The Ambassador of the Gods

11. Second Contact

-- 18th December 2009 --

Chiron got up to make some closing announcements to an already fidgety audience, and Jace sat forward. "Okay, team."

"Oh, no," groaned Izzy.

"We have another objective now. We need to stop that quest." Over his shoulder, the campers were largely inattentive, except for a low groan when it was announced that the Hephaestus Cabin would be cleaning the stables and a louder one when he said the Aphrodite kids would have shower privileges.

"Right," Clary said, panning her attention back to Jace. "How are we supposed to do that?"

"Two out of the three questers already don't trust us, and Nico did tell us to stay away from Annabeth at all costs," muttered Alec. "Wait till they find out what we already did."

"Thanks, parabatai."

Alec smiled faintly and went back to crossing his arms. Last night Nico had warned them to keep in mind that the characters they were playing -- a ragtag group of demigods united by an immortal daimon -- wouldn't be romantically involved in certain ways. Clary had to fight off a cringe just remembering him trying to get his point across to Alec and Magnus.

Magnus, however, had saved him by explaining that immortality in this realm separated you from mortals -- you weren't just ageless, but invulnerable. You weren't human at all. It was an unnecessary risk to try to introduce the idea to the camp. Also, demigods that had been locked in their camp for months would probably be somewhat resentful of mortal-immortal relationships.

"Chiron's finishing up," said Magnus, eyeing the centaur's back. "You all better split up before things get awkward. I have an inter-realm barrier-ward-thing to figure out how to fix."

They all got up. Clary was so used to getting ready to go into battle with these friends, and even though this situation was nothing like a battle, it was still uncomfortably familiar. Izzy handed her her sketchbook. "Good luck," said Alec.

Magnus grinned at him and said, "I don't need it. You're the one dealing with the Ares cabin."

They split up: the boys went down the right side of the dais, while Clary and Izzy went for the left. But as they passed the final occupant at the marble dining table, someone said loudly, "I have to wonder what you people must think you're doing here."

Mr. D was reclined in his dining chair, a wine glass of Diet Coke balancing on the armrest, his back to them. "Because, not that I care at all what happens to you, but you must be uniquely limited not to realise you don't know anything about your morbid little overlord."

Clary and Izzy shared a glance. "We do know who he is," Clary said. "More than most of this camp, it looks like."

Mr. D barked a derisive laugh. He said over his shoulder, "Then you wouldn't be helping him," he made air quotes, "'save the world'."

His glass hung precariously from his hand. Before either Clary or Izzy could say a thing, the god downed the rest of his Diet Coke, set it down, and disappeared in a snap of berry-scented mist.

Clary stared at the empty chair for a second. Izzy sighed, "Let's just go."

As they joined the floor of the dining pavilion, Clary snuck a peek over at the Ares Table to see how Jace and Alec were doing and saw that -- predictably -- they were being sized up by half a dozen strapping Ares kids as well as being handed younger kids to take care of. Nico had explained how the increase in monsters forced younger kids into Camp, but Clary hadn't realised what that reality would look like until now. There were just so many demigods here she was shocked she hadn't ever met one before.