A/N:

Well, I celebrated my 16th birthday yesterday (and Tuesday) at home in quarantine, which is not how I planned to celebrate my sweet 16 (my mom did get me an Evangeline Samos t-shirt from Etsy though). But, anyways, this is my birthday gift to you guys. 

This chapter is dedicated to Potterjacksonhead

Annabeth's POV:

"How dare you, you little bitch!" I hear Istvan's voice shout. Groaning, I turn the corner to see what Istvan is upset about this time. This better not be about something stupid like him over hearing one of the servants call him an 'arrogant snob.' Half way down the hall, a small group of nobles have started to form around Istvan and the victim of his temper tantrum.

"One." The crack of a whip echoed through the hall. "Two."

Based on the looks on everyone's faces, this has probably happened before. As I push my way to the center of the circle, I hear Evangeline mutter "At this point, he should just get a new servant."

"Three." Crack. "Four." Crack. "Five." Crack.

Once I get to the center, I can see Istvan standing over a young red servant who I recognize as my younger half-sister Sterling Luna. Her uniform is ripped from Istvan's whip and the blood from the cuts on her back drips onto the marble floor, staining it a deep scarlet color. She makes an attempt to stand as Istvan brings down the whip for another strike. "Six."

"Istvan," I say, taking a step forward. "Stop, you're acting like a petulant child."

"She was being disrespectful," he growled in response.

"What exactly did she do that was so disrespectful? Did she call you an 'asshole'?"

"That among other things," Istvan mumbled beneath his breath. A silver blush blossoms across his cheeks.

"Well, I call you that all the time and you don't whip me, so why is this any different?"

"Well-I-er-you're-"

"It's not, so drop the whip, swallow your pride, and walk away."

Istvan hesitates, seeming to have a mental debate over whether or not he should listen to me. "Fine," he says, throwing the whip to the ground and storming off.

