In a small room set behind the great hall an unassuming wooden cup with a gold inlay sits on a pedastal. In front of this cup sits Albus along with the oldest documents from the schools library on the artifact.
Eventually, he stand up and returns to his office for a few minutes. Once he returns, he's carrying the dodad that toots occasionally, proving that the Potter child is still alive.
Tapping the base of the cup with his wand in the pre-defined pattern, Albus says, "Adde quod homo invitus heros."
When the top of the cup glows an ominous red colour, Albus drops the dodad into the cup and watches as it is pulled apart. Once the glow of the cup fades away, Albus picks up the books and returns them to the library.
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An older and more comfortable Lamia walks into her family's gallery and looks around at the neatly arranged tablets and trinkets. The copies that she's made over the last four years sitting at the front of each shelf with the original behind them for future scribes to refer to if her copies get damaged.
Reading and transcribing each of the tablets has been a bittersweet experience, especially those made by her mother and grandfather. Her cousin Athênê's tablets were just as bitter sweet, as they talk of her life as a titan born, given that she was conceived from an affair between Zeus and Metis before he consumed her despite the fact she saved Zeus from the same fate.
The last tablet is the one that brings the news of how the Olympians drove Medea mad and made her slaughter her own children just so that she would dance to their tune.
This time, instead of turning right, Lamia turns left to the shelves with unread tablets and bundles of tablets. The Harrowing story of what happened to Medea still fresh in her mind, Lamia walks to the shelves furthest from the entrance to look at the most recent parcels.
As she's looking through the haphazardly arranged bundles, and checking the engraved clay seals for wear, she comes across one that reads.
"Kirke, I'm sorry. Open this one first. Athena."
Lamia blinks and reads the seal another three times to ensure she's read it correctly, as the letters are so different to the Greek everything else has been written in so far.
Shaking her head, she lifts the bundle off the shelf and almost drops it at the unexpected weight. Adjusting her grip slightly, she easily carries the parcel over to the scribes altar. Once there, she quickly mixes up a small amount of clay and faithfully reproduces the seal.
Once she's checked that the seal looks the same under all three shadow positions, Lamia sets the bundle on the ground beside the altar and breaks the seal.
As soon as she does, the bundle bursts apart as the contents tumble out and form a small mound of wooden boxes, tablets, and a couple of leather pouches, that is far too large to have fit in the leather bundle she just opened.
Carefully, Lamia gathers up each of the tablets and checks them for damage. Satisfied that there isn't anything that needs immediate repair, she find the tablet that seemed to be at the top and starts to read.
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Kirke, I know that it's too late for a proper apology. Especially as you haven't written to me for centuries. It feels strange to be able to write this now, at the end.
Zeus is dead, as his brother Poseidon, and so I can now undo what is probably my greatest ever regret. I have sent one of my children to guide Medusa to your home, and I have lifted her curse. A curse that was supposed to protect her, but only brought even more pain and suffering.
The mortal mages of Rome have developed two new magical tools, the first is something they call a wand. A fusion of wood and a piece of a monster, willingly given, or taken from their dead body. One of the other parcels will contain everything my worshippers have been able to gather on these devices and their construction. The second device is a cup used to choose heroes and objectives. When those heroes face a direct descendant of one of the primordials, the cup starts to draw the ichor from the god or monsters body, and stores it in the cup.
It won't kill them, it just leaves them mortal, assuming they survive their fight. The worst thing about the cup, is that it can be used to forcefully choose a Hero by supplying something that is metaphysically linked to that hero. Blood, Hair, blessed artifacts, and more.
We have managed to capture two of the cups, and the original plans for them, though copies had already been sent out across the empire. The only glimpse of Luna, sorry Selene that comes from all this is that the cups require Ichor to make in the first place.
We have sent all of the gods and friendly monsters who don't have anything to do with mortals to the Underworld, and Hades has sealed it to all those who do not have an express invitation or a heartstone.
As I am coming to the end of this tablet I will save the rest of the news for other tablets and move onto my personal message.
