking slave for a bit.” She empathetically rattled her chains so they clinked. “There is no force on Olympus or this earth that can make me hurt you with a fucking slaver’s weapon. I will never hurt you to preserve myself.” 

Triton’s face twisted in rage and helplessness.

Cordelia turned back to Poseidon and stood tall. “I choose option three.”

Poseidon smiled in pride. “As you wish, daughter. I will see you in two months.”

Then, Poseidon snapped his fingers and she dissolved into bubbles.

When she opened her eyes again, she was surrounded by complete darkness, and a bone-crushing weight pressed upon her on all sides. She felt her breath escape from her when a familiar primordial evil washed over her.

The only thing she could make out was the vivid green glow of Triton’s furious eyes.

“You little fool,” he breathed. “What have you done?”

The Trench was dark. 

It was a rift into Tartarus, and the sheer maleficence of the abyss seeped through, along with the monsters.

Cordelia’s eyes adjusted to the unending blackness, but she still couldn’t view anything. In the end, she was human, and her eyes weren’t evolved for the never-ending void of the Trench.

Thankfully, all the mer- and fishmen automatically glowed with bioluminescence, which provided the little light she needed to actually see.

Of course, Triton fretted over her and snarled insults over her intelligence and delicate mortal sensibilities, but Cordelia didn’t regret it for one second.

Triton’s attention was taken by the rest of the Trench Troops present, who were surprised to see him, as he wasn’t due for a rotation down in the Trench for a good few months.

Cordelia could finally understand why Triton was so angry with her.

This… being here in the Trench, constantly battling the crushing pressure and the horrible monsters that fought their way out of Tartarus…

For any other normal Demigod, this wasn’t survivable. 

But. 

She was Cordi fuckin’ Jackson.

She had walked through Tartarus himself when she was half-dead.

After all the training she had endured and all the strength she had fought for?

Well, it wasn’t exactly a piece of cake, but… 

At least she wasn’t alone, this time.

She didn’t complain when orders were barked at her, when she was commanded to do unpleasant, demeaning tasks, or wake up to respond to emergencies.

They were at war, after all.

She just shut her mouth, picked up a free sword, and killed anything that got in her way.

She made her choice, and she didn’t regret it for one second.

Afterwards, she went to the Commander’s Quarters and allowed Triton and Libiya to fuss over her.

Oh yeah. 

So, Cordelia finally found out who Triton’s mysterious lover was.

Her name was Libiya, and she was a daughter of Oceanus.

Cordelia immediately loved her. She was quiet and kind and full of tender affection, but at the same time, she was a stone-cold badass.

She was forced to be.

You see, just like many other Oceanids, Libiya was enchantingly beautiful, both inside and out.

However, she was different from all of them.

She was born blind.

Like so many other deep-sea creatures, Libiya was born without eyes. From the nose up, she possessed a smooth stretch of skin until it reached the delicate lavender of her hair, but it didn’t detract from her beauty at all. 

She was born with a strong gift for echolocation, so she could navigate her surroundings perfectly. It honestly wasn’t even a factor for her. Libiya radiated an innate kindness and gentleness, and Cordelia could easily see how Triton had fallen in love with her. 

However.

Poseidon did not approve of her. 

When Triton approached Poseidon about marrying Libiya, he denied his request.

Apparently, it was unseemly for the Crown Prince of Atlantis to be wed to someone with a disfigurement. What if she passed down the shameful deformity to their children? Unthinkable! Not to mention that she was one of Oceanus’ favorite daughters. How could he ever be sure of her allegiance?

Triton begged and pleaded with Poseidon, all to no avail. Even with Amphitrite, Benthesikyme, Rhode, and Kymopoleia asking on his behalf, Poseidon would not be moved.

Triton eventually was pushed to the extent that he threatened to swear a vow on the River Styx that he would marry her or none at all.

In response, Poseidon declared that Triton would be disinherited and excluded from the line of succession before being banished from Atlantis altogether. 

They were at a stalemate.

Finally, Poseidon proposed a compromise. 

If Libiya could serve as his General in the Trench for a millennium, then he could finally be assured of her loyalties. Perhaps then he would reconsider allowing Triton to marry her.

Triton was absolutely horrified. Serve in the Trench? Which led to Tartarus? For a millennium? 

Libiya was kind and gentle, a true lady. Poseidon could not possibly expect this of her.

However, Libiya accepted. 

She, too, loved Triton with all her heart and would do anything to be with him. If this was what she had to do for her father-in-law to accept her, then so be it.

Libiya accepted the position of General.

She was the ultimate commander of the Trench, however, she was still a non-combatant.

She didn’t let that stop her, however. 

She learned everything about strategy and tactics that she could, as well as management and administration for a large number of troops. 

She planned and planned until she could organize each and every soldier so that she minimized the loss of life to the fullest extent. 

She learned healing magic so that she could administer aid when they returned from their battles.

She humbly worked with the servants, helped change bandages for the soldiers, and cooked meals for them.

When they were injured, she would sing to them in an effort to soothe their pain. 

When they died, she would personally perform their final rites and help prepare their bodies to be given back to their families.

She took sole responsibility for each and every Trench Troop that was under her command and treated them as she would her own family.

And while she did everything, Triton watched on with a gentle, affectionate look that Cordelia had never seen on him before.

It was…

It was something.

Cordelia finally understood why he was reluctant for Kymmie to talk about her.

Libiya was the kindest, most gentle person that Cordelia had met ever since she had come to the past. She had been forced into this unfair position, but she handled her situation with unparalleled grace and rose to the occasion, all for the possibility that she would one day be acknowledged and accepted.

Cordelia was shocked when the other woman took her in her arms in a soft, gentle hug and thanked her for not subjecting Triton to one hundred strikes of box jellyfish venom. He would survive his injuries; however, even though he was a god and it would not kill him, the pain of it would have made him wish for death.

After all, the box jellyfish flail was used for torture and interrogation, as well as for painful executions of criminals who had committed heinous, unforgivable crimes, such as pedophilia.

No. There was no universe where Cordelia would have ever chosen option two.

She just blushed and grumbled as she turned away, ignoring Libiya’s fond smile and Triton’s piercing, searching look.

In the beginning, Triton had constantly watched over Cordelia with a hawk-like gaze, probably to both make sure that she hadn’t gotten herself killed and that she didn’t do anything to offend sweet, sweet Libiya.

As the days passed and Cordelia proved herself to be hardy enough to withstand the constant agony caused by Tartarus, he finally began to relax, but he still kept a constant eye over her.

He still loomed over her and insulted her when she got injured enough for her to require one of Libiya’s healing potions or some Ambrosia, but…

Somehow, Cordelia could feel that he didn’t really mean it, not like he did in the beginning.

Things really changed near the end of her two-month mark.

She only had a week or two left before she completed her punishment.

Cordelia was eagerly waiting for that day.

She was able to keep up with the rest of the Trench Troops and was even a huge asset to the forces, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t getting fatigued. 

Even the other Troops were only stationed for a short amount of time so that they didn’t get burned out and always remained in tip-top shape. 

One day, a bellowing alarm akin to a whale call echoed through the water, waking Cordelia up from her slumber. As the days went on, she was forced to take some cat naps to recover a bit of her energy.

Hey, you try fighting a constant stream of feral Cyclopses and Telekhines for hours without rest or food and see if you don't wish for a nap.

Cordelia shook off her grogginess, grabbed a sword, and followed the screams. 

An absolutely massive serpent was rising out of the trench. It took her a long second to comprehend what she was even looking at. It was almost incomprehensibly huge. She was barely the size of its eye, and it just kept coming and coming and coming.

It opened its jaw and roared.

The stone floor of the ocean shuddered.

Triton cursed. “A Leviathan-class monster!” 

He clutched Libiya in his arms. She was bent over and trembling. Of course. With the way that thing roared, her echolocation must be virtually fried, and she was probably completely blind right now.

The creature’s massive head slowly turned to them. It opened its mouth and revealed a forest of long yellow fangs. Bits of rotted meat were stuck in between the teeth, and when it roared again, a foul stench washed over them. 

Triton’s jaw clenched as it slowly, slowly made its way over to them, more of its huge body rising from the Trench. “Retreat!”

Libiya lifted a trembling hand and caressed his arm. “No, Tri. We can’t let it get to the city.”

Triton growled. “I’ll take care of it, but it’ll take too long for me to kill it alone. We’ll lose too many soldiers in the process. Everyone needs to leave.”

“Tri…”

Triton hissed. “There’s no other way, Libi. Take them and retreat.”

“What if you’re pulled into Tartarus again?” Her voice shook. She blindly reached for him, and Triton gently took her hand and pressed a kiss to it.

“Then I gather the pieces of myself and climb back out of the Trench like I did the last time. I’ll always come back to you, my love. Now go. Take the others and retreat.”

Libiya’s lip trembled, then she straightened and nodded. She reached an arm out, and a soldier came and took it. “You heard the Crown Prince. We retreat to the far camp. Move out.”

All of the soldiers swam in synchronization like a school of fish and darted away from the monster. It roared at seeing its prey escape from it.

Triton exhaled deeply and held out his arm. A magnificent trident pulsing with power melted from his armor and amalgamated into his hand. It was different from Poseidon’s, less adorned with jewels and more streamlined, and there was a ring at the end of it, to attach it to chains or rope, Cordelia presumed.

Triton stoically watched as all the soldiers swam for their lives away from the monster that snapped its jaws at them. He waited until every last person was evacuated, then he turned to Cordelia. “What are you waiting for? Are you deaf? I told you to retreat!”

Cordelia smiled and spun the sword in her hand. 

It was awkward and unbalanced, but she was Cordi fuckin’ Jackson.

“Sorry, dickhead. I’m not about to leave you to fight alone.” She turned to the monster, which was almost upon them. 

“I might hate your guts, but I would never allow anything to happen to you. I hate you, but you’re still my brother. You’re gonna just have to live with that, asshole.”

Triton stared at her. 

The Leviathan roared again.

Finally, his severe expression broke. His eyes filled with bloodlust, and it stained the water around them. His lips were pulled into a tiny, tiny smile. “Alright, sister. Let’s take care of this abomination.”

Cordelia grinned.

For the first time, she knew that Triton actually meant it when he called her his sister.

Why, you ask?

Because a rush of power and awareness filled her veins. 

It was akin to when Poseidon had claimed her again. 

Triton had finally accepted her as a member of his family, and he had claimed her.

Triton’s form rippled, and a monster exploded out of his skin. His hair conjoined into tentacles and swayed in the current, and his face was monstrous and shark-like. Stripes covered each inch of him. He radiated godly power.

Cordelia wasn’t exempt, either.

As the power rushed through her, she felt her teeth elongate and sharpen, and webs formed between her fingers and toes.

They grinned at each other and leaped at the monster.

It took hours. 

The monster was massive. No matter how much they hacked and sliced, the thick skin and blubber prevented them from dealing a lethal blow.

The water was stained with blood as they slowly, slowly began to wear it down.

Alone, Cordelia could see how Triton could have been pulled back into Tartarus with the creature, trapped within its massive maw or impaled on its spear-like teeth.

But with her here, watching his back, and with him watching hers? After all of those months together where they fought each other to a standstill, they were able to anticipate the other’s next move without a second thought. They were a flawless, unbeatable team, and the serpent roared as it failed to get a hit on them.

They wore it down until it was filled with holes like Swiss cheese. 

Finally, when it screamed its death cry and began to dissolve into gold dust, Triton turned to her and shared her grin.

“Sister,” he acknowledged.

“Brother,” she smiled.

The night before she was due to return back to Atlantis, Cordelia opened her eyes to Camp Half-Blood.

The light of the sun was almost too much to bear after two months of complete darkness. She immediately closed her eyes again and winced.

Apollo’s deep chuckle sounded from next to her. “Ah, a bit too bright, my dear?”

Cordelia nodded.

He hummed and allowed the silence to wash over them. 

Cordelia just listened to the sound of the sea with her eyes still closed, enjoying the peaceful, rhythmic song of the waves washing over the shore.

“Where are you, Cordelia?” Apollo’s voice was quiet, but deadly serious. 

Cordelia just smiled and tilted her head up to the sun, enjoying the way the warmth washed over her. Behind her closed eyelids, bright flashes of color danced across her vision like fireworks. 

“Where do you think I am?”

“Cordelia,” his voice was closer. His hot breath washed over her ear, and she shivered. “Where are you? I haven’t been able to feel you for weeks, and now, when you’re here, you still…” his voice trailed off.

Cordelia turned towards the direction of his voice. “I’m still what?”

Apollo let out a shuddering breath, and this time it washed over her face. It smelled sweet, like Nectar. 

“You stink of Tartarus.” His voice was low and severe. 

Cordelia smiled. 

A low growl left him. “Why? You had the barest traces of Tartarus’s malignant aura when I first met you, but I simply attributed it to whatever caused you to fall from the sky.”

His large hand wrapped behind her neck, and his fingers tangled up in her damp, wavy hair. Cordelia shivered. His hand was so hot, almost scalding, and it sent a wave of pleasure through her, chasing away the constant cold radiating from the Trench.

He gently pulled her hair until she was forced to tilt her head up. Apollo’s hot breath washed over her. 

Cordelia refused to open her eyes. She was scared to see the expression on his face. She didn’t know why. 

“Tell me why,” he softly snarled, “You would stink like Tartarus when you should be safe within your Father’s kingdom, protected like the princess you are?”

Cordelia’s neck ached deliciously from how he was forcing her to tilt up to face him. “My father sent me to the Trench, Apollo.”

His fingers tightened in her hair.

“What?” he breathed.

Cordelia sighed out a laugh. “It was either that or be forced to torture my brother, all because I made a stupid mistake.”

She felt the air fill with godly power around her. It was hot and overwhelming, like a sauna. It almost hurt to breathe the heated air.

“You should have done it,” he coldly stated. “Triton could have taken it. Better him than you.”

Cordelia tried to shake her head, but Apollo’s hand didn’t give her any leeway. 

“No. I don’t regret my choice. I will never choose to torture someone to save my own skin. Especially my family and friends, whom I’m supposed to protect. My mother taught me better than that.”

A soft smile bloomed on her face, and she allowed herself to lean into his hold a little.

“And besides, it was for the better. Now, Triton actually sees me as his sister.” Happiness and joy bloomed in her chest, and she was sure it reflected in her smile.

Finally. After years, finally.

Cordelia finally had some of her family back.

It was finally time.

“Hey, Apollo?”

Apollo didn’t say anything. His hot breath just washed over her.

“I’m tired of the cold and the dark, Apollo.”

Cordelia sighed and relaxed into his hold. She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter till the spots returned.

“It’s time. I’m ready to come up to the light again.”

Apollo remained silent, but his hand tightened in her hair.

It took Cordelia and Triton three days to swim back to Atlantis.

Cordelia had to look away when Triton tightly embraced Libiya and kissed her like a part of his soul was being torn away.

Afterwards, Libiya gently hugged her as well and murmured a blessing over her head. She had grasped Cordelia’s hand within her own and genuinely thanked her for her service in the Trench. 

“Your intervention had saved hundreds of lives, dear sister-in-law. Thank you for choosing this route.”

Cordelia had just nodded and hugged Libiya back.

This was probably the last time Cordelia would ever see her again. Libiya wasn’t allowed to leave the Trench for another few centuries, and Cordelia would likely never come back to this rift into hell.

But still, Cordelia’s life was brighter for having Libiya in it, even if it was for a short time.

She can honestly say that despite all the blood and death of the Trench, overall, it truly had been a pleasure, if just for having met Libiya.

While they made their way back, Cordelia and Triton didn’t speak, but it didn’t rankle like it previously would have.

Because this time, Cordelia knew exactly where she stood.

The looming gates of Atlantis rose before them, and Cordelia let out a quiet breath. 

This was it.

“Sister.”

She turned to Triton, who intently examined her. He inclined his head. “Follow.”

He led her around the city till the water grew warmer and warmer as they reached the Cyclops forges.

He came to a stop in front of them. “Wait. They should be here shortly.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask who, but her question was answered when she saw two familiar figures drifting towards them.

To Cordelia’s great surprise, the first was Rhode. She swam over the bustle of the city, making a beeline for the entrance of the forges. She was dressed in a long, gauzy formal gown that elegantly trailed behind her and was adorned with heavy jewels. She must have just come from a meeting with the Mage Guild.

The second was Kymmie. She came from outside the city borders, just as they had. She drew many looks from the civilians, who gaped at her inhuman beauty and unusual size. As usual, Kymmie ignored it, but Cordelia could tell that it irritated her by the way her eyes wrinkled in the corners. 

She wasn’t specifically banished from the city, per se, but it was better for all parties involved if she did not enter Atlantis’ borders regularly. That often led to disagreements of the explosive kind. 

She was the goddess of violent sea storms, after all. Things got a bit turbulent when she got mad.

And if there was one person who knew how to push her buttons, it was Poseidon.

So, it was quite a shock to see her anywhere near the city. 

Both of them reached the forge at the same time.

Kymmie’s nose wrinkled. “Rhode.”

Rhode giggled prettily. “Kymopoleia! What a surprise! I thought you were too much of a coward to come see us without Mother pressuring you!”

Kymmie pulled her lips back in a snarl, displaying her shocking black gums. “Why are you even here? Shouldn’t you be casting a curse to boil some poor soul’s blood right now?”

Rhode’s smile remained in place, but her green eyes flashed. Before she could open her mouth to retort, Triton scowled. “Enough. You know why we’re here. Let’s get it over with.”

He headed into the forge, and Cordelia glanced at her half-sisters before she followed him in.

A wave of piping-hot water heated by the lava engulfed her, and she sighed in pleasure. 

That felt good. It was almost too hot, making her skin prickle in pain-pleasure, but it was better than the deep chill she had been forced to endure for months.

Cordelia turned back to Triton to see that he was talking to Spyros, the forgemaster. He was an old cyclops, with a long white beard that he braided and wrapped around his neck like a scarf when he was working. He was nodding at whatever Triton was asking him. “Yes, my liege. It took me months, but I was finally able to stabilize the alloy to keep it from peeling. It is ready, just as you requested.”

Her brother turned away from Spyros and caught her eye. He waved her forward. 

Cordelia cautiously approached him.

Triton stared down at her, and Rhode and Kymopoleia drifted so they were on either side of him. 

Finally, he asked, “Are you ready to leave, sister?”

Cordelia inhaled deeply, and the heated, metallic-flavored water entered her lungs. She resolutely looked up and met each of their eyes, one by one. 

“Yes.”

Rhode smiled, and her sharp, serrated teeth reflected the light of the lava. “Father will not just allow you to leave. Do you understand that?”

Cordelia lifted her head in defiance. “Yes.”

Kymopoleia sullenly huffed and crossed her arms. “If you leave, you can probably never come back. Are you willing to take that risk?”

Cordelia held her breath for a long second before she sighed. “Yes. I’ll miss you, but I’m not like you all. I’m a demigod. I’m human. I’m an amphibian, like a sea turtle. I need both the sea and the surface. Without both, I’ll just wither away.” 

Cordelia’s jaw set, and she glared up at them. “If I have to fight, then I’ll fight. There’s a saying in my old home that resonates down to my soul.”

She felt her power leak, but she didn’t care. The currents swirled around her and caught her hair, and her teeth felt sharper in her mouth.

“Give me liberty or give me death.”

Her siblings stared at her for a moment as they took her in. 

Finally, Triton sighed. “As I suspected. Even if you are not pure-blooded like us, you cannot restrain the sea. Come. Let us prepare you for your journey.”

He turned and swam deeper into the forge, followed by Kymopoleia and Rhode. 

Cordelia exhaled and followed them.

He came to a stop before Spyros, who was holding something in his hand. 

As she got closer, she saw that they were cylindrical bronze cuffs. They were longer than normal cuff jewelry, but they weren’t long enough to be bracer-length. They looked kind of strange and didn’t shine with the distinct, pure color of Celestial Bronze. Parts of it looked to be streaked with silver or gray. 

Triton gestured her forward. “Come, sister.”

Cordelia went. 

Triton took the cuffs off Spyros and turned to her. His eyes were solemn. 

“Give Rhode your hands.”

Cordelia slowly lifted her arms towards Rhode.

The light-blue goddess smiled at Cordelia, but there wasn’t an ounce of warmth within her eyes.

“I’m now going to remove your unsightly old shackles, dear sister, but be warned, it is not going to be pleasant. But you’ll bear it, won’t you? It’s not like you have a choice.” She grinned sadistically.

Cordelia gritted her teeth and jerkily nodded her head. “Do it.”

Rhode smiled and began to chant. The dull iron cuffs began to glow and expand.

Cordelia fought not to scream. 

After so long with the shackles on so tight, her flesh had melded to the metal, and when it came off, so did her skin.

Kymmie’s huge hand reassuringly squeezed her shoulder, and Cordelia focused on the contact to ground herself from the agony.

Finally, the metal expanded enough for it to slip off her hands. Once Rhode released her hold on them, they faded back to their dull color and collapsed to the floor with a clank.

“Give me your hands, sister.” Triton held the bronze cuffs to her, and Cordelia allowed him to slide them on. 

Her nerves screamed with pain as the metal touched her raw flesh, but she refused to flinch.

Kymopoleia’s eyes glowed, and Rhode began to chant again. Magic cracked in the water like lightning, and their hair whipped in the frenzy.

The loose Celestial Bronze cuffs snapped closed around her wrists, and Cordelia felt her bones creak under the force and her delicate, oversensitive flesh scream from the pressure.

Cordelia gritted her teeth and closed her eyes.

This was nothing.

Live free or die trying.

More and more magic whipped through the water as Triton added his own chanting to the mix, and Cordelia felt like she could suffocate under the combined weight of the power of her three godly siblings.

It ended in a crescendo: their power spiked and washed over her, and Cordelia gasped.

Their power moved through her like water, so similar to her own, but it possessed that distinct bite of divinity that Cordelia’s own power lacked. It streamed within her like blood and then concentrated in her hands and absorbed into the cuffs. The cuffs glowed and locked into place with a decisive click.

Cordelia gasped again.

Immediately, she could feel exactly how to use these weapons. It was like she had always known.

She flicked her right hand, and the cuffs melted off her skin. The metal crawled into her hand and formed a sword. 

Cordelia brought it to her face.

Just like Riptide, it was a leaf-shaped xiphos sword, but it was longer than Riptide had been. 

It gleamed in the light of the lava, but Cordelia could see that a beautiful Damascus-striped pattern ran through the blade. Alternating lines of silver and bronze swirled in hypnotic waves, akin to the froth produced by clashing tides.

Cordelia’s breath caught in her throat.

This blade was just…

Perfect. 

Even Riptide hadn’t been this perfectly balanced, perfectly sized, and perfectly weighted. Even Riptide didn’t fit this flawlessly and easily into her hand and follow her will without question.

Celestial Bronze and mortal steel Damascus.

A blade that would serve her well against both mortals and monsters.

A sword that was from both worlds, just like her.

A memory of Backbiter appeared, and she shook it away.

No. This isn’t like that abomination.

This blade was hers. 

It was-

“Selacha Tigris.”

Tiger Shark.

It was simply perfect.

Cordelia allowed Tiger Shark to flow up her arm and reform into a cuff again, then she flicked her left hand.

A line of chains sprouted and grew until it began to pool on the floor, swaying along to the currents. 

Now this one? 

This was a thick, heavy chain made of pure Celestial Bronze. 

This was not meant for mortals.

No, this… this was meant for-

Cordelia looked at her siblings.

All of their eyes glowed with a bright, divine light.

“Those are now yours. They will respond to no will but your own. Beware, for they are now a part of you, just as our divine weapons are a part of us. They cannot be removed from you until you breathe your last, in whatever manner that might be,” Triton breathed. Magic sizzled in the water around them.

Cordelia flicked her hand and the glowing, pure Celestial Bronze chain was sucked back into the cuff. 

She turned to them and bowed deeply. 

“Thank you.”

They didn’t say anything.

That was alright.

Everything had already been said.

Cordelia made her way through the city.

She drew a lot of stares from the ratty, bloodstained state of her clothes, but she was sure that people were doing double-takes because of the lack of chains trailing behind her like fins in the water.

Cordelia smiled.

That was alright. 

She still had her chains and the reminder of her freedom.

They were just within her now.

When she reached the palace, the first place she went was the guard station. 

She found Gilleroth, who was as stoic and expressionless as always, but his eyes were full of tender relief.

She smiled and hugged him.

“Thank you, Gill. It was truly a pleasure. You brought me so much joy during my stay here.”

He smiled at her. “Of course, princess.” He bowed deeply. “I am always at your service. Anytime you require my aid, I swear that I will provide it to you. It has been a pleasure watching you grow from a fry into a woman.”

Cordelia hugged him again.

Next, she made her way to her quarters.

There, two people she wanted to meet waited.

Naida squealed and burst into tears when she approached. She fussed and babbled over her and loudly wailed as she scrubbed Cordelia down and forced her into fresh new clothes.

She tried to put her in a dress, but Cordelia shook her head.

“I need durable combat clothes, Naida.”

Naida’s lip quivered, but she capitulated to her demand. 

All the while, little Dexter bobbed in the corner and watched the entire proceedings in silence. His large eyes were ominous and he sprouted more pairs as she moved around to keep her in sight.

Finally, Cordelia was ready.

She was clothed in the thick, sturdy clothes that she wore for her spars with Triton.

They would serve a different purpose today.

Cordelia pulled Naida into a gentle hug, and the slim mermaid fiercely clung to her back.

“Thank you for everything, Naida. You were a true friend. I will never forget everything you did for me.”

Naida sobbed into her chest, and Cordelia patiently stroked her hair. Dexter forebodingly watched on in silence.

Finally, after she had cried herself out, Naida pulled back and rubbed her red-rimmed eyes.

“Well! I’m going to miss you, My Lady! But as my final act as your maid, I’ll make sure that you’ll want for nothing!” She puffed up in determination and darted around the room in a flurry as she began to pack Cordelia’s things.

As Naida frantically disassembled the room, Cordelia turned to Dexter. 

“Well, I guess that this is goodbye, little buddy.”

He blinked his unfathomable eyes at her and extended a tentacle to wrap around her fingers.

“If a pet declares its freedom from its master, does the master simply allow it to flee? What is freedom but the illusion of choice? It is laughable that you think that simply proclaiming it to be so will guarantee that outcome to pass. Your arrogance knows no bounds, but rather than irking me, like all of your mortal idiosyncrasies, it simply amuses me.”

He morphed into a delicate green color, and then, without breaking eye contact with her, he slid under the crack of the door and disappeared.

Well then. What the fuck.

Cordelia gave Naida one last hug and hefted the bag with her stuff. 

Naida had packed the practical, hardy clothes that Cordelia preferred, along with a handful of dresses and jewels. 

In the end, it all fit in a single bag, and that was enough for her.

Her hands came up to rub the new cuffs around her wrists.

She had everything she needed anyway.

Cordelia made her way through the palace and to Amphitrite’s quarters. The guards nodded at her and she drifted forward to knock.

“Enter.”

Cordelia slipped in.

Amphitrite stood in front of a window overlooking the city. She didn’t turn even when Cordelia crept closer.

“So. The time has come.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Amphitrite continued to look over her people.

“Well. We both knew this day would come, didn’t we?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Amphitrite scoffed out a soft laugh. She finally turned to Cordelia.

“Alright then, child. You remember the most important lesson I taught you?”

Cordelia had spent countless hours at the Queen’s arm, learning everything from her, but she immediately knew what she was referring to.

“Control.”

Amphitrite smiled. “Just so. Do not forget it, child.”

“I won’t.” She wouldn’t be able to forget it even if she wanted to.

“Hmmmm.” Amphitrite turned back to the city. “At least take a Hippocampus before you go. I assume you will need to travel on this journey of yours. It’s about time for you to take a familiar, anyway. I was going to gift one to you on your birthday before the whole Trench unpleasantness occurred. Perhaps Ambergris? She is a hardy one who has been looking for a master for a while now.”

Ambergris? Cordelia mouthed. What a name. Yikes.

She cleared her throat. “Thank you so much for the offer, Your Majesty, but…” A memory of pitch-black wings and snarky comments flashed through her mind, and a wave of sadness engulfed her. “But I’m already bound to a horse. I will not be able to take another one as my familiar.”

Amphitrite turned to look at her, her dark eyes full of intrigue. “Is that so? Where is it now?”

Cordelia swallowed heavily. “I don’t know.” 

Amphitrite raised a brow. “Is it dead?”

“I don’t think so. We’re just… separated. I’ll never see him again.” Her heart ached. 

Amphitrite regarded her. She drifted closer till she was right before Cordelia and peered down into her eyes. “Alright. Then let my final gift to you be this blessing: may you find your way back to each other.” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Cordelia’s crown.

Cordelia smiled sadly and shook her head. “Thank you, Your Majesty, but…” There was no way.

Amphitrite arched a brow at her. “Your sire may be the father of horses, child, but I am the mother of the familiar bond. Quite brazen of you to doubt me to my face.”

Cordelia just sighed and bowed to Amphitrite, who nodded regally at her. 

“Now be gone with you. I have wasted enough time on you. Go forge your own path and stop stagnating here in Atlantis.”

Cordelia smiled. “Yes, Your Majesty.

Her father was waiting for her.

Cordelia smiled.

He didn’t speak a word to her. He simply snapped his fingers, then she felt herself dissolve into bubbles and reform over the city, looking down at it’s splendor.

Poseidon materialized next to her.

For a long moment, she just enjoyed the beauty of Atlantis. She watched all the citizens go about their lives, although more than a few had noticed their Lord hovering above them and turned to look.

“It’s beautiful, Father.”

Poseidon smiled in pride as he looked down at his subjects. “Isn’t it?”

“Yes. Atlantis is the pearl of the ocean. The crown jewel. Nothing could compare to its splendor.”

Poseidon was silent. “Then why is it you wish to leave, daughter?” 

He gestured to the glittering city beneath them. “Does this not please you? Is it not enough for you to make your home here with your family?”

Cordelia swallowed. She could hear the true hurt in his voice.

“Father.” She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. “Atlantis is lovely. But it is not my home.”

She drifted closer, took his hand, and squeezed it. “It’s time for me to go, Father. People are waiting for me on the surface.”

Poseidon’s face twisted in rage, and his eyes flashed with fire. “Those filthy mortals? You would forsake your family for them?”

Unfathomable power erupted from him, and his face appeared ghostly from the light he was radiating.

Below her, Cordelia could feel Rhode’s magic spike, and when she glanced down, she saw a gigantic iridescent blue bubble engulf the city in a protective force-field. Triton and Amphitrite’s power added to hers, and the bubble solidified even further.

Poseidon didn’t seem to notice. His eyes burned into her skin.

“NO. I FORBID IT. I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO WASTE AWAY YOUR LIFE FOR THE LIKES OF THOSE SCUM.”

He raised his hand, and his Trident appeared in it. 

The sheer godly power radiating from the Trident felt like it was going to scald her.

“STAY, DAUGHTER.”

Poseidon’s voice rattled her brain in her skull. It wasn’t something that mortals lived after hearing.

Cordelia took a deep breath and got into a fighting stance. She flexed her hands, and her cuffs melted into her weapons. She unleashed her iron hold on her power and allowed it to infuse into her weapons. Adrenaline pounded through her veins and turned everything sharper.

