▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER EIGHT ▬▬▬▬▬

I HOPE TO GODS THAT Echidna's not here. Esmerelda thought as she ducked to avoid another column of fire that was spat at her. Turns out the Chimera could breath fire. Thankfully, it never did that the first time it attacked her or else she never would've made it to Camp Half Blood.

She remembered in her many Greek monster lessons that the Chimera had originally been killed by Bellerophon who threw a block of lead into it's throat, consequently making the Chimera melt it and finally kill itself. Unfortunately, she didn't have any blocks of lead nearby.

All she had were her knives and labrys.

But that didn't mean she was doomed. She was actually faring quite decently against the Chimera. It managed to burn a part of her left arm, singe her precious hair, give her a potential concussion from when it body slammed her off the roof of a truck, and cut her forearm from when she tried to protect her face. She, however, did a number on it as well. She gave it a nice shave on its backside, jammed a sharp pipe into it's side, gave it several stabs with her knives (she was now down to three), and tricked it into stepping on an upside traffic cone which led to its hoof being lodged in it nice and tight.

Throwing herself against the back of a truck, she waited with bated breath for the Chimera to approach, knife in hand. I'll blind it first, then go for the heart. Or maybe the throat. She listened to it's furious footsteps and glanced down at the enlarging shadow that was approaching from her right. Whirling out of her hiding spot, she lifted her hand back and expertly threw her knife straight into it's eye. It breathed fire in return, growing more enraged by the pain.

Quickly, she climbed up the truck and yanked a charm out of her bracelet to get another knife. She dashed to the end of the roof as the Chimera leaped up, making the vehicle shake and moan for a brief moment. She threw her knife but it moved its head to the side and darted after her. She jumped off to the side, hoping to land on the next car only to feel a searing pain on the back of her calf.

Just like the first time, she thought bitterly as she crashed onto the roof, half of her body dangling by the edge. She pulled herself up and rolled to the side as the Chimera jumped at her again. At the corner of her eye, she saw something green lunge at her.

She turned away too late. The snake's sharp fangs sunk deep into the area between her shoulder and neck. She yelled as blinding hot pain coursed through her body. It's fangs were lubricated with acid and she could feel it burn through her skin and muscle, maybe even her clavicle too. Through the torture, she unpinned her brooch, grabbed the snake by the base and swiftly swung her labrys.

The intense pressure from it's fangs faded away. She pried it away from her and tossed it off the side of the car.

"Hah," she couldn't help but cheer to herself. Another spoil of war. Crawling backwards, she dropped herself onto the front of the car and hopped off. She nearly fell over when she landed. The acid felt like it was damaging every bit of her.

The Chimera roared with rage and sprinted across the roof and pounced at her. She raised her labrys and threw it forward with all her might. It was like time slowed down. She watched, eyes wide, as her labrys soared into the Chimera's open mouth. The flames died out and in the next second, her labrys was ripping through the back of the it's throat.

She was showered in golden dust.

A disbelieving laugh bubbled through her lips. She had actually done it. After two years, she had finally killed the Chimera.

Grinning ear to ear, she walked over to severed snake-head tail that laid limp on the asphalt. She picked it up.

"I'll frame you next to the other one." She said aloud before she went off to collect her knives.

Once her charm bracelet was complete, she glanced down at the gnarly wound near her neck and gagged with disgust. The fabric from her sweater was tattered and melted. There were now four large holes in the area between her neck and shoulder. The edges of it looked like frayed leather and she could see layers of her muscle violently bubbling. She could see specks of her clavicle bone too.

She turned away, feeling faint.

The wound looked pretty bad, but the pain from the snake bite caused her to see stars. She tried to shake it off though. She couldn't afford to let anything slow her down now. She gave herself a spare minute break before running off again, trying her best to ignore the agony of moving her arm.

She had no watch and there was no clock nearby, so she didn't know how much time she spent battling the Chimera. Hopefully she wouldn't be late to her supposed 'trial'.

People gave her weird looks as she ran by them, but they quickly shook whatever questions they had off. By the time she reached West 34th Street, her lungs were burning and her whole body was screaming at her to stop running, but she couldn't. Not until she reached Olympus. She wouldn't let even her injuries stop her from this.

