"Just what she said, sir," Hercules answered him. "I was there. I watched the whole thing."

"There’s something she’s not telling, Hercules," Cheiron pressed on. "If it were just broken ribs, she wouldn’t have been leaning so heavily on you. And in the practices this week, I noticed she was tiring much too quickly. What’s going on with her?"

Hercules wanted to tell his teacher everything but he’d made a promise to Denaea and he didn’t want to betray that trust. "I want to tell you, sir," he began, "but I can’t. I made a promise that I wouldn’t." Cheiron looked annoyed. "You are right that there is something wrong, but you’ll have to talk to her. I don’t want to betray her trust in me."

"As your teacher I could order you to tell me," Cheiron told him. "But I won’t because you are learning responsibility to your teammates and that’s something I admire. I will talk to her myself."

Hercules breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Cheiron. Good night." He turned and walked back to the dorm.

The next morning, Lilith, Iolaus, and Jason returned from the party in Corinth. It had been too late to come back the night before so they decided to stay the night at the palace.

"That party last night was a blast, Jason!" Iolaus raved. "Those girls were falling all over me!"

"Yeah, so they could see how fast they could get away!" Lilith burned him.

As they entered the training hall, they saw Denaea slowly working a drill with a staff. They also couldn’t help but notice her wince every time she moved her left arm.

"Denaea! What’s wrong?" Jason asked her.

She hadn’t heard them come into the room despite their noisy entrance. She was startled at their sudden appearance and dropped the staff. "Oh!" she jumped, then clutched her left side in pain. "You scared me." She straightened up, trying not to show her weakness. "So, how was the party?"

"Don’t change the subject, Denaea," Jason scolded. "You’re hurt. What happened?"

"Nothing major," she replied still trying to be evasive. "I’ll be fine. It’s just a broken rib."

"A broken rib and nothing major happened," Iolaus said cynically.

"So what did happen?" Lilith wanted to know.

"Nothing," Denaea repeated. "I just got into a fight. No big deal." She shook it off to downplay it.

"If you’re in this shape, how’s the other guy?" Iolaus joked.

"He’s in better shape than I am but he won’t be bothering me again," Denaea told him.

"So who’d you fight?" Jason pumped her for more information.

"Does it matter?" Denaea shot back. "It’s over and I don’t have to deal with him again."

"C’mon, who was it?" Iolaus pressed on.

"Mesosticles."

There was dead silence after that. The trio all had stunned expressions across their faces.

"Wait…Hold on a minute," Jason recovered first. "You fought Mesosticles…and won?"

"Yeah," Denaea answered with little emotion. "So?"

"Do you even know who Mesosticles is?" Lilith challenged her.

"Not really," she said off-handedly. "And I don’t really care."

"He’s only the local bully," Iolaus informed her. "He gets into a fight almost everyday, if he can help it." He looked at her with a newfound respect. "How did you manage to beat him?"

"I used my brain," she said sardonically.

"Excuse me," they heard Cheiron’s voice say from behind them. They all turned around to face their teacher. "Can I talk to Denaea alone, please?"

The other three looked at each other with curiosity. "Uh, sure," Lilith spoke. She turned to Denaea and said, "We’ll see you later." They hurried out of the room.

She approached the centaur with caution but respect. "Am I in trouble?" she asked shyly.

"I was hoping you’d tell me," he said cryptically.

"What do you mean?" she wanted to know.

"I mean, something’s wrong and I’d like to know what it is," Cheiron said.

She just stared at him, eyes beginning to blaze. "Hercules told you, didn’t he?" she said getting indignant. "I knew I shouldn’t have trusted anyone here. No one can keep anything a secret!"

"Calm down, Denaea," Cheiron said gently. "Now let’s sort this out."

"Sort what out?" she shot at her teacher. "I know all I need to about this place." She stormed out of the room without having listened to what Cheiron had to say.

She ran to the barn and sat down on a bale of hay. She buried her face in her hands and cried. ‘How could he do this to me?’ she thought. ‘This is the first time I’ve felt I belong since my parents decided I was a lazy, good-for-nothing moocher.’ She looked up to the ceiling. "Why, Zeus, why?" she asked aloud. "All I want is to be happy. Is that such a crime?"

Suddenly there was flash of white light, then a dark figure stood before her. "And what if it is?" the dark form sneered.

"Who’re you?" Denaea asked in a shaky voice, getting to her feet quickly.

