They dragged the injured to the infirmary. The Hunter's had come on strong as they attacked the children of Ares, breaking plenty of bones (accidentally), and they were left in charge of healing them when Chiron went to confer with Zoe.

Lee was a natural at leading the infirmary, a natural at getting everyone settled, and Kassandra moved around easily tossing the items that her siblings asked for to them in between sort of healing the Ares kid's as well.

(It was difficult, slow, and she only went around resetting bones with effortless tugs and snaps of limbs, feeling with prodding fingers and twisting into place.)

(Setting bones was a brilliant feeling, a powerful one as you electrified them with pain with only a few movements without even trying to do so.)

She rolled her shoulders, stretching out her back and she idly made her way to the salves in search of one for sore and bruised muscles. The armour was lifesaving in battle, but that didn't mean that it didn't sting when shot.

The sounds of soft singing around her was a comfort as she rubbed the salve between her shoulder blades and down the edge of her spine. She could feel the smooth skin of the raised scar at her side, the cleanly healed cut a nicely curved half-moon shape that brushed just below her ribs. It was still strange to feel it there, still strange to see the branding sun claiming her against her skin.

Tugging the shirt back into place, she released her hair from her ponytail and messaged the base of her hairline. There was a persistent stinging behind her eyes, a slow throb, and she took a moment to debate grabbing something to ease the headache --ultimately deciding that a couple of ibuprofen wouldn't do any harm as she swallows them down with icy water.

"Lee?" one of the Hephaestus kids says as they poke their head into the infirmary. "Mr. D is calling a council of cabin leaders to discuss the prophecy."

Looking over her shoulder, she watches as her brothers glance around the room and the number of patients that they had. They knew that it wasn't their job to stay beyond what they had already done -- or at least she hoped that they knew.

Her elder brother huffs, crossing his arms as he looks down to a particularly stubborn Ares kid that still needed to have his elbow set (it was nursemaid elbow and ought to be something simple to fix, but every hymn sung burned through his energy and they were both too kind to leave any of them to heal broken bones on ambrosia and nectar alone even if they really should have).

"Kass. You want to go?" he asks, not bothering to look back.

"You sure?" she asks hesitantly.

Michael shrugs. "Well, I'm exhausted so I'm not going."

"I can stay here and take over for you," she offers hesitantly -- not really wanting to but doing so regardless.

Lee looks her dead in the eye, grabbing the teen's arm and pops it back into place with a yank-twist. "I can honestly say that I hate those meetings, Kass. You would honestly fit in much better than I do. Besides, I do need to stay here and deal with all of these people."

The girl can't help her grin. "Fine. Okay, yeah, I'll go."

She made her way to the Big House as soon after she had cleaned up her mess a bit. She hoped that she didn't have to go back to the infirmary to deal with her "patients." Kassandra's talents were not in healing. She could do it but she didn't like it and she wasn't the best out of her siblings. She was never going to be the best when she couldn't bring herself to sing a hymn to her father.

The only reason that she had even asked to speak with her father in the first place was because she was needed help that only he could provide -- and he hadn't done a thing to help her, had only left her with more questions and warnings without explanations.

(Kassandra was trying to be better, to curse him less and smother her anger, but she still fumed at the gods, still raged and hated and demanded answers -- even if they apparently couldn't intervene,  even if they refused to change, even if she wanted nothing more than to have his acceptance and acknowledgement.)

(Artemis had told her, Apollo had pleaded with her, Hermes had been apologetic over his actions to his child, but Kassandra couldn't fathom the way that they refused to just say that their ways were wrong.

Artemis had said that parent's made mistakes but she had never claimed that the way of the gods was wrong, had never admit that they should change.)

(When she was eight and full of life and dreams, she had been ecstatic to learn that she was related to the gods.

At fifteen, she knew better than to wish this life upon anyone. She would give up everything that made her half-god, half-human, but nothing important or longlasting -- nothing that would be remembered for what she was.

Unwanted. Unworthy. Undeserving.)

(And even if she was the best at something, the gods had so many children. Kassandra would never be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Lord of the Sky. She would never be Percy, son of Poseidon, Lord of the Sea.)

(But gods know she's going to be the child of Apollo that is remembered the most, she couldn't settle for less.)

