Library Sneaky || Lina, Wally, Percy, Bella, Aidan, & Cat
After finally retrieving all the necessary items to end these string of curses, demigods Percy, Lina and Wally make their way to the New Rome library to find the book that will provide them with the spell’s incantation. They’re met with Romans Cat, Bella and Aidan who happen to be around.
This mission was long coming, really, Lina felt it should have happened sooner. She and Wally had both been swamped with stabilizing those who had been cursed, however, which made it difficult to find time to do a large scale mission. Not to mention she took quite a bit of time getting gear for them. The signal blocker was mainly a precaution, but she certainly didn’t want to get caught and have the entirety of the Romans try to swarm them. Meeting outside the dome, she smiled at Percy and Wally, though it was thin and strained. “Let’s try to make it simple. Get in, illusion magic keeping us pretty hidden as we do, then search and grab for the books. Then we get out. Nothing else, nothing too hard.”
Percy nodded and double checked his rucksack. He had all the components that they had gathered so far, all they needed now was the actual spell that was located within the Library and he was hopeful that they could bring to take steps to end this curse. It was time to bring an end to this madness and return everything to as normal as possible. Weirdly the idea of being at war seemed better than constantly witnessing the pain of some of the more grotesque curses that were going around. “Let’s get going,” he agreed, beginning to head towards the library and making their way towards the library, “the sooner that we can end everything that is going on, the better.”
There was a part of Lina who wondered if she could leverage this against the Romans. She wanted to get them to agree to something, anything really, that would help end this war. In turn she’d break the curse on their people too. She’d mentioned it in passing before, but the idea of holding what could fix Brock in her hands and keeping it from him was too much. They might not be together anymore, but she wasn’t going to be the reason he was going to die. She wasn’t cruel enough to make others suffer for the government’s decision. Maybe it was weak of her. Their shoes were charmed to make their steps nearly silent as they walked and illusion made them hard to see with a quick glance. “If I remember correctly, it should be three rows from the right of the entrance.”
As they silently moved through the city, Percy spotted a few people watching them as they left the Greek Camp and headed further into the city, towards the library. Pulling his blue hood over his head, he secured it over his head and ran a hand over his thick bushy beard as they approached the library. Reaching into his pocket, he fished Riptide out of his pocket and held the pen tightly. It was a comfort thing more than anything. The familiar pen in his hands made him feel safer. Unbelievably. Nodding gently, Percy looked to Wally and was pleased to see his blonde friend was still with them. “After you then,” he said, moving to the door and prying it open, or at least he tried to before it rattled and he realised it was locked, turning to Wally he smiled. “Your turn big guy.”
Wally couldn’t help but indulge himself in the bit of espionage they were engaging in. Whereas Percy had a blue hood covering him, Wally had adopted a massive purple cloak to cover himself with. “We’ll get this done and turn everything back to normal,” he promised the both of them. Wally didn’t see anyway they could fail right now. The three of them were powerful enough alone, and together, under the guise of magic, they surely couldn’t be stopped. As they came to the door and Percy failed to open it, Wally nodded and moved passed him. His hands moved up and down the sides of the door as he whispered a charm in Ancient Greek. There was a snapping sound which came right before the door started to open. “Easy-peasy.” Wally walked in first to the library. He pulled off his hood and took in the sight before him. One of the biggest libraries he’d ever seen. Everytime he had come here it had been overwhelming, and it was only now creepier and more haunting given their situation.
Moving into the library, Lina gave a nod of thanks to Wally. It was nice to have another magic user around, they could split up the more mundane spells between them. She was certainly dressed down compared to her Greek half-brother; black jeans and a black sweatshirt covering her. It was far more muted than her normal attire, but the situation seemed to call for it. She moved briskly towards the stack where she was sure magical books were located, her eyes scanning rapidly to make sure no one was around them. She nodded her head toward the row when she found it, non verbally telling her companions where she wanted them to go. Even though it had been narrowed down to one row, there were still hundreds of books surrounding them. “Try to find anything useful, the spell is here somewhere,” She whispered to them, as she began searching for the book herself.