“No, Father.”

Almost faster than she could see, the Trident thrust at her chest, but she deflected it with Tiger Shark. 

The blade sang in her hand, radiating her bloodthirst. It moved at her slightest command and jumped at her will.

The screech of the striking metal was deafening, but neither of them paid it any attention.

Poseidon moved in for his next strike, but Cordelia deflected that as well.

Poseidon snarled. More power seeped out of him into the water and threatened to suffocate Cordelia. 

“̴̭̎̐͒͐S̵͇̹̭͒͝T̴̘͔̿̈́Ä̷̠̥̭͓́͝͝Ȳ̷̰́.̷̳̠͚̀̈́̿́ ̵̟͕̤̒͜Ş̸̼̇̎Ù̶͙̝B̷̩̓Ḿ̴̨̹̦I̴̡̟̗͛̀̓̉T̵̯̱͓̺̾̄͑͝.̶͓͇̈́̈́”̶̮̪̖̖̇͋̎

There it was again: the image of looking into an eldritch, Lovecraftian monster’s eye, her weak, mortal mind unable to comprehend the sheer scale of this primordial god’s existence.

It threatened to overwhelm her psyche and crush it like a walnut.

Cordelia gripped Tiger Shark tighter and breathed.

“No.”

The monster raised an unfathomably large limb and struck her.

She wrapped her chain around it and deflected it. 

It snarled and attacked again.

And again.

And again.

Cordelia simply breathed through the sheer, mind-melting terror and focused on deflecting the attacks one by one.

She pulled on all the years of experience she had and let it take over.

Cordelia didn’t know how long they had fought for. It felt like an eternity. All she knew was deflecting and dodging and looking for openings that never came.

She couldn’t keep this up forever.

For a split second, Cordelia closed her eyes and breathed.

Control.

Her eyes whipped open, and she ignored everything else but her instincts.

She allowed them to move her body like a shark drawn to blood.

The chain darted out of her will and engulfed the creature in unbreakable loops.

As the creature roared and struggled against its restraints, the name of her second weapon finally came to her.

It may already be claimed by Dionysus, but Cordelia didn’t care.

It was hers now.

Eleutherios.

The Liberator.

Cordelia pulled hard on the chains, and they snapped taut. The monster roared.

Cordelia used every ounce of energy left and swung her sword down.

She didn’t aim for the head, because that wasn’t her intention.

She didn’t aim for the heart.

She didn’t aim for the body.

No, she aimed for the leg.

In the same place she had impaled Gaea, Cordelia drove her sword into Poseidon’s thigh.

Golden ichor leaked into the water.

He roared and glowed with godly energy. He was ready to release himself from his physical form and let his Divine form overtake him, uncaring if the city below would withstand the explosion of power.

Cordelia released her hold on her sword and floated up. 

She raised her arms and engulfed Poseidon’s struggling form in a hug, ignoring the way her skin bubbled and burned under the radiation of his power.

She closed her eyes, leaned forward, and laid her head on his chest.

Cordelia could never beat Poseidon.

She didn’t want to.

After all, he was her–

“Daddy,” she breathed. Her face felt like it was melting under the supernova of divinity. 

Slowly, the power receded.

Inch by inch, Poseidon regained control of himself and reigned in his power until Cordelia could finally see him through the haze of it.

She closed her eyes again. 

“Daddy. Please.”

She hugged him tighter. The scent of his ichor still leaked into the water.

“Let me go, daddy. Please.”

Poseidon was silent in her arms.

Finally, she felt the tense line of his body slump in defeat.

“̶̞̫̬̥̃͂̓͒I̷̼͈̟͒́̽͠ ̷̼̋͗̎̚W̸̢̎̆Ȋ̴͍̲̀͝L̴͙̬̫̈́Ḷ̷̡͝ ̶͉̟̇̏N̵̠̯͔̾E̷̘̽V̸̺̺̘̮̓͂̕È̴͇͙̟̋R̴̨͓̙̆͒ ̷̝̜̟̥͂̀̉L̵̖̙͕̈̀ͅẼ̶̍̈́͘͜Ţ̶̘͙̳́́͆ ̵̮̤̐́̍Ý̷̘̽̒O̸̳̥̘̓̈́͋Ų̷̛͚͙͑ ̵͖̓͋G̸̿͜͠O̴͉͙̔̑̈́̽,̵̛͕͈̀̈́͝ ̵̬̒͂̀D̷̬͉̿́͘Ą̷̠̺̰̀Ȕ̴̩G̶̱͝H̸̰̄T̴̟͔̰̠̂̄E̵͍͕̜̒̀̒̈́R̵̞̀͘.̵̟͆”̴̀̋̈́͜

He sighed, and the currents around them raged with the force of a tsunami. 

“̷͇̙̻͓̆͐̎͠H̷̻̃̇͘͝O̶̙͙̤̻̿̾̓W̴͖̗̣͆Ë̵̢͋V̴̖̀͐̾͝Ẹ̶̛̋̅̎R̴͎̱̘̀͋̽͊.̶̟̋͂̐͌ ̷̗̹̃̋͒Ị̶͔̩͆͝ ̷̜̺̔́͝͠W̴͎͑́I̷̟̤̰̗̎̏̆̐L̴͉̩̈͌͐L̷̡͍͔̯͋̌ ̵̳̠͙͋̀͂͘͜L̵̙͙͓͌E̵̛̘͈̦͠T̷̪͍̿͂̓̋ͅ ̶̻̠̺̏Y̸̛̫̭̞̍̈́͊͜O̷̤͙͑U̷̡̡̜̍̇̈́͂ ̸̹̐L̸̰̰̟͐̆̈́ͅȆ̷̻̓͛̈́A̴̧̕V̵̡̦̓̒͂Ę̴͖͚̕.̸̟͖̻̔̉̀͝”̷̢̼̞͂̉

Cordelia smiled. She retracted the chains, and they wound up her arm to reform into a cuff. 

Poseidon grasped Tiger Shark and pulled it out of his leg without a flinch. The wound immediately closed up without a seam, and the remaining ichor dissolved into the water around them. 

He looked down at her, his green eyes, the same as hers, filled with anger, pride, and sorrow. 

“̴̳̭̦͋̍̔G̶̳͍̦̅̀Ò̵͇̩̦͂̓̓.̸̮͔̒”̶̨̼̦̖̃͒̄

Cordelia went.

Chapter Text

A warm feeling bubbled in Cordelia’s stomach as she made her way up. 

She was free.

Free.

Through her joy and relief, she did feel a small sense of sorrow. Even though it was her prison for the past three years, she did form many good memories there.

She made some precious friends and learned vital skills that would help her on her journey.

But most importantly of all… Atlantis provided her with a safe space to just breathe and grieve for the life she had lost.

She was able to take her time and fully mourn each and every aspect of her life that would never come back.

She would never see her friends and family again.

She would never be able to eat some of her favorite foods again. No more cheeseburgers, pizza, french fries, or chocolate for her. Tomatoes, avocados, coffee, corn, and potatoes were out of the question, not to be shared with the rest of the world for millennia more. 

She would never be able to finally graduate and go to college. All her hopes and dreams of founding an equivalent of New Rome at Camp Half-Blood were gone now, never to be achieved.

And, though it was minor on the scale of things, she would never know how some truly amazing stories finished. She would never be able to experience how Luffy and his crew found the One Piece and how he finally became the Pirate King. She would never read the epic finale of the Game of Thrones in The Winds of Winter. Well, if ol’ George ever got around to writing it out, anyway, but the point still stood. 

Ugh. That still kinda sucked. It irritated Cordelia every time she thought about it. 

Oh well. 

Her time in Atlantis brought up conflicting feelings, but overall, she was grateful for the opportunity and experience. 

But now, it was time to go.

Time to forge her own path.

Cordelia knew that she had to make her way to Megara, but rather than directly zipping over, she headed straight up towards the surface.

She didn’t know why. Something was telling her to go up, and she didn’t fight it.

Something deep. Instinctual.

She wanted to feel the warmth of the sun on her face.

Soon, she was able to see the watery rays of light pierce through the waves, illuminating the stray plankton and reflecting off the scales of a school of tiny fish.

When Cordelia broke the surface, she smiled and basked in the warmth that immediately hit her face.

She was free.

She sighed and just leaned back and allowed herself to float on the surface, rocked by the gentle waves. She inhaled the salty air deeply and allowed the taste of it to coat her tongue. The foam of the tiny waves washing over her dissolved under the heat of the sun.

This was pure bliss.  

Warmth and freedom. Happiness bubbled through her.

Something caught her attention.

Voices.

Some familiar voices.

Out here in the middle of the ocean?

Cordelia lifted her head.

Her jaw dropped.

No way. No fucking way.

The inhumanly gorgeous form of Apollo looked quite annoyed as he struggled to wrestle a bucking horse. A golden rope, clearly conjured from Apollo’s power, was wrapped around the horse’s muzzle, and he clenched his jaw in irritation as the horse frantically tried to escape.

It would already be a peculiar scene with just that, but, oh no, there was more.

They hovered in the sky, the horse’s massive wings beating furiously in the air as he struggled to free himself.

And the last, most important thing?

The horse, no, the Pegasus, was black. Pure, pitch black, with magnificent feathered coal wings that glimmered in the sunlight.

As Apollo’s eyes began to glow while he growled in irritation, the sound of a familiar voice reached her.

“-me go! Fucking goldilocks-ass motherfucker! Imma ram my hoof up your ass if you don’t let me go right now, you’ll be shitting horseshoes for a week! I’ll destroy your fucking spincter, I’m warning you-!”

Cordelia laughed and sobbed at the same time.

“Blackjack!” 

Her scream startled the battling duo, and they glanced down at the sound of her voice.

“Boss?”

Apollo’s hold on the golden rope loosened in surprise, and Blackjack immediately took the opportunity to wrench himself free and dive down towards Cordelia.

“Boss!”

The waves around Cordelia lifted her up, and when Blackjack finally reached her, she threw her arms around him. “Blackjack!”

“Boss! I missed you so much!”

Cordelia laughed in pure joy as she buried her face in Blackjack’s mane and inhaled deeply. He smelled just how she remembered: horse musk, the ever-present scent of sugar from all the doughnuts he ate, and the fancy coconut oil he insisted they use to comb through his luxurious coat.

It was him. It was really him.

She wasn’t dreaming.

“How, Blackjack? How?” she sobbed.

“I don’t know, Boss. One minute I was trying to hit up this pretty Appaloosa, and the next, I blink and Goldie McGee over here is trying to lasso me in like he’s a goddamn cowboy. Prick.”

“How long has it been? How much time has passed since you saw me?”

Blackjack gave her a funny look. “Time? A while, I guess? I wasn’t really keeping track. I’m a fucking horse, Boss. I don’t know.”

Cordelia sighed in defeat. She didn’t know what she was expecting.

“Well, now there’s a sight.”

Apollo’s deep, melodic voice was different than how it had been in their dreamscape. Cordelia couldn’t exactly pinpoint how; it was subtle, but there. The effect was more powerful, and she fought a shiver running down her spine at the sheer power and beauty of the sound.

Wow. She had forgotten how… overwhelming his presence was in person.

Cordelia pulled away from Blackjack to see Apollo smiling down at her. His bright, golden eyes danced in delight, and the cloth of his chiton and his luxurious golden hair fluttered in the breeze. He had lowered himself and effortlessly floated in the air with his arms crossed, an amused expression on his face.

Ugh, stupid show-off.

Cordelia allowed the waves to lift her again, and she wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug. His blazing hot arms wrapped around her in return and squeezed her tight, uncaring of how she was soaking him.

“Welcome back, darling.”

Cordelia grinned, feeling warm inside. He was a really good friend, wasn’t he? She squeezed his neck tightly. “Thank you, Apollo. Were you waiting for me?”

“Of course,” he sounded falsely scolding. “How could I not greet my closest, dearest friend when they managed to escape from their deep, watery prison?”

Cordelia rolled her eyes and pulled away so she could look him in the eye. “That’s Hermes.”

Apollo grinned rougishly at her. “Very well, my most beautiful friend, then.”

Cordelia rolled her eyes again. Yeah fucking right. He was probably surrounded by peerless beauties day in and day out. Goddesses and nymphs and muses, oh my. 

The thought made her frown for a second as something twinged in her chest, but she didn’t know why. She was forced to ignore it when Apollo asked her a question.

“So, what did you mean when you asked your little Pegasus how much time had passed?”

Cordelia’s heart skipped a beat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she breezily deflected.

Apollo smirked at her. He gently grabbed her chin, looked into her eyes, and whispered, “Lie.”

Argh.

Mercifully, he released her, and Cordelia allowed her weight to be supported by the waves again. She glanced at Blackjack and waved her hand, allowing a strip of water to smooth out and solidify into a platform. Blackjack fluttered his wings and cautiously stepped on it, then allowed himself to put more weight on it when it held. 

“Thanks, Boss.”

“So, overall, how would you rate your stay in Atlantis?” To her annoyance, Apollo was wearing a shit-eating grin.

Crodelia’s eyebrow twitched. “It was pretty damn peachy. I had a wonderful time.” She crossed her arms and glared at him in challenge.

Apollo raised a brow in amusement. “Oh, really? So you’ll go back soon?”

Over my dead fucking body. “Oh, yeah. Totally. Nice little summer home, you know? Escape the heat. Always good to keep up with family.”

Apollo shook his head and chuckled, his gleaming white teeth stark against his tanned skin. “It’s remarkable. You’re the only person who will look me in the eye and lie to my face over and over.”

He shook his head in exasperated fondness. “Your friends are still on Megara. They await your arrival. The timing is serendipitous.”

Well, that was ominous. 

He smiled at her, his eyes soft, and Cordelia’s stomach flipped.

“I just wanted to welcome you back, darling.” He glanced down at her arms, and his smile widened. “As well as congratulate you on your new jewelry. Cordelia the Unshackled, indeed.”

Cordelia smiled and rubbed her new bracers. “Thanks, Apollo.” It meant a lot to her that he would take the time out of his day to do this. It went to show that their friendship, their bond, wasn’t one-sided. That made her feel warm and softly happy.

Before, she didn’t quite understand the hype of people waiting for hours in the Arrivals section of airports to greet their loved ones, but now, she finally got it. The joy of someone welcoming you back after a long, hard trip was just… something else.

Apollo nodded at her, and with one last smile, he glowed and disappeared in a starburst of light.

Cordelia smiled and turned to Blackjack.

Her smile slid off her face when she saw the look he was giving her.

“What?”

Was that guy who I think he is?”

“Um, probably?”

Blackjack stomped restlessly. A bit of water splashed up and soaked his legs. 

“Boss, is that the big ball of gas up in the sky?”

“Yeaahhhh?”

Blackjack whinnied. “Why did he look like that?”

“Like what?” Cordelia asked, as if she didn’t know exactly what he was talking about.

“Like what- like a goddamn Fabio-ass twinky fuckboy, that’s what! Why doesn’t he look like his normal pop star-ass self? What’s going on?!”

Cordelia was helpless to anything but laugh. “The fuck, Apollo doesn’t look like a twink, what the hell? And how do you know about Fabio anyway?”

Blackjack just looked at her. “Why wouldn’t I know about Fabio? And stop deflecting, tell me what’s going on!”

Cordelia just smiled and hugged him again. “I really missed you, partner.”

“Boss? You’re worrying me.”

“We’re in the past, Blackjack.”

He was silent for a long minute. “How far back?”

“Really far. Think ‘Age of Heroes’ far.”

He shifted against her. “Is there a way back home?”

Cordelia sighed into his long black mane. “None. This is it, bud. I’m sorry for pulling you back here, away from everyone.” She tightened her grip on him. “But I won’t say that I’m not grateful to have you back.” Her eyes burned with unshed tears. 

It’s been so lonely without you, she didn’t tell him.

Blackjack was silent as he processed the information, but he leaned his weight firmly against her. 

Finally, “It’s okay, Boss.”

Cordelia’s lip wobbled. “Is it really?”

Blackjack huffed and tossed his head. “I won’t lie, it’ll suck to be away from Guido and Porkpie, but you’re my partner. My person. My place is with you.”

Cordelia laughed through her tears and just hugged him tighter. 

Thank you, Amphi. You were a bitch, but I’ll always be grateful to you for giving me a bit of my old life back. I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me. Thank you.

“Although, I will say I am mad about one thing.”

“Yeah?”

“If we’re this far back in time, how will I eat doughnuts?” He whinnied and stomped his hooves. 

Cordelia giggled and wiped her tears. She allowed the water under her feet to give her a little bounce, and she swung her leg over Blackjack’s back. 

Lord, it felt good to be back on her loyal partner. It felt right.

“Don’t worry, bud. I’m sure we’ll figure something out. Annabeth told me that every culture in history had fried dough, and I’m sure that this place’ll be no different.”

“Yeah, but not like Krispy Kreme. They got that secret sauce.” His voice was petulant as he stretched open his gigantic wings to catch the humid sea air around them.

Cordelia sighed and smiled.

It was good to have him back.

Time to go retrieve her other potty-mouth little shithead.

Cordelia had been to Megara before, however, that wasn’t to say that she had actually seen the city.

She had always been along the coastline, limited due to Gaea’s curse. 

But this time was different.

Blackjack flew in and landed with a splash in the exact shallows where she had waited on several times before. 

Previously, almost nobody had batted an eyelash at her arrival. This time, however, all the noise stopped.

As one, every pair of eyes was drawn to the figure of the tall, imposingly beautiful woman, clothed in rich, foreign fabrics and who rode a Pegasus of all things that had arrived upon their shores.

Jaws dropped open as Cordelia nudged Blackjack forward. 

Cordelia kept her face placid, but internally, she was smiling.

Well, apparently, even in Ancient Greece, Pegasi weren’t all that common.

Her stomach roiled with apprehension as Blackjack grew closer to the edge of the water, but as his hooves left the sea and pressed into the sandy banks, a wave of relief washed through her when she wasn’t afflicted with that debilitating pain.

So she was able to go inland as long as she wasn’t directly touching the earth.

Fantastic. My entire life was a game of ‘the floor is lava,’ now. 

Cordelia’s eyes roved over the stunned crowd and landed on a young woman with tawny brown hair and striking blue eyes. She stared at them, wide-eyed, but Cordelia saw that her dress looked familiar to those she had seen certain other ladies wearing in the past.

“You, there,” Cordelia called.

The girl looked startled and pointed to herself as everyone else’s eyes landed on her. “Me?”

Cordelia smiled. “Did Bingyan send you?”

The girl stared at her in shock for a second before she vehemently nodded. “You know the Madam?”

“Sure do. The name’s Cordi.”

Whispers erupted through the crowd.

The girl swallowed as she eyed Blackjack. “Ah. Do you… want me to lead you to her?”

“That would be great.”

“Oh.” The girl looked around in trepidation. “Well. I am at your service. Follow me, my Lady.”

People parted like a river around a rock as Cordelia nudged Blackjack forward to follow after the woman.

They murmured and whispered as they looked on in awe as Cordelia made her way through the streets. 

As expected, Blackjack preened. He theatrically threw his mane as he snorted and flicked his long tail out. He stretched out his magnificent wings so that the shiny feathers could catch the light, and the crowd swelled in excitement.

Here in Ancient Greece, the Mist wasn’t a thing. There was no separation between the mortals and the supernatural. Ancient Greece was the gods’ sandbox, and they played in it like the toddlers they were.

People were left wide-eyed at Blackjack, but to them, he was just another miracle of the gods. Unusual, but not unusual enough to call an abomination of nature and stone to death.

It was a disconcerting feeling, if Cordelia was honest. For so long, she had lived in a hidden world, but that was all over now.

She was here making a statement. 

Cordelia could vaguely hear the crowd murmuring to itself over what kind of horse Blackjack was, and she laughed shortly under her breath when she heard a kid ask his dad why the big bird-horse was so fat.

“Fat?” Blackjack whinnied in affront.

“Hey, c’mon, give them a break, it’s not like they know what a Friesian is. They’ve never seen anything like you before.”

“Damn right, they haven’t.”

Despite his pouting, Blackjack lifted his head and transitioned into a brisk, high-stepping trot to emphasize the fancy feathering around his ankles. As expected, the crowd enjoyed the display, and a fresh wave of admiring murmurs arose as they marvelled over Blackjack’s sheer grandeur.

Cordelia smirked in pride. Of course, they would. In this day and age, the only horse breeds that would be around were the Skyrian, Thessalian, and Arravani, the ones rumored to have been created by her father.

They were on the smaller, leaner side. It had taken centuries of careful breeding to produce majestic destriers like Blackjack, and it showed.

He was a masterpiece, sculpted with thick, heavy muscle, built for a perfect mix of war, beauty, and endurance. His shiny, pure-black coat shone in the sun, and his startlingly long mane and waved tail drew admiration, as did the novel feathering around his feet. 

The feathering, in particular, wasn’t very common down here in the Mediterranean. It was more endemic to the northern parts of Europe, where horses grew longer coats to aid against harsh winters.

And that wasn’t even mentioning Blackjack’s iconic wings.

In short, Blackjack was hot shit. 

Everyone wanted a piece of him.

There were dozens of cruel, desirous eyes that trailed after Blackjack as they walked through the town. Word had gotten out, and now people were beginning to crowd to catch a glimpse of the magnificent animal.

But no matter how much of a prize that Blackjack was, not one person actually approached them.

You are a princess. Once you hold yourself like one, no one will dare to touch you, Amphi’s cool voice echoed through her mind.

Cordelia rode Blackjack like she was untouchable. She moved to his movements with ease and held her head high, holding steady eye contact with anyone who dared to look at her with coveting eyes until they looked away.

Every one of her movements indicated good breeding, power, and control, loudly blaring out to the assembled crowd that she was above them all. 

She was Cordi fuckin’ Jackson, and she bowed to no one.

They went deeper and deeper into the city until the lady finally came to a stop in front of an ornate building. Even from the outside, Cordelia could smell the scents of fancy perfume, as well as the tantalizing odors of hot, freshly-cooked food.

The lady hastily bowed to her. “Shall I go fetch the Madam for you?”

“Please.”

Cordelia sat straight as the crowd looked upon her in awe and whispered behind their hands about why this clearly foreign lady wanted to see the infamous Madam of the Jasmine Lantern pleasure house. Was she here to punish her? Was she an emissary of a god? It had to be; look at the noble lady upon her exceptionally beautiful steed! Why, she was obviously a nymph or goddess of some kind!

The doors slammed open, and Bingyan dramatically swished her way through with an unholy scowl on her face. She was decked out in what looked like traditional ancient Chinese robes. Well, from what Cordelia had been told, her friends were doing quite well for themselves, so commissioning custom clothes seemed to be within their budget, she supposed. Either way, she looked the part of the resplendent Madam of a brothel.

“-know that I don’t have time for any petty nobles right now, not when I’m still dealing with-” She stopped when she caught a glimpse of Cordelia.

Her eyes widened only for a split second before they narrowed in cunning calculation as she took in the rather sizable crowd that had assembled to stare at Cordelia and Blackjack.

Bingyan's expression smoothly morphed into a polite, graceful mien, and she bowed deeply to Cordelia. 

“My esteemed lady. Forgive my rudeness, I was unaware that you would be arriving today. This is auspicious, indeed. Please come and enjoy the hospitality I offer.”

Uh. What the fuck? Cordelia just stared at her in confusion.

Surreptitiously, Bingyan whispered something to one of the nearby ladies, and the woman nodded and disappeared into the brothel. 

Within a minute, Dio stormed out of the doors, and his face was set in a frown as his sharp brown eyes took in the assembled citizens. 

His scowl deepened, and the scarring only added to his intimidation. He crossed his arms and barked, “Well, what are you all staring at? Don’t you have better things to do? Get fucking lost!” 

He bared his teeth at them, and the crowd grumbled but began to disperse, however, Cordelia could still feel a lot of eyes on her back.

Finally, Dio turned his attention to her, and his brows rose. “Well. Surprise to see you here.”

Cordelia smiled. “Yup.”

“Huh.” He circled her and inspected Blackjack. “So you can come inland if you don’t touch the ground? That’s good to know. Answers one question.”

“What does he mean, Boss? You can’t touch the ground?” Blackjack neighed.

Cordelia sighed and ran a hand through his mane. “It’s a long story. A lot’s happened since I last saw you.”

“I’ll say! I don’t see you for a bit, and the next thing I know, you’re in Ancient Greece and sporting tattoos! Are you in your rebel phase?”

Ah, the SPQR brand. While it had gotten many, many second glances, nobody had explicitly asked her about it before. Cordelia attributed it to the fact that her fam down in Atlantis probably thought it was a slave brand of some kind, and the royals always carefully veered around mentioning her time under captivity. Cordelia supposed that it wasn’t surprising that Blackjack asked about it since she wasn’t sporting it the last time she saw him.

“Hey, it wasn’t my choice, alright? And ‘rebel phase’, really?” Cordelia gave him a look.

“What the fuck?”

Cordelia turned back to Dio, who was staring at her with his mouth open. “What?”

“Are you talking to that horse?” Dio didn’t wait for her to answer. He looked at the sky in grief. “I knew it. You’ve finally gone crazy. I always knew that inhaling that much salt water couldn’t be good for you. It’s scrambled your brain, and now, you’re out here talking to a horse just as fat as you are!”

“The fuck did you just say to me, you little brat?” Cordelia snarled.

“Did he just call you fat?” Blackjack demanded. “Did he just call ME fat? Aw, hell no. Who is this little turd, Boss? Can I kick him?”

Finally, Bingyan, who had been watching with a smile, stepped in. “Alright. That’s enough. Let us leave the reunion till later. We have more pressing issues to deal with. Come.”

She led them around the building, and there was a large open sitting area filled with chairs. A few prostitutes were with some clients, chatting and laughing with them, and there was a group of men holding plates of scrumptious smelling food and discussing something. All conversation stopped when Cordelia and Blackjack came into view and made their way deeper into the courtyard.

Bingyan smiled at her guests and gestured to the doors of the building. “I apologize for the inconvenience, but I will be requiring the use of this space for the foreseeable future. Please make your way inside to enjoy some of our other amenities.”

Everybody shuffled inside with wide eyes, and finally, they were left alone. Bingyan sighed and crossed her arms. “So. Dio informed me of your intent to leave your sire’s lair. Has the time finally come?”

Cordelia grinned, full of pride. “Yes. I’ve finally come back to you all for good.”

Bingyan’s eyes softened. “That is wonderful news, dear.”

Dio scoffed with his arms crossed. “Finally. Took you long enough.”

Cordelia sighed in fondness. This brat.

“Well. I can’t say that your arrival isn’t serendipitous.” Bingyan folded her hands within her wide sleeves. 

Oh, great. That word again.

“What happened?” Cordelia sighed.

Dio scowled and cracked his knuckles. “Fionn went missing two days ago.”

Cordelia turned to Bingyan, who looked serious. “I sent him out to meet with Isagotas. Apparently, some of his men had been seen kidnapping some children from the streets, and I sent Fionn to summon him to speak with me. He still has not returned.”

“Stupid jizz-face probably got himself captured.” Dio’s face was screwed up in disgust, but Cordelia could see a hint of worry within his eyes. 

Bingyan nodded. “Yes. The issue is, if I send Dio and he gets overwhelmed as well, then we are left as sitting ducks.”

“Awww, c’mon, Bingyan, I already told you that those losers would never be able to capture me! I’d slaughter the lot of them if they tried!”

Bingyan smoothly ignored his sulking and smiled at Cordelia. “You’ve relieved quite a few of my problems with your presence. With you here, you are sure to safely retrieve Fionn and send a message to Isagotas without the risk of Dio getting captured as well due to his stupidity.”

“Bingyan!”

Cordelia nodded in thought. She didn’t know Fionn very well, but she did know that he was precious to her friends, especially to Blanda and Ranga. She was happy to help out her friends however she could. 

Also, Bingyan wasn’t wrong. Dio was strong, but he was dumb, too. It would reassure her to stick around to make sure he didn’t fall for any stupid traps or tricks. 

“Sure. What do you want me to do, exactly? You wanted to talk to this guy, right?” Because kidnapping kids off the street? A big fucking no-no. 

Bingyan just stared up at Cordelia and smiled mysteriously. “Well, I’d just ask that you act as you deem best. I trust your judgment, Cordi.”

Cordelia squinted in suspicion at Bingyan, but her attention was drawn by Dio pinching her calf. She yelped and kicked out at him, but he just laughed and easily moved out of range. 

“Come on, water buffalo, it’s time to get going. It’s not like jizz-face is gonna be able to free himself. Let’s go get him back so that Ranga will stop bitching. He’s been crying his eyes out since last night, and I can’t take it anymore,” Dio grumbled as he began to make his way out through a small pathway. 

This little softie. 

Cordelia waved goodbye to Bingyan and nudged Blackjack to follow after him.

Cordelia just took a moment to look over Dio and was pleased to see that it wasn’t obviously apparent that he had gained any new life-threatening wounds in the few months she hadn’t seen him. Thank the gods. 

“So, what’s the story with the Pegasus?” Dio eyed Blackjack in curiosity as he led them through the back streets. It was obviously the skechy side of town, where people skulked in corners and covered their faces with scarves. They all carried knives or swords and suspiciously glanced at everything around them. Cordelia noticed a few people inclining their heads in respect to Dio, who nodded back to them.

Huh. Her little brat had really made a name for himself, hadn’t he? Her own little psychopathic pet Red Hood. Cordelia smiled in affection.

“His name is Blackjack.” She reached out a hand to rub his neck. “He’s my partner. I’ve known him for years, and we just reunited.”

Dio’s brows rose. “Known him for years, huh? Didn’t you say that your homeland was lost to you?”

Cordelia’s heart twinged at the reminder. “Yeah, it still is.”

“Then how did you find him?”

Cordelia shrugged. “I don’t know for certain, but I suspect it was my step-mom’s doing.”

Dio squinted at her. “The sea-queen? Isn’t she a bitch? Why did she help you? And how?”

Cordelia sighed. “Well, that’s a hard question. She’s the patron goddess of familiar bonds, so it could only be her doing. She probably summoned Blackjack to my side. As for why…” Cordelia sighed again. 

“I have a complicated relationship with my immortal family. It’s just… hard to explain their actions, sometimes. They’re gods. They see things differently than us, and they love fiercely, but oftentimes, their love hurts. It’s hard to explain, Dio. I think she wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to be alone when I finally left Atlantis.”

Dio scowled. “Alone? You were never going to be alone in the first place when you had us.” He sounded mortally offended and marched down the street.

Cordelia smiled. “I know, bud.” 

Finally, after Dio had stomped his irritation out, he turned back to her. “So, you haven’t changed, either.”

“It’s only been a few months, did you expect me to?”

He curled his lip at her. “Well, I thought that you’d at least grow out your Kemet haircut or get thinner or something.”

Cordelia took a deep breath. Ignore him, he’s trying to get a rise outta you ‘cuz he’s a shithead, ignore him.

“What’s Kemet, Boss?” Blackjack asked.

“Oh, he means Egypt.”

“Cool. I did notice you cut your hair. Looks nice,” he snorted.

Cordelia was touched. At least someone appreciated her hair. “Thank you, Blackjack.”

Dio made a disgusted face at her. “No, I meant Kemet, you know, the land of the Pharaohs, none of that ‘eejipt, eejipt’ shit, what the fuck? What even is that?”

