⚠️strong language⚠️

ΛЯΣ ЩΣ ЯΣΛᒪᒪY PᒪΛYIПG 𐌂ΛPƬЦЯΣ ƬΉΣ
FᒪΛG DЦЯIПG ƬΉΣ ΛPӨ𐌂ΛᒪYPƧΣ

WHEN LENORE WOKE in the morning, she laid around in bed for a while. Despite all the rush in the world, she carried herself slowly around her room. She had found the spell, and she knew that in the morning the room would likely not be hers.

     She'd flipped to the spell so quickly she could only imagine her mom had some influence over the pages. It had to be her way of telling Lenore to get a move on. Well, she would if she found herself some companions to join her on the quest. The idea of it alone made her feel like she'd swallowed a few rocks.

     Outside of two missing members, she was all packed to go. She knew she had to travel light incase a situation turned to the worse. She had a few extra clothing items, her mother's chest of spell books shrunk to the size of an apple, and a small bag of money that had appeared this morning.

Finally, having wasted half of the day trying to memorize the feel of her bed, she climbed the stairs from her room. The main room of the cabin had been turned into a practice center. She could tell by the black padding on the walls. It quickly turned to metal slates when a burst of projectile magic hit the wall instead of the dummy. A ball of purple wildfire whirled past her, singing off the hair on her left arm.

The cabin quickly stopped what they were doing and looked at her. It seemed Dru had told them the news. Some of her siblings stared at her blankly, a younger girl named Carina looked like she might cry; Davy refused to meet her eyes at all.

    "Carry on," Lenore said, walking through the middle of the room and out the door. As large as Camp Half-Blood was, gossip was no match for distance. Lenore knew the news had spread farther than her own cabin when she passed by campers and they took a double take. Their expressions had changed to a sort of shock rather than pity. She couldn't say she was surprised.

     Luckily, Hecate's cabin was the twentieth, so her walk to the twenty-third was short. The cabin was located across from hers and down one to the right. Out of all the cabins, it wasn't the prettiest or the ugliest. It looked like some sort of black blob, and the eye above the door unsettled her when she walked by it. Right now, it seemed to know the cabin was her destination and it watched her every step.

     As she raised her hand to knock, it was still staring right down at her. She had to gather her wits and ignore her anxiety to actually touch her fist to the door. Lenore waited a moment outside, her knock going unanswered. She gave the cabin the benefit of the doubt, considering the campers inside were known for dosing off and sleeping longer than others. She knocked again. Her knock still went unanswered. After her patience was spent, she banged loudly on the door. The eye above the wood winced.

    The door swung open to an angry looking boy. Lenore didn't recognize him in the slightest.

     "Hi," she said awkwardly. Lenore knew she wasn't the tallest or the strongest demigod, but this guy looked like he could step on her. And the glare in his eyes looked like he had every intention to.

     She could see campers stirring in hammocks that were strung about the room and other campers rubbing their eyes in their bunk beds. "What do you want?" the guy said gruffly. His voice sounded like he'd just woken up.

     "Could I speak to Nathan? Or Xavier, preferably."

     "They're not here right now," he answered.

     "Oh," Lenore said quietly. "Do you know when they'll be back?"

     "No."

     This guy didn't seem to be a big talker, and considering Lenore wasn't one they really weren't going to get far. "Could anyone tell me where I could find them?" She peered around him into the dark cabin. He promptly stepped in front of her view.

      "No."

     "Chill out, Manuel," a girl said from behind him. She had clearly just woken up, sleep still in her eyes and knots in her hair. "They're in a Capture the Flag meeting."

     "Capture the Flag?" Lenore mumbled slowly.

    "Yeah," the girl answered. "You know. For the game later?"

     Game later? Lenore had only just taken up the quest and they were already moving right back to normalcy? She hadn't even left for the quest yet, what made anyone think the woods would be safe enough for Capture the Flag? Let alone, how did they feel right playing it while she led a group to their most probable death?

     The girl must have seen the fury brewing behind Lenore's dark eyes because she took a step behind Manuel. Lenore noticed, and put on her best smile to try and make herself seem more approachable. "When will they be back?"

     "Probably not till much later," Manuel shrugged. "They're always there forever hearing out what each side would give them for our cooperation."