She only slowed down once she finally entered the lobby of the Empire State Building. Everyone looked at her with wide eyes but she couldn't blame them. She looked like she had just walked out of a grisly horror movie after all. She wondered how the gods would feel about her appearance. Was she supposed to dress nice for her 'execution'?

She looked down at herself. The left arm of her sweater was burnt off, showing everyone the angry red burn she earned from the Chimera's breath. It was also ripped at the forearms from where the Chimera clawed at her. She wasn't even going to bother thinking about her bite wound again. Her shorts, at least, weren't too damaged but it was covered in dirt, blood, and golden dust. The state of her clothes made her look like a walking disaster, and that wasn't even counting all the injuries she sustained.

She walked up to the guard at the front desk. "I need to go to the six hundredth floor, please."

He barely looked at her. "There's no six hundredth floor."

She dumped the dead snake tail on his lap and he jumped with fright.

"I need to go to the six hundredth floor, please."

"Okay, okay, okay." He said hastily, jumping to his feet and making the tail drop to the floor. He fumbled around his desk for a key card and handed it to her. "Insert this in the security slot. Make sure nobody else is in the elevator with you."

She nodded in thanks and told him to hand the tail back. When he did, she went over to the elevator and waited for the doors to close before slipping the key into the slot. The card was sucked up and a new button appeared on the console, a red one that said '600'. She pressed it and waited as boring elevator music played in the background.

With a ding, the doors finally slid open.

Her throat went dry, dryer than when she finished running six miles with barely any stops. She was now standing on a narrow stone walkway levitating in the air. But that wasn't what scared her. Below the levitating walkway was Manhattan, from the height of an airplane. She was literally at the same height as the clouds. In front of her were white marble steps that wound up the spine of a cloud, into the sky. She followed the stairway to its end and felt even more stupefied.

From the top of the clouds rose the decapitated peak of a mountain, its summit covered with snow. Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multi-leveled palaces—a city of mansions—all with white columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace gleamed against the snow. Precariously perched gardens bloomed with olive trees and rosebushes. She could just barely make out an open-air market filled with colorful tents, a stone amphitheater built on one side of the mountain, a hippodrome and a coliseum on the other.

This must be what an Ancient Greek city looked like. She thought, amazed.

She walked through Olympus, and unlike the mortals from below, nobody stared at her weirdly. It was like seeing a beat-up demigod was a normal occurrence. Wood nymphs merely smiled at her as they tended to their olive gardens, hawkers in the market tried offering her ambrosia-on-a-stick (which she would've accepted if she had any drachmas on her), and a new shield, and a genuine glitter-weave replica of the Golden Fleece, as seen on Hephaestus-TV. At the park she could see the nine muses tuning their instruments for a concert while a small crowd gathered.

She climbed the main road, towards the big palace at the peak. She made it into the central courtyard and passed that was a very familiar throne room.

It looked the same as in her dreams. The only difference was some minor improvements on some of the gods' thrones, and their clothes. Nobody wore togas or anything Ancient Greek related. Zeus was wearing a dark blue pinstripe suit, Poseidon was wearing simple fisherman's gear, Aphrodite looked like she had just walked out of a runway, and so forth.

Neither of the gods spoke. They simply just stared at her. She could see Ares eyeing the severed tail in her hand approvingly while Aphrodite looked aghast at the state of her clothes, hair, skin, everything basically. Other than that, nobody reacted.

Stay strong, stay strong. Don't show how scared you are, she told herself. And try not to black out either...

A minute passed and Zeus finally spoke. "You were almost late."

Almost, he said.

So I made it on time then. Thank gods, she thought, relieved. Her situation would've been much worse if she were late.

"I... ran into some trouble." She said, stealing a glance at the tail.

Zeus only looked more displeased. "A mere monster should not have been such an inconvenience for you."

"A mere inconvenience?" Apollo echoed, looking bewildered. "Dad, she killed the Chimera! Bellerophon's the only one to do that and he's one of the greatest heroes in history!"

Esmerelda tried not to preen at that.

"Silence, Apollo!" His father snapped.

