Branded - Pjo Fanfiction (FRAZEL!!)

2- Confidence, courage, kindess...

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Hazel didn't know. She didn't know why she was straightening her long, white dress. She didn't know why she was braiding her hair and placing some shinning pins on it. She didn't know why, even if she was barefoot, her footsteps seemed to sound like explossions as she walked through the hall.

Perhaps it was the occassion. The three gods didn't usually dinner with them. Maybe it was just nerves.

The only thing she knew was why she was holding an asphodel flower bouquet as she walked towars the dinning hall. The white flowers had a familiar smell, a smell of destiny, although she didn't know why that was.

Asphodel represented Hades, it was his sacred flower. And, as the only willing female heir in Olympland, it was her honour and her torture.

The prickled spot in her finger started bleeding again from holding the bouquet so hard, and some droplets of deep crimson blood tinted the white flowers carnation. She ignored it and kept walking until she reached the room, the place she ought to be.

The three gods were sitting, the kings, the highest among the highest. Her cousins were sitting in the other side of the table, in less luxurious chairs, all of them wearing white. She didn't ignore the fact that Thalia wasn't there, and a sharp envy hit her. Because, although she was erased from the books, her chair removed and tiara burned, she was free.

When she set foot inside the room, her cousins quickly got up. The blessing was starting, even more important that day, as their kings were there.

She walked towars the fireplace, holding the flowers, while her cousins started with Grace.

"We set a place at my table for the gods,
and ask them to join us here tonight.
Our home is always open to you,
and our hearts are open as well.

This meal is the work of many hands,
and I offer you a share.
Holy ones, accept my gift,
and upon my hearth, leave your blessings."

"Bless this food, oh Almighty lords" She continued, making sure she said every single word perfectly "So our kingdom can grow strong and free. We offer a taste of this meal to those who stayed behind, and pray to you, who guard over us"

She threw the flowers in the fire, then sat at the table.

"We are satisfied" Zeus declared, easing the preasure.

Hazel started eating, without much of an appetite, looking into the fire, as the flames devoured the white flowers. Where did they go? Did they actually reach the other gods, those in stories, that had to stay behind?

"Tommorrow is a great day, my children" Zeus declared, speaking for all of them. He usually adressed them all as his children, or simply as the heirs. "Tomorrow you shall travel to Tartland and choose your future wives and husbands, continuing with this country's tradition, strenghtening our home."

He got up, making them all hold their breath. Hazel played with her dress.

"And you, our heiress" He said, placing himself behind her. She straightened up and bit her lip "You will have the honour of taking the carnations and the laurel wreath, our blood and victory"

"I am willing" She said, knowing her phrases.

"Bring honour to our kingdom" He said, and with that they all knew they were dismissed.

Hazel ran back to her cousin Percy's room, where they tended to hang out, and took her hair off the braids. Who was she kidding? Was she actually worthy of taking the wreath and carnations?

Her cousins entered the room quickly.

"You were great today, sis" Nico smiled encouraginly, but doubts were eating her up inside.

"Am I really worthy?" She asked, looking up, her hands interwined together.

"Worthy?" Jason wondered, perplexed, as he stared at her "Worthy of what?"

"Carrying the blood and victory of this kingdom" She sighed, getting up and turning to face them "Look at me! How can I possibly honour this kingdom? I am just human..."

"Hazel, we're all human" Percy explained, his sea green eyes shinning with the sunset light "And you're the heiress. If someone's worthy of that, it's you"

"I'm not the heiress" She snapped, tears threatening to spill "Bianca was. Thalia was. But me? I'm not"

No, she wasn't. She didn't have the confidence for it, nor the courage or the kindess. And she surely couldn't do anything to prove it wrong.

She excused herself and ran back to her room, this time her feet barely making a sound, her dress flying behind her. She opened the door, closed it in a quick reflex and sighed in relief when she found herself alone.

She grabbed a branch of one of her plants, pretending it to be laurel, and some orange flowers in the place of carnations. She ironed her dress with her hands and slowly turned to the mirror.

"We come from our kingdom, Olympland, fair and rich, to accept the Titans' hands in marriage and so fullfill the gods' agreement and wishes" She rehearsed, trying not to look at herself. "I, sole heiress to this kingdom, offer you our greatest and most valuable gifts"

Just as nerves started to hit her, the green branch started to turn into emerald. She shook it, trying to concentrate.

"The laurel wreath, representing our eternal victory against any difficulty we might face"

The flowers turned into opals before she could even start speaking.

"And carnations, represent-" The stopped, realizing she has now holding some bunch of precious stones "Whatever, who am I kidding?"

She opened a cupboar full of shinning gems, full of past failed attempts, and threw them inside. Then, she turned the mirror again.

She held a plastic tiara in her hand, then raised it above her head.

"I am willing to take his hand in marriage" She practised, her eyes closed shut with force "And strenghten our kingdom for many generations. I am willing to take my place and to offer my gifts to the gods. I am willing to workship them and to serve them, to sacrifice and work. I am willing..."

The crown was made of black onyx before it even reached her head. She opened her eyes, then slowly shook her head, then quicker.

She grabbed the crown and threw it from her window, screaming.

After a few minutes, she calmed down, and looked into the night sky. She reconized Mars in the sky, and smiled. It was nice to know something in the vast sea of perpetual confusion. And it was nice just to know that she was not alone. She knelt in the floor.

"Oh, Mars, shinning light in the dark night sky, a lighthouse in the sea of my mind, I pray to you" She whispered, her hands together, her eyes fixed on the bright spot "Please, offer me guidance, for I am lost. Please, give me confidence, give me courage, give me kindess. Give me eyes to see far, to see truth, to see within. Give me heart to bear it, give me strenght to hold fast."

She quit saying her prayers and just stared into the light.

"I promise that I'll try" She kept whispering, her voice breaking a little "I do promise. And I'll do anything you want me to... Just, please, guide me"

She looked at her window, and saw that one of the flowers had missed the fireplace, and had flown outside. She opened the glass window and jumped without a second thought, landing in the garden.

She picked it up from the floor. It was a tiny Asphodel flower, white and red, from her own blood. She looked up again.

"Oh, Mars, I don't have much to give. But I offer you this flower, my heart and blood, who I and who I will be"

She closed her eyes and threw it in midair, then looked up again.

Wait... Had the light... twinkled?

"Thank you" She whispered, her hair flying with the night wind, her white dress flowing behind her "I am not afraid anymore"