Sweet smells of cinnamoned oatmeal, poached eggs, hot chocolate, and fresh strawberries woke Silwen up from a much needed rest. Yawning, Silwen stretched, and peeked out her eyes from under the comfortable cover. She glanced at the window. Stars were still blinking back at her.
"Hi. All the other girls wanted breakfast in bed, so I brought you some breakfast here as well. How are you?"
Daini looked at Silwen, slightly worried.
"I'm fine, thanks. You?"
"Fine also. So today, you will be finishing the tests in your rooms. The gods will see to you each personally and have asked us (your attendants) to keep you in your rooms. They didn't say what time they'd come."
"Thank—That sounds great."
Silwen was still groggy from waking.
"Erm, Daini, what am I going to wear?"
Daini began to move the tray onto thin air when a beautiful night stand appeared right beside Silwen's bed, under the food platter—perfectly coordinated with the color scheme of the room—just as Daini had mentally called for.
"Well," said Daini, "Your first task for today is to design your own outfit. It must be completely original—no copying what you've seen before. But you do have until they come, which, I think, will be in two hours. I cannot help you on this task, even though I do wish to see your creation."
Silwen stared at her attendant.
"Make an outfit? Oh, of course, Aphrodite. Twelve tasks, twelve gods. This must be the one Aphrodite assigned. Will I be able to see the other's creations? I do want to see those."
"Oh yes, tonight is a formal dinner, your formal welcoming to Olympus. All the gods, goddesses, the minor gods and goddesses, and perhaps even all the current, living heroes will be there, and maybe some of the famous deceased ones too. Zeus has declared that you'll all wear what you create to the banquet—he'll give you and your friends time to repair your outfits if they get ruined during the tests."
"Daini, could you do my hair today? I want something extravagant, and would you mind doing my make up too?"
A smile spread like thick, smooth peanut butter over a happy piece of toast on Daini's face.
"I'd love to. Get out of bed, and sit in front of the mirror please."
Silwen finished eating the homey meal, tripped over the perfectly flat rug, and sat down on the stool. Contrasting with Silwen, Daini gracefully strode over and began with Silwen's hair.
"Everything all right?"
"Yes, tripping is part of my daily routine. Don't worry about my tripping and falling, they're natural occurences."
"I see. Maybe if you picked your feet up higher when you walk, you'd trip less."
Silwen smiled. "Perhaps I'll try that sometime. "
Finishing Silwen's hair, Daini moved on to do her girl's makeup. Daini brushed on blush, eye shadow, and mascara. She penciled on eye liner, flawlessly pasted on lipstick and lipgloss, and added a false beauty spot diagonally under Silwen's right eye. Then, out of a drawer, she pulled out a glass bottle of spray. Squirting twice over Silwen's face and hairdo, Daini explained that this spray would permanently keep the hairstyle and makeup perfectly until after the grand banquet.
Not even going swimming would even smear the lipstick, or put a strand of hair out of place.
"There, now your face is smashing."
During the beautification, Silwen's eyes were shut tightly. Now, timidly, she opened them.
"Is that me?" she murmured. "Is that really me?"
Daini nodded. Silwen's hair looked as if Daini had put a wig from one of the goddesses on top of her head. All of it was weaved together, and piled on top of her head with slim, shiny, silver threads entwined into all of it. Once again, her hair was done in a very Greek fashion. The look was fragile, as if baby breeze would make it come toppling out in moments.
The makeup also created an aura of fragility. Her eyes were lit up with light, breezy, green eye shadow—a touch lighter than Silwen's eyes, and her cheeks blushed under rosy blush, and a slightly darker hue of lipstick played on her lips. The combination of it all made Silwen look like a Hellenistic doll made out of porcelain.
"Thank you. Now I have something to work with," breathed Silwen in awe of her reflection.
Don't get rid of it!" she cried when Daini's widened larger than a ninety year old professor's spectacles.
