"You didn't have to claim her at that moment," Apóllōn drawled as he and Hermês stepped towards where Aphrodítē was standing with the rest of the council. Well everyone but the children of Krónos.
"Truthfully, I was not," the goddess of love replied, not even turning to them as she kept her gaze on the world below. It had been decided that Drew was going on the quest to the mocking amusement that Lea had for Aphrodítē's newly claimed daughter. "But Aeri is..." The goddess sighed. "She is allowing her anger and grief that she feels towards Silena blind her to reality."
"She is justified in her feelings," Apóllōn countered.
Hermês nodded his head. "No offense, but if Apóllōn as my favorite sibling betrayed me and had a hand in getting the rest of you destroyed, I would be angry too." His features shifted just a bit as he looked onto the camp. "Though I am glad that she does not take the anger of Luke's manipulation out on my children or on Lea since she is my blessing."
He looked back up when he heard Apóllōn stifling a laugh beside him to see the rest of his siblings—which include those that made their way over like Hêbê, Alatheia, The Moûsai, and the Kharites—glaring at him.
"I knew he was the favorite," Dionysos grumbled. "But I would've thought that considering your hand in raising me, I would have ranked higher than him."
"He raised me," Hermês countered. "And he was only what? Half a decade older. And besides, wise Ζεύς made us both friends. I love the son of Lētṓ continually, even now. And Apóllōn swore to be fellow and friend to me, vowing that he would love no other among the immortals, neither god nor man sprung from Ζεύς, better than I. And Father sent forth an eagle in confirmation."
"Can't really argue with that," Aphrodítē murmured. "But in regard to Drew, I believe that she could help Piper. Bring her out of her shell and see even beauty in simplicity and make her feel more confident in herself. And this would be wonderful for Aeri so that she realized that the world was not out to get her and that it was her chance to be the sibling that my Anthony had been to her."
"She won't see it that way," Huákinthos commented.
Aphrodítē inclined her head. "I suppose not."
"Do you think that they will succeed," Kalliópē asked, eyeing Eliza as the girl welcomed Piper to their cabin. Hermês felt a bit bad for Piper. Leaneíras had sat him down one day to speak about the structure within that cabin, and she was already entering with a diminished power base. It was only worse that Lea informed them that she had the gift of charmspeak which also lowered her chances of gaining allies within.
Politics. The real root of all evil.
"They have no other choice," Apóllōn grumbled. "I would like to have words for our dear stepmother about why she thought using my champion as a vessel was a good idea."
Olympos shook once more as Aphrodítē took a calming breath. She had not been fond of that and if it were not for Kírkē and Eurybiê appearing to tell her that Leaneíras' elixir had been safe and correctly brewed, the child of Ouranos would have definitely tried to choke life out of Hermês.
Considering that he was immortal, he may hap never would have breathed in and just existed in eternal pain until she decided to give him relief.
Not that he particularly cared after that considering he had been infuriated that Hḗrē would do such a thing and traumatize his Leaneíras in that way. She still dealt with hang-ups about her mageia not working in the precise way that she intended and he had to beat the oneiri out with a stick literally when they brought forth nightmares about her gifts. That was without mentioning the repairs that were still going on in Down State and Long Island from the storm she conjured last year.
"That would be after Father finished speaking with her," Artemis snorted, using a knife to clean under her nails. She would leaving out with the others at first light to begin their part of the search. "He's not happy that she broke the decree of keeping the two camps apart. The same decree that she instigated, mind you."
Eleuthyia scoffed. "Mother will argue that he has no leg to stand upon about breaking oaths when he sired the fuse that almost brought the world down upon us."
Which was accurate to say the least. If Father never sired Thalia, then Luke probably would not have been so resentful. He still would have been bitter, but mayhaps not as much if it were not for the love of his life.
Artemis shrugged. "You cannot fight fate."
"Just as he cannot fight this," her twin spoke up. "Perseus' blessing is a roman just as Jason's blessing is a greek. The Medea girl is friends with Leaneíras. Annabeth and Magnus are cousins. Thalia and Jason are siblings. The two sides would have met and discovered each other regardless of who intervene and how early they did so."
"Brother," Árēs said, cutting into the conversation. "I mean this in the nicest way possible but what in the entire fuck is your child doing?"
The brother in question being Hḗphaistos and the child in question being the Leo boy who was walking directly up to the malfunctioning dragon that had been turning the campers—most being the boy's own siblings—into lifesize smores.
