(general POV)
"I bet I can hit the target on top of that tree and you can't!" Artemis said in a mocking tone, taking her bow.
"Yes, sure you can" Apollo replied distractedly, and she looked back at him, surprised.
"What happened, brother?"
"Why are you asking?"
"You never admit so freely that I can beat you at archery. What is it?"
He regarded her with sad, tired eyes.
"Wait, wait… that's your 'my romance went wrong' look! Is it about that Cassandra girl you told me about? What happened?"
"It appears that she just wanted the gift of prophecy from me" he replied helplessly. In a few sentences, he told her about his encounter with Cassandra on the previous day.
"You did the right thing" she said at the end "Maybe one day you'll learn to restrain from mortal women altogether, will you?"
"You do not understand" he answered pointedly.
"Of course, I know nothing" she mocked "at least I don't get tricked like this. I cannot believe her nerve"
-O- -O- -O-
(Cassandra's POV)
A moment later – or so it seemed to me- I felt like I couldn't move or speak anymore. I didn't even know where I was and I could just observe what was going on in front of me.
The tall man called Ajax ripped my dress and touched my body with rough, calloused hands.
I fought back with fists and nails but he was too strong. "Don't be mean, princess! Remember, you are our slave now" Ajax exclaimed with a horrible laugh.
I was in Agamemnon's palace. I heard him scream from the bathroom. And then Clytemnestra's long figure entered the room, holding a knife. I tried to run but the tall, muscular Achaean guard stopped me so that I couldn't move anymore. The cold metal was cutting the skin at my throat…I couldn't even manage to scream. Only a moan escaped from my lips.
And more than that – Apollo was gone. I didn't feel his presence in my head anymore. I was so used to it that I couldn't bear his absence. I had wanted for him to get out of my head, forgetting that the links between Olympians and their priests are not easily undone. I felt like I had lost an arm. I would've preferred to feel his full anger. He had abandoned me, disregarded me.
After a long time I heard a quiet voice calling me from afar: "Cassandra, it's me. Don't be afraid, my child.
It sounded like Aesacus, his voice low and reassuring.
A warm hand took my own, cold one. This was certainly Aesacus: he had an old scar on his palm and I could trace it with my fingers.
I gripped his hand, not knowing whether I was still having visions or not.
"There you go, my dear, hold my hand. Now open your eyes, please." he cooed.
I hadn't realized they were closed. When I complied I was rewarded with Aesacus' blurred face and blue sparkling eyes in front of me. I blinked several times but I couldn't focus.
"It's alright, Cassandra. You were just dreaming." His quiet voice reassured me and I wanted him to keep talking.
"You have kept flailing and screaming for almost a day now. Now you should try to rest, you need…" I interrupted him with a whimper. He didn't know- and I couldn't tell him- that I wasn't able to sleep, that the visions would come back.
"Shh, Cassandra, listen to me. Try to sleep. I will stay right here and I will wake you up should you become agitated again"
I trusted him so much that I just closed my eyes, still holding his hand.
Troy was on fire. Achaean soldiers ran all over the city, killing men, women and children in the process, setting fire on the houses. I began to scream.
"Cassandra, wake up!" Aesacus said shaking me. I opened my eyes and found myself sitting on my bed while he was still holding my shoulders.
He looked at me face closely: "You are better now. I can see it."
"What… happened?" I asked with a hoarse voice. My throat felt dry like I hadn't drunk in days.
"Yesterday you had an epilepsy crisis. Laxani says he's never seen such a violent one. He wasn't able to wake you, no matter how hard he tried. Then you kept having visions or nightmares – Laxani tried to calm you but you fought back and wounded him, so he called me."
"Wounded… wounded him?" I didn't remember wounding Laxani at all - I didn't remember him being by my side, for that matter.
"Yes, you punched him and cut him with your nails, as if he were assaulting you". So it was Laxani and not Ajax I had tried to fight.
"But now you are awake and clearly better." He concluded with a warm smile, standing up to lit the candles.
I burst into sobs.
