The Shadow Archer Twins

The whole operation was set up in a matter of five minutes. Jake Mason had sprinted down to the forges and I heard shouting, and then a chorus of power-tools whirring to life, working on tiny earpieces. The Apollo and Athena cabins set up the tents, which had been lying deconstructed on the ground, at the base of Half-Blood Hill. Then, the Ares campers moved a huge negotiating table into the main tent, and a smaller, more ornate table into the smaller of the two tents. Then they all moved into the bigger tent, and the Apollo archers moved into the trees less than a hundred yards away, creating a perimeter around the two tents. I saw Lou Ellen and Paige pull up chairs with intricate, magic lettering on them, wizard chairs?, and place them out of sight from the Roman camp, facing the tents. They were waiting for the signal to begin casting their spell.

As I was walking towards the bigger tent, I saw Tox talking to Katie, who looked really nervous. They then walked into the smaller tent together, and I decided not to worry about Katie. She would do fine, and she had Tox, who was one of the best brothers she could ask for, right there with her.
Entering the bigger tent, I began to feel my heart beating faster and faster. I felt as if I was in an espionage movie, where the private eye has a suspenseful meeting with the Mafia. The entire time, you’re praying he doesn’t get killed, and when the Mafia leave his place, you exhale with relief, even though it’s just a movie.

Not long after that, Jake ran in with a box of cream colored gadgets, that somehow he had had time to tailor to everyone’s ear size. He said that his dad had helped him with the sizing, and that he didn’t actually have the size of everyone’s ears memorized. We slipped in the earpieces, and Malcolm’s voice rang through clearly, saying,

“Is everyone online? Testing, testing, testing, can everyone call in?”

In order by cabin number, all the campers called in. We were ready. Now we just needed the Romans. As if on queue, Will Solace from Apollo’s voice spoke through the earpiece system, saying,

“Romans are on their way down. They’re in full body armor, by the way, each armed with short sword, spear, and shield. Tell the Aphrodite kids to add that to their charmspeak chores. To tell the Romans to drop their heavy weapons. There are about 25 of them, but I couldn’t get a good count. I’m escorting Octavian to his special meeting now, Tox and Katie. Be there in twenty seconds.”

“Lou Ellen, Paige, cast your spells as soon as everyone enters the tents. Get ready people, this is it,” Malcolm said, breathing in deeply through the mic. I didn’t know where he was, but he was bound to show up soon.

And, twenty-one seconds later, the Ares kid outside opened the tent flap that was the door, and the Roman officers filed in. They all sat down, but kept hold of all of their weapons.
Malcolm walked in to the tent with friendly expression and said, “Greetings, Romans. Thank you for coming.”

No Roman responded, but Malcolm had expected that. He continued to talk, starting a conversation about the reasons behind why the two camps had conflict with each other, and how that had resulted in the past. I wasn’t really listening. I was looking at the officers’ expressions, as I had been instructed to do. Some of them looked angry, some confident, but some, more than some, I noticed with satisfaction, looked nervous, and their faces agreed with Malcolm and the Athena cabin’s points. They wanted a truce as much as we did. After about half an hour, Malcolm looked meaningfully at Drew, the head Aphrodite counselor.

She nodded her head imperceptibly, barely moving at all. She straightened her back and cleared her throat and said, with power,

“Why don’t you respectable officers drop those heavy shields? Your arms must be tired, and those spears must be clumsy, too! How about you lay those down?”

After 30 minutes of being told boring things from the Greeks, they were as vulnerable to charmspeak as ever. Instantly, 25 shields and javelin dropped to the dirt. Drew looked intensely pleased.

“That’s good,” She said, pouring on the sorcery in her voice, “That’s very good. Now, my friend here,” She said, gesturing to Malcolm, “Has a very important proposition for you guys. It would be awesome if you would listen, very carefully, to what he has to say. It was also be good for you to never talk about what he is about to tell you outside of this tent, mmkay?”

“Okay,” Mumbled 25 completely enchanted Romans.

“Perfect,” Drew said, “All yours, Malcolm.”

“All right, then,” He said, breathing in nervously. This was the big moment. “Here is our offer. We know that you guys are mostly in favor of having a peaceful relationship with the campers of Camp Half-Blood, so we are offering you a peace treaty to make that wish a reality. You all would have to go against Octavian to do this, however. But, we know that Octavian can be a bit unsavory at times, so we hope you will greatly consider our offer.”

“Yes,” Drew said, laying on one final layer of charmspeak icing, “Think about how much you dislike Octavian. Octavian, the tyrant. Octavian, who isn’t a full demigod, who disrespects you, probably blackmails you.”

The enchanted Romans all shook their heads and mumbled in agreement, like what Drew was saying was completely true. The plan was working. Camp Half-Blood plans never work. This was amazing. It truly was a sight to be seen.

As a cherry on top, Drew said, “Well, Malcolm, if you’re done,” Then, looking at the Romans, she added, “You all are excused. You can pick up your shields and spears now. Wait for Octavian outside.”

Instantly, all 25 Romans did as she asked and walked outside to the smaller tent, dropped their shields and sat of them, waiting for Octavian to finish his meeting with Katie. I hoped to the gods that her meeting had gone as well as ours had.

Notes

Sorry if its a bit rushed or not as juicy as the other ones. I just didn't know how to cram the entire meeting with the officers into around 1000 words, which is the new shorter length I've been trying to go for. Hint Hint, the meeting with Octavian will take two quick chapters because it's much more important to the plot than the meeting with the rest of the officers. I just tried to make the meeting with the officers a success and nothing more.