ᴾʰᵒᵇᵒᵖʰᵒᵇⁱᵃ [ᴶᵃˢᵒⁿ ᴳʳᵃᶜᵉ]

χ.

Patrophobia - fear of your father

Aza felt her blood run cold; her patron must've been deeply powerful in order to bring back someone from the dead. Medea spread her fingers, and steam hissed from her nails. "You have no idea what's happening, do you," she turned to Aza, her eyes glimmering. "My dear, you remember the Great Stirring from Tartarus. This will be so much worse; my patron knows that giants and monsters are not her greatest servants. I am mortal. I learn from my mistakes! And now that I have returned to the living, I will not be cheated again. Now, here is my price for what you ask."

Aza frowned; before today, before she had ever met Medea, she felt bad for the woman. Annabeth's rants and explanations had an effect on her before, and she felt sympathetic for the sorceress. But now that she had actually met the woman, that sympathy was slowly slipping away.

But her sympathy for the woman aside, Aza felt the familiar feeling of sickening anxiety in her stomach; something worse then the Great Stirring? Aza remembered even gods worrying over it, so something worse than that could only spell out disaster. 

As if Medea could sense Aza's thoughts of sympathy for her, she turned to the girl. "You understand, my dear Aza-Everett, I know you do. The people of Corinth would have beaten my children, bloody and brutal until they were begging for death! I needed to protect them; it was far better to die at their mothers hands, painlessly and quickly then at the hand of the Corinthians. Jason did nothing to protect me; he robbed me of everything. I gave up everything for him, so yes, I snuck back into the palace and poisoned his new bride. It was only fair - a suitable price."

"You feel bad for her?" Piper questioned Aza, her eyes widening. She looked at Aza like she was crazy, but the girl shrugged lightly. "It's true - or, at least, I think. Stories get twisted over millennia; one can never know fully what to trust."

"You're insane!" Piper exclaimed to Medea, shaking her head and giving Aza a slightly disgusted look. The sorceress shook her head, wailing slightly. "You understand, Piper! Would you not do anything to keep him, to prevent him from choosing her?" She spared a quick look at Aza.

Piper frowned and shook her head, but Aza could see the slight hesitation before the girl said louder, "Jason, Leo, it's time to go. Now."

The fountain turned a bright red and Medea purred, "Before you've closed the deal? What of your quest, boys? And my price is so easy. Did you know this fountain is magic? If a dead man were to be thrown into it, even if he was chopped to pieces, he would pop back out fully formed - stronger and more powerful than ever."

"Seriously?" Leo asked, looking impressed. Aza shook her head and placed her hand on the shorter boy's shoulder, forcing him to look at her. "No, Leo. It's a trick - she did that before; tricked a king's daughters to cut him to pieces so he could come out of the fountain young and healthy, but it just killed him!"

"Lies," Medea scoffed, and Aza felt her mind grow fuzzy; maybe she was thinking of the wrong story. It didn't sound right, now that she thought about it. "Leo, Jason - my price is so simple. Why don't you two fight? If you get injured, or even killed, no problem. We'll just throw you into the fountain and you'll be better than ever. You do want to fight, don't you? You resent each other!"

"No!" Piper shouted, but Aza stared in horror as the boys began to glare at each other, as if they were just now realizing how much they hated each other. She felt hopeless; at least Piper could charmspeak and stand a chance against the woman, but Aza was useless - all she was really good for was bashing people with swords, and in this situation it wouldn't do anything.

"Jason's always the star. He always gets the attention and takes me for granted."

"You're annoying, Leo," Jason countered. "You never take anything seriously. You can't even fix a dragon."