BY fates design

Guilt

"SO COOL" Nico yelled, holding his hand out to Chiron, face split in a grin. "You're... you're a centaur."
Chiron managed a nervous smile. "Yes, mr Di Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer my human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters."

"The focus is back on camp." Orion mused, swirling a glass of whiskey in his hand, ice clinking against the glass gently and the amber liquid washed over it.

Nico hardly kept his focus on Chiron for a moment before whirling round to face Dionysus. "And whoa! You're the wine dude! No way!"
Mr D turned his eyes away from the older demigods to give Nico a look of loathing. "The wine dude?"

Nico bounced on the balls of his feet. "Dionysus right? Oh, wow! I've got your figurine."
"My figurine?"
"In my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you only have like five hundred attack points and everybody thinks you're the lamest god card. I totally think your powers are sweet!"

Perplexed, Dionysus blinked, his attention entirely diverted from the others in the room, likely to their benefit. "Ah, well that's... gratifying."

Will cackled, eyes scrunching with laughter that made stitches in his side. "Oh, what an innocent flower you were." He teased, nudging Nico's arm.
"Shut up." The son of Hades huffed, refusing to meet the blonde's eye.

"Percy," Chiron quickly redirected the conversation, "you and Thalia go down to the cabins. Inform the campers we'll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening."

"Capture the flag?" Percy frowned, "but we don't have enough-"
"It is tradition," Chiron sighed. "A friendly match whenever the hunters visit."
"Yeah," Thalia muttered, "bet it's real friendly."

Chiron jerked his head towards Mr D, who was still frowning as Nico talked about how many defence points all the gods had in his game, "run along now," he told them, "Alex, Jake, Eleana, Kira, you go too."

"Oh, right." Thalia nodded. "Come on, Percy." She hauled Percy out the Big House before Dionysus could remember that he wanted to kill him. Jake sauntered behind them, his siblings beside him.

The mages were silent for the entire walk through camp, expressions tense, each step Eleana took on the grass sprouted a mixed trail of forget me nots and white lilies.

"You've already got Ares on your bad side," Thalia reminded Percy as they trudged towards the cabins. "You don't really need another immortal enemy."

"He and Cassiopeia are truly opposites in the favour of the gods." Walburga hummed. "One who held their gratitudes and the other who held their rage."

"How poetic." Euphemia laughed, a warm sound that spilled from her lips like honey and sunlight. "A truly complimentary pair."

Percy huffed, recalling his first summer as a camper, the fight he'd gotten into with Ares, and now all his children - bar Kira, but that might have changed now - hated him. "Sorry, I couldn't help it. It's just so unfair."

Thalia stopped by the armoury and looked out across the valley, towards the top of half blood hill. Her pine tree was still there, the Golden Fleece glittered in its lowest branch. The tree's magic still protected the borders of camp, but it no longer used Thalia's spirit for power.

"Percy, everything is unfair," she muttered, "sometimes I wish..." she didn't finish, but Percy could feel it in her tone that she was sad, and despite everything he felt bad for her, she was just a teenager too.

"We'll get them back," Percy promised. "I just don't know how yet."
"First I found out that Luke is lost," she stared blankly ahead, "now Annabeth-"
"Don't think like that."