Raph helped me up to my feet, my head was still spinning slightly. I wasn't sure if it was from the left over Oracle stuff or from Aphrodite lifting her curse. But our whole conversation seemed to happen in a brief 10 second span. Percy was helping Rachel to her feet.

Apollo drifted down from the porch. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce the new Oracle of Delphi."

"You're kidding," Annabeth said.

Rachel managed a weak smile. "It's a little surprising to me too, but this is my fate. Nora and Chiron explained everything."

"I did tell you a few times Rachel wasn't just some mortal." I said. Every head whipped in my direction.

"Nora my sun beam!" Apollo flashed a brilliant smile. "Your curse! It's gone!"

"Ya..."

"Hmm. I owe Arti fifty bucks. No matter!" He waved his hand. "I missed your beautiful voice!" 

He came over and pulled me into a tight hug. I held on tightly. Burrying my face into his shoulder. He was warm and cozy, like when I stand with my face in the sunshine.

"So...can you like tell the future now?" Percy asked.

"Not all the time," she said. "But there are visions, images, words in my mind. When someone asks me a question, I... Oh no-"

"It's starting," Apollo announced, pulling away from me and turning towards Rachel. I had the horrible green taste on my mouth and I shivered too. I had a horrible feeling rise inside of me. And then it magnified to many different feelings and emotions. I wanted to breakdown and cry.

Apollo looked rorn between me and Rachel. I managed to turn away and stumble into Raph's arms. He sunk back to the grass with me huddled and shivering against his chest. Green smoke drifted from my mouth. My head tipped backwards. From my unhinged jaw my dark prophecy from before the summer came spewing out of my mouth. But only the second half of it.

"Seven journey home while light walks alone. The ancient rival rises in the west. Unlikely allies keep hope safe before strife becomes thy biggest defeat."

Suddenly Rachel doubled over like someone had punched her. Then she stood up straight and her eyes glowed serpent green. When she spoke, her voice sounded tripled- like three Rachel's were talking at once:

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire, the world must fall. An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."

At the last word, Rachel collapsed. Percy caught her and helped her to the porch. Raph held me right to his chest. I felt slightly feverish, like the first few times I used the Sight vision. I felt Nico kneel down beside us.

"I'm all right," I heard Rachel say, her voice returning to normal. I felt myself slowly stop shaking and gain some strength back. I slowly sat up panti.f slightly.

"What was that?" Percy asked, looking around.

She shook her head, confused. "What was what?"

"I believe," Apollo said, "that we just heard the next Great Prophecy."

"What does it mean?" Percy demanded.

Rachel frowned. "I don't even remember what I said."

"No," Apollo mused. "The spirit will only speak through you occasionally. The rest of the time, our Rachel will be much as she's always been. There's no point in grilling her, even if she has just issued the next big prediction for the future of the world."

"What?" Percy said. "But-"

"Percy, how long have you been around me? It's the same. We can't explain what they mean."

"Now as far as my little Pumpkin Muffins, here, her mother had the gift, I have the gift, Helios was the All Seeing Titan, and then just now had an experience with The Spirit of Delphi...I am not sure what this is. Not a true Oracle..."

"No. I turned the job down. It was Rachel's fate. Not mine." I agreed.

"But you do have the gift. You recited the second half of a prophecy...and it seems tied to the new one. I must ponder this."

"Wait...but-" Percy tried again.

"Percy," Apollo said, standing up, "I wouldn't worry too much. The last Great Prophecy about you took almost seventy years to complete. This one may not even happen in your lifetime."

I had a shiver run down my spine. I didn't think that was true. Rachel looked confused. She didn't even remember what she said. I however remembered it all. I knew they were linked together. I knew what I said related to me, somehow, and it linked with the New Great Prophecy...  I shivered again.

A hand snapped in front of my face. I blinked and looked around.

"Oh, sorry Nico. Yes?"

"I've tried talking to you... we can't mindlink anymore."

"Oh..." My body sagged. So many changes all of a sudden. I had gotten used to Nico being the only voice I could hear.

"I guess that happens when the curse is lifted. But it's nice to actually hear your voice...and after Kronos was inside my head...it's nice to have it all to myself again."

"Ya okay, that's an actual valid reason." He gave me a small smirk.

"I missed my my emo grandpa."

"Eww. Feelings."

"Nahh. You missed me too."

"Eww. No! Gross." He made a face. And I laughed at him. A small genuine smile appeared on his face. "Kinda misses your rediculous laugh."

"Ha! I knew it!" I laughed and pulled him into a hug again. I only now realized Percy was still trying to argue with Apollo.

"...it didn't sound so good."

"No," said Apollo cheerfully. "It certainly didn't. She's going to make a wonderful Oracle!"

Apollo beamed down at Rachel but then insisted that she needed to rest, and she did look pretty disoriented. I got to my feet and walked over to Rachel.