"Brother is this necessary?" Poseidon sighed before an argument could ensue. He was boredly fixing his fishing rod.

Zeus' temper flared. "Yes!" He roared, pointing a large finger at her (she tried not to think about how easily he could crush her with that finger). "Hecate has broken the oath! She has sired another demigod wizard child!"

"Witch, actually." Demeter corrected.

"What?" Zeus frowned.

"Wizard's for males. The correct term—in her case—is 'witch'." She explained.

"Demeter, I do not care about the correct terms! Hecate has broken her oath—"

"—A bit hypocritical of you, don't you think, brother dear?" Poseidon asked, clearly talking about Thalia. He was smiling ever-so-sweetly at him.

Zeus flushed. "Poseidon, shut up."

"Father, ignore him, his brain is clearly clogged from all that seaweed," Athena scowled as Poseidon rolled his eyes. "Let us get this judgement over with."

Zeus forced himself to calm down for his favorite daughter. "Of course," he looked back down at Esmerelda, who hoped she didn't shrink under his gaze. "Today, we shall serve judgement on you, Esmerelda... What is your last name again?"

She winced, shrugging. "I don't know... I never met my father..."

Artemis frowned and muttered to herself, "Figures. Of course the father would leave."

"Arty, I think something else happened for him to be a no-show," Apollo pointed out.

"Do not call me that dreadful nickname—"

"—But lil' sis—"

"—I am OLDER than you, Apollo!"

"SILENCE!" Zeus roared, similarly to the way he did in her dream. "All of you behave! We are here to place judgement on this wretched daughter of Hecate!"

Wretched, seriously? She tried not to frown.

"I don't understand why we have to punish her for what Hecate did. Hecate's the one who broke the oath. Where even is she anyways?" Hermes asked, looking around as if he expected to see the minor goddess hiding behind one of the columns.

Zeus huffed, "She is currently unavailable. Now as I was saying—"

"—Can't we just smite her now?" Hera asked impatiently. She was famously known for hating demigods. "Hecate broke the oath. She sired her. So clearly, the child must die. Why must we have a vote on this?"

"Because not all of us agree on your decision." Hephaestus answered, glaring at his mother who looked away from him.

"Daughter of Hecate," Zeus began. "As you are well aware, you are a child that never should of been born. A child sired from a broken oath that has been created to decrease any threats against us, the gods. While your powers are miniscule compared to your half-brother, Merlin, you will grow to become stronger should you live on. Originally, we sent you up here to be executed without the chance of passing judgement, but some gods," he seethed, shooting dark looks at a grinning Hermes and Apollo. "Threw very annoying temper tantrums and launched vicious pranks so I have decided to grant you a fair judgement."

She threw a grateful look at the two gods that were mentioned. Hermes gave her a warm grin while Apollo simply winked somewhat flirtatiously at her. She blinked, her cheeks flushing momentarily. Apollo and her mother were cousins, which meant that he was technically her first cousin once removed or something... Awkward.

"Those who are for eliminating the potential threat?" Zeus asked, and he, Hera, and Athena were the only ones who raised their hands.

Esmerelda's eyes widened in surprise. She was stunned. She expected a lot more than three hands to go up. Zeus looked shocked with the outcome too, but it was quickly replaced with anger.

"And those against it?" He asked through gritted teeth.

Demeter's hand shot up instantly, and the goddess looked very determined to make sure Esmerelda lived. She felt very grateful towards the goddess. Demeter had always adored Hecate since she had helped her find her daughter, Persephone, who was been kidnapped by Hades and taken to the Underworld.

Aphrodite rose her hand up next. She was smiling widely at Esmerelda, making her look a hundred times more beautiful. "I can't let you die now!" She chirped, giggling almost... mischievously. "I already have your love life planned out! You would never be able to experience all the passion and misery if you were dead!"

Misery? She gulped.

"Ah, what the Hades," Ares said, raising his hand up too. He looked straight at Esmerelda, eyes smoldering through his dark shades. "I'll let you live. You seem better than your brother anyways. At least you managed to kill a good monster."

Poseidon raised his hand too. "I am not close with your mother, but I truly did pity her when I saw the aftermaths of your brother's death. I choose not to let it happen again."

