I don't own Class of the Titans. I do own the first 13 episodes on DVD, though. When are they going to release the rest?

Sybil

He stuck out his tongue and watched the image do the same. He winked, and it winked back. He frowned at the flip-flopping his stomach was doing, and it frowned too. Neil sighed, but his reflection was silent.

The pools of the Lady's garden were shady and quiet aside from the soft murmur of water flowing between basins. Although the area was supposedly a popular spot for the other inhabitants, no one had come looking to cool off since Neil had woken up amidst grass and sunshine. Erom had excused himself to tend to his flowers for a little while, but promised to come back. That had been some time ago. The blonde imagined it was hours, maybe even days, but he couldn't be sure. Time had lost meaning for him as he gazed at his reflection.

Neil sat back, away from the water's edge, and gazed around him at the trees and bushes that sheltered the pools from the fields and hills outside. He supposed he could go find someone to talk to if he was lonely, but there was that statue on the nicest path and the idea of getting his hair snagged on a wayward branch didn't appeal. Well, there was the way that Erom had led him in, wasn't there? No creepy statues of himself hiding there.

Have I always felt this lonely? he asked himself. After making sure no one was looking, he screwed up his face in a contortion of thought, trying to remember anything before the circle of men around him as though he were an animal in a zoo. He felt a wrenching in his stomach again. There's something there, but what?

He leaned forward again to gaze into his own eyes. He felt calm, almost numb, when he gazed at his reflection. It was easy to just let go, let his mind go blank, and be absorbed by his gently rippling cheeks and softly waving smile…

A hand waving in front of his face snapped him back onto the grass, blinking in a daze. "Huh?" he mumbled, looking around. What had he been doing?

Erom smiled and shook his head. "Boy, when you get lost in thought you really get lost. I was talking to you for a good ten minutes before I realized you weren't listening." The youth settled on the bank next to Neil, straightening his tunic in the process.

"Oh," said Neil. "Sorry. What were you saying?"

"I asked if you still wanted to go see Sybil. She's in a good mood today." As Neil looked at him blankly, Erom continued, "Or if that doesn't interest you, we could go play with the nymphs. Hylas doesn't mind sharing for a good game of squeeze tag."

Squeeze tag? Neil shook his head. "I think I'm good on that front. Visiting sounds nice. I feel like I've been stuck here for ages."

"You can always come out and visit with the rest of us, you know," Erom said with a grin.

The descendent of Narcissus returned the smile but didn't respond. He knew Erom wouldn't understand the compelling lure of the pools and his reflection, or the comforting numbness that came with staring into the water. He couldn't explain it himself, but he knew he would always come back as long as he was able to.

"Let's take the path that leads to your field," the hero suggested.

Erom shrugged and got to his feet. "Fine with me, though I don't get why that statue bothers you so much."

Neil carefully brushed grass from his bum. "Neither do I," he said softly. "I'm sure I knew once, but it's gone."

"Is that so bad?"

The descendent of Narcissus had to shake his head. "No. I just wish it would stop."

His fellow blonde shrugged. "You'll probably forget even the subconscious memory in time. But if not, you could always ask the Lady. She might be able to help."

Neil was silent. He turned the idea over in his mind as he picked his way through to Erom's field, watching for grabbing branches that would try and snag his hair. Getting rid of any lingering memory fragments would get rid of the butterflies in his stomach and the nausea he felt every time his eyes lingered too close to where the bust was nestled but…

"We're here."

"Huh?" His head jerked up to look around and the hero's worry over his memory evaporated. He had a vague recollection of watching his reflection, and then Erom, but nothing else. Even these thoughts were blurring around the edges as he looked at the nameless faces of other garden denizens that had gathered to meet Sybil. "Oh."

He couldn't help the self-satisfied grin that quirked his lips as eyes looked him up and down, lingering on his face or hips. "So, which one?" he asked, trying to figure out which one looked like a 'Sybil.'

Erom laughed and pulled him to the front of the small group, where they took a seat in the grass. "Just wait," he said. "You'll know her when you see her."

With a shrug, Neil closed his eyes and turned his face skyward. He figured he might as well enjoy the good weather while they waited, work on his tan, let the light compliment his already radiant good looks. His smile returned as he cracked an eyelid to several boys sneaking glances at him.

"I suppose I don't mind waiting," he conceded, preening.

Neil didn't have long to wait, however, as the general quiet chatter and hum of voices around him abruptly fell silent. He opened his eyes and roused himself from the lazy stupor of sunbathing, looking around for any sign of this mysterious woman that everyone seemed to love. He noticed a girl had appeared and was slowly and methodically proceeding to the front of the gathered group. She had leaves and flowers tangled in her greenish hair and was barely clothed enough to be considered dressed and not naked. In her arms she carried a large glass jar in the shape of a Greek amphora that was sealed at the top. Inside was something small and hard to see, some kind of floating twig or scrap of thread.