I couldn't quite come to terms with my visions and my destiny and with the fact that Apollo had abandoned me. Were Laxani and Aesacus going to reject me now? Would they force me to leave the temple? In my state, I wasn't able to foresee it.
Aesacus sat back on my bed and took me in his arms, rocking me and whispering quiet words in my ear. I don't remember ever crying in front of him before that. After some time I collected myself and I managed to stop crying. Whatever my destiny was, crying was not going to change it.
"Do you think I'm crazy?" I asked him.
"Not at all, Cassandra" he said immediately. "Apollo's priests often have visions and crises. This has been an unusually strong one, that's all"
I almost smiled at him.
The sun was already rising and I looked at him guiltily: "But Aesacus… have you spent the night here?" I asked.
"Yes, Laxani called me yesterday evening"
"I'm sorry for disturbing you. But now I feel better, you can go back to your temple. Thank you." I murmured.
"Should you need me, you know where to find me" he said before leaving.
I took a bath, dressed and went to the terrace, thinking. Soon I would've had to inform Laxani about Apollo's rejection. It would be a bad idea to overstay my welcome in Apollo's temple.
That terrible crisis had undoubtedly to do with his sudden absence. If he really intended to severe our link forever, that crisis would be the first one of a long list. I wondered how many of those crisis I could endure before losing my mind.
But when I didn't expect it at all, I felt him in my mind again. I could tell that he was very angry but at least he was there.
"I am disappointed, princess. But you have been consecrated to me, thus you are my priestess and I will not severe our link."
His voice in my head sounded cold like it had never been before, his anger so strong that it made me shiver.
But at least I was not alone.
-O- -O- -O-
"Are you out of your mind?" a shocked Hermes asked Apollo "this is a horrible punishment for such a young girl!"
"Should I let mortals trick me like this without reacting?" Apollo replied calmly.
"No, of course. If she has tricked you, she deserves a punishment. But you have bestowed the gift on her, and if your judgement of her was wrong, then you are responsible too" reasoned Hermes.
"I trusted her, I was wrong" the older god admitted quietly.
"Apollo, were you trying to woo her with this gift?" Hermes asked, and he was rewarded with a murderous glare.
"Do you really think I would give her the gift of prophecy in change for her?" Apollo hissed furiously.
"I can't see it another way" Hermes replied sternly.
"Will you bother asking yourself why I acted this way?" Apollo asked, his eyes still blazing with rage.
"You should tell me!"
"Very well. A terrible fate awaits her: she will die at the hand of Clytemnestra... unless she marries me, of course. Had I revealed her fate to her before professing my love, she would have felt… compelled to accept my offer"
The younger god lowered his eyes, considering this words.
"Is there no other way for you to save her?" he asked.
Apollo slowly shook his head.
"You know that Atropos cuts the thread of each mortal's life as she sees fit. Either we prevent the mortals from dying altogether or they will die on the day and under the circumstances Atropos has chosen. Her name means "the inexorable" for a very good reason. I can spare Cassandra the rape because my intervention is not going to change the day of her death, but I am not allowed to do more2
"Then you could have made her immortal" retorted Hermes.
"I could have. Every Olympian might ask immortality for only one mortal and I haven't asked for it yet. But mortals die every day, it belongs to their nature. Many die at a very young age and in dire circumstances. You cannot start making them immportal just because you feel sorry for them. There has to be a very good reason if you decide to alter their nature" Apollo explained calmly.
Hermes nodded thoughtfully.
"And do you really think I punished her only because of my wounded pride?"
"You feel wounded in your pride, yes" Hermes pointed out.
"You do not understand. The gift cannot be taken back but after she tricked me I cannot trust her anymore. I am not sure anymore that she will use that gift wisely. She may start revealing prophecies to the wrong person, in the wrong moment, and I must prevent her from doing so. So she is not to be believed, this is essential"
"I see." Hermes sighed.
"Do you think I am a cold, insensitive and cruel piece of stone? Tell me" Apollo asked in a quiet voice "because that would hurt coming from my best friend."
