Chapter Text
🌊 🔱
“So, basically, you defeated your Math teacher, then you defeated the minotaur, got into camp, played in the water so your father could claim you, got a quest, and found out Luke was the lightning thief?” Roselin summed up. Since it would be two hours before the deers brought them to the “Angel Oak” - whatever that is - she asked about Percy, since she didn’t know squat.
“Then after that, you had a quest each year,”
“Give or take.”
“Fought a god,”
“And won.”
“Fought in two wars,”
“Yep.”
“Survived Taurtaus with your damn girlfriend, and not once you’ve jumped off a roof?”
“Nope.”
“And you’ve met the Romans?”
“And made peace.”
“So now you have a friend who’s the son of Zeus?”
“Jupiter.”
“Same thing. And a friend who’s the daughter of Aphrodite?”
“And she’s not as bad as you’d think she is. I think you’d get along well.”
“Oh please, Aphrodite children hate the hunters, and they certainly despise me. I don’t think she’ll like me.”
“Just meet her.”
Roselin sighed heavily, stretching the skin to her brows. She was allowing Annabeth to take the reins, guiding the stags while she gave directions. She looked back, grey eyes shining in the moonlight.
“You really don’t know what happened for the past few years, huh?” Annabeth asked jokingly, making Roselin chuckle nervously.
“What can I say? Mistress duty calls!”
Percy couldn’t help but giggle quietly at the word “duty”, but he quickly stopped feeling his girlfriend’s glare.
“But you two are staying two months more at camp?” Roselin asked, almost worried.
Percy nodded, leaning on the chariot. “Yeah, Chiron kinda needs us to help him with the Greeks and Romans getting a good schedule, so he needs a translator and an amazing, smart, beautiful planner.” He looked at his girlfriend, she rolled her eyes at the list of compliments, but he could see a small smile on her face.
There’s that beautiful smile. He thought, knowing he was hopelessly in love with the beautiful daughter of Athena.
“Hey, Roselin, when’s your birthday?” Annabeth asked, still going straight. He could see that they passed a small town with different small shops and a street with stone walkways.
“Pardon?” Roselin asked, looking up from her pocket book, which, (from how Percy saw it), was an upside-down description of various monsters with circled spots, which he guessed were weak points.
“Well, Thalia told me that your birthday was coming up soon, and I never got to ask.”
Roselin looked a bit panicked from that, keeping a hand on Mint. “Oh. Um, November 18th. That’s my birthday.”
Annabeth didn’t notice, her eyes in front of her. “Huh, that’s two months away.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Scared of getting old?” She joked. The older girl didn’t answer, looking more panicked. Before Percy could ask what happened, Roselin went over to grab the reins and ease the stags into landing. The chariot skidded into a halt, a force pulling them back slightly. Percy rolled out of the chariot, landing on his butt. He winced, rubbing his sore bum. He looked up, seeing a large tree with branches spreading out like roots upside-down. It was so green, even in the moonlight. It looked unreal. It couldn’t be real. But every time he blinked, it was still there. Mint jumped out, pulling him up with his teeth around his shirt hem. Roselin helped Annabeth off, looking like a gentleman helping a princess. That should be him right there, helping his queen off. But they seemed like they were having a good time as friends. Wait, friends?
“Wait, did you two know each other before?” Percy asked, a bit worried when the two started smirking.
“We met when we were just kids. I wasn’t around much, but we got along. Sometimes.” Roselin shrugged, Annabeth punching her arm in protest.
“Yeah, cause you can’t say you’re wrong.”
“More like you can’t trust your natural instincts.” Roselin shouted back, before noticing Percy again and then smirking wider. “What? You worried I might steal your girl?”
She took Annabeth’s waist, playfully dipping her. “I would be a better boyfriend~” She teased, but spun her into Percy’s arms once he stood up. He hugged her waist, pouting as he put his head on her shoulder. Roselin laughed softly behind her hand, like a mother watching her children grow right before her eyes. He saw Mint licking her hand, which reminded him of his own dog. He was use to Ms. O’Leary licking him, giving him a bath of dog drool, so this was harmless.
“Come on, lovebirds,” Roselin said, walking to the tree. “We’ve got to go see the stars.”
There was a sign that said “Prohibited Activities. Rules & Regulations; Please note that the tree is under surveillance. Do not sit or attempt to climb the tree.”