Cordelia burst into laughter. “Gods, I missed you, you little shit. You don’t know how much I missed you.”

“Hmph.” Dio turned away from her, but Cordelia could see how his ears were red. 

This cute little brat. She loved him so much.

She was so happy to be back.

“Okay, so here’s the plan: I’ll bust in, and I’ll kill everyone, then afterwards, we find Fionn and go back home.”

Blackjack stared at Dio. “Is this kid for real, Boss?”

Cordelia sighed. “Unfortunately, he is. Blackjack, meet Diodore, son of the War General, more affectionately known as little brat, piglet, and shithead.”

“I’m gonna rub some cow dung into your hair, don’t think I won’t.”

“He’s Ares’ kid?”

“Yup.”

“Huh. Explains why he feels like Clarisse. Got that same unhinged bloodlust. You’ve adopted him, huh?”

Cordelia sighed in resignation. “Yeah, it appears so. So now it’s my responsibility to make sure that he doesn’t get himself killed in stupid suicide runs.”

“Godspeed, Boss.”

“I know, right?”

Dio sneered at her and crossed his arms. “Alright, genius, if you have a better plan, then let’s hear it. Also, you know that you look insane talking to your horse, right?”

“I’m not a horse, you little turd, I’m a fucking Pegasus, know the difference,” Blackjack whinnied in response.

Cordelia rubbed her temples. Gods, give her patience to deal with these idiots.

“Okay. Here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna wait outside, and we’ll call for the dude to meet us out here. We’ll try to talk to him and give him a chance to give us Fionn and the kidnapped kids back.”

Dio huffed. “Well, what if he doesn’t?”

Cordelia gave him a look. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Dio rolled his eyes. “Fiiiineeee.” 

Gods, he was such a teenager. Was I ever like this? No way.

The target building was right along the coastline, within eyesight of the pier. A small fleet of ships was docked on it and bobbed in the water. People went about their business, but when they caught sight of them, they paused.

Dio decided the best course of action would be to scream, “HEY, ISAGOTAS, YOU COWARDLY FUCK! COME OUT AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN BEFORE I COME IN THERE AND RIP YOUR NUTS OFF!”

Goddammit, Dio.

As expected, Dio’s unhinged shout drew the attention of pretty much that entire slice of the city, and combined with the novelty of Cordelia still atop of Blackjack, a curious crowd formed almost instantly.

Men swarmed out of the house, and finally, a man with a patchy beard and a sailor’s hat stepped out.

“Who dares to besmirch my honor?” He snarled.

Dio puffed up and was about to retort, but Cordelia stepped forward.

“Greetings, Isagotas. I have come on behalf of Bingyan. We have come to retrieve one of our compatriots, as well as discuss some concerning complaints about the abductions of some local children in nearby areas.”

See? Cordelia could be diplomatic, too! Amphi and Rhode had practically beaten it into her. Granted, Kymmie did her best to make her forget all of her stuffy lessons; however, as always, Amphi always prevailed, and here she was, practically an ambassador.

The man tilted his head up to look at her, and he paled. He took a step back when Blackjack huffed and stomped a hoof. 

“Who-Who are you?!” He sputtered.

“That is none of your concern,” Cordelia coldly replied. “I repeat, you will return Fionn to us, after which you will return the stolen children.”

The men shifted uneasily and looked back towards their leader to direct them, but Isagotas was sweating profusely. “I-I can’t! The children are spoken for!”

Cordelia blinked, and her attention sharpened in that familiar way when her adrenaline began to kick in. “What do you mean, ‘spoken for’?”

“I already have potential buyers lined up, my Lady! Powerful, powerful men! I can’t renege on our deal! I’ll be ruined!” Isagotas wailed.

What.

“Buyers?” Dio hissed. “You’ve turned to slavery? You know that Bingyan doesn’t allow slavery within Megara’s walls!”

“You’ve left me no choice! What was I meant to do?! She’s walled off all sources of my income and had put restrictions on our whorehouses! Besides, why am I meant to obey what that foreign usurper says? She’s not even one of us!” Isagotas blustered.

As Dio snarled at him in the background, Cordelia took a second just to breathe. 

Cordelia cared about the value of life. Sally taught her from a young age to find hope and goodness even within the darkest parts of humanity. Sally raised her to be compassionate and open to giving people a second chance, an opportunity for redemption.

But right now, Cordelia wasn’t feeling very compassionate.

Perhaps she was still riding high with the pure feeling of freedom within her veins.

Either way, this entire situation was just sickening. 

She had absolutely no patience for this. 

This shit ends now.

“Dio.” Her voice cut through the noise like a whip, and everybody fell silent and turned to look at her.

“Yes, Cordi?”

She looked down at Isagotas’ trembling form with contempt. “There’s no curing this sickness. Cut the rot out and go and retrieve the innocents.”

Dio grinned. “As you wish, my Lady.” He bowed mockingly, and when he rose, his eyes were blood-red.

He turned to the tense men with a feral smile. “Bingyan warned you repeatedly. You have no one to blame but yourself. We’ve always told you, in Megara, you do not peddle man flesh. ”

He twisted his ring on his finger, and the gleaming bronze axe sprung into existence. 

Cordelia looked at it in intrigue. It was made out of Celestial Bronze, wasn’t it? How useful was it going to be here against mortals?

Dio lifted the axe and quickly sliced across his forearm. A thin line of blood appeared, but to Cordelia’s surprise, the blood flowed up the axe into the intricate grooves as the huge, gleaming red gem embedded in the center pulsed.

Finally, the line of blood fully trailed along both edges of the axe’s blades. 

“Give my regards to the Death King for me before you go to suffer in the Fields of Punishment for all eternity, you honorless pigs.”

And with that, Dio leapt at the men. He wielded the gigantic axe as if it weighed nothing, and to Cordelia’s surprise, the blade sliced through flesh like butter. The square fell into chaos as the crowd shouted in surprise and backed away from the violence, and Isagotas’ men tried to recollect themself in the face of Dio’s frenzy.

How did that even work? Magic of some kind? Probably because of that ominous red gem, Cordelia pondered.

Cordelia watched on as he slaughtered his way through the filthy slavers, who posed no challenge to him. He didn’t even get hit once, to Cordelia’s pride.

“Holy shit,” Blackjack breathed. “It’s a massacre.” 

Cordelia rubbed a soothing hand on his neck. “This is our life now, partner. We’re far from home. The rules aren’t the same. We either adapt or die.”

Blackjack shifted uneasily. “...I see. I would never let anything happen to you, Boss.”

“I know, bud. I know.”

“Just.. he was just an emo little teenager a few minutes ago, and how he’s the goddamn terminator.”

Cordelia smiled. “Yeah. Better get used to it, Blackjack. I suspect that we’re gonna see a lot of action from here.”

Blackjack whinnied. “You can count on me, Boss.”

“Ditto, bud.”

Cordelia was unpleasantly wrenched from her quiet conversation with Blackjack when she felt a hand upon her foot, tugging desperately.

“Mercy! Mercy, sweet goddess, have mercy!” Isagotas had somehow survived the slaughter and had crawled his way over to her and was now begging for his life like a snivelling little coward.

Cordelia looked down at him coldly and nudged Blackjack to move away from the vermin. Isagotas pathetically fell to his knees and looked up at her in supplication.

“Tell me, did you show mercy to those children when you enslaved them? When you chained them and branded them and whipped them till you broke their spirits?” Cordelia viciously asked.

Isagotas gaped at her like a fish as he struggled to find something to say. “My Lady… I did nothing wrong. They are slaves, my Lady. Not even full citizens! I don’t understand! Why have the gods come to punish me when I have done no wrong?”

Cordelia sneered in disgust. 

In Ancient Greece, slavery was deeply, deeply embedded within the culture. It was the cornerstone for many societies. Even Athens, the crown jewel of Ancient Greece, was built upon and supported on the backs of slaves and would collapse without their support.

Cordelia’s lip curled. In her opinion, it was a good thing that her dad hadn’t won that hellhole of a city, teeming with slaves and treating their women like animals, all the while walking around with that insufferable holier-than-thou attitude. 

Yeah, she was in Ancient Greece now, and she had to adapt to the culture, or she was in for a bad time. Blah, blah, cultural relativism and all that.

But you know what? 

Cordelia loves her heritage, has adapted as well as could be expected to her new home, and has rolled with the punches, like dealing with her headache of a family and Gaea’s curse, but here’s where she draws the line.

If slavery was an accepted, even embraced part of Greek culture, then she would be the one to stand up and fight for everyone who couldn’t.

Fuck slavery and everything it represented. 

Cordelia would always fight for freedom, even if she had to fight the entire world in the process.

She flicked her arm out, and Tiger Shark melted out of her cuff and reformed into her hand. The beautiful damascus stripes of Celestial Bronze and mortal steel gleamed in the sunlight and illuminated it till it looked like it was radiating light of its own.

Isagotas gasped and stumbled away from her.

Cordelia pointed her sword at the pier and asked, “Are those your ships?”

Isagotas’s eyes widened in terror. “No! Please, my Lady, not my ships! They are my livelihood! My brother is a powerful-”

“I don’t give a damn about who your brother is,” Cordelia ruthlessly cut in. “Watch. This is the consequence of daring to enslave another man to your will.”

Cordelia felt that all-too-familiar tug in her gut, and a titanic wall of water rose out of the calm sea and surrounded the ships.

Screams erupted from the crowd around them, but Cordelia ignored them completely.

Isagotas trembled pathetically. “Poseidon, have mercy,” he whimpered.

Cordelia smiled sharply. “Oh, you don’t know him at all if he’s the one you’re praying for mercy to.” 

With a sharp swing of her sword, the wall of water crashed over the fleet, completely demolishing the ships and dragging them down into the darkness of the sea.

Finally, Cordelia turned to Isagotas, who was simply gaping at the sheer destruction of his fleet.

Blackjack’s hooves ominously clomped as he walked forward.

“Let this be a warning.”

Cordelia raised her sword.

“I have no mercy for slavers.”

She swung, and Isagotas’ head bounced on the road and rolled to a stop.

The entire square was silent.

Cordelia turned to Dio, who was watching her. He was soaked with blood, but from what Cordelia could see, the big red gem pulsed as it absorbed some of the blood that coated the axe. 

He was surrounded by bodies, no survivors remaining. 

Dio smiled at her, his red eyes filled with a wicked pride. He lowered his head respectfully and said, “As you say, my Lady.”

This little shit.

She turned Blackjack back to the building.

Well, the work wasn’t over yet. 

They had some kids and ‘jizz-faces’ to rescue.

The entire brothel was in an uproar and madly celebrated their return. There were a few patrons there, but mostly, it was all the beautiful girls dressed in well-stitched, uniform dresses and doused with flowery perfume who looked upon Cordelia in awe and squealed at her attention. They gleefully fed dates and chestnuts to Blackjack and shrieked with giggles when he playfully licked them and allowed them to pet his luxurious mane.

Despite Cordelia’s pleas to just refer to her as ‘Cordi’, they all unceasingly insisted on calling her ‘my Lady’ and bowing to her. Ugh, gross.

Argh. Well, it wasn’t like Cordelia wasn’t already used to similar treatment down in Atlantis. 

Her friends were ecstatic to see her. Blanda had furiously whipped up some fresh food for her, and by Jove, it was simply heavenly. No wonder she was getting so much renown for her food. 

Faigel made sure to inspect every inch of her to confirm that she was doing well and proudly proclaimed about what a fine young woman she had grown into. Cordelia blushed in pleasure as Dio teased her, and Bingyan looked on with a smirk.

Ranga wailed and burrowed into her for a hug.

Cordelia was quite alarmed to note that, as she had suspected, he was growing into quite the beautiful young man. If Dio was a handsome teenager, then Ranga was a fuckin’ supermodel. It was like a Snapchat filter was over his face: Every blink fluttered his dark eyelashes prettily, his deep brown skin practically glowed, and his big black eyes looked more adorable than a puppy’s.

Awwww shit.

He was still the same sweet kiddo she had known, but now, there was a hint of teeth in his smile, now. 

Thank the gods. Bingyan, Blanda, and Faigel would raise him to have a proper head on his shoulders. They would make sure that he was equipped with the smarts to not fall into any stupid traps set by thirsty gods or nymphs.

Also, he apparently had Fionn as a big, feral guard dog.

The redheaded teen was tall, coming in around 5’11”, and was lean but muscular. He prowled around Ranga like a caged lion and glared in suspicion at anything that approached him, which apparently, to Cordelia’s amusement, included her.

Despite his lethal glare, Cordelia couldn’t really take him seriously. She had just watched his face go dopey when Ranga had fretted and fussed over hem when they brought him back, along with the other shackled children.

After Ranga had made sure that he was okay, he had planted a kiss on Fionn’s cheek and had turned away to greet Cordelia, but she could see how his eyes had gone wide and his face was redder than a tomato. Heh.

Corelia watched on as Ranga patiently unlocked each of the frightened kiddo’s cuffs, all the while reassuring them that they were safe now and that they were going to see their mommies and daddies again. 

His reassurances finally seemed to work, and the children finally relaxed and bawled as they clung to him. He patiently soothed them and ushered them to Blanda so that they could be fed.

All the while, Cordelia observed the way Fionn stood behind Ranga, and when he thought no one was looking, he gazed down at the Indian teen with soft, affectionate eyes.

Hmmmm.

Overall, Cordelia’s homecoming was filled with a lot of fuss and commotion, but it overflowed with warmth and love. 

She couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Finally, the celebration wound down for the night as Artemis’ light illuminated everything with a soft silvery glow. 

By then, a strange, peculiar feeling began to take root in Cordelia’s chest.

Yes, she was a little sore after riding Blackjack for hours without a rest, saddle-less to top it off. Her ass was aching something fierce, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t ignore. She had ridden him longer during the Battle of Manhattan. 

No, this was something else.

Cordelia uneasily knew where the feeling was coming from.

It was a low, pulsing wave of uneasiness. It made the hairs stand on the back of her neck, and her shoulders clenched in discomfort. 

Goddammnit. Gaea’s curse. 

Even though she wasn’t touching the earth, after almost a full day riding around, the curse was beginning to kick in again.

She wasn’t in indescribable pain, no, but a looming, existential dread was threatening to creep in.

Cordelia quietly blew a breath out. 

Well. It was probably time for her to go and settle into the sea for the night, anyway.

She let Bingyan know that she was going back to the shore to retire and gently turned her down when the tiny woman tried to offer her a room inside the Brothel.

Bingyan frowned. “Quite impolite of you, turning down my hospitality.”

“Bingyan…” Cordelia smiled at her, and the Chinese woman huffed.

“Oh, all right, then. Where will you stay for the night?”

“I was planning to go down to that little cove that we always met at. Gives me more privacy than just staying by the port.”

Bingyan nodded in thought. “Hm. Acceptable. Will you be back in the morning?”

Cordelia grinned. “Of course. How could I just leave without saying goodbye?”

Bingyan smiled, that sly calculation in her eyes. “Good. I will not allow you and Dio to leave without a proper sendoff.”

Cordelia’s pulse jumped. “Dio?”

Bingyan flicked her curtain of long, black hair over her shoulder with a scoff. “Of course. Do you think I am stupid? This is the natural progression of things. This town is too small for a creature like Dio. I love him like a son I birthed myself, but I am not too blind to realize that his presence is attracting some… notice. Our little city is not equipped to handle that kind of attention. It would be a different story if you were here as well, but it seems that you are still firmly Davy Jones’d. I cannot expect you to stay here and suffer through your curse. It would be a miserable existence. And after enduring years of separation, Dio will follow you to the ends of the earth. So, it is only logical that you plan to take him with you on your trip.”

Cordelia’s mouth hung open. “You knew?”

Bingyan sighed and looked tired. “Dear, when you are in the position I am in, one cannot afford not to anticipate the future, and that is even without the sentimental value Dio holds over everyone.”

Cordelia nudged Blackjack forward and bent down to take Bingyan’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “This isn’t goodbye, Bingyan. This won’t be the last time you’ll see him. I’ll bring him back often so that you all can see him.”

Bingyan inhaled deeply and clutched Cordelia’s hand back. “I’ll hold you to that, Cordi. Now that you have this magnificent Lóngmǎ, you have no excuse, do you?”

Blackjack huffed in pleasure and put his snout in Bingyan’s arms, who smiled and rubbed it.

Cordelia laughed. “You got me there. It’s a promise.”

Bingyan gave Blackjack a few more scratches and then nodded decisively. “Alright then. Do you need directions to the cove?”

“That’d be swell. Is it to the east…?”

Soon, armed with directions and some fruits that Bingyan gave her for breakfast, they flew over the slumbering, silent city and landed in the secluded little cove.

Finally, Cordelia slid off Blackjack’s back and sighed as the cool sea lapped against her ankles.

Damn, her legs were sore. Ouch. She stretched and saw Blackjack doing the same. He was quiet and slower than normal, which told Cordelia how tired he was.

Unsurprising. She remembered how exhausted she had been when she had first been pulled back to the past. It wasn’t unlikely that his displacement had taken some toll on Blackjack as well.

Cordelia ran her fingers through Blackjack’s hair, and he leaned heavily into her touch. “Alright, bud. You did well. Get some rest.”

Blackjack nodded. “Yes, Boss,” he slurred drowsily.

He stepped out of the shallows and investigated the sand. After he kicked at the ground a bit, he walked in a circle and sat down heavily. He extended his wings to wrap around himself like a giant feathered blanket and fell asleep immediately.

Damn. He must have been extra exhausted. Usually, he slept standing, but he was practically in a coma right now. Poor buddy.

“Tired him out, did you?”

Cordelia turned to see Apollo standing next to her with his arms crossed as he raised an eyebrow at Blackjack’s passed-out form.

Cordelia nodded. “Yup. Was a long day for him.”

Apollo laughed under his breath. “I would assume so. There I was, waiting for you, when he suddenly appeared out of thin air. To say I was surprised would be an understatement.”

Cordelia chuckled at the mental imagery, a picture of Apollo’s surprised yelp as he collided in mid-air with a wall of black feathers. “So, what brings you here, you stalker?”

Apollo eyed her. “Stalker? Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?”

Cordelia shrugged, eyes filled with mischief. “Well, you know, if the shoe fits. You’re always there in the background, just watching. That’s like, the exact definition of stalking.”

Apollo raised his eyebrows. “Oh, really?”

Cordelia grinned. “Really.”

Apollo eyed her for a few intent seconds, then smiled and shrugged. “Alright, then. You are quite interesting, and I find my eyes drawn to you, but if you feel so strongly about it, I can divert my attention over to a princess of Troy. Perhaps she might welcome my ‘stalking’ a bit more than you.”

Cordelia’s smile slid off her face.

Cassandra.

The once-calm waves began to roil and splash behind her as she turned to look Apollo directly in the eye. The wind began to pick up and froth up the water. 

No way. There was no way in hell that she would let him do that.

Slowly, she walked through the water, and Apollo eyed her careful movements with interest.

When she finally reached him, she pulled on the collar of his his silky, luxurious chiton and forced him to bend down till he was face to face with her. 

“You can’t pay any attention to any Trojan Princess.”

Apollo’s eyes danced in amusement. “Oh, I can’t, can I?”

However, this time, Cordelia wasn’t in the mood for games. She felt her power rise, and the waves thrashed in response to her agitation. Her eyes probably glowed eerily as she resolutely stared him down. 

“Promise me.”

Apollo tilted his head. “Why, darling? Do you care about what I do?”

Cordelia didn’t even have to think. “Yes.”

Apollo blinked, then he smiled, slow and filled with triumph, like a cat that caught the canary. He leaned in closer and examined her hard eyes, his own molten golden orbs filled with satisfaction.

“You know, Cordelia,” he breathed, “This is the first time you’ve spoken the truth to me all day.”

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, his breath impossibly hot, “You have no reason to be jealous, darling. You’re the only one who has caught my eye this much in a very, very long time.”

Then he disappeared, taking his blazing warmth with him, leaving her feeling as if she had been dunked in ice water.

Cordelia just blinked for a few seconds, trying to fight off the furious flush in her cheeks and muttered, “I’m not jealous, asshole.”

The wind fluttered by, carrying a deep, rich laugh and a whisper of “Liar.”

Cordelia was left just gaping out into the open ocean. What just…?

“You’re in trouble, Boss,” Blackjack sleepily murmured.

“Shut up, Blackjack,” Cordelia sighed. “Go to sleep, idiot.” You know what, it was bedtime. All her problems could wait till tomorrow. She settled into a nice little nook and allowed her body to finally relax as the cool water lapped against her sides.

“‘Kay. Will you be here when I wake up?” 

Cordelia sighed and flicked a handful of water at him, smiling when his ears twitched. “Yeah, bud. I’ll be here.”

She was right where she wanted to be.

Chapter Text

Blackjack shifted uneasily under the weight of everyone’s eyes as what appeared to be the entire town came to watch their farewell.

Cordelia grimaced in sympathy. She felt largely the same. It had been a bit more than a week since she had come up to Megara, and after suffering through her friends’ enthusiastic hospitality, it was finally time for them to leave.

But where, you ask?

Why, that question was handily solved when Bingyan pulled out a familiar-looking scrap with some squiggles on it.

“You kept it?” Cordelia asked in disbelieving awe.

Bingyan sniffed at her. “Of course I did. I prepare for all eventualities. What if you never showed up? We needed a way to get to Anysia, didn’t we?”

Wow. When will she ever learn to stop doubting her friends?

So, with her destination set and all her supplies packed (well, that was a bit disingenuous; she was already good to go, courtesy of Naida, the gem), all that was left was saying goodbye.

Or rather, it was Dio saying goodbye.

Cordelia was gleeful to watch how the working girls fawned and fussed over him, fearlessly hugging him to their ample bosoms and pinching his cheeks.

Dio barked and snapped at them, but ultimately endured their affections with all the grace of a grumpy bulldog. For all his crankiness, he never actually got violent with them and sullenly accepted their familiarity.

Cordelia’s chest felt warm. Her little brat really was a softie, wasn’t he? Guess it was up to her to make sure that his precious gooey center was well-protected so that he would never get hurt.

Of course, goodbyes were a bit more difficult and heartfelt when it came to their friends. Bingyan, Blanda, Faigel, and Ranga lamented the fact that she had to leave so soon, but they were truly saddened to part with Dio. Over the past three years, they had formed an unbreakable bond with him as he stood between them and innumerable threats.

While Cordelia smiled, it made her sad to watch them. She had missed so much, hadn’t she?

Finally, it was time to go, and to both Cordelia and Dio’s dismay, way more people than they could have ever expected came to send them off on their journey.

Hundreds of pairs of eyes peered up at them, and Cordelia felt a bead of sweat run down her back.

Bingyan prettily smiled up at them, her hands hidden within her voluminous, graceful sleeves. 

“My Lady, it pangs my heart to say farewell. Please accept this humble offering as a token of our appreciation for your stay.”

A pair of girls came forward with a lumpy white sack and bowed deeply to her.

“Uh. Sure, thanks,” Cordelia awkwardly said as Dio took the sack from them. Blackjack huffed and uneasily stomped a foot. 

Bingyan smiled at her with a glint in her eye. “Thank you, my lady. Is there no way you can enjoy our hospitality for any longer?”

Cordelia smiled uncomfortably, acutely aware of the dozens of fascinated eyes watching them. “Um. No, we’ve gotta go. We’ll come back, though, don’t worry.”

A murmur went through the crowd. Great.

Bingyan demurred and bowed her head. “It will be our honor, my lady. You are always welcome here in our humble little town. If I may…?”

Oh no. Cordelia felt butterflies erupt in her stomach. “Yeah?”

Bingyan’s big, shiny eyes glittered up at her, pleading and bashful. “If it’s not too much to ask, My Lady, can you possibly impart a blessing upon us?”

What. The. Fuck.

Sitting behind her, Dio wheezed and struggled to keep the noise down. Blackjack snorted as well.

Cordelia realized that she was gaping at Bingyan and snapped her mouth shut. She looked out into the sea of anticipating faces holding their breaths and turned back to Bingyan, who still looked appropriately pious and humble, but Cordelia could see the snake-like glint in her eyes.

Sonnavabitch.

“Um,” Cordelia uncomfortably cleared her throat. Damn you, Bingyan. “May you… live long and prosper.” Cordelia waved her hand at them. Then, because that didn’t seem like it was enough, she pointed at Bingyan and imperiously said, “Wingardium Leviosa,” before she dramatically waved her arm with a swish-and-flick.

Dio snerked and Blackjack whinnied a laugh. “Seriously, Boss?”

Bingyan gasped theatrically and clutched her chest, her eyes glittering with joyful tears. “Oh, thank you, My Lady! Thank you for your blessing!” She fell into a deep bow, the rest of her friends and the ladies bowing alongside her.

The crowd burst into excited murmurs, and their eyes began to shine with adoration.

Right, that was enough of that. 

“I shall see you later,” Cordelia regally decreed, then nudged Blackjack into a run so that he could get them the fuck out of there.

As Blackjack’s hooves clomped as he galloped, Cordelia could hear him nicker with a laugh under his breath, and of course, Dio was cackling.

“What-what was that?! Did you just speak gibberish? What kind of blessing was that?!”

Cordelia scowled as her cheeks blazed red. “Shut up, you stupid piglet. You try being put on the spot like that in front of the entire fucking city, and we’ll see how it goes.”

As Blackjack finally took to the air, Dio’s arms wrapped around her belly, and she could feel his chest shake with his laughter as he leaned forward against her. 

Unbidden, she felt her lips quirk into a smile.

“Gods, you’re such a dork. I forgot how much fun it was to have you around; you always know how to make a fool out of yourself.”

“Shut up, brat.”

Cordelia grinned as they flew out into the open sea, Apollo’s comforting warmth accompanying them on their journey.

It took almost a week to get to the island.

Cordelia had to carefully plan out their trip so that Blackjack could find places where he could land and rest.

“It’s not you, Boss, but the kid adds a little extra weight, if you know what I mean,” he neighed in exhaustion.

“Oi, is chicken shit over here talking crap about me? I know that tone.” Dio glared over.

“I can say whatever I want, I’m the one hauling your snot-nosed-ass anyway,” Blackjack glowered.

Dio got up and cracked his knuckles. “Oh, you wanna go, little pecker?”

Cordelia just sighed from where she uncorked another waterskin. Bingyan’s last gift had been more of Blanda’s scrumptious food and extra water for them. They had already packed more than enough, but aunties are gonna auntie. 

“Cut it out, idiots. Come get your water.”

As they grumbled and came to eat their snacks and wash them down with water, Cordelia examined her map.

They were almost there. Blackjack was a lot quicker than a ship, even with carrying two of them and needing relatively frequent breaks. 

After they were done with their short rests, Dio and Cordelia packed up their things, and Blackjack took off again.

Finally, a few hours after noon, the island’s iconic volcanic shape and lush greenery appeared in view. From the sky, they were able to see the way the large fresh-water lake curved along the base of the mountain and glittered in the sun.

Cordelia grinned as Dio whooped behind her.

They were finally here.

Cordelia’s heart thumped in excitement as they got closer. Finally, she could see her old friend again.

Cordelia directed Blackjack to land on the coastline, the same area she remembered spending weeks on as her friends explored the inland. 

Her stomach twisted as she eyed the coarse sand, and she swallowed.

This was the first place she learned about Gaea’s curse. Logically, she knew it was purely psychological, but just the sight of the grainy sand sent a shiver of fear down her spine.

That kind of pain… it wasn’t something she was able to forget easily. She had been through a lot during her years as a demigod, but that agony threatened to drive her mad and make her wish for death.

As Dio’s arms unwound from around her middle and Blackjack shook off the extra water soaking the feathering around his ankles, Cordelia pulled herself out of her reverie.

Now wasn’t the time to think of her curse. She had more important things to look forward to!

Dio slid off Blackjack’s back with a groan and heavily landed in the sand. Cordelia eyed his grimace in amusement as he began to stretch his legs out.

“Feeling a bit bowlegged there, buddy?”

“Get fucked,” was Dio’s response as he winced as he lowered himself into a few hesitant squats.

Cordelia huffed out a laugh and waited for him to finally hobble forward. 

“You wanna climb back on, brat?”

“Oh god, please, no,” Blackjack moaned.

“Absolutely fucking not,” Dio snapped. “I’ll walk, thank you very much. Need to stretch my legs after that goddamn overgrown pigeon wrecked my tailbone.”

“Heh,” Cordelia smirked. “You got your ass wrecked, huh? Strange, I thought you said that you were extensively trained on horseback riding, hmmm?”

“Oh, fuck you, you’re so immature.” Dio sniffed condescendingly. “Some of us don’t have fat asses to cushon ourselves.”

“Me immature- you know what, fucking walk, shithead. Even if you ask for a ride, I’m not gonna let you on.”

Dio glared at her and crossed his arms. “Fine.”

Cordelia scowled back at him. “Fine.”

With a haughty scoff, Dio made his way into the forest, and Cordelia nudged Blackjack to follow after him. 

God, what a little shit.

The foliage was thick and heavy, lush green with an intoxicating fresh scent. Large, thick palm trees and robust bushes grew wildly, and winding vines adorned their surfaces as bright, sweet-smelling flowers bloomed from them.

Dio inhaled sharply and paused.

Cordelia looked down at him. “What is it?”

Dio’s sharp eyes darted over the riotous flora. “It’s different.”

“What is?” Cordelia frowned in confusion.

Dio slowly got closer to Blackjack as the wary look on his face grew. “The forest. It’s different than before.”

Cordelia turned back to the greenery around them and opened her senses up.

She had never been inland, the last time they had come to the island. She had been confined to the shallows and had glimpsed the edge of the forest, but couldn’t see past the first few trees.

Now that she was focusing, she understood what Dio was talking about. 

This forest was alive, in an unsettling way. The palm leaves swayed without wind, and the vines danced according to their own tune, and as her group slowly, warily made their way through the forest, it felt like the large, bright flowers had turned to face them, as if they were watching their movements.

The forest felt old and aware, and it knew they were there.

A familiar pinch of discomfort twinged between Cordelia’s shoulders.

They were within another powerful being’s domain, and they had to tread carefully.

Dio seemed to instinctively recognize that as well, as he had twisted his ring and his axe was in his hands as he warily looked out into the dense greenery.

Cordelia leaned down and ran her fingers through his curls, and his eyes darted up to find hers. He seemed to calm down after he saw her impassive mien, but he still gripped his axe tightly.

Blackjack huffed in anxiety when some vines brushed against his flank, but his ruffled feathers settled as Cordelia patted his neck. “Steady, boy.”

They silently walked through the forest, but the overwhelming feeling of otherness only grew the deeper they went. The bushes and vines danced to their own tune and brushed up against them, leaving soft little scrapes in their wake, not enough to harm, but increasing their anxiety with every new scratch and nick of fabric.

“I don’t like this, Boss,” Blackjack mumbled, his wings instinctively puffed up in alarm.

“It’s okay, boy,” Cordelia reassured, but it was useless.

Blackjack was so wound up that he failed to notice a gigantic wild rose bush, teeming with robust blossoms that released intoxicating perfume into the humid air emerging from the thick foliage.

Blackjack walked straight into the bush and reared back with a whinny as he was pierced with dozens of devastating thorns.

“Fuck!” He screamed as he rose on his hindquarters, and Cordelia gritted her teeth as she gripped his mane and struggled to hold on. 

