CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
SILVIANA              DUVALL

Sylvie hated getting Leo for meetings in the mess hall.

Every time, she was the one tasked with getting him. Every time, he was in the middle of some absurd project that could take half an hour to pull his attention away from.

Today, he was wedged between the layers of the hull with the plumbing and wiring. Or, at least his waist and up were. His butt and legs were still on view to Sylvie.

"Come on, Valdez!" she called. "We need you."

Sylvie heard some object clatter into the depths of his crawl space.

Leo sighed. "Talk to the pants, vaquera! 'Cause the hands are busy!"

"I am not talking to the pants. Meeting in the mess hall. We're almost to Olympia."

"Yeah, fine. I'll be there in a sec."

"What are you doing, anyway? You've been poking around inside the hull for days."

She could see a hint of Leo sweeping his flashlight around the mechanics around him. "Routine maintenance," he muttered.

Sylvie went silent. She had gotten pretty good at knowing when he was lying.

"Leo—"

"Hey, while you're out there, do me a favor. I got this itch right on my ass—"

"Fine, I'm leaving!"

That was why she hated getting Leo for meetings in the mess hall. Whatever. She just joined her seven other friends as they ate breakfast.

The first thing she spotted was that they were reserving the seat at the head of the table for her. Still. And she didn't know why. Still. Her quest under Rome ended long ago, and Sylvie wasn't ever really their quest leader to begin with.

But Percy was next to the empty seat, so of course Sylvie took it.

"Hey." He smiled. "I saved you a Pop-Tart."

Sylvie gave him a hesitant look as she sunk in her chair. He knew, more than anyone here, that she was struggling with eating lately. He'd known since Tartarus.

She understood that he cared about her, and she loved that he did, but it made her feel like one huge embarrassment whenever he brought it to light. The already-festering frustration and agitation inside Sylvie grew every time she thought about food too much. She was going to be a savior of Olympus for a second time. She couldn't afford to be stopped by a plate of one Pop-Tart.

"Eat, Sylv," Percy told her, voice still quiet but firmer this time.

"I'm trying," she responded, tone just as hard.

As Sylvie picked at the corner of the Pop-Tart, her fingers crumbling the edge into fine dust, she could feel Percy watching her. He wasn't staring—not exactly—but his attention was as present as the tart in front of her. She hated how much it burned.

"You don't have to babysit me," she muttered under her breath, careful not to let the others hear. Luckily, no one else seemed to notice.

"I'm not babysitting," Percy said lightly. "I'm just... keeping you company."

Sylvie glanced at him from the corner of her eye. His expression was casual, but his hand rested near hers on the table, fingertips drumming in a quiet rhythm that betrayed his nerves. He wasn't as subtle as he thought he was.

Her jaw tightened. "I don't need company to eat."

"Okay," Percy said simply, leaning back slightly but not moving away. "But if you change your mind, I'm here."

It should have felt comforting. It should have been enough to calm her, to make her appreciate how he always seemed to care without pressing too hard. But all it did was dig the knife deeper. The Pop-Tarts in front of her suddenly looked less like breakfast and more like a test she was failing.

"I'm fine, Perce," she said. 

Percy raised his hands in mock surrender, his mouth twitching into a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Alright, alright. Message received."

Sylvie bit her lip as her breathing slowed down again. She hadn't meant to snap—not at him, of all people—but she was so tired of feeling like a problem. Like a project.

She forced herself to break off a piece of the Pop-Tart and eat it, the dry, sweet crust turning to ash in her mouth. Percy didn't say anything more, but the way he shifted beside her, as if debating whether to try again or let her be, made her stomach churn worse than the food.

"Thanks for saving it," she said after a pause, her voice softer now. It wasn't much, but it was the closest she could get to an apology.

Percy nodded, his smile this time small but real. "Anytime, Sylv."

She brought her attention to everyone else at the table.

Once upon a time, Sylvie would have been worried about all of them being together belowdecks to share a meal. When their quest to end Gaea first started—gods, that felt so long ago now—they couldn't go one conversation with at least one person ripping into another. But after around a month of traveling, Sylvie could sufficiently say none of them could imagine a life without all of them together. It would be unbearable.

To her left, Frank and Hazel used their cereal bowls to flatten out a map of Greece. They looked over it, their heads close together. Every once in a while Frank's hand would cover Hazel's, and Hazel didn't even look flustered, which was real progress for a girl from the 1940s. Until recently, if Finley said gosh darn, she would nearly faint.

Speaking of Finley.

She and Jason were to her right. Jason sat uncomfortably in his chair with his T-shirt rolled up to his rib cage. Nurse Finley pretended to be annoyed with taking care of him as she changed his bandages.

"Hold still," she said. "I don't care if it hurts."

"It's cold, Finn," he said.

