A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Caput IX: A Hidden Nobility

Trigger Warning: Harassment ahead. 

"Virtue is the truest nobility." -Miguel de Cervantes  

Caput IX: A Hidden Nobility

TIME seemed to blur together for Annabeth until she had no sense of it left. She was left entirely alone to her dark thoughts and the crippling onslaught of guilt. What had she done? How did it turn out this way? All she wanted was to stop Octavius from ruthlessly slaughtering a young girl— and then she somehow got Percy into a horrible situation; and that girl was probably in a worse state than when she had been in the coliseum.

All your fault, a voice inside of her head reminded Annabeth. After all, doesn't this happen every time you try to do something good?

Annabeth shook her head at the rather nasty voice and began to pace. There was that one time I saved Nico though.

You were the one who blurted out he's Spartan.

She clenched her jaw and very forcibly made her mind go blank. It was just her conscious talking—and besides... maybe Octavius wouldn't really go through with the lashings. After all, he was his son, and it wasn't like Percy had kidnapped someone or anything. In fact, he had only spoken out because of her big fat mouth.

"That's right," she whispered, stopping and looking at herself in the mirror on top of her dresser. She looked tired in her reflection and her hair had fallen out of the elegant bun Percy had fixed earlier during the day. "Octavius wouldn't do something that horrible. It is a punishment fit for kidnappers and rapists and murderers, and even then that's soft."

But a voice that sounded suspiciously like her brother was whispering; but you aren't in Athens* anymore—this is Romi.

She shoved that voice to the back of her mind. She was just being silly— and paranoid. No father would do that to his son. It just wasn't right.

Unless, of course, you were Hades. But even then, he had done that to Nico by accident— made him separate from his sister.

There was a loud squeak —the door, probably— and Annabeth spun around. A guard stood in the frame, his arms folded over his chest, eyeing her with a gaze that made her skin crawl with goosebumps. A horrible feeling formed in her gut, and she tilted her head up and squared her shoulders back. Someone had told her that to show weakness left you vulnerable to attacks.

"His Excellency says you may leave now."

Annabeth nearly sagged with relief as she realized she was free from this house-arrest. How long had it been? Two bell rings, three? She stepped closer to the door, but he didn't step out of her way. 

What if he's hurt? What if he's dy- She cut the thought off before it could continue into something horrible. It didn't stop her from remembering the time when a bear had attacked her. 

"Sir?" she began, trying to resist the urge to tap her fingers against her side, to jump around. "I implore for you to move aside."

The guard grinned showing that his teeth were crooked and yellow. A few were missing or chipped. Annabeth slowly began to back into a table as he stepped inside of her and Percy's chambers—which was very much not proper, at all. Her hand scrambled around for something, anything, as he loomed over her; his breath stank of something foul, and her heart had started to quicken.

I've got a very, very bad feeling...

He took her chin roughly, forcing her to look at him, and his grasp wasn't at all like Percy's. Even though his was rough, he hadn't really hurt her, and she hadn't felt scared of him. Well, she had, but not in this way.