Hephaestus raised his hand, but said nothing.

Apollo raised his hand, grinning and whistling a cheery tune. He whooped when Artemis rose a hand too.

"Woohoo! Way to go, sis!" He commended.

Artemis rolled her silver eyes. "I refuse to let a young maiden die for a crime she did not commit nor have control over."

With a grin, Hermes raised a hand and high-fived his golden haired brother. His hand stayed up. "Consider this my thanks for saving my boys two years ago." He said, genuinely grateful.

She realized he was talking about the car incident and smiled back.

Slowly, Dionysus raised his hand, looking like it truly pained him to do so. He looked away and grumbled something about his sons and Esmerelda figured that this was his way of thanking her for saving Castor and Pollux too.

Nine hands. That was nine gods that didn't want her die.

Di immortales, I'm gonna live! She realized, mouth gaped open with shock and joy. She had to force herself not to cry in relief else Ares might take his vote back. He hated sissies.

Zeus looked very displeased with the results. Clearly, he thought this would end up with him killing another innocent child. And clearly, he was wrong.

"It has been decided," he growled under his breath. "The girl shall live. Everyone is dismissed."

The gods disappeared one by one, but for some reason, Demeter stayed. She stood from her throne and shrunk until she was of normal mortal height and strolled over to Esmerelda.

"Lady Demeter," she addressed her formally.

"Esmerelda," she acknowledged. "I heard from a grumbling Hera that you left Argus a few miles away from here to avoid the traffic."

"Um, yeah, I did... Sorry about that." She apologized sheepishly.

Demeter shook her head and handed her a wad of cash she hadn't been holding a second ago. "I could never forgive myself for letting one of Hecate's kids travel back after a hard journey coming here. Though I'm very impressed with your athleticism, you've been eating your cereal, haven't you? Good girl. Take this and use it to go back to Camp Half-Blood."

She gratefully took the cash and bowed. "Thank you my lady."

As she walked out the throne room, Demeter called out to her once more.

"Esmerelda. Since you have been spared, know now that we will be watching you. And so will the Fates."

She bit her lip. "I am aware, thank you for the warning, Lady Demeter. Also, um... do you know why my mother decided to have me even though she knew it wasn't allowed?"

Demeter frowned, looking thoughtful. "She has never once even mentioned having another demigod-witch child, and we are quite close, you know. My only guess was that she couldn't help herself with your father. She must have fallen in love with him."

The idea of her parents—who she had never met—falling in love made her feel somewhat alight. It wasn't common for gods to truly fall in love with their mortal partners. Their relationships were usually based on lust. To know that her parents truly loved each other made her smile as she exited Olympus and the Empire State Building.

She hailed a taxi and climbed aboard, where the driver simply stared at her through the rearview mirror before deciding not to ask anything regarding to her battered state.

"Where to?" He asked gruffly.

"Delphi Strawberry Service," she answered, and he hit the gas.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

She made it to the top of Half-Blood Hill, where she was first spotted by the Stolls and Basil.

"ESMERELDA!" They cried out, speeding towards her. "YOU'RE NOT DEAD!"

She smiled at them. "Yeah, I'm not dead—" her eyes widened when they didn't stop running. "Wait, guYS I'M ON TOP OF A HILL—AHHHHHHHHH!"

All three of them collided with her, and she couldn't hold their weight, nor stop herself from tumbling back. She lost their balance, and all three boys realized their mistake too late. With a scream, they tumbled and rolled down the hill.

"Owww," Travis moaned as he peeled his forehead off the ground. "We shouldn't have done that. Wait, Essie are you hurt?!" He finally noticed all the blood on her.

"Yeah, a little." She croaked, completely winded. "Carry me up."

Travis and Connor heaved her up the hill while Basil trailed along behind them, blowing loudly into his hankie. Campers erupted in cheers when they made it to the top. Some kids—mainly from the Hermes cabin—cheered, "She's alive! She's alive!"

Turns out a bunch of people worked together to make a shroud for her because everyone genuinely believed that the gods would kill her. Thankfully, that didn't happen so she had a lot of fun watching her shroud burn before she was hauled over to the Big House where the infirmary was.