Hermês thought he was about to watch his newly named nephew die which would actually lower their chances of freeing their stepmother, but he was also worried that Hḗphaistos would have to watch his son die. The older god still had not processed Charles Beckendorf's death if the increased in weaponry and armor that was coming out in a fervor was any indication (alongside the fact that Dubai was already one-third into changing from a third world country with the increase in their production).
The dragon blew fire and Hermês sighed. There went that boy. He just had o go get barbequed. Yet as the flames died down, the boy was still standing.
Hḗphaistos ignored the looks that he was getting instead turning to look at his wife. "Do you believe that we can't get him some fire proof clothing?"
"He is fire proof," Dionysos exclaimed, reaching within his chiton to bring out a bottle of Rússkу Standárt and chugging it in one go. Hermês could not fault him for that. The boy would be a nightmare inducing headache of paperwork at the camp. Though, Hermês supposed that they should stop him before he start pulling out the hard stuff.
That mix of Rússkу Standárt, Don Papa rum, Tipplemill London Dry Gin, Suishin Kiji Meiyo Junmai Daiginjyo Sake, authentic mead alongside that honey infused nectar supplement that he sprinkled with a bit of moly that he got from Kirke had them—gods of immeasurable power—seeing stars.
Hermês sighed, watching for a moment as the Leo boy start snake charming the giant robot lizard with promises of motor oil and tabasco sauce.
Down below at the grecian camp, Lea was sitting in her room as she once more tried to find her brother, maps of the entire world and the roughly and crudely drawn map she did of the more mythological world was spread out across her room. He wished that he had answers for her about that. It wasn't surprising when Salome moved past the harpies to walk into the Tenth Cabin and drag Drew from her bed. It wasn't even surprising that her siblings didn't even blink as she was taken away though Piper did look a bit freaked out as the elder girl was taken back to the Third Cabin.
He found it a bit ironic as he turned his attention to the latin camp and found the son of troy doing something similar as he looked for Jason.
Truthfully, it goes to show how strong the Queen of the Gods was that despite being missing for so long and diminished in power that she could still extort enough magic to hide the boys away from their loved ones and the other gods. He was increasingly ironic that he was soon joined by another child of doves.
"What's that one name," he nudged Venus, pointing towards her daughter as she offered to give the Son of Troy a reading and a much needed distraction.
"Lilith Nadia Star," Venus smiled, "Her mother was palenstine-hebrew in the meaning that her mother was jewish but her father had been palenstine arab. Those had the only two names that she had been contemplating for her, but alas, she had died giving birth and Star was the name of the family in New Roma that adopted her once I brought her there." She turned a teasing smile over to Vulcanus. "We will be family once again for one of her blessings is little Leo over there."
"One of them?" Mārs asked. "Who's the other?"
"My daughter," Bellōna sighed. "And another reason as to why the camps would have found out about each other though..." She grimaced as Venus scowled.
"Though I wish your daughter would heed my words," the goddess of love sneered.
"Your curse more like," Bellōna shot back. "You told her that no demigod will heal her heart and that she would not find love where she wished or hoped!"
"She was breaking my daughter's heart by chasing after a boy that wouldn't look twice at her when the neither of the names on her khaos-mark say Jason Grace!"
"You did not have to curse her!"
"She didn't have to call my daughter a freak for being pansexual!"
"Her Father was conservative. She's dealing with a bit of internalized homophobia, but she's getting better."
"And she took it out on my child? A child of LOVE! She hasn't even apologized."
"Ladies," Mārs cut in. "Can you—"
"SHUT UP!" The two of them roared.
Mercurius grimaced, turning to look back New Roma where the girl was flipping through a bunch of tarot cards. Her voice was a soothing sound as she shuffled her cards as they walked through the Hill of Temples. She stopped before Mercurius' own temple. "Gemini, ruled by Mercury, you are the Messenger of the Gods." How wonderous ironic for the boy was the auger tasked with discerning the will of the gods to the other mortals. "You are the prophet of divine ideas, opinions, and beliefs. A scribe to the inventive mind and a visionary alluding to up above." She gifted him a beautiful smile. "You speak a language so divine that the world could spend a lifetime translating your tongue."
"How poetic," Achelōís, the muse of sacred poetry and sacred hymn. "Considering that Octavius is the auger, and one gifted or cursed depending on hw you looked at it with prophecy, he would be able to speak the tongue of the divine as bequeath Apollō's will and thus speak the words of Iovis himself."