“New Rome really needs to update to the digital age,” he said quietly to them. Wally looked up at the books beyond him, feeling that opening the door and just getting here would be the easiest part of their mission tonight. As he plucked a few different books from the shelves, Wally looked at their titles, judging just by the cover and title if the book could prove useful or not. Some of the titles alone made him scared to read further. “Lina,” he looked over to her. “I just remembered, didn’t we have an author’s name before when we were researching?” He walked over to her. “Do you remember the name? We could try using a locator spell if we knew it, right?”
Walking ahead of Wally and Lina, Percy’s eyes scanned the spines of the books. His eyes scanned the titles which seemed to be a mixture of Latin and English and yet nothing caught their eye. There was a strange twist in his stomach as he heard a creak, for a moment he thought it was a door but it turned out to be little more than a floorboard squeaking beneath his feet. “Let’s take a look and try and be as quick as possible, what was the author’s name?” It had been all but a month since the curses started and most of them appeared to have begun to reach their proverbial end game. Taking a breath, be felt a bead of sweat slowly trickle down the side of his face. “Anything you can do to make things go smoother or faster would be appreciated.” He didn’t want to have to have a run in with anyone else that would try stop them.
For a moment, Lina closed her eyes. She knew the name, she had said the name a thousand times to herself. Yet, it was slipping between her fingers at the moment. “I know it. I know the name, just give me a second.” She needed to get the freaking book as soon as she could, but for whatever reason, her brain had decided to get rid of the most important piece of information she had. She clicked her tongue, as she thought, before finally the name struck her. “DiGregorio. She wrote the book we were looking for.” She began pulling spell ingredients from her pockets. Muttering to herself, they began to float up into the air, circulating slowly around as they looked for the book.
Wally grinned when the name fell from Lina’s lips. The moment she said it, it resonated with him. “D’s. We need to find the D’s.” Wally immediately began running along the row of books. Thanks to Lina, his feet made soft pats along the floor instead of big, echoing booms. “Percy, you got the item from Maecenas’ house?” Wally started to pull back a few books from the shelves then stopped, spotting the name of their savior: DiGregorio. There were a few books by her lined up next to each other, but it took him only seconds to shuffle through them and pick the right one. “Got it. I got it you guys.” Wally came over to them, turning the book open to the table of contents. He was smiling like crazy. “Guys, we did it. We got it!”
Bobbing his head gently, Percy reached into his bag and pulled out the ceremonial dagger that Brooklyn had collected for him, plus the focussing crystal that he had collected from Bran with Wally. There were also a number of other items that others had collected. A celestial olive branch, a vial is Gorgon’s blood and the medallion that Cas had received from the nereids. Pausing for a moment, he thought back to the documents that Brooks had also collected. He was well aware that they hadn’t cracked the cipher that kept the contents of the document encrypted. However Percy was utterly convinced that the documents held the key to this curse, but right now this was their best possible option. If they didn’t do anything now then things could only get worse and they couldn’t afford it. The last year had seen more demigod deaths than ever before. At least since the gigantomachy and the titanomachy, but those wars felt like a lifetime away now. “Here, lets get started on the spell, the sooner we get this over and done with the better,” he pulled the various components out and handed them to Lina. “I’ll keep you two safe,” he promised, “not that there’s any need for that, we appear to be alone.”
Aidan felt lost among the shelves, cabinets and carts of books slowly collecting dust. A frustrating and familiar place he visited often in search of clues and signs of his father’s time in New Rome. What he had found were books with ripped out pages, redacted documents and was often met with red tape and classified documentation he didn’t have access to. Even with the war raging, he still found himself blocked off from the information he needed. Thankfully, the curses had finally given him the opening he needed. He’d snatched the keys from the library’s caretaker, a victim of the curse who was in the hospital under heavy sedation to keep his seizures at bay. He hadn’t been digging long through the various cabinets when he heard muffled voices traveling across the still and silent library. He shoved what documents he could into his bag, anything that looked important. Criminal records, retracted news articles, and damaged photos. He shut the door as quietly as he could, wincing as its hinges groaned, and slowly made his way towards the entrance. He could almost make out what they were saying the closer he got. He drew the long, serrated knife, and tried to keep his shaking hand steady as he stepped around the corner. “Wh-What spell?” He stammered out. He cleared his throat. “What spell?” He repeated, raising his voice and his knife.