     Lenore understood that. Her cabin was also pretty sought for, but she let Dru handle most of the negotiations. Lenore didn't have the temper for that. Come to think of it, she did remember the Morpheus cabin being sought after by the two head cabins. Morpheus kids were a great final defense (assuming they stayed awake), putting their enemies to sleep just before they could get close enough.

     Even if she hadn't seen any of them use their abilities in person, she remembered the battle of Manhattan. She remembered the terror of not being able to wake the sleeping. A shiver ran down her spine as she refocused on the task at hand.

     Manuel was looking down at Lenore with a confused expression on his face. He knew the look that had crossed her features— she had gone somewhere else for a moment. He saw it all the time on his half-siblings' features, always in a daydream. Although he couldn't see it, the way his hair on his arm had stood made him sense it hadn't been a nice daydream she'd entered.

     "Okay well, I was sent here by Mr. D to get in contact with Camp Jupiter," she said. "Any chance you two can help me with that?"

     "Help her, Manuel," the girl said between a yawn. "I'm going back to bed."

     Manuel didn't look too excited to help, but he didn't look upset either. "Stay here," he muttered and slammed the door on Lenore. She jumped back slightly and did her best to look at her hands and not the other campers staring at her. She began fiddling with her charm bracelets as she waited for Manuel to come back.

      Eventually, he did, holding a small orb in his hand. He tossed it up in the air and caught it before holding it out for Lenore. She took it and rolled it around on her hands. It seemed almost like a fortune telling ball, but it was smaller and the magic she sensed was different.

     "What am I supposed to do with this?" Lenore asked. "This type of magic is a bit outside my range of expertise."

     "You just talk to it."

     "What am I supposed to say?"

     "I don't know," he said with a shrug. "Whatever you're supposed to say."

     "Hello? Hellooooo. Is it working?" Lenore closed one of her eyes and tried to look through the sphere.

     "I'd say you have about 20 more seconds of recording. Then whatever you've said will appear in... well whoever's supposed to get this's dreams."

     "What?" Lenore exclaimed. "You didn't say it recorded. Can I redo it?"

"No."

"Shit. I mean. That's not what I meant." Lenore let out a groan. Great first impression. "My names— I'm Lenore. That's irrelevant."

     "I'd maybe not talk that close to it, either," Manuel suggested. "You're probably scaring whoever this is going to."

     "They can see me?" Lenore gawked.

"10 more seconds."

"Uhhhh. Well, my first thought is to try and find any children of the seven that we can find. They might be able to give us some more information on where to look for the seven."

"Less than 5 seconds."

"And-then-meet-somewhere-in-the-middle-like-Lebanon-or-Topeka-so-we—"

"Done."

"Can do the rest together. Excited to meet you. Oh and by the way I'm casting a spell on you I've never attempted. Byeeee."

"They didn't get that last part," Manuel said flatly. He grabbed the orb out of Lenore's palms.

"I figured," she said, squinting her eyes at him. "Well, I never claimed I was good at first impressions."

"Clearly," he said, thinking of how she'd woken him up trying to break down the cabin door. "Lebanon or Topeka?"

"Shut up," Lenore said quickly. "I didn't sign up for this."

"No, I didn't think so." Lenore rolled her eyes. "So a spell you've never casted before? Sure you can do it?"

"You're not a part of the quest. You don't get the details."

"Well, I could be part of the quest—"

"Done."

"What?"

"You're part of the quest."

"That wasn't where I was going—"

"You offered, not me. It's final. Gods heard it."

"Wait, wait, wait. It was a hypothetical."

"No take backs, you know how quests work. It's hard enough learning I'm stuck with the quest, getting others to join is nearly impossible. So thanks. You're a real life saver."

"Wait— I don't know how quests work. Lenore!"

"I have to go practice that spell I've never attempted before!" She screamed back, taking off at a full sprint towards the woods. "See you later!"

     That was a pretty mean thing for her to have done, and Lenore's usual self wasn't really one to do something like that. But the memory of Manhattan had reminded her how beneficial it would be to have even one of those campers on her side.

     Lenore realized that she wasn't going to be her usual self on this quest. She couldn't afford it. A part of her was going to have to stay close to the Crone, her least favorite personality. The Crone was anything but nice, but she got things done. Lenore didn't want to lose herself completely, but she'd be ready to slip away at a moments notice. If anything, Lenore didn't want the Mother to take control and ruin the quest.

