Victoria Dia: The Missing God

Chapter 8: The Lost Prophetic Spring Called Castelia

The silence that preceded Artemis' question, was incredibly unnerving. It was only broken by Will's small, whispered, "No." 

 In the silence, I heard little sniffles. Turning my head I found Elias, wiping tears off his face. Kayla immediately went to hug our half-brother, her arms wrapped around the seven-year-old. I felt terrible. 

Chiron looked at us, and then at Artemis, before sending a look at Mr.D, Dionysus seemed to get the idea. 

"Alright campers, back to your daily activities," he directed, dispersing everyone. "My Children, we have a play to set up," despite everything, there was an audible groan.

 Dionysus turned to look at the huntresses standing behind Artemis and told them. "Huntresses, you are welcome to do... whatever you would like." 

With that, camp dispersed leaving all of us from cabin seven standing in front of Artemis, and next to Chiron, who looked anxiously between Artemis and Will. 

"Why don't we head to the big house where we can discuss this privately?" He suggested, Will nodded. Austin placed his hand on my shoulder. 

"You go with Will, Kayla and I will stay here with the rest," he told me I nodded. 

Looking back at my half-siblings, I could see Elias was full-on crying. Mack looked like she was holding back tears, and Jerry's lips were pressed into a tight line, his brow furrowed as he seemed to be thinking. 

Artemis, Chiron, Will, and I climbed the worn steps to the Big house. Nico stayed by the stairs, he seemed to be giving us space to discuss the matter. Chiron opened the white door to the blue building, the centaur ducked very slightly as he led us in. Artemis turned to us again as soon as the door was closed and asked.

"When's the last time you heard from him?" Artemis asked, her brows furrowed, arms wrapped around herself, seemingly out of comfort. 

She had that Olympian glow, that identified her as a goddess, but aside from that she looked distraught, her hair was braided and out of her face, but auburn strands fell out of the braids like they hadn't been redone in a good while. 

"December, around New Year's," Will answered, "It's been radio silence for the last seven months." 

"And nobody said anything? Nobody worried?" Artemis asked, frowning. Will was quick to defend us. 

"We did, we talked to Rachel and she still has her powers, so that didn't get us anywhere," Will told her. "But, Vic had a vision." 

I understood how I was part of this conversation but I did not appreciate how my aunt's digging eyes turned to look at me expectantly. I felt the overwhelming need to hide myself, but I persisted. 

"What did you see?" Artemis asked me. 

"I saw a cave, it was dark, and a woman was singing, and then he fell," I told Artemis, looking at the wooden floors of the big house like they were suddenly very interesting.  

"He?" Artemis asked, her brows furrowed. 

"It was some sort of projection, I could see what he was seeing," I told her, "Or at least that's what Rachel said."

Seemingly to stop her interrogation of us Chiron interrupted whatever Artemis was going to say next.

"Artemis when's the last time you heard from your brother?" he asked. Artemis sighed, ran a hand through her auburn hair, and replied.

"Not since November, we got into a fight and I—" she exhaled and screwed her eyes shut as if the thought of recalling the events pained her. "I told him not to speak to me again, I thought he was just being petty."