The sounds were something that Bella could usually ignore, as she attempted to sleep in a corner of the library. It was just about the only place where she could find some actual quiet these days, victims of the curse loitering everywhere and creating a ruckus. When her cat, Lucy came up to her though, she knew that there must be something going on and started investigating immediately. The girl was thankful that it was nighttime, as she was able to slip into the shadows and go unseen. It was just a moment until she heard a voice above that of a whisper, using the opportunity to step out of the shadows and in front of everybody. “Would someone like to explain what’s going on here?” She said as she looked around at the odd bunch. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t guess what they were doing there, but she found it completely unnecessary.
Cat had been looking for Bella, however she hadn’t been able to find her in her parents quarters, in the Karavadra estate or even in her bunk in the barracks of the first cohort. There were a few places that she could’ve been and Cat had spent the majority of the evening trying to locate her friend and cousin. Not out of any particular need, simply because she was family and she wouldn’t allow any harm to come to the Karavadra name. Leo’s activities within the exodus and the build up to it had been detrimental to the family name and though she couldn’t give less of a shit what he did as long as he was safe, the same rules applied for Bella. Bella would hopefully be the person to take over from her. The first cohort needed to lead the rest of the Legion from the front and they needed a leader capable of doing that. Cat and Jax couldn’t do it forever but Bella had the potential to be better than them both. So as she crept into the library, causing the floorboards to creak as she watched the situation unfold with interest, there was no need to intervene when Bella was doing such an excellent job.
Percy had hardly been expecting interruption, but when two Romans appeared out of nowhere, reactions and instincts kicked in and he drew Riptide without hesitation. “Woah,” he said looking from the boy to the girl. He didn’t know either of them, but he couldn’t help thinking how remarkably similar the girl looked to Catherine, Jax and Leo Karavadra. Maybe they were related. Everyone was related in some way or the other within demigod circles. “Let’s just take a moment,” he said signalling to Wally and Lina to keep going, “we all know about the curse that’s been fucking both our people, well we’ve got a solution to it. At least. We think we do. All we want to do is solve the problem and make things better for everyone. I really don’t want to have to fight anyone today, but this is going ahead.”
Lina’s attention didn’t waver on her spell when she first heard a shaking voice. Wally and Percy could handle some nervous kid. At Bella’s, however, she looked up. Her eyes narrowed at her, before hearing floorboards creak. She looked around, eyes narrowing even further. “Come on out, Catherine.” Her voice was harsh and cold, unlike her usual calm tones. She looked around the group. “We will be fixing the mess that your people created. We’ll save the people that those curses are literally killing. This is happening. Whether it’s before or after you try to fight us, it’s up to you, but it’s happening.” She kept her eyes on the group, not trusting them to not to attack her if she looked away from a moment. Her attention kept dragging over to Cat, but she attempted to make it less obvious by looking over the rest of the group as well.
Cat smirked at the sound of her full name. Few people dared to use it in her presence. But of course Lina wasn’t someone who was afraid enough of her to care. Maybe she was and was just being defiant. Whatever the case it was still refreshing. “Lina, a pleasure to see you and Wallace.” She stepped out and noticed Jackson, giving him a curt nod. “I am not here in an official capacity and as much as I despise the idea of working with known traitors and dissidents of the New Roman state, I am afraid it appears we have little other choice. We’ve got to put an end to these curses.” Before Leo aged beyond a point which they could handle. Her brothers safety was her utmost concern. “However I cannot and will not attempt to speak for Bella, she must decide where her duty compels her to prevent this from happening, whatever her decision, she will have my full and absolute support.”
Aidan paused, and turned to his superior confused. He looked between Bella, Cat, and the group in front of them feeling his head began to swim. He didn’t like the position he was put in, and knew if a fight broke out he probably would not escape without serious injury. Aidan wanted to believe the group before him, having watched his friends suffering and running out of time. What confused him the most was Cat’s willingness to put something like that at stake. And while he didn’t know Bella well, he felt uneasy about leaving the decision up to her. What he couldn’t understand was not only her implicit trust of the group’s actions, but willingness to ignore the fate of their friends and the entirety of Rome. Beginning to feel invisible, he spoke up. “You can’t be serious, right?” He asked addressing Cat. “If they’re telling the truth, why shouldn’t we be helping them? Hundreds of Roman citizens are suffering. We had to fill the elementary school because the hospital was full.” Aidan felt a bit of anger beginning to flare. And fear. He couldn’t become a traitor. Not now. He had too much work left to do if his own. But he couldn’t let his friends die. Or half of New Rome. “Bella, you know we have to help if we can, right? It’d be almost treasonous not to help. We have a duty to protect New Rome.”