     Lenore spent the afternoon in the woods practicing her hand movement and repeating the incantation. The first time she copied the motions  described in the book she prayed there wasn't a version of the spell that existed without words or the hand movements. She refused to practice them together. The last thing she wanted was to send herself back a week and try to explain to everyone what had happened.

    Then her mind was clouded by the potential of the spell. She could go back just a day and make sure she got to dinner on time. Then none of this would be happening. She would have been sitting at the table and known before anyone else what was going to happen and then avoid it.

     And then someone else would have to take the quest. Someone who couldn't turn back the time to a day where the world hadn't erupted into chaos. Lenore would have to live with the fact she sent three campers to their death, and she would never be able to tell anyone.

      She couldn't do it. Even now, Lenore had to live with the fact she was stringing along two campers. She could deal with her own death. It wasn't like she had any ideas of what she would do when she got to leave camp. Kinda hard to do anything when you get angry and turn into the wicked witch of the west.

     When the horn to call the campers blew, the birds in the woods took flight. Maybe they were scared of the sound, or maybe they knew what the sound meant.

     Lenore quickly left the woods to grab her armor. She didn't wear too much considering her magic was her main weapon and any more armor would constraint her movement.

     When Lenore got to the pavilion the rest of her cabin was already there. She quickly found Dru and found out what was happening. Sadly, impending quests was not a valid excuse to miss Capture the Flag.

      At the front of the pavilion, the Apollo and Athena cabin stood holding their flags. The last match had been won by the Apollo cabin for the Ares team, changing the leadership position. As always, the losing team got first pick.

     To no one's surprise, Malcome Pace announced alliance with Hermes cabin. Despite everything in the past, the alliances within Capture the Flag stayed strong. Then Will Solace stepped forward and announced alliance with Ares. Again, nobody was surprised.

     But then Malcome Pace did something that nobody saw coming.

     "Cabin six announces alliance with Cabin Thirteen."

     An audible gasp was heard through the crowd as Pace stepped back in line with his siblings. The Athena cabin had faces of stone, their intentions unreadable. The Apollo cabin reacted entirely different, beginning to shout their protests and complaints.

     "That wasn't agreed to!" A girl with golden hair screamed.

     Most campers in the audience were watching Will Solace's face as he watched a shocked Nico Di Angelo make his way beside the Hermes campers.

     The Athena cabin always had a strategy, but this one seemed outlandish. Hermes wasn't nearly what it used to be, and Apollo and Ares combined were three times Athena, Hermes, and Hades combined. If Aphrodite joined Apollo and Ares like they usually did, the game would be considerably uneven.

     Will stepped forward, the normal sunshine in his eyes gone, replaced with thunder clouds. "Cabin seven announces allegiance with cabin thirty-two."

     The whole pavilion hollered and whistled at the simple act of animosity. Will had chosen a lesser known cabin, but one who's meaning packed a punch. The children of Adikia, the goddess of wrong doing and injustice, joined the front. It was about as close as you could get to calling someone an asshole without cursing.

     For the next thirty minutes the two went back and forth choosing which cabins would join them in the game. The alliances were completely broken from what they first were. Some head counselors looked annoyed, having probably been promised something by their new found opponent. Everyone else was loving the change up and the actual tension between the two teams. It felt like more was on the line than getting the flag for your team.

    "Cabin seven announces alliance with cabin twenty."

     A few sad sounds echoed through the crowd, but they died quickly from a glance of one of Hecate's children. The alliance between Ares and Hecate's cabin was usual, not adding anymore tension to the already thick air.

     "I need to talk to you."

     "Oh my gods—" Lenore put her hand to her heart. "Don't do that."

     Manuel grabbed her by the arm and pulled her farther away from the crowd. Lenore tried to subtly pull away but Manuel was much stronger than she was. If she was gonna pull away she was gonna make a scene.

     "Am I actually going on this quest?" Manuel said, straight to the point.

     Lenore shrugged, a bit uncomfortably. "You don't have to. But I think you'd be a great asset."

     "Me?" he asked, crossing his arms. "You met me today."

     "I don't mean necessarily you," Lenore explained. "A Morpheus kid. I've seen what you guys can do. Plus I have no way of communicating to the Romans without your little... thingy majiggy."

"A dream orb. But I'm not tied to the quest?" he asked.

For a quick second Lenore almost told him he was. The words were on the tip of her tongue before she bit them back. She knew who was willing to make him do it against his will. Lenore tried to be better than that version of herself, knowing that on the quest she wouldn't be.

"You're not," Lenore sighed. "I'm not going to make you do anything you didn't chose. But, if you were interested, the offer is open."

Manuel stayed quiet.

"You don't have to give me an answer if you don't want to go. Only if you do." The last team walked up to the front and the teams were beginning to disperse. "But I am desperate, so I'm probably taking anyone who wants to go. If there is anyone who wants to go.... Anyways—see you in there. Maybe."

     Lenore made her way over to where team Apollo was gathered. The Apollo kids were trying to figure out how each of the new cabins were going to fit into their previous plan. The whole operation seemed to be mixed up, and cabins were being put in jobs they had never had with people they didn't know how to work with.

     "This is going to be a shit show," Lenore said to Dru.

     "One last moment of fun before your quest," Dru said, elbowing her playfully. "The Athena kids already broke the unspoken alliance rule. What other rules do you think we can get away with breaking?"

     "Love the way you think, Dru."

Hecate cabin was told to stay hidden in the woods and try to surprise the enemy. Lenore didn't count on anyone actually sticking to that plan and she sure as hell wasn't going to hold them to it.

     Will and Nathan were going to guard the flag. The rest of the Apollo and Morpheus cabin split between offense and defense. Ares and Aphrodite had their typical rolls, no change to the team they were on. The new cabins with the lowest members were put into separate offensive groups while the larger cabins were put into defensive reserve.

     Lenore and her siblings were positioned near the ridge by the cliffs. She told the siblings who could perform a hovering charm to stay near the actual drop off. The rest of them scattered about the woods.

     As they waited, she could tell that ADHD was getting the best of some of her siblings. Occasionally a loud sound of a boulder falling or an abnormally strong gust of wind shook the trees. She didn't reprimand or blame them for giving away their position over and over again, what were magical kids with ADHD expected to do?

Then there was light. Lots of light. And heat. Lenore took off running towards whatever siblings had begun a forest fire.

"What were you trying to do?" Lenore screamed.

"I was just trying to—"

"Go take my zone," Lenore cut her off. Zuri, a girl around eleven, was frozen by fear. "Go!" With the flames of the treetops dancing in her eyes, she turned and ran the way Lenore had come.

Thankfully, Lenore was adept in elemental magic. She couldn't move waves the way a child of Poseidon could, but she could manipulate. Lenore was now feeling exceptionally grateful that it had rained the previous day. She took a deep breath to collect herself and strained her fingers to try and grasp onto a water source.

The moisture in the soil detested her. With magic, there was always restraint. One of Athena's more famous kids had made some law about equal and opposite forces. He'd had to take the side note about magic out when he proposed it to the mortal world, but it worked just the same.

Lenore relaxed her jaw as she felt the water bending to her control. Slowly, droplets begun to float out from beneath the soil in front of her. It seeped from all around the trees and sizzled as it came into contract with the burning wood. The forest before her looked like it was submerged in a fish tank. When Lenore could no longer sense fire, she let go of her grip on the liquid. The water crashed to the ground and quickly rushed out past her feet.

Looking up at the burnt tree line, she knew she'd stopped a real disaster, but boy oh boy the nymphs were going to be pissed. Lenore was thinking she'd leave camp regardless of companionship before she got pulled into a conference with the Council of Cloven Elders. Since Pan's death they'd turned their initiative to preserving and restoring Pan's creation. Lenore felt a little bad that Dru would have to deal with that, but to be fair, she wasn't the one going on a quest with a death wish.

     "Are you serious?" A voice complained, stepping into the open, soaked from head to toe. On her chest plate was the engraving of an owl. Lenore recognized her. She was pretty high up in terms of hierarchy in the Athena cabin. "Were you trying to drown us out?"

"More so trying to stop any barbecued demigods, but sure," Lenore said with a shrug. The two eyed each other over, one of them looking bored and the other ringing her shirt out. "I guess we're supposed to fight or something?"

"Or something?" Angelica repeated.

"I mean, I don't even know where the flag is to be completely honest, but I don't think I'm supposed to let you pass either, soooo, like, sorry about this."