"Poor baby." Finley rolled her eyes.

But Sylvie could hear the concern in her voice, and she could hear the pain in Jason's. That stupid gladius blade had pierced him all the way through. The entrance wound on his back was an ugly shade of purple, and it steamed. Not a good sign.

Finley had tried to stay uncaring, but Sylvie had seen firsthand how worried she was. Ambrosia, nectar, and mortal medicine could only help so much. A deep cut from Imperial gold could literally dissolve a demigod's essence from the inside out. Jason might get better. He claimed he felt better. But Finley wasn't so sure.

Towards the end of the table, Annabeth had a notebook open, her neat handwriting filling the page with lines of notes and sketches that Sylvie couldn't make out. It didn't matter; she knew Annabeth was planning something. Piper listened, leaning back in her chair, posture relaxed but eyes sharp. 

And Percy?

Well, Percy just went back to eating a huge stack of blue pancakes. Sylvie felt scandalized at how much syrup he was pouring on top.

"You're drowning them!" she complained.

"Hey, I'm a Poseidon kid," he said. "I can't drown. And neither can my pancakes."

"What's up, guys?" Leo strolled into the mess hall. "Aw, yes to brownies!"

He grabbed the last one—from a special sea salt recipe they'd picked up from Aphros the fish centaur at the bottom of the Atlantic.

"Dude," Jason groaned, "I wanted that one."

"No shoes, no shirt? No service, Jason," Leo teased.

Jason grumbled a little miserably to himself—he really loved that brownie recipe. He awkwardly wriggled back into his T-shirt, covering up his exposed torso.

Finley glared at Leo. "Will you sit down? We've got stuff to talk about."

Leo squeezed in between Jason and Piper. He took a bite of his brownie and grabbed a pack of Italian junk food—Fonzies—to round out his balanced breakfast.

"So..." Jason winced as he leaned forward. "We're going to stay airborne and drop anchor as close as we can to Olympia. It's farther inland than I'd like—about five miles—but we don't have much choice. According to Juno, we have to find the goddess of victory, and, um... subdue her."

Uncomfortable silence around the table.

With the new drapes covering the holographic walls, the mess hall was darker and gloomier than it should've been, but that couldn't be helped. The real-time video feed from Camp Half-Blood often fuzzed out these days, so they'd just decided to cover it up completely. Besides, Sylvie wasn't sure she wanted to see what Camp Half-Blood looked like right now. She was constantly worried that the Romans were burning her camp to the ground.

Percy sipped his orange juice. "I'm cool with fighting the occasional goddess, but isn't Nike one of the good ones? I mean, personally, I like victory. I can't get enough of it."

Annabeth shut her notebook. "It does seem strange. I understand why Nike would be in Olympia—home of the Olympics and all that. The contestants sacrificed to her. Greeks and Romans worshipped her there for, like, twelve hundred years, right?"

"Almost to the end of the Roman Empire," Frank agreed. "Romans called her Victoria, but same difference. Everybody loved her. Who doesn't like to win? Not sure why we would have to subdue her."

Sylvie frowned. "All we know is that the ghoul Antinous said Victory runs rampant in Olympia. She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named warned us that we could never heal the rift between Greeks and Romans unless we defeated victory."

"How do we defeat victory?" Piper wondered. "Sounds like one of those impossible riddles."

"Like making stones fly," Finley suggested.

Leo nodded. "Or eating only one Fonzie!"

He popped a handful into his mouth.

Sylvie wrinkled her nose. "That stuff is going to kill you."

"You kidding? So many preservatives in these things, I'll live forever. But, hey, about this victory goddess being popular and great—Don't you guys remember what her kids are like at Camp Half-Blood?"

Finley, Hazel, and Frank had never been to Camp Half-Blood, but the others nodded gravely.

"He's got a point," Percy said. "Those kids in Cabin Seventeen—they're super competitive. When it comes to capture the flag, they're almost worse than the Ares kids. Uh, no offense, Frank."

Frank shrugged. "You're saying Nike has a dark side?"

"Her kids sure do," Annabeth said. "They never turn down a challenge. They have to be number one at everything. If their mom is that intense..."

"Woah." Finley put her hands on the table like the ship was rocking. "Guys, all the gods are split between their Greek and Roman aspects, right? If Nike's that way, and she's the goddess of victory—"

"She'd be really conflicted," Annabeth said. "She'd want one side or the other to win so she could declare a victor. She'd literally be fighting with herself."

Hazel nudged her cereal bowl across the map of Greece. "But we don't want one side or the other to win. We've got to get the Greeks and Romans on the same team."

"Maybe that's the problem," Jason said. "If the goddess of victory is running rampant, torn between Greek and Roman, she might make it impossible to bring the two camps together."

"How?" Leo asked. "Start a flame war on Twitter?"