"Is that her?" he whispered to his friend as he pointed to the woman carrying the strange vessel. "Why is she carrying that jar?"

Erom smiled. "That's Daphne. Sybil's the one in the jar." He turned his attention back to the front, watching as Daphne placed jar on top of a stump.

Neil was confused, and skeptical. There was nothing in the jar but some wispy something-or-other, but certainly not a person. Not even a tiny person, though he didn't expect to ever see anyone who wasn't person-sized.

Daphne took a seat in the crowd of wide-eyed and smiling onlookers. There was a heartbeat of silence before the crowd spoke as whole, voices full of mirth and youthful excitement, and startled Neil who had become used to the hush. Together they cried, "What do you want, Sybil?"

A tiny female voice, soft and sorrowful, replied, "I want to die."

This response was greeted with a round of laughter and clapping as though some great trick had been performed. A chill ran down Neil's spine. Something felt entirely, completely wrong but he couldn't understand where the feeling was coming from. No one else was uneasy, no one else showed a shred of concern, so why did he feel suddenly nauseous?

The previous silence seemed to have vanished altogether as all the gathered boys and nymphs began to cry out for stories to be told about them or begged for their favourite tales to be retold. The most popular request seemed to be a story called 'Tomorrow.'

"Sybil!" shouted Erom, voice raised above the others. "We have a new friend with us, a Narcissus at last. Tell him a story since it is his first time."The others quieted to whispers and Neil guessed that something like this had happened before, perhaps for each of them in turn as they found themselves suddenly inside the bright and beautiful garden.

"What is his name?" moaned the Sybil in her jar.

"Neil," Erom shouted back.

The wisp in the jar seemed to swell up, shimmering in the sunlight like a small cloud of dew. "I have a story for him, one I have been waiting ages to tell." Her voice seemed stronger, less sad. "Hush now and listen." The crowd leaned forward, hanging on her every word. Neil found himself doing the same, his earlier unrest quietly subsiding somewhere in the foggy back of his mind.

"This is a story yet to be woven by the Fates but the threads are there. They shine in the gloomy dark of the Underworld like prophecies shine with their golden, unbreakable thread but this story is not so set in stone. Not yet. This is a story of tomorrow.

"You will die, Narcissus. You will all die. You shall be devoured by the screamers, you will suffocate in your fantasies, you will be torn to pieces by your lover, you will suffer betrayal from a friend, you shall burn and burn and burn and you will be trapped forever in a palace of bone. All this will you suffer and more as the Witch seeks revenge. But take heed of my words! The first sun will find you and the second moon shall aid you, but the worst of all that you must never trust is the third sibling, known as rose."

The Sybil fell silent, the wisp in the jar a simple, dull grey once more. The silence held for a moment longer as her final words sunk in across her audience then shattered to applause and cheers and laughter. Neil among them laughed along, first nervously then more comfortably as he saw the unconcerned, happy faces of his friend and all the others. Daphne quickly got up and took the jar in her arms again, bowing for the Sybil before turning to take her back from whence she came.

"I thought you said she was in a good mood?" Neil questioned Erom after the Sybil had gone. Around them the crowd began to disperse.

Erom nodded. "That was her good mood. She's always telling stories like that, with death and awful things. She's told all of us that we've died or turned into trees or been kidnapped away from our friends never to be heard of from again but it's just silly nonsense. Clearly none of us are dead or trees."

Neil laughed. "I wish I could have heard those stories," he said, "they sound great."

"Yeah. So don't worry about it, okay? She just likes the attention." He patted Neil on the shoulder fondly. "Come on, let's go see Hylas. We'll play a game of tag." Erom started off toward a distant copse of trees.

Neil fell into step beside him. "What kind of tag?" he asked.

oooooooo

And another million years later, there's an update. Goodness.

I apologize for the long wait. All I can say is I fell out of writing and ideas there for a while, sort of got out of fanfiction altogether, but a recent email review alert caught my attention and I decided that hey, I could finish the chapter I already started. Maybe even keep going.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are still finding this story to be interesting. Things are a fair bit more serious and foreboding here but things can't be light and comedic or completely mysterious all the time. Though, there still is some mystery. First sun and second moon? What's that all about?

I can't promise the next update will be soon but I do hope to one day finish this thing. I really like the ideas going on, and hopefully you do too. So bear with me and who knows what might be coming next?

Next chapter (most likely): Must be dreaming or…