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xvi. the great amazon prison break
maybe arcana wasa bit too trusting. maybe she just trusted the amazons a bit too much (hah). maybe it was the bad vibes (really, she was getting a lot of them ever since percy showed up, no offense to him, wasn't his fault, arcana guessed) she got from otrera ever since she made her presence known not too long ago, or maybe, just maybe, it was because hylla was probably the prettiest person she'd ever seen yet, but saying that arcana was probably too willing to go with hylla was an understatement.
hazel seemed to be the exact opposite, though. let's say arcana was... good with emotions, but she could catch onto how nervous hazel was, from how tense her form was, to how her eyes darted back and fourth like she was either a) trying to figure out a plan (arcana noticed that both her and percy did that, guess they had that in common) or b) panicking internally, and arcana didn't blame her. she took hazel's hand, interlocking their fingers in a sisterly way, and hazel's once tense form loosened a bit, though she still looked slightly nervous, her eyes still darting around like she was trying to think of an escape plan.
the queen seemed to be reading hazel's thoughts. "forget about escape. of course, we'd respect you for trying, but we'd have to kill you."
"thanks for the warning."
hylla shrugged. "the least i can do. i believe you come in peace. i believe reyna sent you."
"that's what shark boy said," arcana confirmed. hylla's lips curved into a small smile, though it was gone fast, replaced with her usual regal expression.
"but you won't help?" hazel asked.
the queen studied percy's necklace. "it's complicated," she said. "amazons have always had a rocky relationship with other demigods — especially male demigods. we fought king priam in the trojan war, but achilles killed our queen, penthesilea. years before that, hercules stole queen hippolyta's belt — this belt i'm wearing. it took us centuries to recover it. long before that, at the very beginning of the amazon nation, a hero named bellerophon killed our first queen, otrera."
"you mean the lady—"
"—who just left, yes. otrera, our first queen, a daughter of ares."
"you mean mars?" arcana questioned.
hylla grimaced, like it was a sin to compare ares to mars. "no, definitely ares. otrera lived long before rome, in a time when all demigods were greek. unfortunately, some of our warriors still prefer the old ways. children of ares... they are always the worst."
"the old ways?" arcana questioned, pulling some of her dark brown curls behind her ear as she raised an eyebrow skeptically. she'd heard of octavian's propaganda stuff, him going on and on about the greeks secretly existing and plotting against rome. she never believed it, hell, it was octavian for crying out loud (which was something he did a lot), but the idea of greek and roman gods being real at the same time actually being true surprised her. "the amazons... you're saying the amazons are a mix of both greek and roman?"