“Stop it, you stupid horse, you’re gonna buck her off,” Dio snarled with worried eyes.

Unfortunately, his words didn’t reach Blackjack, who, in a fury, bounced down and attempted to savagely stomp the bush that had dared to hurt him. “Fuck you, stupid plant!”

As the wild rose bush fell under the wrath of his hooves, the plant life around them seemed to come to life with a hiss.

Shit.

The vines, previously moving sinuously, now darted forward in attack, and the palm trees shuddered ominously.

“Goddammit!” Dio hefted his axe as the vines lunged at them. He easily sliced through the first and second waves, but almost immediately, the fallen vines began to wrap up his legs and crawl up his body till they reached his arms. He struggled against them, but the thick, writing fibers forced his arm down and squeezed his wrist till he was forced to drop his axe with a grunt of pain.

The vines began to overwhelm Blackjack as well, who promptly began to panic. 

“Oh, hell no! Boss, we’re gonna be eaten by a giant Venus flytrap! I’m gonna be cut up for horsemeat!” The whites of his eyes began to show as he began to hyperventilate. He frantically fought against the vines slowly engulfing him and struggled wildly. 

Cordelia gritted her teeth and focused on holding on. Her main concern was not getting thrown off Blackjack and touching the earth. Her heart throbbed at the thought of experiencing that agony again, but Cordelia took a deep breath and pushed it away.

“Blackjack. Buddy. It’s alright. Calm down. It’s gonna be fine,” she steadily soothed. 

The vines were overwhelming, and they were crawling up her torso as well, but Cordelia focused on remaining calm so that Blackjack could calm down as well. Slowly, it seemed to be working, and Blackjack slowly decreased his frantic struggles against the vines restraining him, but his breathing was still fast.

At this point, Dio was so covered by the vines that only his head was free, and he was eyeing them in worry. When Blackjack finally succumbed to her soothing reassurances and pats, Cordelia smiled at Dio, who just examined her face in worry for a few seconds before he huffed and renewed his struggles against his restraints.

Cordelia focused on patting Blackjack as the vines snaked their way higher and slid across their skin, wrapping them up in off-putting, snake-like restraints. 

It was disconcerting just sitting around, waiting for herself to be tied up, but Cordelia knew that they weren’t in any real danger. The vines were just meant to restrain, not harm, and her main duty was to make sure that her precious boys were safe. If that meant sitting and being tied up like a hog so that Blackjack wouldn’t freak out and accidentally break his ankle or something, then so be it. After all…

Cordelia smiled in the direction she felt a faint, familiar sense of divinity. 

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, old friend?”

The silence was painfully loud for a long moment as all the movement of the plants froze, then a low, raspy laugh sounded before them. 

The vines and bushes parted like curtains and revealed the form of Anysia.

She had gained some much-needed weight, her once-gaunt face round and slightly edged with wrinkles. Her skin was deeply tanned, but her freckles splattered across like stars, emphasizing her understated but pretty features. 

She was clothed in what looked like a soft, woven dress made out of some kind of plant fiber and vines, and her long, wavy, dark brown hair spilled down her shoulders. Crowning her head was an elaborate, living wreath of blooming flowers and buds that made her look like a nymph.

Anysia stepped forward, and with a wave of her hand, the vines began to creak and unwind from around them, causing Blackjack to let out a snort of relief and Dio to huff and pick up his axe.

Anysia silently examined them for a long second, then smiled widely. 

“Hello, cousins.”

Blackjack jerked his head towards her, but the vines halted his movement. “Who the-”

“Anysia!” Dio crowed. “It’s great to see you! You look great! Now, can you please make these weeds let us go? I think I’m forming a rash.”

Anysia stared at Dio, then blinked and giggled. “Oh. Oh, of course.” She opened her arms up and closed her eyes, and the vines shuddered and slowly unwound, leaving more abrasive scrapes in their wake.

Blackjack whinnied in discomfort again when they brushed against his wounds, and Anysia peered at him, and her eyes widened. “Oh… how gorgeous.”

Dio sighed heavily, and his axe formed back into his ring. 

Blackjack turned straight around and started making his way back out of the jungle. “Nope. That’s it. I’m done. I’m fucking out, bitches.” This time, the plants seemed to lean out of his way as he grumpily marched through the foliage.

“Hey! Where are you going, chicken shit? You’re taking Cordi away!”

“I don’t have to listen to psycho little turds.”

Cordelia couldn’t help but laugh as Blackjack continued to angrily mutter under his breath, and Dio and Anysia made their way behind them till the trees opened up and they reached the shore again.

Blackjack resolutely strode up to the water, and Cordelia amiably slid off of him. He immediately bumped his head against hers, demanding reassuring pets like the spoilt thing he was.

Cordelia magnanimously soothed him as she watched Anysia quietly shower Dio with affection and praise him on how much he had grown. Of course, like always, Dio pretended that he hated it, but Cordelia could see the way he looked pleased at the attention.

Brat.

After a while, Blackjack calmed down fully, and Cordelia nodded at Anysia to signal that it was okay for her to approach.

Though she was rightly wary, Anysia regarded Blackjack with eyes full of fascination and wonder. 

“Magnificent,” she breathed.

She reached a hand out to his chest, but Blackjack whinnied sharply and backed up. “Watch it, lady.”

Cordelia calmed him down with firm pats to his neck. “She’s trying to help, bud.”

Reluctantly, Blackjack allowed her to come closer and touch his chest, and soon, the thorns were cleanly sliding out, exposing tiny puncture wounds that sluggishly leaked blood.

Blackjack huffed in petulance as Anysia laughed lowly and rubbed his muzzle as the thorns worked their way free. “I’m sorry, handsome.”

Blackjack grumbled. “Hmph. Saying that I’m handsome doesn’t make up for going Poison Ivy on us,” he sulked.

Cordelia’s eyes widened as she saw the thorns drop into Anysia’s hand. They were devastatingly long and sharp, the largest over three inches. No wonder Blackjack had freaked out after receiving a chestful of these, they easily bypassed his thick hide to strike deep.

Yikes.

When the final one worked its way free, Blackjack threw his mane, and his wings shuddered. He turned his head and sassily flicked his tail at Anysia as he walked away from her over to Dio, who was sunbathing on a sunny patch away from the waves.

Anysia smiled in apology as Blackjack strutted away from her. “My apologies. I hope I can make it up to him.”

Cordelia snorted at his attitude. “I’m sure you can. If you have something sweet to feed him, you’ll immediately become his favorite person.”

Anysia smiled secretively. “I’m sure I can figure something out. In the meantime, I want to know how you’ve been. I see you don’t have my lord husband’s restraints around your arms anymore.” Anysia looked her up and down and smiled broadly, the wrinkles around her eyes crinkling in joy. “The years have been kind to you, dear.”

Cordelia grinned back. “Back at you, you look great! But not just…” Cordelia stumbled for a second, “You look… happy.”

Anysia’s eyes practically glowed. “I am. I am very happy, Cordi. My time on this island wasn’t lonely, but rather allowed me to heal and truly explore my heritage under my lady mother’s patient, watchful eye.”

Cordelia snorted. “Well, that’s for sure. I don’t know what you’ve done to the forest, but it’s alive, in some sort of weird, scary way. Creeped me out when we were walking through it.”

“Ah, yes. That took years of work to expand my control of the forest to the entire island.” Anysia’s face brightened with quiet pride. “Thank you for allowing me to stay behind and choose this path.” She waded into the shallows and hugged Cordelia tightly.

Anysia smelled fresh and green, as if she was made of plantlife herself, but her scent was threaded with the crisp, earthy scent of petrichor, which was stronger than before.

Cordelia smiled warmly at her. “Of course. You did good.”

Anysia beamed and pulled away, a pleased blush staining her cheeks. “Well, enough about me. What about you? The years have clearly been kind to you. You’re a woman, now, an extraordinarily beautiful one,” Anysia cradled her face and examined her. “But that’s not all. After years of communing with my mother, I feel that I have a fair experience with the divine, and I have to say…” She trailed off, at a loss for words as she struggled to gather her thoughts.

“Cordi,” she lowly murmured. “I don’t know what you did, but you…” She inhaled a shaky breath. Your power is almost unfathomable.” She sounded awed, but there was a thread of fear underneath. 

A wave of discomfort erupted in Cordelia’s stomach.

Her eyes darted over to Dio. “And him. He’s not that far off. He’s like a barrel of oil, ready to erupt in a blaze. His potential is just staggering. I finally understand what you mean. The air around him tastes of rust and metal.” She stared at Dio in horrified fascination.

“Anysia,” Cordelia made meaningful eye contact with her.

Anysia blinked at her, then slowly nodded. “Ah. I see. So that is why you have come. You are planning to stay so that you can help him.” A hopeful, joyous smile began to bloom on her face, elevating her features into something truly stunning. 

“This is wonderful!” she softly enthused. “I am so happy that you’re staying! I shall prepare the beds and air out the rooms, oh, I am so thrilled.” 

Anysia paused, and then her face fell as she eyed the swirling waves around Cordelia’s feet. “Oh… I misspoke.”

Cordelia smiled at her, even when her chest twinged with something that resembled envy and wistfulness. “It’s alright, don’t worry about me, Dio will be thrilled to be showered in your affection again. And, if it’s not too much to ask, would it be possible to figure something out for Blackjack? He tries not to show it, but he’s spoiled rotten and would greatly appreciate a roof over his head.”

Anysia nodded decisively. “Of course, leave it all to me! This is my home, and I will make sure that my hospitality will leave you wanting for nothing.” Her eyes lost focus as she pondered the logistics. “That will mean that we will take meals here at the shore so that you can be included.”

“You don’t have to-”

“Nonsense,” Anysia cut her off. “You are my dear friend and precious cousin, Cordi, and that is without factoring in your role as my liberator. I won’t hear any word against it, I forbid it. It would be the height of rudeness.” Anysia stared at her meaningfully.

Cordelia sighed and gave in. “Alright, then. 

Anysia smiled, pleased with her easy victory. “Lovely. I’ll have Dio help me bring some stone slabs down to the shore so that we can make a more permanent fire pit.”

She turned with a pep in her step and walked over to Dio, who squinted up at her and sighed dramatically before he got up and slouched after her.

God, what a teenager.

A few hours later saw themselves sitting around the brand new firepit, the warm flames licking at them as their meal boiled away. 

Dio had returned with Anysia with stars in his eyes as he hefted a trio of impaled duck-like birds, jabbering about how Anysia had cleanly speared the unsuspecting waterfowl with vines. “Hell yes! We’re going to eat actual meat, Cordi! I can’t wait!”

Anysia smiled in amusement at how impressed he was with her hunting skills and shyly basked in his hero worship. 

She had provided Blackjack with a large stack of straw-like fibers, along with several fat fruits that looked something like the mix between a peach and a plum that Blackjack was immediately fond of.

“This doesn’t mean that I’m not gonna keep an eye on you, Poison Ivy-lady,” Blackjack muttered as he crunched another fruit.

Yeah. Sure. What a pushover.

Anysia seasoned their bird stew with several spices, like garlic, dill, and rosemary, as well as other plants that Cordelia didn’t immediately recognize at first glance. It smelled especially good due to their hunger, and Cordelia felt her mouth water.

Anysia spooned the soup into bowls for them, and Dio immediately dug in. 

Just as Cordelia was about to eat as well, she paused. Anysia sat with her eyes closed and murmured something under her breath, then poured a bit of her soup into the fire. 

The fire bloomed, but rather than emitting the singed stench you would expect, a plescent scent washed over them before it drifted away in the salty wind.

Cordelia’s eyes widened.

Huh.

She hesitated for a second, then thought, fuck it.

Amphi. Thank you for bringing Blackjack to me. I don’t know how you did it, but I’m truly grateful. This is the most precious gift you’ve given to me.

She tipped a bit of her stew into the fire, and the scent bloomed again.

Kymmie, I miss you. Hope your ivory craft project is going well, I’m sure it’ll turn out beautiful when you finally finish it. Also, if you’re still looking to replace that one handmaiden who tried to steal from you, there’s a girl named Naida who used to help me out, whom I’m sure you’d get along great with. Stay out of trouble, miss you lots.

A bit more splashed in.

Cordelia hesitated a bit, then shrugged. Why not?

Hi, Rhode. I’m good. Uhhh… take care, and try not to kill any more ministers? At least the ones who don’t deserve it?

Then,

Suck a dick, Triton. I bet you’re bored without me. Give my best to Libiya, you don’t deserve her. … Also, the cuffs are pretty neat, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re an asshole.

And finally,

… I’m alive, Dad. 

When she was done, half her stew was gone. Cordelia smiled and raised her bowl to her mouth, before she paused again.

After a long hesitation, she extended her bowl to the fire again and poured.

Thank you, Hestia, for allowing my friends to make homes for themselves. Thank you for watching over them and keeping their hearths warm at night. 

The fire sparked, as if in surprise, but accepted the offering, and the sweet smell lingered for a long moment before it dispersed.

“What was that?” Dio perked up in fascination, already done with his bowl of stew. He spooned a second helping for himself and slurped loudly, prompting a snort from Blackjack.

As she listened to Anysia softly explain why they offered food to the gods while the fire crackled in the background, Cordelia smiled and finally began to eat.

A few days later, the island had another guest.

“What the fuck is that?!” Dio screeched as he recoiled from the shore. His axe sprang into his hands, and he brandished it threateningly at Dexter, who just blinked ominously at him.

“Oh my, another guest!” Anysia proclaimed in delight.

“Huh,” Blackjack mused as he munched on some ice apples that Dio had opened up for him. 

“Dex!” Cordelia gushed, and she leaned down to pick him up. It was a little challenging, since Dexter didn’t have any bones and changed his form according to his will, so it was rather like holding an armful of slime that threatened to ooze over, but never actually did. His tentacles seemed to have a mind of their own and moved erratically, and his soft little suckers tickled her skin as he climbed his way up towards her face.

“Hello, my human pet. I have finally tracked you down. You attempt to evade me with your complex aerial maneuvers, but you forget that I possess powers beyond your comprehension. Because I have consumed your blood, I will now follow you to the corners of the universe. Grandfather attempted to keep me in Atlantis due to the destruction my all-powerful form can beget upon the weak mortals on the surface, but he was no match for my superior intellectual prowess and cunning wiles.” Dexter sprouted another eye to stare directly into hers, all while holding his staring contest with Dio, who now looked supremely disturbed. A tentacle emerged from his head and crept along her face, and Cordelia closed her eye when it got too close. She smiled, and Dexter blinked.

A fountain of giddiness and delight bubbled through Cordelia. All of her precious boys were with her, by her side, safe and happy.

The thought brought another wave of happiness, and she grinned and tried to talk around Dexter’s tentacle, which kept prodding against her lips, trying to enter her mouth. “It’s great to see you, Dex, I thought I’d never see you again!”

“Hey, water buffalo, you didn’t answer the question! What the hell is that thing?!” Dio squealed in disgust. 

Cordelia turned back to her friends and held Dexter up towards them like Simba the best she could. It was rather difficult.

“Everyone, meet Dexter! He’s my pet!”

Anysia, Blackjack, and Dio just stared at him in silence, and Dexter menacingly stared back at them, helpfully assisted by more pairs of eyes that he grew to stare them down.

“Why can that ball of ooze talk?” Dio demanded, glaring at the little octopus monster.

Cordelia blinked in surprise. “Oh, you can hear him, too? I had wondered if I was the only one.”

“Foolish aunt. Allowing other puny mortals to hear my voice is well within my capabilities. If I wish to, I can implode their tiny heads like bubbles, but I mercifully curtail my power, as I am a benevolent being.” 

"Is he for real, Boss?” Blackjack neighed. He suspiciously eyed Dexter and snapped his teeth when one of his tentacles got a little too close to him.

“Yeah, he talks like that,” Cordelia confirmed. “Cute, isn’t he?”

Anysia smiled down at him. “Yes, he rather is,” she cooed. A tentacle gently wrapped around her offered outstretched finger, and her brows rose in intrigue.

Dio stared at them with an open mouth as Dexter turned a lovely blush pink and blinked at them. “Did I somehow drink wine instead of water this morning? What the hell is happening?! Do you actually think this pile of ooze is anything other than revolting?!”

Dexter slowly, ominously turned his attention to Dio, and dark rings began to form on his skin.

“From my covert observations of your antics, I have come to the conclusion that you hold some sentimental value for my pet human, so out of consideration for her weak mortal sensibilities, I shall allow you the opportunity to take back your hasty words, otherwise I will be forced to inflict dire consequences upon your ignorant form.”

Dio bared his teeth and took an aggressive step towards Dexter. “Are you threatening me, blobby? Gimme your best shot, I dare you.” He tightened his grip on his axe and snarled down at the tiny monster.

Dio and Dexter intently stared at each other, and the silence was filled with such a thick tension that Cordelia almost heard the ‘Fistful of Dollars’ theme sound in the background.

Then, without any warning, Dexter leapt from her hands and attached himself to Dio’s head, facehugger-style. 

Dio screamed, the sound muffled, as he fell back from the force, and dropped his axe in the confusion.

Cordelia shook her head in disapproval. Bad practice. She’ll have to correct him on that.

Blackjack erupted into a storm of whinnying laughter, and Anysia also began to guffaw till tears filled her eyes as Dio flailed around and struggled to remove Dexter’s tentacles from his face.

“What the fuck, what tHE FUCK, GETTIT OFFA MY FACE-!” Dio garbled as he rolled around in the sand.

“Curse you, weak human, how did you surmise that my delicate cephalopod skin is susceptible to the sharpness of this sand? Cease your flailing, this is unbecoming of an honorable duel-”

“-UP MY NOSE! SLIMY TENTACLES TRYING TO GET IN MY NOSE! HOLY SHIT-”

“-And so it comes to this. Oh, how far I have fallen to resort to instinctual biological defense mechanisms. The stain of my shame shall never be wiped clean. So be it. This will teach you the folly of your ways, honorless cur-”

Dio screamed anew as his face was stained with black. His frantic eyes turned towards Corelia, who was helpless to spectate from the sea as Dio was waterboarded with ink and tried to wrestle Dexter off his face.  

Blackjack and Anysia absolutely howled with laughter as Dio flopped like a fish and Dexter cringed when he was rolled into the sand by Dio’s frantic struggles.

“IN MY MOUTH, HE FUCKING PISSED IN MY MOUTH, HELP ME-”

Dio screamed in horror again and rolled around the sand like a maniac, and Dexter’s eyes creased in pain with each new impact against the sharp, coarse sand.

Finally, Dexter released Dio’s face and fell to the ground with a small plop, visibly panting from exertion. He sluggishly made his way back towards the water, his tentacles shaking with exhaustion. “Let this be a lesson to you, weak mortal, to never challenge my fearsome might.”

As soon as Dio was released, he skittered across the sand and plowed into the ocean. Before Cordelia could tell him to wait, he shoved his face into the water and greedily gulped down some water and tried to scrub at his face. Almost immediately, he began to vomit the brine back out, stained a horrific black that had him squealing in terror.

Dio whipped around to glare at Dexter, his eyes red with bloodlust. “You…” he hissed. Wrath began to emanate from his form as he began to wade his way over to Dexter’s tiny form. “You just wait till I’m done with you,” he promised darkly.

“Dio, wait!” She tugged at his arm but was eventually forced to tackle him into the water when he still relentlessly beelined towards her precious little pet. 

Through her struggles, she scowled over at Blackjack and Anysia’s wheezing forms, bent over from their stomachs cramping from laughing too hard. “A little help would be nice!’

Blackjack shook his head, barely able to get the words out through his neighing cackles. “No way, Boss, this is pure gold! This finally solidified it, it was worth all of it, coming to the past, just to see this priceless scene!”

Cordelia grunted as she struggled to hold Dio back from his rampage. Great. She hated being the responsible one. 

Oh, if only Annabeth could see her now.

Cordelia was exhausted by the time it was time to go to bed. It had taken ages to calm both Dexter and Dio down, and even longer for Blackjack and Anysia to stop collapsing in wheezes every time they glanced at the feuding duo.

After they had eaten, Anysia retired to her little cottage, Dio and Blackjack following after her. She had been able to craft charming little quarters for both of them as well, an open stable for Blackjack and a spacious, cozy hut for Dio.

Anysia had lamented on her inability to do anything more for Cordelia, but she hesitantly backed down at Cordelia’s confident reassurances that she was fine.

Dexter had drifted out into the rocky reef to find his own private accommodations. Cordelia wasn’t really surprised. Even during his time in Atlantis, he did value his privacy and personal time.

Cordelia sat on the shores as the waves brushed against her legs and absentmindedly hummed a song as she fondly recalled her day. It was an unmitigated disaster, that was for sure, but it had cemented itself as a precious memory nonetheless, surrounded by her most precious people.

Her humming abruptly stopped when she became aware of another presence, and she whipped her head around to find Apollo peering down at her in intrigue.

“What a charming little tune, you didn’t have to stop on my account, darling.”

A strangled noise escaped her throat, and Cordelia felt her cheeks flame in mortification as Apollo lowered himself to sit beside her. “You… you heard that?”

Apollo smiled down at her. “Just a little. I wouldn’t mind hearing more, it’s not a tune I’ve ever encountered before.”

A fresh wave of embarrassment flooded Cordelia, and she fought not to shrink into herself.

As Cordelia practically froze before him, Apollo’s easygoing smile faded. 

Finally, he quietly said, “You know, I’ve wanted to ask you this for a while now. You always tell me the most fantastical, creative tales, so incredible that they leave me feeling breathless. You never take credit for any of them, saying that they are stories that are shared in your homeland, and every day, I marvel at the thought of your home, and how rich its culture is to cultivate the artists to weave such beautiful, intricate stories.”

Apollo paused and wet his lips, his deep golden eyes unreadable. “Art is more than just stories. Art is wild and untamed and free, and comes through all mediums. If your old nation was home to these stories, then it is obvious that there is other wonderful art that exists there. So, Cordelia,” he breathed, “I have to ask. You always share your favorite stories with me, but why do you never sing?”

There it was.

A ball formed in Cordelia’s throat, and she couldn’t look at him.

She knew this question was coming. It was an obvious one to ask, especially from Apollo, who was practically built from beautiful, flawless harmonies that came together to create his gorgeous form. Every time they lapsed into silence, he would inevitably hum a rich, moving melody, anywhere from as light and cheerful as a bird’s chirp to as complex and sophisticated as a symphony.

He was made of sunlight and music. It was his very nature. There was no way he was not going to ask about it sometime.

Normally, this wouldn’t bother Cordelia very much, but for some reason, in front of Apollo…

Cordelia breathed deep and slow and gathered the wavering kernels of courage that still remained within her heart.

“I can’t sing,” she whispered.

She could feel Apollo’s searing stare burn into her face, but she still couldn’t bear to face him.

“What do you mean?” Apollo asked. “I just heard you.”

Cordelia’s jaw tightened, and she felt a bottomless, ugly sense of shame grow roots and burrow through her chest. 

Cordelia wasn’t lying. She couldn’t sing. 

Oh sure, she could imitate a tune. She could follow the notes and sing the words, but…

The end result was always… ugly.

Somehow, her singing sounded wrong. Croaky, raspy, and flat.

Soulless.

No matter how hard she tried, she was never able to get it right.

When she sang in front of someone, their smile usually faded. The skin around their eyes grew pinched with a wince, and the joy they previously had from the music faded away like smoke. 

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t inject life into her singing.

It got a little worse down in Atlantis.

Singing was originally a part of the mandatory lessons assigned by Amphitrite. She only attended like once a week, but it stopped within a month or two.

Her siblings could sing. 

Cordelia was mildly surprised to learn that fact, but once she thought about it, it made sense. 

Sirens were sea-creatures, part of her father’s domain. 

It was quite possible that their talents were shared with her siblings, who were personifications of different aspects of the ocean.

Rhode and Triton were talented singers, with strong voices honed by years of practice.

But Kymmie? 

She had a voice sweeter than Nectar. Her voice was simply ethereal. Depending on her intention, she could sound light and wispy or robust and hypnotic. 

Cordelia remembered countless afternoons by Kymmie’s side where her beautiful voice slid through the water and ensnared her attention as they sewed, carved, weaved, or read together. 

Though she never demonstrated it, Cordelia knew without doubt that she possessed the ability to enchant listeners and seduce them to their demise, just as the sirens could.

Cordelia could do none of that. 

She didn't have the voice of an enchantress. She had the voice of a sailor, cracked, broken, and raspy from sea salt and dryness. 

She could barely hold a tune, and always, even when she tried, the criticisms were the same: wooden, uninspired, lifeless.

Cordelia usually rolled her eyes; it honestly didn’t matter to her that she couldn’t sing. Who cares when she could beat people up with her sword?

Except, here, now, with Apollo…

In the face of his inhuman perfection, she felt like something deep inside her was ugly.

Cordelia bit her lip as she folded her legs and buried her face in them.

Gods, this is stupid. Why am I so stupid? It was just a simple question.

Cordelia didn’t know how much time had passed when Apollo finally broke the silence again.

“Do you remember when I asked you about who I was? About what my domains are?”

Without raising her head off her knees, Cordelia turned to look at him, but this time, Apollo was facing away from her.

“Yeah,” Cordelia breathed. That was when she realized that one of his domains was Truth, she recalled.

Apollo hummed as he let the wet sand crumble through his fingers.

“Like Artemis and Hermes, I have many domains. They make up who I am. They come together and… complete me.”

He inhaled deeply. He still wasn’t looking at her. “Do you know,” he murmured, “Which of my domains is the most prevalent, right now?”

Cordelia remained silent. 

It didn’t matter. Apollo continued on anyway. 

“The Sun. I am the God of Prophecy, of Archery, Art and Healing, but the domain that is most widely worshiped today, most widely known is the Sun.”

He laughed quietly, but there was no softness in the sound. “The largest part of me is the Sun, but you know the funny thing?”

Apollo finally turned to her, his eyes hard. “The domain I am the most famous for, the domain that I gain the most power from, isn’t even exclusively mine.”

Cordelia’s eyes widened, and her lips parted in surprise.

Apollo smirked darkly at her. “That’s right. Helios. The Sun is a part of his domain, as well. It was originally his. We share the sky. Share duties, horses, the chariot, everything.”

Apollo scoffed derisively and turned away. “I usually don’t mind it. Granduncle Helios is pretty easygoing, and I like my duties. It’s fun to ride the sky in the Sun Chariot. It’s fun to paint the sky with the colors of the dawn. It feels good to bring light and warmth after the cold darkness of night.”

Apollo inhaled and sighed out slowly. “But. Once in a while, the thought creeps in: The Sun is new to me, not even more than a few centuries old. Out of all my other domains, this is the one that people worship. This is the domain that people associate with me. This is my identity.”

Apollo was quiet for a few long moments before he turned back to her. “Tell me, Cordelia,” he lowly asked her. “Do you know how it feels to be known, to be worshiped for something that doesn’t even belong wholly to you? It’s hard not to… read into that. Hard not to somehow feel that…” He swallowed heavily before he whispered, ”That, perhaps, there’s nothing in you really worth worshiping in the first place, without stealing from others.”

He met Cordelia’s eyes, and for a moment, she forgot to breathe.

“Out of all my domains, the one I love the most is Art and Music. You can’t possibly understand what your stories mean to me. The fact that you share them with me…” Apollo paused and took a deep, shuddering breath. 

“Cordelia,” his eyes were arresting in their intensity and honesty. “It doesn’t matter what you sing. Anything that leaves your lips honors me more than a thousand offerings ever could.”

They lapsed into silence, and Cordelia felt silent tears drip down her cheeks.

Apollo…

Over the past few years, they had formed a connection. 

Of course, Apollo was always an eager audience for her stories, but it was more than that. 

It was when he rolled his eyes at a character’s stupid decision and prowled like a tiger when that same character was in grave danger. 

It was when he got into heated debates with her about whether this hero or that one would win in a fight, or whether that one random beauty was a better match for the protagonist than the heroine.

It was how he grinned and splashed her with water when she was too heated to concentrate from something Triton, Rhode, or Amphi would pull on her.

It was how his eyes filled with wonder when he learned what an alien was, even though he was an all-powerful, immortal god who could probably create hundreds of more beautiful beings.

It was in the way he slowly opened up enough to tell her his true feelings for his family.

About how he loved Artemis with all his heart, but he couldn’t stand to be around her sometimes because she was almost cruelly unsympathetic to his grief when his romantic trysts went tragically wrong.

About how he sometimes couldn’t even look at Dionysus without feeling rage and bitterness bubble up within him for taking dear, sweet, gentle Hestia’s place on the Council.

About how he hated, hated Hera for taking her resentment out on their mother and making her suffer unimaginable pain for years rather than take her husband to task.

It was slow and incremental, a little comment here and a sarcastic quip over there.

But, thread by thread, the bond of trust was built between them, oh so slow, almost invisible, but right now, Cordelia could see the tapestry they had woven together.

Oh, and it was beautiful, filled with joy and laughter and concern for each other, and the care that comes from true, honest affection, built brick by brick, somehow both delicate and unbreakable at the same time.

A swell of emotion rose in Cordelia’s chest, happiness and affection, and something else that she didn’t examine too closely, not at this moment. 

Right now…

“Apollo,” she whispered, “Have I ever told you about Escanor?”

Apollo turned to her, but didn’t say a word. 

That was alright. 

It was his turn to listen now.

“He is a part of a larger tale, one that I will not get into right now, filled with nonsensical twists and turns that I am sure you will love dissecting later. But right now, I want to tell you about one regular human man named Escanor who was able to stand alongside beings that were virtually gods.”

Cordelia was silent for a minute, collecting her thoughts, and Apollo patiently waited for her to speak.

“Escanor was a part of a group of seven holy warriors, the mightiest in the land. His peers were truly monstrous; immortal beings, mighty giants, and the most skilled sorcerers in the land, so talented and knowledgeable that they could warp reality itself. And yet, there he was, a regular human. A weak, helpless human who could barely defend himself against other weak humans.”

Cordelia smiled. “Do you know what made Escanor special, though?” She waited for a long moment before she laughed softly and continued. “He gained his strength through the Sun.” 

Cordelia’s eyes went unfocused for a second as her memory replayed the magnificent sight. “He was the strongest out of all of them, the Lion's Sin of Pride, Escanor. When he was bathed in sunlight, he became humanity’s strongest, their hope. He rose up like the lion he was named after and stared down his enemies with the unshakable arrogance of a god to an ant.”

Cordelia sighed as her heart filled with wonder and warmth. “Oh, Apollo, I can’t describe him. He was truly a king amongst men, and he unflinchingly stood against world-ending foes without fear because he had an unshakable faith in his sheer superiority over them.”

Cordelia turned to Apollo and smiled. “I digress. If you’d like, I could tell you the full tale later, but I’m telling you this to give you a frame of reference. Escanor was said to get his power from the Sun, and though it was never explicitly stated, I always imagined that it was you he gained power through, because for all of his magnificence and might, at heart, he was kind and filled with love and passion. Even when Escanor was away from the Sun and his frail mortal body quaked with weakness, I couldn’t help but be dazzled by him, because his strength wasn’t within his body, but rather within his spirit.”