"Now do you care to explain why you look like you just walked out of the Underworld?" Ethan asked as he set down her cup of nectar once she finished drinking it.

"Ran into the Chimera," she replied as all of her wounds healed. Her burns were no more, as were the various gashes on her skin. She could even feel a cooling wave wash over her head and she was sure her concussion was gone. She showed him the tail she was still clutching in her hand. The Apollo kids tried their best to heal up her snake bite, but it still left a scar. She now looked like she had been bitten by vampires. Twice. "We were stuck in traffic and Argus suggested that I run the rest of the way there if I wanted to avoid being late. On the way, I found the Chimera and killed it—"

"—You killed the Chimera?" Ethan cut her off, looking at her with wide eyes. He was staring at her with newfound respect while also looking as if he didn't know who he was talking to anymore. "You?"

She huffed and pouted. "Yes, me. Why do you think I'm covered in golden dust? You should have more faith in me."

"Holy Hera," he said, sitting back on his chair. "I'm impressed. And jealous at the same time."

She smiled smugly. "Now you can't call me a wimp anymore."

He smirked. "I bet you cried."

"I did not!" She said hotly. "I didn't even cry when the gods were judging me!"

Ethan opened his mouth to say something, but another voice chimed, "Well, that's good to know."

Luke walked in, holding a large platter full of food and—much to their delight—sweets. He was grinning ear to ear at her as he set the platter on a table. "You were brave, huh?"

She beamed. "I didn't look scared in the slightest! Though I was really nervous..."

"Being scared on the inside is fine, just as long as you don't show it." Luke said. "How did it go, though? I know they decided not to kill you, but well..."

"Only three of them wanted to kill me," she said breathlessly, her smile wide. "That was Lord Zeus, and Lady Hera and Athena. The rest voted to let me live. Initially Zeus wanted to kill me anyways, but Lord Apollo and Lord Hermes kept bugging him so he finally relented! Can you believe it? They didn't want me to die!"

"They probably knew that you were a sweet girl," Luke smiled back, looking relieved. "Anyways, recover quickly okay? The whole camp's having a party celebrating you not dying, and you're missing out on it."

"It'll be fine," Ethan assured her when he saw the eager look on her face. "Take you time on recovering. The party's not going anywhere, trust me."

Luke nodded in agreement. "It'll be on all night. For the meanwhile, I'll can get that tail framed for you."

She handed it over. "Can we hang it next to the first one?"

He shrugged. "Sure."

When Luke left, Ethan grabbed a vegetarian shish-kebab from the platter and gave her another one. "Cheers." He said.

Now that the overwhelming panic of the gods potentially killing her had finally faded away, Esmerelda could now experience the joys of being claimed. The only thing that bugged her was that her mother, Hecate, was a minor goddess, and therefore didn't have a cabin. Esmerelda knew the underlying meaning of that. Her mother wasn't considered 'important' enough and the realization stung.

A major pro to being the daughter of Hecate was her half-siblings. She had exactly sixteen siblings, which was the most than any of the minor gods. They were all great kids and they were really ecstatic to have a 'real witch' amongst them. Esmerelda had never been in such a tight-knit family before.

What she noticed about her siblings was that some of them usually had either one of three sets of appearances. Alabaster, her eldest half-brother, explained that Hecate had three forms that represented morning, noon, and night. Some kids inherited those forms, while others didn't. Those who didn't still had some aspects to it though

Those who got Hecate's 'morning form' either had blonde hair and pitch black eyes or their eyes would glow black at will. Brigitte Faber (9), Cyrus Pagan (10), Marnie Ravensdale (11), Lysander Voorhees (12), Theodora Clairbone (13), and Sabrina Hansen (13) all inherited those traits.

The 'noon form' consisted of red hair and bright blue eyes, or just glowing blue eyes when their magic was used. Aiden Creed (8), Morgana White (10), Alan Bradbury (10), Glinda and Evanora Novak (11), and Lyra Highland (12) received those traits.

The 'night form', which Esmerelda thought was the coolest, was having jet black hair and deep green eyes, or like with the others, the glowing green eyes that was only triggered at certain times. Blair Tagarelli (9), Clara Whittaker (10), Ursula Dupree (10), Esmerelda herself (11), and Alabaster (14) had the night form.

