012───────ஐ〰ฺ･:*:･✿the death of man

      SHE CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. 

      It's more than an obsession, more than mere intrigue. Obsession is temporary and transient and fades away faster than life moves. But this, this is stained with ever-glowing permanence, carved into her essence. Every thought she has, every furtive glance is tainted by it's enigmatic state, every movement she has is covered in stains of guilt and fury at the sight of it. Everywhere she looks she can see it; the jar standing there, unmoving, unattainable. It's a curse and a blessing wrapped in one, the one reminder that she's the first of her kind. 

      The jar itself is unremarkable, a clay statue in a museum of marble, grass in a field of daisies. She should just look past it; it's of no consequence. Just an ordinary jar to be displayed for all to see. He's proud of it. She should be. 

       She remembers when they handed her over. "Beautiful," they said, voices dripping with honey. "You'll love her."

      And he did. And she loved him, with all of her ichor-stained heart and blood-forged lips. How could she not? He was kind and loving and he loved her, no matter what anyone else said. How could he not? 

    (It's hard being the first of your kind. The Earth Mother's hand-crafted child, through and through, flesh carved from the Earth beneath her feet. The first woman to walk the earth, the revolutionary being to bring kingdoms to heel and empires to their knees. Nobody else understands what this is like — men seek men, but who should she seek? She is alone, with just her thoughts and her husband. And the jar. 

     They warned her not to open it. With their glowing auras and kind eyes, the fire slipping from their fingers, the love pouring from their souls, they had taken her by the shoulder and told her; no matter what, you cannot touch it. And she believed the kind gods, for gods are kind and truly right, and they would never hurt her. She is human, and the gods love humans. 

      It's not her fault that the curiosity is consuming her. She's drowning in it, she can feel it pushing her to the bottom of the pit and falling in over her head until she can't breathe. She doesn't know what it would feel like to drown, but she imagines it would be something like this. There's too much — it's everywhere, surrounding her, no matter what she does it's always there. Sometimes she would do anything to make it all stop. Anything.  

      "Pandora!" she hears him call. "What are you doing?"

      She looks around. She hadn't even noticed, but she somehow picked it up. Or maybe it leapt into her open hands — it has always seemed to love her presence. She can feel it pulsing in her hands, like it is alive, with it's own mind and heartbeat. It's begging her; open me. 

      I need to know. 

     (Just one look. She'll check what's inside, then close it again.)

      "Pandora," he says again, brows creasing in panic. She hates to worry him, but she needs this. What's inside?

      "Just one look," she tells him.

        And then she unscrews the jar. 

       PERCY'S FUNERAL WAS NOT AT ALL HOW LILA IMAGINED IT. 

      Honestly, Lila always thought that his shroud would be burned near the ocean. It wouldn't be traditional, but it seemed like the sort of thing he would prefer. He'd be buried on a wonderfully sunny day, framed by the scent of strawberry fields and saline air. His shroud would be burned on the sand in front of the sea, and it would be so beautifully embroidered that no other shroud would ever measure up to it's beauty. Percy's mom would be there, too — it seemed weird to Lila that Sally Jackson was not allowed into camp, even for her own son's funeral. Perhaps Poseidon should have attended. 

      That was one reason she was certain Percy was alive. Poseidon would have felt something. There would have been some disturbance in the air, some storm from the famed Earthshaker. But there is nothing — only silence, which seems to speak more words.

      "—assume he is dead," Chiron is saying. His voice trembles slightly, his face downcast with grief. "After so long a silence, it is unlikely our prayers will be answered. I have asked his best surviving friend to do the final honors."

      Everyone's eyes turn to Annabeth, stood beside Lila. Her arm is shaking, her lips trembling slightly. Annabeth's the sort of person in the world who expects loyalty — even in death. Percy dying probably feels like some sort of double-edged betrayal, to her. To Lila, it's just numb. It doesn't feel real; he's alive, something keeps warning her. 

     It seems a little cruel to make Annabeth speak, when her eyes are bloodshot, and she's barely slept in weeks (not that Lila has, either), but that's the way it is. Poseidon should be here, Lila thinks. And Sally. 

      Annabeth takes the silk burial cloth, embroidered with a trident — one of the Athena kids made it (not Annabeth). She holds it in her hand for a second, before throwing it onto the fire, her face crumpling.

       She turns to face the rest of the camp. Her eyes puffy from crying, her voice coming out it raspy breaths, like it's blocked up by a dam of tears. "He was probably the bravest friend I've ever had. He..." Her face flushes. "He's right there!"