The council was held around a Ping-Pong table in the rec room. Dionysus waved his hand and supplied snacks: Cheez Whiz, crackers, and several bottles of red wine. Then Chiron reminded him that wine was against his restrictions and most of us were underage. Mr. D sighed. With a snap of his fingers, the wine turned to Diet Coke.

It was a little underwhelming as she came into the room, slipping into silently into one of the empty seats at the table.

Mr. D and Chiron (in wheelchair form) sat at one end of the table. Zoe and Bianca di Angelo took the other end. Thalia and Grover and Percy sat along the right, and the other head councillors—Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, and the Stoll brothers—sat on the left.

By default, she was closest to Zoe and Bianca as she eased into a chair. She took in an easy breath.

"Hello," she greets, slumping into the chair. The scent of eucalyptus and lavender wafts around her. "Hope I haven't missed anything."

Zoe gives her a brief glance. "This is pointless."

"Hey Kassiandra," Travis says, laughing at his stupid little joke. "Whatcha doing here?"

"I was elected to come in Lee's stead. My brothers are better at healing than I am and Christa couldn't very well come."

"Oh, so you can heal now?" Connor teased. 

She glares at him. "I've always been able to heal. I just don't like to do it," she grumbles (or have much faith in herself or the hymns of her father. How could she went she had failed every time that it was most important to her? How could she when the hymns were to him like tiny sung prayers that he must have heard each and every time?). "I'd like to see you try and get Sherman to sit still while you snap his fibula back into alignment."

Percy snorts, quickly ducking his head to hide his laughter, but she's quick enough to see the flash of humour in green-eyes. It's enough for her to relax fully.

"There is no time for talk," Zoe continues. "Our goddess needs us. The Hunters must leave immediately."

"And go where?" Chiron asks.

"West!" Bianca cries. "You heard the prophecy. Six shall go west to the goddess in chains. We can get six hunters and go."

"Yes," Zoe agrees. "Artemis is being held hostage! We must find her and free her."

Her brow furrowed with the suddenly intense pinch behind her eyes. She was missing something, she knew, something that was just on the edge of her thoughts, lingering as if a distant dream.

"You're missing something, as usual," Thalia says. "Campers and Hunters combined prevail. We're supposed to do this together."

"No!" Zoe says. "The Hunters do not need thy help."

"Your" Thalia grumbles. "Nobody has said thy in, like, three hundred years, Zoe. Get with the times."

Zoe hesitates, like she was trying to form the word correctly. " Yerrr. We do not need yerrr help."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Forget it."

"I fear the prophecy says you do need our help," Chiron says. "Campers and Hunters must cooperate."

"Or do they?" Mr. D mused, swirling his Diet Coke under his nose like it had a fine bouquet. "One shall be lost. One shall perish. That sounds rather nasty, doesn't it? What if you fail because you try to cooperate?"

"Mr. D," Chiron sighs, "with all due respect, whose side are you on?"

Dionysus raised his eyebrows. "Sorry, my dear centaur. Just trying to be helpful."

"We're supposed to work together," Thalia says stubbornly. "I don't like it either, Zoe, but you know prophecies. You want to fight against one?"

She closes her eyes, trying to focus on the image just out of reach. Annabeth, on her knees, arms shaking and raised skyward, struggling under the weight of the ceiling. Artemis, kneeling, wrapped in chains with arms raised to darkness as though to fend off an attacker--

Her gasp is sharp, ripping from her chest before she could stop it. She absolutely had to be wrong.

"Oh my gods," Kass breathes, hands flying to her mouth as her head throbs painfully behind her eyes. "I know where she is, where they both are, I--"  

"Kassandra," Zoe says her name harshly, stopping her from saying anything more. "We are not in appropriate company to share thy revelation."

"We must not delay," Chiron warns, giving the daughter of Apollo an assessing glance. "Today is Sunday. This very Friday, December twenty-first, is the winter solstice."

"Oh, joy," Dionysus mutters. "Another dull annual meeting."

"Artemis must be present at the solstice," Zoe says. "She has been one of the most vocal on the council arguing for action against Kronos's minions. If she is absent, the gods will decide nothing. We will lose another year of war preparations."

Mr. D glared at the hunter. "Are you implying that the gods have trouble acting appropriately?"

"Yes, Lord Dionysus."

He shrugs, falling back to his seat with a sigh as he looks at his can of coke. "You're right, of course. Carry on."

"I must agree with Zoe," said Chiron. "Artemis's presence at the winter council is critical. We have only a week to find her and to locate the monster she was hunting. Now, we must decide who goes on this quest."

"3 and 3? Percy suggests. "Equal number combined?"

Zoe scowls, grunting. "I would prefer to take all the Hunters. We have the strength and numbers."

"You can't ignore prophecy, so you have to limit it to six," Kassandra says unapologetically. "Six is six. You're the one that taught me that too many hunters ruin the scent. Even if we know where she went, you still have to find the beast that Lady Artemis was tracking down. Unless you want to send a different group to hunt it down but it might ruin everything regardless because six is six."

Zoe picks up a Ping-Pong paddle and studies it like she was deciding who she wanted to whack first. "This monster—the bane of Olympus. I have hunted at Lady Artemis's side for many years, yet I have no idea what this beast might be."

Everyone looked to Dionysus for the answer since he was the only god here. The bane of Olympus might be something that the gods ought to keep track of, in theory (she certainly would have, that's for sure).

The god looks up lazily, uncaring. "Well, don't look at me. I'm a young god, remember? No use in me keeping track of all those nasty monster and dusty titans. They're such conversation killers at parties."

She rolls her eyes.

"Chiron, do you know anything about this monster?" Percy asks.

The old centaur hums, stroking his beard as he considers it. He lists off a few possibilities but dismisses them as almost all impossible. A few of them, like the idea of Typhon, make her skin crawl almost as her own thought of Python slithers its way to the surface only because the giant snake monster is a true nightmare for a child of Apollo.

(And truly, what did the gods expect them to do with a monster that is the bane of Olympus? Sending them out as sacrificial pawns in a game of their own undoing, letting children die fighting their battles instead of standing to clear a mess that they created, a mess that they started.)

(When Kassandra had truly seen her first monster for the first time she had four just turning five, so young and clear-sighted, so capable of seeing through lies, that she had shrieked and screamed so loudly in downtown Seattle that a man's glasses had cracked on his face.

The demon dog hadn't been interested in her -- she knew that now, had seen the way that it raced after two teens, one that she could identify now as a satyr. She had seen the hellhound for what it was, and had cried to her parents for hours about the terrible beast in the street.

Kassandra could not lie, had never uttered one false statement in her life, yet even then she had been nothing more than a chest piece waiting to reach the board, lining up to take the place of the fallen child soldier that came before her.)

(When Kassandra had gotten to camp when she was nine, understanding fully what had happened so many years ago, she hadn't seen the boy that had been chased by a monster and had never had the courage to ask.

She hadn't needed to know.)

"That's some serious danger you're facing," Connor says, hands laid limp in his lap. He wasn't nervous. He had no intention of going anywhere near this quest.

"One shall be lost in the land without rain," Beckendorf said. "If I were you, I'd stay out of the desert."

"And the Titan's curse must one withstand," Silena said. "What could that mean?"

Kassandra lets out a choked sound, swallowing it quickly at the sight of Chiron and Zoe's nervous exchange.

(She wanted to be wrong. Never more so in her life had she wanted to be wrong because there was a limit to what one could do, half-godling or not, and facing a titan was sacrificial, it was foolish martyrdom and suicide in the name of gods that never cared.)

"One shall perish by a parent's hand," Grover says between bites of Cheez Wiz and ping-pong balls. "Whose parent would kill them?" 

There was heavy silence around the table.

She rolls her eyes, seemingly the only one out of all of them somehow comfortable with the thought of her parent one day killing her (was it not his intention the moment that he went and had demigod children? Was it not his relation that was going to cause her premature death?). 

"There will be deaths," Chiron says. "That much we know." 

"Oh, goody!" Dionysus said.

Everyone looked at him. He glanced up innocently from the pages of Wine Connoisseur magazine. "Ah, pinot noir is making a comeback. Don't mind me."

"Percy's right. Three campers should go," Silena says. 

Zoe sneers at the girl. "Oh, I see. I suppose that you wish to volunteer?" 

Silena blushes. "I'm not going anywhere with the Hunters. Don't look at me!"

"A daughter of Aphrodite does not wish to be looked at," Zoe scoffed. "What would thy mother say?"

Silena starts to get out of her chair, but the Stoll brothers pull her back down. The differences between the hunters and Aphrodite's cabin were always going to be too great for anyone to get along.