"No, I don't, my dear, forgive me. I feared that your wrath was blinding your sense, but now I can see you were right. There's only another thing… Apollo, are you sure that she tricked you? She could've been afraid, maybe, of something else"
"I questioned her and she didn't deny my accusations. Besides, her repulse was so strong that I could feel it in my mind. I wonder how I could miss it until now. Maybe my affection for her was blinding my judgement"
Hermes sighed again: "I'm sorry"
Apollo closed his eyes: "I courte many women, goddesses and mortals. I did love many of them, yes, but Cassandra… she could have been…"
He was quiet, neither his handsome features nor his voice showing any sign of pain, but Hermes could read it in his brother's hesitation. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Should you need me…"
"I know. Thank you for listening."
-O- -O- -O-
(Cassandra's POV)
In a few days the story of my crisis and of my nightmares became widespread in the city. In addition, in the following months my epilepsy crises became more frequent than they had previously been, often leaving me dizzy and confused for some time. Although I was still respected as Apollo's servant and the king's daughter, I noticed that people seemed to feel uneasy around me. They looked at me as if they expected me to go crazy at any moment.
I must admit that my behavior changed dramatically after Apollo's curse. I had been talkative and lively: now I looked as miserable as I felt. In Troy, everybody knew me, and everybody likely noticed the difference between how I had been and how I was now.
When I was around, people started whispering to each other -and sometimes snickering. Sometimes, they even changed direction when they came across me.
As a consequence, I became withdrawn and silent. Apart from my duties at the temple, I spoke to just a few people: Hector, Andromache, Aesacus, Laxani and Myrrhine.
As time went by, it became increasingly difficult to talk to me or meet me, which in turn didn't do much to improve my reputation.
The people I was close to tried to help me anyway they could. Laxani and Myrrhine, although they never knew the truth, understood that my state had somehow to do with Apollo, but their affection felt like pity to me. Hector and Andromache did their best to behave as if everything was normal - but they were deeply saddened and unable to hide it. Aesacus confronted me and gently tried to make me open up, but to no use: how could I tell him that I had rejected a god? And Apollo, no less?
Truth be told, every day I just longed for the evening, when I would close my room's door behind my back. I just wanted to be left alone.
I wasn't the only recluse in my family, though.
Since his consecration, my twin brother Helenus had almost completely retreated to Artemis' temple, so much so that he had not been seen outside the temple since Apollo and Artemis' feast in June. I knew that people whispered a lot about him too, but -at least in his case- there weren't any prophetic dreams or crises to make him look crazy.
It was kind of ironic: during our childhood we could never be in the same room without arguing and we had barely spoken to one another after finishing school. Now we finally had something in common: isolation.
Contrary to me, however, he didn't visit our family at the palace. His stiff personality had not changed over the years: he was not close to any of us and, in general, he wasn't well liked.
Although I felt more at ease at Apollo's temple, I enjoyed visiting Hector and his new bride Andromache. Some of my other siblings, however, were not happy to see me.
One day that I had visited my family, my sister Polyxena brought up the subject:
"Why do you keep visiting, Cassandra? Don't you see that our mother is almost frightened by you?"
"Frightened?" I repeated. My mother and I didn't use to speak that much, we never had, but she didn't seem scared by me at all.
"It's because of your crazy dreams!" she snapped "Everyone thinks you're crazy but they're too polite to let you know. So when you come here no one's actually at ease!"
The days when I had gotten along well with Polyxena were long gone. Still, her harsh remark hurt me.
A snappy answer was already on my lips but I kept it to myself, knowing what destiny awaited my sister.
"Hector keeps inviting me." I pointed out instead "And I think he has more authority than you have in this house. So I suggest you go speak with him if my presence bothers you so much."
Polyxena snorted but said nothing. She knew that Hector and I loved each other dearly and that he would've never forbidden me to come home.
It also became clear to me that, the more I loved them, the more difficult it would be for me to accept their fate. The only way for me to stand it was to be detached, to close my heart, to suppress my feelings. The anguish would have killed me otherwise.
And although I soon got used to predictions and prophetic dreams I felt that I was turning into a stone, a cold stone which one day would stop having feelings at all.