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They sailed through the night.
Annabeth tried to help Percy keep lookout, but sailing didn't agree with her. After a few hours rocking back and forth, her face turned the color of guacamole and Marlowe suggested she went below to lie in a hammock.
Percy and Marlowe were left alone on the deck of the ship, both of them sitting down and watching the stars in the night sky.
"Do you remember when Hermes visited us back at camp?" Percy asked out of nowhere.
Marlowe tore her eyes away from the stars and looked at Percy. "Yeah, why?"
"Uh." Percy wasn't really sure why he brought it up—he was sure, he just didn't want to elaborate. "When he asked us about our favorite stars...you said the North Star."
"I did," Marlowe nodded. She glanced at the sky, immediately finding the brightest star.
"...Why?"
The question was so simple, but it seemed to have stumped her. Everyone has their favorites, but sometimes there isn't a reason as to why they like it so much. They just do.
Marlowe loved the stars. She loved knowing that they were actually just burning balls of gas and sometimes they fall. It lets her know that even the oldest things aren't perfect, so she doesn't have to be either.
"Have you ever wished upon a star, Percy?" Marlowe asked. She saw him shake his head. "My entire life, I begged and I prayed and I wished upon that one star for a miracle to happen. I thought that the forces of the world were much stronger than a little girl, so if I couldn't do something to change my life, maybe they could. The night before I...uh, died, I didn't wish. I had lost hope. I had seen that nothing was working and so I accepted my fate of living in a messed up world and told myself to deal with it."
Percy frowned. "But your wish did come true. You came here," he pointed out.
"And to this day, I don't know why. I mean, I know that the gods had saved me and all, but why hadn't they done it sooner? Why wait until the day you were going on the field trip to send me here?"
Percy was silent. He didn't know what to say. He wasn't as smart as Annabeth. She would have known the answer.
But Percy was good at comforting. He draped an arm around Marlowe's shoulder and pulled her closer, allowing her head to rest on his shoulder.
"I don't know why you were sent here," he said, "but I'm glad you were."
Marlowe smiled as she watched the waves in front of the boat. She glanced up at the stars and silently thanked the gods for bringing her here. "Me too," she said quietly.
Sometime after midnight, Annabeth came up on deck. They were just passing a smoking volcano island. The sea bubbled and steamed around the shore.
"One of the forges of Hephaestus," Annabeth said. "Where he makes his metal monsters."