"I'd never destroy a work of art! ... Now all you have to do is dress accordingly, and you have this task done. I think I'd better go now, Silwen. I'll see you later. Good luck."
Daini cast one last amused smile and went down the stairs.
Getting up from the stool, Silwen went to her wardrobe. She opened the door, and called for XYD434.
"Could you get me some fabric? Just fabric, needles, white and black thread, scissors, a ruler or two, and a fabric pencil?" She asked the robot when he arrived.
"Yes Miss."
He sped off and sped back with all that she had requested.
"Thank you, XYD434."
"Anything else?"
"Could I get some green fabric, the same color as my eye shadow, or as close as can be to it—but not my eye color please—some gold string, pearls, and shimmery gold fabric for a sort of cloak. Thank you, XYD434."
For a second time the robot sped off and returned with the things that Silwen had asked for.
"Is the green satisfactory, Miss?"
Silwen looked at the fabric, and smiled; it was was exactly the shade she needed.
"Yes, this is perfect! Thank you."
The robot jerkily nodded, and left back into the depths of the wardrobe.
Silwen set the material on her bed, went to her desk and started to draw what she wished her dress to be. Was it possible to combine the Medieval and Antiquitaine styles into one dress? Or did she want a traditional Greek toga with slight modifications. Thank heavens she had the usage of her wand for this task. Her hand scribbled out random sketches, as she tried to come up with an original dress. What she used the top of a Medieval gown and had it flow into a Greek toga bottom? Her hand flew around paper wildly drawing a dress with that idea in mind.
The green fabric was soft under fingers' touch. Silk of the finest quality, no doubt. Silwen began cutting patiently. What she had decided to do was the cross of times idea. All green, and with golden embellishments. The top was simple, tight sleeves from the shoulder to the elbow, and from there the sleeves would open up and be able to float around as Silwen moved. The bodice's top cut was going to be shallow semicircle that dipped to three and a half fingers' widths from her collar bone, lined with golden thread and baby pearls. Then golden thread would crisscross in an X, from the top of her dress to the bottom of the skirt's beginning, intersecting in the middle of her torso. The skirt part would be a traditional Greek toga skirt, but to add continuity it would have pearls sewn into it to make the pearled neckline balanced.
Enchanting scissors, needles, thread, pearls, and using rulers to measure precisely how long or short the fabric had to be, Silwen was working for several hours. Then, at long last, the dress was finished, perfectly tailored to fit her, and perfectly stitched, cut, and sewn with magic. Anxiously, Silwen slipped out of her sleeping clothes, and into the dress. Once on her, Silwen went into the bathroom and examined the outcome. As predicted, the sleeves flowed and matched the uneven edges of the dress' bottom line. The pearls glowed slightly, and didn't distract. Fitted well, the dress' top gave Silwen gentle curves while the bottom jauntily swayed in the drafts in the room coming from under the door. After a second thought, Silwen switched the color of the gold to a darker shade of green that matched her eyes. Swirling her wand in the air, she conjured smooth gold slippers, a slim golden chain bearing drops of emeralds, and a matching anklet.
"And time is UP!" called a voice called.
Silwen had heard this female voice from dinner. Who was it?
"I'm coming in, so don't try to change anything else, or you will fail this task."
Silwen went out of the bathroom and watched the doorknob turn. A woman of statuesque beauty entered. Aphrodite.
"Let me see, you're Silwen? Yes, of course you are. I've already judged the other three—who all passed, even that Lovegood girl—and they all had fine promise in originality. I'd love to see more of Tonks' designs. Now, let me see you. Come to the center of the room and twirl, slowly. Very slowly."
Silwen did as she was told and circled on the spot. "Hmm...You pass I think. Twirl again. This time, fast, I want to see the skirt fly out."
Again, Silwen twirled.
The skirt lifted up, but not in a ninety degrees angle from the torso, more of a 145 degrees angle.
