STRENGTH
━━ act two, chapter fifteen.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

   "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WON'T TELL ME?"

   Exasperated beyond belief, Nabi stood up from where she'd been sitting on the sofa in the Big House. Chiron sat in his wheelchair, "I'm afraid I cannot."

   "Annabeth's in the infirmary with Thalia," Nabi scowled, "Percy's in a panic, too! Everyone at camp's going crazy—it has to do with that prophecy!"

   "That I cannot tell you."

   Nabi wanted to scream. As soon as everyone's shock had subsided by just the smallest bit, Chiron sprung into action—telling all the campers, and satyrs, and nymphs to go back to their usual activities. Thalia was brought to the infirmary for a check up (being turned into a pine tree might cause some funky bone problems, you never know...) whilst he clopped to find Dionysus to inform him about the sudden event.

   In all the chaos, Nabi had almost forgotten to grab Chiron by the horsehairs and demand an answer. Which was what she was doing, right now.

As soon as the door had clicked shut, a cascade of words—from Hebe's reveal on the Island of the Fountain, the vial she'd given Nabi, to Kronos' taunts in her dreams that very night—Nabi told him everything.

   "I'm a part of that prophecy," Nabi said, "so I have a right to know it."

   Chiron frowned. "Percy might also be a part of the prophecy too, yet he knows just as much as you do."

   "Well he should, we both deserve to!" Nabi snapped.

   She paused, feeling a little bad at her outburst, but Chiron didn't seem very hurt at the anger laced in her voice. Instead, a frown marred the old centaur's features. She asked, "Does anyone know the prophecy? Anyone that isn't you, I mean."

   Nabi saw the recognition pass through him, remembered the panic that flashed across... when they had been on the Princess Andromeda as Luke had wickedly grinned...

   "Annabeth," Nabi said, "she— she knows, and so does Kronos."

   "Yes, they do." Chiron nodded.

   "How? Why?"

   "Kronos always knows things that he shouldn't, the same way he does things that he shouldn't," Chiron muttered, "Luke must have discovered the Great Prophecy, somehow, most likely from Annabeth. He wouldn't have thought to use Thalia as a pawn, if that weren't the case."

   "And Annabeth?" Nabi questioned, "Would she tell anyone else?"

   "No," Chiron shook his head, "Luke would've been the only one she would have told. I'll still have to speak to her, though."

   Nabi sat back down on the sofa, an aggravated puff of air escaping her lips as she scowled. "Why can't I know, Chiron? Please."

   He sighed and locked his hands together in his lap, clearing his throat, "Prophecies can scare people. Terrify them into irrationality."

   "I'm already scared, though," Nabi said, "what does knowing the lines change about me being a part of it all?"

   "Often, when heroes know of their fate, the implications, they become too wrapped up in attempting to change it." Chiron told her, his eyes filled with a tinge of something unreadable, "Take Achilles, for example—he knew of his fate. To either live a short, glorious life at Troy, or a long, obscure life back in Pythia."

   "I already know I'm going to live a short life."

   "Which already puts you in such danger, Nabi," Chiron said, "if you know any more, a temptation can be worse than heedlessness."

   If I die tomorrow, or the day after, there isn't any difference, She told herself, it doesn't change anything.

   "Achilles would've fought for Troy, with or without knowing about the prophecy from Thetis." Nabi said.

   She watched as his hand lifted to stroke his beard, the centaur's thoughts going back for miles. Chiron said, "Perhaps. Though, if he wasn't guaranteed the glory, who's to say he wouldn't have been convinced to live happily, knowing the glory in a long life with his love?"

   "But I don't want glory! Not like the glory that Achilles ended up getting."

   She wanted the latter—the sweet, soft promise of wrinkled skin and love that lasted lifetimes. Demigods talked and talked of kleos, but Nabi wanted nothing more than for the word to be banished from her mouth, and scraped off her tongue.

   "You might not want glory, no," Chiron sighed, and he was looking at someone else through Nabi—it was written all over his face, like the grand tales he warned of, "you are not Achilles, child. But think of Orpheus, who died for love; think of Icarus, who died for wonder."