Cordelia took a moment to examine Apollo’s features, but he gave nothing away. “Escanor became my favorite character because I started seeing you within him. It’s because he chooses to be compassionate. It’s because he continues to seek love even though he’s been devastatingly hurt many times before. It’s because, when face to face with death, he laughed, and his spirit burned so brightly that it took my breath away.”

Cordelia met Apollo’s eyes. “Apollo. Escanor became my favorite character because of you. Because I saw you in every little action he took, in every little choice he made, in every line he spoke. Escanor isn’t my favorite because of his association with the Sun; it’s because I saw you in everything else.”

It was quiet, oh so quiet, but Cordelia heard Apollo’s breath hitch.

“Whether you have the Sun or not doesn’t matter to me. To me, you’ll always be just Apollo.”

That was probably an insanely blasphemous thing to say to a god, especially right to his face, but Cordelia didn’t care.

She was telling the truth.

And best of all, she knew that Apollo could feel it, too.

Chapter Text

“Weak mortal aunt.”

Cordelia paused in her task of collecting some urchins for them to snack on and turned to see Dexter floating behind her. She smiled at him. “Yeah, tiny?”

Dexter blinked at her. “Ah. You refer to me with a pet name. Very well. I was under the assumption that the moniker ‘Dexter’ was enough of a diminutive to satisfy your confounding tastes, however, you still continue to create more nicknames.”

Cordelia tilted her head. “Well, yeah. I guess so. Does it bother you?”

Dexter bobbed in place as he pondered her question. “I suppose not. Although I have been informed by grandfather that names have power, I have no particular qualms about you creating more diminutives to refer to me. From my observations, I have concluded that it is the way you show affection.” He blinked decisively.

“Uh, yeah. I mean, names do have power, but I give you nicknames because I like you, little guy.” Cordelia drifted closer and pet his head. It was satisfyingly soft and jiggly.

“Hm.” Dexter’s skin turned a contemplative shade of orange as one of his tentacles came to wrap around her hand. “I see. I suppose it is still new to me, having a name bestowed upon me in affection rather than scorn. Worry not, aunt. I shall adjust to your bewildering habits accordingly.”

Cordelia’s hand stilled. “Wait. What? What do you mean by that? Have people been calling you mean names?”

Dexter’s eyes flicked away from hers, which made Cordelia frown.

“As I mentioned, though grandfather publicly claimed me as his kin and proclaimed my true name Epidextros, I am not openly welcomed within Atlantis. My presence was tolerated but not celebrated, I imagine rather like your own experience was. I did feel a sense of kinship with you, so I allowed you to take me as your companion.”

Cordelia’s jaw was open. “What?”

Broad brown stripes flashed across Dexter’s skin. “Worry not, weak aunt. I am still immortal. Much of my disparagement came from my inability to hold a humanoid form, as well as my lineage from my dame.”

“Who, Charybdis?” Cordelia’s head spun at the information. 

“Yes.” Dexter puffed up a bit in pride. “My dame is powerful and fierce; however, when I was a fledgling, I was unable to withstand her might, so grandfather brought me to Atlantis as a favor to her so that I may be able to attain my maturity in safety.”

“Oh, little guy,” Cordelia gently pulled him into a hug, and Dexter accepted it, his tentacles coiling around her arms. “How come you never told me?”

“Hm. I suppose that I’m not quite sure. Perhaps I saw your interactions with the black steed and the rabid mortal boy and I felt some queer, peculiar emotion.”

Cordelia tried her best not to smile. “A strange emotion, huh, tiny? Was it something like jealousy?”

Dexter sprouted an eye to glare up at her. “You display your foolishness once again, mortal aunt. It is an unfathomable concept to even consider. Jealousy,” he scoffed, “How very foolish. I am a being on a higher plane of existence. As if I could ever succumb to such frivolities.”

“Of course, of course, my mistake.” God, her cheeks hurt from the urge to grin, but somehow Cordelia was able to school her features into something serious.

“Hmph. As long as you know your place.” Dexter haughtily nipped at her, and Cordelia laughed.

“Well, seeing your exchanges with your other companions displayed how different you were within Atlantis. There, it was common to see you silent and watchful. The only time you allowed much of your rough, pedestrian personality to display was when you were with my large, stormy aunt.”

“Stormy- oh, you mean Kymmie?”

Dexter nodded regally. “That is so. I have come to see that while you are still a frail, helpless mortal, you will not wither away as I had feared.”

Cordelia felt like she had been walloped by a coconut. “What do you mean, wither?”

Dexter just gazed at her condescendingly. “As I said, mortal aunt. I sought you out as I was fearful that one day your spirit would simply slip from your body, but I now see that you have a greater will to live than I realized.”

Cordelia sputtered. “What the- did you think I was suicidal or something? What the fuck?!”

Dexter harrumphed. “You forget how much you wept upon my form, aunt. About how much you decried grandfather’s decree and your constant state of abject misery. How was I to know otherwise? I do not have much experience with mortal surface-dwellers other than the ones my mother devoured. For all I knew, you would be floating upside down one morning like a goldfish after you endured a scolding from grandmother.”

Cordelia stared at him, completely speechless. “Wow. Woooww. Is that how you saw me?” She was beyond feeling offended at this point. No, now it was almost funny.

Dexter’s tentacles moved in the equivalent of a shrug. “Well, I now know better, so I feel that I am able to actually confide in you without needlessly adding to your burdens.”  

“Uh. Thank you?” Cordelia asked.

“You are welcome.” Dexter seriously intoned. “Now that you will not keel over on a whim, I have decided that I will still accompany you, however, you do not need the constant supervision I initially suspected.”

Cordelia blinked. “Uh… you were babysitting me? Aren’t you, like, still a kid yourself?” 

“Fool!” Dexter barked. He glared at her. “My age is irrelevant when my vast power encompasses your own by leagues!” His skin turned an angry red, and he grew four extra tentacles to wave threateningly at her.

“Okay, sorry, sorry!” That smile was back and more threatening than ever, but she knew that if she gave in, he would throw a fit, and she would receive an experience of ‘the face-hugger.’ 

‘Keep it together, Cordi,’ she internally chanted.

He glared at her. “As I was saying before you rudely interrupted, I will still accompany you to ensure your continued health, but I no longer fear for your delicate constitution and imminent death. I will allow you to, ah, how did you describe it to grandfather… oh yes, I will allow you to explore ‘free-range.’”

Cordelia bit her lip. “Sure.” ‘What am I, a chicken?’ she thought to herself.

Dexter nodded decisively. “It is decided. I will come and go as I please, but I will still check in regularly to ensure that you are at optimal health, as any responsible pet owner should do.”

“Uh. Okay…?” she smiled in confusion. “That’s… good to know. Are you, like, planning to stay for a while?”

Dexter’s eyes turned away, and they hooded in contemplation. “Hmmm. I suppose I can accompany you for a while, before I go to reunite with my dame.”

“Whoa, wait. You want to go see Charybdis? Like, now?” Cordelia was slightly alarmed.

Dexter eyed her defiantly. “I wish to eventually reunite with her to show her how much I have grown.” He puffed up in challenge, but slowly deflated with a sigh. “Well. I suppose it could wait a bit longer. I am aware the trip is perilous.”

Cordelia was still alarmed, but she smiled down at Dexter. “Yeah, don’t worry, tiny, there’s no rush. You’re always welcome to hang out with me in the meantime! And, uh, I promise I won’t die like a goldfish…?”

Dexter examined her and hummed in satisfaction. “So it seems. Very well then. If I have a standing invitation, then I must have a residence in the area.”

Cordelia’s smile suddenly felt a little plastic when Dexter brought up ‘residences’, but she quickly ignored it. “Sure, that seems wise.”

Dexter floated away from her and gestured with two tentacles over to a rocky patch of coral. “That leads me to my original point, before this conversation went into confusing tangents. I require your assistance. There is an ideal spot that I would like to inhabit, however, the family of crabs refuses to vacate.”

Cordelia stared at him. “Um. Well, if it’s already taken, you could find another spot, Dex?”

Dexter scowled at her, and his tentacles twirled in irritation. “I desire that particular spot. It should be he who vacates. I am a prince, and I deserve the best. I should not be forced to compromise.”

Oh, wow. Cordelia sighed tiredly. “Alright, then. You always say that you possess unfathomable, horrifying powers. I guess you could convince them to leave.”

Dexter looked at her as if she were dumb. “Why would I go through the effort when I have a handy pet who could do it for me?”

Cordelia groaned and slowly followed after him. 

It took six hours to sort it out with the family of crabs, who were, unsurprisingly, quite crabby, and afterwards, even after getting his way, Dexter sulked for the rest of the day after Cordelia forced him to help the little family move into their new little nook as recompense for ousting them from their home.

So fun.

During their short stay at Megara, Blackjack had been instantly beloved by the working girls at Bingyan’s brothel.

They had excitedly cooed over him as they fed him dates, nuts, and smears of honey, and they shrieked with delighted giggles when he lapped at their hands to catch those last precious crystals of sugar.

They had ended up gifting Cordelia a luxurious horse grooming kit and what appeared to be a falconry kit. Cordelia wasn’t the most well-versed in how much a drachma was worth and the particulars of how currency presently worked, but it was obvious that this was a thoughtful, expensive gift based on the quality alone.

Cordelia’s heart warmed towards these women who were so cared for by her friends. 

“Hey, buddy.”

“Yeah, Boss?”

Cordelia smiled affectionately at Blackjack as she pushed his mane out of his eyes. “Looks like I have some free time. You wanna have a groom?”

Dio was with Anysia, helping her fix up his little cottage into something more to his taste, and Dexter was off terrorizing the local marine life, happy to be left to his own devices.

Blackjack was silent for a long moment, but his long tail flicked out behind him. “I’d love to, Boss.”

Cordelia patted his rump, then bounced and swung a leg over his back. “Alright then, bud. Let’s go to the lake. I’ll give you a bath and a nice old groom. How does that sound?”

Blackjack made his way into the forest. His voice was quietly happy as he murmured, “That sounds nice, Boss.”

They silently walked through the thick foliage, but unlike the first time, the vegetation seemed leagues more welcoming to them. The plants leaned out of the way, and as if sensing their intentions, opened up a narrow pathway leading through the greenery to the lake at the center.

The forest still thrummed with an intense, earthy power, but it was much easier to ignore. Anysia was deeply intertwined with the entire forest, and she was able to sense everything that went on in her domain. Still a little disconcerting, but hey, what’re you gonna do?

Blackjack led them past the cozy clearing at the base of the volcano that held their residences, and once again, as Cordelia glanced at them, something within her chest tightened. 

Anysia’s house was simple but beautiful, looking as if it sprouted from the ground itself. The walls looked to be made out of intertwining branches and vines, clearly alive. Straw was expertly woven in a masterful pattern to provide insulation, and her roof was a glorious bed of flowers that changed depending on whatever Anysia’s mood was like for the day. 

Cordelia had seen the roof colored with a riot of bright red flowers one day, and the next day it would be a jolly yellow, interspersed with cheerful blue blooms. It was glorious and the highlight of Anysia’s morning, how she decorated her roof before beginning her business for the day. 

Dio’s house was constructed in a similar manner, but he wished for a bit more privacy, so Anysia was helping him close up the window holes along the side of his residence and remodel his little hut so that he could have a few higher slits to allow for circulation but too high for anyone to peek inside.

Sigh. Teenagers.

Blackjack appreciated his expansive stable. It was open and free for him to come and go as he pleased, but also covered enough to keep the rain away when it stormed. A large tree trunk was split in half and cored out to provide Blackjack with a large food and water basin that Anysia religiously filled with fresh fruits, grass, and water every morning. 

It was a lovely, cozy little scene that Cordelia always smiled when gazing upon, but the fondness was always tinged with something that approached… envy.

A little further down, the large freshwater lake grandly shimmered in the sunlight.

It was large, but rather shallow, less than 30 feet at its deepest. However, it was a godsend, as it allowed them to actually build homes here on this island, away from civilization, the pure, crisp freshwater unsullied by brine from seawater, able to be consumed after some boiling.

Blackjack ambled over to a shore a bit away from their homes, the trees allowing them some privacy as he plodded into the lake, and Cordelia slid off his back.

As she landed in the water, a wave of discomfort wrapped around Cordelia’s chest and threatened to take her breath away.

Every time she remained on land too long, that horrible feeling of dread and anxiety started to pulse through Cordelia, and all her instincts flared in alarm, screaming that she was in danger. 

Even though she found a way to circumvent Gaea’s curse, the earth still rejected her. 

A knot of emotion formed in Cordelia’s throat, but she swallowed it down.

She was still in water, but she was still unwelcome. Shunned. 

That… That was…

Blackjack’s head nudged against her shoulder, and he snuffled. “Boss?”

Cordelia blinked the feeling away and smiled at him. “Hey, bud. Okay then, ready to get started?”

They both waded deeper into the lake, but unfortunately, the feeling of dread didn’t dissipate. 

Cordelia ignored it even as it itched at the back of her brain.

She controlled the waves to gently wash over Blackjack, who huffed at the cool temperature but settled down when she soothingly patted his nose.

“Ready for a scrub, bud?”

The kit gifted to them contained several different brushes. Of course, they weren’t anything like modern brushes, but they were finely made nonetheless. The bristles had different thickness and coarseness, and a sharp razor for trimming was encased as well. 

Cordelia slowly, thoroughly scrubbed Blackjack’s flank, allowing the dirt and oil in his rich coat to come up to the surface. A tiny wave was enough to sweep the grime away, and she moved on to a new area.

It was slow, rhythmic, and familiar. Cordelia had groomed Blackjack many, many times back in the past. In fact, that was one of her core duties at Camp Half-Blood, taking care of the horses they housed, as her ability to communicate with them made the chore so much smoother than otherwise.

But as Cordelia’s familiar, grooming Blackjack was special.

Some old, scarred-over part of Cordelia’s heart felt like it was slowly split open again, but somehow, through the pain, it felt good.

Cordelia didn’t notice that she had stopped scrubbing him until Blackjack nuzzled her cheek and gave a long, coarse lick up the side of her face. “Boss? You okay?”

Cordelia was silent as she pondered the question.

Was she okay? She was, but…

“I’m good, bud.” She smiled affectionately at him, but he just silently stared at her.

“Boss? Can I ask you two things?”

“Of course, buddy,” Cordelia said in surprise. “You know you can always ask me anything.”

Blackjack continued to stare at her, and for some reason, it felt like he could see something that she wasn’t aware of.

“First question, Boss: what happened to you? It’s just… You will always be my human, but you… What happened to you, Boss? I don’t know how long it’s been, but what happened to make you change this much? You’ll always be you, but sometimes it’s a bit hard to recognize you.”

Cordelia’s breath caught in her chest. 

“And my second question… I know everything’s changed now, but if it’s just the two of us, can we please speak English? Just… so that we can keep a little piece of home. Would that be okay?” he asked hesitantly.

Cordelia felt a sob well up in her chest, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Yes,” she breathed, and the words felt like nectar on her lips, the sound of her mother tongue so, so sweet in the air.

When was the last time she had been able to speak English? It had been… years ago, hadn’t it?

Cordelia was extremely blessed to have been able to immediately speak and understand Ancient Greek after her displacement, but it wasn’t her language.

Slowly, haltingly, as she methodically scrubbed and brushed every inch of Blackjack down, she described her journey. All the way from waking up in Lupa’s den with no idea who she was, up until she glimpsed him as she won her freedom from her father.

Her voice was low and raspy, her thick New York accent sounding somehow both clumsy yet effortless upon her lips.

And, in low tones, as she took out the falconry kit and began painstakingly preening each and every one of his pitch black feathers and easing out the loose ones, she told him of how lonely she had been. Of how, although she had made some precious, life-long friends here, her grief and helplessness threatened to creep up and engulf her in the quiet moments.

How she sometimes excitedly turned to her side to tell Annabeth something fascinating she had discovered that the snotty blonde would love to learn.

About how she idly daydreamed about how Grover would react to the vast, untamed forests of the past.

About how Rachel would sneer at some current fashion trends and make hilarious, sarcastic comments under her breath.

About how she still dreamed of her mom’s smile and woke up with tears in her eyes.

As Cordelia lifted Blackjack’s hooves and scraped out the mud within and sanded them down, and later carefully trimmed the feathering around his ankles, she told him about how much it meant to her that he had come back to her.

About how it felt like a sliver of her soul had returned to her, and now that she had someone who actually knew who she was, she could finally breathe.

As Cordelia carefully combed out his long, wavy mane and tail and clipped the dead ends off, she told him that she was so, so sorry for pulling him away from everything he had loved, and how the guilt threatened to overwhelm her sometimes. 

Because that was it, wasn’t it? Even though it was horrible, pulling him away from his entire life, she was still guiltily grateful that he was here, by her side.

Blackjack had been quiet as she had spoken, but finally, he said, “I already told you, Boss. There’s no place I’d rather be than by your side. When you were taken away by Hera, I felt just as you described: like a slice of my soul was gone. I won’t lie, I do miss home sometimes, but let me put it this way: if I had the choice to go back home, I wouldn’t take it. I’d choose to say, just because you’re here, Boss.”

He looked at her with his deep, fathomless eyes, and Cordelia suddenly realized, Blackjack was more than just a horse. Technically speaking, he was a monster.

He was immortal.

He would live long after she would, and yet, he still chose to be here, by her side, when he knew he was choosing a millennium of loneliness, being away from his home, waiting for time to flow tortuously slow until it finally arrived again.

His voice was soft and filled with love. “I choose you, Boss. I’m glad that out of everybody, I can be here to help you.”

He licked her again, and Cordelia realized that tears had slipped down her cheek.

Gods, she was just a leaky faucet, wasn’t she? Clarisse would roast the ever loving crap out of her.

But somehow, this time, she didn’t mind so much, because the hard ball of guilt had begun to dissolve, and a smile stretched at her lips.

“Thank you, bud,” she breathed, and she sputtered and spat as Blackjack licked her again.

“Anytime, Boss. But I still want to eat doughnuts.”

“Yes, yes.” Cordelia smiled, brighter than before, as she continued to shower her precious familiar with care and affection.

Anysia softly hummed under her breath as she combed through Cordelia’s hair. 

Cordelia closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of her gentle fingers braiding bits back to come together into an intricate hairdo.

Anysia had lamented on the short length of her hair, but Cordelia rather preferred it this way, now.

After spending years back here in ancient Greece, she was still given the side-eye for not having long hair pinned conservatively back or hidden beneath a shawl, but it didn’t bother her anymore.

Having short hair was convenient, especially because it always ended up wavy and tangled from the sea water she was constantly cursed to be around, and having it short meant that it was easy to maintain. Normally, the most she would do would be to comb her fingers through to remove the worst of the tangles, but after, it fell into loose, flattering waves around her face. 

In contrast, Dio’s fancy curls needed more care than she did, heh. 

She had seen Anysia wrestle him to sit before her after dinnertime, and him pout as she wrangled his hair away from disaster. His curls fell over his forehead, but were cut a little closer to the side of his head and fell down his neck to brush up against his shoulders. His hair had bleached from the sun and lightened to a bright straw shade. He was still sporting that damn mullet, and it killed her inside to admit that it was actually stupidly flattering on him. 

Ughhh. 

Anysia had looked longingly at Cordelia’s hair and had asked her if she could braid it.

“It’s been so long since I’ve styled anyone’s hair but my own, cousin. Would you allow me?”

Looking into her large, fawn-like eyes, Cordelia couldn’t refuse.

The rhythmic pull of the comb through her black waves threatened to lull her to sleep. The waves washing against their legs and the warm sunlight shining on them added to the meditative moment. The smoke from the nearby fire was thick and heady, perfumed with herbs that made her head swim pleasantly.

“How do you have a comb?” Cordelia sleepily asked. 

“Ah, this? This I kept from my possessions upon the Golden Eel, however, my lady mother supplies me with much of what I ask.”

Cordelia frowned. “She does?”

Anysia tsked and poked the skin between Cordelia’s eyebrows, and Cordelia blinked in surprise. 

“You frown so much, cousin. Be wary, lest you end up with wrinkles like me.”

“Awww, come on, Anysia, you look great,” Cordelia hurried to reassure, her words loose and slightly slurred. 

Anysia huffed out a laugh and rose from the shallow water, and Cordelia blinked drowsily after her as she walked over to the shore and rummaged around near the fire pit. A few moments later, Anysia came back with something in her hand.

As she settled back down behind Cordelia, she pressed a little tin can into her hand.

Cordelia stared at it blankly. “Uh. What’s this?”

Anysia began to brush her hair again, and the soothing feeling of her fingers combing through made Cordelia sag lazily. “Stimmi.”

“Huh.” Cordelia stared out into the expansive waves. “I don’t know what that is.”

Anysia sighed. “Stimmi. For your eyes.”

Cordelia blinked, then sluggishly raised a hand to pop the lid off. Inside was a thick, greasy black paste that smelled lovely, like flowers and herbs. Cordelia peered at the sludge blankly.

“Thank you,” then, after a long pause, “What does it do?”

Anysia was quiet as she collected her thoughts. “It’s for your eyes. For the sunlight. I always notice that you squint from the sun, constantly. You never notice that you’re doing it, but every time I see it, my heart hurts that I cannot offer you proper hospitality on the island.”

A soft whisper of sadness had entered Anysia’s voice, and Cordelia felt it sink into her as well.

“So, I thought to make you some Stimmi. I have told you about my father, yes?”

Cordelia struggled to recall. It was like her thoughts were soup. “Uhhh… I think you said he was a farmer?”

Cordelia could hear the smile in Anysia’s voice, but a thread of wistfulness was woven into it. “Yes. He was a farmer, but he made a considerable amount of wealth. He owned vast swaths of land and oversaw other laborers as they tilled the soil and harvested the yield, but he never thought of himself as above them. He always insisted that we join in the hard work, so that we know the effort that actually went into our meals.”

Cordelia could see it in her mind, a tiny little girl with dark brown hair, splattered with freckles and smeared with dirt, smiling up at a kind-looking man as they painstakingly seeded and watered their crops. 

“As we worked through the long summer days, he would laugh as I squinted through the sunlight, so he would make me some Stimmi to smear over my eyes so that I would not be blinded. He always teased that I looked like a ferret, with black rings around my eyes and burrowing through the dirt.”

Anysia’s voice trailed off as she was lost within her memories, though her fingers still continued the task.

Cordelia looked at the little container. She touched the edge of the paste and rubbed her fingers together, and her fingertips were stained dark. 

It’s like kohl, Cordelia concluded, but she was a little wary.

“Did you make it?”

“Yes.” Anysia peered over her shoulder to watch her examine the mixture. “I used a recipe my father taught me. He insisted on making it himself, as Stimmi sold by others often have ground stones that could harm skin or vision if used for long. We use charcoal ash and flower petals ground in fat.”

Cordelia hummed, relieved. Rachel had gone on many rants about how, for the majority of history, makeup was toxic to use, and how only relatively recently, people actually thought, hey, perhaps lead and mercury weren’t great things to put on their faces and bodies. She always went on a tangent about how it was important to only buy ethically developed makeup, as many times, animals were harmed in the testing phases. 

Usually by then, Cordelia would tune her out, but she always shuddered when Rachel talked about how people's skin and vision would erode away under the power of those heavy chemicals in the pursuit of beauty.

“How do I use it?” Cordelia handed the container to Anysia and turned towards her. Anysia tilted Cordelia’s head down towards her, and Cordelia closed her eyes as Anysia’s gentle fingers brushed over her eyelids and under her socket, stopping above her cheekbones. The paste was smooth, ground finely, and fragrant. It felt a little greasy, but not too tacky, and it seemed to dry under the sea breeze pretty quickly. 

Cordelia hesitantly opened her eyes and was surprised to find that the glare of the sun didn’t bother her as much. Huh. Apparently, she had subconsciously been squinting all this time. 

Anysia smiled at her. “Ah. Another ferret. But an ocean ferret, this time,” she touched the water around them and playfully scooped a bit up to flick at Cordelia, who just smiled slowly.

“Thank you, Anysia,” she slurred. She felt warm and fuzzy at the consideration the older Demigod woman had shown her. 

“Of course, cousin,” Anysia demurred, and went back to playing with her hair. “It is the absolute least I can do to make your stay a little easier. It cannot be easy to remain out in the open on the shore like this, with no protection against the elements. I cannot provide you with shade, but I can provide you with this to aid you, however little it may do so.”

Cordelia let her eyes lazily drift closed again. “It’s alright. Not your fault,” she mumbled. “‘s nice that you cared enough about me to make this. Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it,” Anysia declared. “This is the least I could do, cousin. You allowed me the opportunity to thrive in my widowhood and connect with my heritage. My lord husband was respectful to me, however, I have to admit that I am enjoying myself much more in his absence. Though…” she trailed off, suddenly sounding shy.

Cordelia lolled her head towards her. “Yeah?”

Anysia glanced at Cordelia, then looked away and bit her lip. “Though I do wish that he had gifted me with a child. I would very much like to raise some children. I have wanted to since I was a little girl.” Her voice was yearning. “Children are like little sprouts, so delicate and needy, but with just a little love and care, they can grow into beautiful, majestic trees that just burst with life.” 

Anysia turned to Cordelia and smiled. “I know that you are a woman grown, Cordelia, but both you and Dio make me long for some children of my own. You both are so bright and brilliant, and if I could raise a child to turn out like you both did, then I would be a very proud woman, indeed.”

Cordelia blushed under her words. “Stop, Anysia.” She felt a bit light-headed, perhaps from the blood suddenly rushing to her cheeks. “C’mon, we’re not that great, Dio’s still a little shit, and I’m just… me,” she mumbled.

Anysia smiled knowingly at Cordelia. “That’s precisely why, cousin. You are a powerful, disciplined, and moral young woman, courageous enough to stand up for what you believe to be right. Dio is young yet, but he, too, shows the same qualities reminiscent of you. And you will teach him, train him to harness his instincts and become an exceptional man.”

Cordelia’s cheeks flamed brighter, and she resisted the urge to dunk her head under the water to cool them lest she ruin all of Anysia’s hard work.

The dizziness attacked with a vengeance, and she swayed a bit. Woah.

“Oh, dear,” Anysia examined Cordelia’s flushed face and dilated eyes in mild worry. “Perhaps I added too much to the fire,” she fretted.

“Too much what?” Cordelia slurred.

“Hemp seeds. My mother provided me with seeds that I was able to cultivate, and the smoke from the seeds aided me when meditating. I thought that a bit would allow us to relax and unwind, but perhaps you are a bit of… ah, a bit of a light-weight, for lack of a better term.”

Cordelia slowly turned to Anysia, the gears in her head creaking painfully. Her thoughts were molasses, thick and syrupy-slow. “Hemp seeds? Like… weed? Anysia, did you get me high?”

Anysia blinked owlishly at her. “Is that what it’s called? I once heard that some cults of the Grape Lord would do something similar, but I didn’t think it was quite the same. My mother never really said anything to me, though. Sometimes she even enjoyed the smoke with me. Is… that not normal?”

Cordelia sighed and dunked her head in the water, hairdo be damned.

Yup. Anysia was still a ditz, as always. Nice to know some things never change.

“Okay. Lesson number one: never drop your weapon.”

Dio just glared sulkily at her.

The sun was beginning to set, which provided them with sweet relief from the oppressive heat. It was the perfect time to train.

Well, almost. 

First, Cordelia forced Dio to condition with her.

She ran down the stretch of the beach and smiled in amusement as Dio jogged after her, complaining about how hard it was to run in the sand.

Though he was red-faced and sweaty, he didn’t give up.

Good.

Cordelia contemplated some strength training, but ultimately decided against it. 

Dio was being very good today. Though he was snappish, he didn’t actually pick a fight with anyone. He deserved a reward.

So, here she was, giving him a lesson in combat.

“Water buffalo, you can’t hold that against me. Anyone would lose their shit if a horrible squid monster decided to attack their face.”

Cordelia tsked in disappointment. “Not an excuse, brat. There will always be people and monsters out to get you, and often times, they’ll do crazy shit and take you off guard. In those moments, you won’t have time to think about consciously keeping your weapon in your hand. You’ll automatically default to instinct. So, now it’s my job to pound the lesson into your tiny brain so that it becomes instinctive to tighten your grip on your weapon when you’re shocked, rather than let it go.”

Dio frowned in confusion. “I thought that you were going to teach me to fight.”

Cordelia smiled. “What do you think the point of training was about, brat? Sure, it’s to teach you moves and techniques, but it’s much more than that. It’s to practice the same movements so much that they get embedded into your very bones so that you can just react. In the middle of battle, your brain should be focused on figuring out your enemy’s weak spots, and your body has to be immediately ready to respond to the slightest gap in their defense.”

Dio seemed to ponder that. “Huh. I’ve never heard it explained to me like that.”

Gods. He was so young. Cordelia felt bittersweet as she looked at him, so close to looking like an adult, but it was moments like these that showed that he was still a kid.

“I will teach you how to fight, Dio. I know that you’ve had training in Sparta, but this is going to be different. You were probably training to be a soldier. You probably learned how to take orders and follow the chain of command.” Cordelia looked him in the eye, deadly serious. “I’m not going to do that. I am going to teach you how to survive. How to kill. How to use every weapon at your disposal so that you can walk away alive. And, most of all, I’m going to teach you how to reach down into you instincts and control them rather than letting them control you.”

Dio’s eyes were locked onto hers, bewitched by her grim proclamation. 

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be by your side while you were in Megara. You did beautifully without me. The aunties and Ranga were able to rely on you to keep them safe, and I can’t adequately describe how proud I am of you for that.”

Dio’s jaw clenched, and he looked away. His cheeks warmed with a soft blush, barely visible against his tanned skin, but somehow making the light scars on his face stand out more.

“But,” Cordelia exhaled, “you’re still a kid, Dio. You shouldn’t have had to go through that alone.”

“I’m not a kid,” Dio snapped. “And I wasn’t alone.”

A pang went through Cordelia’s heart. “You are, Dio. And you were alone. Maybe not physically, but you told me that there were many things that you couldn’t confide in the others, because they wouldn’t understand. Loneliness isn’t about not having people around you. It’s about not being able to connect with anyone. You could be in a room full of people and still be the loneliest you’ve ever been.”

Cordelia would know. In Atlantis, though she was always surrounded by people and made many friends, she was still lonely, just because nobody really knew her.   

Kymmie made it a bit better once her half-sister befriended her and encouraged her to talk openly.

But. After coming back to the past, the most ‘at-home’ she’s ever felt was with…

Apollo, Cordelia realized in shock.

She pushed her mind’s traitorous whisper away as Dio seethed at her. “I’m not a child,” he snarled. “I’ve seen more horrors than most men will ever see in their lives. I’ve killed people without regret. My mom died in front of me and I was a fucking slave. I’m not a child, Cordi.”

Cordelia just looked at him in silence. The breeze drifted around them, mercifully cooling their sweat as the air slowly grew cooler around them as night began to bloom. The ever-present white noise of the sea brushed against her senses.

“In my country,” she began quietly, “we’ve studied the human body extensively. We discovered that the brain doesn’t fully mature until your mid to late twenties, and even afterwards, it’s always growing and changing. So, in my home, we’ve set the approximate age of majority to be around eighteen to twenty-one years old. We’ve deemed that age old enough for a person’s brain to be developed enough to make conscious, informed life decisions.”

