Bride of the Sea God

Chapter 9

A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!

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Annabeth was able to roughly estimate which island among all the archipelagoes Pegai was located on, recalling what geography knowledge she had. The village was much further than she had thought. Magic must have brought her boat to travel such a far distance.

"We shall visit these first, and then move on to the next set of islands if that is not where your village is." Perseus decided. The sea god had not also heard of Pegai.

As it was, Pegai was an insignificant sea town where nothing remotely interesting happened for all the years of Annabeth's life, except for how Annabeth and the Blade of Souls came to be.

After settling most of the lieutenant's duties so they could be run smoothly during the sea god's absence, Perseus took Annabeth out to the surface of the sea.

Instead of the barely seaworthy boat that she had first traveled in, she was now sitting in a trireme. They traveled by ship as the sea god could attend to other duties along the way, inspecting the seas. Quite a contrast from how she first started out, Annabeth mused. The ship even obeyed every command the sea god willed as Annabeth watched fascinated as oars moved by themselves and ropes unraveled.

"I had these powers even as a demigod." Perseus said, amused as Annabeth observed how the three masts moved themselves in accordance with the wind.

"How fortunate." Annabeth sighed. If she had such powers, she would have left Pegai years ago to adventure on quests like she had read the most famous demigods had done. "Do children of Athena ever receive magical powers?"

"Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war. Likewise, her children rely on their intelligence, quick wit, and inner strength instead of powers to survive in battles and in life."

That made sense, Annabeth thought. She would much rather win using her intelligence and what she had on hand instead of brute strength. Leitus, the archon's son, was always so much of a brute that she wondered whether muscle took up so much of his brain that there was hardly anything left in his head.

Perseus smirked. "How rare for a child of Athena to ask for magical powers."

Annabeth boldly stuck her tongue out at him. "I was simply curious. Then did you receive your powers because you have no intelligence, quick wit, or inner strength?" She asked, innocently. "Ow! Okay, okay, I was wrong! "

The sea god had walked over and pinched both of her cheeks. "I see you have become even more audacious than usual. Have you forgotten that I am a god?" He pulled and squished at her cheeks.

"Ow, ish hurt-sh!"

This close to him, the scent of fresh sea breeze wafted off of him. Just peering over his over-the-shoulder chiton was leather cord necklace with some faded clay beads.

Annabeth glared at him when he finally let go after he had pinched her cheeks to his satisfaction. It was true that until the incident of their argument a few days ago, the fact that Perseus was a god had not registered in her mind. He did not behave like she had thought gods would in her imagination, but that could be just that she had painted all gods with the same brush.

The ship traveled on. Annabeth relished the sun on her face. It had been quite some time down in the dark depths of the seas, and she missed the natural sunlight. How unfortunate that she could only briefly enjoy soaking in the sun's rays with her luncheon before the sea god dragged her to help read through several reports.

"Am I allowed to read this?" Annabeth asked, doubtfully.

"I am giving you those reports to read and compile as an olive branch. A sign of my faith in you." Perseus answered. "We did promise each other not to betray the other."