The End of an Olympian

04 | Greeting Staff

Somewhere in the midst of the chaos, Zeus got out the words "meeting dismissed" and I instantly flashed to my palace.

1088 words

Percy

I hadn't been to my palace in quite some time—almost 100 years, if you can believe it. And even then, it was only a short visit. It'd been long enough that the staff had never even seen me. Maybe the much older ones had when they were younger since their average lifespans are twenty years longer than humans, but they would have been so young even they might not have remembered me. You see, the above-water section of my palace was run by a human-like species, the Maris Astéria. The name is a mix of Latin and Greek, respectively, which translates to "Stars of the Sea" or "Sea Stars". Their name is fitting since they have silver, star-like specks on their skin. Speaking of which, their skin ranges in various shades of cool colors, like blue or green. Another cool feature is their teeth. They're naturally pearly white, and, as far as I could tell, they don't ever yellow.

When I arrived, everyone was so shocked I was actually there that they seemed to be frozen in time. Every staff member stood as still as a statue with eyes as wide as Margaret Keane's paintings. Off to my left a boy, about 10, dropped the tray he was holding and the teacups shattered on the floor. He looked at me nervously, not knowing how I'd react. I could tell he was shaking when he bent low at the waist and bowed. I swiftly walked over to the boy and knelt beside him. I could feel him trembling as I lifted him to a standing position. With me on one knee and the boy standing, we were about the same height.

"What's your name?" I asked kindly.

"C-Clarus, m-my Lord," he managed to stutter out.

A long time ago, I would have corrected people saying, "it's just Percy". But after saying it over and over and over and over and over and... well, you get the point... I resigned myself to only correcting those who I interacted with a lot. I still hated formalities, but after so many years, I got used to them. Chiron was right about that.

Clarus had a small tear running down his cheek. Only then did I see the red blood on his hands. It was a startling contrast to his light green skin. I took his hands gently in one of mine and formed a ball of water in the air with the other. I carefully coated his hands in the water and used it to heal his wounds. I couldn't do that with all species, but I had some sway over sea-related ones. The water, however, was more of a ruse to hide the fact that I was controlling the blood and clotting the wound. Both methods working at the same time let the cuts heal faster. Clarus stopped crying to gape in awe. It seems that everyone else was also watching in wonder.

Clarus tried to bow again after he hastily said, "Thank you, my Lord. I'll clean up this mess right away. I'm sorry for breaking your teacups."

I stopped him short of hitting his head on my shoulder since we were closer than the boy realized. He was probably scared I would punish him, but why would I? I haven't been here in so long, I wouldn't care about some stupid teacups.

"It's alright, Clarus. I never liked that set anyway," I told him with a smile.

He gave me a shy smile in return. Finally deciding to stop ignoring the others around me, I turned to scan the room. Off to the side, I saw a young woman with a worried face gripping the hand of a young man. The man looked torn between punching me and groveling. I smiled kindly at them and then turned towards Clarus.

"Are those your parents?" I asked soothingly.

"Yes, my Lord."

Nodding, I sent him off with a wink. "Why don't you run along and be with them. I'll have someone else clean this up."

He hesitated for a second and then ran into the arms of his parents. His mother was silently crying. I went over to the tea set and concentrated on turning it into water molecules. It took almost no effort at all but got an audible reaction from my staff. I dispersed the vapor into the air, clearing the mess entirely.

A familiar-looking boy, about 19, came up to me. I was still in the 25-year-old form that I used for meetings, but I prefer to be 17. I guess I was nostalgic of the time before becoming a god. The boy who approached me did a small bow and introduced himself.

"My Lord, I am Lucius Mateus, your chamberlain."

My eyes lit up at the last name. "Mateus? Are you related to Abrax Mateus?"

"Yes, my Lord. He was one of my great grandfathers. My father would have been your chamberlain, but he passed away a few years ago," Lucius added sadly.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure he was a good man."

Not having met the man before, there wasn't much comfort I could offer. I hoped I was able to console him enough.

It seemed as though I did because Lucius smiled at the compliment. "Thank you, my Lord. I hope I can serve you just as well as Abrax did. My family passed down stories about you." His eyes shined in curiosity towards the end.

I gave a warm laugh at his slight excitement. "I hope they speak well of me. Abrax had many stories to tell, I'm sure, and not all of them were the best, but I was grateful he was by my side for it all."

Lucius gave a nervous chuckle back. "Of course, my Lord. We'd never speak ill of you."

I supplied a reassuring look. "I would not be mad if you did. I'll tell you a story or two over dinner. But I've just come from a rather stressful meeting on Olympus, so I'm going to wash up and get some work done. Let me know when dinner is served."

"Yes, my Lord," Lucius replied formally as he bowed.

"Oh, and Lucius," I called out to him while walking away, "please, call me Percy. We're going to be around each other a lot and the 'Lord' thing will get annoying." He was definitely not expecting that and blinked at me as I continued towards my chambers.