Lilith was still going on as she gracefully sank to the ground and pulled the son of Troy down with her. She spread the tarot cards out around them. "Okay, so you grew up in a household where communication was chaotic and everything was explained with logic. The emotional maturity of the adults around you was a bit stunted so they leaned on making everything make cerebral sense even if emotionally shit wasn't adding up though that was through no fault of their own since they suffered the same way. A generational curse so to speak."
The boy gave the slightest of flinches and Apollō turned his glare onto Athḗnē for that.
"Your spirit used to be bright as the sun and something has clouded it over and now you have to learn the value of communicating thoughts in a way that does not manipulate other people's emotion for your own convenience. Man, it's a good thing that you aren't one of my siblings. You'd be an even bigger threat. Anyway, you have to learn that emotional labor has a valid place in building and sustaining happiness in your life. You have to learn that winning and being competent is more than word battles. A bit difficult for you but go off."
Octavius rolled his eyes playfully, though there was a bit of tension in his body.
"Just because you can understand a flaw in someone's logic does not mean you understand what they are feeling. Stop looking for ways to have people's words discredit the validity of what they're feeling. I see why you failed that psychology class."
He flipped her off and she giggled.
"Oooh, also give your emotions a place to exist without you having to lash out with your words when you're upset. It'll help balance life out and you can be more grounded and focused. You are often unfocused because you have to develop the tools to process your emotions. You can't reason your emotions away. They're not an inconvenience. You have to learn to love and nurture that part of you without frustration or dismissing it with busy work. Now, this a bit more of me channeling a bit of my Mother. You need to overcome only being able to see your needs and nothing past it in relationships. You love the honeymoon phase and anything past that is 'too hard'. It's why you test people before you open up to them and try their patience before deeming them worthy of your time and vulnerability. Love is not a tally stop letting your grievances build up to justify you not trying anymore. Learn how to communicate your emotions and stop that it'll go nowhere. You're the problem too. It's why long term stability and happiness in relationships are not very sustainable for you. I'm not saying that you're in relationships only for yourself but you also don't try and step out of your self preservation often enough to grasp the empathy necessary to love someone fairly. If you want happiness in long term relationships, you have to view it as a two way street. Lovers don't come into your life just to serve your needs. Words do not equal emotional authenticity and ability to convey what needs to be said to form connection and intimacy. Deal with the emotions that may or may not make sense and you'll be heard and can hear the other person."
The gods all stared while Venus, stopping her argument with Bellōna, turned to beam proudly.
Well then.
She's sinking underneath the black sand of Planet Drool, falling deeper and deeper into the land of dreams.
I begin to sing about Leaneíras, the twice-blessed goddess, mother of witchcraft, bringer of storms. O Walker of the Worlds, to be an enchantress of beauty and a being of khaos. Hail Leaneíras, sea born, dark-haired goddess!
A mountain loomed above her. A dusty trail snaked up a few hundred feet to the mouth of a cave. The path was lined with human bones for that extra cozy feel.
Rich-haired Leaneíras, an enchanting goddess with shining hair, with human speech and with strange mahō.
A hissing sound echoed down the mountain. White mist billowed from the cave like someone had turn on a dry ice machine.
She is the World Walker, Goddess of Mischief, The Enchantress
The world must tremble when speaks Sea-Bred Leaneíras.
Fog began thickening around her feet, twining around her legs like vines. The color seemed to fade from her clothes and faces as if they was a becoming shade.
Arms wrapped around her and Lea sat up with a gasp, tears dotting her eyes and sand falling away from her body. In front of her a pair of emeralds—no, eyes. Those were Hermes' otherworldly eyes—in a shade of green that you just couldn't get out of a highlighter—staring at her in concern.
Wait.
Those were Hermes' eyes.
Hermes who had abandoned her for weeks.
"Shit," he said before she launched herself at him, fist connecting with any patch of skin she could reach. If anyone came across her little patch in Planet Drool, then they would clutch their purses closer to them and rush away because the only thing that could be heard was him yelling and cursing in pain and her yelling and dealing pain. It all ended quick enough as he managed to wrap his arms around her and enclosed her in a hug and oh... oh, she was crying and he was crying. She was muttering apologies for hitting and yelling at him and he was whispering apologies for leaving and something about his dad grounding him?
It was a lot of tears, okay.
