Annabeth

"Does anyone know anything about Greek mythology?"

Damn. I wanted to answer her, I really did. That's got to be the worst thing about being a daughter of Athena – the urge to show off my knowledge. But I couldn't give us away. But, wait… Mortals know about Ancient Greece too, right? After all, there are Latin classes.

I tentatively put my hand up.

Neferet smiled, like I'd done something she was expecting, but I ignored it. After all, I was the only one here who actually took classes in the subject.

"Yes, Annabeth?"

"I know a bit about Greek mythology…" I said.

Her smile grew. "That's great. Would you mind telling us what you know about Nyx, then?"

Where to start? Might as well begin at the beginning. "Well in the beginning there was Chaos. Then, she had four kids, called Tartarus, Gaia, Erebus and Nyx. They were the primordial gods and goddesses. Tartarus was the spirit of the pit, and Gaia the earth. Erebus was the wall separating the two. And Nyx i-was the primordial goddess of night. Her and Erebus had a daughter, Eos, goddess of the dawn."

I could feel the class' eyes on me, and I heard a small sound of surprise coming from Zoey. Crap. I gave us away.

"Well," said Neferet. "I think you've just finished my lesson in two minutes." I blushed in embarrassment. "Only one problem: you referred to Nyx in the past tense."

Oh yeah, I forgot the people here worshipped Nyx. Strange really, why would they worship a primordial instead of the Olympians?

"Does that mean there are more? The goddess has a family?" asked a blond boy a few seats away from me.

Neferet turned towards me. "Annabeth, would you like to take this question?"

"Uh… Okay. Well Tartarus and Gaia had a son called Ouranos. Then Ouranos and Gaia-"

"But aren't they mother and son?" asked one kid. "That's gross!"

"That's immortals for you. Nyx and Erebus are brother and sister, remember? Anyway, Gaia and Ouranos had a whole bunch of kids, two of which were Rhea, titaness of agriculture, and Kronos, titan of time. There were lots of other titans, and monsters, but they're irrelevant now. Kronos and Rhea had six children. Hestia, Hera, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. However, the titan of forethought, Prometheus, foretold that Kronos would be defeated by his sons in the same way he had overthrown his father."

"What happened then?" asked Zoey from beside me.

"In order to gain her son power, Gaia gave him a scythe which he used to destroy Ouranos and assume the throne as king of the titans."

"Lovely…" she muttered.

"So Kronos ate his children after they were born. However, Rhea had had enough and hid her last child, Zeus, and fed Kronos a rock instead. Years later, when Zeus was fully grown, he returned and fed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, making him regurgitate the others, who had, being immortal, grown up in the titan's stomach. There was a huge war between the six gods and the titans, which was won by the gods. Eventually, we were left with the Olympian gods and the minor gods. Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Ares, Athena and Dionysus. Also, Hades and Hestia, who should be on the council, but aren't. Then, the hundreds of minor gods like Hecate and Isis."

"And the Olympians. What are they the gods of?" Neferet asked. I don't know why, but I got the feeling she wanted me to show everyone that I knew so much…

"Basically, Zeus is the god of the sky and king of the gods, Poseidon is god of the seas, Hera is goddess of marriage, Demeter is goddess of harvest, Apollo is god of the sun, his twin Artemis is goddess of the moon and the hunt, Hermes is god of messengers and all who use the roads, Aphrodite is goddess of love and natural beauty, Hephaestus is god of forges and fire, Ares is god of war, Athena is goddess of wisdom and battle strategy," I tried to avoid sitting up straighter. "Dionysus is god of wine, Hades is god of the Underworld and Hestia is goddess of the hearth. They have other things too, but those are the main ones."

"Wow," said Zoey. "You're really smart. You must get great grades at school."

I made a face. "Not really. I'm dyslexic and have mild ADHD."

"Hey," said a girl behind me. "If the gods are real, does that mean demigods are real too?"

Annabeth, vlaccas.

For those of you who don't know, vlaccas is Ancient Greek for 'moron' or similar. It's mentioned in the Battle of the Labyrinth.