"There are six main gods. Three brothers and three sisters. The sisters are the peacemakers, and the brothers are the fighters and are named the big three. Each of the three brothers hates the other two. They are Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Their sisters are Hestia, Hera and Demeter. All of them elected to have demigod children except Hestia by preference, and Hera who wanted to stay loyal to her husband and not stray, even if he did so himself." Chiron briefed.

"Okay." Essa nodded.

"Some gods had godly children, or children who did great deeds in history. This camp is a safe haven for the latter, though some kids may never be issued a quest. Quests are issued to the strongest of fighters, and are defined by the gods. They complete tasks for the gods. The Big Three made a pact to never sire anymore children, for their powers were too great to run the risk of overthrowing Olympus."

"You switched topics halfway through. I'm confused." Esmeralda frowned.

"Quests are issued to the strongest of demigods, but the Big Three had children that could overthrow Olympus, so they made a pact to never have children so they wouldn't run the risk. Zeus is worried that you may be able to overthrow Olympus, and wishes to make sure that that would not be a possibility. "

"That's idiotic!" Esmeralda exclaimed.

"Not idiotic, more like paranoid... A group of gods once had that opportunity, and tied Zeus up. They made him swear to always listen to the others on the council." Chiron amended her statement delicately.

"Oh. That sorta makes sense. But I still don't get why I have to show my powers." Esmeralda said.

"They want to make sure you can't overthrow Olympus."

" I'm six! Why would I want to overthrow Olympus? " Essa pointed out.

"The minds of deities work in strange ways." Chiron responded, but a small smile was on his face nonetheless.

" So what do I do to show my powers? " Esmeralda wanted to know.

"Make a performance. If you wish, you could ask some campers to help. The performance will be done on the winter solstice. You may want to include a few different acts, so as to not be doing too much at once." Chiron suggested.

Esmeralda's head was spinning from the sudden intake of information. It was September 23rd, and her birthday fell on the winter solstice (December 21st) so she would need to perform in front of the gods in two months? She would not get to celebrate her birthday, if she had to do a performance. On the bright side, she would at least be older. That had to be a bonus, right? She wasn't sure about anything anymore.

"I am still astounded you managed to recover from that use of magic. How did you do it? " Chiron prodded gently.

Esmeralda fluttered her wings uncomfortably and folded them on her back once more, but into another position. "I know how to use my magic. I've practiced, just not with that much to hold. The adrenaline helped."

Chiron nodded. " You were out for a while. Almost five days."

Esmeralda gaped. She had not known that it was that long. She knew the consequences of using too much magic and not properly controlling her focus, but she hadn't expected the consequences to be that bad. She had done plenty of magic at home with her father and it hadn't had serious repercussions. Granted, she had lifted pretty big things, so she had probably fainted for that reason.

In terms of magic usage, she greatly preferred doing illusions than picking things up. Less exertion magically and physically. Levitation was a lot harder, but she was fairly good at it, due to plenty of practice, courtesy of her father's teachings.

She was four in the memory. It was getting late, but she had wanted so desperately to light the candle and finish the challenge she had yet to overcome . Her dad had been teaching her how to control her magic since she was three and had made her snowman resurrect itself after somebody had run it over with their car.

"Ok, Essa, try that again. Try and lift the match burning side up and light the candle this time. Three, two, one... Go! " Daniel started the stopwatch.

Her nose scrunched up in concentration and lifted the matchbox up, opened it carefully by wiggling her fingers. Purple magic streamed out from her fingertips. A single match started levitating out of the box. She bit her lip harshly. One hand controlled the still levitating match and the other made a squeezing motion in the air, resulting in the open matchbox closing.

Her hand trembled a bit as she attempted to bring the match to the rough surface on the ends of the box, but missed. Squeezing her eyes shut in frustration, she attempted again, this time successfully bringing the red phosphorus tip to the box. She flicked her finger sideways, making the tip zoom across the rough sandpaper strip. The tip caught on fire and she moved it carefully towards the candle that was waiting ready on the kitchen table.

The match was burning up quickly, so Esmeralda wasted no time in touching the flame to the wick of the candle. It caught fire successfully, to her great relief. The time would not stop until she had lit the candle and extinguished the match, so it was crucial she used this match, lest she would have to redo the entire process. She created a small blast of air near the match and it snuffed out.

"67 seconds! It's your record! " Daniel annonced. He gave Esmeralda an enormous hug. " I think this is a good reason to have ice cream, don't you? " He winked conspiratorially. She grinned. "Yay!"

"I believe you would very much like to take a tour of the camp, yes?" Chiron assumed.

"Um, yeah. That would be nice." Esmeralda looked up from her hands. She had been staring at her hands during her flashback, and looked up at Chiron.

" I took the liberty of choosing a guide for you. His name is Liam. I think you two will become very good friends. " Chiron's eyes locked on her chocolate brown eyes. She let her hair turn to a light silvery blonde. Slightly stressed or nervous. She gave a small smile and rose from her seat. Standing at the bottom of the porch steps was the same kid who had directed her to the Aphrodite cabin.

"I'm Liam, but you already knew that, huh?" He asked rhetorically . "Time for a tour. I'm just gonna save you the trouble and brief you on what the initiation film says, the part that is actually relevant. It's PG-13. Not age appropriate. " He grimaced. "And super embarrassing."

Esmeralda decided to not question why it was embarrassing . She was fairly sure she didn't want to know anyway. She followed Liam down the steps and he started talking again and gesturing to different parts. "So, over there, that's the lava wall..."