in my dreams. - P.J.

ii : a city beyond all compare

II. ANYA !
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a city beyond all compare

Even with all the amazing food available, Anya didn't have the appetite to eat. She was worried if she did she would end up throwing up. It amazed her how 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. Drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts-Lares-in togas and legionnaire armor. Around the edges of the feast, satyrs ( fauns, Anya reminded herself. Fauns. Don't be stupid, Anya. ) trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with the giant hounddog known as Mrs. O'Leary, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

Anya's mind was going crazy. Everything was too familiar but too different at the same time. Not to mention her friends' thoughts were crowding her own. If anyone wondered why Anya Vandeleur was moody, all they needed to know was that she had a lot on her mind - literally. Not to mention, she didn't trust the Romans one bit. Especially the blond kid Octavian, who she knew was trouble just from reading his thoughts. But if their quest was going to succeed, they needed these Romans, which meant getting to know them and building some goodwill.

Put on a smile, sit up straight, and be freaking polite, she scolded herself. Easier said than done.

Reyna and a few of her officers ( including Octavian, freshly back from burning a teddy bear for the gods and he did exactly what Anya predicted ) sat with her and her friends. The Percy kid joined them with his two new friends, Frank and Hazel. Of course, she had the worse luck so he ended up right next to her. As if Jason being two seats away and Leo across from her wasn't enough. Now the flashing auras were everywhere, including right next to her and her food.

As a tornado of food platters settled onto the table, Percy took his attention to Anya. He was intrigued with her abilities, especially when she so easily read Octavian's thoughts. How could she do it? How can she just know what someone is thinking? Is it like a second voiceover? Did she practice to get where she was?

"My powers kicked in at around thirteen," Anya told him. Percy was shocked she was even paying attention to what he was thinking. "Difficult to explain how I read them, it just happens. And it's hard to concentrate on my own thoughts when other people's are so loud."

"Sorry, sorry," Percy put his hands up in surrender. Anya tried not to stare at the new marks on Percy's forearm- an SPQR tattoo like Jason's. At Camp Half-Blood, demigods got bead necklaces to commemorate years of training. Her own had a single bead with a dragon silhouette. Here, the Romans burned a tattoo into your flesh, as if to say: You belong to us. Permanently. Anya remembered her first look at Jason's tattoo. The chill that went over her body was one she could never forget. She swallowed back some biting comments about the idea of giving minors tattoos. "Listen, I just wanna say thanks for taking care of Annabeth while I was gone. She needed a friend like you-" He stopped as Reyna called a toast to friendship.

After introductions all around, the Romans and Anya's friends began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he'd arrived at Camp HalfBlood without his memory, and how he'd gone on a quest with Anya, Piper, and Leo to rescue the goddess Hera ( or Juno, take your pick - after Anya's meeting with the queen of the Gods, she learned quickly both versions of her were annoying ) 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. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish."