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"What?" Percy asked again, his voice still weak and raspy. His mind felt fuzzy, like it was full of cotton wool. His eyesight was still blurry, covered with annoying black spots that danced in front of his eyes.
Hecate sighed, a sound that seemed to carry the weight of centuries. She snapped her fingers, and a small, stoppered glass bottle of some shimmering, silver liquid appeared in her hand. She gently knelt down beside him and carefully lifted Percy's head, resting it on her lap. She pressed the cool mouth of the bottle against his lips. "Here, drink this," she said softly, her voice unusually gentle. "You'll feel better in a moment."
Percy nodded weakly, trusting her completely. He did just that, drinking the strange, sweet-tasting potion in quick, thirsty gulps.
The moment the bottle was empty, a wave of warmth and strength flowed through him, pushing away the dizziness and the black spots.
He closed his eyes for a moment, letting his body regain its strength, feeling the pounding in his head slowly fade. Then, he opened his eyes again and looked up at her. "What... what happened, Hecate?"
"You tried to change reality, Percy," came Hecate's simple, almost casual reply.
Percy's eyes opened wider as he met hers, searching her face. "Really? That's… that's what I was doing?"
The goddess shrugged, a small, elegant movement. "Yup. Pretty much."
"Explain. Please," Percy grumbled, his head still feeling a little muddled, but much clearer now. He needed answers.
Hecate smiled, a faint, knowing smile. "You finally figured out how to use your intent to make magic work, didn't you? The way it's truly meant to be used."
Percy blinked, surprised she knew. "Yeah... I did. Just today, actually. How did you know?"
"Because, my dear boy," she said, her smile widening a little, "I never actually taught you to do so. And only something as powerful as discovering true intent-based magic would result in... well, this." She gestured with her chin towards the statue of Annabeth.
It now looked more like a very detailed, but still lifeless, stone statue rather than a living, breathing person.
Whatever had been happening, Hecate's arrival had stopped it, returning Annabeth to just an ordinary, if incredibly well-made, carving.
"Did you... did you teach me incorrectly on purpose?" Percy asked, the question forming slowly in his mind.
Hecate looked down at him, her silver eyes serious. Slowly, she nodded. "Yes, Percy... I did."
"Why?" he asked, his voice quiet. He felt a pang of something confusion, maybe a little hurt but not anger.
"Because you weren't ready to know what you could truly do back then," she explained softly. "You weren't really a wizard yet, not in the way these Hogwarts people are. You were just a powerful demigod who happened to be learning how to use magic. And that combination… it's different. More… volatile."
"I think I need a little more than that, Hecate," Percy said, pushing himself up to sit, though he still felt a bit shaky.
He should be angry, he supposed, that she'd held back, that she'd taught him a limited version of magic.
But he wasn't. He couldn't really be angry at this woman he considered family, the one who had protected him and guided him for so long.
No, he trusted her too much for that. She must have had a very good reason. Percy just needed to understand it.
"Well, I suppose you are ready to know now," Hecate sighed, looking up at Annabeth's statue with a complicated expression. "When you were making that… thing," she pointed to the statue, "what exactly were you thinking about, Percy?"
"I… I was thinking about Annabeth," Percy admitted, his cheeks feeling a little warm. "About how she looked, how she smiled."
Hecate's serious expression softened, and a teasing glint appeared in her eyes. "Thinking about another girl, are we? When your super hot, very possessive Veela girlfriend could walk in at any moment? For shame, Percy Jackson, for shame."
Percy rolled his eyes, feeling a bit embarrassed but also a little defensive. "It's not like that, Hecate. I was just… remembering."
Hecate chuckled, a low, musical sound. "Sure, sure, whatever you say, hero." She smiled at Percy, a genuine, fond smile. "But you were thinking of her, weren't you? And you wanted the statue to look exactly like her, every detail perfect."
Percy nodded slowly. "Yes. That's what I was trying to do."
"But you probably didn't just stop there, did you?" Hecate continued, her voice becoming serious again. "You must have remembered more about her than just her looks. Memories of how she acted, how she talked, how she moved, how she felt to be around. And when you did that, Percy… when you poured all those vivid memories and strong emotions into the spell… that changed everything. You weren't just trying to make the stone look like her anymore… you were trying to make it become her. You were trying to bring your memory of her to life."
Percy blinked, stunned. "But… but all I did was a basic transfiguration spell! The kind they teach first years to turn a matchstick into a needle!"
"Yes, the spell itself was simple," Hecate agreed. "But your intent, Percy, your deep, powerful, demigod will behind it… that wasn't just for a simple, lifeless image, was it?"
Percy thought back, replaying the moment in his mind. The focus, the desire for it to be Annabeth… "Yes, but… is that really all it takes? Just… imagining them strongly enough, to create life from stone?" That seemed too easy, too terrifying.
"No, of course not, Percy. Not for a normal wizard," Hecate said, shaking her head. "Creating true life out of an inanimate statue is something practically impossible for mortals. Only a god, with their immense power over creation, could do such a thing… and you..."
"Are half god," Percy realized, the words dawning on him with a new, heavy weight. "My divine side… my father's power… that's why you didn't teach me the right way to use magic from the start? Because of what I am?"
Hecate nodded slowly, her silver eyes full of a mixture of pride and worry. "I told you once, a long time ago, about how divine magic worked, didn't I, Percy? How it's different from mortal magic?"
