"Then why should we ally ourselves with you?" another voice asked. This time it was a blonde boy who was so thin Percy wondered he was just a skeleton wearing a human face. His name and title floated above his head;
Octavian, Legacy of Apollo
Lv- 13
"What do you mean?" asked Thalia surprised.
"I mean you are Greeks," Octavian spat out with hate dripping out of his tongue. Percy was impressed, for a 11 year old he certainly had a lot of hate to give out. "And we all know how Greeks are," Octavian said addressing everyone in the room, "she will back stab us the moment we have our backs turned!"
Thalia raised an eyebrow, "we are allied with the gods. If you don't ally yourself with us that means you do not ally yourself with the Gods. Does that mean Camp Jupiter wishes to ally itself with the Titans?"
"What?! No!" Octavian shouted.
"Really? Because that's what it sounds like to me," Thalia said narrowing her eyes at him.
"I-I didn't mean it like that! I jus-"
"-Give up kid," Percy spoke, "you lost this one."
Octavian blushed and sat back down. Percy could tell the hate hadn't gone anywhere, it was still there, festering, growing. 'Maybe I should keep an eye out for this guy.'
"Yes, like I said we need to come together on this," Thalia said, "Romans, Greeks, together."
Many of the Senators spoke and most were looking uncertain when suddenly Julia stepped in.
"Senators before you give an answer I must tell you one thing," Julia then proceeded to explain to them what Percy had done. How he casually swore by the Styx to non violence in the Senate and how she believed he genuinely wanted peace between the camp.
While before the Senators looked suspicious, the mention of Percy's oaths swayed them towards trust rather than doubt.
"See," Percy whispered into Thalia's ear, "it all worked out well in the end."
Thalia glared at Percy, "don't think you got off easy Mr. I am still going to kick your ass when we get back to camp."
When Julia was done the Senate began to talk amongst themselves again. Finally Edgar got up, "we understand you all wish to join forces, and the fact that you are willing to swear on the Styx to that is truly impressive. But you have to understand, we have spent thousands of years fighting and fear the Greeks. We need to be sure of your commitment."
"What do we have to do to prove ourselves?" Thalia asked.
"Simple," Edgar replied, "what do you know off the symbol of our camp?"
"You can't be serious!" Julia cried out, "Edgar that is suicide!" Even Rob nodded, the look on his face told Percy he was scared for them.
"We need to be sure they are on our side Julia," Edgar simply repeated himself, "this will prove their power and their loyalty."
"But Edgar-"
"-Enough!" the man said in a harsh tone shutting Julia down. He turned to Percy and Thalia, "so what do you know of our camp's symbol?"
Percy and Thalia shared a look. "Nothing," Thalia admitted.
"Then it is time I gave you a history lesson," Edgar said as he began his tale, "you see we have lost something, something of great value to the whole camp."
"Yeah, thanks to the fifth cohort!" a Ghost floating in the back spat out. Jason and the other Legionnaires of the 5th bowed their heads in disgrace, but Edgar ignored them.
"This symbol was a large Eagle made out of Imperial Gold-"
"-Wait," Thalia interrupted, "Imperial Gold?"
Egar and the other Romans looked surprised, "yes….you have never heard of this?"
Percy and Thalia shook their heads, "we mainly use celestial bronze weapons in the Greek camps."
Edgar and the other campers nodded, "I see… well the imperial gold was a metal made during the time of ancient Rome. It was made by the priests of the time using very ancient and powerful sorcery to create it."
'Like Waverider,' Percy realised as he idly wondered whether about the process of creating the metal. Percy remembered that he had an imperial gold spear stored somewhere in his inventory, maybe he should check it out later.
"Imperial Gold was Rome's answer to Celestial bronze, which was rare itself. We used to have more…, but after the incident with the Fifth cohort and the Eagle..."
"What happened?" Percy asked, his curiosity peaked.
"There was a Praetor, Marcus Varus from the fifth cohort. He believed himself to be part of the prophecy of seven and wished to bring glory to the camp to fulfill it."
"I'm sorry prophecy of seven?" Percy asked.
Edgar sighed, "it is an ancient prophecy, with no signs of being fulfilled any time soon. But that is not important. What is important is that Marcus believed himself to be one of the chosen demigods in the prophecy. He consulted with an Augur-"
"-An oracle," Julia supplied seeing Percy and Thalia's confused faces.
"-And he found that the answers he needed was in Alaska. So Marcus, in his hubris, took the whole of fifth cohort, most of our imperial gold weapons and the Eagle itself and set out to prove himself…..he never came back. He disappeared in that land, no one knows what happened to him."
Percy narrowed his eyes, "wait that doesn't make sense. How can someone just disappear like that?"
"Alaska is the land beyond the Gods," Julia explained, "once Marcus went there the Gods could not help him. Whatever killed him managed to stay hidden up there, scouts found not a trace of the missing cohort, the weapons or the Eagle."
"What's so important about this Eagle anyway?" Thalia asked, "isn't it just a big decoration piece?"
"It is more than just that," Rob said, "it is fused with the powers of the Gods themselves."
Percy's eyes widened, "so that means-"
"Yes," Edgar nodded, "the Eagle that was stolen was empowered by Jupiter," he turned to Thalia, "your father. The Eagle would destroy all the enemies of Rome in it's path, victory was always guaranteed when the Eagle was at the head of our army. We lost it once before, but luckily we found it. The second time we lost it…..it stayed lost."
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