I set the rainbow stone out, fingering one of my aurova, a gold sea coin that was roughly equal to a drachma in value. The rainbow formed slowly.
"Who are you calling?" Carl asked from his bubble of fresh water.
"I'm calling mom," I said. "I need to tell her what's happened and when I'm coming back."
Metua had just confirmed that I'd be going home in a week and told me I should call my mom about it. I hadn't realized that no one had informed her about what happened to me. Things had been so busy here I hadn't even thought about it.
"Oh," Carl swam around. "Tell her I say hi."
I grinned, "Will do, Carl."
I flipped the coin into the rainbow, murmuring my request.
The image cleared, showing my mom sitting at a table with books around her. She looked tired, her eyes a dark blue and surrounded by dark circles.
"Hi, Mom," I said.
She jolted up, knocking over a book as she stood, "Percy?"
She stared at me in surprise, and I flushed, fingering my bracelet.
"Hi Mom… Carl says hi…"
"Oh, Percy, are you okay? You never replied and I wasn't sure-"
"I'm okay. I'm at Metuan palace."
"Metuan?"
I blinked, "Oh, uh, Father's, um, Poseidon's… sorry."
"No, it's fine… why are you there?"
I blinked, did no one contact her? I guessed I'd have to explain it all.
And I did.
I told her about the rest of the summer and how it ended with Luke trying to kill me. I told her about using the pearl to escape and being healed in the sea. I talked about the almost week spent recovering and another week preparing for the announcement. I told her about the announcement and how I'd gotten the bands. Then she wanted to see them so I showed her them.
"Those are really lovely, Percy," she murmured.
I grinned, "Yeah, I like them a lot."
"Are you having fun in the sea?"
"Yeah, Triton is great, and I missed my friends. It's really cool at the palace too, and Kymopoleia and Herophile took me out for a shopping trip and spa day-"
"Spa!?" Carl cried.
"-it was so cool. And the spa had all these fancy things they do, and uh, the pool thing was super nice, and they did massages! Oh! And Kymopoleia let me get my ears pierced, look!"
I brushed my hair back to show her my ears with the blue pearl earrings.
"They're lovely Percy," she said softly, her gaze sad. "I'm glad you like the sea."
"Yeah, it's really great here, but I'm glad I'm going home next week."
She blinked, "Oh? You're going back to Camp?"
I tilted my head, "No? I'm going home to you… unless you didn't want me coming back-"
"No, no," she said quickly, a smile stretching across her lips. "You're of course welcome back. I'll make the arrangements for school."
I beamed, "Okay. Oh yeah, Triton said he needed to talk to you about lesson things, and Metua mentioned tutors… But they both said I didn't need to worry about it."
She frowned, studying me, "Of course, don't worry, I'll talk with them."
I nodded, "I think you'd like the spa! I asked Triton if you could come next time-"
"You're going back!?" Carl screeched.
I ignored him for the moment, "-and he said maybe!"
She smiled, "I'm glad you're having fun. You're coming back next week?"
"Yeah, Triton said that there was something today, but otherwise I don't have anything to do officially, at least I don't think so…"
Mom nodded, "Well, I'll make sure I'm free…"
"Six days from now," I said. "Er well… that's six days undersea… but we go by a slightly different clock… it's still roughly six days though… probably."
"Alright, I'll just clear six and seven days from now, so September second and third. Did you do anything for your birthday?"
I blinked, oh right, my birthday did happen… forgot about that. "No, I was still recovering then and wasn't allowed out of bed."
She frowned, "Well, we'll do something for your birthday, better late than never."
I beamed, "Really?"
"Yeah, we'll get some cake, have a nice dinner…"
"That sounds nice."
"I'll set it up," she murmured, glancing down at her work.
"Oh, I guess you need to finish that," I rubbed my neck. "I'll see you in a week, mom."
"See you in a week. Love you, Percy."
"Love you too, Mom."
The image dissolved and I tucked the rainbow stone away, only to wince as Carl swam in circles.
"You went to a spa!?" He snapped. "After all the times I warned you!?"
"Kymopoleia and Herophile were there," I argued. "They wouldn't let anything happen to me."
"Spas are dangerous! They're traps. You'll get taken in and given fancy drinks and then you'll die! Or worse…"
I leaned against the dresser, crossing my arms and dropping my head on them.
"It's fine, Carl. I wasn't hurt at all, see?"
He swam agitated, "Fine, but when you get turned into a pig or killed, I warned you."
I huffed, "I won't go to any spas without Herophile or Kymopoleia, how about that?"
He stared at me, quiet for a long moment. "Sure, it's your life."