They don't really speak after that. They just basked in each other's presence, holding onto each other for as long as they could. And even when she fell asleep, she could feel the warmth of his presence holding her.
Drew was already gone back to her own cabin when Lea awakened so she took a moment to get dressed herself and feed Salome before making her way over.
The white streaks in her hair from holding the sky were fading away, and truthfully, Lea was a little sad to see them go. It had looked incredibly beautiful and she wondered if she could convince Drew or Eliza to help her actually dye it before it was all gone.
Didn't they have a sibling that had powers over beauty alteration? Lea could ask one of them (and probably sacrifice her first born child so never mind).
Lea stepped right into the cabin to hear Drew, voice mocking and grieving and so angry as she said: "Oh, honey, it won't go away. Mom's blessing will last at least another day. Maybe a week if you're lucky."
The new girl, Penelope or something like that, gritted her teeth. "A week?"
The other Aphrodite kids—about dozen girls and five guys—smirked and snickered at her discomfort.
"Don't worry, hon." Drew blotted her fluorescent lipstick. "You're thinking you don't belong here? We couldn't agree more. Isn't that right, Mitchell?"
Said sibling flinched. "Um, yeah. Sure."
"Mmm-hmm." Drew took out her mascara and checked her lashes. Everyone else watched, not daring to speak. "So anyways, people, fifteen minutes until breakfast. The cabin's not going to clean itself! And Mitchell, I think you've learned your lesson. Right, sweetie? So you're on garbage patrol just for today, mm-kay? Show Piper how it's done, 'cause I have a feeling she'll have that job soon—if she doesn't gain some sense. Now, get to work, everybody! It's my bathroom time!"
Everybody started rushing around, making beds and folding clothes, while Drew scooped up her makeup kit, hair dryer, and brush and marched into the bathroom.
Someone inside yelped, and a girl about eleven was kicked out, hastily wrapped in towels with shampoo still in her hair.
The door slammed shut, and the girl started to cry. A couple of older campers comforted her and wiped the bubbles out of her hair. "Seriously?" Piper said to no one in particular. "You let Drew treat you like this?"
"Why," Lea smirked, leaning on the doorway as a few kids shot Piper nervous looks, like they might actually agree, but they said nothing. "You got a problem?" Piper turned to her with narrowed eyes and Lea raised a brow. "Come here, Gersemi."
The eleven year old made her way over to Lea who bopped her on the nose. In a swirl of green, the girl was dressed in Princess Belle's dress and roses woven into her plait. "If you want to take a shower and have all the hot water to yourself," Lea explained. "My cabin's free. You can even take a bubble bath if you want to."
The girl sniffled once more, nodding her head and Lea tapped her on the head, transporting her over to Cabin 3.
"She's a tyrant," Piper said, drawing Lea's attention. "All of them can think for themselves. They don't have to follow her orders because what? You'll turn them into a pig."
Lea blinked before narrowing her eyes in anger. "First off, she's their head counselor. Secondly, she's the head of the cabin. Thirdly, keep talking and I might actually turn you into one."
"It's not right."
"A lot of things in life aren't right," Lea snapped. "Like speaking on people you don't know and thinking you know them just because of what you see."
"I know a bitch when I see one."
Lea's eyes burned green. "Well how about that. So do I."
"Aphrodite... she isn't about this. Whatever this even is."
"Honestly, you're really not worth the night it took to make you," she sneered. "You think you know Aphrodite? You think you know the goddess that mothered an empire? The goddess that led the Trojan War? The goddess whose power was so great that Zeus himself had to trick her in an attempt to contain her. The goddess who was old even before the six children of Kronos took their first breath. You think that you know Aphrodite Ariea, or Aphrodite Androphonos, the Killer of Men, Aphrodite Tymborychos, the Gravedigger? Please, Peter Piper. You don't know anything. She is Peace just as she is War. She is Heavenly just as she is Unholy. She is the inspiration of male homosexual desire, and the inspiration of heterosexual desire and sexual promiscuity. She is spiritual and physical love. The source of spontaneous love. But you know something? Love hurts and she's the grief, the rage, the betrayal, the fear, and the hopelessness of it also. Aphrodite is about whatever she wants to be and no, little mortal girl that only heard about her from white christian men and wikipedia can make her lesser than what she is."
"She just pushed her what eleven year old sister out the shower and you went along with it?"
"Gersemi put live crickets into her water bottle three days ago."