"I’m hurt you don’t know who I am," he said, in mock despair before returning to his normal attitude. "After all, my half-brother talks about me an awful lot I’m sure."

"Ares," she said, wishing she were anywhere but with him.

"Give the little lady a prize," he said in his condescending way.

"What are you doing here?" Denaea was getting a little angry with him. "I’d like to be alone right now. And I don’t want to talk about Hercules."

"He’s not my favorite subject either as I’m sure you are well aware," Ares continued, ignoring her request for him to leave. "But I need you to help me make him suffer. To destroy him as it were."

"Maybe he left me down," Denaea began, "but why would I want to help you do that? I may be angry with him right now but that doesn’t mean I want him dead."

"Oh, but that’s the perfect reason to want him dead," Ares tried to convince her. "That and the fact that I can help you with your little problem."

"How?"

"I thought that would get your attention," he said not answering her question. "You help me and I can make sure you never have to deal with it again."

"There has to be a catch," Denaea said wising up to him.

"Why do you mortals always think there’s a catch?" Ares asked in annoyance.

"Because there usually is," she answered him seriously. Not able to refute that, the expression on Ares’ face indicated that he gave her that one. Folding her arms across her chest she said, "OK, Ares, I’m listening. How can you help me with my problem?"

"I can get rid of your problem for you so you never have to deal with it again," he told her. "You won’t feel dizzy or sick. You’ll be healthier than any mortal has a right to be."

"And what do I have to do for this to happen?" she pushed ahead.

"All you have to do is keep getting closer to Hercules so he won’t suspect that you’re the one who’s going to kill him," he explained nonchalantly.

"And that’s it? I don’t have to do anything else; just kill Hercules."

"That’s it!"

"I don’t have to pledge a lifetime of allegiance to you or do your bidding every time you ask."

"Well, we can negotiate that later," Ares told her, "after you kill my mongrel half-brother."

"You know what, Ares?" Denaea began as she walked in circles around him. "You make real good with all the talk of promises of healing me and making me the healthiest mortal alive but I’ve got to ask myself one simple question through all this." She stopped and faced him. A dark expression crossed her face. "Do I really want to lose my self-respect to the god of war over some betrayal of trust from his half-brother? Like I said before, I may be angry with him now but that doesn’t mean I want him dead. Anger fades, Ares. Regret is forever." With that said, she turned on her heals to leave the Olympian standing there.

"Not so fast, little one," he stopped her in her tracks. "You know if you refuse me, I can make your life a living tartarus."

She almost laughed at him. She turned back around to face him. "Now how are you going to do that when I already feel like it is?" she challenged him. "I don’t really think there’s anything you can do to me that would make it feel worse. I’m sick all the time, I don’t have any real friends, my family doesn’t want me around anymore, I’ve totally ticked off Cheiron who will probably never let me back into his school, and now I’m being propositioned to do some dirty work for the god of war. So I ask you again, Ares, how could you possibly make my life any worse?" She stormed out of the barn and headed back to the dorm.

Jason was walking by the barn when he thought he heard voices coming from inside. He went to investigate and discovered Denaea was in there talking with Ares. He didn’t make his presence known but he did stand outside to hear the conversation. "What is she up to?" he asked himself quietly.

"…I want him dead," he heard Denaea say in a muffled voice.

"She wants who dead?" Jason asked aloud. He listened to the banter until he found out who was supposed to end up dead. "Gods above, I was right! She is working for Ares to kill Hercules. I’ve got to warn him." He left before he heard the rest of the conversation.

When he got back inside the academy he started looking for Hercules immediately. He found him working drills with Lilith and Iolaus. "Hercules!"

"Hi, Jason," he greeted his friend. "Where’s the fire?"

"I’ve got to tell you something," Jason said breathlessly. "It’s about Denaea."

Hercules and Lilith both looked concerned but Hercules spoke first. "What’s happened?" he said almost panicked.

"I was right," he announced. "She is working for Ares."

"What are you talking about? No, she isn’t," Hercules told him.

"I was just in the courtyard near the barn," Jason explained. "She was in there having a friendly conversation with him. I heard her say she wanted you dead."

"You must have been mistaken," Hercules refused to believe it. "You must have heard Ares say that. He’s always saying that."

"Unless Ares’ voice changed a few octaves, it was Denaea who said it," Jason informed his friend.

"Man, all the good ones are either taken," Iolaus started ranting, "or working for evil gods or both." He was remembering Eurydice.

