[ No one could have saved him from all-consuming hunger, no one except perhaps Serenity who hadn't been there. He can't even take solace in the fact that she hadn't been there to witness his descent into madness because she saw all - past, present and future.

At the very least his shame couldn't be witnessed by others like Percy and Annabeth. It's wishful thinking to hope that he wouldn't have attacked them the way he had attacked Aegis, but the hunger that stirs at the thought tells him otherwise. Aegis hadn't been a friend in that moment. He had been prey. ]

Aegis. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him. What few villagers remained cried out to him to shield them from my war path. They were right to. But I don't know if any of them survived. I was too ashamed to ask him when I returned.

[ Nor did he know if the village itself existed. When his memories of that time came back to him he had pointedly stayed away, unable to face the reality of what he'd done. ]