Now they no longer have the protection of Zeus, I have slain Apollo and Artemis myself, and extracted their stolen heartstones. Those parts that were fractured and given to other gods I have retrieved where I can. It won't bring them back, but your father and Selene's heartstones will be in this bundle.
Working together with Hecate, we have been able to reproduce one of the new mortal spells. A spell to place something outside time. For a mortal, this is deadly, for one of us with ichor running through our veins, it is mearly excruciating once we are released. Because of this, I have forced my mothers heartstone on Hestia and placed her in one of the two boxes in this bundle. She was always the best of us, and the heartstone will ensure that she survives even if the mortals link her to one of the accursed cups. The other box contains Rhea, the mother of the Olympians.
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As she collapses back away from the altar in despair, Lamia loses control of her legs for the first time in years, and her tail lashes out behind her, before coiling up underneath her.
As she pulls herself back together, and transforms her tail into legs, Lamia carefully looks around at where her tail lashed out, just in case she broke anything. Once she's certain she didn't, she looks at the pile of tablets, boxes, and bags. When she picks up three boxes, her brow furrows.
"What in Hades name?"
Shaking her head, she starts to sort through the tablets to see if there's anything that immediately leaps out as a reason why there are three boxes instead of two.
When she finds nothing, Lamia picks up the first tablet again and carefully moves it around in the light just in case she missed something. As she does, on the bottom edge of the tablet she finds a section of faint imprints, where the clay was already hardening when it was scribed.
"Tartarus that hurt. Hecate made me remove her Heartstone, but I pulled a Hermes and just pulled out her ichor, she's in the third box. If there's anyone that needs to be kept away from the mages grasp it's the Titanesse of Magic. I've extracted my own ichor too, and discovered I have a tiny Heartstone of my own. If I survive this, I'll make myself some ambrosia and swallow my own heartstone again. When you read this, please try and find me, as I miss your tablets."
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Mind still reeling, Lamia makes her way out of the caves carrying the tablet, boxes and bags wrapped carefully in a cured rabbit skin.
As she enters the home, she can see that the three gorgon sisters are working the loom together. The sight is so unusual that it breaks Lamia out of her funk long enough to glance at the sky outside. That's when she realises that it's already late afternoon, which means she's spent far longer down there than she normally would. "Is mother around?"
Euryale looks up from her spinning, "She went down to the beach."
Lamia nods as she carefully places the rabbit skin on the potions workbench, "Thank you. Sorry I wasn't around for my lessons."
Euryale shrugs, "There's always tomorrow."
Lamia forces a smile, "There is indeed. I'm going to find mother."
Euryale nods, "Catch some crabs for dinner while you're there."
As she picks up the tablet and bags, Lamia nods again, "Are you making bread and a broth then?"
"I can do."
Feeling a little calmer after some conversation, Lamia swiftly slithers down to the beach to find Kirke staring out over the ocean. "Mother."
Kirke turns to face Lamia with a smile, "Daughter, how was your morning?"
Lamia looks out over the sea herself, "Troubling. I didn't feel like I could face the older unread tablets, so I opened the newest one."
Kirke steps next to Lamia, and puts a comforting arm on her back, "That's why I came out her too. You've become very good at scribing tablets."
Lamia nods, "Thank you mother, I wouldn't be this good if you hadn't pushed me to learn when I was a child. This new one gave me a lot of trouble, as it seems Greek moved on while you were in isolation."
Kirke looks out over the sea with her daughter, "Time has a tendency of doing that."
After a couple of minutes, Lamia holds out the tablet, "Mother, you need to read this. Including the bit on the bottom side of the tablet. It's the original, so hold your temper."
Kirke looks at her daughter, "Lamia, how many tablets did you break before you started paying attention to your tail?"
Lamia shakes her head, "I don't mean that sort of temper. I mean the sort of temper that means you want to open up Tartarus and throw the whole world inside."
Kirke looks down at the tablet as she starts to read, "Oh."
Lamia knows exactly when her mother finds out about the heartstones, as she glances down at the bags she's holding. Handing over the bags, Lamia heads off to the tide pools to hunt for crabs for dinner.