This time, Nabi stayed silent.

"You may not be Achilles or any other hero, but still. Prophecies can hint to multiple paths, however, overthinking will trap your mind and lead you into a singular one which you cannot retreat from—traps are always deadly, especially in war."

She watched as he wheeled himself closer, and then placed a hand on her knee. "Trust me when I tell you, Nabi, that opened eyes will make you blind."

She swallowed down another protest.

Chiron was a mentor with so many years of knowledge—she knew that he'd know best. Or really, know better, since there was no best when the Fates were involved. But Nabi trusted him because most of all, he cared. He cared for every single one of them; every demigod who had ever walked into the camp, and every demigod who hadn't. Nabi admired how strong of a man he was, for someone who experienced grief so often.

Had he cried when Achilles' heel had been shot, and he had fallen—not from grace, for he was brutal, which made him all the more a hero—in battle? Had he wept when Jason's decaying boat had struck him with the ungodly disease too?

With the way his eyes held such a sadness, Nabi knew the answer. She knew that he'd cry for her, as well.

"Okay," Nabi said, "I get it."

"I will tell you when the time comes." Chiron murmured, with a nod, "But for now—the curse that you spoke of earlier..."

"It grows stronger when I grow stronger."

"There is no controlling that." Chiron said, "You will need to harness your power—grow stronger in order to defeat the Titan Lord. As much as it pains me to say this, you must let the curse grow. Otherwise..."

"I get it." Nabi repeated. She didn't want to be reminded of the other option, or really, lack of an option.

There was a knock on the door. Nabi stood up, and they both turned to see Percy. She mumbled, "You owe him the same talk."

"He won't like it any more than you did..." Chiron said, and she laughed weakly at his attempt of a joke—Chiron's jokes were never funny, but his overly serious, deadpan face he wore at all times caused her to giggle, "Off you go, Nabi."

Reluctantly, she dragged her feet across the floor and held the door for Percy to step in. "Good luck."

Percy smiled at the teasing lilt in her voice as she walked out. Chiron waved her goodbye, with a quick promise that he'd be there for dinner.

Nabi would get her answers eventually, but no—not today. Soon, though... soon.

【 🦋 】

   NABI SPENT THE NEXT FEW DAYS TRYING TO FORGET ABOUT IT. Except, it was a little hard when she was surrounded by so many people that could notice her odd behaviour. She spaced out more, the corners of her lips downturned more than usual.

   Will had asked her if she was alright, when the Apollo cabin had paired up with the Hermes campers for archery practice—she had been missing a lot of targets, which wasn't that out of the ordinary, though. Nabi sucked at using a bow. She lied and chalked it up to being rusty, telling him that she hadn't picked up any bows on the quest. He shrugged and nodded.

   Connor and Travis had thought it was because she missed their silly antics, so they had glitter bombed Nabi's bed to surprise her. Her hair still sparkled, even after hundreds of showers. It wasn't a very fun surprise, but at least it had momentarily gotten her to forget about her impending demise. Yippee!

   The other pranks that they had let Nabi in on were also pretty good distractions, such as fitting an entire car into the Demeter cabin—filled entirely with soil, the front seats and cup holders and back seats and all, for gardening, obviously—or swapping the flags used for their war games to flags of Dionysus and Chiron's sleeping faces on them.

   They were quite good pictures.

   Chiron had his sleeping mask on, his mouth hanging wide open. Dionysus had cackled at the Chiron flag so much, that he'd decided to use it as a mural for the Rec Room, much to Chiron's dismay. Though, the one of Dionysus snoring was promptly thrown into the campfire, that night. They all had been threatened to, or they would've been transformed into dolphins.

   The pranks were fun, sure, but the lingering thoughts and worries that nagged her mind stuck like glue to her head. Silena and Clarisse even brought it up, just like everyone else.

"What's got you so down?" Silena asked.

"What?" Nabi laughed, linking the daisies together as the three of them made flower crowns on the forest floor, "What do you mean?"

