chapter fourteen

─── my takeaway from this? i need therapy

"ℌey, thank the gods. I've found you." I wasn't in the warehouse anymore. Looking around, my eyebrows furrowed. There was no monster, no warehouse, no threat and worst of all, no Piper and Leo.

The place was dark, night drawing in and covering the surrounding area so that I couldn't work out where we were precisely. Columns were encasing us, holding up a large marble ceiling. Stone floors were cold beneath me, and I twisted to try and find who was speaking.

"Am I dead?" I didn't think that I'd been hit that hard that I was now in a completely different place. "Wha-"

"You're alive." The voice was familiar, breathing out and I twisted. There was a tall man hovering over an altar in front of a large statue, clutching onto the stone like he couldn't move. "I need you to listen to me, Goldie."

I drew closer.

"I don't know where you are or what happens, but knowing you're alive-" He sighed, trailing off. "Look, I need to know where you are, anything that you can tell me, why you're not coming home and-"

I drew closer as the man winced. Blood was dripping down his hands, dropping onto the altar as he groaned.

"What have you done?" I didn't know how I knew it was bad, but I knew it was bad. Reaching forward, I tried to grab onto him, but my hand fell through him. I couldn't touch him and I let out an annoyed huff. "You're bleeding."

A long cut ran down his arm, bleeding across the altar, and his eyes were closed.

"Spilling blood on the altar symbols protection and life-giving in Ancient Rome. I know you told me not to do this, that it's too much power, but I had to find you."

I knew that face. It was Octavian, the one from my dreams. His face was marred in pain, deep bags beneath his eyes and skin pale. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks, his blond hair a mess atop his head. It was longer than last time, his fringe falling in front of his face and covering his eyes.

"Octavian."

"You've never called me that." He opened his eyes, looking through me. He was twisting around to try and find where I was. Octavian's voice was pained, whether from the bleeding or from me. "You always call me Tav, just Tav. Where are you?"

"I'm here. I'm next to you." I gulped. Who was this man to have this much worry to search for me? He was spilling his own blood to find me, how much did I mean to him?

"Where are you?"

"I don't know. My memories have gone. I-" I tried to speak, but I couldn't get any words across to him. I couldn't tell him why my memories have gone.

"It's alright, it's alright." I didn't know whether he was comforting me or him as he groaned, his knees buckling.

"You're bleeding. You need help." I pleaded, worry and anxiety coursing through me.

"If I take my hands off the altar, you go back to wherever you are sleeping and our conversation ends. I won't be able to do this again, they'll ban me."

"Good." I shot him an incredulous look even if he couldn't see me. "This is stupid. You're going to kill yourself over me."

"For someone who has no memories, you sure know what you normally sound like." He grins, a moment of peace crossing his face as he listened to my voice. I sighed gently, watching him as my hand reaches out to touch him though I know I can't.

He seems to feel me there, even if he can't see me, because he leans into me.

"I'm looking for you. We're still searching, all of us are." He explains, his knees buckling, but he kept himself upright. "Stay where you are."

"I can't."

"Figured." He chuckled. "Alright, then stay alive. Output your power."

"What?"

"You don't remember?" His eyes opened, looking panicked. "Oh shit, Goldie. There's too much for me to explain and I spent too long talking to you about other things, I should have kept to what I needed to say. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."

"Tav..." He seems to flinch at the nickname, regret on his face as clear as day.

"Power. Your body can't handle all of it, you're in pain, output more and you'll be alright." I had no clue what he was talking about but I hummed all the same. I didn't want him to regret anything. "I'm sorry, Goldie. I just-I heard your voice and I got so relieved."

"Tav, let me go." He was getting paler. "Let me go."

"Just a little bit longer, please." He whispered.

"Tav, you are bleeding out. Please, for me." Octavian's body seemed to shudder, before he slumped down, his back hitting the sides of the altar. I could feel something pulling my body, but I couldn't leave, not until I knew that he was safe.

His eyes fluttered opened, and for a moment, I thought he could see me. A smile began to dawn on his face, his eyes watching me with so much emotion that I felt overwhelmed. Octavian reached a hand towards me, his fingers brushing mind and his shoulders untensing. I was still being yanked backwards, but I fought to keep near him.

"I'm alright." He muttered, before his eyes rolled back and he slumped to the side. I let out a scream, throwing myself forward and towards him.

"No!"

"Octavian!" Someone else was there, rushing towards him as I went slamming backwards.

