Prytaneum
Hot Water
I came to someplace I didn't recognize, which set me immediately on edge, since the last time this had happened I'd been reborn from the walls of the Dungeon and quickly surrounded by hordes of flesh eating monsters. That didn't happen this time, though; instead, I seemed to be on a bed in some kind of room, just not one I was familiar with.
Slowly, I sat up, raising a hand to my face. I felt tired still, in a bone-deep way that came from recovering from true exhaustion. My arms felt like lead weights and my head at turns pounded and felt like someone stuffed it with cotton. I was starving, too, as my stomach was quick to alert me—enough so that I felt like I could eat for five. The pain I remembered from earlier seemed all but gone, but I hadn't felt this weak since I'd landed on Calypso's Island, and that was after I'd been at ground zero of a volcanic eruption.
But despite the exhaustion, I felt good, too. And between past experiences, the potions I'd been given, and everything else, I felt sure I'd bounce back quickly—which was good, because even without a war going on, I still had a lot of things I had to do. I couldn't just lie in bed for a week like I did last time.
"Ah, you're awake," A voice and I turned to see Eina sitting in a chair beside the bed I was in. She looked both tired and relieved. "Welcome back, Percy."
"Eina?" I asked, blinking before taking another look around. "Am I at the Guild?"
"Yes," She said. "The members of Loki Familia brought you here after you collapsed, or at least that's what they told me. The Guild has rooms for occasions such as this."
I wasn't sure what they meant by that, but a more important question occurred to me.
"Where are Welf and Lili?" I asked. "Are they here, too?"
Eina sighed slightly.
"They are, but…they're elsewhere at the moment," She said. "From what I understand, Welf is speaking to the captain of his Familia about what transpired and Lili is with her god."
"Soma…?" I said, frowning deeply and shaking my head. "He's not her god anymore; he agreed to free her from his Familia. The Loki Familia was there to see it and so was Welf. Did he—"
"Shh," Eina hushed, voice calm. "That will come after. There are things to be done in the meanwhile."
"Right," I agreed with a nod, beginning to rise. "I'll go—"
I paused as Eina averted her eyes slightly. Before I'd lost consciousness, I'd been all but naked, and it seemed things hadn't changed much while I was out. Beneath the bed sheets, I wore all of nothing.
"Perhaps you should start by getting dressed?" Eina proposed, nodding her head at a neat stack of clothes that resembled a Guild uniform, minus some of the outer wear.
"Yes," I said, trying not to flush again. In my time at Camp, I'd learned that things like this tended to only be as awkward as you made them. Learn from Wile and you'll be fine—just go over the cliff and don't look down until you reach the other side. As such, I did my best to ignore the presence of an attractive woman in the room as I quickly got dress in the somewhat ill-fitting clothes. It wasn't exactly my first choice as far as battle armor was concerned, but when I reached down to touch my pocket, Riptide was right where it was supposed to be and that was enough to make me relax a bit.
At least, until I realized what was gone. I hadn't given much thought to what might have happened to my equipment during that whole pre-emptive funeral pyre business, but looking down at myself now, I couldn't help but notice what was missing. The Salamander Wool and Undine Silk were no real loss; things I could buy and remake easily enough. The armor Welf had worked so hard to make, I was a bit sad to see go, but I'd also known better than to grow too attached to it with my track record. Riptide was fine, so there was nothing to worry about there, but…
Annabeth's dagger wasn't in its holster at my side. Or rather, said holster had probably been annihilated in the blast, and for all I knew, the dagger had done with it. And…it hurt, to have it abruptly gone. It would have been a lie to say it brought back good memories or that I even really liked the damn thing—but it brought back memories of Annabeth, of someone I'd cared about and watched go, even if some of them were memories I tried to avoid. I hadn't had it long, had never gotten used to using it, but…
"Is something wrong, Percy?" Eina asked.
"It's silly," I said, even though it didn't feel that way. "My dagger's gone. It must have melted in the blast."
Eina considered me for a moment before sighing again.
"If you mean that shining dagger you cared around, perhaps not," She said. "I believe I saw Welf carrying something similar too it, though it looked significantly damaged. But even if it's broken, perhaps it can be fixed—you are friend's with a smith, after all."
I perked up a bit at that and smiled at her gratefully.
"Good to hear," I said. "I need to speak to Welf anyway—"
"Percy, wait," Eina stopped me without changing her voice. When I looked back at her, she shook her head and sighed. "We aren't supposed to leave this room yet."
Ah…so that's how it is. I guess I wasn't that surprised, thinking about it, but…
"Pretty cushy cell," I said, pursing my lips as I looked around. I wasn't lying, either; there were several comfortable-looking beds, a small refrigerator, several lights, a window, a table, and so on. Granted, by some people's standards, it might have seemed a bit minimalistic, but it was markedly above what we had beneath the church. In fact…it occurred to me belatedly that this was the first time I'd slept in an actual bed since coming to Orario. I didn't really care about stuff like square footage or property values or whatever, but I'd missed not sleeping on a couch. "Are you in here to keep an eye on me or are we in here together?"
"We aren't in a cell," EIna said, but if she was trying to sound convincing, she should have put more effort into it. "The Guild would simply like us to remain her until everything is in order. Evidence and witness testimonies are still being gathered and the gods are still arriving."
"They don't want us to skip town before they decide if we did anything wrong," I translated, pondering it for a minute before shrugging and going back to my place on the bed. If it was like that, I probably shouldn't cause trouble, but more important, I wonder if I could get away with going back to sleep. "Got it. What do you think will happen?"
