obsidian black ● jason grace

stay

 Mostly, Daria just sat in her room and wrote.

It had been nearly five days that she had been on Olympus, and every day, while the Olympians were no closer to figuring out how she planned to kill Gaea, Daria was one step closer to trashing the plan and letting everyone go to hell except her and Jason.

Patroclus was a frequent visitor during these times, though Daria had no idea how he managed to bypass Olympus security so often. Sometimes, he taught her to speak Greek. Sometimes, he told her about how things used to be, about his rotten father (which the two had in common), or Chiron or Phthia. Most of the time, however, he tried to get her to change her mind, and Daria's will was slowly shattering.

Tell the Olympians, he would say. Pray to the gods as we often did. Beg for their mercy and they will kill Gaea for you.

I do not beg, she told him.

He would laugh, determined not to disturb the peace. Yes, he said. You and Achilles are alike in that way.

She was yet to meet the famed Achilles; sometimes, she hoped that Patroclus was right and she never would. Patroclus was a mortal. Achilles, Odysseus, Aeneas, they would not take her refusals so lightly.

There was a knock at her door. The morning of the fifth day. She sighed, bushing off the white cotton gown they had given her. "Coming!" Daria called to the servant girl; she didn't bother responding.

Daria walked into the throne room where the gods were already seated. Bellona and Vesta greeted her with a small smile, but all Daria could think of was what Jason had told her about Reyna before they left.

"How long must we go through with this?" She asked Jupiter wearily. Any respect she had before, which wasn't much seeing as they tortured her, was gone before the end of the first day. "I still won't tell you."

"And yet you haven't given us an answer on why," Minerva mused.

"Haven't I?" At that Daria was genuinely surprised. "It's because I'm not sure I can control it."

Neptune sat forward in his seat. "Control it?"

Daria frowned. "It hasn't been tested," she hesitated. "If I tell you, you'll rely on it."

"If it needs to be tested, then you may test it here!" Bellona pointed out. "This is Olympus, after all."

"It's..." Daria could feel her eyebrows crease in confusion. "It's not something that can be tested."

"Without a live participant," Minerva realized. "You mean to drain Gaea's life force."

The hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Even the servant girls stopped their chattering, or maybe Daria couldn't hear past the roaring in her ears. "You tricked me."

"I did," Minerva sneered. "I'm the goddess of Wisdom, am I not?"

Daria glared at her, the tips of her ears started to heat up. Daria didn't like being made a fool of. "You gods," she spat. "Always think you know everything. You think I'm going to betray you and yet you won't lift a finger to help your children. Tell me, if my plan doesn't work, have you been doing anything these past few months to amend that?"

"We are few," Juno said calmly. She was right, nearly half of the Olympians weren't in attendance, Apollo, Bacchus to name a few. "Those of us who are on Earth have helped you thus far."

"But you don't have a plan," Daria reiterated. She stared down Minerva, "tell me, goddess of wisdom, how do you plan to kill my mother?"

"We were to have faith in you," Vesta said. "Trust and loyalty are qualities that gods do not have. Your plan will work, my dear."