6 The Herald of a New Age

The next few days started very early in the morning for Albert especially, he had been testing the limits of his abilities by asking around what he could about Charmspeak. Turns out his half-siblings have truly fallen behind in basically everything, it was quite painful to see. Only a third of them had access to Charmspeak, the others were all pretty and excelled at other things like creating beauty, matchmaking, breaking some hearts, and flirting for fun (only after they were fifteen).

Silena Beauregard was someone he had been getting closer to, she reminded him a lot about his own childhood whenever she told him about hers. Her father was a runaway model who retired and now owned a small clothing brand. Ever since she was little she had both struggled and excelled because of her beauty. Albert realized that out of the current group, she might be the only one who truly understands that their beauty can be a burden if they can't protect themselves or at least know how to use it. Silena and Drew were said to have the most powerful Charmspeak of their generation, something he knew to be true, but not really, since nobody had the faintest idea of the limits of his own powers, not even himself.

Albert had also decided to learn more about the system-like thing that awakened together with that dangerous knowledge he had in his mind. It wasn't hard to figure out, he had been avoiding using it because it made him feel distant, and alienated from reality and he disliked that.

The SP thing stood for status points, a way to convert the energy he earned by defeating monsters and leveling up to enhance the status of his choice. Just like a game, but was but a tool. A pretty useful tool, of course, but being struck down by the master bolt would still disintegrate him. He was far from invincible. He didn't dare to use this thing to pry on Mr. D's status, it was a dangerous gamble that he refused to make. It wasn't necessary.

The Seed of Diviny thing he confirmed was something common to all demigods and even some spirits around the camp, probably some of them had a divine ancestor too even if they weren't demigods, but it had changed when he fought the Minotaur. The Charmspeak was a power of persuasion that played with the desires of the target as well as a form of mind control, not exclusive to the children of Aphrodite either, according to Drew some sorcerers and witches were known to possess it. Dovespeaker was something he acquired after his sisters took him to an aviary where they kept doves, turns out he can communicate with them like Percy could do with horses and some of the children of Athena could with Owls and some other demigods could with animals related to their godly parents. 

All in all, he was trying to plan what path he should take and what kind of role he wanted to take. His set of skills wasn't the most powerful really, but when used correctly he can become quite the fearsome demigod. 

"Hey, Albert, have you decided on your weapon yet?" Silena asked as she groomed a winged horse. "It's not like I invited you to be part of the chivalry anyway, right?"

Right, she can be passive-aggressive, Albert thought. Truth be told, he enjoyed helping her on the stables more than talking to Drew. Silena had invited him to train and become part of the Camp's areal chivalry. He thought about it for a while, but he couldn't picture himself fighting in the air.

"I think I want to use a bow or maybe a spear, sorry to disappoint, sis!"

"Did Eleanor convince you to choose the bow?" Silena asked with narrowed eyes, scoffing in disdain, "Just so you know, she has had a crush on a boy from the Apollo cabin for a while now and is trying to make him fall for her. Don't take her pieces of advice to heart, she is a fickle one. The Chilvary is superior. By the way, why the Spear? I thought you didn't like the Ares kids and they are the best with it. I am pretty sure I can convince Clarisse to help you out."

Albert couldn't help but smile at her words, this having-a-sister thing was still new to him who had been living as an only child for his whole life. Yet, he could only shrug at her suggestion, "Yeah, I pass. I like living way too much to accept help from that girl. Nothing against the others though."

"So..." The girl playfully said as she got closer and bumped her arm on his, "what's gonna be? I heard the boy who arrived with you has a nice sword. Why don't you go on the same path? Our brothers have chosen the sword too. You gotta make up your mind soon, your training starts in a few hours and I stalled for you for a few days already."

Well, Percy Jackson's daddy sent him Riptide as a gift. I wasn't like he had to think too much about it! Albert had lived a normal, civilian, normie life, he never had to use a weapon before. Albert clicked his tongue and sighed in resignation.

"You know what? Fuck it!" He exclaimed in determination, "I am picking the bow! I can make it work, right? I definitely will!"

Silena had a gloomy expression for a short second as she sighed heavily, "Now, I have to do Eleanor's chores for a week!"

"You guys made a bet?" The boy asked in disbelief.

"Well, there was a talk about you avoiding the weapon training and we kinda felt bored..." The taller girl smiled awkwardly, "Anyways, I am happy you made up your mind, little brother!"

