"In Latin my name, Aurelia, basically means 'the golden one.' My mother literally named me her golden light through the storm that was her life. That is my job. To be everyone's light at the end of the tunnel. And I got stuck worrying so much about...
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Aurelia hated crying.
Tears were a strange concept to her. There are three types of tears.
One, basal tears which protects the eye from drying out and the cornea from damage. Eyes constantly shed basal tears, even when you don't notice. Two, reflex tears which form when the eyes need to wash away harmful irritants, such as smoke, foreign bodies or onion fumes. Kinda like a more extreme version of basil tears. Three, emotional tears. Those tears were foreign to Aurelia. The last time Aurelia cried emotional tears was the day Reyna made her give up on her search for Jason—and even that day, her tears were minimal and silent, and she had finished crying after exactly three minutes.
When other people cried she was more prepared for that. When other people cried there were usually two options. One, let them cry out their emotions, not give any words of affirmation or try to cheer them up. Or, two, do the exact opposite and try to uplift someone so even if they cry there can still be some joy for them to fall back on when they are done.
Aurelia's focus was divided into two things: Percy's fear of flying, which meant she had to keep her hand on her necklace to keep shadows from lingering on her arm, and Frank's shame towards the fact that he was crying.
Hazel was a good friend, Aurelia thought, as the daughter of Pluto kept reassuring Frank that he'd done everything he could for his grandmother. Which was all true. Frank had saved them from the Laistrygonians and gotten them out of Vancouver. He'd been incredibly brave.
But Frank kept his head bowed down. Ashamed that he had been crying. No one could blame him—he just lost his grandmother and saw his home go up in flames. Any normal person would cry about something like that. Even an abnormal person like Aurelia cried after seeing something like that.
Tears and emotions are such a strange concept.
But they couldn't linger very long on tears and emotions because as time ticked away, so did their chances of saving Camp Jupiter and surviving this quest. They were almost halfway through June twenty-third, and tomorrow was the Feast of Fortuna.
Frank refused to explain exactly what his "family gift" was. Aurelia didn't even try taking his hand to find it in his mind. But as they flew north, Frank did tell them about his conversation with Mars the night before. He explained the prophecy Juno issued him when he was a baby—about his life being tied to a piece of firewood, and how he had asked Hazel to keep it for him.
Well, technically, he was mostly telling Percy about that last part because Aurelia and Hazel already knew, but it was still important information nonetheless.
"Frank," Percy said after everything the son of Mars had finished explaining, "I'm proud to be related to you."
Frank's ears turned red. With his head lowered, his military haircut made a sharp black arrow pointing down. "Juno has some sort of plan for us, about the Prophecy of Eight."
