𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 (𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨'𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐬)

FIFTEEN ; festus says good-bye (for now?)

     Some part of Eileen's brain must have been left back at Medea's store, because she was having a hard time grasping the current situation. The whole place; blown to pieces. Medea probably sent straight back to the Underworld, where she belonged. Eileen wasn't sure what to think. Medea had been human. Well, at some point, anyway. She wondered if being brought back from the dead meant that the sorceress had technically been some sort of ghost. Some very real, very dangerous ghost. That was what Eileen tried to tell herself, anyway. It made her feel less guilty about having enjoyed the thought of Medea's demise.

     She knew it was wrong to wish such an awful end on someone, but hadn't that awful woman deserved it? Medea had tried to brainwash them; make them hurt each other (kill each other, even); belittled and manipulated them. Even if it was indirect, she had been the cause of whatever happened to Leo's mother. And very directly the cause of whatever was happening with Piper's father. Medea had tried to tell them they knew nothing of what it was like to have people think differently of you. To treat them differently. That had made Eileen mad. Looking back, she was slightly shocked that she had been the one to say some of the things she did. However, she was proud of herself. She was sick of being told she wasn't good enough. And she thought it was about time that other people knew it.

     She also thought about how Jason and Leo had acted towards each other while Medea had control of them. So full of resent towards the other person. Jason thought Leo was incompetent and annoying. Leo thought Jason was self-centred and ungrateful. Eileen tried to tell herself that that was Medea making them think that way, but she wasn't so sure. It was an awful thought to think, but what if the princess had only been making the boys express some of their more private thoughts? What if they weren't as good of friends as she thought.

     This whole quest was more messed up than Eileen had first realised. She decided to try and break it down from what she knew:

     Hera had taken Jason from wherever he came from originally, stripped him of his memories, and placed him on a field trip with Eileen, Leo, and Piper.

     Hera had given Eileen, Leo, Piper, and probably everyone else in the class months worth of fake memories of Jason so they wouldn't be suspicious.

     Hera was trapped somewhere, and they needed to free her.

     Eventually, there was going to be eight demigods that did... something. Eileen wasn't sure what that was yet. But, it was probably something very big and dangerous. They didn't know who the other four demigods were.

     There were a lot of gods that didn't want them to succeed in their quest for whatever reason, and were being less than helpful (by an understatement).

     Piper's dad was missing. Nobody but (maybe) Piper knew why.

     Some giants were involved at some point.

     They were probably going to die.

     That wasn't the break down Eileen had been hoping for. Maybe something that would have been helpful. All she got from that was irrepressible thoughts of death and a lot of other bad things. Perhaps it wasn't a good time for thinking.

     Festus seemed to be flying lower and slower than usual. He was strong, but he was also carrying a heavy load. Four people and two massive cages were probably weighing him down a lot. Leo spoke to his dragon quietly as they flew; much like how a mother might speak to their child.

     Eileen realised that Leo seemed to be spending a lot more time with his thoughts than he used to. They all did, but perhaps him especially.

     She reached out her hand, but she hesitated. No matter how much she tried to forget it, the thought of Leo now came with a matching sting in her hand and all she could think about was the way fire seemed to use Leo as its own private playground, and the way her hand had begun to blister and burn. She knew he hadn't meant to do it. He probably didn't even remember burning her. But it had still happened. And if Leo had been so willing to fight Jason - and if that thought had come from somewhere previously existing - didn't that mean that at some point he had thought of hurting her with his powers, too?