That made Percy wonder, how in the name of Hades were they going to get the stars. He looked to Roselin, who was whispering a quiet prayer, while touching the trunk of the tree.
“Roselin,” He started, seeing her put up a hand to stop him. Once her head rose back up, he continued. “How exactly are we going to the stars? We can’t climb.”
She scoffed, a proud grin on her moonlight pale face. “Children of Artemis don’t follow rules.” She shrugged. He furrowed his brows, expecting her to go on and climb the tree. But instead, she grabbed Percy’s hand, leading them closer to the trunk.
“Hold hands,” Roselin instructed, and Percy took Annebeth’s hand with no hesitation. Mint put a paw on his owner’s leg, joining their little circle. “Just… Hold on tight.”
The gravity beneath them shifted, feeling himself becoming lighter. Roselin held onto their hands tightly, her eyes squeezing shut. She kept muttering “ἄστρα” under her breath, over and over. By the third, his vision darkened. Finally, the tree emitted a fog. Thick, blue fog that smelled of musk and lavender. It wrapped around them, sealing them in a protective shield. Percy could feel himself shooting up like a rocket. It felt like Shadow Travelling, only his stomach kept doing triple flips and he started turning green.
He fell to his knees, trying to catch his breath and not puke up turkey. Annabeth was beside him, already puking. Roselin was holding back her hair, rubbing her back. She seemed to be fine, only a little shaken up, and a bit tired with bags under her eyes. Percy went over to her, whispering to her and rubbing her back. Roselin stepped away, letting them have their peace. Once Annabeth was done, he gathered her up in his arms, rocking her slightly. Annabeth hates throwing up, which is why she refuses to get sick in any way possible.
That’s when he noticed… Well, everything. They were high. Higher than Olympus. He couldn’t see the ground, since it was dark and there was water. Water.
There was water, but it didn’t feel like water. Or look like water. It was inky, almost like multiple squids died with their ink pouch cut open. The water was like Jell-O under his feet, but would ripple like normal water. He tried to control it, but it was stubborn. There was a voice in his head that went “don’t try that now. You’ll hurt the little ones, boy”.
Percy looked over and almost jumped out of Annabeth’s tight grip. Mint’s face and fur was currently melting off and growing to the size of a gamer chair. He was no longer a cute white dog with floppy ears and brown spots, but a large wolf with void black fur but his face was completely showing his skull, red flames in his eye sockets.
“What is he..?” Percy asked in concern, but Roselin looked at the dog and shrugged.
“I ask him that every day.” She answered, shaking her head.
Mint grinned, his flaming eyes growing a bit in his empty eyes. He padded over, circling the girl who wasn’t threatened. “And I’ll never give you that damn answer, kid.”
“THE DOG SPEAKS!?”
🦉 📚
It was beautiful. Minus the disturbing Mint, this was beautiful.
“This is the Realm of the Stars.” Roselin introduced, her hand waving to bow, and small lights sparked on like soft yellow Christmas lights. Expect there wasn’t just soft yellow. There was a soft blue and a dark blue that glowed as well.
“Astraeus’ realm… You took over?” Annabeth remembered hearing something about the god of stars disappearing from pollution a long time ago, but she didn’t think it would go so far as a demi-god needing to stay in the realm.
“Well, this is the half realm. If we got to the Starral Stone we’d be able to travel to the Celestial Kingdom to then see the Star Kingdom.” Roselin explained with the wave of her hand. She was floating around casually, her posture like laying down. Her arms were behind her head, her legs were crossed and her eyes were closed like she wasn’t two feet off the ground.
Annabeth looked around, seeing that the lights were closer. And coming towards her… And speaking- What the-
“She’s weird…” One of the yellow ones said, floating up to her face. They looked… odd. They were little fairy-like creatures, but they had firelike hairs that crackle and fade at the top but had small, chibi bodies. They had no fingers or feet, just little nubs for limbs, and wide, innocent, child-like beady eyes that stared at her.
“Don’t be rude,” a soft one said. “That’s Annabeth. She was my friend when I was alive.”
Annabeth flinched back at that, getting out of Percy’s hug and standing up. “Alive?” She repeated in a breath, making Roselin chuckle.
