The three of them meet after the sing-along. They all look shockingly different, from their hair, their skin, their clothes.
From the moment they make eye contact, though, they know they're siblings. Their eyes are too similar, all filled with that...
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𝗩𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗔 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 she could. When they figured out what had happened to Thalia's tree, Chiron actually sent her into the Big House attic. He'd never done that before.
She understood. Thalia's tree was turning colors and it was spring. It's bark was growing pale. It, very clearly, was dying.
She misted its roots with tonics. She had the Apollo cabin and the Demeter cabin do a joint healing session. She made countless powders and potions, and none of them worked.
Chiron didn't want her to tell anybody. When Mia called and Percy IMed, Val wanted to tell them. She wanted to confide that nothing she tried had worked and that even the most basic healing solutions she'd made seemed to be failures. She wanted to ask if it was the poison, or if it was her.
Valentina didn't want to place that burden on them.
She'd been able to heal Percy, and everything else she'd been faced with. But whatever was poisoning Thalia's tree was unknown. That made it hard.
For days, Valentina could only be found sitting in the shade of Thalia's crumbling tree or up in the attic, attempting to create some sort of cure. She barely slept. She forgot to eat. This was more important.
She watched the tree. She was hoping there was some kind of clue that she could notice that would tell her what was wrong. Then, all it would take was a couple hours in the Attic, and everything—most things—would be okay again.
"Staring at it won't cure it," someone said.
Val turned. Behind her was another demigod, crossing the border into camp. She was wearing combat boots—obviously worn in—and, surprisingly, no orange shirt.
"You've already noticed all the same symptoms I have," the girl said, "so watching the tree is useless."
She gestured towards the cabins with her head, and continued walking. Valentina scrambled to pack up her things and follow.
It took her a minute of walking awkwardly behind, before Val figured out who this girl was. Blonde, gray eyes, straight shoulders—this was Ellis Sculyer, daughter of Athena, who spent her time traveling between camp and New York, providing support and protection for satyrs in the area. Travis told Val once that she'd been too restless, gotten in too many fights, so Chiron had given her that job, just to keep her moving. Val wasn't sure if she should have believed him.
"The Athena cabin's got books on every subject," Ellis said. "If the Big House doesn't have anything, Cabin Six will."
"Thank you?" Val said. She was allocating most of her focus on keeping up with Ellis and not tripping in front of her. "The Big House wasn't very useful, but maybe I didn't look hard enough."
Ellis scoffed. "From what I've heard about you, you've probably got most of those books memorized."