Piper shut her mouth.
"See," Lea smiled meanly. "You think you know a person, huh? Gersemi's a sweetheart. That much is true, but Gersemi is also on team Lucas to gain control of the cabin head. You'll learn soon enough exactly what I mean and maybe then you'll realize that you destroyed your only chance of surviving this cabin." Which was a front for the goddamn mafia.
Piper gritted her teeth and Lea raised a brow.
"Let me tell you something, so you can get whatever lame thoughts you have in your mind thrown away. Aphrodite? She's the most powerful goddess. I don't care what anyone else says. Physically, she may not be that strong. I mean Uncle Zeus was so strong that he shook the entire universe including Khaos, the first being to come into existence. But see, the real damage comes through subtle manipulation. It comes from places you don't even see." She nodded her head to the knife beside her. "Helene of Sparta was dangerous, not because of any skill that she had but simply for how beautiful she was. So beautiful that men lined up to marry her. So beautiful that at just five years old she was kidnapped by a man twice her age to marry. So beautiful that men went to war for her. Killed and stole and died for her."
She stepped closer, not caring how the girl shrunk back. "Your sister in law, Pysche, was so beautiful that people had the audacity to stop worshipping your Mother to worship her. And you know what your Mother did? She attempted to have her killed and when that didn't work, she broke her down and broke her spirit. Psyche had to travel all the way down to the Underworld, die, and be awakened by true love. And you know the kicker is? Aphrodite wouldn't have stopped if Uncle Zeus had not warned her to ever bring harm to Psyche again."
"Love is dangerous, Piper. Beauty is dangerous. Its the most subtle and unassuming weapon there is. Aunt Persephone was so beautiful that Aunt Demeter refused all courtships for her and when Persephone was still taken from her, she turned the world barren. Queen Andromeda was so beautiful that she had to be sacrificed because her Mother was too prideful of it. Those are stories of a mother's love and a maiden's beauty. To be beautiful was to be a weapon. Just like love and I'm saying this repeatedly so that you can understand. Love can bring even the gods to their knees. You might not think it, but look at fire. Its the province of home and hearth but it can also kill if its handled the wrong way. Half the plants in the woods can feed everyone in the camp just as those same plants can easily poison them. Rage, grief, happiness, fear, and hope? All that stems from love in some way. So whatever you seem to think that Aphrodite is? I'm telling you that she is much more and your feeble little mortal mind could never hope to understand it."
She leaned away as the water cut off in the bathroom. "And Drew? You don't know anything about Drew, what she's been through or what she's going through, so don't ever speak on her as if you know again because the next time you do, I'll go dig your granddad up and use his bones to make a new fertilizer."
"Gods, Lea," Mirajane called out. "Stop dragging her. Those hideous jeans she was wearing yesterday are going to rip."
"Yeah, well, I'll rip her if she talks about my best friend again." Lea stared the girl for another moment before turning away to flop down on Drew's bed right as the girl stepped out of the bathroom.
"So," Drew said, fluffing her hair a bit. She was dressed in an all black outfit with gold belt wrapped around her waist. "Who's going to take her? Someone has to make her understand what this cabin is about. We don't need another Silena on our hands now do we?"
The rest of her siblings flinched and looked around.
"Who's Silena," Piper asked.
"Silena Beauregard," Drew smiled all sweet and innocent, with her glittery gold makeup and her blow-dried hair lush and smelling like nutmeg. She looked like any popular teenage girl from any high school. But her eyes were as cold as steel. "She was the best of us truly. And then well... you could take a warning from her. She was secretly passing information to Kronos in the Titan War, helping the enemy. Oh, none of the other cabins talk about it. They act like Silena Beauregard was a hero."
"She sacrificed her life to make things right," Mitchell grumbled. "She was a hero."
"Mmm-hmm," Drew said. "Another day on garbage patrol, Mitchell. But anyways, Silena lost track of what this cabin is about. We match up cute couples at camp! Then we break them apart and start over! It's the best fun ever. We don't have any business getting involved in other stuff like wars and quests. A shocker, I know that I'm going on one. I was put on this earth to wear cute clothes, be flirty, eat fruit, have great tits, and the best taste in music." She gives Piper a ridiculously fake smile. "But you see, my blessing... my soulmate has gone missing. Truthfully, I shouldn't care. He was just as much as a traitor as Silena except instead of passing information along. He was actively helping!"