"Is this how all council meetings go?" she mutters to herself. "No wonder they shoved it off on me so quickly. Let's just decide on the hunters first. Shall I suggest Kelly?" 

Zoe stood. "I shall go, of course, and I shall take Phoebe. She is our best tracker. Kelly is who I would trust to watch after the hunters in my absence." 

"That's a good choice. Phoebe's pretty fast, too," Kassandra points out. 

"The big girl who likes to hit people on the head?" Travis Stoll asks cautiously. 

Zoe nods.

They turn to each other, speaking quickly to themselves. 

"Why?" Zoe demands protectively. 

"Oh, nothing," Travis says. "Just that we have a T-shirt for her from the camp store. It's a collector's item. She was admiring it. You want to give it to her?"

He held up a big silver t-shirt that says ARTEMIS THE MOON GODDESS, FALL HUNTING TOUR 2002. It was lovely, sure, but she would never touch the thing with a ten-foot pole if the Stoll brothers were giving it to her. 

Zoe takes the shirt with a sigh. "Very well. I wish to also take Bianca." 

From the corner of her eye, she sees the girl's silvery olive skin pale impossibly. "Me? But I'm so new. I wouldn't be any good." 

"Nonsense. There is no better way to prove thyself." 

"If you're sure," the young girl says uncertainly. 

"I am. You will do fine." 

"And for campers?" Chiron asks. 

"Me!" Grover exclaims, jumping up the same moment that Zoe says, "Kassandra." 

"Anything to help Artemis," the satyr continues into the silence. 

She's silent for a moment, gaze unwavering from the ping-pong table. The headache vanishes all of a sudden and she gets the sense that this was some sort of crappy warning from her father. 

(And what sort of warning was this? Could she have avoided this if she had simply refused to come? Likely.)

(She had to wonder what it was that made people believe that she would be useful on quests that they would go so far as to ask for her. She was strong, certainly -- if she was going to be the best child Apollo had ever had the misfortune of producing, then she had to be -- but not to the extent that people ought to ask for her.)

(More, really, she wished that she could pretend that this wasn't exactly what she wanted. She wished that she could pretend that this was not going to be what brought back Annabeth and Artemis -- because Kassandra knew where they were now, knew that they were together and suffering the same fate somewhere.) 

"I think not, satyr. You are not even a half-blood," Zoe says. 

"But he is a camper," Thalia points out smugly. "That's what counts. And he's got satyr senses and woodland magic. Can you play a tracking song yet, Grover?" 

"Absolutely!" 

Zoe wavers slightly, glancing down to her. "Can you not replicate a tracker's song?" 

She opens her mouth and closes it abruptly. "I'm not sure," she says honestly. "I've never tried, but I'm not sure if it would be possible. It's the wrong kind of magic" 

"Very well," Zoe says. "And the third camper?' 

She can't help but laugh at the fact that they just sort of glazed over the fact that she was elected to go and everyone sort of just accepted it without saying a word or asking if she wanted to go. 

(Kassandra did, of course, but that wasn't the point.) 

(She would freely admit that this was going to fulfill all of her dreams of ever travelling with the hunters.) 

"I'll go," Thalia offers, standing up as though she was daring anyone to question her.

"Woah, wait a second," Percy says, half-standing and leaning against the table. "I want to go." 

"Oh," Grover says. "Whoa, yeah, I forgot! Percy has to go. I didn't mean... I'll stay. Percy should go in my place."

Zoe turns her nose up at him. "You cannot. I will not allow the hunters to travel with a boy." 

"You travelled with him before," She points out softly. "On the way here." 

"That was for a short period and a direct order from my goddess, but I will not travel and fight with a boy," Zoe says sternly leaving no room for argument. 

"What about Grover?" Percy demands. 

Zoe shook her head. "Grover doesn't count. He is technically not a boy." 

"Hey!" 

"I have to go," Percy says. "I need to be on this quest."

"Why?" Zoe asks. "Because of thy friend Annabeth?"

He blushed, the colour painting his cheeks prettily. "No! I mean, partly. I just feel like I'm supposed to go!"

Nobody stood up for him, nobody spoke a word they looked at him with pity filled eyes. 

Kassandra swallowed, swallowing thickly as she nods. "If his instincts are saying that he needs to go, maybe he ought to?" she offers nervously.