       Lila's head whips around so fast she hears it crack, aching. And there he is, standing there, completely untouched with barely a scratch on him. Lila wouldn't be surprised if he'd just emerged from the sea, standing on a seashell. 

     "Percy!" Beckendorf says. A large crowd emerges around him, swallowing him and obscuring him  from Lila's sight as she stands in shock, speechless. Sure, she was convinced Percy was alive, but she never expected to be right.  She turns to Annabeth , to exclaim and go talk to Percy together, but the blonde has already disappeared. 

      "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Annabeth shouts, shoving through the crowd. Lila can't really see what is happening, but everyone falls silent, like something incredibly shocking has happened. Maybe it's just the sight of Percy that's shocked them. 

      "I—we thought you were dead, Seaweed Brain!"

     "I'm sorry," he says. "I got lost."

     "LOST?" Lila's pretty sure they can hear Annabeth from Florida. "Two weeks, Percy? Where in the world—" It's a fair question. Perhaps not the right time. 

     "Annabeth," Chiron interrupts, though his voice is taut with relief. "Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more private, shall we? The rest of you, back to your normal activities!" 

       And then Annabeth and Percy are galloping away on Chiron's back, leaving Lila in the middle of a crowd, still shocked silent. 

      ARE THE GODS CRUEL OR KIND? They seem to ricochet between abandonment and love faster than an echo, and it aches. Every time they change their mind, everytime some new problem appears to cause chaos among the mortal world, the gods dissipate faster than Lila can blink. But when they're needed — they do help. They helped Percy make that shot at Geryon's. They brought Percy back — from the dead, or whatever happened to him. It doesn't really matter, morbidly. Whether he died or not, whether he's a zombie or a corpse or just a normal demigod. Either way, Lila's just glad he's back. 

      She's sitting on the grass outside the Hermes cabin again, but this time the sun is bright in the air, and the clouds have faded to be little more than ephemeral wisps among the sea of azure blue sky. Lila's not really sure why she always sits out here. It's just peaceful — to stare at the clouds. Sometimes she wonders if the gods up there are staring back. 

     "Hey," Percy sounds nervous. Maybe he thinks she's going to scream and cry just like Annabeth. Maybe she is. 

      "Percy," she smiles, though it feels more like a baring of teeth than a grin. He looks exactly the same as he always has — windswept hair, eyes glowing like emeralds, glowing in the sunlight like a mortal god. "How are you feeling?"

     He sits beside her, leaning back onto his other arm. "I don't know. Guilty, mostly." 

     "Annabeth doesn't mean half the things she says," Lila tells him kindly. "She's just shocked and hurt; she was really worried about you." 

     He stares at the ground, and Lila worries that maybe her words are just making him feel more guilty. Nice one. There's something off about him, pushing him off his axis like a meteor nudging a planet, off-centre. He just looks older, more distant, spiraling at an irregular angle. Like he's seen something and it aged him a thousand years — the look in his eyes is eerily similar to the look Hephaestus wore when he looked at Lila. 

      "And you?" he says, shuffling toward her. "Are you shocked and hurt?"

      Lila thinks his words over. When she imagined what it'd be like when he came back, she imagined she'd say some witty comment about how she always knew he wasn't dead, displaying her knack for humour. Maybe she'd make him laugh or feel better as though she were performing a miracle, and he'd appreciate the effort. Or she'd be so angry he'd taken such a long time to return that she'd cry a little, or yell as Annabeth did. 

       She doesn't feel any of those things. "Not really," she says, and he looks remarkably relieved, shoulders relaxing and his body losing tension so fast he might as well have deflated. She hadn't realised he was wound so tight. "I'm just relieved you're back, finally." 

      "Finally?"

     "Yeah, I always knew you were alive." 

     He snorts, shaking his head. "Sure you did." 

     "Really," she nods earnestly, eyes wide. "Everyone thought I was insane, but I knew I was right. There was no doubt about it." Yeah, sure, no doubt. 

       He raises an eyebrow, but his eyes sparkle with mirth. "You can't have been that sure. You doubt everything you do." 

      Lila lets out a huff of outrage and shoves his leg, causing him to erupt into chuckles. "I do not."

      "Yeah, you do," he argues easily, leaving no room for argument. "I've seen you. You're usually right, too." 

      Lila laughs at that, partly because her heart is bursting because he paid attention, and partly because the thought is ridiculous. "I'm hardly ever right, Percy. I think this might be the first time." 

     "No," he says in dispute. "You're usually right, you just never notice. I'd trust your judgment over my own, any day." 

     "Gods, don't say that. I have no idea what I'm doing." 

      "And you think I do?"