     Lenore scrunched her nose as she flicked her hand and sent the wind pushing Angelica back to where she'd come from. She didn't really take pride in using magic against someone who didn't deserve it, but all was fair in love and war. She'd preferred it to be one of Angelica's annoying siblings or someone from another cabin that came across her. Lenore's only problem with Angelica was just how calm she stayed. It wasn't even fun to weave her through tree lines when she didn't scream or thrash.

"What?" Lenore whispered. Angelica had reached for a tree branch, the force dragging her backward being powerful enough to tear the limb from the trunk. Using what force still belonged to her, Angelica plunged it into the ground, slowing her pace as the winds kept constant. In a little under a minute, it had completely passed her. The wind bounced between the trees far behind Angelica, shaking the leaves until it completely dispersed.

     Angelica clambered to her feet, brushing off the dirt on her clothing and digging the mud out of her armor. Her hair was windswept, but at least she was dry now. Her shield had been lost to the wind and split into pieces against a tree trunk, so when she began walking back to Lenore all she had was the daggers strapped across her chest.

     "That was rude," Angelica said, a hint of irritation in her tone. 

     "Sorry?" Lenore half apologized, half questioned. They were on separate teams, weren't they supposed to fight? Cut a few corners if the opportunity presented itself? To be fair, Athena Cabin had already cut the biggest corner by shaking up the teams like this. "Go some other way so I don't have to deal with you."

Lenore raised her hand and gathered the energy in the magnetic field around her, decreasing the volume so the particles compacted. The energy followed Lenore's eyes, and pelted the ground at Angelica's feet like an automatic firearm.

    Angelica stumbled backwards as she saved her toes from being shot off. Lenore smirked ever the slightest. She wasn't actually going to let the energy touch the girl, but a little fear was always fun to conjure.

In a turn of events, Angelica freed one of the small knives from her chest and sent it slicing across Lenore's open palm. Lenore watched as blood trickled from the open wound and down her raised arm. The small throwing knife had lodged itself in a tree behind Lenore, then dislodged itself and whizzed back into Angelica's hand. The pain of her injury was nothing to the anger she felt bubbling.

     "You want to play with telekinesis, smart girl?" Lenore asked. "Then let's play."

     A small shriek passed Angelica's lips as her feet left the ground. She wobbled around, reaching for tree branches. Lenore had learned from her last mistake and kept Angelica away from anything she could hold onto, but Angelica still had control of anything on her body.

She twisted the dagger in her palm and sent it flying down towards where Lenore stood. The witch jumped backwards, losing her concentration on the girl she'd been suspending. Angelica's training on the obstacle tower paid off, and she quickly grabbed onto a tree branch in the path of her falling.

The dagger previously plunged into the ground retracted up high into a tree, finding its owner and subsequently giving her position away. It wasn't Angelica's fault for Lenore's sudden anger. If anything, this small dispute was the breaking point of a two-day implosion.

Lenore felt herself slip away as the whites of her eyes blotted to black. The crone had been dying for a chance to see the sunlight the past few days, and now her pathetic Lenore hadn't been able to handle her circumstance. It was the dumb bitch's fault she was in the situation in the first place, but the crone was not complaining. Stress was something Lenore didn't work well under, but the crone on the other hand, thrived.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," the crone sang.

     Angelica pressed her back against the trunk, trying to stay hidden from Lenore's vision. She knew Lenore didn't actually have it in her to hurt her, right? Well, Angelica had shed first blood. She decided to play it safe rather than sorry, remaining as still as the trunk behind her.

But her dagger had already given away her position. The crone peered around the back side of the tree Angelica was held up in, a smirk toying at her lips. She pressed her hand to the tree, feeling the capillary action deep inside the trunk. The water quickly gave itself over to the crone's power, and the tree followed, not wanting to die at the crone's hand.

In a split second the tree branch beside Angelica came pummeling towards her. She quickly ducked, and watched as the branch split into pieces right where her head had been.

     As soon as she'd narrowly avoided the tree's pummeling, the branch she was taking refuge began to wobble. The shaking quickly turned violent, like a dog trying to shake itself of fleas. Angelica dropped to her stomach, clinging to the branch with her entire body.

     Angelica heard a loud cry, her instincts to protect overtaking the more pressing matter of her own safety. She sat up. With one to and fro, the tree sent her flying up into the air, the gravity sent her falling down to the ground.

