¹Pocket Full of Posies.

𝐈𝐗. (dreaming) to start and end

              Liviana's head turned slightly, and her expression was pulled into deep concentration. She never faced Posie; her feet looked like they were melting into the sand. "They left me." Her voice was far older than her body. It was croaky and raw. "They left me. Sulla. Cassius." She took a shuddered breath. "They used me."

              Posie frowned. "... How?" she asked.

              "By pawning my powers. My gift. The power I wield."

              The daughter of Apollo shifted, leaning to her right to get a better look at Liviana's face. She wanted a better look at the blonde's tears that looked like poison. "What powers?" she asked carefully, despite knowing deep in her chest the truth.

              Liviana clenched her hands, and Posie realized how ... mummified they looked. Liviana could only be around nineteen, yet her hands looked like they belonged to someone a hundred years old. "You know the gift I was given."

              Posie's stomach churned. So this was her half-sister, another daughter of Apollo. It made sense; Liviana and Apollo shared hair that was the color of sunlit wheat, and they both were tanned and sun-kissed, they shared the freckles Posie had. "Plagues," declared Posie. "Right?"

              Liviana nodded.

              "Then ..." Posie shifted, dragging her feet through the sand. "No, Apollo had said something—"

              "He would hope that it never happened again?" offered Liviana, her tone laced with bitterness.

              "Was there someone before you?" asked Posie, frowning at her half-sister.

              Liviana stared out to the endless ocean, the waves washing against her bare legs. "Perhaps," she answered. "But ... what happened to me, I figure Dad wouldn't want it to happen again."

              Posie's eyes flickered between Liviana's tears, and how they aged her skin as they traced down her face, and her withered hands. "What ... happened? To you? With the ... you know."

              Her older sister didn't answer. Instead, she turned at the hip to look Posie in the eye. Her green eyes glowed brighter and brighter, glowing so violently that Posie squinted and raised her hands to cover her face. As she covered her face, Liviana let out this blood-curdling scream and melted into the sand.

✿

Bad enough to start the day ( or end the evening, depending on how you looked at it ) with a nightmare of your half-sister who apparently bore the same curse you did, it was even worse to attend a council meeting that morning after. Technically, because Posie wasn't head counselor for Cabin Seven, she wasn't supposed to go; however, considering her track record, she had a nasty feeling she had to go.

              Her track record? For the past two summers, two prophecies have been issued, resulting in two different quests. And, sure, maybe Posie snuck her way onto one of the quests, but both prophecies had lines referring to enemy turned ( from the first prophecy that was given to Percy; One shall look for answers, and meet an enemy turned. From the prophecy given to Clarisse; And enemy turned, into the unknown ). That wasn't her fault, even if the whole sneaking-onto-one-quest was her fault. Posie wasn't being narcissistic either! When she explained this all to Lee that morning as he got ready, he agreed with her. Well, he agreed it was weird that for the last three prophecies given, each one included a line referring to some "enemy" and the enemy "turning".