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Albus stands up in front of the collected schools, "Good evening everyone and welcome to the halloween feast. If you wish to enter the tournament, then this is your last chance to do so as the choosing will happen in one hours time."
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The five members of the household lounge around the large pot of fresh broth filled with freshly boiled crabs. A pile of freshly baked unlevened bread sits beside them.
As Medusa ladles a generous helping of broth into a bowl she looks down at Lamia, "What had you so tense earlier?"
Lamia breaks off a hunk of bread and dips it into her broth to soak, "Mother knows, I'm not sure if it's my place to say."
Kirke looks up from her own broth, that she's halfheartedly poking with her own bread. After a moment she says, "Medusa, Athena wasn't dead when your curse was broken. Zeus and Poseidon were, and she broke it herself. She also returned my fathers heartstone."
All three of the Gorgons freeze as they hear that news, and there's not even the sound of dipping bread to break the silence in the house.
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In front of the head table, the goblet of fire starts to glow with a blue flame, mixed with wisps of red flame.
Tapping his goblet, Albus stands up, "If I can have everyone's attention please. The Goblet of fire is about to choose it's champions."
As all of the students turn to face the goblet, Albus and the other judges all walk around the table to stand behind the goblet.
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As she sucks the meat out of a crab leg, Lamia stiffens and clutches her chest in pain. Everyone else looks up curiously, a look that quickly turns to alarm as Lamia starts to whimper.
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As a piece of parchment flutters out of the fire, Albus catches it and reads it before passing it to his left, "Our first champion has been selected."
The large headmistress of Beauxbatons school glances at the piece of parchment before calling, "The champion for Beauxtatons is Fleur Delacour."
As the name is called out, part of the blue flame dies out leaving the red in the flame far more obvious.
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Lamia's whimper turns into a scream as a thin line of ichor is pulled out of her heart to a point arms length in front of her.
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A second piece of parchment flies out of the goblet, and again Albus catches it. This time he passes it to the right without saying anything.
The headmaster of Durmstrang glances down at the parchment, and calls out, "The champion for Durmstrang is Victor Krum!"
Again the flames die down a little as a blue flame is separated from the rest, leaving a nearly purple flame where the red and blue are mixing so eagerly.
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Kirke is only frozen for a moment before she looks down at the two pouches in front of her. Finding the one with her aunt's name on it, she rips the clay seal off and pulls out the fist sized stone inside it.
Heedless of her daughters comfort or the mess it will make, she pushes herself across the dining circle, knocking the broth over to one side, and pushes the stone past Lamia's teeth and into her throat.
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A third time the goblet spits out a piece of parchment, and Albus catches it. Reading it, he calls out, "The champion for Hogwarts will be Cedric Diggory."
As he reads the last name out, instead of dying back, the flame from the goblet instead grows until it fills the hall with a dull red light.
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Convulsively, Lamia swallows as her control over her tail fails her and her jaw distends to allow her to swallow the fist sized rock that is preventing her from breathing.
As soon as her airway is clear she starts to scream in agony as a clay tablet starts to form from the ichor in front of her.
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The entire school watches in awe as a small clay tablet is literally spun out of nothing in front of them.
As it finishes forming, and the flames die down but don't extinguish, Albus takes the tablet from the air and looks at it. "Professor Babbling, would we be able to have your assistance please?"
The professor in question frowns as she stands up and walks around to look at the tablet. After a couple of moments, of looking at the tablet she looks up at the headmaster with anger clear on her face as she punches him as hard as she can, "You bastard! You complete and utter bastard. You will have my resignation on your desk in the morning!"
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As the tablet in front of her finishes forming, Lamia drops bonelessly to the floor with the sudden cessation of pain.
Before the tablet can fall to the floor, Kirke snatches it out of the air and reads it aloud.
"Lamia. You have been chosen for a quest. As a reluctant Hero, you have three days to present yourself to the cup. If you do not present yourself in that time, your vital essence will be drained in its entirety. Should you survive this, you will have another three days to present yourself to the cup, before you are again drained.
"Hold this tablet against the sky and it will lead you to the cup."