"Send me! Send an army! Send a thousand ships! I don't care, just bring her home. I hate being without her."
[ PERCY JACKSON x FEMALE OC ]
[ PERCY JACKSON SERIES ]
cover by @humaneity !
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0005. | NORMALITY IS A PERFORMANCE WAR DEMANDS
Octavia dreamt of Sparta.
The bleached flagstones were becoming aged and old even then. The ceiling was high and pitched, built to let heat rise and escape out the slits of stone that let evening sunlight pour through. Right then, the light that streamed through overhead left rivers of golden light to seep down the polished stones and flow to the edges of shadow cast by columns. Sometimes, when the setting sunlight cast just right on the texture of the stones, it cast a glitter through her eyes. More often than not, it did not. This was Sparta. It was not a city that belonged to Lord Apollo, slayer of darkness. This was a city of War Gods. The shine of glitter never often fell in blood.
The dining table before them was long and louder than it had been for years. More bustling voices populated the long lengths of the table than ever before without reason for a party. Now, it was for the guests of honour. The Atreidai.
Tyndareus headed the table, his fearsome wife Leda close by as if the rumours of her attack by Almighty Zeus had never been heard. By her mother was Timandra, and then Phoebe and Philonoe, the youngest, sweetest faces of Leda's brood. They held the innocence of childhood on their faces, that not even the sick advisors to their father could indulge in quite yet. Not like their elder sisters, Helen and her twin Clytemnestra, set beside each other. They were an eclipsed image of the other, one with yellow hair as golden as the light, and the other with black hair streaked like a bird and eyes just as narrow. Octavia liked to sit beside Clytemnestra. She liked even more to sit opposite the auburn haired warrior.
Menelaus sat beside his brother, between Agamemnon and Tantalus, both men who would be married to Clytemnestra, but only one happily. For now, Clytemnestra shared her marital bed with Tantalus and her womb with his son who was protruding greatly in her belly with great scarlet stretch lines and the occasional protruding kick that she always made sure Helen witnessed. At the furthest ends of the table, Castor and Pollux were sat, each brother casting a guarding stare over how the Atreidai looked at the two eldest of their younger sisters.
Helen found it easy to ignore her brothers. Octavia found it even easier. Castor and Pollux were meddlesome in the way of all brothers, though Pollux carried a hint more sincerity as the eldest. Between them both, no warning could be taken seriously, and none meant anything when Menelaus' sandal kept catching against Helen's beneath the table.
The glance they would shoot each other every time their skin brushed was as electric as the adrenaline that had hit the girl's body the first time she saw a sea storm. But this was no ocean wave, this was the striking sight of hazel eyes and the slightest curve of a smile on a handsome man's face. It made Helen's heart dance.
Menelaus maintained a look on his serious face as if he was better fed by the sight of Helen's blushes than he was the food on his plate. Agamemnon kept a better poker face in King Tyndareus' presence. Menelaus didn't care. It wasn't the king he wanted to impress, it was the pink cheeked and fair haired girl across from him.
