"The moment I met you,
I held my breath.
And you've been taking
it away ever since,
Nico di Angelo."
[ NICO DI ANGELO x MALE OC ]
[ PERCY JACKSON SERIES ]
[ HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES ]
cover by @humaneity !
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0030. | THE HORRID ROMANTICISATION OF WAR
It was raining on the evening of the funerals. All across America a thunderous rainstorm of pelting water drops and smeared black skies thanks to Zeus's decency for the fallen soldiers.
That's what they called them - soldiers. Vela despised that word. It wasn't right. They weren't soldiers, they were children.
He could hear it in Chiron's speeches, that romanticisation of dead children. He called them warriors, fighters, who defended the eternal city and will always be remembered and cherished in Elysium.
But Vela knew the truth. He knew their deaths wouldn't have been noble or final stands. He knew that in their last moments, they were scared and alone. He knew that they were all afraid of death because they were children told to fight in a war. Vela despised to hear it.
He knew they shouldn't have had to fight. Everything Percy had asked of the gods shouldn't have had to have been asked for, it should've already been how things worked. Children shouldn't have had to fight to be recognised by their parents. They shouldn't have to be 'important' to be recognised. It wasn't fair that Percy and Vela were claimed so quickly when people in the Hermes cabin like Lou Ellen had only just been claimed by their godly parent. It wasn't fair.
What also wasn't fair, at least to Vela, was Chiron asking him to speak the eulogy for Silena Beauregard. It was bad enough having to tell mister Beauregard the news. It hurt to see the kind man who had once sent Vela chocolate in the mail completely break down at the news of his only daughter being dead. Vela couldn't even tell him the real reason why. He told him it was a car accident, that the driver didn't see her crossing the road, that she was dead upon impact. He didn't want mister Beauregard to know Silena's death was slow and drawn out. He at least deserved to believe his daughter had a fast end even if Vela was forced to know the awful truth.
But he had also taken the burden of the eulogy just for the simple fact that it didn't seem fair that Lacy or Valentina might've been asked to do it instead. Vela was the oldest now of all the Aphrodite cabin, other than Drew, though technically he was still two thousand years older than even her. He had to take on the responsibility of their dead sibling, but he let Drew be head counsellor. Chiron told him a god wasn't allowed to be a counsellor.
Someone else had designed Silena's shroud, not him. He couldn't bring himself to. Vela figured if all he had to do was speak before burning the shroud, then he'd be fine and not cry that much. He was wrong.
He wanted to wear black, but Lacy told him not to. She found him a lilac t-shirt to wear which he had thought was a brilliant way to honour Silena's memory at her funeral until he had to stand in front of the whole camp by the funeral pyre and say mournful words. Everyone was gathered on the steps of the amphitheatre and Chiron was sat at the side to give Vela and the pyre some space. He was in his wheelchair ever since his incident with Kronos in the war so his hind legs could heal and his arm was still in a sling.
