𝙇𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨 (𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙮 𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙭 𝙁𝙚𝙢! 𝙊𝘾) 𝙏𝙏𝘾

I Learn About Lux's Life

Sylvia was pretty happy at dinner that night. Or, at least, she pretended to be while also missing Annabeth with her whole heart. 

The food was excellent as usual and stuff, since you can't really go wrong with barbecue, pizza, and never-empty vitamin water goblets (most of her siblings drank Capri Sun or Sunny D as a joke, but Sylvia didn't really like either). Turns out Fawkes ate anything Sylvia did, so getting her food wasn't a problem. The torches and braziers kept the outdoor pavilion warm. Everyone had to sit with their siblings, meaning Sylvia had to deal with Kayla's alto voice, Will almost cutting off his circulation by wrapping and unwrapping an Ace bandage around his wrist, and Austin sharpening his arrowheads. Lux sat beside her, every once in a while asking questions. 

Since it was sort of dark, Sylvia noticed how Lux sort of...glowed when they talked. In a very subtle way, but still. It was sort of how Fawkes was like, just toned down. She wondered if that was just a rare Apollo child ability or something.

Sylvia thought back to what Apollo said. Take care of Lux, they'll need it. She wondered what that was about.

"Hey Lux?" she said, quiet enough that only they would hear and none of their siblings.

"Yeah?"

"Did a satyr bring you to camp?"

"Yeah. His name was Glees-Gleeson, I thin-think."

"Gleeson Hedge? Old, violent satyr with a baseball bat-club thing?" she asked.

"Y-yep."

"He found me and Clarisse, too," Sylvia said.

"Really?"

"Mhm. We were trying to rob a Wendy's," Sylvia informed them, then grumbled, "and we would've succeeded, too, if he didn't come."

"Ho-how-how old were y-you two?" Lux asked.

"I was seven. She was eleven. Or maybe ten? I don't know. We got to camp when I was eight and she was eleven, though," Sylvia replied. "When did Gleeson find you?"

"Two weeks ago. I was on--on the streets of New York Cit--City, trying to fi-find some money."

"You were on the run?" Sylvia asked. 

Lux nodded, catching their green streaks in the light, making them flash for a moment. Sylvia blinked, and they were normal again.

Huh. What was that?

"How long have you been running for?" Sylvia asked, deciding maybe she really was as sleep-deprived as she told Will she was.

"Um...I ran away from Que-Que-Quebec when I was 10, and I'm almos-almost 13 now."

They're 12? Huh. Thought they were 9 or ten.

"Wait. You ran from Quebec to New York City?"

They nodded shyly. "I sto-stole some of my dads' money. Nei-neither of them noti-noticed until it was too l-late. I made it t-to Ontario witho-without any problem. Then, by the border into the U.S., I met a monster. It was some sort o-of dog. I asked Finn about them ear-earlier, and fae thinks it was a he-hell-hellhound. It attacked me. I didn't know what to do, so I punched it in the snout and climbed into its back. It did a weird thing where i-i-it  jump-jumped into the shad-dows and," they paused to shudder, "came out of a differ-different shadow all the way i-in Seattle."

Sylvia shivered. All children of Apollo despised the dark. Except Lee, because he was weird. She couldn't imagine travelling through a shadow.

"I escaped from it, because the sha-shadow thing tire-tired it out. I me-met a boy there, ac-actually. His name was Le-Leo. He was nice. He was als-also on the run, so we stayed together for-for a few months. Almost a yea-year, actually."