"The Guild and the gods will decide, once everyone available has arrived," Eina said, looking a little worried now. "I don't have any reason to believe you'll be in undue trouble, considering the circumstances and the Loki Familia's supporting statements. In all likelihood, there will be fines for the damages, but I would expect most of them to be directed towards the Soma Familia. From what Lady Riveria told me, Soma agreed to take responsibility for the actions of his Familia as well, so there shouldn't be a problem."
"I'm sensing a 'but,' here," I said.
"But I didn't see your goddess or Lady Hephaestus arrive before I was directed here," She finished. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything, considering the suddenness of it all, but as two of the parties involved, I would have expected them to arrive early. It's probably nothing, but…do you know where your goddess is?"
"No," I said, frowning myself. "But she should be with Hephaestus, I think. You think they couldn't find them?"
"It's very unlikely that they couldn't find them," She replied. "The question is if they tried. I don't claim to know how the gods think, but…"
But if the people meant to be speaking on our behalf were left mysteriously uninvited, it could be bad.
I nodded slowly at that before shrugging.
"Oh well," I said. "I'm sure they'll hear about it eventually."
Eina sighed.
"You really aren't worried at all, huh…?" She mused.
She was wrong though. I don't think there was anyone who wouldn't be worried when the gods might be discussing their fate and their biggest supporters were absent. The last two times that had happened to me, they'd been talking about whether or not it'd be better just to kill me and be done with it and while hopefully things weren't quite that bad this time…well, it's hard not to have concerns.
But this was third time at this particular rodeo and it was just Eina's first. Just looking at her, she was probably worrying herself sick over the possibilities and what might happen and seeing me start getting antsy wouldn't help her any. More to the point, it wouldn't help us any; I'd long gotten used to the gods doing what they wanted, even if it meant being a colossal pain in my ass. Getting scared and worked up about it wasn't going to stop them and I wasn't sure if there was anything else I could do at this point. Better then, to work on doing something useful, like coming up with a plan. Currently, I was on 'if things get too bad, kick down the wall and run away,' but maybe I'd get a stroke of brilliance if I thought hard enough.
But instead of saying any of that to Eina, I smiled and shrugged.
"It's been a long day already and I'm too tired to spend the rest of it worrying," I said. "Besides, even if Hestia isn't here, Loki is, right?"
"…Is it really alright to trust your fate to someone you barely know?" She asked, shoulders sagging.
"No, but…it's fine to trust it to your friends, right?" I returned.
"Are you and Loki friends now?" Eina asked me. "After eating together once?"
I shook my head.
"No," I said again. "But we're friend and I trust you. And you trust Riveria, right?"
"O-of course," Eina replied at once, almost snapping to attention at the suggestion that she didn't.
"And Riveria trusts Loki and cares about you, right?" I continued. "So I think it'll probably be okay. It's true I don't know the Loki Familia very well, but they seem like pretty good people. You know, generally speaking."
Eina fell silent at that, perhaps unsure of how to answer, and the room fell quiet for a minute.
"Hey, Eina," I said, breaking the silence after it dragged on too long. "Thank you. I heard you put yourself in danger to ask the Loki Familia to help me."
"…I heard you got hurt again," Eina said instead of answering. "That you nearly died. Or did die. Or got burnt alive."
"Ah…" I replied, smiling awkwardly and looking down. "I…guess that's true."
"Just once I'd like you to stay out of trouble," She told me with a half-hearted glare. "To stay safe and protect yourself. How many times do I have to tell you not to get hurt before you listen?"
"I'm sorry," I said, still smiling. "But I'm still not sorry. Because…Lili needed my help and I got it to her. Even if I nearly died, I didn't screw up this time."
"—I know," Eina said with another sigh. "I thought you'd say something like that. And…I'll let it go just this once. I'll lecture you about it later, but I understand doing all you can to protect someone you care about, so…I'll let you off, just for today. So don't worry about what I did, either."
"Wow…you're giving me a break?" I asked, making myself sound surprised. "I wouldn't have expected something like that from my advisor!"
"Hmph," Eina huffed. "Well, I might not be your advisor much longer, so…"
Though she began with a faux-angry tone, she quickly trailed off and I couldn't help but watch her quietly before realizing there was something I had to say.
"Hey, Eina," I began. "If…if this Guild thing doesn't work out for you and you don't have anything better to do, do you want to join my Familia?"
She turned to look at me in turn and our eyes met for a long minute before she smiled and chuckled softly under her breath.
"It's funny, but…I'm sure it's just because of Lady Riveria, I already got an offer like that from Lady Loki, as well," She said. "I wouldn't have thought something like this was good for a resume, but…"
"Ah," I said, relaxing. "The Loki Familia would be a good choice, too. Since you know so much about the Dungeon, I'm sure you'd do well there."
"Mm," She hummed back. "Well, I haven't lost my job yet, you know. But…you know, you and Lady Riveria…I'm really glad that you would both ask me such a thing."
"Well, we're friends, after all," I said. "You can ask me anything, you know? And if you ever need help, I'll do everything I can."
"Is that so?" She asked, chuckling again. "Then, can I ask you why you're so strange, Percy?"
"Right for the tough questions, huh?" I answered, wincing slightly. "But…if you help me find something to eat first, sure. Hestia was worried, but I don't think there's any reason to be concerned any more."
Eina seemed to blink at that, looking surprised, but then seemed to remember something.
"Ah, of course you'd be hungry," She said before rising. "Yes, Lady Loki had a meal sent up for us; I put what was left of it in the refrigerator. One moment…"
I settled back on the bed, feeling tired again, but still happy. Trials or not, some food and time with friends seemed like a good way to spend the rest of the night, especially while I was still recovering. A shame they don't have any nectar or ambrosia here in Orario—
Pausing for a moment, I slowly tilted my head to the side, thinking.
"Hey, Eina," I said slowly. "What's in that fridge exactly?"