"You are only a year older than me though!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever! Now, off you go, or Annabeth might hunt you down again."

Albert groaned at that. Ever since his training days started, Chiron had him and Percy take some preliminary classes before we joined the others which had been giving him an obnoxious amount of stress every day. The best part was that his mentors were very interesting, there were satyrs, nymphs, and Chiron himself, but there was one more he dreaded every day.

Each morning he had to join Percy and take Ancient Greek from Annabeth, the classes themselves weren't exactly bad. She had thought them about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was still a novelty for him who used to read about them like they were fairly tales from ages in the past. Annabeth had told them that most of the demigods had dyslexia or ADHD or both, but using Ancient Greek as the primary written format could solve the first issue. Albert got the best part of the deal since he had only the former. Portuguese was easier than English for him too, because it was his mother language. Yet, bickering with her about Homer was a headache.

Albert made his way towards where Annabeth and Percy were already waiting for him in the Big House.

"Looks like his highness decided to show up," The girl said with words laced with sarcasm, "You're late again."

"I had stuff to do, thank you very much. I bet you missed me didn't you?" He shot back with a bright and very fake smile. He then turned to Percy and acknowledged him with a quick nod, "Jackson."

"Well, I was teaching Percy about the Peloponnesian War and how Athens was truly great at fending off Sparta for such a long time," The blond girl explained, with a barely concealed smugness, under her mask of seriousness.

Albert snorted at that, "Did anyone ever tell you how silly you sound sometimes?"

"What?" Percy gasped in surprise.

Annabeth glared at him and gritted her teeth, if looks could kill he would have met Thanatos every morning class. 

"Annabeth is being biased towards Athens, her mother was the patron goddess of that city," Albert explained with a sweet tone to provoke the girl, "Ancient Athenians loved to perform civility and pretend to be better than everyone else, quite deceitful, you know, democracy and all. Yet, the women there were more or less glorified slaves or treated like mere property, in a time where Spartans, "the barbarians", a city whose patron was Lord Apollo, they were actually treated with more dignity," He paused and smirked at the face Annabeth was making, "Now back to the war. Annabeth is right about the fact that it remained undecided for a long time, until the decisive intervention of the Persian Empire in support of Sparta. Led by Lysander, the Spartan fleet, built with Persian subsidies, finally defeated Athens and started a period of Spartan hegemony over Greece."

"Oh..." Percy said looking at him with awe. "So they lost?"

"Yes, Jackson. In the end, they did." 

"You're insufferable," Annabeth suddenly said as she sighed, "Chiron was wrong, you don't need these classes. All you do is disturb it!"

"I will talk to you after we're done, I am gonna have archery lessons with him," Albert casually said waving his hand in dismissal. "You won't have to endure my dazzling and informative self for very long I am afraid."

"You finally grew a backbone and decided to attend your classes?" The girl commented with a sharp tone, "Silena must have run out of excuses by now. I admire her efforts though."

"You are not coming to the morning classes anymore?" Percy asked in a weirdly disappointed tone, before adding with a frustrated sigh. "...I suck at Archery."

Albert just snorted at Annabeth's provocations and pretended to not hear the evident dismay in the boy's tone, just humming in a positive tone. When the class was over, he was the first to exit the place, before he had to escape from the grip of a certain green-eyed demigod who had been eyeing him like an exotic mysterious creature since their last long talk before he moved to cabin ten.

When he arrived at the Archery Training Grounds, Chiron was standing proudly in all of his immortal horsely glory. The Centaur didn't really buy his excuses for having missed his classes. There was also quite a bit of a crowd at the place, both watching and training their shots. 

"We received a delivery for you a couple of hours ago, Mr. Gomes," Chiron stated cryptically.

"It's from my father? I didn't know he was allowed to send stuff to Camp." 

"It's from your mother, child." The Centaur stated, with an amused tone, before adding, "It's not normal for mortals to send packages to Camp, usually the Mist prevents them from even knowing this place exists."

Albert was surprised. Why would Aphrodite send him a gift? A blond curly-haired haired with healthy tanned skin who got a gentle aura ran towards them carrying a big package. He handed it over to him.

"Ah, this one is called Will Solace, son of Apollo, and one of our best healers," Chiron said introducing the boy.