I frowned when he turned away, surely it wasn't that bad? My sisters were with me, They were Goddesses after all…
"You're not ready yet?"
I turned at the voice, finding Rhodos in my doorway, a frown on her face.
"The party is in less than 30 ioma!"
"Uh, party?"
"Yes, for your amawa," she said, studying my room from the door.
"My birthday?" I asked. "There's a party for it?"
"Yes, in less than thirty ioma, you need to get ready."
I blinked, "Wait, how do I dress for that?"
"I told Metu to send a siona to help you," she shook her head. "May I enter?"
"Oh, uh, yeah."
She swept in, tails flicking as she moved to my drawers.
"Not that one, no not that one either, definitely not that," she shifted through the assorted pieces in the drawer.
"Ah, these earrings," she passed me the mother of pearl earrings shaped like conch shells. I moved to the mirror to try and change them out, I hadn't done that before.
"Then let's see, oh yes, this aetapi," she tossed me one of the two pairs of tail ornamentations that Herophile picked out. It was pretty silver and had carvings of shells on it.
"Oh um," I finally got the first earring in and moved to the second. "Did Mevu'ta like the necklace I got her?"
I bought it as a whole… 'sorry Metua cheated on you' gift but was a bit too nervous to give it to her myself. Triton promised to pass it along.
"She thought it was lovely," Rhodos mumbled. "Ah, this hair piece."
She swam over, "I'm going to fix up your hair, get the aetapiv on."
"Okay," I said, pulling up one tail to fasten the first aetapi on my tail, right where the tail became fin.
She began twisting my hair into a few small braids, "Okeanus-ari and Tethys-ran left last pohur, very late. They offered apologies for being unable to see you before they left. They did leave gifts for your birthday. You'll get them at the party."
It was sad that they left already, I never even got to ask Tethys-ran about a way to handle the sensations.
At least they were easier to handle in the sea.
She twisted the braided and non-braided hair all into a bun, sliding the silver and pearl hair pin in. "There, that should hold."
"Thank you," I said softly, peering up at her nervously.
She studied me for a moment before nodding, "Of course. I would be remiss in my duties to not help. You are my soha tatu."
I nodded, ducking my head.
"So, uh, where is this… party?"
"I'll bring you."
"Thank you, oh wait," I swam over to Carl, who was pointedly facing the other way. "Do you wanna come?"
"No."
I bit my lip. Yeah, he was mad.
"Okay, I'll bring you back something to eat."
He didn't look at me.
"Ready?" Rhodos asked.
"Yeah, I'm ready."
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
"The family will be joining in a bit, we thought we'd let you spend some time with your friends and acquaintances first."
I nodded as I stared around the room in awe.
It was one I hadn't been to before so I wasn't sure how it normally looked, but right then the modestly sized room was dotted with table coral and had a long table against one wall with assorted foods and taipanu. The walls shone with manisi pearls and glowing anemone were scattered across the floor like a carpet.
On the far side of the room was a table that held assorted items wrapped in seaweed.
But what caught my eye was not the decoration, but the merfolk in the room, a grin stretching across my lips.
"Samoa! Elei, Masina!" I swam over to them.
"Persi-aia," Elei said with a nod. "How nice to see you again, I heard you had many a fight this summer."
I twisted my hands in greeting, "I did, more than my fair share."
Samoa twisted her hand, a far more respectful greeting than she'd given me before.
"We missed seeing you," she said. "Fetu and Lagi told us some of you summer, but not much."
"Oh," Masina nudged the two mermaids. "We can talk about his summer later. It's good to see you again, Persi-aia."
"And you as well, Masina-ia'imora."
"We did miss you," Samoa said. "We're very glad you're safe."
"I missed all of you as well," I murmured as Fetu and Lagi swam over, Fetu flashing me a smile.
"Oati Amawa, Persi," Fetu chirped.
"Yes," Elei said. "That is the purpose of us all being gathered here. Your Amawa. May it be a happy one."
I laughed, "My Amawa was nearly two mavuho ago. But thank you."
"Oati hoviti amawa," Samoa said.
The others mimicked her, wishing me a happy birthday even though it was two weeks late.
"Yes, oati amawa, Persi," said another familiar voice as Rosa swam over.
"Havu," I thanked them all with a bright smile.
"So, food," Lagi said. "Come, there's some fabulous tuna over there."
I grinned and let Lagi tug me over, the others joining as we gathered some snacks and snagged a few taipanu.
"So, what's the land camp like?" Elei asked. "What are their training procedures? Who was your supervisor on your quest? How did you get permission to go on a quest so young?"