"Too modest! The sleeves look a little awkward with the edge of the skirt, but you seem to balance it out well with the sleeves' edges. Great work there. The pearls stick out too much. Perhaps if you made them smaller they wouldn't be so bulky. But on the neckline, they are wonderful . So overall, quite...pleasant." Aphrodite paused, stopped for a breath then continued.
"By the way, your makeup and hair are beautiful on their own, but they collide with the style of the dress. When you go Greek with hair, go Greek with dress."
Silwen stood waiting for the final say.
"All right, you pass. If I passed Lovegood, I can certainly pass you." And with that, Aphrodite disappeared.
"Well done. You passed a beauty pageant," drawled a voice coming from above. "So, now you will be able to test your eye in shooting targets. You will be transported to outside, and I think your clothes will be slightly altered in order for you to be able to shoot to your maximum ability."
Artemis appeared in front of Silwen, walked over to Silwen's closet, thrust the door open, stalked in, grabbed a pair of jeans and a simple jade-colored tee-shirt, thrust them at Silwen and walked out, not saying a word.
"It seems a little change of plans is in order," came a hurried and placating voice, "You will change into the clothes and then you'll be transported outside."
"Thank you, Artemis for the change of clothes," Silwen murmured; the dress was tight and rather restrictive of movement.
Quicker than an eel, Silwen changed out of her dress and into the superbness of American jeans and a simple tee-shirt. Expirimentally, Silwen stretched out her legs as far as they would go. The jeans didn't rip at all, just moved with her. Good. They wouldn't rip.
As she had been told, Silwen was taken to a forest glade. Idly, she wondered if this was where Luna spent her time. It was complete solitude. Taking deep breaths, Silwen revered the beauty of the nature. And then a voice broke everything.
"If this was your outfit, I don't understand why Aphrodite passed you off."
Silwen hid her irritation and gazed closed-eyed, serenely at the sky, soaking up the warm sunlight wafting through the branches onto her sun-deprived skin.
"So, as you might—It's rude to ignore your judge, girl. Stop it, and listen to me."
Zeus' voice shot right to her and destroyed her joy. Her eyes flashed open, but her voice remained calm.
"Forgive me, oh wondrous Zeus. Please, go on."
"As I was saying, you will be shooting targets with a bow and arrow which will be shortly provided for you. You will shoot five targets. There will be no time-limit. But if you waste time, you will be...docked points."
Silwen nodded.
When he had finished talking, the targets appeared each growing one twenty paces farther back then its predecessor, and the first one starting at fifty paces away. As Silwen looked at the targets, memories of shooting prey in the Hogwarts Games walked in uninvited. Most of the shots preformed by done by her under Draco's teaching. A tear slipped out, and she tenderly brushed it off with a fingertip.
"Crying over targets?" taunted a voice. A female's voice softer and colder than moonlight. Artemis' voice. "Begin. Draw your bow."
A bow and quiver of arrows lay on the ground. Silwen picked them up and began with the closest target.
Softly, she murmured to herself, "Breathe."
A temporary calm shyly entered into her mind.
Thwack! Near bulls-eye. Thunk! Again, a near bullseye. With all of the other targets, near bulls-eyes, too.
"Next task. You will race against the wind, or specifically the name of the wind you pick from a bag."
A bag appeared and Silwen dipped her hand inside. "Boreas," the parchment had written upon it.
"What does it say?" asked the voice, presumably Zeus'.
"Boreas," said Silwen puzzled.
"Cross the glade by walking straight ahead, and you will be at the track."
Sighing, Silwen crossed the glade and to her great surprise, saw an ancient Olympic track. A middle-aged man was stalking towards her. Strong, and by his manner of approaching, he brusque and dominating.
"Am I to believe that YOU are my competitor? Pfft. I quit. Call it a win in her favor, Hermes, do the girl some good. She's not even worth my time."
Silwen's eyes found a commonplace pebble in the ground to look at. She knew that she tripped under normal circumstances. This ground seemed littered with stones and pebbles lurking everywhere, ready to trip her at every chance.
Hermes appeared.
