𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑, luke castellan

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞

"So you're seriously telling me this girl got zapped by lightning and magically morphed into a freaking pine tree?" Keira asked, skillfully wielding the ping pong paddle and grabbing another slice of cold pizza with her free hand. Lack of sleep didn't seem to affect her agility; she was racking up points with impressive speed.

Keira, Jon, and Nik were gathered in the Rec Room. The girl and Hephaestus' son were deeply engrossed in a spirited game of ping pong. Encircling the table were plastic chairs, Jon sitting in one of them. Keira, an athletic girl slightly taller than average for her age, moved with a certain grace, almost as if she were dancing classical ballet. Battles and military training kept her upright, trained, and agile, with beautiful long blonde hair typically tied in a braid, swaying gently over her shoulders.

Chiron had called an emergency head-of-cabin meeting to discuss the events of the previous day. While waiting for the other head counselors, Jon, son of Hermes, impatiently tapped his fingers against the armrest as he briefed Keira on the events. His frustration was palpable as Keira and Nik played ping pong, seemingly oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

"Could you two just, like, focus for a sec on what's happening in Camp and not keep hitting that fucking ball while I fill Kei in?" Jon complained, visibly irritated by his friends' nonchalant attitude while he shared what he deemed the most significant event in the camp's last thirty years.

"No," Keira replied, eyes fixed on the ball, as if the conversation were nothing more than background noise. "But how could she be a daughter of Zeus? I thought they signed off after the Second War..."

"We all thought that," interrupted Chiron, entering the room. Nik, distracted by the centaur's entrance, glanced away from the ping pong ball, accidentally hitting his right shoulder. Keira grinned mischievously—this point made it 11-4; she had won the game. Not wiping the smile from her face, she casually strolled over to take a seat beside Jon, as the rest of the counselors also filed into the Rec Room.

"I suppose we're all aware of the events that unfolded last night," Chiron said, looking particularly at Keira, as she had been the only one not present. She nodded slowly while taking a final bite of her pizza. "The pact of the Big Three has officially been broken."

There was silence among the counselors; all were aware of the looming consequences when one of the gods incurred the wrath of the others, especially the Big Three. They were also conscious that, more often than not, these consequences were faced and suffered to a greater extent by them, the demigods. After all, that was the essence of a demigod's life.

But beyond that, the breaking of the Big Three's pact had something particularly perilous. It was the infamous Great Prophecy, foretelling the potential downfall of Olympus. The cabin leaders grasped the gravity of the matter and the prophecy, as initially, it was that very threat that led the gods to forge the pact in the first place.

"We get that," Sonia, a girl with light brown hair who was a daughter of Apollo, broke the silence. "But seriously, what can we even do about it? I mean, after what Zeus did and the whole fate-judging drama, I doubt any god's crazy enough to break the pact again, right?"

Upon these words, the counselors began to argue among themselves, several voices sounding at the same time. Some passionately supported the idea that the gods would break the pact again, while others defended Sonia's notion that Thalia's example ensured it wouldn't happen again. Everyone was in heated discussion, expressing their opinions, except for one girl.

Keira was staring directly into Chiron's eyes, her expression serious but simultaneously relaxed. Her grey gaze never seemed to reflect fear in the face of uncertainty, as if she were always ready to confront whatever the future held. Slowly, the voices hushed, and when the blonde noticed, she saw Jon beside her, looking at her, expecting an answer to a question she hadn't heard.