I coughed, "Ah, well, um, you see…"
"If Aipri was there then it must've been the best camp," said a vaguely familiar mer, who swam over to join us.
"Avl," Elei nodded to Avl. "And of course, but I've never been to the land camp, and I've only heard rumors of it."
She turned back to me, "So what's it like."
"Well… The training is done by cabin, and you're split into cabins based on your parent."
"So, all the sea demigods are put together, that seems nice," Samoa mused.
"That's unfortunately not how it works… Only the twelve Olympians have cabins, all the other Gods children are in the Hermes cabin."
They blinked, "But why don't they have cabins? Why don't they split you up based on skills like Camp Tetomoa?"
I shrugged, "They have the system they use. It's annoying. Leilani was claimed the other day by Psamathe but she has to stay in the Hermes cabin."
I frowned, "I meant to ask Metua about that."
"You should, that system sounds frustrating."
I nodded, "Extremely."
"Okay, but what the quest, how did you get to go when you're only twelve? Were the other two members older? Did you have a supervisor?"
"Well," I sucked some tea from the taipanu. "Grover is technically twenty… something in satyr years, though he's only twelve in mortal years…"
"Ah, so then the other one was the supervisor?"
"Er, Annabeth is also twelve."
"Was she some immortal being?"
"She's a daughter of Athena," I offered.
They all made faces.
"I'm so sorry you got trapped on a quest with a child of Athena ," Elei said.
I shifted, "Annabeth is pretty cool, I couldn't have done the quest without her."
"I'm sure she was useful," Masina agreed. "But it's a shame that you couldn't have brought someone less…"
"Mocking to Triton-re'aia," Rosa offered.
They murmured in agreement.
Of course, I knew some about it.
Athena and Triton and their fight… and Pallas… I knew that Triton still had a problem with her, something that she was doing now.
I never really asked him, it felt personal for him. I didn't want to upset him.
I coughed, "Yes… but she was a great help, and I count her as a friend."
"Of course," Fetu soothed. "I'm sure she was lovely. We can't hold her Mevuan crimes against her."
The others nodded.
"So, it was just the three of you?"
"Yeah," I said. "Just us three."
"They must've given you excellent supplies then!" said another mer.
I made a quick note that the other mers in the room had drifted over. I think the mer that spoke was named Coaxoch, her circling shark form was familiar.
"Well, they gave us a hundred mortal dollars and like ten drachmas."
"How much is that in aipata?" Masona said with a frown as they tried to convert the money to the sea currency.
"Um, that would be…" I mentally calculated it, one aipata was about two dollars… roughly, so that would be about fifty-five aipata, or one silava and ten nohuva. "It would be about fifty-five aipata."
"So they gave you a silava basically?" Elei asked in disbelief.
"Well we also got twenty drachmas," I said, though I didn't think very much of the money we'd been given either.
"Oh lovely, so twenty aurova, so total you got about three hundred fifty aipata to go on a quest across the land to stop a war," Fetu said, his eye twitching.
"I thought that the land camp was supposed to be good," muttered a girl, I thought I recognized her, but I'd never really interacted with her.
"Now, now," Rosa said. "They must've given him some sort of supplies?"
I flicked my tail, studying the taipanu in my hand.
"We got a ride to a bus?"
"Your land camp is horrible," Avl said. "Why did Poseidon-re'ore send you there?"
"It's the laws of the land," I said. "And closer to my mom."
"Hmm, so how did the quest go?"
"Uh…" I thought back to the multiple near-death experiences on the first day alone. "It was fine."
"Oh, what about your teacher?" another mer I only vaguely recognized asked. "Does she live on land?"
Why did Triton invite mers I didn't know? I mean, I suppose I could recognize all of them from previous events, but I wasn't close to them like with my six friends.
"Uh-"
"Is she even real?" Asked… I could not for the life of me remember them. A mer with dark orange hair and purple and orange scales was looking at me with a faint sneer.
"Of course she's real," chided Rosa. "He wouldn't have been able to learn as much as he did without a teacher."
"Katara is… real, but not alive."
"She died!?" Rosa cried as Fetu took my hand with a worried look.
"No, no," I reassured quickly. "She was just never alive. She's a fictional character from a TV show."
"Like HTV?" the one who's name I couldn't remember said.
I blinked, "The channel?"
"Hephaestus television," Rosa said. "I assume the TV is just television for you?"
"Oh, yeah," I nodded. "On land we just call it television, there is a channel called HGTV that had me confused for a moment. But yeah, like that. She's not a living person, but she's brilliant."
"What is she from then?" Fetu asked.
"The show called Avatar! It's so good, you should watch it… er… I guess you don't get the channel on HTV."
