caughtinanetwork

How many other demigods do you know?

Personally? Only a handful. I've got a bunch of half-siblings that I found out about when I got to camp - I go to a camp for demigod children. I didn't really bother counting how many there were and I don't remember all their names. And there were a lot more who had a different godly parent than I did.

And then there's another camp on the other side of the country for demigod children of the Roman gods. There were hundreds of them, but I didn't get to meet many of them. Then I kind of got possessed and attacked their camp which started a war. [Leo claps his hand over his mouth. That was way more than needed to be said. It wasn't something he liked to talk about and he still feels guilty about it.]

Why did I say all of that? [It finally dawns on him that this must be one of the curses he heard about. He's not a liar, but he does withhold information a lot.]

Here I thought the Greek and Roman gods were the same people.

They kind of are, but they kind of aren't. Like... two sides of the same coin.

What's the Roman name for Hephaestus?

Vulcan.

Do you know anything about the children of Vulcan?

Dude, I don't really know anything about them. I didn't meet any when I was at Camp Jupiter and learning the differences between my dad's two sides wasn't a top priority.

Because you were possessed.

That had nothing to do with it. And I wasn't possessed right then, well, not exactly. But that had nothing to do with it. There were just other things on my mind like eating and looking at cute girls and the quest that we were about to go on.

You sound like someone else I know. What quest were you about to go on?

Well, we did go on it, but we didn't finish it before I wound up here. We made our way to Rome to put a stop to a pair of giants who were working for Gaea. As part of that we rescued another demigod named Nico who was going to lead us to the doors of death so we can close them. That won't stop Gaea, but it will slow her down since the monsters she's using won't be able to come out of Tartarus so easily.

But we were just leaving Rome after two of my friends fell into a pit that leads right into Tartarus - there was no way to rescue them or we would have - and then I wound up here.

[He begins to sound a bit choked up, like he's fighting against saying any more, but it still manages to come spilling out.] It's my fault that they fell. If I hadn't used the fortune cookie Nemesis gave me to rescue two of my friends, the other two wouldn't have fallen. Se said that using it would come with a steep price. But the two that fell wound up here, too.

Well, that makes it sound like Vatheon is Tartarus.

I haven't been to Tartarus, but I can tell you this place is nothing like it. Tartarus is filled with the worst monsters you can think of. It's not somewhere people tend to go on purpose.

I've heard more than once that humans are the worst monsters. And no one's here on purpose.

Yeah, I know people can be awful. I've had personal experience with that. After my mom died, my Aunt Rosa sent me into foster care because she thought I was a diablo, a devil.

I know that, too. [He sighs.]

My parents never did anything quite that drastic, but I'm sure they considered it once or twice.

At least you have the excuse of being a demigod.

[That was way more information than Stein wanted to share, but this curse isn't exactly being kind to him.]

That's the thing. She wasn't my parent. She was my Aunt. And [He tries to stop himself because this is the last thing he wants to be telling a stranger, but he can't.]

And my mom died in a fire. I blamed myself for that fire for a very long time. Just up until a few months ago when I found out it was Gaea who did it. Trying to break me.

You thought your own powers killed your mother.

Yeah, I did. I was 8. I was a kid. I might have been smart in some ways, but that doesn't mean I understood that it wasn't my fault.

It's understandable. Now, at least, you know better.

Yeah.

Who are you anyway?

Doctor Stein. I'm doing a bit of data collection about the types of people here in Vatheon.

A doctor, huh? I'm Leo Valdez.

Your father didn't bother passing down his name to you?

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