The energy around the campfire that night was low with none of the children feeling joyful enough to sing songs after witnessing Thalia, Daughter of Zeus’ death and subsequent transformation. On nights like this Chiron didn’t force the children to sing and instead offered up stories and myths from the past. Last time the children had gotten like this Chiron had told the story of Hyacinthus but felt that story was in poor taste all things considered.
Instead, he looked to where the newest daughter of Athena sat tucked into the side of the son of Hermes.
“Annabeth,” Chiron called, gaining the child’s attention. “We often sing songs and tell stories around the fire. Is there a particular story you might like to hear?”
Luke Castellan glared at him, but Annabeth perked up.
“The North Star,” she whispered. “It led me to Luke and Thalia.”
Luke’s glare turned to a painful wince as he looked at Chiron. His expression was one Chiron had seen on the faces of many campers. Please humor my little sibling on their latest crazy idea.
But Chiron had no need to humor Annabeth this once. The North Star did in fact guide demigods from time to time but the story behind it was no less sad than the story behind Hyacinthus or Thalia.
“The North Star is named Ocestelle,” Chiron started, surprising Luke and several other campers who didn’t know the rarer myths.
“It has a name?” Silena asked, her eyes brightening at the idea.
“Ocestelle was a daughter of Poseidon born as the twin to Persozo,” Chiron explained. He didn’t need to explain to the children who Persozo was. The God of the Divinely Touched made many appearances at Camp Half-Blood to either check on the children or to bother Dionysus. It was his duty as the Patron of Demigods - to check on the children, not harass Dionysus - but while all the demigods knew who he was, very few knew his origin story and Persozo tended to keep it that way. “I will warn you now, Ocestelle’s tale is not one that ends happily.”
Annabeth seemed to reconsider for a moment before steeling herself. “I want to know who she is. She brought me here,” she determined.
“Very well,” Chiron said. “Where do I start?”
“The beginning,” Travis called, making his younger siblings giggle.
“No,” Chiron decided, “in order to fully understand the tale of Ocestelle one must first know the story of Pallas.”
“Isn’t that another name for Athena?” Annabeth asked.
Chiron sighed. “It is and it isn’t, and that child is where things really started going wrong between Poseidon and Athena.”
When gods have children with those other than gods, divinity starts getting tricky. A demigod is half-mortal and half-god. There is a divinity in your veins that if given the right incentive can become godhood, as Mr. D is proof of. When a god has a child with a nature spirit it is much the same for all that it's also different. This child would be much more closer to divinity than the average demigod would be even if they aren’t guaranteed godhood.
Pallas was one such child. The eldest daughter of Triton and Libya, the Fates had named that should she become a goddess she would gain the domain of, ironically enough, salt springs.
When Athena emerged from her father’s head,she might have been fully grown but even if gods are fairly self-sufficientonce born, they do still need to be taught the ways of the world. Triton took Athena in after her birth. He raised and trained her alongside his own daughter and the two grew to be inseparable.
When the two girls were older there was a competition on Olympus,and this is where the myth takes off in various directions. Some say Zeus grew worried that Athena might lose and interfered in the match by blinding Pallas or scaring her with Aegis. While the first is plausible the second is highly unlikely as Medusa had not yet been created and therefore a shield bearing her likeness would not yet exist.
Supposedly, Athena, expecting Pallas to block the strike, stabbed Pallas through the chest while her friend was distracted. The reality was much worse. Athena had lost that match without Zeus’ interference and later challenged Pallas to a rematch in private. Pallas agreed despite the fact that her father had warned the two against sparing with anyone without someone around to mediate. What fear should Pallas have from a mock fight with her friend who would never hurt her?
The two fought at the edge of a cliffside and while some stories still try to paint it as Zeus interfering even in this seemingly low-stakes match, it was Athena’s pride that became Pallas’ downfall. Athena pushed forward even past when they would both normally yield and when Pallas gave an opening, she stabbed her. Pallas fell backwards into the sea where Triton became aware of what had happened.
Athena claimed an accident but neither Triton nor Poseidon believed her even as Zeus declared the case closed. This is the start of Poseidon and Athena’s rivalry but not nearly the worst of it.
As you all know, Poseidon and Athena once competed for the Patronage of Athens. The lesser-knowndetail of this competition was the birth of Poseidon’s twins Persozo and Ocestelle.
Poseidon had originally been promised patronage of the city when Athena argued that she had a greater claim. It was eventually determined by Zeus that the two would compete for it and the Athenians would choose based on the better gift.
Contrary to popular belief, Poseidon had already built his gift before the competition, intending for it to be a gift for their patronage. Poseidon had built a saltwaterspring for the people and while today such a gift would not be as useful, back then such a clean and constant source of salt would make any man rich. Before Poseidonleft for the competition, Amphitrite slipped a sand dollar into the fountain ensuring the water would forever run clean and clear.
The Fates, however, had plans for the fountain that neither Poseidon nor Amphitrite knew. The Athenians certainly didn’t know that their choice was supposed to birth two new gods of Poseidon's will and Amphitrite’scharity. Very rarely do the Fates allow true freewill to the people but in this instance their hand was forced and that spelled Ocestelle’s doom.
