Indigo Eyes

Chapter 26

Annabeth walked in first and she looked almost unrecognisable. She was wearing a sleeveless silk dress like C.C.'s, only white. Her blonde hair was newly washed and combed and braided with gold. Worst of all, she was wearing makeup, which typically Annabeth would never be caught dead in.

Percy the guinea pig was already tongue-tied, but then Cressida walked in.

While Annabeth's dress was white, Cressida's was indigo like her eyes, as if they'd found a way to drape wine and water around her body. A gold band was sitting around her bicep and her charm bracelet was still on her wrist and her camp necklace was still around her neck which oddly enough, didn't look out of place. Her raven hair had been washed and braided with gold like Annabeth's as it was swept onto her left shoulder, almost reaching her waist. However, Cressida wasn't in make-up or at least much of it. Her lips were painted a dark pink, almost the colour of wine, and her eyelashes looked longer and more curled. She looked...beautiful.

"Where's Percy?" Cressida asked, her lips like rose petals as she spoke. To be quite honest, she'd never been more relaxed in her life. They gave her a massage and she'd had no idea how many knots were in her back until they rubbed them out.

C.C. smiled. "He's having one of our treatments, my dear. Not to worry. You look wonderful! What did you think of your tour?"

Annabeth's eyes brightened. "Your library is amazing!"

"It was breathtaking," Cressida agreed, a small smile on her face.

"Yes, indeed," C.C. said. "The best knowledge of the past three millennia. Anything you want to study, anything you want to be, my dear."

"An architect?" Annabeth answered while Cressida only fiddled with her bracelet, not knowing what she wanted to be.

"Pah!" C.C. said. "You, my dears, have the makings of a sorceress. Like me."

Annabeth took a step back towards Cressida who looked even more apprehensive than the blonde. "A sorceress?"

"Yes, my dear." C.C. held up her hand. A flame appeared in her palm and danced across her fingertips. "My mother is Hecate, the goddess of magic. I know a daughter of Athena when I see one. We are not so different, you and I. We both seek knowledge. We both admire greatness. Neither of us needs to stand in the shadow of men. And you, daughter of Dionysus, your eyes give you away. You radiate power. I can teach you to control it. I can teach you the one skill you've never been able to learn yourself."

And while Annabeth was confused, Cressida looked tempted by the sorceress' words.

"I-I don't understand," Annabeth said.

"Stay with me," C.C. was telling the girls. "Study with me. You can join our staff, become a sorceress, and learn to bend others to your will - even more than you already can, Cressida. You will become immortal!"

"But-"

"You are too intelligent and too powerful, my dears," C.C. said, cutting off Annabeth. "You know better than to trust that silly camp for heroes. How many great female half-blood heroes can you name?"

"Um, Atalanta, Amelia Earhart –"

"Bah! Men get all the glory." C.C. closed her fist and extinguished the magic flame. "The only way to power for women is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now there were powerful women! And me, of course. The greatest of all."

"You're Circe," Cressida deduced as Annabeth's eyes widened and both girls backed up.

"Yes, my dears. You need not worry. I mean you no harm."

"What have you done to Percy?" Annabeth asked and Cressida's eyes landed on the cage as they widened, seeming to put things together, especially as C.C. said,