"Sorry, Boreas. But you must. We can do a 50m. dash if that makes you happier."
"How about 25m? I doubt she could even do that."
"I survived the Hogwarts Games till almost five remaining, I'm quicker than I look, sir," snapped Silwen, indignant, even though the man was right.
"But did you run? Did you sprint against the wind, you little twerp? No. So keep your mouth shut."
Silwen was about to object when Hermes caught her glance and shook his head almost invisibly.
"So, let's race. Get your shoes on; I'm not racing you in sandals."
Hermes thrust a pair of shoes at her; they were light, springy tennis shoes with jaunty pink laces.
"Hermes," began Silwen, "Why am I racing against the wind? Aren't the winds impossible to beat in a race?"
Hermes nodded, then his face puzzled.
"Miss Luna Lovegood won against her wind."
"Who did she race against?"
"Zephyr. Ha. Good for Luna to race against him. He most likely enhanced her and her shoes. I also wouldn't be surprised if Artemis helped Luna as well. So, put your shoes on, and when you start to run, focus on the 25m. line, all right?"
Nodding, Silwen bent down, and finished tying her shoes.
"They don't have magical speed or something, do they? I warn you, that won't help me. I can barely walk across smooth surfaces without tripping over my own shoes."
Hermes smiled.
"That's fine. You'll be ok."
By the tone of his voice, he clearly thought Silwen was joking.
Then, Boreas whistled. Silwen stood and looked over at him, grimmacing.
"Over here. Let's get this over with. I'm only doing this once, do you hear Hermes? Once."
Hermes called an affirming answer, and sent Silwen over to the starting line.
"On your marks, get set GO!"
On the sound of 'go', Silwen's shoes mechanically drove her feet forward. Silwen's sigh was lost in the commotion. And then a rock appeared on the racecourse. It wasn't a large rock, but Silwen had fallen over smaller ones. Yet somehow, the shoes averted the rock and deftly crossed the finish line, nanoseconds before Boreas.
"Silwen wins! We have it recorded Boreas, if you wish to see for yourself."
Boreas merely scowled menacingly and disappeared, furious gusts of wind billowing and crashing around in the arena, destroying everything in their path.
"Boreas!" sounded Zeus' voice like a warning bell, "If you're going to be a bad sport, get out."
Once more Boreas appeared. "Hermes, show me those shoes of yours on the girl."
He stalked over to Silwen, pushed her to the ground, and yanked the shoes off her feet.
"Enhanced agility and speed. We're doing this again."
Boreas dragged Silwen by the foot over to the start line again, then let go of her.
"Hermes do sound us off again. I will not leave until I have a fair race, or she will be sucked into a whirlwind," he snarled.
Silwen was still lying on the ground. When Boreas mentioned 'whirlwind', Silwen jumped up and pleaded with Hermes to start the race one more time.
To which Hermes grudgingly replied, "Three, two, one, go."
Boreas shot off. Silwen's foot flew under the first rock it could find, and promptly fell to the ground. By the time Silwen had gotten to her feet, Boreas stood disdainfully at the finish line.
"So. That's how it is," he called. In a glorious swoosh, he swooped into the sky and didn't return.
Solemnly, Silwen picked herself up from the ground and dusted herself off.
"That's over. Onto your next task, you will be swimming," said a voice much like flowing water.
Poseidon's voice spoke, and a swimsuit floated down from the sky.
"Change into that in the stalls that will appear when I've finished speaking. All you will have to do is keep swimming as long as you can. Enjoy yourself."
Stalls stood in front of Silwen. One of the doors opened, Silwen crept inside, changed, and walked back out.
The scenery had changed into a beautiful ocean seashore. Seagulls barked at the crabs who snapped angrily back. Warm, yellow sand welcomed her sore feet. And the water was a deep aquamarine, shimmered enticingly. Without thinking, Silwen walked to the border of the sand and beginning of the ocean, toes digging into the sand. Waves seemed to whistle to Silwen, cajoling her to come in and swim. An odd magnetic pull seemed to be in the water.