“The stars here,” She whispered, holding out a palm to the stars. One of them landed in it, nuzzling themself against her slender fingers like a touch-starved cat. “Well, stardews are people whose life was taken too early. Or at least, I get to make that decision.”
Many stars of the three colors gathered around Roselin, all nuzzling up to her. A few went on her shoulder, one went into her shirt color, and a few were playing in her braided hair.
The more that Annabeth looked, the more she could calculate how many there were of each color, or at least try to get to a number. There were many light blue stardews, half as many yellow stardews, and little clutters of dark blue stardews with groups of three or four hanging out together.
Percy stood up, careful not to step on the stars playing with each other and chasing each other around on the rippling floor. “What do the different colors mean?” He asked, lancing a hand with Annabeth’s. Roselin looked back at them, floating towards them, upside-down. She held up a yellow stardew, handing it to Annabeth. It was cold, and her fingers started turning blue.
“The yellow ones, those are mortal children. Or infants. Those usually stay at the Kingdom where Satyrs and Nymphs will take care of them when I’m not around,” She snatched a light blue one who was trying to steal her shoe, the stardew flailing around helplessly. “This one is a demi-god child. A very naughty one at that.” She released it back to its friends, which made a bell-like chirp. “And the dark blue ones are Hunters. Most people who die want to watch over their loved ones, so they chose to be a star. And every year, a few will go with Hermes to go be in Hades' care.”
Annabeth could tell Roselin cared dearly about the stars. The way her eyes softened at the stardews playing with each other, the way her voice got softer when she talked to them without a hint of feared hesitation, the way her accent got thicker. That’s when Annabeth finally noticed. Her accent didn’t sound like the normal posh-British accent, but something like Shakespeare.
Like Zoë. She watched as Roselin’s eyes followed a pair of stardews dancing in the dark air, like an old couple listening to their favorite song.
"The stars art not mere ornaments of the night sky. They are sacred charges—meant to be guarded, not squandered by mortal folly." Roselin quote, a small chuckle escaping her lips. It was soft, and genuine. Her genuine self didn’t seem like the cold, stern hunter that she’s been playing as this entire quest, but she was soft, gentle, almost motherly with her deer shaped eyes that she wasn’t forced to harden and how she treated her and the stars. How she didn’t hesitate to help them without being asked to. She could just tell.
Percy raised an eyebrow, a small smile creeping onto his face as he allowed two stardew mess with his inky hair. “What was that all about?” He asked, giggling slightly from the star's cold touch. Roselin looked over, her eyes soft. She shrugged, a sigh escaping her.
“Just something Zoë would always say whenever I’m complaining about my responsibility,” She answered with a glint of sadness in her eyes. “She’d always know what to say.”
Annabeth saw Percy lowering his head, knowing he was feeling guilty that he asked. She put a hand on his, gently intertwining with each other perfectly. In the corner of her eye, she saw movement that wasn’t the glowing stars or Roselin. It was another person. The Mistress noticed it too, her head whipping around.
Suddenly, the laughter and cries of joy turned into hushed whispers as they moved towards Roselin, all of them turning themselves smaller with their flame-like heads shrinking. Annabeth saw the girl wave her hand over to Percy and her, a silent message to stay close with their weapons out.
It was eerie now, Percy and her weapons out while Roselin kept the stars behind her, making small bell rings if you cover it up with your hand.
There were footsteps on the dark water, she could tell since it rippled toward them. So there IS another person. Annabeth thought, keeping a tight grip on her blade. Through the void, the three could see a silhouette. It was walking towards them slowly, a threatening air gathered around them. A woman came into their view, the light from the Celestial Bronze weapons catching her features. She was tall, a bit shorter than Percy with curly brown hair to her shoulders and two different colored eyes. One hazel, the other silvery blue. She wore a traditional Greek wedding dress with a golden belt with a bouquet of white flowers mixed in with pink in her hands. Moon flowers and roses. The girl hummed with a smile, tilting her head to the side.
“Hello there, darlings,” She spoke with a British accent. “I’m Roselin Rojas.”
🌙 🏹
Roselin was in a state of shock when she heard the girl’s voice. It was similar to hers, confident and elegant, like the way she was trained to do. But the girl’s voice was higher, struggling to do the accent right. That’s how she knew how this was. Who the girl was pretending to be her.
Michelle Lawson.
Her ex-girlfriend.