"Speak with me, Cressida." I landed harshly beside a woman, sobs choking from my throat as I tried to stand up back onto my feet, but only managing to get to my knees. "Come."

Screaming filled my ears, as I tried to cover them, hearing my friends and explosions as I sobbed. This was all too much and my brain felt like it was going to split in half, full of pain as I wept and tried to stand.

The pain sent me back to my knees as I thought of the slumped body of Octavian hitting the ground, not knowing whether he was alright.

"No, no, send me back! Send me back!" I turned, pleading with the woman, stumbling towards where the voice came from. There were bars covering the woman in an old reflecting pool in front of the ruined red stones of a burnt out house. Another earthen spire was growing at the far end.

"I cannot." This was Hera, the trapped goddess I had to go and find. The one who had stolen my memories, who had kept me from seeing whether Octavian was alright.

"Send me back!" I shouted. "Why are you being so cruel? Send me back! I have to make sure that he's alright!"

"I cannot." She shook her head sadly. "I wished I could."

"Please, please. You did this to me." I scrambled over to the cage, trying to meet her eyes as she turned her head away from me. "You took my memories! I didn't ask for this, I didn't want this, please, send me back. I am begging you."

"I picked you because I knew that you would succeed. You are my champion."

"I didn't ask for this." I whispered, shaking my head. I felt like I was going to be sick and that I could barely breathe. "You're a goddess. You should be able to escape. You shouldn't need my help!"

"You think that I haven't tried, child." She began to glow, until her cage filled with a bright light, the air humming around us hitting me with a feeling of particles humming and molecules splitting. The cage should've been blasted to rubble, the ground should have split and the ruined house should have been levelled but when the light died, the cage hadn't budged.

Hera looked more fatigued.

"Some powers are even greater than the gods, child." She said, as I slumped onto my knees, hands useless in my lap as I stared at her. The tears rolled down my face. "I am not easily contained. I can be in many placed at once. But when the greater part of my essence is caught, I become trapped. I can not escape and I am concealed from the eyes of the other gods. Only you can find me and I grow weaker by the day."

"Why come here?" I shook my head. "If you are so powerful, how were you caught?"

"I could not stay idle." Hera tried to reach through the bars to grasp onto my hand but something harmed her and she pulled her arm back. "Your father believes he can withdraw from the world and lull our enemies back to sleep. He believes we Olympians have become too involved in the affairs of morals, in the fates of our demigod children, especially since we agreed to claim them all after the war. He believes this is what has caused our enemies to stir."

"You don't agree?" I guessed, trying to compose myself.

"No." She shook her head. "I do not understand my husband's moods often enough, or his decisions. Even this seems a little paranoid but he was so insistent and so convinced. But I am Juno. Juno Moneta they have called me, the One Who Warns. I am guarding of the state, patron of Eternal Rome. I could not sit by whilst my people were attacked. I sensed danger in your sacred place and so-"

I looked around. This was my sacred place? But I did not know it because she had stolen my memories and identity from me. And Tav, gods above, what if he died trying to find me? What if I had caused his death?

"A voice told me I should come here. I do not have a conscience and our dreams are controlled, but I was warned and so I did. I came to investigate."

"And it was a trap?" The goddess nodded.

"Only too late did I realise how quickly this was all happening. I was a slave to my own impulses, just like the last time, where I was taken captive by the giants and my imprisonment started a war. I was foolish and now, giants are rising and she cannot be defeated."

"I don't understand. I don't know what's going on." I pleaded. "Please, my memories, I am begging you."

"You will soon understand." The cage constricted, growing tighter as Hera's form shivered in the breeze. Shapes were gathering around the pool and I tried to count them, but my brain could not process them in the slightest. Some of them had more than one sets of arms, and there were wolves but not the previous wolves from the dreams, different ones. "You have to go, child. My keepers approach and you being to wake. I will not be strong enough to appear to you again, even in dreams."

"I would be of more help to you with my memories."

"I cannot do that." She shook her head.

"Then tell me, tell me that Octavian, the one who I keep seeing, who is trying to reach me. Tell me that he is alive! Please, I am begging you."

She hesitated.

"Please, please, tell me he is alive. I am your champion, you care for me, you're keeping me alive, this will keep me alive." I grasped onto the cage. "Please, is he alive?"

"He lives. He is alive."

"Gods above." I breathed a sigh of relief, hand clutching at my chest though I didn't know how I knew this man. We weren't related, I only had a sister, but I was terrified for him. I felt like I could breathe once more.