    Angelica braced for impact, knowing which part was most susceptible to injury, but the ground never came. She felt her neck snap forward from the sudden stop, but it never collided with anything. For a moment she remained dizzy, but she still caught the worry on Lenore's face, her hand outstretched as she looked... in pain. Then the crease of her brow relaxed, a smirk stretched her lips, and the whites of her eyes went completely black.

     Angelica rotated in mid air and pressed the souls of her feet to the ground. She pressed down, running as fast as her legs could take her, but they took her nowhere. She was stuck in place no matter how she tried to escape.

     But her knives weren't. That's not how they worked. She freed one from her chest and sent it barreling towards Lenore... or this other version of her. Angelica had never seen the black-eyed children, but she knew of them. She'd heard the whispers about Lenore and her siblings during the battle of Manhattan. She'd done her research and she found old hiking stories of the black-eyed children of the forest. Really they were just children of Hecate who had fallen too far into their own madness. Angelica had to play this smart, especially with her end goal in mind.

    The knife wizzed by Lenore's face, almost close enough to graze her skin, possibly trim the peach fuzz from her face. It was just enough to disturb her concentration. Angelica didn't waste a second before she took off in the other direction.

    Angelica dodged between trees. Surely Lenore would calm down and then she could be reasoned with. Angelica just needed to wait this out.

     Bark exploded into Angelica's face as she ran too close to a tree. She cast her head over her shoulder, but Lenore was nowhere to be seen— only a large rock, pummeling towards her.  She ducked quickly, and watched as the rock exploded into the tree in front of her. With the velocity with which it had been thrown, it managed to go straight through the tree.

     Angelica ran and dodged as the rocks burst into the trees and sent bark flying in the way of her path. Lenore would give up. Eventually.

     Angelica ran even when the rocks stopped colliding with the trees. She looked left then right, then left then right, then left... then right. The trees she could have sworn she passed were in front of her. Trees that had been hit by the rocks a few minutes ago.

     The ground. When Angelica looked down, the floor was rolling like a carpet that had been thrown to open. It moved like waves and Angelica moved backwards. She tried to propel herself forward, but the ground took her back to the clearing with the wet mud and charred trees.

     Lenore, with her black eyes, stood there smiling at her. Her hand was raised, energy vibrating in her palm as rocks rotated in different ellipses around her body.

"Stop trying to maim me!" Angelica yelled.

"You started it," Lenore said. Her voice sounded... strange.

     "And I'm trying to stop it!"

     "That's not really how this works unless you surrender the fight," Lenore said, moving the ground to put Angelica back on her bottom.

     "I surrender!" Angelica screamed. A tree root from behind her grabbed onto her waist to keep her down.

     "Yeah right. Funny, coming from you."

"I want to join the quest!"

Lenore stopped halfway through her action. The power vibrating above her palm quickly fizzed away and the rocks dropped to the floor. The dark ink in Lenore's eyes returned to white scalera, her pupil returning to brown. "You what?"

Angelica took a deep breath from where she supported herself against a tree. "I said... I want to join the quest."

     "Why would you want to join? I'm the most unstable demigod they could've chosen, clearly. I'm leading whoever comes with me to their certain death. I literally chose someone so they could distract me from the pain of dying."

"You chose someone already?" she asked, snapping to attention.

"That's all you got from that?" Lenore wasn't even sure if he was actually on the quest or not so she chose not to answer.

"Choose me," Angelica said. "You're right, I do have something to live for. And I do have plans. But I can't make anything of it until this is over. Let me fight with you."

"Fine," Lenore said, sealing the cut in her hand. Angelica didn't like the way the skin sort of webbed together. "I mean, I'm not gonna say no to help if you're certain. Meet me here tomorrow. Ready to go." Lenore wasn't actually sure they'd be ready to go, but it seemed more professional if she said that.

A smile stretched across Angelica's face. "Thank you." Nerves weren't the reason her body felt electrified, Angelica was over the moon, but she kept her head about it.

"Yeah, don't mention it." Lenore seriously didn't want her to ever mention it ever again. Her stomach was already twisting at the idea of her dying.

"And that's pretty much it," Lenore concluded. "Rogue gods, prophecy, dream ball, Romans, demigods, Topeka.... yeah, that's it."

"Well that's," Angelica began slowly, "Not a lot." She watched Lenore line up sticks on the ground in order of tallest to shortest, wondering if this was some part of her ritual.

"Yep," Lenore said, popping the 'p.'

"And you think Sanchez is really showing up?"

     "Who?"