I walk over to Ster, helping her up. "As you were," I say, addressing the still lingering crowd.

~~~time skip a few hours~~~

Percy's POV:

My next instructor waits for me in a room cluttered from floor to ceiling with more books than I've ever seen, more than I ever thought existed, though it's nowhere near the number of scrolls in the Athena cabin. The books look old and completely priceless. Despite my aversion to school and books of any kind, I feel a pull to them. But the titles and the words written on the pages are a jumble of symbols that I could never hope to decipher.

Just as intriguing as the books are the maps along the wall, of the kingdom and other lands, old and new. Framed against the far wall, behind a pane of glass, is a vast, colorful map pieced together from separate sheets of paper. It's twice as tall as me and dominates the room. Faded and ripped, it's a tangled knot of red lines and blue coasts, green forests and yellow cities. This is the old world, the before world, with old names and old borders that mortals no longer have any use for.

"It's strange to look at the world as it once was," the instructor says, appearing out of the book stacks. His yellow robes, stained and faded by age, make him look like a human piece of paper. "Can you find where we are?"

The sheer size of the map makes me gulp, but, like everything else, I'm sure this is a test. "I can try."

Norta is northeast. Archeon is on the Capital River, and the river goes to the sea. After a minute of pained searching, I finally find the river and the estuary near Archeon. "There," I say, pointing far north of Archeon, where I suppose Summerton might be.

He nods, happy to know I'm not a total fool. "Do you recognize anything else?"

But like the books, the letters float off the map and rearrange themselves into a jumble of symbols. "I can't read it."

"I didn't ask if you could read it," he replies, still pleasant. "Besides, words can lie. See beyond them."

With a shrug, I force myself to look again. I was never a good student in school, even if you ignore the fact that I have A.D.H.D. and Dyslexia. This man is going to find that out soon enough. But to my surprise, I like this game. Searching the map, looking for features I recognize. "That's Archeon," I say pointing to the bottom of the Capital River. "And, that might be Harbor Bay," I finally murmur, circling the area around a hooked cape.

"Correct," he says, his face folding into a smile. The wrinkles around his eyes deepen with the action, showing his age. "This is Delphie now," he adds, pointing to a city farther south. "And Haven is here."

He puts his finger over an area not far from Archeon, a few miles south of what looks like one of the largest cities on the map, in the entire country of the before world. The Ruins. I've heard the name, in whispers between the older kids, and from Paul. The Stone City, the Wreckage, he called it. A tremor runs down my spine at the thought of such a place, still covered in smoke and shadows from a war more than a thousand years ago, similar to the Ash City. Will this world ever be like that, if our war doesn't end? Will this world even be here if Kronos defeats the gods?

The instructor stands back to let me think. He has a very strange idea of teaching; it'll probably end with a four-hour game of me staring at a wall.

While I'm examining the map, the instructor brings out two different birdbaths. The one on the right has saltwater and the one on the left has fresh water. In addition to the birdbaths, the instructor brings out a device that looks like a real-life hangman game with a weight hanging from a spring and a small roll of paper attached to the base of the device.

"Why do you have a seismograph?"

"Perseus, I'm here to teach you your histories, to teach you how to be Silver and how to be, ah, useful," he says, his expression souring. "I'm also going to try to understand exactly how you came to be and how your abilities work."

"Well, I came to be the same way everyone else came to be, but I don't think I need to explain how all that stuff works. As for my abilities, well, they came to be because I'm a Silver. My mother was a storm and my father is a nymph. Like most Silvers, I inherited my father's nymph abilities, but I also inherited certain aspects of my mother's," I say, going through the explanation Elara fed me, trying to make him understand. "I'm a Silver, sir."

To my horror, he shakes his head. "No you are not, Perseus Jackson, and you must never forget it."

I take a minute to answer, confused as to how he knows so much about me. "Okay, but I prefer to be called 'Percy.' Why do you want to figure out how my abilities came to be?"

"I am, above all things, a curious man. And when you entered the Princestrial a Red servant and ran out some long-lost Silver lord, I have to say I was quite curious."

"So, what's your power?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

"Percy, when a Silver says 'power,' they mean might, strength. 'Ability,' on the other hand, refers to all of the silly little things we can do. I mean that my sister was queen once, and that still counts for something around here."

"Lady Blonos didn't teach me that."

He chuckles to himself. "That's because Lady Blonos is teaching you nonsense. I will never do that."

"So, if the queen was your sister, then you're-"

"Julian Jacos, at your service." He sweeps into a comically low bow. "Head of House Jacos, heir to nothing more than a few old books. My sister was the late queen Coriane, and Prince Tiberias the Seventh, Cal as we call him, is my nephew."

"Yes, Annabeth told me about you."

"Did she now?" he asks.

"You were actually the only family member that she really ever spoke about."

Julian narrows his eyes in suspicion. "You speak about the princess as if you've known her before yesterday's events."

I hesitate, telling him that I did know her before yesterday's events would require a lot of explaining and Julian doesn't seem like the type of person to just accept anything that I told him; if I were to tell him that I met her at a camp that we went to, he would want to know what camp, where it was located, et cetera. Thankfully, Annabeth chose that moment to walk through the door. "Hey, Julian," she greets. "How are your lessons going, Seaweed Brain?"

"Good-"

"Annabeth, have you met Percy before yesterday?" Julian interrupts.

Annabeth makes sure to send me a glare before answering. "Yes, we met when we were twelve when his mother took me in," she says, coming up with a quick, believable, lie.

Unfortunately, Julian wasn't so willing to believe her story. "You ran away when you were seven, while you were in Archeon, might I add. How did it take you five years to find someone to take you in, especially since they lived in Archeon."

"Well, when I first ran away, I spent a week alone before I met a girl named Thalia, who I spent the next five years on the run with until she died from hypothermia. After that happened, I was alone, so I made my way back to Archeon. I spent about a month in the alleys before Percy found me and introduced me to his mother, who took me in," Annabeth explained with ease. How she came up with that story so quickly is beyond me.

"Why couldn't Thalia's mom take you in?" Julian asks, still unwilling to believe the story.

"Two reasons; Thalia's mom was an alcoholic who could barely take care of Thalia, so I doubt she could've taken care of me. And even if she wasn't, Thalia had also run away from home." That part I knew was true, and Julian seemed to finally believe the story, either that or he simply accepted the fact that we weren't going to tell him the truth.

"Well, anyway, I talked to my father, and he's giving us an hour each day at 14:00 to plan our wedding," Annabeth informs me.

"Wait, but I still have four more hours of lessons," I say. I want to go with Annabeth, but at the same time, I don't want to find out how Elara will react if she finds out that I skipped an hour of lessons.

"Well, now it's three more hours, and the queen is aware of the change in your schedule," she replies, tugging on my arm, urging for me to follow her.

"I'll see you in an hour then, Julian," I say before turning to follow Annabeth out.

Julian smiles as he nods at me. "See you in an hour, Percy."

A/N:

So.....I'm back after about a month and a half. I was about to put this story on hold until the end of ice show season (basically until mid-May), but quarantine changed that. Even though I'm stuck at home, I'm not going to be able to update as much as I used to, I can only write and update on weekends that my mom's at work.

Potterjacksonhead I know that you're character didn't have any dialogue in this chapter (she will be in future chapters though), I had a conversation between her and Annabeth started but I ended up scrapping it because it was kind of shitty.

I hope you all are finding ways to keep sane during quarantine. I've managed to ride my bike around 90% of my neighborhood without any hands on the handlebars.

Keep active, maintain a distance 6ft away from anyone who you don't live with, stay home, wash your hands, and stay safe.

XOXO, HamiltonFanGirl1508