During breaks between classes and weekends, Alabaster would teach Esmerelda enchantments. A lot of her siblings wanted to try and teach her, but they agreed that Alabaster would be the better teacher since he was the most powerful out of all of them. They were currently working on her first spell, Persequor Vestigium, which was Latin for 'following markings'. It was a spell that helps track a person down and casting it didn't require too much magical energy, but Esmerelda was still having some trouble with it being a newbie and all.

The caster needed to have a decent understanding of ancient runes, which she was currently studying. To cast the spell, one would need to write down the rune word for 'track' followed by the trackee's name on any object—preferably one that was easy to carry. After that, you'd say the spell and the object would glow green. It was a bit like the game 'hot and cold'; the brighter the glow, the closer you were to finding them.

Esmerelda was currently trying to find Alabaster, who had hidden himself far away from her.

"Right, or left?" She muttered to her labrys, which had green runes marked on the blade. It glowed faintly when she directed her weapon to the right.

She walked over to the pegasus stable and aimed her labrys at it. The glowing didn't change.

"Come on," she whined. She had been trying to search for her half-brother for the past half hour now and she had already searched through more than 2/3rds of the camp. "He's at camp, right?"

It's glow brightened.

She sighed in relief. "Well, I guess that's good."

She continued walking further, waiting for the glow to change strength. It wasn't until she reached the edge of the strawberry fields did the runes start to glow as bright as her eyes.

"He's here!" She perked up, dashing into the field.

The strawberry fields were huge and she was hoping that he would be closer to the entrance, but he was nowhere to be found. That meant he was much deeper than she had hoped.

"Hey, Essie," Katie Gardner from the Demeter cabin greeted her, not looking up from her strawberry picking. "You practicing magic again?"

"Trying to find Alabaster. He hid himself here—don't tell me where he is though! I'm trying to perfect my locator spell."

"I hope for your sake that he's not hiding all the way at the back of the fields. The greenery's wild there." Katie shook her head with a fond smile. "Mr. D helped us out, but now the bushes are as tall as us!"

Her shoulders slumped. "I have a feeling he's there."

"Good luck!"

Bidding Katie goodbye, she jogged towards the very back of the fields where the fruits were more plentiful. Katie wasn't kidding when she said the greenery was wild. All the bushes were almost as tall as trees and strawberries covered almost every inches of the branches. Looking for Alabaster there was like looking for a needle in a haystack—it just wasn't possible even with the help of her locator spell.

As she neared the end of the field, she felt somebody's eyes on her.

She glanced down at her labrys. The runes were glowing brighter than ever.

She whirled around at the sound of a rustling and instinctively raised her arm as a sword came crashing down on her.

"Alabaster!" She cried out.

"It took you forever!" He exclaimed as he pulled back.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I guess I haven't quiet perfected the spell yet. It wasn't replying to me as much when I asked for more directions."

"That's okay, it's only been a day." He replied. He took out a blank note card from his pocket and tapped on it twice. His sword disappeared and transferred over to the card, where a crudely drawn sword laid.

She reverted her own weapon and pinned her brooch. "Can we try again?"

"Seriously?" He looked aghast. "This is the fourth time in the past two hours! Gods, you must have a lot of magic energy in you..."

"It must be because I'm part witch," she said dismissively. "Can we try again, please, Alabaster?"

He smiled nervously. "How about I teach you how to brew a killing potion?"

"A killing potion?" She echoed.

He nodded as they began walking back to the entrance of the fields. "Yep. It gives the drinker a really painful death."

"Cool! Let's go right now!" She pushed on his shoulders from behind, eager to learn as much as she could.

"Ah—! Hold on, Essie, I'm tired!"

"You've been hiding all day! Walk faster!"

— author's note —

The killing potion is a legit potion I learned about in the PJO wiki page.

Also, you're probably wondering why I gave Essie so many half-siblings... If you've read The Son of Magic or Hecate's wiki page, it states that "she lost more children in the Second Titan War than any other god".

I'm pretty sure you could figure out what I'm planning in the future...

:D