There were new friends already. The children of the dark gods didn’t have enough gods to make a group, so they were in the death gods’ grouping. Glory met a child of Nyx in the cabin on the right, named Kiony Ramèrre. She already took two quests, one more than anyone else in her cabin, so she was their head camper.

The rest of the Nyx cabin didn’t seem to like Glory.

But Glory didn’t mind. She didn’t care most of the time, when they would engulf her cabin in darkness. It would remind her of, well, herself. Then she would remember that it was also like Reyna Ramírez-Arellano from Camp Jupiter.

She would talk with the kids of the Aztec death god, Mictlantecuhtli. They didn’t mind Glory, and after a week, she was allowed to the arena to train. One particular morning, the war kids were there already, and a heated argument broke out.

The solution? The death kids trapped all of them in Shadow Elmithorns, basically elemental foxes. The shadow kids blinded them with darkness. The war kids were anyways outnumbered, and all of them were there. Only half of the death kids were there.

Today was different. Kiony came back from the arena. Her face was awash in fear, which didn’t go well with her galaxy hair, toque, and baggy pants.

“What’s up?” Glory tried to act normal, but she was never good at hiding her emotions.

“Aclyneous…” Kiony walked over. “Aclyneous is back. Our Oracle said so.”

Glory couldn’t believe it. She never thought they had an Oracle. “What did the Oracle say to you?”

“Oracle said something like…

The gods are reckless,

They need the tests,

The Big Three child is strong,

All her enemies agone.

The bane of Hades,

Is awake.

I don’t know if it’s word for word, but the Oracle never lies.” Kiony looked serious, darker even, which was against her cheerful nature, making her more like her siblings.

Glory wasn’t surprised. “So, this happens all the time, right?” She was sure that it was normal.

Kiony shook her head. “We haven’t had a Big Three child with Virgo on her arm, the most powerful greek symbol. Hades might send Furies - I mean, The Kindly Ones, after to you, but to take you to his court.”

Alex came along, knocking on the dark shield around the group of cabins. He disabled it, apparently because he was the head camper for his cabin. “All the head campers have to meet in the coliseum. Including Glory.” Glory was surprised to hear her name. She walked out, following the rest of the assembled head campers, including Claris, which Glory learned was a daughter of Baal.

“Well, you must be wondering why you’re here.” Glory turned around, and found Claris facing her. “You’re here because you’re the only child of Hades here, and we haven’t had a Hades ambassador since Glory of the Dead. And, yes, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter are real.”

“Okay.. well that’s a little alarming.” Glory didn’t like it. “I’m the only Hades child in seventy years, and now all the Big Three gods broke the pact.”

“Mostly Zeus…” Claris shook her head. “There’s some Zeus kids.”

Glory didn’t notice how the camp changed terrain each hour. Now it was a beautiful forest. The forest seemed to be going through autumn, and up ahead was a downed tree. Claris cursed.

“This is a recreation of the first battle Camp Myth-Blood was in.” Claris explained. “That was when the first Glory was in charge. Bloody battle… my half-brother downed the tree.”. She shook her head, in a mixture of awe and disgust.

“Ohh-kay… how bloody?” Glory didn’t mean to, but she sensed too much death. She stumbled, summoning a skeleton underneath her, which promptly flipped her over. She heard the others snickering, but Claris stared in awe.

“I’m pretty sure no other death demigod could summon a skeleton directly beneath her.” Claris pointed out. “Unless you all want to summon your helpers underneath you.”

They stopped.

“Humph. I thought you guys were used to clumsiness, especially you guys,” She pointed to the head campers for sleep. “You guys seem to fall asleep randomly.”

Then, as if on cue, the camper for Hypnos dropped sleeping.

“Now, how do we get past here?” The head camper for Skanda, or Steampunk Girl. “I thought the wisdom kids would know.” She glared pointedly at the kids of the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesh. Glory remembered reading about the Hindu gods, and Skanda was brothers with Ganesh, so basically they were related.

“Hey, we’re all smart, but we’re not perfect at everything”. An Athena kid was stepping up, but it wasn’t the one Glory had saw in the coliseum. This one, she could easily single out as the head, but she saw something he was hiding.

“We all know that.” Claris was speaking, and Glory saw why she was head of camp instead of an Athena kid. She was strong enough to confront a warship, and her father, Baal, had a legend on how he overthrew his father, king of the Canaanite gods.

Glory was still lost in thought as Kiony started to speak.

“How about a rite of passage? If Glory can get us past, she remains as the ambassador for Hades”. Claris seemed to ponder this.

“Only if she gets us past, right? Then I’ll let her.” Claris seemed to actually push Glory into doing this. A child of Hades, helping others? Others would think this was absurd!

She gave it a shot. Glory climbed to the top of the felled tree, and shook the trunk a bit. Then she remembered this was a magical image. Magic was the thing holding reality together, and it had its own rules. If she could will it to make a new rule…. Glory thought about moving the trunk, or creating an archway, or something that would them past. She imagined an archway, covered in

vines and moss and flowers and insects and whatever else lived on a tree, dead or alive. She just hoped she got it right.

Slowly opening her eyes, she gasped. It had worked. She had pulled her imagination from the Duat (different level of reality), and covered it in the Mist and glamour, and made it a part of reality. She could do magic!

I did it! I really did! She couldn’t believe it. A child of Hades doing more than death magic!

“Well, that was unexpected.”

“Did you know she could do that?”

“Sign me up for glamour-making!”

This was what they others were whispering, until Claris cleared her throat to speak above everyone else.

“I believe she has proven herself,” Claris announced “only in self-sufficiency. She will have a trial later this week for combat. Kiony, Alex, you shall discuss between yourselves to see who will hold the trial.”

Trial? Combat? Whaaaa? Glory couldn’t imagine herself dressed in armour, fighting her friend, or the ambassador for Mars. She dove into her own thoughts.

Before she knew it, Alex and Kiony had finished conversing. They looked up. Alex spoke.

“How about we hold it today?”