"H-Hi! I am Will Andrew Solace, but you can just call me Will, nice to meet you!" The blond boy stuttered as he offered his hand for him to shake, his ears were as red as the strawberries that he saw on the meadows. "I am the counselor at Cabin 7. You probably don't remember me, but I treated you when you first arrived. I was surprised when you disappeared from the Infirmary too!"

Albert couldn't help but smile and feel the urge to tease this boy, he was a cute one, but he managed to fight off this feeling and politely shook the boy's hand, "I am Albert, son of Aphrodite. Thank you, for taking care of me, Will." Albert paused and tilted his head to the side, "I guess I owe you one?"

Will let out a nervous laugh and quickly made some dramatic hand gestures, "No no, you don't owe me anything! I-I was just doing my job!"

Chiron let out a sneer, "Why don't you take a look at it?"

Albert looked at the Hermes Delivery Service tag on the package and it said it was sent to Olympus, by Aphrodite to him. Carefully he opened up the package, the contents were almost comically convenient. A bronze and wooden bow. There were some bronze-tipped arrows in a quiver equally impressive. As soon as he held the thing he heard a notification of the system.

[You have acquired [The Bow of Paris]!]

"This is very..." Albert trailed for a while, "...convenient."

"Wow!" Will gasped with shiny eyes, pointing at the weapon "This is a rare Trojan model... and I think I can feel a very faint blessing from my father!"

"This boy belonged to Prince Paris of Troy," Chiron said with a weird tone to his voice, "It was the weapon he used to defeat Achilles during the fall of Troy. "

Will looked alarmed and Albert flinched. How could he have forgotten? Chiron was one of the mentors Achilles, and seeing this weapon must have brought some painful memories to the surface.

"I can use another bow..." Albert stated frimly looking at the much taller centaur.

"That's not necessary, but I appreciate your thoughtfulness, Mr. Gomes. Achilles died an honorable death, he knew it could happen when he sailed to Troy. He wanted glory and to be immortalized in history and that he certainly got, " Chiron said, he looked calm and wise, "This is your mother's gift for you, child. You should use it well." The centaur turned to Will and asked, "Do you know why you can feel your father's power on this bow?"

Will hesitated before nodding, "Back then Troy didn't have a single patron god, but my father was one of them. The Spartans and Achilles attacked the city and some temples were defiled and the priests and priestesses were slain. It is said he blessed the bow and arrow that Prince Paris used so it was certain to pierce Achilles' Heel."

"Was Achilles a demigod?" Albert couldn't help but ask.

"Yes," Chiron shortly answered with a small nostalgic smile on his face, "Achilles was the son of Thetis, a minor goddess, a nereid, daughter of the God Nereus. His father was Peleus, Myrmidons of Thessaly. There is a long story there, but the answer to your question is yes. Achilles was a demigod, a formidable one."

"He was also your friend, sir, wasn't he?" Will asked in a worried tone.

"He was that as well," The Centaur chuckled looking at them, "So were Herakles, Alcepius, Jason, and many others after them. I care for all of you, children. Now let's us start your training, Albert."

"I understand, sir!"

"I gotta go back and do my chores, but if you need any help you can come to find me, I know a thing or two about archery," Will kindly offered.

"You have beautiful eyes, Will..." Albert suddenly blurted out, seeing how the other boy was turning red, he added, "I'll see you around."

He and Chiron watched as the blond boy sprinted out of the training grounds, the centaur gave him an odd-knowing look before he shook his head. 

"Let's see what you got, boy."

The archery training with Chiron proved itself to be essentially amazing for Albert. He had some degree of talent according to Chiron, but he lacked the experience and training, still, he had the potential to be great with the bow. The most important part was when Chiron pointed out what exactly he lacked and what he needed to do to fix it. This gave him what he needed to start his strategy on how to best use the system points.

The next class was Foot Racing, but he wasn't great at it. The wood nymph instructor left him and Percy in the dust. However, she explained in a weird brand of dark humor that nymphs were used to run away because of the gods. This made Albert have an eye twitch in mortification.

The Wrestling was a bit... awkward for him. Percy had given up after Clarisse pulverized him on the mat. Albert had the chance to try it, but just like the weapon training he postponed it. There was just... too much skin contact and adrenaline. The Blessing of his mother would still last for a while, and having so much contact with him could lead to a terrible and shameful display. He refused to do it as long as the blessing made some of the Ares kids look at him like wolves looking at a bunny.

