WAR GAMES -- connor stoll

I. The Art of Defeat

The Labyrinth of Daedalus was many things — lifelike, multidimensional, frightening, gruesome and mesmerizing all at once.

It was ineffable.

Malora had been down there during the past year, but even now it seemed so out of grasp, so intricate and impossible, that the daughter of Dionysus was reading another one of Annabeth's books about it.

She wanted to be able to not only explain it but to understand it. Maybe she had overlooked something last time, maybe on this reread she could figure out what had caused Chris Rodriguez to go insane. Maybe this time she could figure out how to heal him.

Malora hadn't known Chris back when he was still at Camp, before he had joined Luke Castellan (son of Hermes, the traitor who had turned his back on the Olympians) and the titan army, so she probably wouldn't have cared much about him, if it wasn't for the desperate daughter of Ares.

Clarisse La Rue had asked her for her help and Malora appreciated how much effort this must've taken. After all they had not been friends at that point, not even acquaintances, merely strangers. Besides Clarisse was very prideful.

But Malora's father was the God of madness after all and Clarisse had been more comfortable with asking her for her help than asking Malora's older brothers, Pollux and Castor.

It had since become a personal matter for Malora. She wanted and needed to save Chris somehow. She had spent days with him, trying to take care of him. There had been small improvements, but then his state had worsened again. Now the time was running out and soon he would reach the state of insanity, where he stopped eating, sleeping and drinking. He would die if she couldn't heal him.

Her father way away, trying to convince the minor gods and goddesses to fight on their side. There was talk of them siding with Kronos in the war. Malora only hoped he would be successful and return unharmed, maybe even help cure Chris' madness, but she didn't know how much time the boy had left, and even if her father returned this summer, it might already be too late.

"Malora," Castor spoke up, ripping the girl out of her thoughts. She had been so absorbed in the book that she didn't notice that her brothers had walked into the cabin. "You've read that book three times already and you've literally been in the Labyrinth for Zeus' sake. No one knows more about it than you do, so stop torturing yourself with this."

"Chris will die, Castor." argued Malora, not looking up from her book.

"That's it. You need a break." Pollux told her firmly, shutting off her CD player.

Ignoring her protests, her older brothers each grabbed one of her arms and hauled her up from where she was lying on her bed.

"It's a beautiful day outside, Mallie," Pollux said teasingly, "You can listen to that trash and reread facts you already know after dinner."

"Hey," Malora exclaimed, grudgingly allowing her older brothers to drag her out of their shared cabin. "If you say another word against The Cure, you'll be sleeping outside!"

Castor snickered at their exchange, but his smile dropped when he took a closer look at his sister and noticed the bags under her eyes.

"You need to sleep more. It's no good for anyone, not even Chris, if you're overworking yourself like that," he commented, causing her to shift guiltily. "Do you even know what day it is?"

She did not. She had been working nonstop, but she couldn't admit that to him or Pollux. While Castor was the worried older brother type, Pollux, despite his fun loving personality, would worry about her too.

"Just tell me what's going on today." Malora grumbled, as the trio walked towards the strawberry fields.

Her mood improved slightly when she caught sight of the satyrs playing on their pipes and making the plants grow with their woodland magic. That was how they maintained the camp after all, selling strawberries to local restaurants and other establishments.