Hua Mitsuho had always taught her daughter to be proud of her name.

Of course, like any regular child would, Kia had wondered why she looked ever so slightly different from everyone in kindergarten, with her last name that no one seemed to be able to pronounce and her eyes that looked like they were pulled up. She'd never hated these features; she thought she was perpetually pretty, but it'd be a lie if she said she never thought about why.

One day, she'd brought up these concerns to her mother, to which the woman just smiled and ruffled her hair. Hua picked up a five year old Kia, sitting her on her lap and simply stared at her, Hua's eyes tracing all of Kia's facial features.

"You're very beautiful, Kia," she had said. "We are blessed to have been born with roots connected to such rich culture and history."

Kia always loved listening to her mother's voice. As she spoke in English, the slightest hints of a Japanese accent shone through. She enjoyed the quiet moments where her mother would speak in whispers, desperately trying to cling onto the ephemeral tranquility of the state they were in.

Hua would tell her about how they'd decided upon her given name. Her grandparents had chosen the name, as it was traditional Chinese culture. Her grandmother was purely Japanese, whereas her husband was half-Chinese; they wanted to have Kia's name be of Chinese origin to have that aspect of her roots to prevail whenever someone spoke her name and hence, they chose 'Kia,' the meaning literally implying she rose from Asia.

Another reason why they'd decided upon a Chinese name as opposed to Japanese was that her grandfather had ultimately taken her grandmother's last name, Mitsuho.

Her mother had taught her a few words in Japanese, one of the main focuses being Mitsuho. Kia knew it meant light, or at least the way she was taught.

How befitting that the first god she met was the god of the sun.

It was as if a switch had been turned off in Apollo once Percy was sent to sleep. She thought she saw a little bit of drool trickle down the side of his mouth, but ignored it in favour of facing the god.

Apollo was staring at her and she stared back. It was silent between the two, bar the soft breaths that came out of Percy's parted lips. Kia took the time to really look at the shades of blue Apollo's eyes were. It was a wonder that she hadn't noticed how blue they actually were. They looked like they contained all the stretches of the sky in the universe, just as dark and wise as you'd expect something as infinite as the sky to be.

"Kia."

The name tumbled out of his lips so heavily that it felt like it was pulling her down into the depths of the darkness of the reality of being a demigod. His voice was velvet smooth, dripping with the royal blood spilled in his past lover's names; this was a god and she was a mere mortal, there was no way she could ever measure up to all the things Apollo had seen in his endless life; and yet, here he was, looking at her like the world wouldn't exist without her. The fatherly tenderness he exhibited in his gaze was something so foreign yet welcomed for Kia, that she had to compose herself for a moment before replying.

"Apollo."

He seemed to be pleased, or at the very least, comforted by the fact that she hadn't used any formality of any kind. His stare didn't even twitch, though; it was as if his eyes reflected everything he wanted to tell her, even if she couldn't read any of it. "I see you've been doing well."

She had no idea what he was talking about, seeing as how there was nothing to go well at all, but she found herself nodding anyway, as if a mind she wasn't aware of had an inkling of what he was referring to.

"You have questions for me," he said, much more stoically than anyone would ever expect of words coming from the sun god's mouth.

"A few," she admitted. She hesitated, "Why did you send me there? You could have left me."

Apollo sighed, looking like this was the last question he wanted to answer, but not surprised to here her ask it either. "That is a question I don't have an answer to, myself."

He looked back at Kia through the flesh of his cheeks, his gaze piercing through any molecule in his way. Somehow, Kia found herself understanding, even if she couldn't find a name to put to what she particularly understood.

Apollo tilted his chin back down, his face turning even more serious than before. "You are able to see through the mist much better than other demigods," he said, an unreadable glint reflecting in his eyes.

"I'd guess that it's a result of being the daughter of the god of dreams," she said, nodding.

"That's right," said Apollo. "However, this gift is something that you should use wisely at your council."

Kia didn't know how this would be something she could use wisely but she nodded again, anyway.

Apollo's eyes softened, and something about the look in his eyes was enough to convince her that she could trust him far more than anyone else. "Even if you are not able to control the gifts you have, I will protect you in any way I can, Kia."

"Thank you," she said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. He seemed to hear it regardless and smiled, his eyes twinkling with the warmth of a million suns.

As she looked at him, she felt her eyes grow heavy, slowly slipping shut. Before she succumbed to the darkness, she thought she felt a light pressure against the crown of her head and someone—Apollo—whisper, "Goodnight, Kia," and a whoosh; just like that, she was asleep.

In her dream, she was in a corridor, brick walls lining the sides and one path in front of her. She reluctantly inched forward, fully expecting something to jump out an kill her. Instead, as she moves forward, a blinding white light engulfed her, slowly burning away until she was in an eerily familiar setting.

A wooden staircase with old family pictures lining the wall it was attached to ran down the length of the floor and as her feet followed the steps, she found herself realising where she was. Her home lacked the regular warmth it had, feeling cold and distant without her mom to take care of it. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she cleaned her neck to see the room that was present at the end of another hallway. She saw a woman with beautiful straight black hair down to her hips, a ghostly pale complexion painted with streaks of blood.

Kia's heart started racing as the woman's head started slowly turning up at an agonisingly slow pace. From what she could see, it wasn't her mother but some other Asian woman she couldn't recognise; she didn't stick around long enough to find out, dashing back up the stairs to the balcony, looking back to see the woman from before following behind her at an inhuman speed. Her face was veiled in shadows and the blood from her dress was dripping onto the beige tiled floors.

The woman was getting ready to lunge at Kia, just as she gasped and her dream shifted.

She was sitting on a bed, clutching her stuffed animal close to her chest, her arms trembling slightly. It felt as though these actions were studied, already done like it was in the past. Her little head turned up to see her mother and a teenage girl arguing.

Her mother had light bags surrounding her eyes, the purple standing out against her naturally pale hands. Her arms fumbled about as she fought with the girl. The girl was... odd. She wore normal jeans and sneakers but as Kia's eyes trailed up to her face, what she saw was possibly the most horrifying thing she'd ever seen.

The girl's face shifted in a never ending loop, effectively terrifying Kia. Sometimes the shifting faces would be white, sometimes a darker grey, but in some moments, the faces would settle for a few seconds too long and Kia would see the expressions of monsters; human ones. The girl looked at Kia, at least, that's what she guessed and somehow, Kia could tell her face was splitting apart into one evil grin despite still changing.

Despite how they looked like they were yelling at each other furiously, no sound would come out of their mouths. It was like she had pressed mute on the world. She was scared.

She was shaking, burying her face into the plush of her stuffed animal. Kia felt a hand grip onto her forearm; she'd felt her mother's touch before. It was nothing like this, her mother's was warm, caring, loving, this one felt like it was willing Kia to look up. An invisible force tugged her chin up and tears ran down her face as she looked up at the teenage girl with shifting faces, her head tilted to the side slightly as if she were mocking her.

She stared at her, unable to tear her eyes away and pleaded silently to all the gods she knew to get her out of here.

All the while, the girl silently looked down at her, malicious intent swimming behind the faces that kept changing.

Fun fact: I actually had this dream a couple of months ago and I thought it fitted pretty nicely with this so I added it in. I hope you enjoy this chapter!