"I made a gamble, with this exchange but it was the only way to bring peace. The enemy thrives on division and if we are divided, we will be destroyed. You are my peace offering, Cressida, a bridge to overcome millennia of hatred and I know you are up for the task."

"What? I don't-"

"I hope when this is all over, you can forgive me. I took your memory to keep you alive this long. Find this place, return to your starting point. Your sister will help."

"Thalia?" My brain was throbbing.

"Goodbye, Cressida. Beware Chicago. Your most dangerous mortal enemy waits there. If you are to die, it will be by her hand."

"Who?" But the image of the goddess faded and I awoke with a scream.

"Cress, Cress, hey." Someone was behind me and it took me a moment to recognise I was on the back of Festus and we were in the air again. "Are you alright? You were crying and we were worried."

"Yeah, I'm alright." My voice cracked in a very unconvincing way. I thought of Tav, with a hand outstretched towards me, his face paling and my hand found the bird toy in my pocket, squeezing it as I regained myself.

Piper and Leo were watching me cautiously.

"Thought we crash landed."

"It's alright." Leo placated. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"

"I'm fine, I've just said that. The Cyclops?"

"Leo ripped them apart." Piper explained. "He was amazing, summoning fire-"

"It was nothing." Leo played it off as Piper laughed.

"Shut up, Leo. It was incredible. I'm going to tell her." So, Piper told me what had happened. How Leo had single handedly defeated the Cyclops family, how they freed Cressida and then how, noticing the Cyclops' were reforming, Leo had replaced the dragon's wiring and got them in the air. Piper continued on, telling me about the other kid the Cyclops' had claimed to have eaten, in a purple shirt, who spoke Latin and my head began to ache again. A Son of Mercury and I know that I should've known his name.

"There are others like me." Was all I managed to get out through gritted teeth. "I-I spoke to one."

"What?" Piper's eyes went wide. "Cress, this is huge! They know where you are."

"They don't know." I shook my head, feeling the tears in my eyes. "I don't want to speak about it. I saw Hera."

I moved the conversation on, telling them about Hera and all that she had said, but leaving out the bits about Octavian and what he had said. That wound felt a little fresh.

"Hera's gamble is me. Sending me to Camp Half-Blood and taking my memories, all of it. She broke some kind of rule, something that could go badly wrong-"

"Or save us." Piper tried to be hopeful. "Look, sleeping enemy. That sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

Leo winced.

"About that..." He laughed nervously. "I thinks he appeared to be in Detroit. She wanted me to betray you guys, but I said no, obviously."

He hurried the last bit out.

"She's trying to divide us." I muttered, as Piper leant closer to me, resting her head on my shoulder as her arms wrapped around my waist.

"I don't understand. Are they toying with us? Who's the lady and then how is she connected to Enceladus?"

"How'd you know that name?" I questioned. I knew the name, the giant from tales of long ago, but I didn't know that Piper had an interest in that. But then again, I didn't know anything about her.

"It's just one of the names I could remember." Piper backtracked.

"I don't know about that name, but the lady in the ground mentioned another. Porphyrion?" Leo shrugged as he suggested it.

"He was the giant king, I think." I thought back to the other spire growing beside Hera's cage and then back onto all of the things that had been told to me in my dreams.

"In the old stories," I sighed. "There are many different retellings of stories, you've got to understand that. Greek and Roman myths blend and merge, some are censored, some are not even told so no one's ever sure what happened. There are multiple tellings of Porphyrion. He was the king of the giants, some say he kidnapped Hera, others say that he attacked Hera and became enamoured with her because of Zeus. I don't know how much of all of this can be applied to modern times, but either way, it's not good."

We flew west in silence as I became lost in thought, all of them bad. I was worried, I couldn't think straight and above all, I was becoming more and more pissed off with the lack of memories present within my mind. I could remember things that had no use to my past, but as soon as I tried to access it all, I got blocked off.

When I came back to, we were over Chicago, the place of my worst mortal enemy. This was great.

"One problem down." Leo grinned at us. "We got here alive. Now, how do we find the storm spirits?"

"There." I muttered, looking down below us. Something fast was flashing to and fro beneath us, spiralling up skyscrapers, waving and changing shape but normally in the shape of a horse. "We follow that one and we see where it goes."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, Cress is suffering. Tav is here and also suffering and Hera's kind of worried about Cress but more worried about world destruction. Couple of changes here there and everywhere, but all will become clear and explained. I was so excited for Tav to be here, love him. What a guy.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx