I plugged my earphones back in, and walked back over to the Hecate cabin, where I would do step 3, for the next 2 weeks. Learning and studying magic.
I arrived inside the Hecate cabin, and ran into Lilly.
"Hey!" she grinned at me. "Listen, we're all gonna go train and stuff, wanna come? You should probably practice." She invited me.
"Ok! Yeah, I'd…uh…I'd be happy to!" I nodded.
"Cool. Follow us then." She instructed, walking out the door, a bunch of Hecate campers following after her.
I followed them, and we marched into the forest, into an empty clearing. There was nothing but a few burned trees, leaves, and a few scorch marks on the ground. There was also a small creek bubbling nearby.
"Alright, so guys, today we're doing levitation." Lilly said. "Split up in pairs."
I glanced around, and noticed Jaime wasn't there. "Where's Jaime?" I asked Lilly.
"She's taking a nap." Lilly answered. "You can be my partner for this exercise, k?" she offered.
"Sure." I shrugged.
"Alright so listen up!" Lilly called out. "Levitation is tricky. You're going to focus on your partner, and will her to move upwards. You're going to raise your hand like this." She raised her hand. "And say "μετεωρίζομαι" with as much power as possible. And once your partner is in the air, you keep your focus, or they end up crashing down to the ground. Ready?" she yelled.
She turned to me, grinned, and lifted up her hand. "μετεωρίζομαι" she said quietly, but firmly.
It was the worst thing ever. I felt like there were a million ropes wrapped tightly around me, and that two ropes were tied around my arms, dangling me in the air. After 10 seconds, I felt like my arms were about to pop out of their sockets.
"Put me down." I coughed.
Lilly merely grinned at me, and suddenly twisted her hand so it was upside down. And then suddenly I was upside down, my arms limp, happy to be released from their torment. But unfortunately, now I was dangling by my legs.
Unfortunately, regarding this, I was out of my element. I had no idea how magic worked, how to get out of this enchantment…nothing.
"Lilly, I said put me down!" I looked at her, blood rushing to my head.
"Aww, sowwy I couldn't hear you." Lilly laughed.
And suddenly I realized something. This was the exact same thing that happened in my cabin. I was Nico, and Lilly was me. That sounds weird…but seriously, this is exactly what I had done to Nico…except a bit more extreme. Maybe the voice is more influential in Lilly's head.
"Put me down, Lilly." I said calmly.
"K." Lilly dropped her hand, and walked off laughing as I started falling.
"φλοτέρ" I yelled, the phrase popping into my head from nowhere. Suddenly I started gently floating, about 3 inches away from a rock that would've cracked my head open. I floated over to a sandy, dry part, and got up to walk.
"What the hell?" I asked Lilly.
"I'm sorry." She looked at me guiltily. "I don't know what happened I was just filled with so much anger towards you, I'm so so so sorry, please forgive me."
And once again, I got déjà vu. This was the exact same thing that happened in my cabin.
"It's ok…I guess...but, uh…don't go all psycho sadistic-y again, k?" I frowned.
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Alright so next up, we're trying out something a little trickier, ok? We're gonna try out invisibility." Lilly said. "What you're gonna do is, you're going to stay as still as possible, as quiet as possible, and just focus entirely on not being seen. Then you're going to say quietly 'αόρατο'. So go ahead and try that out, and we shall see how can do it and who can't." she said. She stepped backwards into a shadowy part, and held completely still, not making a word. I saw her mouth move a bit, and suddenly she vanished.
So I too stepped into a shadowy area, stood completely still, didn't make a noise, and whispered "αόρατο'." A cold sensation went all over me. Kinda like that cold feeling, when it's really hot, and you dip your hands or feet or something in the pool, you know what I'm talking about? Well that's what it felt like. All over my body.
So I assumed that that meant I was invisible. "Lilly?" I murmured.
"What?" she whispered.
"Am I invisible?"
"Yeah."
I grinned mischievously, and thought of all the pranks I could do with Conner with this new trick. And then it hit me. There was no Conner anymore. And there never would be. I looked sadly at my feet. "Hey can I ditch?" I asked Lilly.
"Yeah, but just this once alright?" Lilly answered.
"K." I said, walking off.
It was so strange, walking through camp, with no one looking at me strangely, no Drew coming up talking crap about me, nothing. In fact, the whole camp seemed a lot better without me. And then I saw 4 familiar people sitting down at a picnic table in the shadows of a large pine tree. I frowned, and walked over there to eavesdrop.
In case you were wondering, the 4 familiar people were Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, and Conner.
"-I'm just saying she isn't acting like herself." Nico shrugged.
"I have to agree with Nico, she hasn't even looked at me in weeks." Thalia put in her 2 cents.
I stared directly at her. 'I'm looking at you' I thought to myself.
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Conner asked. "Do we even know whats up with her?"
"I might have an idea." Annabeth began.
Everyone paused to look at her.
"Well, do you guys remember the prophecy about her?" Annabeth asked.
They all looked kind of confused. Annabeth sighed, and began reciting my prophecy.
"The last and final,
Third child of death.
Shall bear curse like no other,
A dreamwalker
A dreamstalker
Controller of minds
Creater of madness.
Arm in Arm with those from Hell,
A secret curse she'll never tell.
On the 16th birthday
Destruction will reign
Her own Father's bane." Annabeth looked at everybody.
"Oh." Thalia breathed.
"I didn't even know." Conner leaned back in his seat, disturbed.
Nico just looked kind of sad.
"Also, she's been hanging out a lot at the Hecate cabin…Is she learning magic or something?" Thalia asked.
"Ok, guys, look, for this to make any sense, I'm gonna need you to know all about Alice's past as a baby, alright. You guys all think she was with me and Bianca in the Lotus Hotel, right?" Nico said. They all nodded.
"Well she wasn't. When she was born, Dad heard the prophecy about her. He wanted to kill her at first. I watched him. He wrapped her in a blanket, and carried her down to the Underworld, and was about to drop Alice into the River Styx. The only reason he didn't was because he feared Alice would become invincible, and wouldn't disintegrate as planned. My mom begged and pleaded with him to keep her alive, and he swore on the River Styx that he would never try to harm her again. That same night, he took Alice to Hecate, and told her to repress Alice's powers as long as possible. Hecate said she could only repress them until her she turned 15, she turned 15 last year, that's when she started getting new powers. They're getting stronger as she nears 16. Alice stayed with Hecate until she was 3, and I wouldn't be surprised if Hecate did something to Alice to boost her magic and whatnot. When she was about to turn 4, Hecate came, and dropped Alice off about the same time I arrived. Except because of the Lotus hotel, I was a bit older. That's why she's 15, and I'm 17." Nico summed up the life I didn't remember I had.