They weren't kids anymore, but it was something that reminded them of how they used to be. Nabi could still remember when Silena had first taught her—the furrowed brow of concentration as they looped the daisies into crowns, taking turns, and how to little Nabi, Silena was as good of a weaver as Arachne.

Clarisse used to complain that it was too girly, and that her dad would think it was stupid. Silena would hit the back of her head, chiding her about how girly things were still cool, and Clarisse would be silenced, nodding as she understood, taking her own daisies to make matching necklaces for them all.

Some things stayed the same, it seemed.

"This is so stupid." Clarisse huffed, "My necklaces are deformed."

"They're cute!" Nabi pouted.

Clarisse rolled her eyes, but continued to loop daisy after daisy. "Yeah, okay. Anyways, you've been all weird for a few days, and both of us have noticed. You think we wouldn't?"

"I'm not weird," Nabi huffed, "maybe you guys are imagining things."

"You've been acting weird," Silena corrected, "never said you were weird yourself, but I mean..."

Nabi threw a tiny daisy at her. It was so light that it flew away, over to Clarisse's side. Nabi blinked, and said, "I'm not sad."

The other two gave her a look. Silena said, "You're thinking about something, and we won't pressure you, but if you wanna speak up now—go ahead."

They both nodded in encouragement. Nabi hesitated. Well, she didn't have to tell them everything, so...

"If, let's say— if you had a secret that would hurt your friends, would you tell them?" Nabi asked.

She could've sworn that something in Silena had flinched; not her body, but a halt of her speech, and how her eyes glazed over. Clarisse shrugged and mumbled, "Depends. How bad's your secret?"

"This isn't a me thing!" Nabi quickly lied, "It's, uh, a friend. I mean that, hypothetically, I'm the friend. Not the one with the secret."

"Who was it?" Clarisse grumbled.

Nabi said, jokingly, "None of your business. I can beat them up myself, if that's what you're thinking."

Clarisse just grumbled some more. Then, after finishing a third daisy necklace, she said, "I'd tell them, anyway, I guess. It just means that I fucked up and I gotta face it."

Nabi sighed. "What if they didn't know that... I don't know, okay?"

"Just tell us," Clarisse huffed, having given up on the daisies to casually trace patterns on Nabi's thigh, "C'mon, Nabs."

"It's not that big of a deal, what I'm thinking about." Nabi mumbled, "What do you think, Lena?"

"Hm?"

Silena's head snapped up, and she dropped the daisies too. "Oh, I don't know. I, uh... I guess I wouldn't wanna tell them."

"But then it'll suck more with how long you keep it a secret." Clarisse said, "There's no point."

"There's no point," Silena echoed, like she was mulling over the words, "yeah. But, if it sucks either way, then why tell them at all?"

"Would you still be friends?" Nabi asked.

"If the secret was really bad, then... nah," Clarisse said, "I mean, it'd have to be really bad. But friends shouldn't keep secrets in the first place."

"Yeah," Nabi muttered, her stomach twisting, "friends shouldn't keep secrets."

If she told them about her mother's curse... she silenced her thoughts with a final loop of a flower. She dismissed the way her skin didn't feel right as it hugged the bones of a liar; how her body felt weaker than it should. "Silena?"

Silena hummed, placing one of her daisy crowns on top of Nabi's head. She murmured something, of how beautiful Nabi was, before she answered and said, "Yeah. I... wouldn't be friends with them either."

   "They wouldn't deserve it." Clarisse shrugged.

   Nabi could only nod. They wouldn't deserve it.

【 🦋 】

NABI COULDN'T SLEEP THAT NIGHT. There were flashes of daisy chains, and bitten tongues as she lied through gritted teeth. She was a horrible friend. Clarisse and Silena's words had confirmed it.

She tossed and turned, and when that didn't work, Nabi sat up. The rest of the cabin was completely silent, except for the occasional light sound of Lou Ellen's snores. She was a daughter of Hecate—never slept the same since she'd nicked her nose off and magically sowed it back on.