      She laughs at that, tilting her head back to grin at the sky.  His face lights up at the sound. "What now?" 

     "What?"

      "I mean, what do we do now? We didn't find Daedalus." The mood dies immediately, and Lila wants to kick herself. What made her think it was a good idea to bring that up? It needed to be said. 

      Percy gulps, looking nervous again. "I think I know how to navigate the labyrinth." It almost sounds too good to be true — maybe he was endowed with godly knowledge during his near-death experience, but Lila can't help but be a little sceptical. "A mortal who can see through the Mist." 

     Lila raises an eyebrow. It sounds so random that it's probably true, and she trusts Percy enough to go along with it. "Do you know any of those?" Gods, she makes it sounds like they're a separate species. 

     "Yeah, my mom." He suddenly turns rather pale, probably envisioning the panic his mom must be going through right now. Lila isn't sure who she feels worse for. It would be nice to have a mom to care, though. 

      "We're not taking your mom into the labyrinth — " 

      "No, no, of course not," he amends quickly, horror filling his expression at the thought. "We're taking Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

      "Who?" 

      Percy looks a little shifty. Lila wouldn't have thought anything of it, usually — he's allowed to have friends, but his guilty expression has her a little concerned. "She's a mortal I met at my new school's induction day." 

      "When you blew up the school?"

       He crosses his arms. "Yeah." 

     "And she saw that?"

      "Yeah." 

     Lila is silent for a moment. "Why is nothing ever simple?"

     He bursts out laughing, shoulders shaking. "It never is, with us. We blew up a volcano."

      "When we're older, we'll laugh about it," Lila tells him. (If we're still alive.) "It'll be like one of those stories you can tell your grandkids —"when I was your age, I blew up a volcano from the centre and survived — " 

      He chokes again, bending forward in a fit of laughter. "I can't believe we survived that." 

       "I almost didn't," Lila tells him thoughtfully. She hasn't really admitted this to anyone yet, but Percy's the best person to tell, right? He can't exactly tell her it's weird that she died — they held a funeral for him. "Annabeth said I was dead, I think I drowned." 

       "Drowned?"

      "Yeah," Lila says. "I was walking around looking for you, and all of a sudden the wave just comes out of nowhere and sweeps me up. And I couldn't get out, so I just sort of died. And then I woke up on the ground outside." 

      "That sounds terrible," Percy says quietly, reaching for her hand. Lila squeezes his, smiling up at him. "I think I burned alive. I'm not sure — it felt like I was flying, the explosion threw me so high." 

      It's a strange thing to bond over, but that's the life of a demigod. Always moving, looking over your shoulder, waiting for the next death to hit you. Death always seems to approach like a steam train — it just refuses to slow down, even for Percy. 

      "I still dream about it," he admits. "Sometimes I wake up and I think I'm still falling." 

      "Me too," Lila says. "When I close my eyes, it feels like I'm being pushed back under." 

        He laughs hollowly, like all the happiness has been carved out of him with a dagger, leaving only a husk behind. The sound is almost scary. "I guess our training is finished," he echoes. "It's all the real war now. We'll be lucky to make it through the summer."

      Lila says nothing, instead turning to look at him — he's staring back down at her with the most peculiar expression on his face, eyes shimmering with unknown emotions. Their faces are so close, she can see every speck of colour in his eyes — they're not entirely green, she notices. Up close, there are are tiny specks of turquoise and blue embedded within, like gems in stone. 

       The distance between them gets a little smaller — Lila can almost feel his lips, and she doesn't dare to blink. Or move. She can't tell which one of them is moving closer. Perhaps it's both. It's like they're being drawn together by some magic, something binding them. 

      Percy blinks, and the spell is broken. Lila pulls away a little. Something is off about him — his eyes are distant, still simmering with guilt. What happened to him?

       "Uh, I should go," she excuses awkwardly, shuffling to her feet. Was that rejection? She can't even tell, her mind is all muddled up. "I'll see you later, Percy."

      "Yeah, see you." He replies, still sitting there on the ground. 

      Lila almost sprints away, her cheeks burning red and her heart spluttering in confusion. 

SO MUCH HAPPENS IN THE NEXT CHAPTERS ISTG IM kshjdldk excited && nervous but this chapter is kind of just setting it up cause there needed to be something in between. but i can't wait !! lila's mom makes an appearance soon hahahah

im considering just ending the fic after the last olympian because i can't really see myself finding the time to finish the next three acts, but also i really want to write them because the content is SO good. like my mind , , , , insane. 

sorry im not updating as often as i promised! it's not that im not writing, im just really focused and excited for an original story im writing right now. so idk, yea

lyra  xx