Percy stabbed at his pancakes. "Maybe she's like Ares. That guy can spark a fight just by walking into a crowded room. If Nike radiates competitive vibes or something, she could aggravate the whole Greek-Roman rivalry big-time."

Frank pointed at Percy. "You remember that old sea god in Atlanta—Phorcys? He said that Gaea's plans always have lots of layers. This could be part of the giants' strategy—keep the two camps divided; keep the gods divided. If that's the case, we can't let Nike play us against each other. We should send a landing part of four—two Greeks, two Romans. The balance might help keep her balanced."

Listening to Frank, Sylvie had one of those double-take moments. She couldn't believe how much the guy had changed in the last few weeks.

"I think Frank is right," Annabeth said. "A party of four. We'll have to be careful who goes. We don't want to do anything that might make the goddess, um, more unstable."

"I'll go," Piper said. "I can try charmspeaking."

"Oh, if McLean is going, I want to go," Finley added. "Sounds fun!"

The worry lines around Sylvie's eyes deepened. "Not this time, y'all. Nike is all about competition. Aphrodite... well, she is too, in her own way. And Bacchus has been too careless, created too many enemies. I think Nike might see y'all as a threat."

Luckily, Sylvie's words didn't seem to upset them. Finley nodded. Piper scanned the group.

"Who should go, then?" she asked.

"Jason and Perce shouldn't go together," Sylvie said. Her thoughts ran wild, but her knowledge abilities worked them into useful ideas. "Jupiter and Poseidon—bad combination. Nike could start y'all fighting easily."

Percy gave her a sideways smile. "Yeah, we can't have another incident like in Kansas. I might kill my bro Jason."

"Or I might kill my bro Percy," Jason said amiably.

"Have I mentioned how beautiful you look today, Duvall?" Finley winked over the table at her flirtatiously. "Forget Skipper. We can run away together."

"You're ridiculous." Sylvie shook her head, but she was laughing amusedly as she did so. She really did love her friends.

Annabeth sighed. "There was a point to this conversation, remember? We also shouldn't send Frank and me together. Mars and Athena—that would be just as bad."

"Okay," Leo broke in. "Sylv and I for the Greeks. Frank and Hazel for the Romans."

"Me and Hazel together?" Sylvie asked. "Are you kidding? Our parents are Demeter and Pluto."

Leo winced. "Oops. Sorry. Forgot about that little spat."

"Little spat?" Hazel repeated, eyes wide. "They still come for each other's necks at every chance, and it's been centuries!"

"Okay, okay, I see the problem now," he said. "Me, you, Percy, and Frank will go. Is that the ultimate non-competitive dream team or what?"

Annabeth and Frank exchanged war-godly looks.

"It could work," Frank decided. "I mean, no combination is going to be perfect, but Poseidon, Hephaestus, Pluto, Mars... I don't see any huge antagonism there."

Hazel traced her finger along the map of Greece. "I still wish we could've gone through the Gulf of Corinth. I was hoping we could visit Delphi, maybe get some advice. Plus it's such a long way around the Peloponnese."

"Yeah." Sylvie's heart sank when she looked at how much coastline they still had to navigate. "It's July 22nd already. Counting today, only ten days until—"

"I know," Jason said. "But Juno was clear. The shorter way would have been suicide."

"And as for Delphi..." Finley leaned toward the map. The blue harpy feather in her hair swung like a pendulum that distracted Jason. "What's going on there? If Apollo doesn't have his Oracle anymore..."

Percy grunted. "Probably something to do with that creep Octavian. Maybe he was so bad at telling the future, he broke Apollo's powers."

Jason managed a smile, though his eyes were cloudy from pain. "Hopefully we can find Apollo and Artemis. Then you can ask him yourself. Juno said the twins might be willing to help us."

"A lot of unanswered questions," Frank muttered. "A lot of miles to cover before we get to Athens."

"First things first," Annabeth said. "You guys have to find Nike and figure out how to subdue her... whatever Juno meant by that. I still don't understand how you defeat a goddess who controls victory. Seems impossible."

"We'll see about that." Leo grinned, rising to his feet. "Let me get my collection of grenades and I'll meet you guys on deck!"

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯ 

So, long story short: Percy, Leo, Hazel, and Frank returned to the Argo II with Nike tied up, wrapped in duct tape, and gagged by a sock lodged in her mouth.

That was good. They successfully tricked the goddess. That was also good. Then she started shouting about how they would never get the cure after they asked her about which one of the nine would die. That was less good.

But all in all, they were now harboring a godly fugitive in the stables! Yay!

After that whole fiasco, Piper and Frank went out to the port of Pylos to look for poison. Eventually, they found it in Nestor's (don't ask Sylvie who Nestor was) cave, and Frank received the poison from his descendants of Periclymenus.