She looked up at him and saw his expression rapt. “Most people associate children with innocence and naivety. You, Dio, are not innocent. You’re not naive. Life hasn’t allowed you to be. It’s forced you to grow up too fast and fend for yourself. But,” Cordelia stressed, “You shouldn’t have to be alone and figure it out by yourself. There are still many years before you’ll fully be a man. Hell,” she scoffed, “I don’t feel like I’m fully grown, either, even though I am a woman in the eyes of society. The point is, you’ve had to fight to survive all this time. But now, you don’t need to take it all on your shoulders, because I’ll be here.”

A light had entered Dio’s eyes, but his face was still unimpressed. “So, what, even though I’m basically a functional adult,  just because my age isn’t a certain number, I’m just a kid? Seems arbitrary.” 

This fucking kid.

“It’s not that, idiot,” Cordelia snapped. “It’s that you’re a brat, and you’ll always be my brat no matter how old you get, because you’re stupid and reckless and suicidal, but when the Fates throw more horrible shit at you, you’ll never have to face it alone, because I’ll be right beside you.”

Dio stared at her with his mouth open. Cordelia realized that she was breathing heavily. Damn. She had worked herself up into a frenzy. 

Stupid piglet. It was his fault. 

Cordelia glared at him. “Fine. Enough talk. You wanna fight? Let’s fuckin’ fight.”

She raised her right arm and flicked her hand, and Tiger Shark melted from her cuff and formed into the long, gleaming damascus xiphos blade made perfectly for her.

She leveled it at Dio. “Show me what you got.”

Dio stared at her for a long, tense second, then slowly stalked towards the water. He twisted his ring on his finger, and his huge, gleaming double-sided labrys axe appeared in his hand, shadows within the strange grooves highlighting the carved design on the side.

Dio waded into the water and stopped. His body was at the ready, but loose enough to move quickly. Good. He wasn’t overly tense enough to be stiff.

He just silently examined her, his sharp brown eyes darting over every inch to suss out her weak spots.

Heh. Good luck with that one, buddy. It’s good that he was taking the time to think. Perhaps her words actually got through to him.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Scared about the ass-whooping you’re about to receive?”

That made his eyes snap to hers as she scowled. She could see the flow of irritation wash into his eyes, coloring them a bloody red.

“Fine. You asked for it,” he snarled lowly.

He lunged at her with a swift overhead blow, and Cordelia raised Tiger Shark up to block it as she lowered into a sturdy squat to bleed out the momentum.

Hmmm. Decent strength. But based on his build, it could be a lot better.

Cordelia pushed him off easily, and Dio growled as he swung his axe at her in a quick series of attacks, and Cordelia observed his movements as she deflected.

His hips were nice and loose, but his posture was a bit off. 

It took a few minutes for the problem to finally occur to her.

Ah. He’s in a swordsman stance. 

While Dio was able to wield the axe expertly, he still defaulted to swordsman positions. He made it work because he was, in the end, a goddamn prodigy, but it was just such a waste of potential. 

So inefficient, she could hear Triton’s voice mock.

Cordelia easily parried all of Dio’s attacks with her mind clearly elsewhere, and it was starting to piss Dio off, she could tell.

She observed in detached amusement as his jaw began to clench and his eyes began to glow brighter. His attacks were getting quicker, and he was forcing her to use more of her footwork to avoid his strikes.

Ah, the seawater is throwing him off, too, or it might just be the sand. He did mention that he didn’t like it earlier, Cordelia mused as she easily blocked his powerful swipes. The sound of sharp, impacting metal rang out through the air, drowning out the noise of the sea. 

Well, I’m gonna have to teach him to get over that, it’ll be unacceptable to not know how to fight in the water if he’s gonna stick with me.

Dio hissed in fury. His eyes were a bright, pulsing crimson, and godly power began to radiate from him. “Don’t fucking mock me, Cordi. Take me seriously.”

All the analyzing thoughts running through her head shattered like glass as she blinked and looked at him. Her brows began to slope into a frown as she finally processed what he said.

“What do you mean? I am taking you seriously.”

Dio looked livid. “No you’re fucking not. You’re not even paying attention to me! You’re thinking about something else! I can see it in your eyes!” He furiously spat in the sea, still glaring daggers at her. “If you don’t want to fight me, then fucking just say so! Just don’t feed me that bullshit about wanting to be with me when you don’t even care enough to pay attention.”

Cordelia didn’t know where to start with that. “Dio, I am paying attention, I swear. I care about you, you idiot brat. I’m not ignoring you, I’m watching your form and analyzing you for weaknesses and thinking about how we can fix them.”

“Bullshit!” He snarled. His hands shook around his axe. His eyes shone with anger and hurt. 

Oh, Dio.

“You promised me a fight. So fight me, Cordi. Actually fucking pay attention to me and fight me rather than just brush me aside. You say that I have a lot of weaknesses? Then show me,” he practically begged. “Show me everything you’ve learned. Show me what you want to teach me. Show me how far I have to go to get where you are.”

Cordelia regarded him silently. 

Perhaps… perhaps this was the right way.

Cordelia loved Dio, no matter how much of a little shit he was. 

That didn’t mean that she couldn’t see his faults, though.

It was becoming exceeding clear that his fatal flaw would manifest as something akin to recklessness or, more likely, arrogance.

It was a deadly fatal flaw, especially for a child of Ares.

Cordelia heavily exhaled in resignation. 

Dio was her responsibility. So, it was also her responsibility to nip his bad habits in the bud before they had the chance to bloom into something destructive.

Cordelia’s voice was quiet when she said, “Alright. I will show you.”

Dio’s eyes gleamed in excitement, and he bared his teeth at her, his axe clenched tightly in his hand. “Finally.”

Cordelia slowly allowed the tight, iron grip on her power to loosen, and it began to flow out and saturate the water around her like runoff from a dam. 

“I wanted to spare you from this, as I know how unpleasant it is to be confronted with the realization of how much power can be contained within a being, but because you asked, Dio, I shall show you.”

Dio’s smile slowly slid off his face as her power never stopped, just kept coming and coming and coming.

The air was thick with the scent of salt, and it practically vibrated with energy.

As Cordelia’s power rushed out of her, she felt the familiar changes begin to take place. 

A slight web began to grow between her fingers and toes, and when she licked her lips, she could feel that her teeth were sharp within her mouth. Her eyes could catch his every movement, and she knew that they were shining with a bright, unnatural, godly power as she stared him down.

And yet, her power still came.

This is what he asked for, Cordelia reminded herself. This is necessary.

She eyed Dio and allowed the full force of her killing intent to slam down on him, and his knees buckled. He dropped into the shallows, staring up at her with primal, instinctual fear as he struggled to breathe under the weight of her power.

It was an ugly thing, what she was doing. She was subjugating one of her most precious people under her will. She was forcing them to bend under the threat of getting crushed like a bug. 

Cordelia felt disgusted with herself. She knew how traumatizing it was to be subject to this feeling, and she was doing it to her precious brat.

But. 

It was necessary.

When they went out into the wide world, it was inevitable that they would encounter other powers. 

Dio needed to know what he was dealing with.

If he just stayed in little Megara, content with scuffles with the local gangbangers, then he would never have to go through this.

But Bingyan was right. Dio had grown too big for that little town.

He was meant for bigger, greater things.

So, Cordelia had to teach him how to survive.

She patiently waited as Dio gasped under the weight of her power, and after long minutes, he finally stumbled to his feet, knees shaking like a newborn fawn but fearlessly pointing his axe at her, even while he breathed quickly with instinctual fear.

“Is… is that all you got?” His voice wavered, but his eyes were filled with a fiery, unquenchable defiance. They told her that though he knew he was outclassed, that he couldn’t win, he would never back down anyway.

He would fall, then get back up over and over again until he could finally stand alongside her.

Cordelia’s heart exploded with fierce happiness and pride.

This precious brat.

Diodore wasn’t a name that had been passed down in legend throughout history.

This time, Cordelia would make sure he lived, so that he could make his mark on the world, because he was her little brat, and she would not allow him to die.

Cordelia lifted her sword, still bursting with pride, and said, “Oh no, brat. We’re just starting.”

Then, she lunged at him, and then they danced.

Cordelia watched the stars as she patiently waited for Dio to wake up.

She had really done a number on him. Cuts and bruises littered his skin, and he was sporting a gnarly black eye and split lip.

Cordelia patched him up, then waited as she admired the beauty of the heavens.

It still wasn’t her sky, but she took comfort in the constellations that she was familiar with.

Finally, Dio groaned loudly and gingerly heaved himself up. 

He looked dreadful. His curls were frizzed and covered in sand, and his clothes were soaked through with seawater.

He squinted at her. “Cordi?”

She just smiled at him, and he slumped back down with another groan. 

“I think you killed me.”

Cordelia giggled. “Not quite, brat. You did pretty well, all things considered.”

Dio scoffed. “You don’t need to lie to me. I know I was shit. I could barely stand,” he sounded disgusted with himself, and he raised his hands to bury his face in them.

“Hey.” Cordelia reached over and ran her hands through his curls till he finally removed his hands and looked at her. “I’m not just saying that. You did awesome. Do you wanna know how I did my first time confronted with power like that?”

He stared up at her, and Cordelia smiled reassuringly. “I freaked out. Completely froze up. Compared to that, Dio, you’re eons better.”

Dio remained silent. 

Cordelia sighed. “Hey. Can I ask you a question?”

“Well, it’s not like I can stop you, water buffalo.”

“Just… why?”

Dio looked away from her. “Well. Maybe it’s because I’m a kid, and kids can’t control their impulses. You should have expected it, huh?”

That wasn’t the reason. Dio was still a kid, yes, but he was sharp, both in mind and personality. Even though he was going through his teenage angst, Cordelia knew it was more than that.

“Dio. Tell me,” Cordelia gently urged.

Dio turned to examine her face, then exhaled in defeat. “I needed to know. I was always the strongest. In Sparta. On Aetios’ fucking ship. And in Megara. But it always bothered me, because I knew that it wasn't it. There are so many stronger things out there in the world, like that cat monster. Like you. I needed to know so that I can see how far I actually have to go to be able to… I don’t know, to be able to stand against them, I guess.”

He huffed bitterly, and his face twisted. “I guess I got my wish. I see how truly weak I am.”

Absolutely not.

Cordelia controlled a wave of water to rise up and whack Dio’s face, and he sputtered in shock and turned to her. “What the hell?!”

“Shut the fuck up, you little shit!” Cordelia barked. “You’re not fucking weak, alright?! And if you try to say it again and sulk in self-pity, I’ll sic Dexter on you!”

Dio just stared at her in shock as Cordelia seethed, her shoulders rising and falling from her furious pants.

“I’ve told you that I’ve met other Demigods before, Dio. That I’ve trained them. Fucking listen to me when I tell you that you’re not fucking weak, alright? You’re not weak, you’re just untrained. Unpolished, like a gem. And trust me when I tell you, by the time I’m through with you, you’re gonna shine brighter than any of them.”

Cordelia could already see it: Dio finally fully grown, much-needed heavy muscle packed on his frame, standing tall as he dauntlessly faced down an army. His eyes would glow red with power, and the air around him would taste of blood, but this time, he would be in control, and he would emerge victorious from impossible battles.

Cordelia realized that she was smiling savagely, and she looked down to find Dio staring up at her in awe.

Finally, that spark was back in his eyes.

Finally.

“Was it the fight with that bunny-leopard hybrid monster?” Was that what made you finally snap?

Dio’s eyes glazed over as he replayed the memories. His brow furrowed and he grinded his teeth hard enough for her to hear. 

“Yeah,” he grit out. “Yeah. It was bad, Cordi. Real bad. I kinda downplayed it when you asked about the scars, but I know it was bad. I just didn’t think… there were any other options left.”

He looked at her, helpless fury swirling within his beautiful brown eyes. “I remembered everything you taught me, Cordi. I tried to kill it with brute force. But it wasn’t enough. When I ran from it, it mauled a little girl. I could hear her screams as she was eaten.” He shuddered as he described it. “Worse than that were the pleas of her family. They begged the gods to help them, to spare their little baby.”

He swallowed heavily. “I knew it was stupid. I knew it was dangerous. But I had to kill it.” His eyes burned with hatred. “That fucking thing was killing innocent people, just preying on them as if they were animals. When my sword didn’t work, I knew I had to kill it with my hands. That was the only thing that would stop it.”

Dio struggled to sit up, and Cordelia hurried to aid him. She supported his back as he rose, wincing at his injured ribs. “It was hard. The thing was just so fast, and I messed up the first few times. When I failed and ran, I could hear it killing people behind me.”

He hesitantly leaned against her, and Cordelia immediately engulfed him in a tight hug. She felt him shiver against her.

“I was scared,” he confessed into her shoulder. “It hurt a lot. I knew that I was dying, even after I finished it off. There was no way I could have survived after losing all that blood.” He shuddered a wet breath out. “I was so scared, Cordi. When I could feel myself slipping away, I wanted you there. Even though I knew you couldn’t, I wanted you to be there with me ‘cuz I knew that you’d make it all right.”

“Oh, Dio.” Cordelia felt the sob rise in her chest and struggled not to let it escape.

“In the end, my father helped me. He fed me something that made me feel better after I woke up, and left me this.” He raised his hand to show her the thick ring. The red jewel swirled with magic even under the lightless night sky.

“Funny,” he softly sneered, “That just after I almost die, he gives me a weapon that can kill monsters.” Though she couldn’t see his face, she could hear the raw fury in his voice.

Cordelia gently rocked him. “That’s what the gods are like, brat. We can never trust them to look out for our best interests. We have to look after each other instead,” she whispered.

Dio was silent as he processed her words. “Are all the gods just cruel monsters like our fathers?”

Cordelia bit her lip as she thought. “No,” she finally answered. “Not all of them. But they are, as a whole. And though I will not excuse them for it, I do understand where they are coming from. They are all immortal, bursting with unfathomable power. They just don’t understand mortals. They don’t understand our short lifespans. They don’t understand how delicate we are. After living for so long, it’s easy to form a kind of… apathy, for lack of a better term. You are exceptional, Dio, but in your father’s eyes, there are dozens of other children who can bring him glory, and he can easily sire more if he wishes.”

Cordelia squeezed Dio tighter. “But. Some of them are kind. Some of them try to understand. Gods have personalities, too. You can’t generalize them, though, admittedly, sometimes they make it hard not to.”

Dio was quiet. “I don’t think I’ve met a kind god.”

Flashes of Kymmie’s haughty affection, Hestia’s gentle warmth, and Apollo’s white grin darted through her mind.

“They’re there, kiddo. But, again, you can’t trust them to look out for you. In the end, they, too, are all-powerful immortals who can extinguish our lives more easily than blowing out a candle. Forget about them. It’s my job to look after you.”

Dio pondered her declaration, then lifted his head to look at her. “Then it’s the same for me. You’ll look out for me, and I’ll get strong enough to look out for you, too. We won’t ever have to rely on the mercy of the gods again.”

Cordelia smiled. “Now you get it.”

He relaxed back against her and allowed her to hold him for the night. The air around them was chilly, but Dio’s arm around her was more than enough to keep her warm.

Chapter Text

“Ugh. How filthy. Sister, wake up.”

Cordelia’s eyes flew open at the sensation of a sharp poke at her stomach, and she blearily blinked up at the form of Kymmie scowling down at her with her arms crossed over her chest.

Ah. She must be dreaming.

Cordelia closed her eyes and turned around, already slipping back into a doze.

She was exhausted from her training sessions with Dio, which were going swimmingly well. She was focusing on a mixture of weapons handling, strength, and stamina training, and she was happy to join Dio in her brutal conditioning exercises, laughing at him as he cursed at her with a sweaty, red face. It was beginning to work, too, as Dio was ravenously hungry and inhaled any scrap of protein he could get his hands on. 

Well, that wasn’t to say that Cordelia didn’t get sore, either, but it was worth enduring the hellish workouts for the look on the brat's face.

Huh. That was probably why her abs were twinging; they had a sit-ups contest yesterday, and by the end of it, Dio was scuttling around like a crab, unable to uncurl his body. Blackjack had cackled his ass off and made many Quasimodo jokes, the dick.

Yeah, that was it, she needed to remember to do some stretches when she woke up…

A swift blow to her ass finally told Cordelia that it wasn’t a dream.

When she slowly turned back around, Kymmie furiously loomed over her with her sharp shark-teeth bared. “Wake. Up! Gather what remains of your tattered dignity, Cordi!” she barked.

Cordelia gaped at her, still blinking the sleep out of her eyes. 

There was another woman floating behind Kymmie, observing the comical antics with interest.

Oh shit. That woke Cordelia up, and she slid out of her little nook.

A flurry of emotions battled for dominance in Cordelia’s head, mainly confusion, indignation, and surprise, but delight finally won. 

“Kymmie!” Cordelia wrapped her arms around the huge goddess’s waist. “It’s so good to see you! I missed you! What are you doing here?”

Kymopoleia sniffed and haughtily patted Cordelia’s back. Despite her irritation, she was remarkably gentle.

“Yes, yes, I missed you as well, though it has only been a handful of months.” Kymopoleia rolled her eyes, but Cordelia felt the way her grip strengthened as she pulled her into a tighter hug.

“But never mind that! I will be having words with you later about your deplorable living quarters,” she promised with a dark glare, “but for now, I have someone I must introduce you to.”

At this, the mystery woman drifted forward. She was breathtakingly beautiful, with dark, dark blue skin, very nearly black, only a shade off. Her long, black hair was swept into an elegant, intricate updo, interspersed with shells, beads, and ribbons. Her eyes glowed a familiar, piercing shade of sea-green, and there was something in her facial features that reminded Cordelia of both Kymmie and Rhode, though those two looked nothing alike. She was holding something in her arms. It had a large beak and short, stubby wings, and it was remarkably ugly. Was that… a bird? 

What the hell is that? It looks almost like a…

Kymopoleia gestured to the woman, who inclined her head at Cordelia. “This is our oldest sister, Benthesikyme. She has heard much about you and has thus insisted on making your acquaintance,” Kymmie stated imperiously.

Benthesikyme smiled at Kymmie softly, still stroking that strange, strange bird in her arms. “If I recall correctly, it was you who insisted on introducing us, dearest sister,” she softly teased. Her voice was deep and rich like wine, simply intoxicating. 

Kymopoleia’s alabaster cheeks glowed a bit as she scowled down at Benthesikyme. “Utter nonsense!” she insisted.

Benthesikyme laughed quietly and turned to Cordelia. 

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, little sister.” The way she spoke was steady and soothing. Her eyes were filled with a deep, profound wisdom, but lacked that hard, arrogant edge that Cordelia had seen in Athena's eyes.

Amphi’s etiquette lessons kicked in. Cordelia straightened and bowed to Benthesikyme. “The pleasure is all mine, Your Highness.”

Benthesikyme casually waved her formality away. “Please, none of that. From what little Kym tells me, you are a precious member of our family. Both she and Triton speak very fondly of you.”

Despite her best efforts, Cordelia’s face screwed at that and Benthesikyme laughed. “Yes, though he prevaricates, he misses you. He bemoans that he does not have a worthy sparring partner anymore, from what I can make out of his petulant grumbles.”

Are we talking about the same guy? “Um. Sure,” Cordelia nodded diplomatically.

The bird squawked, and Benthesikyme went back to stroking it. 

How the hell was that thing breathing underwater? And I swear, that thing looks like a…

Benthesikyme noticed Cordelia’s attention drawn to the bird curled within her arms. “Oh, this little thing? I stumbled upon it after I lost my way travelling back from my trip to meet with the Devas.”

Cordelia nodded slowly. “The Devas… the gods of the Hindu Pantheon?”

“Yes,” Benthesikyme smiled as she confirmed.

Cordelia was almost scared to ask. “Um. If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get that bird?”

“Oh, well, as I said, I lost track of some familiar landmarks and found myself a bit turned-around, and to my surprise, I came across an uninhabited island filled to the brim with these adorably delightful flightless birds! I admit, I am very charmed.”

The bird warbled pathetically in response. 

Cordelia just stared. “You found some Dodo birds?” 

What the actual fuck?

Benthesikyme looked surprised. “Is that the name? I didn’t know.” She lifted the bird to her face and peered down at it. “Dodo,” she tested. “It does seem like it would fit. Very well. You shall be called Dodo.”

The bird croaked at her in happiness, going cross-eyed.

Cordelia watched on in disbelief.

There were moments when she forgot that she had been transported three thousand years into the past. 

And then, a sea goddess shows up with a goddamn Dodo bird.

Alrighty, then. 

Kymopoleia, who had been peering at the bird in distaste, rolled her eyes. “I recall that there were other things you wished to discuss, sister.”

“Ah, yes, thank you for reminding me. Here, hold Dodo.” Benthesikyme handed the bird to Kymopoleia, who looked revolted. The bird was similarly giving her the stink-eye. Well, at least one of its eyes was, the other looked to be staring out into the horizon.

Benthesikyme turned to Cordelia. “Each of my siblings has confided in me how much you aided them throughout your stay in Atlantis, and as the eldest, please let me convey my gratitude.” She inclined her head, and Cordelia felt a little flustered.

“Um, it was nothing, please, no need…”

Benthesikyme smiled. “Please. You do not need to lie. I can fully imagine the trials my parents and siblings put you through. I love them dearly, but I am not blind to their faults. I can only imagine how they treated you, a sibling born out of wedlock, and yet, notably powerful.”

Benthesikyme’s eyes locked onto Cordelia’s new bracers. “If you’d allow me, I, too, would like to impart a blessing upon you that will aid you throughout your journey forward. This way, you shall have the protection of all of the heirs of the ocean, nothing less than a fellow daughter of the sea deserves.”

Cordelia knew she should be wary. An unknown goddess offering a blessing, out of nowhere? That was a perfect recipe for disaster.

However, Cordelia trusted Kymmie to look out for her best interests, and her gut was telling her that it was a genuine offer. 

With a flick of her hand, both Tiger Shark and Liberator were unfurled, displayed in all their divine glory.

Benthesikyme closed her eyes and began to chant, and once again, Cordelia felt the feeling of divine power working its way under her skin, flowing through her blood and passing through tissue until it settled within her thick chain.

Something within her clicked, like new knowledge had been unlocked, and with a simple bend of her wrist, Liberator began to wind and coil until it spun into a wide, flat disk.

The edges of the chain were both simultaneously flexible but impenetrable, interlocked together with something akin to a magical magnetic force. 

Holy… now she had a shield.

With a flex of her willpower, the chain shield unravelled and fell into loose, malleable links, a line of thick, unbreakable celestial bronze chain once again.

Cordelia stared up at Benthesikyme, speechless.

The dark-skinned goddess smiled down at her, amused at her dumbstruck expression. “While I commend my siblings on their spellwork, I thought to include a component of defense within your tools.” She plucked Dodo out of Kymmie’s hands, and the bird’s ruffled feathers settled down. 

“It was a pleasure to meet you, sister. I hope for the chance to get to know you as my siblings have done.”

With one last nod at Cordelia, she turned to Kymopoleia, who was distastefully picking feathers out of her dress. “As I suspect you wish to speak in private, sister, I shall take my leave.” She looked affectionately at her bird, which blinked wretchedly up at her. “I must put Dodo to bed, he has a delicate constitution.”

She turned to go, and Cordelia couldn’t help but blurt, “Uh, you should probably keep an eye on that island you found, lest humans find it and come kill everything on it. You know… Just a thought, you never know what might happen, haha,” she awkwardly concluded.

Benthesikyme blinked, then laughed. “Oh, I’m sure there was no reason to worry! There were hundreds of the little dears running around. I’m sure everything will be alright!”

Then, with a swish of the currents, she vanished along with her Dodo bird.

Yeahhh. Alright then…

Cordelia turned to Kymopoleia, who was snarling down at her, black gums exposed and her long pearly fishtail swirling testily in the water.

“So, sister, would you mind telling me why you are sleeping in the rocks like a homeless urchin?” she snapped.

Here we go.

Cordelia smiled winningly. “I missed you, too, Kymmie! How’s Naida? Did you get my prayer?”

Kymopoleia blinked, taken aback. “Yes, I did, and you were correct, she’s lovely. She fits in perfectly among my staff.” 

“That’s great! And how’s Gilleroth? Have you heard anything about him lately?”

“Well, he’s been promoted to Triton’s second-in-command and general and is enjoying his new position, from what Triton informs me…”

“Awesome!” Cordelia was ecstatic that her friends were being well taken care of; they really deserved the best!

“Cease attempting to distract me!” Kymmie narrowed her eyes at Cordelia. “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you slumbering unprotected out in the open like this, sister?”

“Ahaha, you know…” Cordelia deflected.

Kymopoleia crossed her arms across her chest. “I’m sure I don’t.”

“Oh, sure you do, you know how it is!” Cordelia grinned at her.

Kymopoleia looked at her like she had lost her mind. “I assure you, I have no inkling as to why you choose to subject yourself to this.” 

Cordelia just continued to smile at her. Well, it wasn’t like she could do much else without telling her about the whole situation with Gaea’s curse, and that wasn’t on her agenda today.

Kymopoleia’s face lost its edge as she examined Cordelia’s expression. Cordelia didn’t know what she saw, but she asked, “Sister. Are you happy?”

That question certainly wasn’t what Cordelia expected, but she was able to answer without hesitation. “Yes. I’m happy.”

“Hm.” Kymopoleia continued to inspect her features. “What are you happy about? What do you have here that you did not have at Atlantis?”

Again, the answer was immediate. “I have my boys. I can be with them and protect them and watch them grow safely.”

Kymopoleia waited a beat, then raised her eyebrow and asked, “Is that it?”

“Huh?” Cordelia stared blankly at her. “What else… is there?”

Kymopoleia sighed gustily and rolled her eyes. “‘What else is there?’, she asks. From the way you were chomping at the bit to escape from Atlantis, I thought that you would have a more concrete idea as to what kind of life you were going to build here on the savage surface.”

“What do you mean? I have my boys with me, that’s more than enough.”

Kymopoleia snarled at her. “No, it’s not! Don’t give me that nonsense you were spewing before about how ‘home isn’t a place, but people’. Nonsense! It’s utter nonsense!” she shouted.

Cordelia glared at her. “No, it isn’t!”

Kymopoleia smacked her head, and Cordelia swiped back at her in irritation. 

“So if I convinced Father to allow you and your little hanger-ons into Atlantis, would you return and call it your home?”

“No!” The answer was visceral, wrenched from deep within Cordelia’s gut without her consent.

“Ahhh~!” Kymopoleia cooed viciously. “Why not? According to your logic, you are simply happy if your precious boys are with you, so why not in Father’s kingdom?”

“Just… just… Atlantis isn’t home!” Cordelia exclaimed.

“Then what is home?” Kymopoleia was relentless in her interrogation. “Obviously not this island, as for some godforsaken reason you would rather sleep in the sea like an imbecile than there, so what is it?”

“I- I don’t know!” Cordelia finally confessed. “I don’t have a home!”

The words were bitter and coated Cordelia’s tongue until she just wanted to cry and vomit the vile taste out, but of course, Kymopoleia was never one to let her wallow in self-pity.

“That has got to be the most moronic thing I have ever heard. Are you or are you not a daughter of Poseidon? If you choose not to set foot on that ugly little island, then at least build yourself some accommodation on the reef or procure some ship, for crying out loud. Honestly, in the time I have not seen you, have your brains been replaced with seahorse dung, because it certainly seems so!” she ruthlessly lambasted.

It was as if Cordelia had been hit with a bolt of lightning. 

Of course.

Of course.

It was so simple.

“I could build a ship,” Cordelia reverentially whispered, barely paying attention to Kymopoleia’s ruthless insults to her intelligence.

Kymopoleia scoffed in disdain. “You could, if you’d like, but I don’t see why you would wish to toil away when I could procure you a grand ship of your own.” She sniffed and tossed her curtain of thick, white hair over her shoulder.

“No,” Cordelia breathed, still staring out into nothing as the thoughts converged into a vision for the future. “No, I have to build it myself. I have to. This is what I need to do.”

Kymopoleia peered down at her doubtfully. “You are certain that you wish to build it yourself? I could procure you some blueprints, if you’d like.”

Cordelia shook her head again. “No need. I already know what I am going to build.”

Kymopoleia must have seen the assurance in her face, and she finally grinned, gums black and shark teeth pointy. “Finally. It is good to see you finally regain your conviction. You always react, sister. It’s finally time for you to make the first move and show the world the fury within your blood.”

She leaned forward and kissed the top of Cordelia’s head. Her eyes glowed a bright, ghostly green, and she declared, ”I will help you make something that will never allow your name to be forgotten,” and she vanished.

Though Cordelia grew up poor, her Mom made sure that she wanted for nothing.

All her birthdays saw her devouring her Mom’s delicious blue food, and nothing made her happier than spending time with her loved ones.

When she got to Camp Half-Blood, she was able to celebrate with all her friends.

But. 

Out of all the presents she had ever received for her birthday, there was one that stood out as her favorite.

On her 15th birthday, she was startled when Beckendorf walked up to her with a gift-wrapped box in his hand.

Cordelia was shocked, as she had almost forgotten her birthday amidst the chaos after the Battle of the Labyrinth occurred. She was busy rebuilding, tending to the wounded, and planning on how to contain Kronos in the upcoming, inevitable war.

She was more than a little shocked when Beck handed her a gift, wishing her a happy birthday in his deep, rumbling voice with a gentle pat to her head.

When Cordelia opened her present, she immediately fell head over heels in love with it.

It was a ship in a bottle, but it was much, much more than that.

Over the course of the year, Beck had worked with Annabeth (it was her idea, but Beck took over the reins in its construction) and had constructed a perfect replica of the Black Pearl. They had painstakingly built the East Indiaman Galleon exactly how it would exist in real life, with three decks, all the appropriate rigging, and even functioning miniature cannons. 

Elizabeth Swann was perched at the bow of the ship, sword raised in a war-cry, and Will Turner and Davy Jones were engaged in a furious swordfight while Barbosa manned the helm and Jack looked horrified with a jar of dirt in his hands.

It was absolutely perfect.

Later that evening, Poseidon gifted her that sand dollar, but her mind remained on that ship.

Over the course of the school year, Cordelia would allow her power to flow into the ship, and it snapped to her command just like a full-sized, functioning vessel would.

For all intents and purposes, Beck and Annabeth had gifted her an actual ship, and it meant something special to Cordelia.

Cordelia lost hours just staring at her ship, her powers allowing it to come to life. Countless times, she examined every single plank of wood, every twine of rope, every scrap of fabric.

Cordelia didn’t need any blueprints to build a ship.

She already had them seared into her head.

Just as she promised Kymmie, Cordelia was going to build something the world had never seen before.

The same way Blackjack was the product of centuries of careful breeding, Galleons were the result of millennia of trial and error, painstakingly created and refined with generations of masters’ efforts.

Cordelia smiled.

It was going to be glorious.

And for that, she needed-

“Apollo,” Cordelia called out.

The light bent around her, and Apollo appeared in a flash. He stared down at her in curiosity and delight.

“My, now isn’t this a surprise? This may be the first time you’ve called for my presence, darling~!” He grinned, his white teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

Cordelia rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Yes, yes, good to see you too, Apollo. You have a moment?”

Apollo bowed with a flourish, keeping intent eye-contact with her that somehow made Cordelia’s cheeks feel warm. “For you, darling, I am ever at your beck and call.”