Lea looked away.
"But I love him," Drew murmured softly. "See? That's what makes it dangerous. That's what makes me dangerous. The love that I have for him and the charm that's woven into my words. With how much I love him, he has the power to bring this world to its knees and yet... I'm running after him anyway even when he makes me weak. Even when he breaks me and I haven't started over yet. I really lost myself a while back, so when you see me popping out — its not to stunt on nobody, its to apologize to myself."
Drew shook her head as she and Lea traded looks. The protector of ill-fated love sighed and turned to look at the rest of her siblings. "Now who's going to take her?"
Lucas stepped up after a moment of silence. "I got her."
Drew hummed as she turned to dig through the closet. "Do we know anything about her parent? Because honestly, I didn't think it was possible for Aphrodite to have an ugly child, but ... who was your father? Was he some sort of mutant, or—"
"Tristan McLean," Piper snapped and Drew whirled around. "My dad's Tristan McLean."
The stunned silence was gratifying for a few seconds, and Lea blinked as all of them turned and looked at the poster, on the wall by the storage closet, in the middle of a collage of famous heartthrobs.
The title was lurid red: King of Sparta. Under that, the poster showed the leading man—a three-quarters shot of bare-chested bronze flesh, with ripped pectorals and six-pack abs. He was clad in only a Greek war kilt and a purple cape, sword in hand. He looked like he'd just been rubbed in oil, his short black hair gleaming and rivulets of sweat pouring off his rugged face, those dark sad eyes facing the camera as if to say, I will kill your men and steal your women! Ha-ha!
Eh, Lea mentally shrugged. She supposed he was attractive so she didn't understand why over half of the cabin, both male and female, screamed "Oh my gods!" at once.
"Sweet!" one of them said. "The dude with the sword who killed that other dude in that movie?"
"He is so hot for an old guy," a girl said, and then she blushed. "I mean I'm sorry. I know he's your dad. That's so weird!"
"It's weird, all right," Piper agreed.
"Do you think you could get me his autograph?" another girl asked.
"Yeah, no problem," she managed, forcing a smile. Yeah, Lea had seen that plenty of times on Eliza's face when people recognized her Father. The girl squealed in excitement, and more kids surged forward, asking a dozen questions at once.
"Have you ever been on the set?"
"Do you live in a mansion?"
"Do you have lunch with movie stars?"
"Have you had your rite of passage?"
Drew stood back, leaning against the closet door with a soft smile on her face. There was something deep and aching and so pained in her eyes as she looked at them and Lea knew that she was thinking of Silena and how she watched over everyone when the truth of Eliza's Father had came out three years ago.
"Rite of what?" Piper asked.
The girls and guys giggled and shoved each other around like this was an embarrassing topic.
"The rite of passage for an Aphrodite child," Mirajane explained. "You get someone to fall in love with you. Then you break their heart. Dump them. Once you do that, you've proven yourself worthy of Aphrodite."
Piper stared at the crowd to see if they were joking. "Break someone's heart on purpose? That's terrible!"
The others looked confused.
"Why?" a guy asked.
"Oh my god!" a girl said. "I bet Aphrodite broke your dad's heart! I bet he never loved anyone again, did he? That's so romantic! When you have your rite of passage, you can be just like Mom!"
"Forget it!" Piper yelled, a little louder than she'd intended. The other kids backed away. "I'm not breaking somebody's heart just for a stupid rite of passage!"
Which of course gave Drew a chance to take back control. "Well, there you go!" she cut in. "Silena said the same thing. She broke the tradition, fell in love with that Beckendorf boy, and stayed in love. If you ask me, that's why things ended tragically for her."
"That's not true!" Lacy squeaked, but Drew glared at her, and she immediately melted back into the crowd.
"Hardly matters," Drew continued, "because, Piper, hon, you couldn't break anyone's heart anyway. And we already know where you fall on the scale."
"The scale?"
"The Rite of Passage isn't as harsh as it seems," Drew explained with probably more patience than she felt. "I mean we usually break hearts when we do it. But it is also for our powers. We're children of love. We can usually sense it some better than others. The rite of passage determines how strong our powers over it are. I'm a low tier but she has charmspeak to make up for it which considering that you also have the gift, you would be too. Mitchell is like in the middle, but he can cry pearls and diamonds. Mirajane and Renae are probably the strongest at it out of all of us."
"That's..."