Which led them to where they were now. The crew gathered for a hurried meeting on the foredeck—mostly because Percy was keeping an eye on a giant red sea serpent swimming off the port side.

"That thing is really red," Percy muttered. "I wonder if it's cherry-flavored."

"Why don't you swim over and find out?" Sylvie teased.

"How about no."

"Anyway," Frank said, "according to my Pylos cousins, the chained god we're looking for in Sparta is my dad... uh, I mean Ares, not Mars. Apparently the Spartans kept a statue of him chained up in their city so the spirit of war would never leave them."

"Oo-kay," Finley said. "The Spartans were freaks."

Leo shrugged. "Well, we've got Victory tied up downstairs. I don't think we can talk."

Jason leaned against the forward ballista. "On to Sparta, then. But how does a chained god's heartbeat help us find a cure for dying?"

From the tightness in his face, Sylvie could tell he was still in pain. Every time she looked at him, she couldn't get the scene from Ithaca out of her head. Jason getting stabbed, just as Sylvie once had by Eurydice. Finn nearly going insane with worry, just as Percy once had himself. It was all too familiar.

"Finley?" Hazel asked.

All heads turned to Finley, but Finley didn't respond. Her head was too busy looking at Jason. Her unsettling eyes swam with concern.

Annabeth clapped. "Briggs!"

Finley flinched, stirring back into reality. "Uh—sorry—what?"

"I was trying to ask you about the visions," Hazel prompted. "You told me you dreamed some stuff last night?"

"Uh... right." Finley reluctantly nodded. Ever since she died in Alaska, she received visions in her dreams that always depicted her near-death moments. So far, they haven't been actual-death moments, which was good. "I, um... There was this one vision of Sylv and I. We were exploring some ruins—"

"Ruins!" Leo rubbed his hands. "Now we're talking. How many ruins can there be in Greece?"

"Quiet, Leo," Annabeth scolded. "Finley, do you think it was Sparta?"

"Maybe," Finley said. "Anyway... suddenly we're in this dark place like a cave. We're staring at this bronze warrior statue. In the vision, Sylv touches the statue's face and flames start swirling around us. That's all I saw."

"Flames." Frank scowled. "I don't like that vision."

"Me neither." Percy kept one eye on the red sea serpent, which was still slithering through the waves about a hundred yards to port. "If the statue engulfs people in fire, we should send Leo."

"I love you too, man."

"You know what I mean. You're immune. Or, fuck, give me some of those nice water grenades and I'll go. Ares and I have tangled before."

Sylvie finally found the nerve to speak. From the moment Finley disclosed the contents of her dream, her brain had started spiraling. Finley only had visions of near-death experiences. And Sylvie was in one of them. They were the two demigods most likely to die in this war against Gaea, and now they had to go off alone?

Yeah. Scary idea.

But—

"If Finley saw the two of us going after the statue, then that's who should go," she said, though it pained her to do so. "We'll be alright. Somehow the two of us always find a way to survive."

"That's true." Frank shrugged. "Finley literally came back to life."

"Briggs the cockroach," Leo teased. Finley slapped him upside the head.

"When you've all finished discussing how prone to death I am," she said, scowling slightly.

Frank grimaced. "Sorry." He held out the vial of Pylosian mint. "What about this stuff? After the House of Hades, I kind of hoped we were done drinking poison."

"Store it securely in the hold," Annabeth said. "For now, that's all we can do. Once we figure out this chained god situation, we'll head to the island of Delos."

"The curse of Delos," Hazel remembered. "That sounds fun."

"Hopefully Apollo will be there," Annabeth said. "Delos was his home island. He's the god of medicine. He should be able to advise us."

Off the port bow, the cherry-flavored sea serpent spewed steam.

"Yeah, it's definitely checking us out," Percy decided. "Maybe we should take to air for a while."

"Airborne it is!" Leo said. "Festus, do the honors!"

The bronze dragon figurehead creaked and clacked. The ship's engine hummed. The oars lifted, expanding into aerial blades with a sound like ninety umbrellas opening at one, and the Argo II rose into the sky.

"We should reach Sparta by morning," Leo announced. "And remember to come by the mess hall tonight, folks, 'cause Chef Leo is making his famous three-alarm tofu tacos!"

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯ 

BAILEY YAPS...

Have you ever sobbed your eyes out writing about Pop-Tarts

Idk man the end is near and I'm just very emotional these days. Sylv and Finn I am fonder of you now more than ever

Ok yeah so I don't understand why they sent Leo and Frank on the Nike quest together as if Hephaestus and Mars don't beef over Aphrodite. But. Whatever.

I have just really fallen in love with the 9 dynamic like "None of them could imagine a life without all of them together. It would be unbearable." oh I want to be their best friends