beloved daughter of the sea

A princess's trial

You opened your eyes to find yourself staring at a river of tar, as black as Nyx's cloak. The air around you was thick with the stench of decay, the oppressive darkness pressing in from all sides, making it hard to breathe. The last thing you could remember before this nightmare was feeling colder and colder as Jillian cried in your arms, her small body trembling against yours.Your breath caught in your throat as the cold, hard truth washed over you like a tidal wave—you were dead. The realization settled in your chest like a lead weight, squeezing your heart with icy fingers. An overwhelming wave of despair crashed over you, filling you with sadness so deep it felt like it might swallow you whole. You had never had the chance to say a proper goodbye—not to Percy, not to Sally, not to Triton, not even to your mother.

"Mom..." you choked back tears, your voice breaking as the regret surged up inside you like a flood. You regretted your lack of caution with the strix, how you had underestimated the danger. You knew you could've survived if you'd been just a little less overconfident, a little more careful. But you hadn't been. And now, because of your stupidity and hubris, you had left them all behind. You had left your mother behind.

She was the one who had taken care of you since you were a baby, after Poseidon decided to hide you in the ocean, afraid that the gods would target you because of the prophecy that foretold a child of the Big Three would either destroy or save the world at sixteen. But, being the god that he was, he simply left you with his wife, Amphitrite, and had little to do with you after that.

It was pure luck that Amphitrite, too kind to abuse an innocent child, raised you as best she could. She had taught you everything you knew—her motherly nature, her incredible ability to manage the entire ocean. It was her son, your brother Triton, who had trained you in fighting and strategy. They were your true family, and you had left them without a goodbye, without even a chance to tell them how much they meant to you.

The memory of playing with Triton as your mother watched when you were just a child whispered through your mind like a mirage. 

The sunlight filtering through the water, the sound of your laughter as you sparred with your brother, his strong arms blocking your every move.

"Triton! Brace yourself! I've gotten way stronger since the last time we sparred!" you had said, your voice full of youthful bravado.

It was one of those rare times when your brother had time to play with you. Ever since your younger brother Percy was born, it seemed like the sea's monsters had sensed it and began stirring, causing trouble that demanded Triton's attention. Because of that, your older brother and mother had to take up weapons themselves to defend the ocean.

That was why you had promised yourself you would train hard, become a general in your father's army, and help your family as a true princess of the sea. There was no treasured princess life for you, no pampered existence—at least, none you would willingly accept. You wanted to fight alongside them, protect them, be worthy of the family that had given you everything.

But now, in this place of shadows and despair, you allowed yourself a break. Triton had finally had time for you that day, and your overprotective mother had permitted the fight as long as she was watching.

Triton had whirled his trident around, pointing it at you with a cocky grin. "Haha! We'll see about that, baby sis! I've had thousands of years of experience fighting! You've only got twelve!"You had loved your older brother. He fueled your fighting spirit, the first to train you—behind Amphitrite's back, of course. That one time she caught you and Triton sparring, she had made you weed the kelp forests for a month. It was hell. But she had relented in the end, letting you train after you begged her for days and even made a PowerPoint presentation explaining how you weren't going to die training with a driftwood trident.