"Weird, we know," Drew scoffed. "But it's the only way that's worked. And Silena didn't do it. She skipped right over it, got with her soulmate, and stayed with him. Heck, its not even just to determine our powers. How can someone appreciate the beauty that is love if they have never been in love before? I tried to do the same thing. I got with my soulmate. Tried to ignore the right of passage and you know what? He turned out to be a traitor that wanted to kill my friends. So, the first thing I did when I gained some goddamn sense, I went out and broke thirteen hearts back to back. Each one represented a letter of his fucking name. Love hurts, Dumpster Queen and even pain is beautiful."
She huffed, rolling her eyes. "Now, please, everyone. It's time for breakfast, and I apparently have to start that little quest. So let's get packed and we can all get out of here." She looked around with a frown. "Where's Gersemi?"
"My cabin," Lea said, standing to her feet. "I'll go get her."
Leaneira made her way back to her own cabin quick enough, walking past the shelf where she kept all her mementos from over the years which including but was not limited to some gold chalice that she couldn't remember where it came from but also... She backtracked, staring at the vial in the shape of a heart filled with Hermes' ichor. She looked around a bit before waving her hand over it, looping a chain to it just like it had been for... for Arkas. It was weird to wear a necklace again considering that she tried to avoid them after losing her little friend, but she needed some comfort considering her brother was still missing and her best friend, her sister, was about to go on a dangerous quest and possible fight a monster that was strong enough to kidnap the queen of the gods.
She slipped on the necklace and walked away.
WORD COUNT: 6033
THINGS TO KNOW:
1) Moly - a magical herb mentioned in book 10 of Homer's Odyssey. Hermês gave his herb to Odyseús to protect him from Kírkē's poison and magic when he went to her palace to rescue his friends.
1A) The plant mentioned by Homer grew from the blood of the Pikóloos killed on Kírkē's island, by Hḗlios when the Giant tried to attack Kírkē. In this description the flower had a black root, for the colour of the blood of the slain Giant, and a white flower, either for the white Sun that killed him, or the fact that Kírkē grew pale of terror.
1B) Homer also describes Moly by saying "The root was black, while the flower was as white as milk; the gods call it Moly, Dangerous for a mortal man to pluck from the soil, but not for the deathless gods. All lies within their power".
GODS NAMED:
1) Achelōís - It would be the roman name for Polyhymnia, the greek goddess of Goddess of Hymns and one of the Nine Olympian Moûsai.
1A) The name comes from the Pierides who were the nine sisters who defied the Muses in a contest of song and, having been defeated, were turned into birds. The Muses themselves are sometimes called by this name.
1B) Considering that its only found in a story written by Ovid, a roman, and the Moûsai were not hellenized into Roman myths, I repurposed the names for them Moûsai.
COMMENTS FROM THE AUTHOR:
1) I feel like canonically Drew may have been a seer. Its not one of Aphrodítē's domains, but there are a lot of people in greek mythology who were seers and were not related to the gods.
1A) I'm saying this because in Piper's chapter at the beginning of TLH, it goes: "Piper got the feeling Drew was looking straight into her soul, pulling out her secrets. Helping the enemy." and "You may have a little power, Miss Movie Star. But you don't know the first thing about Aphrodite. You have such great ideas? What do you think this cabin is about, then? Tell them. Then maybe I'll tell them a few things about you, huh?"
1B) Like its implied that she's bluffing, but Drew clearly has some talent that we don't know about considering she was only written so that Piper can have someone to triumph over.
1C) Here though! It's a bit like Rachel. She gets "hunches" due to her connection to Apóllōn, but its not all that reliable since her main gift from Apóllōn is more so in her archery and hunting skills.
2) And don't mind Piper, I guess? She'd have her character development though it would mainly be off-screen because she's not a core character.
2A)Right now, Piper, Leo, Drew and Hedge have officially been declared missing by their respective schools.
2B)Lea, Eliza, and Annabeth didn't stay long for anyone to catch sight of them and even if they did, a little mist manipulation from Lea could changed that but it'd be harder for the others because Piper, Leo, and Hedge had been at the Wilderness School for months and Drew was on a trip with her archery team.
2C) And I did warn you all that Drew and Lea were going to be mean. I haven't even gotten to how mean that they can get and if I could do it right, I might not even show you all. This isn't to justify my dislike of the character either because I dont want you all to think that I'm just singling her out. Like I'm not a fan of Annabeth or Sally or Paul either.