Charmolypi

Chapter 109

Thea looked around the room and frowned. "Where's Percy?"

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!"

"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?"

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

"Like her?" Marlene asked herself, thinking long and hard about who C.C. could be.

Annabeth took a step back. "A sorceress?"

Thea took a step forward, ready to use magic if she needed to. Annabeth didn't know the extent of Thea's magical abilities, but she hoped that her best friend was skilled enough to defend them if the need arose.

"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." Her eyes moved from Annabeth to Thea. "I could sense your magic the moment you stepped onto my island, daughter of Zeus. We are not so different, you and I. We seek knowledge. We admire greatness. Neither of us needs to stand in the shadow of men."

"Circe," Regulus shook his head, disappointed that he hadn't figured it out earlier.

"I-I don't understand." Annabeth looked lost, while Thea glared.

"I live in no man's shadow," Thea said fiercely. "I don't live in anyone's shadow." It didn't take a genius to understand that Thea was referring to C.C. as well.

"Yes! You tell her!" McGonagall cheered, but quickly regained her composure and her strict demeanor, while Poppy and Ponoma giggled under their breaths.

"Stay with me," C.C. was practically pleading the girls. "Study with me. You can join our staff, become a sorceress, learn to bend others to your will. You will become immortal!"

"But-"

"You are too intelligent, my dear," C.C. said, focused on Annabeth. "You know better than to trust that silly camp for heroes. How many great female half-bloods can you name?"

"Um, Atalanta, Amelia Earhart-"

"Amelia Earhart was a demigod?" Lily asked, taken aback by they acquired knowledge.

"Who is that?" Sirius asked, and Lily gasped in genuine shock.

"She's the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean! She was attempting a trip around the world when she disappeared," she informed Sirius.

"Disappear?" he asked confused.

"She was flying over the Pacific when her plane disappeared," she told Sirius before she frowned. "I guess it could be because she's a demigod..."

"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."

"Get over yourself, Circe," Thea scoffed. "A woman that puts other women down is not a powerful woman, but a pathetic one."

"Circe?"

"There's no way she was able to figure it out!"

"That actually explains so much," Marlene said in realization.