"No," Zoe says flatly. "I insist upon this. I will take a satyr if I must, but not a male hero."

Chiron sighs. "The quest is for Artemis. The Hunters should be allowed to approve their companions."

Kassandra could practically hear the tense desperately that rolled off the boy, the need and desire to go, and she couldn't help feeling bad that she had been one of the first elected, the only camper that Zoe named. 

(When she was nine and had first met Zoe, the girl had tried hard to persuade her to join the hunt. 

It felt as though this might be another extravagant initiation attempt.) 

Percy looked as though he wanted to protest some more, to make his point heard and clear until it was undeniably clear to everyone even if he had to beat them around the head with Riptide, but he just sat down, silently, ear pink, as Chiron concluded the council meeting. 

"So be it," Chiron says. "Kassandra, Thalia and Grover will accompany Zoe, Bianca, and Phoebe. You shall leave at first light. And may the gods"—he glanced at Dionysus—"present company included, we hope—be with you."

The boy didn't run, no, he got up silently and left the room, followed by a few others that didn't struggle behind. She rose quickly, stretching her back. 

"Six is six," Thalia says suddenly, catching her by surprise. 

Screw six, she wanted to snap. She grits her teeth instead, rolling her eyes at the girl. "I know. You don't need to tell me." 

Zoe places a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you for agreeing so easily to come. It has been many years that we have been apart. I had hope that you did not grow out of thy trust in me." 

Her smile comes easy, despite her aggravation. "I think I'll always trust you, Zoe. There's never been any doubt in that." 

"You are the only camper that whose presence I can bear. It would have been difficult should you have refused." 

Kassandra's grin is more bared teeth and grimace. "I've grown a bit over the years, learned a bit about the gods that you warned me about when I was little. I wouldn't abandon Lady Artemis when she was only true and honest with me, and always answered my prayers." 

Zoe's smile turns small, whistful. "Yes, my goddess had spoken for thy prayers in a passing comment once. She said you were as loyal as any hunter and twice as smart as her brother." 

She laughs brightly. "Personally, I don't think that last bit is very hard to accomplish." 

There's a moment of silence as she collects herself, clinging to that fleeting trail of happiness to banish the creeping darkness and burning that tried to stake their claim.  

"Go. Prepare thyself, Kassandra," Zoe says. "We will meet at first light. I know we will be up by then." 

Grumbling about how she always is, Kassandra took the chance to finally run after Percy not having any idea what she was going to say but knowing that she needed to say something. 

He had wanted to go, his instinct had demanded it of him, and though she had tried for her friend, she didn't try very hard. This was about more than just saving Annabeth and it made her feel as though she was stealing his place, pulling the rug from beneath his feet. 

(Or perhaps she simply hated to see the boy sad -- especially when she believed they ought to be going after Annabeth together.)

(But she had promised him that they would get to her, that they would help her, and if this was the only way that she could keep her promise then it was enough.) 

She spotted him as he made his way toward the cabins away from the dining pavilion, hands shoved into his pockets and head down. His shoulders her tight, coiled with anger. 

Racing toward him, she called his name as she passed over the hearth at the center of the ring, raising a hand to stall him. 

Percy turns, sea-green small hurricanes that glowed and swirled. Snow flurried around her into tiny droplets at her feet. 

"I'm sorry," she says. 

"Yeah, well, at least you get to go," he says. "I trust you to bring Annabeth back if you find her." 

"I will. I will find her, Perce. Grover and Thalia will help and we'll bring her back." 

"Yeah."

Distressing over what to say, she rubs her palms down the front of her shirt. "The oracle said six, but if you feel like you have to be there, then I should remind you that the fates work in strange ways," Kassandra looks around quickly, searching the area. Grover and Chiron were on their way, likely seeking to comfort the boy as well. She throws her arms around him. "Just in case I don't see you before I leave." 

(Being near Percy, seeing his anger and feeling it crash against her like folding waves, was like trying to catch smoke with her bare hands, like trying to grasp something that felt as though she could never quite have -- always out of reach, always curling away brushed in the wind.) 

He returns the gesture naturally. "Be careful." 

"Always," Kassandra says. "And Percy? Don't do anything stupid without me." 

☼ ☼ ☼

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this also sucked. I am sorry. it will get better with action stuff hopefully? am i even any good at writing action scenes? who tf knows

unedited

written: 2021-02-10

posted: 2021-04-09