Ignoring Iolaus, Jason looked seriously at Hercules. "I wouldn’t lie to you, man," he said sincerely. "It was Denaea and Ares plotting against you."

Hercules just stood there in stunned silence.

Walking back inside from the barn, Denaea began thinking about all the things in her life that had gone wrong. She wondered what she could do to make it all better. She then thought of Ares offer and immediately was repulsed by it. There was no way she would side with Ares, no matter how mad she was at Hercules. It wouldn’t be worth it in the end. ‘Like I said to Ares, anger fades, regret is forever,’ she thought.

It had been a while since her "talk" with Cheiron and while she was still upset about it, she’d had time to calm down and wasn’t really mad at Hercules anymore.

Without realizing it, she had wandered into the training hall. She looked up to see Jason, Iolaus, Lilith, and Hercules staring at her. Hercules, Jason and Iolaus had anger and hatred glowing from their eyes. Lilith just looked at her with a ‘how could you’ expression. Confused, she asked, "What’s up, guys?"

"Maybe we should be asking you," Hercules practically spit fire at her.

"Huh?"

Hercules was in her face in two strides. "How could you lie to me and tell me you weren’t working for Ares when all along you were?"

"Excuse me? What are you talking about?"

"Don’t deny it!" he yelled at her. "Jason overheard your conversation with him. I know about your plot to kill me!" He threw his hands up and turned away a moment. When he turned back, his anger lashed out at her again. "I trusted you as a friend and you turn around and side with my greatest enemy!"

Getting equally angry, Denaea shouted back at him, "What about my trust in you not to tell Cheiron about me! I can’t believe you’re talking to me about trust and truth and you can’t even practice what you preach! Just because you’re Zeus’s son doesn’t mean you have the privilege of expecting others to trust you and you go behind their backs and betray that!" She stomped out of the room with such fury it left the other four almost dumbfounded.

"What was that all about?" Iolaus wanted to know. "I thought she betrayed you. What would make her think you betrayed her? And what weren’t you supposed to tell Cheiron?"

Ignoring Iolaus’s questions, Hercules just stared at the door Denaea just walked out of. He took a few ragged breaths and calmed himself down. "Guys, I think we’ve made a huge mistake," he concluded.

"What do you mean?" Lilith asked.

"I mean, here we are yelling at her for something that anymore I’m not is true," Hercules began to explain. "If it was, do you think she’d have been in here yelling at me for the same thing?"

"Maybe to cover it up," Jason offered.

"I don’t think so, Jase," he countered.

"I heard the conversation, Hercules," Jason said. "She has to be lying."

"Does she, now?" Hercules challenged his friend. "Did you hear the whole conversation, from start to finish, every word they said?"

"Well, no," Jason admitted, "I got there after Ares arrived and I didn’t stick around to hear the rest after I heard she wanted to kill you. That’s when I came to warn you."

"Maybe she wasn’t plotting with Ares," Lilith pointed out. "Maybe she was just repeating what he said." She looked at Jason with severe seriousness. "Tell us exactly as you remember it what was said."

"Ares said something about her never having to deal with her problem again, whatever that means, if she helped him," Jason told them. "She asked about a catch to his deal and that’s when he told her all she had to do was kill you." He pointed at Hercules. "She asked if that was it and he said yes that was it. I left after that to find you."

"Did she sound eager to help him?" Hercules asked.

"No, not really," he said thoughtfully. "She actually sounded put out."

"There, ya see?" Hercules said excitedly.

"What exactly did Ares mean when he said he could help with her problem?" Iolaus asked. "What problem does she have?"

"She told me but asked me not to tell anyone," Hercules admitted. "The only thing I can say is that she doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her or treat her differently because of it."

"So what is it?" Jason pressed on. "Is she sick or something? Is it fatal?"

"Listen, I don’t know," he said getting annoyed with their questioning. "And what I do know I can’t say so lay off for now, OK? She’ll tell you when she’s ready." He looked down and shook his head. "She did tell me the truth when she said she wasn’t working for Ares." His excitement having faded as he remembered all the things he said to her. "I should have believed her. I’ve got to find her to apologize." He started out the door. He turned back around to look at his friends. "Are you coming? You guys need to apologize too. You treated her just as unfairly as I did."

"He’s right," Lilith was the first to admit. "We were just as bad as Hercules was. Let’s help him find her."

