Chapter 13 You talk in your sleep

"But the Minotaur will eventually re-form." Annabeth cut in, causing Andromeda to look confused. "Monsters don't die. They can be killed. But they don't die. They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."

"That's just..." Mimir didn't know what to say to that. Even Jakob couldn't figure out if that was a bonus since it would mean a returning challenge to constantly fight to improve from the last encounter, or if it's just less of a challenge and more of an annoyance in facing something already beaten and defeated.

The monsters in his lands did not do such a thing, there was plenty to kill with plenty to spare.

"You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-" Andromeda said.

"The Fur… I mean, your maths teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad." Annabeth said.

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?" Andromeda asked.

"You talk in your sleep."

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?" Andromeda asked, recalling Annabeth saying that word and who the Furies were in Greek Mythology.

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Doesn't affect us." Mimir said. "We say the names of the Aesir and Vanir Gods casually and nothing happens, so I don't see the problem with saying the names of the Greek Gods or the monsters."

"Rules can be annoying." Jakob said with a little scowl of annoyance, seeing how different things were between the Norse and Greek pantheons.

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" Andromeda asked in a bit of a whiny tone. "Why do we have to stay at cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

He pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale.

"Even we know why that is." Mimir said.

"Leave her alone, she doesn't understand everything in this place." Jakob said in defence of Andromeda before he looked at the girl. "I'mm put it to you as simply as I can; Andromeda Jackson, you're a demigod."

Andromeda stared at him, mouth agape at his words while Jakob just looked dead serious, no signs of humor or joking on his face or in his eyes. She looked at Annabeth who nodded in agreement to confirm his words.

"You didn't even know what you are, do you?" Mimir asked softly. "judging from the mention of your mother, I'd wager she's the mortal, which means your father is an Olympian God."

"My father's dead." Andromeda said with a frown. "I never knew him."

"I'm not surprised." Jakob muttered, knowing that the Olympians don't involve themselves in the lives of their children until they probably do something to catch their attention and prove their worth.

"Look, Andromeda, the point is you wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us." Annabeth said with a sigh.

"You don't know anything about me." Andromeda said with a frown.

"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How—"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."

Andromeda blinked several times in shock before she asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Andromeda, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"You sound like... you went through the same thing?" Andromeda said, s Annabeth sounded like she was speaking from experience, something Jakob also picked up on during Annabeth's speech.

Annabeth shrugged. "Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar." Andromeda repeated.

Annabeth nodded. "The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood. As Jakob said, you're a demigod. The child of a god and a mortal."

As Andromeda looked to be reeling from the reveals and everything explained to her, a husky voice yelled, "Well! Well! Well! A couple of newbies!"

The three looked over. The big girl from the big, ugly cabin from before marched over to them. She had three other girls behind her, the same big, ugly looks as her, all wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed with annoyance. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it on Friday night."

'Do they not understand their words can mean so many things?' Jakob thought, holding in a snort.

''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which Jakob understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!'. The only reason he knew Greek was thanks to Loki teaching him various languages, including ones outside of the Norse pantheon such as Egyptian, Japanese, Greek and Latin. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward Andromeda and Jakob. "Who are the runts?"

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