The Rogue Emperor (A Riordanverse Story)

Chapter 2: Reyna Calls Her Travel Buddy

Reyna and Frank had knelt in one of the puddles in the muddy Field of Mars. Frank was holding with a prism in the sunlight trying to maintain rainbow long enough for Reyna to contact the Greek camp. The conditions had been less than ideal, but all she needed was enough time to tell Nico to shadow travel to New Rome so that they could explain the situation in person. There were obviously better places, but they needed to keep things discrete.

Their connection had lasted all of eight seconds, long enough for Reyna to mutter "come-to-the-Roman-camp-we-need-help-finding-Hazel" before the connection cut out. Reyna could tell by the shock on Nico's face that he would be coming as soon as he could. Their attempt was successful in getting Nico to them, which was much easier than the two of them getting to Nico at Camp Halfblood. 

This all gave Reyna a bit of hope that at least Hazel was still alive because he would know the fate of his sisters soul if she'd passed to their father's realm. If Hazel and company were still alive, that means that the Hunters were probably alive too, given they were held up at the same place.

She glances over a Frank as he nervously plays with the bottom of his praetor's cape.

Initially, she'd been very wary of Frank as praetor; he was so new to the legion and didn't have the experience that she thought he needed for the job. To be fair, she'd been put in the position four years after joining the legion, but he'd been with the Twelfth for less than a year when he was appointed when Percy stepped down. In reality, Reyna had been comparing him to Jason and no one could have replaced him in her eyes. Once she'd finally stopped trying to make Frank into Jason, she began to see what good he was doing for the legion and they had become good friends.

Together, Reyna and Frank had begun to make something of the legion again before the Triumvirate nearly wiped New Rome from the map when they refused to bow to Caligula and Commodus. And when the Twelfth needed some serious rebuilding after, Reyna ran off to join Diana on the hunt. For a while she had felt guilty leaving New Rome in such a fragile state, but she knew Hazel and Frank were going to do a great job.

A figure cloaked in a black mist stumbles towards them before wiping out in front of Reyna, nearly hitting their head on the prism. "Backpack. Candy. Now!" barks Nico, his eyes struggling to stay open.

Frank digs through the pouch slung over Nico's shoulder and pulls out a bar of chocolate, unwraps it, and places it into Nico's hand. "Man that was really quick."

Nico hastily shoves the candy in his mouth. "Hazel's missing, that's a quick way to worry me."  He pauses before he sits up and retrieving more food from his pouch. "You know this is the worst spot, the middle of the field has no shadows." He swallows another without really chewing. "It's called shadow travel, I kinda need them."

"Sorry, man."

"Spare me your pity. Listen, I want to know what's going on with Hazel."

Reyna glances over at Frank, who's staring back as her as if urging her to telling the story. The Hunters didn't start this, so she felt like Frank should be the one to tell, but she also had a feeling that Nico intimated him more than he'd admit. Frank was probably worried that Nico was going to banish him to the shadow realm for what happened to Hazel, so Reyna did her best to relay what she knew of the initial quest and the help that the Hunters offered.

Nico sat in silence, slowly gaining the little color he had back in his face as his chocolate bar remedy set in. "It's hard to tell with people who I don't have a connection with, but I don't sense that Hazel or Thalia are in the Underworld; I supposed that's good news."

Reyna can see a slight relief wash over Frank's face. "That is good news."

"And the prophecy bit?" urges Reyna. "Ella said she can't help us out. Which is obviously frustrating, but you can't really argue with a harpy."