Cordelia smiled. “I need a favor.”

“Oh?” Apollo’s golden eyes lit up in intrigue.

“Yes. I need wood. Hard, strong wood that will last forever.”

Apollo paused and eyed her. “Wood, darling? Why ask me? From what I see, you have plenty of wood at your disposal.” He glanced at the lush, abundant forest that rose behind her.

Cordelia shook her head. “No. It has to be from you. It has to.” 

Just like how she knew how to control the sea and wield a sword, Cordelia felt it from deep within her bones. 

The wood had to come from Apollo.

It just had to. 

He had been such an integral part of her time here in Ancient Greece, it was only right that the body of her ship was made of the wood that he had gifted her.

Apollo peered down at her. “Why do you need the wood? What are you going to do with it?”

Cordelia grinned up at him, bright and excited. “I’m going to make a ship. Trust me, Apollo, it’s going to be the best ship you’ve ever seen, and for that, I need the wood to match. You have to give me the wood. That’s the only way I can build it to its full potential. It can’t come from anyone else. It has to be you.”

Something within Apollo’s eyes swirled, and he breathed, “Ah, how cruel. I can never refuse you anything, can I?” before he melted into the air.

Cordelia beamed, wide and giddy.

My own ship.

The next morning, Cordelia woke up to find the shore almost obscured by dozens of heavy logs. Upon further examination, the wood looked like it was a hardy oak, but it was surprisingly colored a pure, pitch black. 

As Cordelia stared at it in awe, Apollo’s deep, rich voice carried by the wind whispered in her ear. “As you requested, darling. Black oaks from my sacred grove on Delos, carbonized from the explosion of power from my birth, imbued with my divine essence. My darling sister has used her consecrated white oak to make bows for her Huntresses. I have not had a need for my holy trees… until now. If I know you as well as I think I do, then this is the perfect use of this wood for the ship you are going to build. Use them well, darling, and make something that will honor both of us.”

The words ended with a brush of warmth across her cheek, as if he had gently run his finger across it.

Cordelia’s heart pounded with excitement and glee, and in a moment of mischief, she blew a kiss up at the rising sun with a wink.

“Oh, babe, you sure know how to treat a girl,” she grinned, and ignored the wave of heat that washed over her, sending prickles down her spine.

“Dangerous game, you’re playing, darling.” Apollo’s voice was dark with some emotion that Cordelia didn’t care to look too deeply into.

Cordelia smirked playfully at the sun and shot a finger-gun at it. “You know me, ‘Danger’ is my middle name.”

Apollo’s rich laugh left her feeling warm for the rest of the day.

Understandably, her friends were awestruck and confused at the arrival of this tower of gigantic black logs.

Cordelia grinned at their apprehension. “Guys, I’m going to build a ship!”

They all gaped at her in shock, and Blackjack was the only one to ask, “A ship? Do you mean, like a normal ship that we saw back in Megara, or like a crazy ship like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ ship?”

“Oh, Blackjack, did you even have to ask? Of course a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ ship, who do you think I am?”

Dio perked up in interest. “You mean you’re gonna make the Flying Dutchman?” he asked eagerly, bouncing in place, the little dweeb.

Cordelia’s smile was shark-like. “Almost, brat.”

Of course, all of them were immediately eager to help her.

Anysia set off with the promise of making some pine tar for her and went to pray to her mother to aid her in growing a grove of pines within the forest. Cordelia was left scratching her head; pines on this volcanic island? Then again, the flora over here was already fucked, like seriously, coconut and ice-apple trees here, in the mediterranean? They weren’t even on the Indian Ocean, just, how???

Well, you know what, if Cordelia’s oldest sister was swimming around with a water-breathing Dodo bird, then nothing was impossible. Best to not question things and simply write them off as the gods’ craziness, yeah, that works. Whew, sanity saved. 

Dio was eager to use his axe to help chop up the wood and separate it into smaller parts, and Blackjack was happy to help haul materials from one place to another and transport supplies from the ends of the island.

Kymmie arrived a few days later with a gigantic haul of useful shipwright tools such as hooks, hammers, and saws, and a huge bundle of long Celestial Bronze nails and tacks.

Slowly, slowly, they began getting the materials ready.

It took a long while. Cordelia was happy to take her time in making sure that each piece of wood and each Celestal Bronze tack was perfect. 

Because that was what she was aiming for. Perfection. She was going to build something that would stand the test of time, something that would live on long after she’s gone.

This would be her legacy to the world. If she is remembered for something, it would be making this masterpiece, this paragon, this monster of a ship, and people will try and fail to replicate it for thousands of years to come.

Cordelia had come from a world three thousand years in the future, and even though she was forced to adapt to the times, to bow her head and conform, she was going to show them that she hadn’t forgotten where she came from.

Kymopoleia periodically made her way up to the surface to check in on them. She got quite acquainted with all of her friends, to Cordelia’s happiness and pleasure. 

Sure, it was unreasonable to expect different friends to always get along, but it always made her feel warm and happy when they did.

Of course, Dexter was fond of his ‘large stormy aunt’, and was happy to regale her with tales of their foolishness. Kymopoleia brought treats from Atlantis for him that he devoured by unhinging his jaw and swallowing in one bite. She helped him clean out his little nook and decorate it with pretty seashells that she scavenged from around Atlantis.

Kymopoleia immediately fell in love with Blackjack’s beauty and showered him with affection. Blackjack, for his part, was initially quite hesitant in the face of this gigantic, tempestuous storm goddess, but the vain jackass always enjoyed being fawned over, and he especially appreciated the souped-up grooming supplies that she brought up from Atlantis. It was mainly supposed to be used for the Hippocampi, but it worked just fine for Blackjack and his delicate feathers. They would happily spend the days primping and preening till Blackjack was virtually glowing.

Kymopoleia was pretty ambivalent towards Anysia, who returned her sentiment. They treated each other cordially and occasionally traded treats like some fruits and seafood delicacies, but overall, they tended to steer away from each other. Yeah, they were respectful of each other, and Cordelia was content with the outcome. They didn’t all have to immediately become best friends, after all, they were free to form relationships with whom they chose.

And finally, Dio.

Kymopoleia adored Dio.

Their first interaction went disastrously wrong. 

Dio immediately offended Kymopoleia when he called her a 'huge, fat sea-cow', and Kymopoleia hissed and pulled him into a whirlpool. 

Jesus Christ, this child does not know how to talk to women. 

As expected, Dio continued to snarl at her like a wet cat going down a drain, never ceasing in his attempts to swipe at her with his axe, and something about it made Kymmie laugh so hard that she immediately took a liking to Dio.

“I see why you are so fond of him, sister.” Kymmie’s eyes sparkled as Dio choked and vomited up seawater as he glared murder at her. “He is simply adorable! Father wouldn’t know what to do with him!” she gushed in delight.

If Cordelia tilted her head and squinted, she could maybe see it. Dio was like one of those feral little handbag dogs, barking and frothing spit everywhere, crossing so far past the line of horrifying that it became funny and cute, in an ugly way.

Despite her doting on him, Dio was still wary of Kymopoleia, though. Surprisingly wise of him. She was quite capricious, it was in her very nature, after all.

Kymmie was determined to help Cordelia with her ship as much as she could. To do so, she took it upon herself to bring her the best materials possible.

A month after they started their project, Kymopoleia arrived with a gigantic rib bone of a monster carved with intricate strengthening and protective Atlantean magic runes, which would function as the keel of the ship.

It was absolutely massive and exactly what Cordelia needed. 

This keel was better than anything she could have ever hoped for. It was near unbreakable, and after the trauma of watching what happens to a ship with a broken keel a-la-Going Merry, Cordelia was determined to take all possible precautions to prevent that outcome. Seriously, she was permanently scarred after watching the Strawhats say goodbye to their loyal ship, even if they gained the Thousand Sunny afterwards. They had it right all along; the ship is a full-fledged member of the crew, and Cordelia would settle for nothing but the best, just as she would for Blackjack, Dio, and Dexter.

They could finally begin proper construction, now that they had a suitable keel to build around. It had been carefully carved into a curve, the exact dimensions that Cordelia had instructed Kymopoleia. While the carving was clearly Kymopoleia’s work, just based on the sheer mastery alone, Cordelia could sense the power of all of her siblings infused within the engraved runes.

Cordelia wasn’t surprised that the rest of her siblings had jumped onto the bandwagon, the nosy bitches, but she had no idea how they were able to keep this a secret from Dad and Amphi.

Like, for real, anyone would notice when a gigantic goddess dragged a 100-foot monster bone behind her. How were they even doing all of this? Were they trying to sneak around Poseidon’s castle somehow? Or were they all crowded into Kymmie’s palace? Hmmm, seems chaotic, but hey, Cordelia couldn’t complain when this was the result.

Dexter was happy to help support her when she needed to do work within the sea and was an extra pair (or four pairs, to be accurate) of hands when she needed to tar and treat the wood underwater. Because Cordelia wasn’t able to go on land, the majority of the construction was on the shore or within the ocean itself, and Dexter was surprisingly, actually no, alarmingly strong for his size, and his ability to shapshift allowed them to rapidly lay the boards out and nail them down and coat them with pitch. 

The pitch was thick and efficient, even though it did stink to high hells, but hey, it was tar, and Cordelia was oh-so-grateful to Anysia for even going through the laborious process of scorching the trees to harvest the sticky tar. Because of the stench, Anysia set up the workshop at the top of the volcanic mountain so that they would not choke on the noxious fumes, and Blackjack was happy to escort her to and fro so that her aging bones would be spared from the laborious trek. 

Dio was the one who underwent the most demanding physical labor. He painstakingly made sure to cut the nearly rock-hard oaks into uniform, usable planks of wood with the tools Kymopoleia brought up from Atlantis. He learned how to use the wedges, froes, and adz, all shaped and angled peculiarly due to their intended use under the sea, but Dio was patient and determined to master them all under Cordelia, Anysia, and Kymopoleia’s watchful eyes.

While he grumbled and complained, he worked tirelessly. Of course, he was more than eager for combat lessons, but honestly, Cordelia could see that this hard physical labor was doing more for him than any of those strength-building exercises. He could do pushups and lunges a thousand times, but none of that compared to slamming his axe into the iron-like wood over and over for hours at a time or dragging hundreds of pounds of lumber across the soft sand.

Cordelia made sure to keep an eye out for him and ensured that he ate well, even when he was too tired to work up an appetite. She asked Anysia to consistently hunt some of the birds settled on their little island and forced him to eat the meat, as well as the fattiest, protein-filled fish Cordelia was able to find amongst the reef. 

To protect him from the sun, Cordelia slathered him with the olive oil that Anysia procured from her mother (she wasn't allowed a grove of olive trees of her own; Demeter had explained that Athena was extremely protective over her olives and tightly regulated their growth, stingy bitch) and ignored his protests and complaints. His skin still gained a rich, healthy tan, but it wasn’t drying and cracking from the wind and salt anymore, and while it may not be the heavy-duty sunscreen from her time, hopefully he wouldn’t keel over from skin cancer?

She also wrestled him into submission until he allowed her to smear Stimmi around his eyes. Anysia was right, they really did squint too much to be healthy, and the Stimmi helped alleviate the strain considerably. Also, it always cheered Cordelia up to see him walking around with dark rings around his eyes like an ornery raccoon. Did she look like that when she applied the Stimmi for herself? Of course not, Cordelia was certain that she wore it way better, obviously.

When Dio finally began growing some patchy facial hair, Cordelia taught him how to shave, even if she was a little wary of allowing him to use a straight razor. The blade, unfortunately, came from Blackjack’s grooming kit, a fact that both of them were most displeased about, but Blackjack reluctantly allowed it due to the fact that he was getting his requisite pampering from Kymmie. 

It took a couple of weeks for them to figure out how to use the straight razor without nicking the shit out of his cheeks, but hey, on the bright side, his pale battle scars were more eye-catching that anything he could inflict upon himself. 

As they worked their way through the lumber, more logs periodically arrived on the shores of the island. Each and every time, Cordelia would smile up at the sun and send a prayer full of heartfelt gratitude to Apollo before she ate her meal.

Kymopoleia worked tirelessly in Atlantis, ecstatic to contribute to Cordelia’s grand project, and she brought her a gigantic strip of cloth that she, along with Benthesikyme, had painstakingly woven from a mixture of hardy black kelp and sea-silk. It had clearly been a challenging ordeal, and when Kymmie gifted it to her, Cordelia inquired about the dark circles under her eyes in concern.

As expected, Kymopoleia had bared her teeth, mortally offended. “Dark circles? Me? Impossible, I am a goddess. I am ever the paragon of eternal youth and beauty! You are simply seeing things, sister! I can never be afflicted with such mortal frailties!” 

“Of course, Kymmie, of course. But perhaps to prevent Dad and Amphi from catching on to our project, maybe you could take a tiny little break? Just to throw them off your trail?” Cordelia cajoled.

Kymopoleia sniffed imperiously. “Well. If it is to keep our secret from Mother and Father, I suppose that I can take a small reprieve from my next project so that I will not arouse any suspicion.” 

Ha, gotcha. “Thanks, Kymmie, that would be great. We’re in no rush!”

Kymopoleia petulantly turned her face away. “Well, it’s not like I’m doing it for you, or anything. Perhaps I simply wish to take some rest. I am not doing it because you asked. Do not think too highly of yourself, sister.”

“Haha, whatever you say, Kym.”

Soon after, Kymopoleia brought up a large container filled with the harvested mucus of sea slugs that were raised on Rhode’s magic. Their slime contained remarkable water-resistance properties and did wonders for preventing rot and water-swelling. It was said to be quite the expensive product due to its potent magic capabilities, and Kymopoleia complained ceaselessly about how Rhode charged her full price for the bucket, which set her back months' worth of her allowance. Yup, Rhode was still as cut-throat as ever, nice to know that some things never changed.

Kymopoleia also painstakingly created an absolutely beautiful, ornate ivory steering wheel that she carved from more monster bones that Triton had procured for her from the Trench that stood out magnificently against the pitch black ship. It was interspersed with gorgeous patterns of interlinking chains and uniform, sinuous tiger stripes. It was simply lovely, a work of art that Cordelia made to show her gratitude that Kymopoleia haughtily accepted as her due as she basked in the praise.

And so, the months slipped by as Cordelia found herself engaged with slowly, methodically building her ship. As she laid each board down, she made sure to do it carefully and lovingly, warmly saturating it with her power so that every single inch of her ship would be as familiar to her as her own body.

She could feel the seed of life that was slowly starting to sprout as the ship was slowly built. Klabautermenn were Flemish spirits, so this probably wasn’t the same thing, but whatever this was, Cordelia could swear that her ship was truly alive. It was still a tiny little seedling right now, a precious little fetus, but it was growing, slow and steady as each day passed.

With every nail hammered into the wood, with every smear of pitch, with every knot of rope tied and each ream of fabric pulled taut, Cordelia built her new home, her newest friend, alongside her most precious people.

And throughout it all, Apollo watched. 

Day in and day out, Cordelia could feel his searing hot gaze watching her every move, following her every step, all of her stumbles and successes, all of her mistakes and triumphs. 

Cordelia cherished the moments when he came down to visit her, and she could lose track of time, passionately telling him a new story that she recalled or hearing him talk about his day. She enjoyed every moment,  no matter how mundane it was, because it was about Apollo, and she cared about him.

Even when he wasn’t able to visit, he made sure that his presence was felt so she never felt alone.

He was a constant presence by her side in the dead of the night, when she had sent everyone else off to bed but still stayed up late to braid some ropes and sand some planks. He watched over her as she made her patrols around the island and dispatched any small sea-monsters that had come sniffing around for a snack. He was with her when everyone else, even little Dexter, took shelter in the safety of the island as a dangerous storm raged over them and threatened to blow her away. 

Throughout it all, with a warm feeling in her chest, Cordelia basked in his company as she worked tirelessly to fulfill her promise to him to bring honor to his precious, precious gift.

The air around them was cool in the dark, pre-dawn atmosphere, and the peace of the morning was disrupted by the loud sounds of weapons clashing in a frenzy.

Cordelia and Dio were locked in a furious exchange of blows that were almost too fast for mortal eyes to see.

Cordelia had Liberator out and shaped into a shield on her left hand and tightly grasped Tiger Shark in her right. Today’s training was for Dio to practise fighting shield users, and she had to say, he was doing quite well.

See, there were several tactics when one went up against shield users. The first was to use a tool to pull the shield away hard enough so that the user would be forced to drop it, usually through the use of one-handed hooks or hand axes.

While Cordelia taught Dio the technique, it was useless on her, as Liberator was literally fused to her forearm through her enchanted bracer. She couldn’t drop it even if she wanted to. Still, she taught him how to wrench it back enough for openings in her defense to be revealed.

The next option was through pure strength. This was something that not everyone could do, as it required you to have an overwhelming power that would subjugate your opponent. Regardless of the type of shield it was, if you slammed down on it hard enough, you could force your enemy to falter. If the shield was on the weaker or flimsier end, it could be split, but even if it was a hardier shield, the force of the blow would reverberate down the opponent’s arm quite painfully. 

Dio had grown taller than her, and he had put on a frankly ridiculous amount of weight. Oh, sure, a tiny bit of it was fat, but most of the scarce softness he still possessed was just the last remainder of baby-fat clinging to his features. Everything else was pure honed muscle.

He was still a bit on the leaner side, but Cordelia could see the result of all of the labor he had put into helping her build their ship. At the rate he was going, he was going to become an absolute monster, because he looked like he still had an inch or so left in him, and his steady diet of protein and gruelling physical labor was doing more wonders for him than any simple strength-building exercises could. 

All signs pointed to him growing into a frightening mountain of a man.

But that wasn’t enough for Cordelia.

Finally, the last way to overcome a shield user: overwhelming speed and skill.

Cordelia refused to allow Dio to become a lumbering, hulking brute. 

Yes, it would be easy for Dio to just focus on brawn and subdue all of his opponents with pure strength, but as Cordelia had come to experience, those types of opponents could always be overcome if you were fast enough to dodge their attacks.

When asked to choose, Cordelia would value speed and technique over strength any day.

After all, what good was all that strength if you could never hit your target?

But just raw speed wasn’t enough. You had to have to technique to utilize it to its fullest capability. 

Technique allowed you to use your movements most efficiently for maximum effect. It allowed you to pick out weaknesses and reduce wasted movements.

Dio’s movements were almost a blur, and a proud grin threatened to pull at Cordelia’s lips as she methodically tried to avoid all of his strikes.

While the majority of his devastating swings with his axe caused her to lock her knees to withstand the force, he forced her to move or be cut down due to his swift strikes to her unprotected sides.

He skillfully deflected Tiger Shark’s counterattacks, his movements so graceful that they were almost a dance. Each movement flowed into the next, not a single second wasted, and his eyes glowed a bright blood red, constantly roving around her figure, sussing out her next weak point.

He wasn’t fazed at all by the waves licking at his feet and the soft sand giving way. He had completely mastered the art of fighting on the shores.

Cordelia could just burst with pride. He had come so far!

However. It was still too soon for her little brat to get a big head. He still had a long way to go.

As Dio hammered Tiger Shark with another devastating blow with his heavy axe, Cordelia allowed a hole within her defense to open up. Her right arm went wide as Tiger Shark was batted away, and her flank was left unprotected as Liberator was still guarding her left side.

Dio’s eyes narrowed in on the opening, and he struck without hesitation.

Ha, gotcha.

Cordelia had taught a lot of Demigods, a whole camp’s worth of them.

Just sheer talent-wise? 

Dio was up with the best of them.

He had that innate battle-sense that allowed him to sniff out weaknesses like a bloodhound.

However, much of it was still instinctual, and he couldn’t control it completely.

That meant that when he faced off against an experienced enough opponent, they could use that to their advantage.

Dio relied on complete instinct, so it was hard for him to discern true openings versus feints. 

Yes, his insane reflexes allowed him to react when he made a bad judgment call, but that wasn’t going to fly with Cordelia.

As Amphitrite had emphasized so many times before, Control.

If Dio had thought about it, he would have realized that the opening was too easy, too obvious.

Well, she knew what she was going to pound into his head later. 

Cordelia easily twisted out of the way of Dio’s strike and slid Tiger Shark between the bottom edge of his axe’s blade and the hilt and twisted, all while she locked her leg behind his to destabilize him.

As he tripped back, the axe slid free from his grasp, and he was forced to release it as he splashed in the water.

Cordelia dispelled her weapons and took the moment to shake her arm out to loosen up her tense muscles.

Dio was strong, and he had taken her lessons to heart. He had cultivated the instinct not to let go of his blade, and it took more and more effort for her to disarm him.

Cordelia was bursting with pride, but she made sure not to show it on her face. Judging by Dio’s disgruntled scowl, her gushing wouldn’t be appreciated.

“Fuck! I almost had you!” he pouted. His eyes had gone back to their warm brown color as he was released from his battle-fever.

Cordelia leaned down to sharply flick his forehead, which he predictably whined at.

“Ow! What the fuck?!”

Cordelia heavily settled down into the shallows with him, sighing at the pleasant feeling of the cool water washing over her sweaty limbs. “In your dreams, brat. You still have a ways to go to get on my level.”

Dio sulked, and Cordelia fondly rolled her eyes. “Alright, let’s break it down. What went wrong this time?”

By the time they finished dissecting their fight, the dawn had broken over the horizon and painted the heavens in soft shades of peachy orange and yellow. 

Dio sighed and heavily flopped back into the water.

He was still pouting, but Cordelia could tell that he was rather proud of himself. 

As he should be. All of that tireless work, and now he could wield his axe better than he could a sword.

He was approaching true mastery with his weapon.

“Hey, brat.”

“Hmmmm?” Dio drowsily hummed. He was probably aiming to take a quick nap to regain some strength before they started their work on the ship for the day.

“Do you have a name for your axe?”

Dio slowly blinked his grogginess away. “What?”

“A name, brat.”

He turned to her. “Why, do I need one?”

Cordelia nodded. “I would say so. Remember how I taught you about how names have power? It’s the same on our end, as well. Once you name something, it gains more power. I don’t know how to describe it… It’s like it’s more real. Because it has a name, an identity, its existence is more pronounced within the world.”

Dio absorbed that. “I see.”

“So, have you named your axe?”

Dio grinned. “Well, I was planning on just calling it ‘Axe’, but I have a few ideas!” He sounded excited.

Cordelia smiled. “Give ‘em to me.”

“Well, my favourite is Fleshrending Bloodscourge, but I’m also kinda partial to Sanguine Thirster and Heartseeking Widowmaker.”

Cordelia stared at him, completely baffled.

Dio didn’t seem to notice her bewilderment as he continued. “Oh, I also really like Harbringer of Woe and Madness.”

Cordelia finally found her voice. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Dio turned to her, offended. “What?” 

“Were you dropped on your head as a baby?” Cordelia demanded. 

“What do you mean? What’s wrong with those names?” Dio asked defensively.

“What do you mean, ‘What’s wrong’? Where do I even start!” Cordelia ranted. “You can’t name your axe some emo-ass, angsty, edgy teenager name! That’s so fucking stupid!”

“Hey!” Dio snapped. “You don’t have to shit all over my ideas! I’m trying to name it something with meaning that will send fear through my enemies! What’s wrong with that?”

“No, just-” Cordelia sighed and ran her fingers through her sweaty, tangled hair. She searched deep, deep within herself for patience. “Listen, brat, when I said that the name had to have meaning, the most important aspect of it is that the meaning should be special to you, most of all. It doesn’t have to be cool or edgy-” please, please don’t choose something cool or edgy, Cordelia desperately prayed, “-but it has to be something impactful and personal.”

Dio remained silent but looked contemplative.

Perhaps an example will do him good.

Cordelia summoned her weapons, and her chain clinked into the water, and the beautiful damascus stripes of her blade shone in the sunlight.

“See these? I chose their names because they meant something to me.”

She lifted her sword up. “I didn’t just name this Tiger Shark because of its pattern. I named it that because it is as swift and as fierce as one. That, with its help, I can become as swift and deadly as a tiger shark myself. But most of all, I named it Tiger Shark because that’s what one of my friends used to call me before he died.”

A flash of Beck’s deep, rumbling laugh echoed through her mind, bringing a pang of old grief.

Cordelia turned to her chain. “Now this? I took the symbol of my oppression and made it my own. I named this weapon Liberator to remind myself that I fought for my freedom. That I broke the chains that kept me enslaved and learned to use them for myself to help others. To help liberate them. These chains stand for freedom.”

Dio stared at her, and the light of understanding dawned in his eyes.

Ah. He finally got it.

He looked down at his hands and examined the blood-red gemstone on his ring. He looked almost hypnotized at the swirls within the gem, and finally, he turned back to her.

“I know what its name is,” he breathed.

Cordelia smiled. “Hit me with it.”

Dio was silent as he collected his thoughts. “My Mom always taught me that pity is the cruelest thing you could give someone. That’s it’s better to die with honor than live on as a pathetic, snivelling coward. She taught me to always go for the kill, because that’s how you show the ultimate respect to your enemies. You taught me to be ruthless and cunning and not to ever allow anybody to stab me in the back. To use my judgment so that I hold the responsibility of determining who needs to die. You taught me that the man who passes the sentence must swing the sword, and they should do it with the full weight of the responsibility of the life they are about to take.”

Dio grinned at her, his eyes full of resolve. “My axe will be named Sweet Mercy, because once I determine someone my enemy, that is all the mercy they shall ever receive from me.”

Cordelia grinned.

“There we go, Dio.”

He finally got it.

The sun had set hours ago, and the moon was high in the sky. The heavens twinkled brightly, but the stars were somewhat obscured due to the light of the fire pit, whose flames were cheerfully roaring in the night air.

It was quite late. Cordelia had sent all of her friends off to bed after their warm, hearty dinner, but she was consumed in her work.

A huge stump of pitch black oak sat in front of her, and Cordelia growled at it in irritation as she hammered a chisel into it. “Fucking work, you stupid thing!” It barely went in an inch, every bit as solid as metal. “Goddammit, how the hell does Dio cut into this thing all the time, it’s so fucking hard! Fuck you, stupid tree, if you don’t cooperate with me, I swear that I’ll turn you into woodchips!”

“Hmmmm, that could be considered sacrilege, you know. You are cursing at wood from my holy trees, after all.”

Cordelia turned to see Apollo standing next to her with his arms crossed as he grinned down at her antics. His chiton was a gorgeous, creamy off-white, which made his deep, tan skin almost glow in contrast, and his long golden hair waterfalled over his shoulders and caught in the gentle night breeze. 

His brilliant golden eyes smirked down at her. “Having some trouble, are you?”

Cordelia glared up at him balefully. 

He laughed, and the sound sent warmth skittering across her skin. 

“Might I ask, what are you trying to do to that poor piece of wood, darling? Other than butchering it and reducing it to woodchips, of course.” His eyes twinkled teasingly, and Cordelia huffed, her cheeks heating up in embarrassment. 

Dickhead.

“I’m trying to carve out of it, obviously,” Cordelia snarked at him, “But your wood isn’t cooperating because it’s busy being an asshole right now, much like you are.”

Apollo giggled at that, and the sound chased some of her annoyance away. Ugh, gods, why was she incapable of staying angry at this idiot?

Cordelia turned back to the lump of wood and raised the chisel up to it. She wound her arm back and brought the hammer down on it with all the strength she could muster, but once again, it barely made a dent.

Cordelia squealed in frustration and threw the chisel out into the sea. “Ahhhhh, fuck you! Fucking useless!”

A moment later clarity returned, and, “Oh wait, shit, I still need that! Fuckkk!” Cordelia closed her eyes and connected with the sea so that she could sense the chisel’s position and command the waves to return it back to her. She soooo didn’t want to go trawling the reef for it at night, and she would rather die than ask Kymmie to get another one for them.

This was the eighth chisel she was on. Cordelia had already lost and broken the rest, and both Kymmie and Dio were starting to get a little peeved with her about it, as Dio was remarkably careful with the other tools and didn’t go through them as quickly as she did, and it was getting a bit hard for Kymmie to make excuses to the Cyclopses as to why she needed so many chisels.

Throughout her little tantrum, Apollo laughed loud and free, his bright golden eyes glowing with humor. “Is it safe to declare that you have finally encountered an opponent you cannot overcome? The fearsome and mighty Princess of Atlantis, Cordelia the Unshackled, has met her match in a humble piece of wood!”

Cordelia scoffed at him. “Oh, fuck off, you big ball of hot air, there’s nothing humble about it and you know it. For fuck’s sake, why is it so goddman dense? Is your sister’s holy wood the same?”

Apollo blinked at her as he pondered the question. “Artemis’ holy trees? I have to say, I haven’t thought about it until now. I suppose while it is imbued with her holy power, they are not as rigid as mine are, as she creates the bows for her Huntresses from them. Perhaps it is due to the way our power affected them. As mine were blackened from her power, hers were bleached. Our mother always found it quite amusing how our divine power manifested at birth and affected the trees on Delos. She said that it had been an omen of which domains we would one day claim.”

Apollo’s voice had gone gentle in the way that Cordelia had only ever heard when he spoke of his mother. The blaze of his golden eyes had dimmed until they were a warm hearth filled with soft love.

Cordelia’s heart thumped painfully in her chest.

Apollo turned to her, his eyes still retaining a hint of that tenderness, but a spark of mischief had entered them. 

“I do feel that you’re being rather ungrateful, darling. You did request me to gift you hard, sturdy wood that would stand the test of time. Is it my fault you lack the skill to work it?”

“Oh my god, you are such a jackass.”

Apollo grinned in delight. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you attempting to make?”

Cordelia glared down at the mess of wood. It was nicked and chipped unevenly in some areas, but despite her best efforts, it wasn’t anything close to her vision.

“I was trying to make the figurehead,” Cordelia admitted in resignation. “I wanted to carve out a grand, beautiful statue like Blackjack.”

Apollo’s brows rose. “Your pegasus?”

Cordelia nodded. “Yeah. It has to be him, complete with wings and everything. In my culture, we believe that figureheads are a vital part of a ship because the guardian spirit of the ship lives within it. It will give the ship life and protection, so it is something important, and I chose Blackjack because he’s always been one of my closest, most loyal friends, and using his symbol of a herald of my arrival is just too perfect.”

Cordelia glared daggers at the wood. “Too bad I’m having trouble even carving the body out, forget about the fucking wings.”

“Hm.” Apollo examined it, his eyes roving over the outlines and markings Cordelia had drawn as a guide for herself. “You know, you could always pray to me so that you can get my blessing. You know, with me being the God of Art, and all.” He smirked at her.

Cordelia’s eyebrow twitched in irritation. Oh, really? “In that case, I should pray to Hephaestus instead, because he’s the god of smithing and crafting, which is what I need right now rather than the god of bullshit promises and assholery.”

Apollo gasped in offense and made to grab for her, but Cordelia darted out of the way as she made a break towards the sea.

She didn’t get far. Apollo caught up to her soon enough, but she was prepared and doused him with a wave of cold seawater and cackled at his affronted expression. His clothes stuck to his skin, and his wet hair curled fetchingly around his face. His eyes glowed like supernovas in the darkness of the night as he playfully glared at her.

She tried to slip away, but he caught her arm, preventing her from hiding in the depths. He expertly swung her around till his other arm was around her waist and her front was flush up against his. His blazing warmth seeped into her skin and made goosebumps break out, and she could feel the deep, booming rhythm of his inhuman heart beating from where her chest was pressed up against his.