There was something about Cat that made Lina revert into a child. Automatically, she wanted to mock back Cat’s words to her in a silly voice to cut the seriousness and self righteousness that was coming off the woman in waves. Lina had a slight theory that she didn’t like her because of their last encounter and that she might be slightly biased about her feelings toward her former friend. “We aren’t asking for your permission with this. We are doing this and we will fight if we have to. I don’t want to fight, but I will,” Though there was a part of her that really just wanted to punch Cat in her face. Again, she knew this wasn’t a super rational thought. “I’m doing this for the New Romans as much as I am for the Greeks. We all benefit if this happens without an issue.”
Getting down into a criss-cross position with his legs, Wally looked up at Percy and smiled as he said that he would protect the two spell-casters. What he and Lina were about to do would require such power and focus that it could very well shake the entire structure of the library, meaning that once it was over, they would need to get out fast. Just as he was setting up their makeshift altar and putting the objects where they needed to go, he heard a voice. He raised his head to see not one but two Romans. His eyes scanned the room when Lina started talking to someone else. “Cat,” he said with venom in his mouth. Wally kept looking around at all of them, worried that he’d have to engage Cat again - and what was this stupidity about some girl deciding if they were to do this or not. “It’s not up to any of you, or any of us. This has to be done to save everyone who can be saved. Stopping us right now - keeping us from doing it right now will only lead more people to suffer for longer, but this will be done.”
When her cousin stepped out of the shadows Bella simply glanced over. The small girl didn’t know that she was there, but it wasn’t all too surprising. Bringing her fingers to her lips, she let out a loud whistle which signalled her cat to go around and stand there hissing at them from the other side. It didn’t appear very threatening, as Lucy wasn’t a giant cat, but the animal knew to go for the weak spots. “Believe it or not, we want this curse to be over with as well.” She smiled, looking between her cousin and the greeks. “I just want to know why you felt the need to sneak in here? Certainly any Roman would’ve been willing to allow you to help look. Or they could’ve just told you that we’ve already searched this library, and others for a spell to fix this.” Her eyes narrowed. What she was saying was the truth, she herself had spent days combing through books to find something to help, only to come up empty handed.
Was the whole self righteous thing a Karavadra trait? Lina thought to herself, annoyed. “I’m sure you had the best people looking through the library, but your best people isn’t me. Or Wally.” She added, knowing that her half brother was just as important in the situation, but she had gotten rather caught up in the idea that anyone would know better than her when it came to curses. “We literally have the spell to break this right here, so maybe you all didn’t look hard enough.” She tilted her head at Bella, looking at her curiously,“You sincerely think we could take the risk of someone like me contacting you to allow me into your library? A former centurion who broke out of your jails and is now with the Greeks. Especially when this is probably the Romans mess up to begin with.”
Clearly Aidan had found himself in the middle of an intense and personal interaction with his higher ups and the Greeks before them. He could sense they didn’t take him seriously and seemed to ignore him, which annoyed and angered him further, but for the love of gods Aidan couldn’t understand why they had chosen now to start acting like children. Aidan stepped forward to draw attention, lowering his knife. “Show us the spell then. The book, scroll, or whatever it’s in. If they aren’t lying and the spell is legitimate,” his eyes cut over to Bella and Cat, “You should be able to tell. And then maybe we can discuss a temporary truce to get the spell finished. Allow our own forces to heal before spilling any more blood than necessary?” He suggested calmly.
“It’s been easier to do things on our own,” Wally said. “We had help from one Roman, but it wasn’t without them trying to get something out of it.” Wally looked over to the young man. He didn’t seem all that threatening, but then again neither did the cat near him and girl. The cat gave him an idea of something he could do if things went south. “Here,” Wally picked up the book and brought it over to the two younger demigods. “Take a look.” His eyes went over to where Cat was. Of all the Romans he had encountered, he feared and distrusted her the most. “If someone had been more careful, maybe none of this would have happened, but it has, and we are this close to finishing it. So why don’t you all just guard the outside and we can do this and get gone. Then we can all try and kill each other another day.”
