madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-kiss kiss bitch-

Teqi wished she liked food, because the Romans sure knew how to eat. Sets of couches and low tables were carted into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom. Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits—aurae—swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies. Teqi liked the look of the cookies. Drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts—Lares—in togas and legionnaire armour.

Around the edges of the feast, satyrs trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with Mrs. O'Leary, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits. Teqi didn't feel the urge to pat the elephant anymore, she never liked them that much. She wasn't sure why she had wanted to. The whole scene was so familiar, like home, yet it felt wrong. Like looking in a mirror that distorted everything.

Teqi was ready to take some cookies and her friends, maybe stab someone, then leave, but she knew she would have to wait. If their quest was going to succeed, they needed these Romans, which meant getting to know them and building some goodwill. Not exactly her style.

Reyna and a few of her officers (including the blond kid Octavian, freshly back from burning a teddy bear for the gods) sat with them. Percy joined them with his two new friends, Frank and Hazel. Teqi still couldn't place why she felt weird about Hazel.

As a tornado of food platters settled onto the table, Teqi looked away while Percy leaned over to Annabeth and whispered something In her ear, which was kind of awkward when they were right next to her. Teqi turned to Leo, who was on her other side, and took the cookie off his plate, fiddling with it but not eating it. Percy stopped when Reyna called a toast to friendship.

After introductions all around, the Romans and Greeks began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he'd gone on a quest with Piper, Leo, and Teqi to rescue the goddess Hera (or Juno, take your pick—she was equally annoying in Greek or Roman) from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.

"Impossible!" Octavian broke in. "That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there—"

"They would've destroyed her," Piper said with a bored tone, already sick of him as well. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish." Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Teqi noticed Reyna looking back and forth between Jason and Piper, her brow creased.

"So," Jason continued, "that's how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands—Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by...what did he call it? Pulling up their roots." 

Percy nodded thoughtfully, sipping a blue drink. "Gaea's been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face." Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name—Annabeth. [Pick me].

Percy told them how he'd travelled to Alaska with Frank and Hazel—how they'd defeated the giant Alcyoneus, freed the death god Thanatos, and returned with the lost golden eagle standard of the Roman camp to repel an attack by the giants' army. They didn't have to sleep in sewers. When Percy had finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. "No wonder they made you praetor."