¹On This Spring Day, percy jackson & the olympians

020.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter twenty

━━━━━ THERE WERE TOO MANY GOODBYES.

That night was the first time Violet actually saw camp burial shrouds used on bodies, and it was not something she ever wanted to see again. Part of her wondered if this is what people felt like when they thought they were attending her own burial shroud burning—this disgusting, gutted feeling; the feeling of guilt and shame.

Among the dead, Lee Fletcher from the Apollo Cabin had been downed by a giant's club. He was wrapped in a golden shroud without any decoration. Castor Winward, Son of Dionysus, was wrapped in a deep purple shroud, embroidered with grapevines. He had been seventeen years old—the same age as Lee. His twin brother, Pollux, tried to say a few words, but he choked up and just took the torch. He lit the funeral pyre in the middle of the amphitheater, and within seconds the row of shrouds was engulfed in fire, sending smoke and sparks up to the stars.

It wasn't the smoke suffocating her, it was the feeling of death. Violet's clenched fists shook as she braced them against her legs.

Nico sat down next to her as people shuffled out of the amphitheater. Once the last few stragglers stepped off the last step, he said, "You look sick."

"It's become almost ... worse," admitted Violet. "Now that I know."

"That's what it was like for me." Nico nodded. "You can almost feel like you can sense where they are—being judged, or in Fields of Asphodel, or ... other places."

"Why is that?" Violet asked. "I mean, Elain said the—powers changed, like the season. So why can I feel Death so easily? Persephone's not in the Underworld right now."

Nico shrugged. "Maybe it has to do with you knowing the full truth. Or because you discovered it in winter, so those abilities are stronger. Or ..." He took a deep breath. "Or maybe it's just the amount of death here."

Violet didn't bring up the tension in her chest. Or the fact the knot was released when she saw Lee Fletcher die.

They spent the next day treating the wounded, which was almost everyone. The satyrs and dryads worked to repair the damage to the woods.

At noon, the Council of Cloven Elders held an emergency meeting in their sacred grove. The three senior satyrs were there, along with Chiron, who was in wheelchair form. His broken horse leg was still mending, so he would be confined to the chair for a few months, until the leg was strong enough to take his weight. The grove was filled with satyrs and dryads and naiads up from the water—hundreds of them, anxious to hear what would happen. Juniper, Annabeth, Percy, and Violet stood by Grover's side.

Silenus wanted to exile Grover immediately, but Chiron persuaded him to at least hear evidence first, so the questers told everyone what had happened in the crystal cavern, and what Pan had said. Then several eyewitnesses from the battle described the weird sound Grover had made, which drove the Titans' army back underground.

"It was panic," insisted Juniper. "Grover summoned the power of the wild god."

"Panic?" asked Percy.

"Percy," Chiron explained, "during the first war of the gods and the Titans, Lord Pan let forth a horrible cry that scared away the enemy armies. It is—it was his greatest power—a massive wave of fear that helped the gods win the day. The word panic is named after Pan, you see. And Grover used that power, calling it forth from within himself."