"I'm sorry, Percy," she said as I pulled her to her feet. "Back on Olympus, I didn't explain everything to you, but the calling frightened me. I didn't think you'd understand."

"I still don't," he admitted. "But I guess I'm happy for you."

"It's okay Rachel, you don't need to explain anything. He will continue to ask dumb questions..

Rachel smiled. "Happy probably isn't the right word. Seeing the future isn't going to be easy, but it's my destiny. I only hope my family . . ."

She didn't finish her thought.

"Don't worry about it. I understand. And I'll do my best to help." I insisted. "And Paul understands. If you need a place to crash away from your home, your welcome anytime. Your family."

"Will you still go to Clarion Academy?"  Percy asked.

"I made a promise to my father. I guess I'll try to be a normal kid during the school year, but-"

"But right now you need sleep," Apollo scolded. "Chiron, I don't think the attic is the proper place for our new Oracle, do you?"

"No, indeed." Chiron looked a lot better now that Apollo had worked some medical magic on him. "Rachel may use a guest room in the Big House for now, until we give the matter more thought."

"I'm thinking a cave in the hills," Apollo mused. "With torches and a big purple curtain over the entrance... really mysterious. But inside, a totally decked-out pad-

"Dad!" I cut him off.

"What?"

I raised my eyebrows and indicated to Rachel.

"Oh right. Right you are." He nodded and as he passed he cupped the back of my head and pulled my head closer.

"I'm proud of you, Ellie Bear." He whispered and kissed my forehead.

He guided Rachel into the house.

🔆

The rest of the day was as strange as the beginning. Campers trickled in from New York by car, pegasus, and chariot. The wounded were cared for. The dead were given proper funeral rites at the campfire.

Silena's shroud was hot pink, but embroidered with an electric spear. The Ares and Aphrodite cabins both claimed her as a hero, and lit the shroud together. No one mentioned the word spy. That secret burned to ashes as the designer perfume smoke drifted into the sky. My eyes burned with tears as I watched. She had been my first friend. Kayla stood beside me gripping my hand tight. Her other one in a sling, and her head was wrapped in a fresh white bandage.

Even Ethan Nakamura was given a shroud- black silk with a logo of swords crossed under a set of scales. As his shroud went up in flames, I hoped Ethan knew he had made a difference in the end. He'd paid a lot more than an eye, but the minor gods would finally get the respect they deserved.

🔆

Dinner at the pavilion was low-key. The only highlight was Juniper the tree nymph, who screamed, "Grover!" and gave her boyfriend a flying tackle hug, making everybody cheer. They went down to the beach to take a moonlit walk, and I was happy for them, though the scene reminded me of Silena and Beckendorf, which made me sad.

Mrs. O'Leary romped around happily, eating everybody's table scraps. Nico sat at the main table with Chiron and Mr. D, and nobody seemed to think this was out of place. He kept catching my eye and rolling them. I wish I could still talk to him with our mind link. But he seemed fine right now. I did notice beside me, Will kept glancing up. I felt his body temperature rise and then he quickly looked down at his plate when Nico lifted his head.

Everybody was patting Nico on the back, complimenting him on his fighting. Even the Ares kids (other than Raph, who always liked Nico.) seemed to think he was pretty cool. Hey, show up with an army of undead warriors to save the day, and suddenly you're everybody's best friend.

The dinning pavilion slowly emptied of people. And I nodded at Annabeth as I got up from my place and went over to Poseidon's table. I sat down in front of Percy.

"Happy birthday Percy."

"What?"

"It's August 18th. Today is your 16th birthday."

"Oh...ya, I guess your right." He shrugged. "Doesn't seem...special. though we didn't destroy the world..."

"Always a plus. Anyways. I wanted to give you your present."

"You..what?"

From my pocket I pulled a small wrapped package.

"It's not much. But...Tyson, and umm... Beckendorf helped me. We were working on it at the beginning of the summer..."

He held it in his hands just staring at it. I saw his eyes fill with tears and then he blinked and they were gone.

"I...I can feel some kind of power in there."

I just hummed. He slowly opened it. Inside the wrapping was a small box. He opened the box and laying inside was a leather cuff. Inlaid on the cuff was a Trident symbol of Poseidon.

"It's made with rock and sand from the floor of the ocean, from your father's palace, actually. So that's why you can feel it's power."

"Whoa. Nora that's so cool!"

"Press the Trident."

He raised his eye brows. But did anyways. A huge shield spiraled into existence. In the very centre of the shield was the tridant and carved into it were ocean wave designs, and other signs of Poseidon.

"Jeeze Nora! This is amazing!"

"We figured out how to make the shield light, but still as effective, and it's attached to your wrist, so no need to hold it while you fight with Riptide."

"Hey! You have one too!" Percy said pointing to my wrist where I had my bracelet inlaid with a sun. You let Annabeth use it."