“I resent the implication that we had anything to do with this abomination of a curse, our people have been hurt just as badly if not worse.” Cat paused for a moment before continuing. “However for the moment we shall put our differences aside and agree to your terms, it is of the utmost importance that we resolve this issue and continue forward.” She paused for a moment, ignoring Lina entirely. Consorting with known traitors was hardly ideal, but she would be able to cope with that later. Right now it was far more important that they solved the issues they were faced with and dealt with the political fallout at a later date. Stepping forward, she cast an inexperienced eye over their spell and nodded. “As far as I can tell this is all a good attempt, I shall allow it.”
Percy paused as he listened to everyone argue before stepping in. “Enough is enough,” he said firmly, “we don’t have time to argue about whether or not this will suit your fucking political agenda. People have died because of their curses. These curses are hurting and killing more people than I can stand. So I am done arguing with you. Either help us put an end to this madness or step aside.” He looked from Lina, to Wally, to Aidan, to Bella and finally to Cat. “If you try and stop us then you will absolutely have to go through me.” He took a moment to glower at them, thinking about the pain that Leo and Caspian and Blossom and so many others were going through. He had seen so much pain and so much suffering. Frustrated by the lack of action he let out a string of curse words in Spanish before shaking his head. “Come on, we need to get going. Anyone got a problem with this? Speak up now.”
“I’m not against helping people!” Bella exclaimed, eyes wide. “I’m just against sneaking around, and also wanted to make sure that if it does work, not saying it will, but if it does that you won’t just use it for the Greeks.” She pointed out. From how it looked to her, they’d snuck in, stolen a book and were planning on just helping themselves. With her own cousin suffering from the curse, that was not an option at the moment. She would also argue with them a bit more, but since Cat was technically her superior that meant she had to agree with her. “So you’re going to have to attempt this with some company. Since I’m not just going to leave you here with no proof that you’re going to help us as well.”
Feeling slightly more satisfied with the conversation, Lina sat down. She took a few moments to find her words. Her voice was softer, more emotional, and certainly more sincere than she usually let happen. “I might be on the Greek side of this, but I left people I care deeply for. People who are dying. I have kids who will always be my legionaries that are being destroyed by this curse.” She flattened the spell, almost nervously. “I thought about holding this over your heads, not sharing it until we could get to some agreement… But I think we all have people who are affected right now that we care about, even if they are on the other side. I wouldn’t try to harm people who aren’t even truly involved.”
Aidan rolled his eyes, while still annoyed he’d been mentally shoved aside once again, he was glad that some sense had finally come to the group. He sheathed his knife, took off his bag and leaned back against the bookcase preparing himself to be stuck watching and waiting as magic was not something in his wheelhouse. Not that his wheelhouse has much to begin with. At least not anything pertaining to the situation at hand. “Yeah, and that’s awesome for you.” He replied. “Doin’ the absolute basics. Can we get this train out of the station or are we just going to compare our moral dick sizes? Kind of on a time crunch if we’re going to end some suffering.”
Wally closed his eyes and let out a slow breathe. “I think we’ve reached the same conclusion.” He took the book away from the eyes of the Romans and went back to sitting in front of his altar. “Come on, Lina.” He placed the book to his left, facing it so that both would be able to see. She would be sitting across from him, with all the materials in between. “When we start, we have to be allowed to finish. That means no interruptions, no questions.” He pointed down to a circular line went around both he and Lina. “No one steps inside the circle. The only thing you all need to do is watch.” With that said he looked at Lina and nodded. “Ready when you are, sis.” He gave her a little smile in hopes that the new name fit.
Percy watched Bella and Cat for a moment. The Karavadra family was arguably the one of the greatest obstacle in this war. Aside from Leo, their family had done much of the damage to the Greeks, two of the leading centurions in the war effort came from the Karavadra family. Yet seeing two of them here was almost surreal. Like it couldn’t possibly be real that they were both here and that they were both helping, in their own way. Turning to Aidan, Percy shrunk Riptide down to the size of a pain and pocketed it. “It is refreshing to finally hear the voice of reason from someone who is Roman, especially from the fifth,” he admitted as Wally and Lina continued in a low chant, the spell a complex series of incantations that were above his level of knowledge, “if you ever get sick of playing lap dog to people who don’t appear to give you the time of day then come find me. We could use as much help as we can get.”
