Trials of Artemis

9. Secret of Cassandra

Cabin ten was empty.

No monster-proof Givenchy, no Drew bragging about how beautiful she was, no gossips between Lacy and Mitchel. No one was there.

'Where's everyone?' I yelled, and the only reply I got was the echo of my voice. Then, I remembered, no children of Aphrodite, or Venus, had survived the final battle except me.

'Piper?' Cassandra walked in, 'I heard your voice, what's going on?'

I shook my head, wanting to let go of the dreadful thoughts of my siblings. I missed Lacy, I missed Mitchel. They were literally my first two friends in Cabin Ten, hell, I even missed Drew and her ugly, smelly make ups.

'You know you can tell me about everything, right?' Cassandra spoke, facing me, her black eyes looked directly into my eyes. Those eyes were like two pearls, shinning in the dim light of Cabin Ten.

'All of them were gone.' I broke, crying into her arms. 'Jason, Annabeth, Lacy, Thalia. I watched Thalia died, Cassandra. I watched her die!'

'You know,' Cassandra put me into a tighter hug, she said, 'some casualties were important for the peace of the world.'

'I know, but the price was so huge, there's only me and Percy left, well, there's Stella but I don't know what she was.'

'Piper,' Cassandra continued, 'Everyone's life was hard, mortals and demigods alike.'

Then, Cassandra told me her story.

She was born in New York; her parents were local officers. They had six years of happiness together. They went to a lot of places around the world. They visited the Grand Canyon in America, the Stone Henge in Britain, the pyramids in Egypt.

'My parents seemed to be finding something.' She said, 'Something to break the family curse.'

'What curse?' I asked.

'I don't know, they were in Rome right now, before they left, they gave me a gold necklace.'

She showed me the necklace. It was pure gold, with a crescent moon on it. On the crescent moon, curved a Greek letter 'A'.

'This was what they found during their time in Greece, at a ruined palace on Olympus. They said that the necklace might be a solution to our family's curse.'

'And you didn't ask about what the curse was?' I was so curious about the curse and her story that we stayed up all night discussing it.

'I don't know for sure,' Cassandra replied, 'but I overheard my parents, they said something about a sailor and a hunter.'

I remembered the story. I heard it from Annabeth, and I also read it from camp.

Two hundred years ago, when British set foot onto the land of America, one ship sank. Annabeth said that that's because Poseidon was angry at that time, but from a camp document I accidentally came over, it was not because of Poseidon's anger, but of Artemis. Artemis was angry at a sailor who took away the virginity of one of her hunter, so she decided to punish those sailors by sending them early to Hades.

Yet, from the Camp Document, one person survived, a man named Lucas Lance, who was a demigod of Poseidon at that time. He called a hippocampus and drove away with it. But he didn't come out harmless. By the time Artemis figured her arrows cannot reach him, she cursed him. But the curse was not noted in the document, so we didn't know anything.

I told Cassandra about it, Cassandra looked shocked.

'I didn't know my ancestors had something to do with gods. I just don't believe it.' She spoke.

'Now, now, Cassandra, maybe the gold necklace was important to Artemis, maybe if you return it to her, she might forgive your family and lift the curse.'

'But that makes no sense,' She yelled, 'Artemis was not that kind of goddess who would want to keep jewels in her box.'

I was silent. She made a good point. I don't know Artemis in person, but according to the legends, she was indeed not that type of person.

'I don't know Cassandra.' I said, 'With current matters on hand, I don't know how can I help now.'

Cassandra noticed my swing of mood, she squeezed my hand, and said, 'Don't worry Piper, we'll figure everything out.'

That night, I had another dream.

This time, I saw a thirteen years old girl sitting beside a cliff, moon shone brightly in the night, the girl's auburn hair and her scent of forest told me that in front of me was Artemis, the goddess of moon.

'Lady Artemis, where are you?' I asked.

She turned and looked at me, 'Piper Mclean, you need to tell Percy to find me before it's too late.'

'Too late for what?' I was confused.

Artemis sighed, she said, 'My subconsciousness told me that there are dangers around, and if I don't wake up, we will all die.'

'So, you are asleep? Where?' I asked.

'Find me, daughter of Aphrodite, even though I had a go with your mother, I saw great potential in you.'

Then, the scene changed, I saw a ship about to sank, a sailor jumped out from the ship, landed on a wooden mast that fell. Artemis appeared on the sinking ship, she pointed on the man, and said, 'I curse your family and descendants all die a painful death.'

I woke up in a sudden. In my hand, I held a bead, a silver bead that represent a memory of Artemis. I looked at Cassandra, who was sleeping soundly on another bunker to my right. Her hair all over the pillow, her mouth lightly open.

She's cute when she's asleep. I thought. I walked out of the cabin. When I got to the arena, I saw Percy and Stella there training and sparring. Suddenly, the bead in my hand shone, it flew away to Stella, from Percy, another two beads came out to Stella as well.

Then, she blacked out.