When the Athenians picked Athena’s olive tree, the sand dollar in the saltwaterspring split but not in half as was originally intended by the Fates. Instead,it split into a small sliver and one nearly whole piece. Persozo was born as the God of the Divinely Touched as well as several more domains such as groundswells and riptides. Some of these domains were meant for him, such as the domain of tremors while others like Maiden Voyages were meant for his sister.
It was soon clear that something had gone terribly wrong as Persozo appeared like that of a young man while his twin sister cried from his arms as an infant. Ocestelle, who was meant to be a goddess twin to her brother, was born instead as the first and only demigod child of Amphitrite.
The sand dollar breaking unevenly meant that Persozo inherited nearly all of the divinity of his parents while Ocestelle only inherited a minor portion of their mother’s, enough to give her abilities over water and superior strength and instincts but not nearly enough to be considered a goddess or even a nature spirit.
Poseidon blamed Athena for the fact that Ocestelle was born mortal as he believed that had the Athenians not been made to choose, his daughter would have been born the goddess she was meant to be. This is where the tale of Medusa fits into the narrative as Poseidon enacted revenge on Athena by assaulting her priestess, a move that Persozo surprised his father by disagreeing with.
It was determined shortly after, as it became clear Ocestelle’s immortality wouldn’t spontaneously appear, that she would have to gain her divinity the hard way like either Hercules or Dionysus, though neither of them had been born at the time. Despite the numerous challenges and obstaclesshe fought, beyond even the feats of Hercules, Zeus refused to grant her immortality. He had been told by the fates that both Persozo and Ocestelle belonged on the Olympian council and Zeus feared having his brother’s children on the council would undermine him. When he took these concerns to Athena, she told him that such a fate could potentially be hindered if Ocestelle never obtained godhood.
Athena was right and Persozo remains the only child of Poseidon on the council due to Zeus’ interference.
It did not take more than two denials for Ocestelle to realize she would not gain godhood through deed so long as Zeus was king so instead,she tried to gain it through belief. In order to gain more time she joined the Hunters of Artemis as she and Artemis had grown close over the years due to their brothers’ growing affections for one another.
Time passed and while Ocestelle remained forever young she still did not gain that which she worked for. It was very hard for females to gain recognition back then. Hercules was born, as was Dionysus, the Giant War had come and gone,and both sons of Zeus had obtained godhood while Ocestelle had not.
Poseidon is beyond enraged by Zeus’ ploy as are the other Olympians. Rebellion is brewing on the horizon but first, there was tragedy and before that, a romance that still defines hom*osexual love.
Persozo and Apollo did not have a traditional love story. It goes that when Persozo was presented as the next Olympian, the city threw a big party where everyone was focused on the newest god. Somehow Persozo had gained Ares favor at this party, enraging Aphrodite.
The goddess of love then sent her son Eros to enact revenge. As Persozo was talking to Hephaestus, Eros snuck up behind him with the intent to strike him with an extremely potent lustful arrow. Apollo, well familiar with Eros’ tricks, raced to stop him and when that failed, put himself between Persozo and the arrow.
Apollo actually failed to stop the arrow as it pierced through not only Apollo’s heart but also Persozo’s, who had turned around at the commotion. This caused the two gods to fall in a deep decades long lust with one another that slowly turned into love as the arrow’s effects faded from them.
Years after the last of the arrow's effects faded, Apollo would undergo the trials needed to undo the vow he once took to never marry but until then the two gods remained perpetually engaged. It was towards the end of this period that Ocestelle would die.
Following the Giant War, Orion eventually found his way to Artemis who allowed him to join the hunt despite being male. This myth is no clearerthan the others with stories saying Artemis killed him with an arrow or that Gaia killed him with a scorpion. The truth, like most things, is far more complicated.
Now, Eros and Apollo had a long-standing feud which made Apollo Eros’ favorite target when wishing to cause chaos with love. Eros had noticed that Persozo and Apollo spent a lot of time with the Hunters with the addition of Orion to the ranks. Why was never clear and neither have ever said but it was believed by the myths that Apollo didn’t trust Orion with his sister,and he was somewhat right to. Persozo was obviously more inclined to be where his fiance and sister were then where they were not.
Seeking to cause chaos, Eros had shot Orion with an arrow to make him fall in love with Artemis and while the maiden goddess was immune to Eros’ arrows, it didn’t mean love's influence was entirely useless against her. Apollo feared for Artemis’ own vow but that was not ultimately what drove his hand against Orion who had yet to make a move towards Artemis.
Eros, seeing that his first attempt was failing due to Orion’s high regard for Artemis, moved onto a new target. Shooting Apollo with an arrow that caused jealousy, Eros drove the wedge between Apollo and Orion further. Apollo became convinced that Orion was also flirting with Persozo and became extremely jealous of the time the two men were spending together.
Apollo, inflicted with Eros’ arrow-borne madness, cursed Orion with a madness of his own. Overtime, what had started as a mild compulsion grew into a burning bloodlust, until Orion was killing just to kill, which was in direct opposition to the hunt’s ideals. When the hunters tried to stop him, he turned on them, killing Artemis’ Lieutenant of the time, as well as Ocestelle, in the process.