There was a part of Lina that knew the war changed her. She annoyed easier, to the point that people just watching her cast was prickling her skin. She smiled weakly at Wally, knowing that after this spell was cast they would be at an extreme disadvantage. Both would be completely tapped, there were at least two Romans there who did want to take them in. They might be able to cast, but would they be allowed to leave? “I’m ready,” She whispered, before beginning the spell with Wally. After a few moments there was a clear shift in the air, energy crackling. This was not a spell that one person could do alone, they were perhaps pushing it with only two. A spark flew between Wally and Lina, components of the spell shaking with the energy. There was a ridiculous amount of magic in the air this point.
Cat had considered making a move to take Wally and Lina, if she was perfectly honest she was still considering it. It would be a great feather in her cap bringing in two such high value targets and taking credit for solving the curses that her superiors in the cult had so foolishly sprung upon everyone in New Rome. However there had already been enough dishonourable conduct in this war and though she didn’t particularly care for honour she had decided that on this occasion there was no need to make things more complex for everyone. Or maybe it would be, she would have to wait and see. As they began their magic, she paced nervously back and forth, tugging at the sleeves of her hoodie. Leaning to Bella she sighed gently. “I wish they’d hurry up, I want to check on Leo.”
Aidan stood up a bit straighter when Percy addressed him. He shrugged, unsure about how to feel being complimented by the Greek rebel. “Thanks I guess.” He replied. “ Although I didn’t think I’d have to be it.” He said a bit quieter, glancing to Cat and Bella. Should he trust them moving forward? They were his superiors after all, but their judgement in a time so desperate, he knew he would be analyzing anything they did from now. Aidan chuckled at Percy. “That’s a nice offer, but I’m not much of a soldier. In the fifth for a reason. But the invisibility can have its advantages.” He glanced down at his bag, praying to every god he knew to have something worthwhile. He could feel the static of magic entering the room, making the hair on the back of his neck stand. He felt uneasy. “But if you have a way to end the war… You have a friend in the legion.”
Raising an eyebrow at Aidan, Percy laughed. “You’re welcome … I guess.” He smirked brightly and shrugged. “Don’t judge them too harshly hermano,” he found himself saying much against his better judgement, “war and magic make life hard and what were once easy decisions become tumultuous dilemmas. Not everyone has the blessing of clear sight.” He paused and laughed at Aidan’s comment. A low quiet chuckle that washed over the pair of them. “I was in the fifth too, didn’t stop me from becoming Praetor for a bit. Jason was in the fifth as well and he became Praetor. I guess my point is that the fifth is the best cohort and there’s more to being a hero than fighting.” He paused and nodded. “That’s good to hear, I don’t have anything solid at the moment but if anything changes I’ll let you know. The slaughter has gone on for long enough.”
Wally recited the spell word for word, just as Lina had done with him. He took both of her hands. In the moment, Wally thought that he could feel their mom with them. The light coming in from the windows and any light from any other point in the library had started to die out. There was a darkness beginning to surround them, closing in as the spell progressed. Soon the main source of light came only from the magic radiating off of the two children of Hecate and Trivia. Wally’s mist flooded the floor around all the demigods. Some of the objects began to jump from the amount of magic being supplied. His heart skipped at a certain point during their casting. He tasted something bitter in his mouth and felt a chill in his bones. Something beyond his own thoughts told him it was the essence of all the curses. In the darkness around them, there were bursts of white light, each one possibly signifying the breaking of one or more curses.
Looking towards her cousin with a look of pity, Bella spoke softly towards her. “As long as they can end it tonight for him, he’ll be alright.” She tried to give her a comforting smile, though she was unsure if it helped to ease her nerves or not. When Percy spoke, she had to resist rolling her eyes. She held her tongue from saying something rude or sarcastic towards the boy, “Yes well, after this is over our temporary truce of sorts is most likely going to be over. So it’ll most likely be difficult for you two to stay in touch from opposite sides.” When she spoke it was sympathetic, seemingly genuine. “I came off as a little abrasive before, but if you truly just want to help, I can find ways for all of us to stay in touch.” When she spoke, she glanced at her cat who’d relaxed and was laying at her feet. The magic currently going on had not gone unnoticed, but she figured it was best not to bother them. “It would certainly help to try and ease the tensions a bit.”