     "Sanchez. Manuel Sanchez? The camper you literally just explained you want on the quest."

     "Oh, yeah, well I hope he shows up. Didn't know that was his name."

      "That makes me feel great about all this," a deep, grumpy voice came from the tree behind Lenore. "Totally glad I showed up at buttfuck dawn instead of sleeping in."

     "I'm just happy there still is a dawn to wake up to," Angelica said, trying to play mediator.

     Manuel stared at her blankly before shifting his view to Lenore. "So did this spell require the dawn or are you just mean."

"Did you hear that?" Angelica whispered.

     "Well, it doesn't require the dawn," Lenore said quietly. "But the notes in the margin say it's easier to cast in twenty-four or twelve hour increments."

     "So four A.M?" Manuel asked incredulously.

     "Sunrise is at 4:50 on the twelfth," Lenore said.

     "It's the twenty-first?" Angelica questioned.

     "Yeah, so about the spell I sorta alluded to earlier—"

     "The one you've never done?" Manuel interjected. "Or have you practiced it now?"

     "I've practiced it," Lenore said quietly, yet again. "I just have never... preformed it necessarily."

     "Woah, woah, woah," Angelica began. "What kind of spell are we talking about here? I have a lot of plans that go farther than a spell gone wrong."

     "We'll see how far those plans go even if the spell goes right," Manuel said under his breath.

     "It's... well... it's sort of... time travel..."

"That's illegal!" Angelica exclaimed, causing all of the birds to fly from the tree behind her. "That's illegal."

"Mr. D said it's alright," Lenore said.

"Well, if Mr. D, the god of madness, the one who's in punishment right now said it's alright—"

"Who else was supposed to offer guidance?" Lenore said, a bit more sass than before. "Chiron?"

A silence fell on the group as a sadness seeped into their eyes. "He's still out there," Angelica said positively.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Manuel mumbled.

"And when we go back to the twelfth," Lenore began, "He will be here."

"And then we can ask him what to do," Angelica added.

"No! Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. But no. We can't tell anyone we time traveled. There's so many rules and loopholes involved and consequences of everything involved—"

"I think I'm getting why it's illegal now," Manuel said. "Question: am I gonna die?"

"If not from the spell then probably from the quest. And if not from the quest then probably from failure to complete the quest. You're fucked anyway you put it." Lenore stood up and kicked the twigs she'd organized to the side.

"Cool."

"So don't tell anyone about time travel," Angelica repeated. "Okay. That's fine. What about the Romans? You told them, right?"

Manuel laughed. "What do you think the Romans are going to think when they realize they're in a time loop?"

"I... didn't think about that."

"Wait you didn't tell them?" Angelica exclaimed.

"She fucked up the dreamball."

"I—! Yeah. I did."

"Does the spell even work long distance? Is there a limit to how far it stretches— in length and time? What if the Romans do something to mess it up? If there's so many things you can do to mess it up and they don't even know they're in a spell—"

"I get there's a lot of ways this could go wrong!" Lenore exclaimed. "But what else would you have me do? Look, I'm not thrilled about leading this. Honestly, after this part I'm fine with you taking the lead. You're probably better at it. But right now there is a hoard of monsters outside the border waiting to eat us, and past that a world in complete and utter... chaos. I don't see how we'll get very far without going to before it all started."

Angelica and Manuel stayed silent. Lenore took a breath to calm the beating of her heart. "From what I understand, the caster manipulates who the spell works for, so I'll just make it work for anyone who knows they're on the quest. That way it will count the Romans. We can send another dream ball to explain more, even if it's a day late. Sound good? Great. Hold hands."

"Is that part of the ritual?" Manuel asked.

"I trust in the margins, and if holding your clammy hands helps with the spell, we're doing it."

『••✎••』

ωเɳเ รρεαҡร

I loved writing this chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed and I did your characters justice! the next chapter is in the works and I'm soooo excited to show you guys!

I know the first two chapters have been Lenore heavy but I'm still setting up how everyone joins the quest. From now on the chapters should be evenly distributed.

Also an fyi since I've gotten some questions about a schedule (before pms were stolen): I don't have one 😬. Luckily, I am finally on summer holiday so I should be able to have more free time. I try to write chapters a bit in advanced before I post them so I can go back and reread thoroughly. Thank you guys for all the love and patience!

See you in the next chapter! Who do you think we'll meet?

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