His face was so, so close to hers. He was so tall, taller than any human could ever grow to be, but he bent down so that his eyes were level with hers. 

He leaned closer, and for a moment, his lips brushed against hers as he spoke. 

“Cordelia,” he breathed. 

Her lips burned where he touched her.

His breath smelled sweet, and it made her head feel heavy. His arm was warm and solid, holding her firmly up against him. 

God, he was so close.

Cordelia didn’t know what prompted her to do it, but she raised her chin up just a tiny little bit, barely a fraction of an inch. 

But it was enough. 

His lips brushed a bit more firmly against hers. 

This time, it was unmistakable. 

That was a kiss.

Apollo’s searing, inhumanly bright eyes bored into hers, and she could see the barely contained divinity within them. His skin was barely curbing all his power, a thin dam before a storm-swelled river. He was on the precipice, she could feel it.

A chuckle fell out of his lips, and his normally whisky-smooth voice held a hint of a rasp as he said, “Oh, darling, you know better than to play games with a god,” and the next thing Cordelia knew, she was flying.

Her mind whirred in confusion, but a few seconds later, she crashed into the sea, and the cold shock of the water, especially after having Apollo’s blazing warmth against her not even a moment ago, took her breath away.

What the- Did he just throw me?!

Cordelia shook her head and allowed the currents to sweep her back to the shore.

As expected, by the time she arrived back at the beach, he was gone, and the fire was down to its last embers by then, illuminating the surrounding area in a low glow.

Cordelia was still trying to process everything and almost missed the gigantic figure perched on the edge of the shore.

She slowly turned to it, eyes wide.

It was a massive statue of Blackjack rearing on his hind legs, his wings spread out majestically at his sides.

As Cordelia inspected it, a gasp unconsciously left her lips. 

It had incredible detail. Each and every feather was clearly distinct from the others, and even the feathering around the statue’s ankles was textured to look like actual hair. Blackjack’s mane fluttered behind him as if the wind was actually blowing through the fine strands, and his muscles were coiled and tense, at the ready.

A glint of white on the statue’s body caught Cordelia’s eye, and when she looked closer, it was a little note. 

Her breath caught in her chest when she read what it said.

For my little liar.

Cordelia blinked as she stumbled back.

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

She had feelings for Apollo.

“Hmmm. I can’t say I was expecting this.”

Cordelia almost had a heart attack as she whipped around at the new voice, and her eyes widened when she took in the regal, perfectly put-together form of Amphitrite, who was examining the black pegasus statue.

She turned back to Cordelia and raised a single eyebrow, but that was all that was needed for Cordelia’s cheeks to blush furiously.

Shit!

Amphitrite just continued to stare at her for a few more tense seconds before she sighed. “I will not say anything to your father, but I must warn you to be careful.” 

She handed something to Cordelia and said, “It is good to see you doing well, child. I am sure my gift will be a fitting addition to your new ship. Also, I would rather like to meet your familiar, since he is, as you described, one of a kind.” Then, with a pointed look back at the pegasus figurehead, she vanished into sea mist, and the wind blew her away.

Cordelia stared after her for what felt like hours, then finally summoned the courage to open her hand to see two gigantic, luminous black pearls resting in her palm.

They were the exact perfect size for the pegasus figurehead’s eyes.

Cordelia stared down at them in incomprehension, then she closed her fingers over the pearls and took a deep breath. 

Well, that’s enough for today.

Chapter Text

After nearly a year of hard labor, her ship is finally done.

As the construction progressed, the further away from the shore the ship had to rest lest it be beached. Even at the distance the ship currently was, it was still imposing in its size, and every time Cordelia looked at it, it sent a thrill down her spine.

The ship was resplendent. It rose out of the waves like a shadow, a smear of pitch black against the glassy blue of the waves and sky. The sails were larger than what any man could even dream of in this current era, and to support the vast swaths of thick black canvas was her mast. The main mast wasn’t constructed out of a single trunk of oak, but rather several lengths of dovetailed planks encircled by bands of dark iron. The whole length was wrapped with rope to further provide more flexibility and strength to withstand the exponentially higher forces of the wind due to the larger sails.

At the top of the main mast, above all the rigging, was a Crow’s Nest that she had built. It offered quite a sight, as it sat around 150 feet high. It was only accessible by climbing the ropes like a spider monkey or getting a lift from Blackjack. Unfortunately, Dio had gained a lot of weight due to all the muscle he had put on, and he was understandably a little wary of trusting the deceptively delicate-looking ropes to hold under his bulk. Also, turned out, climbing wasn’t one of the skills he had an innate, immediate talent for. Oh well, it looks like Cordelia was gonna have to train it into him, he had to be comfortable scaling the rigging if he was going to be a proper sailor.

A thick iron chain came out from the bow of the ship, and attached to the end of it was a magnificent anchor, once again carved from monster bone ivory by Kymopoleia. It was in an unusual shape, not like the anchors that were so common back in the present, but it was clear that Kymmie did her best to use her rough sketches to create something unique, functional, and beautiful.

The railings along the sides of the ship were tall and sturdy, higher than normal for ships of the era, and lacked the characteristic gaps for oars and paddles. However, there were periodic holes that Cordelia built into the ship that Dio asked her about, and she wasn’t sure how to describe cannons to him. Haha, probably best not to, he was already feral enough without her introducing the concept of ballistic weapons to him. He might start getting ideas.

Cordelia wasn’t really sure about what current missile weaponry was like in this era, but she knew one thing for certain: gunpowder either hadn’t been discovered yet, or at the very least, been shared with Ancient Greece. Without that, cannons weren’t a viable option, and neither was Greek Fire. Annabeth had once subjected her to a tedious lecture about how it had only been invented in the Byzantine period after Cordelia had asked her why Heracles couldn’t have just lobbed Greek Fire at the hydra to kill it, if burning its stumps kept it from regenerating. 

Yup, no Greek Fire for at least another millennium. Bummer, Cordelia enjoyed some recreational immolation against monsters now and again. 

But, if Cordelia’s memory wasn’t faulty, it might be possible to equip her ship with something akin to scorpion bolts. That kind of technology was present in this era, she was reasonably sure. Unfortunately, it was a little beyond her skill level to reverse-engineer a complex catapult mechanism like that. Having a library of various ship and naval weaponry blueprints in her head was unfortunately not one of her passive perks as a daughter of Poseidon. It was something she had to work for. Hell, even having the ability to build this ship was, at most, a coincidence, completely dependent on Annabeth and Beck’s birthday present and the hours she had sunk into playing with it.

As Cordelia waited for Blackjack to finish delivering Anysia and Dio over to the ship safely, her mind lazily drifted over to the now-familiar puzzle.

Really, how much of it was a ‘coincidence', in the end? One of her very first introductions to the secret world hidden behind the Mist was watching the Moirai snip a thread and having Grover freak the fuck out about it, and every year after that included an encounter with the horrific mummified remains of the poor cursed Spirit of Delphi.

Time after time, so much of her life was predetermined by prophecies and ancient legacies she was forced to live up to. 

Even Apollo mentioned her ‘strange’ Threads of Fate on their first meeting, didn’t he?

So, how much of her journey was predetermined? Had she been fated to end up here in the past from the beginning? 

Well, it doesn’t matter in the end, anyway, Cordelia spitefully decided. Whether or not what actions she would take were predetermined, Cordelia wouldn’t allow it to take away her own certainty in her freedom of choice, even if in the end, it really was all only an illusion.

By its very logic, her presence in the past is clearly creating some sort of butterfly effect, unless she’s in some kind of parallel universe of some kind, a theory that was slowly gaining more momentum in her head. Any and every action she took had the threat of changing everything she knew about the future. She was certain that without her intervention, Dio would have died by now, with nobody to properly train him or curb his Fatal Flaw of Arrogance or Recklessness. Either he would have fallen to the slavers, or he would have been devoured by a monster. 

Cordelia’s intervention has clearly changed at least one life, and that was only the start of it.

This conundrum was something that bothered her when she stumbled upon it in Atlantis. If she positively affected Dio’s existence, was it possible for the reverse to be true? Was it possible that she could somehow snuff out the existence of her precious people in the future? You know, a ‘Back to the Future’ paradox, not being born in the first place, or something similar?

Cordelia had concluded that it was possible, but overall, probably unlikely. She was three thousand years in the past. There were two leading options that she had: either her first sneeze here in the past already guaranteed the heat death of the universe due to the exponential effects the butterfly effect would have over the next three millennia, or perhaps, the timeline wasn’t so easily manipulated. 

Cordelia was leaning towards the second option due to how much she had seen the influence of ‘Fate’. 

Objectively, it was probably a mixture of the two: the timeline was pretty stable, but she had the free will to decide what she wanted to do. Nobody was puppeteering her actions and forcing her to act in one way or another. 

After spending countless hours running each and every aspect of the first Great Prophecy and Luke’s resulting sacrifice through her head, Cordelia had come to the startling realization that even the gods, immortal, all mighty, and all powerful as they are, were scared of the prophecy. It was something beyond even their control.

Yes, they had caught a glimpse of what would occur in the future, but they were helpless to prevent it despite all the desperate actions they took. Even vows to the River Styx weren’t enough to avert the Great Prophecy. Despite all the unfathomable power they possessed, the Olympians were brought down to their knees, powerless.

In the end, they had only been saved by the actions of one insignificant, mortal man.

They had been saved due to his free will to defy Kronos at the finish line, something nobody could have ever predicted, even with the weight of the Prophecy behind it.

So yes, it was a knot of a conundrum, but Cordelia was happy to subscribe to the school of thought that determined that she did, indeed, possess true free will and that her choices mattered in the grand scale of things. That she had actual agency in her fate.

Ahhh, but now, that led back to the frankly scary question of how much her choices affected others.

How was her changing the past going to affect the future?

Cordelia hemmed and hawed over the issue until she was honest enough with herself to find the answer.

When it came down to it, Cordelia was selfish.

Her Fatal Flaw was Loyalty, and to her, the well-being of her precious people would always trump everything else. 

Yes, she would forever love everyone she had been forced to leave behind in the past, but she had had the time to mourn them, and while still present, the devastating bite of grief had softened a tad, until it was not as debilitating as it had once been. Now, rather than constantly forced to look back at what she had lost, she could look towards the future she could build for herself.

It was helped in no small part due to the new relationships she had formed here.

So, Cordelia decided this: she would do what it took to protect her current precious people and keep them happy, even if it could affect things down the line, because she was selfish, and right now, this was what was important to her. 

She wouldn’t be around to see her friends again, but she was here, and for now, that was enough.

But hey, if she were in a parallel universe, then it would solve all her problems. Haha, that would be nice, wouldn’t it? Cordelia wistfully pondered as she looked out at her grand ship. But alas, the universe was never kind enough to grant her any of her wishes, so it was probably unlikely, no matter how much of a pretty thought it was.

“Hey, Boss, you ready?”

Cordelia blinked as she realized that Blackjack had finally returned. “Ah. Oh, yeah, the ceremony.”

Thankfully, whenever Cordelia was gripped with this existential dread that occasionally crept up on her, her boys and Anysia were quick to snap her out of it.

“Is everyone on the ship?”

Blackjack nodded. “Yeah, Boss. We’re the last ones. Even the Octo-turd is ready. He’s on the deck with the other two.”

Cordelia snorted. “Alrighty, then. Let’s get this show on the road, Bud.”

Blackjack flew her over to the ship, and when Cordelia slipped off his back and her foot touched the deck, the immediate warm feeling of home washed through her and made her release a shuddering breath.

Finally. Finally!

Cordelia turned to Anysia, who was smiling gently at her. Her hands clutched a large container, and it was clearly heavy from the way she shifted it from one hip to the other to relieve herself of the weight.

“As requested, the jar of wine, dear cousin. I informed my Lady Mother that you require a container of wine for the custom from your land that you perform when inaugurating a new ship, and this is what she delivered. I hope this is suitable.”

Cordelia grimaced at the sight of the jar.

It was traditional to break a bottle of champagne on the bow of a new ship in order to christen it before its first voyage, but unfortunately, there was a decided lack of champagne around these parts, so wine would have to do.

But regrettably for them, Demeter had really come through when she gifted this high-quality wine to them. Based on the engravings on the sides of the thick, metal jar, there was a not insignificant chance that this was actually from one of Dionysus’ cults, a sturdy container that could be used for decades in whatever secret, esoteric rituals those potheads got up to.

Haha, was this a case of Demeter being actually genuine, or was this some subtle sabotage like Rhode liked to dabble in? Even after spending years with her subtly vicious sister, it was still hard for Cordelia to accurately determine people’s intentions for things like this.

Sigh, whatever. At least she had given them the wine to perform the ceremony.

Cordelia took the wine from Anysia, and yup, it was heavy alright.

Okay. Fuck. How was she going to do this?

Cordelia hefted the jar over her head, and with all the force she could muster, she brought it down hard on the iron-like wood of the planks of the deck.

The sound of impact was like a gunshot, and Blackjack whinnied in shock and Dexter hissed and puffed up like a startled cat, his skin now an angry, threatening red. The deck of the ship proved to be sturdy, and no craters were left behind in the shiny black wood.

The jar thankfully dented from the force, and a trickle of wine was leaking out, but unfortunately, it was still rather intact. Goddamn it! The one time it had to be good quality! Why couldn’t Demeter skimp and gift them a normal ceramic wine jug??

Dio came up next to her and squinted down at it. “Didn’t you say that it needed to shatter on the first try, water buffalo?”

Cordelia stared at it. “Well… traditionally, yeah. But you know what? They’re not the boss of me. I do what I fucking want, and as long as this piece of shit jar is destroyed, then it’s still gonna be auspicious, alright?”

Blackjack stared at her. “Is that how it works?”

Cordelia glared as she lifted a leg to stomp on the jar. “Well, no, but ours isn’t made of glass now, isn’t it? I think we’re allowed some concessions.”

Again, it barely made a dip in the inhumanly sturdy container.

Dio grinned ferally. “Just to confirm, you want this jar obliterated?”

Cordelia sighed and took a step back. “Fine, then. Go for it.”

Dio whooped and leaped forward to maul the container, and Blackjack was quick to follow, and his heavy hoof was finally enough to put a considerable hole into it. Dark plum-colored liquid spilled out of the fissure and perfumed the air with a heady, alcoholic scent. Damn, that was some strong wine.

Dexter crawled over and unhinged his jaw enough to completely swallow down the pulverized jar.

After a long moment, he swayed, and his skin began to change colors like a kaleidoscope. He leaned concerningly over to one side, and Dio sniggered as Cordelia looked at him in alarm.

“Oh shit, what the hell, did you just eat that? You might wanna spit that out, tiny, you don’t know what’s in there!”

Dexter hiccuped and turned to her very, very slowly. “It is alright, weak mortal aunt. I am near to my majority. I tastes the alcohol. It is not not-pleasant.”

Anysia sternly crossed her arms. “Oh, really? How far off are you, then?”

Dexter’s skin began to strobe like a disco ball, and Cordelia was forced to squint. 

“Only eight,” he proudly intoned. He was beginning to resemble a puddle on the deck.

“Eight what?” Blackjack suspiciously asked.

“Yes, precisely, noble steed,” Dexter hiccuped, then he stretched one tentacle up to pull himself over the edge of the railing, and a few seconds later, a splash sounded.

They all stared down in silence at the ripples that were left in his wake.

Finally, Dio asked, “Well, did that work, then?”

Cordelia fondly shook her head and smiled. Yeah, screw tradition. This mess was more representative of her and her boys, anyway. “I think so, brat.”

She tenderly ran a hand over the railing. “What say you, Black Pearl? Was that good enough for you?”

A feeling of exuberant contentment and excitement washed over her, and from the way Blackjack, Dio, and Anysia shifted, her ship was projecting so loudly that they were able to catch some echoes.

Under her fingers, she felt the phantom sensation of downy feathers and the lick of an incorporeal tongue for a split second before it vanished, and Cordelia’s fingers twitched in shock.

“Well,” Dio clapped his hands together and turned to Anysia with a theatrical bow. “I would be happy to give you the grand tour, my fine lady, as it seems our esteemed Captain is too lazy to do so.”

Cordelia rolled her eyes as Anysia giggled. “How could I ever refuse such a special offer? Lead the way, my dashing young guide.”

As they walked away, Blackjack snorted and whinnied, “I’m off to my room, Boss. Gonna catch a quick snooze.”

"’Course, Bud. I’ll wake you when Anysia and Dio need to head back to shore.”

Cordelia smiled as she watched all of them make their way further into the ship. 

One of the modifications Cordelia had added to the Black Pearl was inspired by the Argo II. Blackjack now had a spacious stable all to himself, all thanks to Leo and his genius design.

Of course, she had built herself sprawling Captain’s quarters, as well as a nice, large room for the First Mate, which Dio had already claimed for himself. 

Not that it was a surprise, the position of First Mate was already reserved for Dio, but Cordelia wasn’t gonna allow him to claim the title until he was a skilled enough sailor to meet her exacting standards.

Cordelia had built a little hatch at the bottom of the ship for Dexter to rest, akin to his little nook on the reef, and he had been reluctantly pleased. However, it seemed that he preferred skittering around the deck like some kind of eldritch cat, and he had already taken it upon himself to declare that she would need no other mouser when he was available to rid them of any vermin. Apparently, he found rats quite a tasty delicacy. 

Other than that, there was plenty of free space in the crew’s quarters that she had built in, not that Cordelia actually had need of a crew. She was able to sail the entire ship by herself, after all, but she wasn’t going to let that be an excuse as to why Dio didn’t need to do any work around the ship.

Cordelia was smiling in anticipation as she pondered what her future journey was going to hold for her and her boys, and she startled when a wave of divine power surrounded the ship, sharp and familiar.

“I am proud of you, daughter. You have managed to construct something… magnificent. Truly a Queen among ships, resplendent and glorious. Long may she reign over the seas and provide you sanctuary, and always remind you that your home remains here on the seas, with us. Of course, I expected nothing less from a daughter of my line. Hehe, I cannot wait to see what the others will say once they see the Pearl…” his voice trailed off.

Ugh. She should have suspected this would happen.

Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Hi, Dad. Thanks for the blessing, I guess?”

“You are welcome,” his voice magnanimously intoned, “I did not feel whichever blessing you were trying to invoke with that jar of wine take hold on your ship, so I thought I would grant you a proper blessing. May the beautiful Black Pearl be the swiftest ship to sail my waters, and may she ever find her way back to you. No need for thanks, daughter. It is not like I, too, wish to be a part of your project. Ahem. I did not feel hurt when you did not ask for my help, because I know that you are a full-grown mortal woman and you are free to make choices without requiring my permission.” From the petulant and rehearsed tone in his voice, Cordelia was sure this was something Amphi forced him to practice. 

Still… it was kinda sweet. It was moments like this that reminded her of the dad she had been so fond of. It made it more painful, somehow, seeing glimpses of her Real Dad in this younger, more untamed version of him.

“Thank you, Daddy.” Cordelia smiled and blew a kiss down into the sea. 

“Hmph. I do not miss you at all, my baby daughter.”

Cordelia was forced to laugh. “Yes, yes. I love you, too. Give everyone my regards, Dad.”

With a final grumble, Poseidon’s godly presence vanished.

Well. With that, every member of her godly family had contributed to her project. And here she thought that her siblings had successfully kept it a secret from Dad and Amphi, but it seems that they had been busted. Oh, well. Not like it really affected her, in the end, but Cordelia did have to admit that was rather curious to hear about how they had been trying to sneak past their parents for the past year and how they finally got busted.

Oh shit, it was probably all the chisels, wasn’t it? Pfffttt, no, of course not, it couldn’t be that, it was obviously some screw-up from their end, obviously. 

Anyway, with that out of the way, the Black Pearl was whole and healthy, chomping at the bit to go out and explore the vast, exciting oceans, and to be honest, Cordelia was too.

Cordelia enjoyed the rest of their day out on the sea and made sure to occasionally go out and check on Dexter, who looked like he was still on a hell of a trip. He was enjoying it within the safety of his little nook, so she supposed that he was safe enough, for now.

Cordelia peeked in and found that Blackjack had made himself nice and comfortable in his huge stable and was out cold. Poor guy was probably exhausted from helping her haul all of the supplies that they would need for their trip, so she allowed him to rest.

Dio and Anysia went around and explored the ship, and afterwards, under Anysia’s instruction, Dio helped her organize all their supplies in the cargo hold. She made sure to arrange it in such a way that it was easily accessible, all while prioritizing the foodstuffs that would expire sooner. Also, with her previous experience from her childhood on a farm, she imparted tips to prevent their food from spoiling and attracting vermin, something Cordelia was very grateful for, and she strictly instructed Dio to pay rapt attention to her tips.

Finally, the time came for the Black Pearl to set off on her first voyage.

As Anysia tightly hugged each of them and tearfully bade them goodbye, Cordelia had to ask one more time.

“Are you sure that you don’t want to come with us? The others miss you, you know.”

Anysia wiped her eyes and smiled wetly at Cordelia. “You know that my place is here, cousin. You have already promised to come back soon, and you can bring them to see me instead.”

Cordelia laughed. “Alright, then. I’ll tell them that.”

Now that she had a ship, Cordelia was certain that she could navigate to this island whenever she wanted. The coordinates were locked into her brain.

“Try not to miss us too much while we’re gone,” Cordelia cheekily teased.

The crow’s feet around Anysia’s eyes creased as she smiled wryly at Cordelia. “It will be a relief to have a break from all the mischief you cause. Something tells me that you’re going to cause even more chaos on this journey of yours, and knowing you, it’s going to escalate into something tremendous. May the gods' blessing be with you, for you shall certainly need it.”

The night was silent, save for the splash of waves breaking against the side of the Pearl’s hull as she cut through the water and the flutter of the sails as wind lazily whipped through them.

The moon was merely a sliver tonight, barely providing any hints of illumination, and it somehow made the night feel more private and cozy, as if the Pearl was comfortably hiding them within the darkness.

Cordelia was perched in the Crow’s Nest, her legs in the holes between the railings as she sat and looked out into the magnificent, never-ending expanse of black water. 

Cordelia was exhausted; the day had been a hectic one, as had all the ones that had come before this one now that they had finally set sail. She had spent the bulk of her time teaching her boys how to help her around the Black Pearl, all while she paid close attention to the inner workings of her ship, just in case anything proved to be faulty now that it was actually put to the test.

Cordelia was delighted to note that the Pearl sailed like a dream, as smooth and flawless as she could have ever hoped for. Connecting with her was leagues more pleasant than the Golden Eel, and the warmth and excitement that washed over her every time she reached out filled Cordelia with pure, blissful happiness.

Home. She had truly done it.

She had a home now, and it was better than she could have ever asked for.

Even with nothing else to her name, she could happily live out the rest of her days upon this ship, surrounded by her loved ones.

Speaking of, her annoying boys did pretty well, too. Blackjack was the least of her headaches. He was content to sit in a corner and keep watch over them as he enjoyed the sunlight warming his skin and the wind brushing through his feathers. When he wanted to stretch his wings, he would go out for a quick flight before landing heavily on the deck at a trot. What an unproblematic king, Cordelia adored him so much.

Dexter couldn’t decide if he wanted to be on the ship with them or swim alongside them, so he kept leaping from the deck, and Cordelia had to keep an eye on him to make sure that he didn’t hurt himself until he could get used to climbing onto the fantastically swift vessel. 

The Pearl really did try to make an effort not to run over him, but accidents could always happen, especially with how tiny the little octopus monster was.

And finally, Dio. 

Well…

Dio had a lot of faults, trust her, Cordelia could happily give you an alphabetized list, but one thing you could never accuse him of being was lazy.

When Dio wanted to learn something, he wouldn’t let anything stop him.

He had previously expended all his energy in helping her build the ship and mastering how to fight, and now, he had turned his laser-intent focus onto a new goal: learning how to sail.

No task was too insignificant for him. Even the mundane, gross chores, Dio would do without question. Swabbing the deck, mucking down the bilge, and washing out the toilets, he was game.

Oh, that wasn’t to say that he would do it quietly. Dio wouldn’t be Dio if he didn’t give her grief. Like the shithead he was, he would shower her with the rudest, filthiest insults and complaints before obediently doing it anyway.

God, he was such a little shit, but alas, Cordelia loved him, so she was forced to put up with it.

As she contemplated what to teach her precious brat next, the air beside her distorted with power, and Apollo appeared.

He took a second to silently take in his surroundings, then said, “Rather high up, aren’t you, darling?”

Cordelia hummed ambivalently. Usually, she hated heights, but she felt safe now, as if she was softly cradled by the Pearl’s warm presence. High up though she was, she was undeniably still a part of the ocean, not the air.

Cordelia had had a lot of time to think over things after their last meeting.  She was proud that she hadn’t freaked out, like she would have a couple of years ago. Apparently, she had been able to grow the maturity to objectively parse through her feelings and potential paths forward. There was so much to think about, like what her immediate plans for the future were, how she was going to take care of her boys and all of her friends, and most of all…

Well. In the end, she had come to the conclusion that she had a few questions that needed to be answered before she could decisively decide how to proceed. 

With no further response forthcoming, Apollo settled himself down next to her.

It should have been comical, what with his huge size, but it wasn’t. Apollo was unnaturally graceful, like a cat, and he, too, slipped his legs through the gaps of the railings and heaved a heavy sigh as he lounged. He closed his eyes and tilted his head into the wind, and his long golden hair fanned out behind him.

That wasn’t the only thing: the combination of his posture and the wind caused his chiton to ride up, and Cordelia caught a glimpse of his thick, tanned thighs before her eyes darted away.

When she spoke up, her mouth felt dry. “So, your verdict?”

Apollo turned to her, and in the pitch darkness, his eyes looked like miniature suns, almost eerie in their intensity. “Verdict?”

Cordelia lovingly stroked the railing, and the Pearl purred in response. “Have I given your kingly gift the honor it deserves?”

Apollo didn’t say anything. Just like her, he ran a broad hand along the wood, a small, soft smile barely pulling at his lips. “There was never any doubt of that, darling, and yet, you somehow manage to create a creature more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.”

Cordelia’s breath hitched. 

A creature.  

He knew. He knew, even without her telling him, that the Black Pearl was alive.

The only ones who had known were Cordelia’s boys, whom she had told herself in an effort to make them show proper care and respect to their ship. She wasn’t even sure if her family really knew.

Just… how?

The Pearl shuddered in love and pleasure, and for a moment, her presence bloomed to a crescendo, and suddenly, a ghostly image of a little pegasus foal materialized in front of their eyes, her tiny, incorporeal downy wings beating the air.

Her body was strange, clearly not organic. Her hair was a riot of coarse strands of canvas and rope, and her body was unnaturally hard and stiff, composed of wood and metal. Her eyes glowed with an unnatural luster, twin, gleaming pearls that were almost unfathomable to read. Her entire existence was an impossibility, and yet, here she was, a tiny, living, breathing spirit that had been birthed into this world because Cordelia had made this ship with her own two hands.

Apollo gasped, and he slowly, reverently reached a hand out. His body language was hesitant, but oh, so hopeful.

Pearl huffed and closed her eyes as she leaned her small head into his hand. Her ghostly wings continued to beat, but Cordelia didn’t feel a single flutter of wind.

“Oh, look at you,” Apollo’s voice was tender and filled with awe. “Look how beautiful you are. A true Pearl in every sense of the word.” He brought her closer and kissed her forehead, somehow able to make contact with this incorporeal spirit.

He whispered something else, but Cordelia couldn’t hear it. Whatever it was, it made the Black Pearl so effervescently happy that Cordelia felt it overflow and wash into her.

Just as suddenly as she came, her spirit sank back into the ship, and Cordelia could sense that she had concentrated over by the figurehead, where she most liked to be.

Cordelia smiled. “I’m glad you approve of her name.”

Apollo turned to her, his face still filled with a radiant happiness. “Of course I knew that you were going to name her the Black Pearl. From the moment I first met you and listened to you telling your friends about the tales of Davy Jones and Jack Sparrow, I knew how much you loved this ship. You wouldn’t be you if you had decided to name her something different.”

And Cordelia…

Cordelia felt so seen.

“If it would please you, would you be open to regaling the tale once again to this humble man?” Apollo’s eyes implored her. “It has been ever so long since I heard it.”

Cordelia couldn’t stop the fond chuckle that escaped her. “You are many things, Apollo, but humble is not one of them.”

For some reason, Apollo’s face lost a bit of its humor. “You would be surprised.”

And the laughter froze on Cordelia’s lips. What on earth could possibly humble a glorious, resplendent, all-powerful being such as Apollo?  

Cordelia smiled at him. “I could tell you the story again, if you’d like,” and trust her, she really would enjoy recounting that story again with Apollo and the Pearl, but- “Or, we could do something different tonight.”

Apollo’s head tilted in curiosity. “Like what?”

“We could play a game.”

-But Cordelia had an agenda. She had some things she had to clarify, in light of recent… revelations.

Apollo’s eyebrow rose. “I’m intrigued. What do you have in mind?”

“It’s a pretty simple game called ‘Truth or Dare’. It’s quite self-explanatory. You choose either to answer a question truthfully or complete a dare of the other person’s choice.”

Apollo chewed on that for a few moments. “What if you do not wish to complete the challenge?”

Cordelia smiled. “Then, you’ll get a punishment. But for the sake of our game, let's keep things simple. How about if you don’t go through with your chosen challenge, then you automatically have to go through with the other option, good with you?”

Apollo blinked slowly at her, but he still seemed interested. “Sounds fascinating. Alright, then. Tonight, we’ll play a little game together. Would you like to go first, darling?”

“Sure. Truth or Dare?”

Apollo thought about it, then chose, “Truth.” 

Cordelia decided to start off easy with him. Best not to scare him off too soon. “Between you and Artemis, who’s really the older one?”

Apollo blinked at her, then his cheeks puffed up into a pout. “Unfair, darling. You’re so mean.”

God, he had no right to be this cute. Fuck him. “So?”

His pout intensified. “Artemis is.”

Cordelia already knew that, but it was fun to make him say it. “Right then, it’s your turn. I choose Truth.”

Apollo hummed. “What is your favorite flower?”

Cordelia blinked, startled. She can honestly admit that she didn’t think that would be the question he would pick. But regardless, she did happen to have a clear favorite, and it was- 

“Moonlace.”

Apollo froze. “Really?”

Cordelia smiled, wrapped in warm memories of her mom so affectionately taking care of the flowers and the unique, sweet fragrance that they would give out. “Yeah.”

By the time Cordelia had turned back to Apollo, he had regained his normal cheerful mien; however, Cordelia thought that she saw a calculating glint flash through his eyes, but it vanished so fast that she wasn’t sure if she had imagined it.

“Okay, Truth or Dare?”

“... I’ll try Dare, this time. What will you have me do?” He looked curious as to what she could cook up. 

Cordelia smirked. “I dare you to tell Hermes that he would look good in a fur coat.”

Apollo’s face twisted in revulsion. “What? I just told you about how I finished convincing him not to walk around with those ugly snakeskin boots that he made himself from the shed skins of his Caduceus serpents. Ugh. If I tell him that, he’ll lose his puny little mind!”

“I know~!” Cordelia laughed evilly. “So, what do you say? You gonna tell him?”