Cat watched the ritual and took a long breath. Swallowing she nodded at Bella, her face an emotionless veil. She was used to keeping up the mask. Perhaps too used to it. She’d often realised that there was difficulty in telling the difference between the two. What had once been a private and solitary sense of self that had been reserved for family and her closest friends. Now she rarely got to show her true self anymore. However Bella was one of the few people who she was truly able to be realistic around. “Leo is a fighter,” she replied with a shrug, speaking in a hushed whisper to Bella, “we will all be fine.” Pausing, Cat nodded. “This war needs to end sooner rather than later,” she agreed, “but it won’t be easy.” The curses and seeing Leo affected had made that clear to her.
Aidan raised an eyebrow at Bella, genuinely curious if the higher ups would pay attention to any of his actions since they had actively ignored him until this point. That very thought alone made him wonder what others in the legion could be doing right under the noses of people like Bella and Cat. As the spell progressed, the son of Venus felt his stomach begin to churn with the flashing lights, slow rolling mist at their feet and ever present darkness that enclosed them. He could almost reach out and touch it the inky blackness around them, but had enough common sense not to. His own curiosity had put him in a tight spot with magic before when he’d first arrived. “Of course it won’t be easy.” He stated. “Anything worth doing is never easy. Remember the Fourth of July?” Aidan asked Cat. “Wasn’t easy to put together. But it was worth it.”
The spell was longer than Lina liked to cast. Longer spells tended to be easier to mess up, but they were nearing the end. Only a couple more lines and the curses would broken. Hopefully. As the spell got closer to the end, she could feel the power that had gathered between her and Wally. She wished she could warn the other about the blast of energy that was likely to hit soon, but she couldn’t stop chanting. Finally, at the last line, it was as all the darkness suddenly condensed into one small ball. Then as the last syllable of the spell was spoken, it released. Energy expanded outward, rattling the shelves so hard books flew off of them. She was sure those who were unprepared likely lost their balance. She took in a rattling breath, her eyes glowing a slight hazy white for a moment, before she blinked it away. “It should be done,” She told the group quietly.
One moment they were chanting and energy flowed towards the center of the circle. The next thing Percy knew he was almost knocked off of his feet as the energy from the spell expelled outwards. A wall of force rattling doors, windows and bookshelves. As the spell dissipated he couldn’t help but notice the sunlight that had begun to filter through the windows. “We won’t know if the curse has truly been lifted till we get back to our respective camps.” He looked to the three Romans (excluding Lina) and smiled gratefully. “Fate might have put us on different sides of a war, but remember that we didn’t want this war anymore than you. If there’s ever a hope to ending it then it’ll be from us finding some common ground and working together. Like we did tonight.”
“Does anybody have a tylenol?” Wally blinked hard, staring up at the ceiling. Pushing himself up, he found that just that took a tremendous amount of effort. “Fuck,” he eyed Lina and smiled weakly. “You were great.” Had the Romans not been here, he would have crawled over to her and hugged out what little life Lina probably had left. His head was throbbing, his limbs felt like jelly, and he wanted to sleep for days - all the signs for a witch of a job well done. Looking towards Percy, he nodded curtly and his gaze shifted to Cat. “We’ll leave right away. I’m sure you all wanna check on everybody.” He mustered as much strength as he could and stood up, but it didn’t make him look any better than he felt. Wally had to grab onto the shelves just to stand. “Shall we?” Wally put his hand out to help Lina up. He nodded towards the focusing crystal. “If anyone of you’s would like to visit Brandon Maecenas, that crystal belongs to him.”
It felt a bit like someone had held Lina underwater for too long. Her head was swimming and she was breathing heavily. She was honestly glad that her nose wasn’t bleeding at this point. It tended to when she over used her magic. She was rather sure if she had attempted this on her own, she wouldn’t have been able to finish. It would have been easier if they had had a third caster. She took Wally’s hand with a quiet,“Thanks,” before swaying slightly. Walking home was going to be rough. She looked over to Cat,“I hope Leo is alright. He should be good now, but if he isn’t, let us know. We’ll figure something out for him.” Her jaw tensed for a second before she continued,“Check on Brock for me, please. His curse was pretty nasty I heard.” She wasn’t sure who knew of their previous relationship, but if anyone did, it would be Cat.