"Yes, but yours is made from sea stones. So you can also draw power from it."

"It saved me many times." Annabeth said coming over. She sat down beside me. She gave me a small smile. Maybe miricales do happen. I smiled back. And turned to Percy.

"Happy 16th birthday Perc."

I got up and walked down the path, away from what I expect would be Percy and Annabeth's first kiss- finally. As I walked passed the forest I stopped and slowly turned. Leaning on a tree in the dark shadows with his arms crossed a broody expression on his dark face was Raph.

I smirked and stepped into the coolness of the forest. He didn't say a word but pushed off the tree and held my hips and pulled me closer.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too." I whispered.

"Do I finally get to spend time with you?"

"I sure hope so! I did just save the world, I need a vacation."

"Are you going back to school?"

I shook my head. "No. I'll stay, it's safer to be a year round camper. And...your staying." I pushed up on my toes and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, my one hand found the back of his neck. "And...You're the new sword and weapons master...I gotta stick around and distract the teacher."

He didn't say anything, just hummed instead and pushed me gently into the tree he has been leaning on. He closed the distance and I felt my knees grow week. We kissed until I couldn't breath anymore. And when I broke away to breath he just left gentle soft kisses down my jaw and down my neck making soft little whimper noises escape.

"Never heard those before." He whispered in my ear.

"Me either!" I gasped. He pulled away and pressed his forehead to mine.

"I still owe you a date Sunshine. Our ice cream got interrupted..."

"You're right!" I whispered, gently pulling his head closer. Just as I kissed him again there was a loud cheer that went up from the dinning pavilion.

"Looks like he finally found the courage to kiss her."

"Took em long enough."

"They're gonna dump them in the lake...that's what they usually do."

"They know Percy can ma update the water...he's gonna keep them dry and under the water so they can kiss in private."

"Jokes on them then." Raph chuckled.

There was a wild commotion as the campers rushed passed carrying Percy and Annabeth over their heads. I just shook my head as I watched them pass. I turned back to Raph. His dark eyes stared into my soul. He grabbed my hand and pulled me deeper into the forest.

Best forest kiss I have ever had, and I really hope none of the gods were watching.

🔆

Camp went late that summer. It lasted two more weeks, right up to the start of a new school year, and I have to admit they were the best two weeks of my life. Being able to hear, Percy and Annabeth were finally a thing, and Raph was amazing.

There was a lot of other great stuff going on too. Grover with the help of Mr. Miles, had taken over the satyr seekers and was sending them out across the world to find unclaimed half-bloods. So far, the gods had kept their promise. New demigods were popping up all over the place- not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well.

"We can hardly keep up," Mr. Miles admitted one afternoon as we sat in the sunshine and stared across the pond at the line of new cabins under construction. "Grover was going to ask for a bigger travel budget, and we could use a hundred more satyrs."

"Well I figured the gods got around."

There was a thing of thunder. I rolled my eyes at the gods.

"Well, keep your pants on and this wouldn't be a problem!" I yelled at the sky. Mr. Miles flinched and scootched a little away. There was another roll of thunder but that was it. I rolled my eyes again and went back to watching the construction.

The U-shape would soon be a complete rectangle, and the demigods had really taken to the new task with gusto.

Nico had some undead builders working on the Hades cabin. Even though he was still the only kid in it, it was going to look pretty cool: solid obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torches that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day.

Next to that were the cabins of Iris, Nemesis, Hecate, and several others I didn't recognize. They kept adding new ones to the blueprints every day. It was going so well, Annabeth and Chiron were talking about adding an entirely new wing of cabins just so they could have enough room. Persephone had shown up the other day, causing some mass chaos. She had handed Annabeth some blue prints for her honorary cabin beside Nico's and smiled at me.

"I'm proud of you Nora." She had said. Her eyes slid to Raph who was slightly behind me. He bowed.

"Take care of this one. She is a queen amungst demigods. I have taken a liking to her."

"Yes Ma'am."

She vanished in a poof of soft flower petals.

The Apollo cabin was becoming crowd. Will, Kayla and I decided to send Apollo a box of condoms for Christmas. It was ridiculous how many Apollo children were showing up.

At first it bugged me. But...gods are different then mortals... Was the lie I repeated to myself. Kayla and I were the only girls so, Annabeth had agreed to expand our cabin giving us our own smaller room off the main room, so we could have some privacy. All my new brothers were very sweet. Many of them looked just like Lee and Will.

The Hermes cabin was a lot less crowded now, because most of the unclaimed kids had received signs from their godly parents.
It happened almost every night, and every night more demigods straggled over the property line with the satyr guides, usually with some nasty monsters pursuing them. Raph had set up a watch, and anyone struggling towards the boards, The Watch were there to help them out. We weren't going to let any more innocent kids die, not if we could help it.

🔆