Prophesied Powder, PJO

Epilogue

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Chapter 45
Burial Shrouds and Alcoves

Volume 4: The Battle of
the Labyrinth

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After four deadly quests, Pat thought he was familiar with death—after Bianca, Zoë, and whatever they'd call Luke's ordeal, he'd seen people he cared about die (even if he didn't want to admit that Luke had mattered to him at one point or another). However, Pat was beginning to learn that he had no preparation to deal with the true fallout of war and the reactions of others.

Emotions had never been his strongest suit, but processing them now, in the state he was in and after everything that had happened to him, was like trying to churn butter with two broken hands. He felt like all he could do was observe as the bodies started being recovered.

The first unmoving body was found by Clarisse, one of Demeter's children. After that, they kept coming. Percy found Castor, son of Dionysus, with a large cut in his stomach that had lost too much blood during the battle; Pollux was inconsolable.

In a way, Pollux's reaction hardly compared to when Jake Mason found Lee with his bones caved in from a giant's club. Pallas started screaming and had run to the scene, despite Annabeth's attempts to hold him back from seeing the corpse up close.

None of Pat's siblings had perished, though Drew had a nasty break in her arm that was being dealt with by Will Solace. Still, hearing Pallas sobbing in the distance felt just as terrible.

After Lee was recovered, Pallas disappeared for the day, but that night, at the campfire, he re-emerged. Though nearly half the Apollo cabin stood up by the flames, only Michael was able to give a proper eulogy, and even he sounded close to a breakdown.

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 amphitheatre, and within seconds the row of shrouds was engulfed in fire, sending smoke and sparks up to the stars.

The next day was treating injures and repairing 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, Pat, and Percy stood by Grover's side. Pallas hadn't come, confined to medical duties with his siblings.

Silenus wanted to exile Grover immediately, but Chiron persuaded him to at least hear evidence first, so we 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?" Percy asked.

"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."