Percy nodded, remembering a lesson from years ago. "Yeah, you did. You said divine magic, godly magic, came from the world around us, from nature itself, from belief and domains. While mortal magic, wizard magic, came from within themselves, from their own core."
Hecate nodded again. She helped Percy to his feet, and he stood a bit unsteadily for a moment. She stepped back, her expression becoming grander, more powerful.
"Exactly. Mortals, wizards, they have to push their own limited magic outwards to try and change the world around them. It's like a child trying to grasp a handful of sand on a vast beach they can only hold so much, affect so little. But we gods? We are the beach, Percy." As Hecate threw her hands apart dramatically, the very room around them began to move.
The stone walls of 'The Forest' started to rotate, each row of heavy stones moving either clockwise or anticlockwise, alternating with each other in a dizzying, impossible dance.
Percy stared, wide-eyed. Hecate then snapped her fingers sharply, and the enchanted skylight high above them suddenly split in half with a soft crack, sliding open to reveal the dark, star-dusted night sky above the castle.
A cool breeze swept into the room.
"We gods," Hecate continued, her voice resonating with power, "we control the very fabric of nature that is around us, the elements, the forces of creation. So when we push our divine will onto it, when we intend for something to happen, you can expect the world itself to bend over backwards to serve us, to obey our commands."
Percy watched in complete awe as, slowly, the spinning tower room stopped its impossible rotation, returning to normal.
The skylight slid shut again. Hecate let out a small sigh, the immense power receding from her, leaving her looking more like his familiar aunt again.
"I didn't teach you the right way, the intent-based way, from the beginning because… because it was simply too dangerous for you then, Percy. If you didn't understand what you were truly getting into, if you didn't have control… you might accidentally do something that can't be undone. Something catastrophic."
Percy blinked, trying to process it all. "I don't really think… I mean, I wouldn't have… okay, yeah," he admitted, thinking of the fire-breathing paper dragon, "maybe I would have."
Hecate smiled, a small, relieved smile. "You aren't mad at me then? For holding back?"
"No," Percy said honestly. "Confused, maybe a bit overwhelmed, but not mad. But… how bad could it really be? Tell me, what would happen if I just tried a simple invisibility charm, but with too much intent? What could possibly go wrong with that?"
"You could end up accidentally erasing yourself from existence entirely," Hecate stated bluntly.
Percy scoffed, thinking she was exaggerating. "Really? From just an invisibility charm?"
"Yes, really," she insisted, her face serious. "If your deepest intention is to be truly invisible, completely unseen and unnoticed, your demigod magic, combined with that intent, might take it a step too far. It might interpret that as wanting to be truly non-existent, and poof, you could just… cease to be."
"If you overpowered a simple sleeping charm with enough will, you could theoretically force anyone into a coma they might never wake from, maybe even stop their heart. Your will, Percy, especially now that you understand intent, is a powerful weapon. A divine weapon, in part. Use it incorrectly, without perfect control and understanding, and it could mean accidentally splitting the world apart like an egg."
Percy looked around his secret room, his mind reeling from the implications. He walked over to the now-still statue of Annabeth, still looking so lifelike, and gently cupped her cold, stone cheek with his hand. "And her?" he asked quietly, his voice a little hoarse. "Could I really… if I tried hard enough… could I actually make another Annabeth? A living one?"
Hecate nodded slowly, her expression grave. "If you were stronger, Percy, if your divine power was more developed, more controlled… then yes. Theoretically, you could. You could pull her essence from your memories, from the threads of fate, and give it form. That's why you are so dangerous, Percy, but also so potentially powerful. As a demigod, especially one as strong as you, you can mix mortal magic and divine power in ways no one else can."
"You can create a force to be reckoned with, for good or for ill. I didn't want you to have this immense burden, this terrifying knowledge, just yet when I first taught you the basics of magic. You were just a boy then. I always expected you to one day figure it out, to grow into it. That's why I kept such close tabs on you, just in case something like this happened unexpectedly. I just… I never expected you to figure it out this soon, or in such a dramatic fashion."
Percy sighed, letting his hand fall from the statue's cheek. "I had some help. A Hogwarts professor, Flitwick, he suggested I wasn't using intent. He explained it to me."
Hecate huffed, crossing her arms and looking rather indignant. "Stupid mortals," she muttered under her breath. "Thinking they can teach my student, my nephew, better than I can. The nerve of some people. Morons."
Percy chuckled, shaking his head. Hecate could be so protective sometimes. He looked at the Annabeth statue again.
He waved his wand over it, and this time, with careful, controlled intent, he forced the stone back into the wall, smoothing it out until it was nothing more than the simple, flat etching he had originally made.
Hecate was right; Fleur would probably be seriously pissed, and rightfully so, if she walked in and saw a life-sized, incredibly realistic statue of Percy's first love casually standing in his personal study. Not a good look.
"So, what now?" Percy asked, turning back to Hecate. He felt a bit like he'd just been handed a loaded, unpredictable weapon and told to be careful. "Can you, like… seal this power away again? Make it go back to how it was?"
Hecate smiled, a sad but knowing smile. "Oh, Percy. It's not something that can be sealed away like a monster in a jar. It's… it's a fundamental part of you now. A part of who you are as a son of Poseidon learning magic. Ignorance was your only real defense against its full potential before, but now that you know… now, I suggest you learn to deal with it. Learn to control it. Carefully."
Percy groaned, running both hands through his already messy hair. "This," he said, looking around his amazing, magic-filled secret room, "is going to be such a massive pain in the ass."
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If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters you could take a visit on my patreon Or check it out.
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