Prompt (time periods): Renaissance

Cohort: Three

Words: 973

Written for the Camp Jupiter writing forum.

"Beautiful," Zoë Nightshade whispered, staring up at the night sky. Stars dotted the dark swirling sky, twinkling and shining brightly in the cold winter night. Constellations formed before her eyes; the clouds were nonexistent tonight.

"It's cold," Phoebe complained, sitting next to her. They were on top of a hill, stargazing much to Phoebe's displeasure. "Why are we here? Don't tell me you're interested in that silly Heliocenter theory, or whatever it's called, and that's why we're looking at the stars."

"Heliocentrism," Zoë corrected absentmindedly, recalling Copernicus' theory that had stirred up so much backlash in the world. "And no, Phoebe. And besides, the best part hasn't come yet." She scanned the sky, looking for the familiar constellations that greeted her. She stopped at Orion the hunter, shining brightly down at her. Tracing the constellation with her finger, Zoë imagined running along with him, hunting in the night sky.

Phoebe huffed, crossing her arms in disgust. "Males. Always thinking they have the knowledge of the whole world. Lord, such idiots believing in Heliocentrism," she muttered. "What are we waiting for again? I don't care about Orion or Perseus, you can see them all the time in the winter."

Shaking her head slightly, Zoë laughed quietly at her friend's impatience. "The constellations and stars are beautiful tonight," she whispered, finding Perseus next. Greek mythology had always interested her, as the stories the Greeks had come up with were much more intriguing than her life.

Groaning, Phoebe shivered. "That doesn't answer my question," she grumbled, peering suspiciously at the stars.

"Just wait," Zoë said quietly. And as if on cue, the first shooting star streaked across the sky. Soon, dozens more followed: the Geminids.

Phoebe gasped, clutching Zoë's arm. "Lord almighty, it's spectacular," she whispered in awe. "I see now why you brought me here."

Smiling at her friend, Zoë turned back to stare at the hundreds of falling stars making their descent across the night sky, passing constellations in their path. "They're called the Geminids," she murmured. "I wonder where the fallen stars land."

"'Fallen stars'?" Phoebe asked suspiciously. "Isn't it 'shooting stars'?"

Zoë shrugged. "I like the sound of a fallen star. It's pretty. Besides, they do seem to be falling across the sky."

They lapsed into silence, content to watch the dozens and hundreds of shooting stars make their way through the sky.

But Zoë had more on her mind than just the Geminids that night. The term fallen star had meant much more to her than the pretty stars she was watching with Phoebe, and it had not been lost on Zoë.

It had only been in the past year that she had fallen from grace. It had all started with that accursed man - Hercules. Sharing the name of a Greek hero had only served to inflate his ego, Zoë knew. She had gotten involved with him, something her family had gone strongly against. But a handsome man asking for her help seemed, at the time, completely innocent. But she should have known better.

She had offered all of her help, all of her resources to the handsome stranger. Her family kept telling her, don't get involved, Zoë, things won't end well. Zoë, listen to me, get away from him. Don't do this, stop. There are far better men you can be around, it's time for you to get married anyway, but not to him. But she hadn't listened. Letting herself be whisked away by the whirlwind of a man, Zoë had pushed away her family in the process, tarnishing their reputation. Because of Hercules' actions, her family was no longer as respected, instead disgraced.

It had led to her disownment.

Zoë was forced to set out to Italy all the way from France, trying to make a new life for herself, never forgetting what the so-called hero Hercules had done to her. He had never bothered to remember her or thank her for her help. She had been forgotten, even though without her he would surely not have succeeded in his journey to become a wealthy merchant. And now she had no idea how her dear sisters, father, or beloved horse Ladon were. She had been left penniless and alone, all because of Hercules.

Then she had met Phoebe, a nineteen year old nun. They had hit it off immediately, bonding over their love for the lord and dislike of men. Phoebe had quickly become her best friend, which Zoë was grateful for. It had been awful for her in the beginning, wandering around the world scared and lonely. But Phoebe had led her into a new life for Zoë, one where she was just Zoë Nightshade, not Zoë, the daughter of Atlas the nobleman and aristocrat.

And Zoë happily became a novice, entering the novitiate period to hopefully become a nun. It had helped her, becoming a novice, strengthening her relationship with the lord and preparing to become a nun like Phoebe. The other novices - Naomi, Bianca, Celyn, Hunter, and Reyna were all quite nice to be around as well.

When she had first fallen from grace, Zoë had never thought she could recover. She had thought she would become a piece of debris, crashing into the earth, a worthless piece of junk. But being a novice changed her life, it saved her.

Next to her, Phoebe gasped again as one particularly large one zoomed through the sky, followed by dozens of smaller ones, bringing Zoë back to reality. Happily sighing, Zoë felt so free that night. So free compared to the crushing weight she had felt when her family had made her leave her home, saying she had betrayed them. Feeling so worthless, so upset at her fall from grace, her fall from the stars.

But now she knew better. Fallen stars could be beautiful too.

A/N: I know it's weird for Phoebe and Zoë to be devout Catholics since in the books they're part of the Hunters of Artemis (and they obviously believe in the Greek gods), but since religion was important to people in the Renaissance, I decided to make them rather religious. It was also a way for me to get them into a group of females. Also: Phoebe was made to be older than Zoë as I wanted her to be the older-sister figure in Zoë's life, the person Zoë could look up to after leaving her family. I also probably messed up writing the novice/novitiate/nun part, as I'm not well versed in it, but I did try. As far as I know, novitiate is the period people enter before becoming a nun/monk, and they just basically train to become a nun/monk. So Zoë is just in the period before becoming a nun. Hopefully that's fairly clear.

There's also mentions of Heliocentrism, which is the astronomical model with the planets orbiting around the sun (as opposed to geocentrism), the theory of which was published by Copernicus (after his death) during the Renaissance.