"Bestiaindica," she muttered, indicating at the ocean with her wand.
Golden, glowing silhouettes appeared under the surface of the water; small fish, jellyfish, a few tortoises, and by the coral reefs, eels and sharks.
"Poseidon, what if I don't want to go swimming? What will happen if I start to swim?"
Uneasily, she began to think of what would happen if she cut herself on the coral. The coral wasn't so far down after all.
"Take a risk, Silwen. See what happens."
Closing her eyes, Silwen murmured softly to herself, "Breathe."
And soon she had calmed down enough to enter into the water which lapped happily at her with every step she took. Soon, Silwen had to begin swimming.
"Bubbliatus," murmured Silwen, and a bubble appeared around her face. "AntiasPressura."
Now that she could breathe and resist the pressure if she wanted to dive down, things didn't seem so bad. However, she clutched her wand fiercely in her hand. No sense in getting stung or bitten.
Life seemed to cease to exist on dry land once Silwen had submersed herself in the water and started to swim. Fish passed her by, not caring about her, tortoises allowed her to stroke them and sometimes gave her rides on their backs. The sharks and eels stayed by the corals, interested only in the fish that fed off the reefs.
With a splash and a snort, dolphins swam up to meet the new swimmer. Silwen smiled and laughed excitedly. The dolphins greeted her and took Silwen on long rides under and over the ocean, showing her flying fish and ancient pirate ships, having crashed long ago. They took her to an underwater cave, and to her great surprise found oysters with pearls inside them. She tucked the fine ocean jewels in her hair (which still maintained its up-do), and lay inside the cave, catching her breath, bubble having been popped. The dolphins however got impatient and soon took her back on their backs, bubble head Charm having returned with a flick of Silwen's wand.
They swam all the way to the shore and dropped her off to where they could still swim, but Silwen could stand.
"Thank you," whispered Silwen. "Thank you for showing me so much, for letting me learn so much. It truly was a treasure of worth much more than the pearls."
The dolphins waved a fin and dove under the water, reappearing above the surface near the horizon, kissing the setting sun.
"Finished. Next task," came a pleased voice, and a bushy towel floated around her shoulders, as Silwen drifted out of the ocean water, waving goodbye as her feet moved away.
A woman approached Silwen as Silwen left the water behind. Dark, earthy brown curls cascaded down her back, warm cocoa brown eyes twinkled friendlily, her grass green dress gliding over the sand.
"Good evening. My name is Demeter, and for me, I would like you to grow something. This will be a work in progress, and until it can survive on its own, you will take it with you to the Underworld, and to Atlantis. I will give you a seed of any tree of your choice, and I hope you will care for it. Magic will make the plant wither, you must do everything manually. So dear, what plant do you wish to plant?"
Orchards of ideas sprouted into Silwen's mind, but two stuck out the most.
"I'd like to have either a Yucca seed, or a Weeping Willow seed, if you please."
"I'll give you a Weeping Willow seed. Yuccas are wonderful, but later, you will want a Willow in front of your house in England. Perhaps when the Willow has matured enough to stand on its own, the Big Three will let you return home."
Demeter put her hand into her pocket and gently pulled out a willow seed, a book entitled Demeter's Guide to Planting Weeping Willows, a clay pot a watering can, and a bag of soil.
"Good luck, dear."
Reverently, Silwen sifted through the little booklet. Coming to the first page of instructions, she read on how to plant a seed. The pot Silwen had been given was tiny; it fit in the sole of her shoe. Carefully, she put the seed inside the pot, pressed down the soil and drenched the pot in water.
"Well done with your start," said Demeter from the sky above, "Plants grow in love and light and in sweet music quicker and fuller. Play your lyre next to it, and slowly, you will see progress." With that, Demeter disappeared completely.
"Now for your last task, you will be taken to a mortal junk heap. Your task is simply said: build an object of beauty out of whatever you want."
