ALEA IACTA EST ; GRACE

027.

ALTHOUGH PHILOMENA PREFERRED to use her bow, halfway through the fight her quiver was empty and she had to use her gladius to fight off the defenders.

While she tried to mostly concentrate on the people who she was attacking, Philomena couldn't help but notice Percy.

The boy with dark hair and tanned skin slashed through the crowd of legionnaires; he rolled under their feet, whacked them with the flat of his blade and really just fought in a way Philomena had seen only once before.

Percy was fighting exactly like the daughter of Athena Philomena had faced during the battle on Mount Othrys. This could only mean one thing: Percy was a Greek demigod.

But how was this possible? And why was he here, in a Roman camp?

Too many thoughts ran through her mind and at some point she stopped paying attention to her surroundings, which was not the smartest move. Soon somebody attacked her and tried knocking her out with the handle of their gladius.

Fortunately Philomena was fast enough to react and without intending to, she turned the red color surrounding the girl into a dark blue, making tears run down her face and as if on command, she dropped her gladius and curled up into a ball.

Philomena cursed at that. She hadn't intended to do this, she just wanted to defend herself from an attack.

How could it have happened that her ability had grown so much? She hasn't been using it, so what was happening here?

"The game is won!" Reyna shouted over the Field of Mars, suppressing a laugh. "Assemble for honors!"

Philomena finally snapped out of it. Despite having told Frank that she would help them, she had stood off to the side since the ... little incident, too afraid to move ahead and cause other scenes with her ability.

Everybody gathered around and Philomena congratulated Frank with shaky hands. The Fifth cohort was in a festive mood for the first time in a while, so she didn't want to ruin that with her ominous thoughts.

Though, as it usually went, the Fifth couldn't be happy for a long time.

A couple of campers ran out of the fortress, carrying a girl on a stretcher. A pilum stuck out of her armor as if she were holding it between her chest and her arm, however there was too much blood.

Walking closer, Philomena recognized the girl. It was Gwen. The optimistic centurion of the Fifth cohort. 

The mood, which had been shown in the yellow color surrounding the Fifth, switched to a dark one. As the medics examined her, the colors turned darker and darker, a deep blue surrounding all of them as Philomena removed herself from the scene.

Gwen has died. There was nothing that could change this fact. The only thing left to do now was to find the culprit, the person who had been cowardly enough to spear Gwen from behind.

Philomena wanted to move away, get out of this sullen place. It was too much for her to take in, everything was too much.

Then, everyone stepped back and Gwen tried to sit up, the pilum still sticking out of her chest. She explained something about a river, a man and her just leaving through the exit, obvious to the fact that she had just rosen from the dead.

Without much hesitation, Frank, Percy and Hazel pulled the pilum out of Gwen's body. Philomena felt like throwing up. She had seen her fair share of wounds and blood (most of it had been Jason's not hers) but the bloody pilum that had just killed someone was too much for her.

She turned around and let the others talk, trying to calm her breath as best as she could. If she didn't, she would throw up in front of everyone and that would be embarrassing.