They shook their heads.
"Oh, well… it's a good show."
"So uh, Rosa," I said, aiming to change the subject. "How have you been?"
She lit up, beginning to talk excitedly about xer lessons and how she'd gained an apprenticeship at Camp Tetomoa (in Atlantis) for xer prophecy.
I smiled and asked questions, leading the conversation away from me to catch up with the mers. Hopefully they didn't bring up the quest again.
Eventually someone used the one mers name, the sneering one I didn't know, when Tutaki (the mer) was debating whether he was better at the Siren's Song than Fetu or not.
He was really not, Fetu was amazing at it.
I hid a grin when Fetu politely told them to go swim in a halocline.
I relaxed, happy to be spending time with my friends for the first time in ages. Samoa was acting a bit strange though, keeping quieter than usual and being very respectful.
"Are you feeling alright, Samoa?" I asked when we'd drifted apart from the others for a moment.
I peered at her worriedly, was she feeling sick?
"Yes, Persi-aia, you need not worry."
"Are you-"
"Persi-aia," said a mer from before that I didn't know, swimming over. "I was wondering if you'd seen the new aipone released on the purification sequences? They're really interesting-"
"They're nonsense, Avl," Samoa said. "They messed up the sequence for stabilizing a damaged sand dollar."
"No, it looks right," the mer named Avl countered with a frown. "But it's okay, I know it would be a bit of struggle for one such as you to understand. You weren't able to buy a copy after all."
My gaze flicked between them, a frown on my face.
"I don't need to buy one, I looked at it at Burl's shop. It's wrong, they messed up the ivuis, got the lines entirely wrong, and managed to-"
"Look, I'm the one in line for the apprenticeship with Tuluvas-fu'vak. I know what I'm talking about, petulu."
Samoa's cheeks flushed, and my eyes narrowed at the insult.
"Samoa is more than capable of getting an internship with Tuluvas-fu'vak," I said fiercely. I recognized the name of course, Tuluvas was the author of multiple books on purification and recognized as one of the best in the Pahuti Moare, if not the entire Moare.
"Persi-aia," Avl said sweetly. "I know that she's a dear friend of yours but-"
I scowled, "She's remarkably skilled and has helped me improve my own skills quite a bit. Do not use such… words for her."
Avl faltered, "Of course, Persi-aia."
She raised her chin, swimming away.
"What's this aipone that was released?" I asked Samoa.
She blinked, her white hair flowing around her like a veil as she stared at me. "Avl does have better chances of getting the apprenticeship… Her family has connections."
"And you'll get it without needing those... is that why you've been acting strange?"
She looked away, "You're the prince. I'm nowhere near the ranking of the rest of them, I've only been allowed at the oftmapa because I'm skilled in purification, and Avl is just as skilled as me."
I blinked, struggling for a moment to understand. My rank was what had her worried?
"Samoa, you're one of my friends. I'm not going to abandon you just because I'm a prince…"
Did she really think me so shallow?
"I know, of course, but you're far above me," she chewed her lip. "It isn't proper for me to speak to you casually."
I huffed, I knew all the manners but… "You're my friend. Fetu and Lagi speak to me casually-"
"They're the highest ranked mers here besides you," she pointed out.
Okay, that was fair.
"Samoa, you're an amazing Vakasta, and an amazing friend. You don't need to be proper with me, unless it's some big event. This is just my amawa."
She studied me for a long moment, her pale eyes intense, before relaxing, "If you say so, Persi-ai-"
I shot her a sour look and she laughed.
"If you say so, Persi."
"I do," I said with a nod.
"So," she trailed off for a moment.
"The aipone?"
She grinned and began tearing apart the apparently horrifically done aipone. She went into detail explaining all the issues it had, and how the one sequence would ruin the sand dollar it was trying to fix, and how another was clearly transcribed wrong because two of the ivuis were the wrong shapes.
I relaxed as she talked, her face brighter than it'd been all night.
Glad that was handled.
Samoa talked at length about the aipone, then we started talking about the apprenticeship. Apparently Avl and her had been competing for it for some time, along with some others but the others weren't as worrisome for Samoa.
Avl had the family connections to aid her that Samoa lacked.
"Why did she try to interrupt us?" I wondered. I wasn't close with Avl at all, and certainly wouldn't help her get the apprenticeship, so what was up with that?
"Probably because she was worried I would try to get you to help me," Samoa said.
I blinked, oh. I hadn't even thought of that. I was the prince, I could help Samoa.
