They broke through the tree line just as the sun dipped low enough to catch on fresh-cut stone and bronze roofs in the distance. It looked almost unreal at first, half-caught in drifting wood smoke and the last flicker of sunset, giving it an atmosphere that seemed more like a homely Olympus. A mythical city cradled by the forest, its wall was a high pale stone circled in charms that, while it stood to protect the city, didn't come off as imposing and dominating but protective.
Annabeth stepped past Lucas, her boots crunching dry needles beneath. Her breath hitched, so slight even Lucas barely caught it. Her fingers lifted to brush the folded blueprints she'd crammed into her satchel, as if she needed to check they were still there, proof she hadn't just dreamed it all into being. Luke and Thalia caught up behind, Thalia exhaling a short laugh that sounded more like relief than mirth.
At the gate, Hecate was waiting for them.
Elizabeth trailed half a step behind Lucas. She kept her head down when they paused before the woman, tucking herself partway behind his shoulder like she could make herself smaller.
Hecate stood tall just before the gate, the lanterns hanging there catching the faint flicker of a smile before her face was once again clouded beneath the cloak she wore. She looked at Lucas first, checking him over for any injuries, then at Elizabeth, half-hiding behind him.
"You look worse than when you left," she said, dry but warm.
Lucas stopped in front of her. "It happens when one tends to fall into a maze with a penchant for killing."
A soft snort came from beneath the cloak.
Though she wouldn't say, Hecate had gone looking for Lucas after he disappeared, finding the remnants of the Labyrinth entrance. She had tried to enter, only to be forced back, rejected. It was a first, for the labyrinth never had the power to reject a god or titan before.
Not wanting to draw attention by forcing her way in with her powers, she relied on some complicated divination magic, but received no answer. Although the magic did work, it was manipulated to refrain from giving any results. While this may seem damming, it at least gave her some shred of an answer. In all her years of understanding fate, the only ones who could do such a thing would be the Fates themselves or the Fool. Neither one would wish harm to Lucas, so she believed he would return safely, as he had.
She shook off the shadows and her thoughts with a flick of her cloak. "And now look. You came back, dragging more troublemakers with you."
Lucas didn't answer her tease, only glanced back at the trio behind him. Annabeth's eyes shone bright as she drank in every fresh line of stone and timber behind Hecate's shoulder, even the slight slant of the rooftops, precisely as she'd scribbled them by the oil lamp on her bunk. She bit her lip to stop the grin. Her fingers twitched like she wanted to touch every block, test every building, wishing it was all real. A design of hers come true to reality.
Beside her, Thalia exhaled slowly, her shoulders dropped. The tension that had ridden her since Lucas knocked on Cabin One's door slipped down her spine and vanished. Her eyes flicked to Luke, his hand still at her back, then back to the lights flickering beyond the gate, a place that wouldn't act like her prison, one that would hopefully help stop her from worrying if she wouldn't be alive the next day.
Hecate stepped aside, "Come. You've missed the months of construction, and so it is nearly complete. Tekto is just finishing up some simple work, some decorations here and there, and then it will truly be finished."
They crossed under the arch of the gate, a wide, rounded span of pale stone inlaid with bronze threads that glowed softly when Lucas's boots passed the threshold. Beyond that line, the air shifted, becoming warmer; the chill of the evening night was left behind.
They followed her through the city, where she brought them to the familiar site of the Hearth, the heart of this place, the paths fanning outward from it like sun rays. From here, it wasn't Hecate who gave them the tour but Annabeth, having designed the city, she knew exactly where everything was, leading them around and explaining her design choices.
The first location she brought them to was a marketplace, spread out wide beneath the early night sky. An open courtyard lined all sides with stoas, long porticoes of smooth columns shading rows of small shops at their backs. Fresh timber counters waited behind some stalls, blank slate signs ready for names yet to come. A handful of dryads moved between planters and vine-lattice pergolas, coaxing the soil where herbs and olive saplings would soon grow.
They moved on, boots echoing under the colonnades until the sound broke against a broad oval hollowed into the rising slope beyond the marketplace. The Amphitheater.
Carved directly into the earth, its tiers of white stone benches circled a broad stone stage at the base. Thalia let out a low whistle under her breath. It was even better looking than the one back at camp.
Past the theater, the stadium unfolded: not a coliseum like the Romans had, but a simple stone structure lined with low terraces for private viewing, or again rows of rising stone for seating crowds. There was a track lining the inner walls wide enough for foot races or chariots, wrestling circles near the center; it was more of a stadium for sports than a place of combat and death.
There was also a modern gym, built to professional standards with weights and non-electric machines to help train one's body.
At last, they reached the residential quarter. Modest rows of stone houses tucked along the hillside, each simple from the outside: whitewashed walls with clay-tiled roofs, but inside, they circled bright courtyards open to the sky, shaded by climbing vines and cypress trees.
When they turned the final path, the Hearth rose before them again.