Even Honey, who was curled at Nabi's feet, was sleeping peacefully. Nabi stroked her gently, cooing at the cat as the moonlight peered through the window right next to her bunk bed.

"They'd all hate me, Honey," Nabi murmured, "if I told them about... gods, what do I do?"

   She whispered to Honey, of how cruel the gods and the Fates could be. It was all a bit much. The quest had ended, but the pain? No.

   Nabi woke up on mornings to a searing spine that paralysed her sometimes, or a burn in her chest that made her want to cry. The same pain would tug at her heartstrings whenever Silena cajoled her to the canoe lake, or the Stoll brothers would holler at their own jokes, or when Clarisse...

   "Clarisse?"

   Nabi blinked. There, at her window, was Clarisse tapping against the glass in her pyjamas. She could faintly hear her hisses of, "Open it! C'mon."

   Nabi held in a small giggle, and opened the window. "What are you doing?"

   "I couldn't sleep," Clarisse muttered, "let me in."

   Clarisse stood there in her sweatpants and a shirt that she'd probably stolen from one of her siblings that had the words 'I've Ares-en from the dead! Morning People!' on it.

Nabi couldn't hold in her giggling. Clarisse grinned at the sound of her laughter. "Clarisse, they'll wake up if I let you in."

"Then, hop out the window. We can sneak around the harpies, and climb the Ares cabin," Clarisse said, "I like looking at the stars when I can't sleep."

Nabi already knew that. "And if we get caught?"

   "Wouldn't know," Clarisse smirked, "Haven't been caught before, yeah? Hurry and get your butt out the window, Nabs."

She pretended to be scandalised, shaking her head. But Nabi climbed out the window swiftly, and they rushed over to the Ares cabin—this wasn't the first time they'd done this.

All the way back when Clarisse had first been claimed, she stated that cabin five was the coolest. It led to Nabi asking her to prove it. Clarisse had snuck them up onto the cabin and told her that, factually, the Ares cabin had the best view of the stars.

The view was so great, that they had ended up stargazing every couple of months whenever one of them had a really bad nightmare. Now, they just did it whenever they pleased. It was way easier when one of them had became a head counsellor. People were too scared to tell on Clarisse, and Nabi's wings had a helping hand in it.

"You're never gonna climb anything ever again, huh?" Clarisse mumbled, as Nabi helped pull her up.

"Nope."

   They made themselves comfortable on the roof, with Nabi shivering a little. Her shirt was a little thin, so Clarisse wrapped her arms around her—the Ares girl had a knack for warming Nabi's cheeks up, anyway. The two of them talked for ages.

Nabi laughed at Clarisse's rambling about their last capture the flag game (the Apollo cabin never quite gave the respect that the Ares cabin deserved) or of how her mother had been pestering her to come back to Arizona, full time next year. The Ares girl had slipped into French here and there through her tirade—a language her family fluently spoke. It was where her last name had came from, after all.

Though, Clarisse also nodded along to Nabi's rant about her fascination for a novel that she had recently began reading, and her suspicions regarding Silena and Beckendorf. Those two were definitely a little too close.

Whatever they could think about, they could talk about. It was nice. Really, really nice.

  They fell silent, after they had nothing left to speak of. That was also nice. Clarisse laughed at Nabi's scrunched up expression, when she'd noticed how hard she'd been thinking silently. "You've got a million and one thoughts running through your mind, right now."

   Nabi thought back to Chiron's lecture, and hummed. "Kleos. We sure got a lot of that after the quest. Was it worth it?"

"Worth it?" Clarisse said, "Yeah, I think so. But it was really rough."

"Rough?"

"Everything that happened with us," Clarisse rested her chin on Nabi's head, grumbling, "I don't ever wanna repeat that, ever again."

Nabi leaned back a little, sinking into Clarisse's chest. "Even if it meant you didn't get any glory?"

"Mm," Clarisse muttered, tired, "You're more important than glory, anyway."

Nabi lifted her head up, and she felt Clarisse stiffen at her own words, for some reason. She looked up, and they were so close to each other—she could feel her breath against her skin.

