Solangelo 1

Part 48

NICO

Will walks down with me to the dock, where I'll be doing the last burial rights for the campers who died in battle. The last one to be done is a sixteen year old boy from the Aphrodite cabin.
It's my biggest crowd yet, as he spent the majority of his life at camp and so knew almost everyone. He was on his third life, and now he's allowed into Elysium Fields.
I've gotten used to it almost, I know the speech back to front, and I know the ritual. It's simple to me.
Piper sits at the front, having travelled back for the ceremony. She gets up to hug me as Will and I arrive.
'Hey Piper.' I say, hugging her tightly back. We never really had much of a relationship, but after everything we went through - the seven of the prophecy, me and Reyna, all of us, it's sort of a given that we became friends.
'Thank you for doing this, Nico.' She says. I can see she's been crying.
'Are you ready?' I ask.
'Yeah. Yes. Thank you.' She replies.
Will takes the seat next to her, closest to me. I can see him comforting her; I didn't realise they were friends, but it makes sense when I see it. They're fairly similar.
I go through the ritual and it passes so quickly. And then the camp is empty from restless spirits again. It's like taking a breathe of fresh air, I didn't realise how overwhelming all the spirits were until they had all gone.
'He's passed through. As this is his third life, and he died as a hero, he has made it to Elysium fields. He is the last of those who died to have passed on. Everyone who died has moved on now.' I say, my eyes fall to Will for a moment. He smiles up at me, 'The ashes are yours to scatter.' I say, and pass the urn to Piper. She kisses me lightly on the cheek.
'Thank you.' She says lightly.
'Of course.' I say.
Will stands up and slips his hand around my waist, quickly leading me away from the crowd. He's realised that I get fairly tired doing the speech, as speaking is not my strong suit, and that being caught up in a crowd of people asking questions afterwards makes it all the worse.
'How'd you feel?' He asks, wary.
'Fine. Good. I feel good. It's so much more quiet.' I say, 'they've all moved on.'
'Thanks to you.' He says.
'I wish I could keep track of them.' I say quietly, thinking of Bianca. My mind always falls back to her after I do one of the burial rights. I wonder who she was reborn as. I wonder whether this is her third and final time. I wonder if I'll ever meet her again.
'Maybe it's better that we can't.' He says, 'no use being held up on things.'
'Maybe you're right.' I say. 'But I still think about it.'
'I know.' He says, 'I do too.'