"I don't want your help though," Samoa declared. "If I get the apprenticeship then I did it under my own skill, and even though it will be harder… if you helped me I'd be all but guaranteed it, regardless of my skill. I want to know that I am worthy of it."
I smiled, "Of course."
"Persi," Lagi said as we rejoined the group. "You were talking about wanting to learn healing before, yes?"
I nodded, "Yeah. I can heal myself, but it would've been a big help to know more than the basics when we were on the quest."
Lagi's eyes gleamed, "What do you know already?"
Fetu snickered, shooting me a grin as I faltered.
"Um…"
"Right, so you need to know the basics before you can begin lessons, I can give you some tips but there's a lot to know. You'll need to learn all the bones, and the differences in structure amongst mer, and of course since you're planning on healing humans you'll need to know that as well, plus satyrs as you mentioned one-"
Lagi began rambling on about everything I needed to learn and went into detail about the mer body in ways that made my head spin.
Oh dear, this did not seem as easy as purification. I couldn't just copy Katara?
Lagi's lecture lasted forever and Fetu leaned against me and chimed in on occasion with more "fun facts".
Elei finally cleared her throat, interrupting Lagi as he began to go on another rant about different types of seaweed and their uses in bandages.
"Will you be attending one of the camps?" She asked politely.
"Metua and Triton have been talking about it," I said, relieved for the break from the head spinning medical facts. "But they haven't decided on the details yet."
"You'll have to train with me," Elei said. "You mustn't get complacent."
"Oh!" Fetu brightened suddenly. "How has your Siren's Song been going? Can you coax some plants into growing?"
"Yeah," I said eagerly. "I even managed to put the Kerberos to sleep with a song and talked Medusa out of killing us-"
"Sorry," he pulled away to look at me. " Talked ?"
I coughed, "It was an accident."
He stared at me for a long moment, "We'll be going over safety procedures for Siren's Song later."
I nodded, ducking my head and trying to push down the embarrassed flush.
We talked for a while longer before a hand landed on my shoulder.
I jolted and looked up to see Triton there.
"It's time for the ofupanemit," Triton said fondly.
The what?
"This is the first time you've celebrated your birthday undersea," Triton mused. "So I'm not sure if you've had one before. Ofupanemit is similar to the cakes you have on land, but better."
I nodded, letting him lead me over to one of the table corals, the largest in the room. In the center was something that did kinda remind me of a cake. It looked like some sort of Jell-O and berry mixture, but it didn't look quite like Jell-O.
The ofupanemit held a thin coral branch with bioluminescent algae twisted around it.
Triton nudged me to the front and I realized the other members of the family were here as well, Metua and Mevu'ta, and Benthesikymê, Rhodos, Herophile, Kymopoleia, and even Khrysaôr.
"Now then," Metua said. "It's time to sing the amawa himne."
The mers circled around me and the table and began to sing.
"Muhopuk tiun ert poresoniv
Are ert haumuk ri ert movae
Tatifa ert opepav muhomu uohatu
Ika ert wasare parutupina sa'opu fare
Topta meye muvup, topta meye muhop
Ri era otima mana
Uti tatifa ert opepav muhomu uohatu
Ert moare emuk muhop pora hatevna
Amana porano ert pavu
La maru tamapu av ert wasare
Tatifa ert opepav muhomu uohatu
Eaye em y eaye meye ela
Ro y mir elipo ika ert pyev
Ert mavuotiv meye muhop y muvaku
Uti tatifa ert opepav muhomu uohatu
Y hovi naeye opu meye ivuso
La Muhopuk tiun ert poresoniv
Are ert haumuk ri ert movae
Tatifa ert opepav muhomu uohatu
Ert wasare emuk parutup sa'opu fare"
I sniffed, grinning at them as they finished. That was such a pretty birthday song! The one on land was so boring in comparison.
Metua cut the ofupanemit, handing out slices to everyone (with all the other mers thanking him a lot and doing a lot of motions of respect).
I took a bite, brightening at the sweetness. The only really sweet thing (like land sweet) that I'd had in the sea was tea and some of the berries, but the ofupanemit was very sweet.
I happily took another bite, trying to figure out the texture. It was like really dense Jell-O, but like, almost like… some sort of light cake at the same time? But no bread texture. It was hard to describe, but surprisingly not bad. The berry pieces added some extra flavor too.
"Ofupanemit are pretty good," Triton said with a smirk. "It's been a long time since I had one…"
He got a far away look for a moment, before he blinked and smiled back at me.
I grinned, "Yeah, it's really tasty."
"Now of course," Kymopoleia draped an arm around my shoulders, her tails stretched out behind her. "It's time for the best part of any amawa."
"Presents!" Herophile cheered.