X PIPER

PIPER DIDN'T TRUST THIS LADY. Her cheery attitude only confirmed her thoughts of, Okay, she's here on a top-secret mission from Gaea to assassinate us. Let's kill her.

She stood on the harbour, waiting for them with her arms crossed. A simple dagger hung by her hip, but she made no attempt to grab it. And if it came down to a fight, she was outnumbered three to one… unless there was backup nearby.

Piper decided to be on guard just in case.

"There you are," she scolded, although it was said with playfulness. "I was starting to doubt you guys." No charmspeak. Okay. That was one less thing to worry about, although Piper still wouldn't allow herself to underestimate her. Underestimation was a one-way ticket to embarrassing and often excruciating death.

"Who are you?" Hazel demanded, straight to the point. "How do you know us?"

The woman rolled her eyes, waving her hand as if brushing away the thought. "How do I know you? You guys are the need-to-know news, Hazel, Frank and Piper. Olympus Weekly even dedicated an entire article section to you guys. Of course, it doesn't get all the awesome juicy details like the relationship drama and whatnot, but the main ideas are present." She shrugged. "You guys are famous. Deal with it."

Piper was suddenly struck with the idea that this lady was a goddess. She was certainly beautiful enough to be one. Curling red hair that reached to her waist, and startling blue eyes. She wore a simple white T-shirt under a worn-out blue sweater and plain old jeans, and even though she tried to cover up her beauty she still got open-mouthed stares from passing by boys. One guy walked into a pole.

Frank nodded hesitantly, as if uncertain of how to react with being the main idea of a godly newspaper. "Great. That's… wonderful?" It came out as a question. "But you never said who you were."

The woman grinned, as if anticipating the enquiry. "Call me Cassie," she decided. Piper was certain that was short for something (they always were), but instead asked a more prominent question.

"Why did you come to see us?" she said.

Cassie started, hesitated, then continued anyway. "So basically it goes like this; I'm one of those Thanatos-chained folk that managed to escape back into the real life. And in my first life, I was able to see into the future."

Frank frowned. "Oracle or augur?" he asked.

"Neither," Cassie explained. She struggled with finding the right words, deciding on, "I sort of had these flashes of moving pictures in my head. Mini-videos, you can put it. They're sort of like the things you see in your dagger, Piper."

Piper flinched. "How do you know about Katoptris?" she demanded sharply. Cassie wasn't threatened.

"I knew Helen," she replied simply as if being asked what her favourite colour was. "I mean, the original Helen of the Trojan war. We were actually good friends, while we weren't under the constant threat of attack."

Hazel was the first to put two and two together. "You're Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam of Troy," she accused.

Cassie didn't deny it, although she seemed a bit more down now that her secret was out. "Yeah," she said, shrugging casually. "That's me."

"I know this story," said Piper. "Apollo fell in love with you, and gave you the ability to see into the future. But when you refused to kiss him, he made it a curse so that nobody would believe your prophecies."

"Yeah," Cassandra sighed, twirling a lock of her beautiful red hair around a finger. "Some people say I went mad. Really, I didn't. Poets just like the idea of a psychotic princess. I saw the destruction of my beloved kingdom in my dreams, but did anyone believe my warnings? Of course not." She sighed tiredly, as if it were still a slightly frustrating concept but she had gotten over most of it.

"But what's done is done, right?" she continued. "That happened, like, three thousand years ago. I came here to tell you that I had a vision. About you guys."

Piper was honestly intrigued. So when Hazel snorted and rolled her eyes, it came as a bit of a surprise. "Really, Cassie? A vision? That's ridiculous."

As a matter of fact, Piper was beginning to find the idea slightly ludicrous herself. Okay, they ruled the idea of her being a monster out, but maybe she was like Khione—a normal minor goddess fighting on the wrong side. Or perhaps an ordinary mortal agent working for Gaea.

That was possible, right?

"You have thirty seconds to convince us this isn't an ambush," Piper decided, pulling out Katoptris.

Cassandra raised her hands in the air slightly, as if admitting defeat. "Okay, okay," she said quickly. "Just listen, and try to believe me." She sighed, closing her eyes. "Four ways you'll have to go, for four gifts from four people; the giver of life, the slayer of life, the maintainer of life, and the protector of life; one backwards the way you came, one to where it all started, one down south and out of way, and one just cross the shore."

There was a pause.

"That's it?" Frank asked.

Cassandra shrugged. "My visions aren't always the clearest," she admitted.

Hazel shook her head in disgust. "This was a waste of time," she decided. "Come on, guys, let's go."

Frank followed her back to the ship. Piper was about to as well, but Cassandra caught her by the wrist.

"Please,"she begged. "My curse won't let you believe me now, and I understand that. But later on… just think of this. Consider it. Try to believe me. This may be able to help you."

Piper wrestled out of her grip easily and tried for a kind smile. "You might want to consider getting out of the country," she offered as gently as possible. "There's a war going on."

Then she turned and followed Hazel back to the ship.


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