a Queen of Butterflies

Chapter 04: tomatoes are kind of chill though

Thanatos pulls me through one of the doors on the left hand side of the garden and we enter a large hallway.

"This is the eastern wing, every room on this floor and the one upstairs was repurposed to make sure you demigods have everything it takes to reach your 'full potential' and whatnot." He started to point at random doors on either side of the hallway, "These are the stables,I know it's weird to have them in this wing but they couldn't be moved that easily. These are training rooms, I know for sure Lucas here or someone else will at one point explain what every room is for. This is an atelier for making art and I'm pretty sure this door leads to a garden."

"Wait, What? Yóu don't even know what every room is for?"

"Not really and I, frankly, don't care either. Anyways", He says whilst opening the doors at the end of the hallway, "This is the living room and kitchen, you'll probably spend most of your time here."

"It's really nice", I say as I take in the room. It was an architectural masterpiece. The far end of the room was a semicircle made entirely from glass, in front of it were same sofas and chairs. Everything in the room breathed tranquility and peace. There were no sharp edges or corners and no shades that looked like they couldn't exist outside of nature.

To my right there was a nice, spacious kitchen with a dinner table and some mismatched dining chairs and to my left there was a grand staircase made out of a bookshelf leading up to the second floor. Actually looking at the room again, it wasn't just the window that was a semicircle, the whole room was circular.

Thanatos continues his tour of the palace, "The western wing contains libraries, gardens and another training area and the tower is prohibited since it belongs to just king Hades and his wife, or well, I guess it belonged to his wife, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say anymore. Anyways, you can pick one of the rooms upstairs in a minute, they also all have a bathroom so don't worry about that. Oh and before I forget, you can go outside but you can't leave the valley without someone accompanying you. That's it, see you tomorrow at training", and with that he swiftly turns around on his heels and closes the door behind him.

"So", Lucas grins, "I guess you've met Thanatos now. How do you feel, about all of this", he gestures at the room around him.

"Not sure yet, but just so you know wé are not friends. I still haven't forgiven you for kidnapping me."

A burst of laughter erupts from up the staircase.

"Well well Cupid, guess someone is still immune to your charms."

The person who was laughing on the staircase walks down and reveals a friendly face with striking ice blue eyes that is framed by wild dark-blond curls.

"Ada by the way", she shakes my hand.

"Now, were you dying or is that just the way you laugh because you kind of sounded like an asthmatic hamster."

She bursts out in laughter again and faces Lucas, "OMD loverboy, this one's actually funny, for once you did a good job."

"Jesus, can y'all just stop with the nicknames even Thanatos has started to use them now"

"Wait what, haha, that's even better than I imagined it to be."

"What do those nicknames even mean, and what does OMD mean", I ask, barely being able to hold back the smile creeping it's way across my face. 

"Well, Lucas here has powers similar to that of Apollo, god of Archery, music, theater, poetry, healing, diseases, the sun and prophecy and with those powers he has also gained the ability to, in a way, charm people, make them fall in love with him."

I audibly gasp, "That's why all of the girls were such great fans of you!"

"Yeah", Lucas grumbles, "I can make anyone do whatever I want them to do, except for you that is."

"And OMD just stands for 'Oh mei dei' it's just Latin for 'oh my gods' I tought it sounded kind off cool", Ada swiftly adds, "Let me show you your room now", she hooks her arm in mine and walks me to the staircase on the left side of the room.

We climb the short flight of stairs and end up in a small room, it was slightly darker and cosier than the one downstairs and in it was a tv, some couches, a pool table and just some random tables and chairs that don't really appear to have any use.

On one of the couches I spot a boy with striking moss green eyes and hair the color of leaves in fall, not quite red or orange but brown with a slightly reddish hue to it. He turns around and faces us. "Hey Ada and newbie. If I'm not mistaking it was Nola right?"

"How do you know that?"

"Lucas can sometimes see the future so we all knew what you were called even before he went to your school."

"Oh"

"This is Matt, he's got the powers of Demeter", Ada rudely interrupts, "This is the salon and it's where we usually hang out because the gods never come here."

I turn back to face Matt, "So you can like, make plants grow?"

"Yep, though it's not really as cool as it sounds. Demeter after all isn't goddess of plants but goddess of agriculture. It means I can't make any plant grow, only those suitable for consumption."

"What do you mean it's not that cool. It's amazing!" I shout.

Matt grins, "Stand back or I'm going to smack you in the face with this tomato!"

"Ah no, not the tomato!", I play along.

"Still," Matt continues, "A tomato won't kill anyone."

"Unless they're allergic to tomatoes", Ada adds, "Do you want to see your room Nola?"

"Yep", We walk to the doors in the back of the room and go through the one on the left, "So is there only four halfgods here or are there more that I just haven't seen yet?"

"Oh no, with you here there's currently eight demigods at the palace", Ada answers, "Lucas, Matt and me, who you've already met and then Giulia, Alex, Peter and Cal. They should be here any moment now but they might still be training."

We stop right next to the third door in the wall and Ada pushes it open, "This is your room, the bathroom is right through that door at the back and I know this room looks a little blank right now but you can decorate it however you want. I'll leave you alone for a little bit now. There's a clock over there, dinner's served at seven. Be on time", She winks and then walks of leaving me alone.

I look around in the room. Everything is white but apart from that everything is really nice, the bathroom, the desk and the armoire are all spacious, the window is large and a great source of natural light and the bed is comfy.

The only thing I can think off whilst I sleep in is that it is good here.