Phoenix, a child of Hephaestus, and always stays up late in the forge making things because they always feel like they aren’t doing enough. Like no matter how much stuff they make, it’s never good enough. So they always keep their hands busy, sacrificing sleep to spend more time in the forge. They often forget to eat. But they find one person to ground them in all of it—Thalia. Thalia brings them food, water, all the things they regularly forgot. She also drags them back to their cabin, cuddling them and reassuring them when they don’t feel like enough. Today, however, was especially bad. She hadn’t seen them once, and she was starting to worry when night settled, and hours passed without their return. She had to check on them. Then she heard an abnormally loud clang, followed by a small thud, and she knew something was wrong—really wrong.