There was glory in Clarisse. So much of it, that she practically glowed. Nabi laughed. "Clarisse la Rue saying I'm more important than glory?"

"Shut up." Clarisse laughed too.

Nabi enjoyed being able to admire her like this; the moonlight made sure that she could stare at Clarisse's eyelashes and trace the outline of her lips with her gaze. Everything about Clarisse was so very her—to the scar above her left eyebrow, to the subtle cadence in her voice.

Ever since the Sirens had revealed it, Nabi had embraced the feeling with open arms. She wasn't going to deny it, not when it was so obvious, and especially not when there was such little time for her to savour it.

Nabi had always known she loved Clarisse. She just hadn't known what kind of love it truly was.

"You never call me that, anymore," Clarisse murmured, "Saviour Girl—uhm, back in Miami. You used to call me that when we were kids."

"Because it's dumb." Nabi shrugged.

She turned her head downward, staring at her lap. Clarisse shrugged. "But you don't give me any nicknames at all."

She was right. But not because Nabi didn't like nicknames or anything. It was just...

To Nabi, Clarisse's name was far better than anything she could ever come up with—a benediction, a prayer of sorts in her mouth.

   She loved the ways in which Clarisse's eyes would glisten with something of fervency, or how her head would swivel in concession to Nabi's voice. It rolled off her tongue like a cherished epithet; perched on her lips like a beloved crown.

"I just like your name," Nabi said, "I like it too much to call you anything else."

   She wanted to kiss her, really badly. But Clarisse wasn't hers—never would be. And that did more damage to Nabi's heart than any curse could ever do.

Besides, even if Clarisse did fall for her, Nabi wouldn't be able to accept it. She would die within the next year or so, and leave Clarisse with a pain worse than the one that shot through her bones.

She couldn't do that to her.

"You're thinking too loud again." Clarisse mumbled.

Nabi just hummed. They were silent for a beat, and then another beat, until the Ares girl said, "You make me feel loved."

"That's what best friends are supposed to do."

Nabi felt herself tense at the word; best friend couldn't explain how she really felt. Clarisse shook her head. "Yeah, but... you make me feel liked."

"Oh." Somehow, Nabi understood perfectly what she meant. She wanted to understand more, in ways that best friends weren't supposed to. "Yeah. You make me feel liked too."

The silence stretched on. Nabi felt her eyelids grow heavy, and how Clarisse's arms slackened ever so slightly as they both grew more tired.

Tell her now, Nabi thought, Tell her now.

About the curse? About her feelings? Nabi's voice caught in her throat, and she struggled to let the words out. Exhaustion swept through her, and instead, her words were replaced by a soft yawn that escaped past her lips. She couldn't confess. But, she'd at least have the courage to tell her that...

"Clarisse," Nabi mumbled, "You're... the one."

She felt Clarisse shift slightly, and Nabi sank deeper into her as her eyelids fluttered. "What?"

"You said, earlier, that I had a million and one thoughts," Nabi murmured, as finally, she drifted off to sleep, "OUT OF ALL OF THEM, YOU'RE THE ONE."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗔'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦!

જ⁀➴ WE'RE OFFICIALLY FINISHED WITH SEA OF MONSTERS GUYYS !! no freaking way, but did u enjoy chiron's yapping and the warwing moment? 🙈 soz for the slowburn but i can defo promise that something big happens in the next act w clanabi ... it'll all be worth it, okay?

   anyone wanna drop their fav moments of this act? my fav is probs the thanatos & mika chapter !! i've got a lot planned for the labyrinth bcoz it's lowkey my fav one, since it takes place during the the titan's curse, nabi will have her own journey that the books never had !! similar to the events of the lightning thief where she was accused, and how that wasn't in the book bcoz she's not where percy is yk 🤷‍♀️ tehe

   i hope u enjoyed the som act & i love u all soo much guys !! would not have been possible without all ur support and i'll see u all when the next act drops in a week or so ( have to touch up on some book events and read them ) soo bye bye !! <33