ALEA IACTA EST ; GRACE

005.

AFTER DINNER PHILOMENA WAS QUICK to make her way back to the barracks and lay down in her bed, not wanting to spend a minute longer than needed in the hall filled with anxious demigods.

Now, after this stressful day, the daughter of Cupid decided to watch her favorite movie, 'The Swan Princess' while painting her nails a bright pink color and curling her hair.  It was well deserved and she enjoyed every minute of it and before she knew it, she fell into a deep but restless sleep after praying to her father that Jason and Reyna would return safely.

"Philomena, I missed your pretty little face so much," her father said as soon as she appeared in the marble hall. He cupped her cheeks but then quickly moved away, looking around in distress. "Now, we don't have much time to talk but you need to listen to me carefully."

The girl just nodded, still a bit confused by his sudden appearance. Her father hadn't contacted her in the past year, not even once and she sure as hell wasn't expecting to meet him when she fell asleep.

"Your friend, he will have to face a deadly challenge, but you  - no scratch that, you must -  help him. Here take these arrows." Some lead tipped arrows appeared out of thin air and Philomena grabbed them, observing how light they felt.

"You know about these arrows, I assume," Cupid asked his daughter for confirmation. She nodded, her brown hair flying into her face.

Of course she knew about them and the myth of Apollo and Daphne in which her father had struck the god with a golden tipped arrow, evoking a great love and desire in him for the nymph Daphne, who on the other hand had been struck by the lead tipped arrow, which made her despise the god and wanted nothing but to flee from him.

She once had even read somewhere, that if he had the right intention one struck by the very arrows that she was now holding, would fall into a deep depression and a lead-like heaviness prevents them from continuing on with their life.

"Good, good," the god spoke as he brushed his hands through his hair. "Save them until the right moment, you will know when to use these arrows, but never reveal to anyone that I have given them to you. Once you shoot these they will disappear forever, so use them wisely."

Philomena only nodded along to his words, overwhelmed by what he entrusted her, this was too much responsibility; she wasn't used to this. In camp no one (not even Alex) ever trusted her to do more than the basic tasks, except for Jason.

"Thank you, dad. But will Jason even return from his quest?" She then asked, she couldn't help herself, she needed to know whether or not he was alright.

"That boy will not die as easily as you think he will, my darling, and neither will you. The both of you have a great destiny to fulfill," Cupid told her, squeezing her shoulders as he looked her intensely in the eyes, the red eyes she had inherited from him.

Thunder rumbled outside of the room they were in and Cupid looked at her, his expression softening. "I know that I have entrusted you with a great task, but I know you will succeed."

With those words she felt herself fall down a dark hole but as soon as she realized that she was falling, she stood on firm ground once again.

Everything was dark around her, but there was a soft glow and loud shouting coming from somewhere in the distance. Out of instinct she ducked when a tree was thrown in her direction but as she got up, she remembered that she was only dreaming, so nothing could happen to her (hopefully).

As another tree flew in her direction she decided to go and check out whatever fight was happening right now. As she was walking and yet another tree flew past her, she wondered what this dream would have in store for her?