Artemis was forced to kill Orion, and, in her grief, she put all three of her fallen hunters into the sky. Orion became the Orion constellation, the Lieutenant became the constellation now known as the crux,but her original name has since been lost to time and neither, Hunters nor Twins will speak it for fear of invoking that anger and madness again. Finally,Ocestelle became the North Star. In Greek Myths the star belonged to both Apollo and Zeus,so I suppose it was fitting that Ocestelle was able to take it as her revenge for her death and lack of godhood.
The blame for the incident was split three ways, some like Rhodes and Anteros who shared a father with Ocestelle and a mother with Eros knew exactly who was at fault for escalating such a situation and rightfully blamed Eros for his latest game turned murder.
Artemis and Persozo however, both rightfully blamed Apollo regardless of his reasoning with Artemis refusing to speak further with her brother and Persozo breaking off their engagement. They both took Apollo’s madness as a paranoia borne from a lack of trust in them, in Artemis’ ability to keep her vow and in Persozo’s loyalty to Apollo.
The last group included Poseidon, and many other sea deities, who rightfully blamed Zeus for denying Ocestelle’s godhood despite it being her birthright and all her achievements. This, along with the loss of Theseus who was thrown off a cliff by Lycomedes, led directly to Poseidon joining in the first attempt to overthrow Zeus. Apollo joined him in hopes of regaining Persozo’s favor though the temporary victory failed to sway Persozo from the sea where he hid to grieve his sister.
“And that children, is where the story becomes more familiar. Poseidon and Apollo are turned mortal and then regain immortality after building the wall of Troy, while Hera is hung in a cage over chaos. Persozo, through the help of his siblings and mother comes to terms with the situation and slowly rebuilds his relationship with Apollo as the Trojan War causes mass amounts of destruction and Poseidon tries to kill Odysseus for ten years,” Chrion finished. “And with that happy ending I think it’s best we were off to bed.”
“Happy ending?” Silena demanded, tears streaming down her face. “How was that happy? She died!”
“Persozo and Apollo got back together and Odysseus made it home…eventually,” Chiron replied. “That is unfortunately the happiest ending most Greek Myths get.”
“There could be a happier ending.”
There were gasps around the campfire before some of the newer campers hit the dirt in a kneel while the older ones happily yelled out, “Lord Persozo!”
“And what happier ending would that be?” Chiron asked his friend. He was genuinely curious as to where Percy was going with this.
The boy rarely kept secrets from him and to this day, Chiron remains the only person other than Ocestelle who knew that Persozo and Ocestelle were actually from sometime around now and not originally intended to be in ancient greece. The last they had spoken about it was seven years ago when the god had come to him in tears at the realization that Perseus Jackson had not been reborn and fearful Estelle Blofis, as that had been his baby sister’s real name, wouldn’t be born either. The god had spent the last few years depressed over this idea which had worried both Apollo and Poseidon.
But now he seemed almost cheerful.
“An ending where she comes back,” Persozo explained. “See, a lot of divinity is based around belief, nowadays that belief comes from demigods. My sister could never gain enough traction in the old days to ascend like Dio did, but I think just maybe, if you all wanted to give it a shot, you could make her ascend even beyond death.”
“That’s a thing?” Luke asked skeptically.
“Apollo’s son once did it,” Persozo said seriously.
“Asclepius,” Chiron replied before any of the kids could ask.
“Yes, he proved that all Hades needs to do is let go of a soul able to ascend for it to happen and he owes me one for the di Angelos,” Persozo explained.
The demigods whispered amongst themselves about that, but Persozo offered no clarification as to what he meant about the former Heroine of Olympus and her brother, the now immortal Ghost King.
“So, what, we just send offerings to her, and she can come back?” Lee asked.
“Why would we though?” Clarriese asked.
“Equal and opposite,” Persozo explained. ‘That’s how immortal twins work. Apollo is the sun; Artemis is the moon. Deimos is fear before battle; Phobos is fear during battle. Persozo is the god of filial love, that’s the love of a child for their parent, then what do you think Ocestelle would have been?”
“Parental love,” Silena whispered. “The love of a parent for their child.”
“We were meant to share the domain of the Divinely Touched. I was to be the god of demigods, the divinely touched children while Ocestelle was meant to be the patron of godly lovers. Your parents,” Persozo explained. “She was meant to protect your parents.”
The demigods looked amongst themselves, some who came from rougher homes were apathetic and some who couldn’t go home due to the danger to their families looked desperate. Persozo could not make the children pray to his sister, but something told Chiron many of them would.
He’d be proven right as years later, after all the nasty business with the Second Giant War, a frowning Lord Persozo would visit Chiron on the day his sister should have been born to find a fully formed goddess sitting at a table playing pinochle with him and Mr. D.
“Ah, good, Percy. Now we have four for pinochle.”
Chiron had admittedly expected tears over hysterical laughter but watching Percy and Estelle reunite he supposed grief and love were odd like that.
