*Centuries Ago*
"Go forth brother, you must hurry and inform the king and queen."
"I shall inform Hermes—"
"No, you must go yourself. This is your purpose and it is too important to trust a messenger."
"I will sister."
Helenus the anointed oracle awoke from his trance with a heavy breath. In the dead of night, his twin sister had summoned him to her temple to relay a message that a prophecy needed to be foretold.
He was filled with dread and had little time to physically recover from the toll his body took from being possessed by the Sibyl as he went to the portal that would take him directly to the palace and stepped through.
*Mount Olympus*
Peace for thousands of years was what the kingdom of Mount Olympus had known after the Trojan war and its devastating consequences. The mere squabbles of human non-bothersome to the gods that rule over everything. No one would have expected the disruption of this peace on a day like any other.
Helenus, the twin brother of the old Oracle Cassandra of Troy has seen a vision worlds away. A terrifying prophecy he knew the king and queen needed to know. In his haste, he did not send word to Hermes of his arrival to Mount Olympus.
A birthday celebration for the children sired by the father god Zeus, not uncommon to the gods, the celebrated had been a week-long and glorious but it was now dying down. Helenus' arrival raised many questions with all the gods still in the royal palace but there was no time for pleasantries. Helenus needed to deliver this prophecy and he needed to do it now.
Noticing the wondering eyes and hushed chatter of several bodies as Helenus was strode in with two armed guards at each side of him, Zeus had summoned the hurried oracle into the empty throne room to speak privately but his wife. Hera came up to the kings' side hooking her hand to his arm to assess the situation, would not be left in the dark. She knew that if an oracle as important as Helenus were here unannounced it could mean the order and peace they had worked hard to maintained was at stake.
"What is the meaning of this?" Hera was the first to address the younger god as she sat comfortably on her throne.
"My queen, my king please forgive me for not communicating in the proper channels about my—"
"Speak of your purpose here oracle! Now or I shall smite you down where you stand for wasting my time!"
"Please almighty I have travelled so long and the rode was not kind." Helenus pleaded as he kneeled in front of the throne before the king and queen.
"SPEAK!" Zeus's voice boomed through and literally shook the sky and ground. Hera rolled her eyes at her husbands' unnecessary hostility that is compounded by how much wine he had consumed over the period of the night.
"Helenus do speak freely please."
"My sister visited me in a night ago Almighty and I was given the sight." He directed his eye contact to Zeus.
"Tell us," Hera said from beside Zeus how steeled his glare at the oracle.
The air in the throne turned suffocating thick and the temperature dropped to an icy chill. The anxious king and queen both watched as the oracle in front of them whose eyes started to glow brightly and bathed the vast room in white light. Soon the Sibyl overtook the body of her vessel and appeared in front of the immortals. The old crone whose voice rang out from the oracle started to speak.
"The strongest and fairest of the descendants shall unite to conquer and destroy the balance. They will draw blood from those that pronounce themselves as rulers… From their loins shall be their suffering…"
*Present Time on Earth*
Xanthippeia laid completely still in a starfish form on her bed looking up at the ceiling. For the life of her, she could not stop thinking about all of their faces, their smirks and their comments. Then again what could she do to stop people from talking about it? Absolutely nothing.
Over the course of the last few miserable weeks leading up to this made her completely aware of the rough day she was going to endure from every single person she has ever encountered and even those she didn't know. The funny thing was that she had become so used to being the pariah over the past two years and used to petty little rumours being spread about her. But this was different from being tormented by a small group of bitchy girls.
She had been betrayed by someone she was starting to trust. She had opened herself up and it blew up in her face.
Normally when someone tried to humiliate her it would be talked about for like fifteen minutes and it would roll right off Xanthippeias' back but this was like nothing she had ever dealt with before. All summer she had been haunted by that mocking and she was not looking forward to it so she decided to do something to wrap her head around how she was going to get through it.
Xanthippeia got out of bed, put on a sweater and the old pair of sneakers her mom insists would be better used at Goodwill. Everyone was asleep that night as she tip-toed out the back door and headed straight for the beach behind the house on foot. Once she got down there she sat on the sand looking out into the full moon, hoping for that small bit of comfort she felt whenever there was clear moonlight.
After a while, she looked around to see that she was on the beach by herself and she debated going home but she didn't feel like seeing anyone tonight or sitting in her silent daunting room, she just wanted to be alone with her thoughts for once.
So she took off her shoes, got up and started to walk along the shore, the chill of the tide was blowing a cold wind at her but coupled with the moonlight hitting the water just right there was something strangely comforting about being there.
As her feet submerged in the shore at that moment she swore she could hear a voice calling her in the direction of the water. She looked around and there was nobody there so she thought she was going crazy but it didn't seem to scare her off the moonlight swim. In a trance-like state with all her clothes still on, she took off and run into the small current.
She hadn't realised how deep she had swum until she could feel her feet touch the bottom of a reef. It didn't seem to scare her that she could hold her breath for this long. Her fingers ran along with one of the coral reefs as she swam admiring the beauty of the ocean when a bright light caught her eye. It was shiny with flecks of blue and purple in it and it was enchanting to look at. It was like the light was pulling her closer and she felt the water around her body swirling and forming a whirlpool.
The water started swirling so fast she could barely process what was happening. She tried to fight against the spinning current but to no avail, before her head started to spin she heard the voice again but this time it seemed to be getting louder and closer to her. One moment later she saw the bright light coming towards her like an arm reaching out and the next her vision started to blur and everything went black...