...

The next few days all Albert did was train in archery and his stamina, changing his diet to best suit his goals. He barely got to see Percy or Grover or even Annabeth, but he knew that she could use that cap of hers to turn invisible and spy on him like before anyway. After the first class with Chiron, he relocated all the twenty-five available points. Twenty equally shared between strength and dexterity, in order to compensate for the lack of time to get to a decent level and the last five points in vitality. His speed to perform tasks with his hands, and his strength and most importantly stamina had been greatly enhanced.

Today he and his siblings were deciding whether they would join Team Red in Capture the Flag or not. He sincerely did not care to win this game at all. He was happy his cabin was against participating this time.

"Your friend is doing great at canoeing," Leonard playfully said, "We are having a bet to see you are his father, wanna join? My guess is Ares, he has a temper so I heard. Can you imagine Clarisse's face if he turned out to be her brother? It would be amazing."

"He is not my friend," Albert corrected him. "Also, I am not betting either. I have to train. Shouldn't you be doing anything else?"

Leonard was one of the boys of his Cabin, consequentially one of his half-siblings. His father was some sort of actor. He out of the boys was the troublemaker. Albert was neutral about him, but he could be pretty annoying, unlike Silena. Now he was along with some of the kids watching the Capture the Flag match besides Chiron and the staff.

"Luke is really the best, don't you think? He is commanding Team Blue like he was born for it!" Leonard mused out loud, "I heard he had been asking around for you after the rumors of you rocking your training started to spread. Clarisse was fuming when you defeated that rude brother of hers after he challenged you in archery."

"Clarisse is always mad. It's fascinating to watch," He calmly stated without taking his eyes off the fields, he mischievously added, "Also, I don't care whether Luke looks for me or not. I know I am irresistible and all, but I am still only fourteen."

"Shameless," Leonard said rolling his eyes and looking at him in distaste. "I heard even Annabeth keeps asking around about your progress."

"She is a fan."

"..." Leonard made a face, "you are the worst of us, Albert."

Suddenly there was a commotion and they followed Chiron. They arrived at the shore of the lake, Clarisse was fucking mad. Luke was holding her team's flag. Team Blue had won. Yet, just as they arrived they saw an unbelievable scene. Above a drenched Percy a blue ethereal symbol of a trident was shining brightly. Leonard gasped in shock beside him.

Albert suddenly remembered something and alarmed he took out his bow and an arrow. A loud howl echoed across the forest. It all happened too fast, the cheering and murmuring died out and even Chiron was alarmed. There on the rocks just above them, there was a huge black hound, the size of a rhinoceros, with burning red eyes and sharp fangs black like obsidian.

Hellhound, Albert thought. The beast was staring at Percy with a nasty and menacing look.

"Percy, run!" Annabeth yelled.

Just at that moment, the monster leaped forward, Albert didn't lose the opportunity and released the arrow before everyone else. His arrow pierced through the head of the hellhound before a barrage of arrows from the other campers rained over the beast. It felt like a loud noise on the gravel, right in front of Percy.

Chiron shot him a grateful and oddly proud look before they ran to Percy. 

"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they are not supposed to..."

"Someone summoned it," Chiron stated and an oppressive silence followed. "Someone from inside the camp."

"It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!" Clarisse screamed in rage.

"Be quiet!" Albert sharply commanded in a cold tone, before he could even process what had done. 

Clarisse was compelled to obey him and instantly she calmed down. This earned him a couple of shocked looks from other campers and an impressed excited gaze from Leonard. The latter got closer to him and stared at Percy in disbelief, "A forbidden child... impossible."

"Your father..." Annabeth said frowning deeply as she looked at Percy in worry, "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced loudly.

"My father?" Percy echoed bewildered.

"Poseidon," Chiron stated. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

As soon as Chiron bowed his front legs, everyone else bowed in reverence too. Annabeth shot a questioning look at Albert as if she wanted to know whether he knew about it. He ignored her and gave Percy a reassuring smile noticing the boy looking at him with an equally curious look.

"This is bad... really bad." He heard Leonard murmuring.

Little did any of them know that this moment was the first glimpse into a chaotic era that would sweep away the fragile peace of this place and announce the beginning of an era full of bloodshed and war. Percy Jackson was the Herald of the end of life as they knew.