Olympus Reborn Book 3: A New King Rises

Chapter 27:

Rhea's POV:

I went back to Hestia's Palace, thankfully unobstructed by either her or my niece, Leto. Though Percy and Artemis may have been a little harsh with the delivery of their punishment, it is most certainly a lighter punishment than what either Zeus or Kronos would have given for similar actions. 

As soon as I entered Hestia's palace though, she dragged me to her living room and started playing the recording of Percy's mother's funeral, and well step-father as well, but Hestia neglected to inform me of that.  

As I watched practically all of the demigods that stayed at the greek camp come up and give a eulogy in groups, by what I guess is godly parent, I began realizing just how much the demigods cared for this woman, and even having not met her or hearing her own son speak yet, I was left admiring the woman for what she has done for the children whom have already spoken.

Then came something I didn't expect, a young woman holding herself as if she were a great, if not the best general, wearing Roman armor stepped up and spoke a eulogy on behalf of the Roman demigods. Although hers was shorter than the prior demigods, I am left to wonder how much praise Perseus has given his mother, especially if it was enough to not only get the equivalency of Lupa, but as to say she also gives me a run for my money on deserved praise, from romans, it must be a lot. 

I grabbed the remote in paused the video though after she finished her eulogy, because she was the first to mention his step father. "I thought you said stepfather was bad" I said to Hestia and she looked a little guilty

"I may have forgot to mention second step-father good, which is this step father that we are seeing. The other, the meanie one, had a meeting with Medusa's head" hestia said. 

I unpaused the video only for Apollo and two of my other grandchildren to give their eulogy before it was, by my guess Paul's family, who spoke little of Sally. I don't know about you, but I could sense there was some tension about Sally on his side of the family. Following them was Artemis and Percy, and I must say that both were heartbreaking as they could both barely speak without crying. 

Now say what you want about my involvement in the world in general, and even for the short time that I have known Percy and Thalia, but I know that they, along with Artemis, rarely allow sadness and related emotions to get the better of them, and even more rarely cry. But to see their raw emotion even if it is in video footage, is very telling to me just how much this woman must have affected their lives. I myself was nearly crying by the end of Percy's eulogy.

Hestia though stopped the video after Chiron uttered the prayer for their souls to have a safe journey to the afterlife. "Mommy we don't watch last part" Hestia stated, as if it was a matter of fact.

"why" I questioned rubbing the tears out of my eyes.

"too sad. we don't watch" Hestia said

"But I want to see how it ends now" I stated, Hestia nodded and unpaused the video but immediately ran off to somewhere else in her palace.

I finished watching the video and by the end I was crying fairly hardly, and only vaguely remembering turning off the tv. How could the fates be so cruel to her.  

I don't know how long I was crying for but eventually Hestia came and cuddled into me allowing me to hold her. "I told you mommy. I said it was too sad, but you didn't listen" she said softly, as if she was the mother and I, the child. 

I cried for a few more minutes, before getting a hold of myself, and admitting she was right.

"Do you want to watch tv with me now then mommy or should we go make dinner" Hestia asked

"why don't we do both" I stated picking her up and carrying her to the kitchen with me.

"what should we have for dinner today" I asked

"ummm I don't know I haven't thought much about that" She answered

I started going down the list of dinner foods

"Chicken" 

"No"

"Steak"

"no"

"Pizza"

"Ok"(An: I'm thinking about making a pizza rn)

"Pizza it is then" I stated and started pulling out  the ingredients to make homemade pizza. 

Hestia started working on the sauce as I made the dough, and we had a nice little bonding time over the cooking, though I did question what she was doing when she dumped an entire bottle of blue food coloring in not only the sauce but another in the dough as well. 

"What blue food is good" Hestia stated as if it was fact, and well the pancakes were good and somehow better than usual pancakes this morning so I rolled with it.  

We threw the pizza into the oven and waited for it to bake until perfection, while watching some of Hestia's favorite tv shows. Eventually, the Pizza was finished and we started watching a movie while eating, before the day eventually ended and I took a sleeping Hestia to bed. Who upon placing her in bed, asked me not to leave her while holding onto my arm so I laid down next to her eventually falling to sleep myself.