Son of Hades: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

More Truth

Chapter 16: More Truth

“It was good at the beginning, best days of my life…and hers. She was fifteen when I met her-“

“How old were you?” The question came out of my mouth before I could stop it. “Sorry.”

“19.” He smiles at my expression and leans back against the wall. “Times were different back then. The world made more sense, things were different. Brighter somehow.”

“Maybe you were happier.” He nods looking blankly out into the room. He was remembering.

“I was an explorer, the first mate of a ship called ωκεανός σχίστης. In English it roughly translates to Ocean Cutter of Ocean Slitter. I’d been to so many foreign places I hardly ever spent time at my home. I went to sea for the money but I would have stayed even if I was never paid at all.” He smiled at me.

“Then I met her. She wanted to be an explorer, a fighter, an adventurer. She tried to sneak on to our ship posing as a man. I recognized her having seen her watching our ship the first day we arrived and I took her off before she could be discovered.”

“What would have happened if you didn’t find her?”

“If she was found, she would have been killed. Women were bad luck, especially on ships. They were distracting. A sailors attention should always be on the ship and on the sea. Distractions kill. I dragged her home…I remember she slapped me. We fought then she slammed her door on my face. But I met her the next day in the market.

“Lady?” I ask and the women glares at me and goes back to picking her fruit from the stand. She ignores me as long as she can before she slams her apple back into the produce cart.

“You had no right to do what you did.” She hisses her eyes narrowing into slits.

“I saved you from certain death, if you were discovered than they would have killed you.” I snatch a pear form the cart taking a bite then flipping the vendor a coin.

“Then I wouldn’t have been discovered.” She glared at me a final time before going back to searching the cart.

“You’re a fool.” I turn to leave but the women grabs my arm.

“A fool for wanting a better life for myself? I want nothing more than to leave this place and see the world. Is that a crime? Because if it is I believe it’s worth the risk.”

“It’s a fantasy. You have no idea the dangers at sea and the strange creatures we meet on foreign lands. It’s no place for a women especially one such as yourself.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’re a daughter of Diokles and Eudora. Your royalty here. You can have whatever you want.” I had to work for every coin of my fortune and this woman dares to ask for more? She looks sadly at me then pretends to examine her basket. Everything I said was true but by protecting her secret I was ricking my own life. 

“I am a trophy with a name. A trophy that will eventually be sold to the highest bidder. I’m property.” She says shakily. “In another land I could be someone else.” She shakes her head blinking away tears. “Why am I telling you any of this, your just like any other man.” With that she walked away from the market.

“She had caught my interest,” Akakios smiles turning to me. “She was unlike any woman I had met before. Ahead of her time. She was a believer that any woman could be as strong as a man. Having no other way to get to know her I trained her, teaching her how to fight. She could take on three men twice her size easily. She was strong, determined, loving and had a temper that could frighten even the king of the gods.” I listen carefully to his story but I couldn’t believe we were actually talking about the same person.