Daughter of Wine

Nico

The next day, there aren't many answers.

After the explosion, Piper and Jason, freefalling and unconscious, were plucked out of the sky by giant eagles and brought to safety, but Leo did not reappear. The entire Hephaestus cabin, led by Calli, scoured the valley, finding bits and pieces of the Argo II's broken hull, but no sign of Festus the dragon or his master.

All the monsters were destroyed by Calli in one awe-inspiring sweep. Greek and Roman casualties are heavy, but not nearly as bad as they could be.

Overnight, the satyrs and nymphs disappeared into the woods for a convocation of the Cloven Elders. In the morning, Grover Underwood reappeared to announce that they could not sense the Earth Mother's presence. Nature is more or less back to normal. Apparently, Jason, Piper, Calli, and Leo's plan worked. Gaea was separated from her source of power, charmed to sleep, and then atomized in the combined explosion of Leo's fire and Octavian's manmade comet.

An immortal can never die, but now Gaea is like Ouranos. The earth will continue to function as normal, just as the sky doess, but Gaea is now so dispersed and powerless that she can never again form a consciousness.

At least, that's the hope...

Octavian will be remembered for saving Rome by hurling himself into the sky in a fiery ball of death. But it's Leo Valdez who made the real sacrifice.

The victory celebration at camp is muted due to grief, not just for Leo, but also for the many others who died in the battle. Shrouded demigods, both Greek and Roman, are burned at the campfire, and Chiron asked me to oversee the burial rights.

I agree immediately. I'm grateful for the opportunity to honor the dead. Even the hundreds of spectators don't bother me.

The hardest part is afterward, when me and the seven demigods from the Argo II meet on the porch of the Big House.

Jason hangs his head, even his glasses lost in shadow. "We should have been there at the end. We could've helped Leo."

Calli has been eerily calm since her blow-up on the battlefield. Nothing like the way she was when Leo disappeared from the Argo II. Still, her face is wet with tears. She shakes her head. "He knew he needed to be alone. He dropped you guys and shoved me off of Festus, because he knew we'd be vaporized. We couldn't help him."

"It's not right." Piper wipes away her tears. "All that work getting the physician's cure, for nothing."

Hazel breaks down crying. "Piper, where's the cure? Bring it out."

Bewildered, Piper reaches into her belt pouch. She produces the chamois cloth package, but when she unfolds the cloth, it's empty.

All eyes turn to Hazel.

"How?" Annabeth asks.

Frank puts his arm around Hazel. "In Dellos, Leo pulled the two of us aside. He pleaded with us to help him."

Through her tears, Hazel explains how she switched the physician's cure for an illusion. A trick of the Mist, so that Leo could keep the real vial. Frank tells us about Leo's plan to destroy a weakened Gaea with one massive fiery explosion. After talking with Nike and Apollo, Leo was certain that such an explosion would kill any mortal within a quarter mile, so he knew he would have to get far away from everyone.

"He wanted to do it alone." Frank said. "He thought there would be a slim chance that he, a son of Hephaestus, could survive the fire, but if anyone was with him... He said that Hazel and I, being Roman, would understand about sacrifice. But he knew the rest of you would never allow it."