Flash! Silwen blinked, and she found herself in a junk yard.
"I wonder. Can I melt things down completely?"
"Yes, do whatever you would like. A forge will be placed in the middle of the junk deposit." The voice was unfamiliar, but Silwen had heard it before. It was earthy, metallic somehow, warm as a forge in Winter. Hephaestus.
"Thank you, oh god of all forges for giving me creative license."
Silwen walked around the abandoned place. She inhaled the metallic scents, brushed her fingers over the forgotten cars and other objects, picked up miscellaneous scraps here and there, and slowly, inklings formed of what she wanted to create. Meticulously, she Summoned any silver, shiny scrap metal. Then she charmed the scraps to follow her to the forge. Once there, she obtained a large nonburnable pot, and put all the scrap metal she wanted into it, and lit a fire as hot as Hephaestus would allow it to be underneath it, and the metal melted into a big shimmering pool, reflecting the top of the forge, like a lake of liquid silver. Then, Silwen used a spell to lift drops of silver into a cooling rack, pour water over it, and freeze the metal into a shape of a tear drop. Over and over Silwen did this until she had about one hundred teardrop-shaped pieces of metal. Every silver tear was about the size of a small cherry. Quickly, Silwen charmed them to form a heart, with the finished product becoming a heart of tears, held together by little silver droplets that Silwen had took from the still melted silver in the pot. Every tear glistened as if it had just been cried out, every tear reflected the onlooker.
Critically Silwen inspected her work.
"I guess it's a little sappy and cliché, but I like it," she thought out loud.
"And I do too," came a deep voice from behind her.
Jumping a few inches in the air, Silwen spun around to see Hephaestus.
"True, it is clichéd, but it came from the heart-no pun intended. I'll teach you how to make beautiful things without the cliché."
"Hmm I think I like it. And I disagree with you both," came a contemplative toned Hades, "I think there is originality in constructing a heart of tears. Yes the idea is a little over used, but as a sculpture, not entirely. Zeus wishes for me to tell you that you are to come back to the Throne Room at Olympus. Come with me."
Hades proffered his arm, but Silwen shrank away, bumping into her sculpture. It crashed and broke into a plethora of silver, shiny, shards.
Hades chortled and said, smiling, "Now it's original. What once used to be a heart full of tears was broken by reluctant fear. Perhaps you should name this 'Impossibility of Life', because even after human's hearts break—"
Silwen pointed her wand at the pieces. "Reparo," she whispered. Hades continued. "They can be mended once again. Though perhaps not as quickly as that." He said, glancing at the now mended heart.
Pensively, Hephaestus procured a video camera.
"Silwen, I want you to let the sculpture crash again under camera. Then give your project a name, repair it, and explain. When you have finished that, you will be transported to the Throne Room. And there, we will have your results of the test."
Silwen nodded.
"Hades, we will LEAVE her alone to complete this."
"If you insist, Hephaestus," said Hades, sighing. Eyes narrowing, he looked at her.
"Don't try escaping to the muggle world. Because I will catch you instantly."
The two of them disappeared.
Alone, Silwen began to breathe easier. She set the camera on a high stool that could film everything, pushed the Record button, and began to follow through on her instructions. Tenderly, she took the heart in her hands, and let it slip through them. As expected, it crashed and shattered into shards.
"My project is entitled 'Humanity'. You see, the hearts of humanity is formed from tears. Tears of love, tears of mirth, tears of sorrow, and tears of pain. Humanity's hearts are so fragile that one little shove can destroy it. But—"
Silwen cast a nonverbal fixing spell and went on with her speech.
"Miraculously, humans have the capacity to get back up, fix themselves, and start–not over, but with a mended heart that knows better what life is about."
Silwen walked quietly over to the camera, pushed Stop, turned the camera off, and held it in her hands, satisfied with her speech. Inhaling deeply, even though she was perfectly calm, she watched the scrap yard fade away and the grandeur of Mount Olympus fade into view.