They all left the training room, each taking a different part of the academy. "If you don’t find her, come back here and we’ll tell Cheiron," Hercules instructed them before they started their search. "Then we’ll head toward Kora’s or the woods."

Hercules headed for the dorm, while Lilith checked the rest of the rooms in the academy. Jason and Iolaus checked around the outside of the academy. Not having found her, they went to Cheiron.

"Have you seen, Denaea?" Hercules asked his teacher.

"Not since she walked out on me from our talk earlier," he informed them. "Why?"

"Because we just got into an argument with her and she stormed out," Jason told him. "We need to find her to apologize because we discovered we were wrong about her."

"Back up," Cheiron said. "What was this argument about?"

"We accused her of working for Ares to kill Hercules because of a conversation Jason overheard between them," Lilith admitted guiltily. "We were wrong though. She isn’t working for Ares and we want her to know we’re sorry for believing she was."

"Sometimes it’s easier to believe a lie than to search for the truth," Cheiron philosophized. "Let me know when you find her. I want to finish the talk I started with her earlier."

The foursome nodded as they headed out the door for Kora’s.

They searched the area around the inn before heading inside. They asked Kora if she’d seen Denaea in the last candlemark.

"Yeah," Kora answered. "She looked a little mad but she was minding her own business. She stayed only til Mesosticles started bothering her. She yelled at him then ran out. He didn’t follow her."

"Do you know which way she was heading?" Hercules asked anxiously.

"She was heading for the woods but I only saw her at a glance," Kora explained. "She may have changed her mind after I looked away."

"Thanks, Kora," Iolaus said gratefully. "Let’s start looking in the woods. It’s our best shot right now."

They ran out of Kora’s like banshees out of Tartarus and went straight into the woods.

"Denaea!" Hercules began to call. "Denaea, where are you!"

Hercules suddenly felt a pull on his shirt. "Hercules, look!" Lilith gasped.

All eyes fell upon a figure lying face down in the fallen leaves. Without taking a closer look, they all knew it was Denaea.

"Zeus, no!" Hercules screamed. "Denaea!" He was at her side immediately. He turned her over and was relieved to find she was still alive and breathing. She had a nasty gash on her forehead, which was bleeding pretty badly. "Quick! Find me something to stop the bleeding."

Lilith tore her cloth armband off her right arm and gave it to him. When he was done with that, Iolaus ran to her other side and helped his friend lift Denaea off the ground.

"Jason, run back and tell Cheiron Denaea’s injured," Hercules ordered him. "Tell him we don’t know how bad or what happened, just be ready. We’ll be coming behind you." With that, Jason ran off.

Hercules carried her back to the academy. It was slow going because Hercules didn’t want to jolt her suddenly and cause any more injury than what she already had.

When they arrived back at the academy, they immediately took her to the infirmary.

"Lay her down here," Cheiron told them. He immediately looked at the wound on her head. He cleaned that up and soon realized it wasn’t anything major but there was no telling how hard she’d hit and what the other damage to her head there may be.

He next examined her left side to be sure no more damage had been done to her already broken rib. Fortunately there was only more bruising. The rib was still set in place to heal properly.

He finished looking her over for anymore injuries and luckily found none. He turned to his cadets and said, "She just needs to rest now. There’s nothing else I can do for her til she wakes up."

They began filing out the door when Cheiron called Hercules back. "I already know there is something going on with her, Hercules," he said. "You may as well tell me."

"Cheiron, please don’t ask me," he pleaded. "Denaea already…"

"I know," Cheiron interrupted him. "She already thinks you told me. She ran out on me before I could tell her differently. Since it may be a while before she gains consciousness again, why don’t you just tell me what’s wrong."

Hercules sighed and gave in to the centaur. "She gets these dizzy spells," he started to explain. "She doesn’t really remember when they started and she can’t control when they’ll happen."

"Why didn’t she say anything to me when she enrolled?"

"She didn’t want you to give her any special treatment," Hercules told him. "She wanted to try to handle this on her own." Curious to know what all she did tell him about her life before the academy, he asked, "What did she tell you about why she was here in the first place?"

"She just said that she wanted to be a warrior and that her parents were behind her coming her to do so." Cheiron gave him a funny look. "Why do you ask?"

"Because that’s not the whole truth," he professed. "What she didn’t tell you is that her parents don’t believe she’s sick. They think her condition is just laziness. This is her way of proving to her parents and to herself that she’s strong and can do things without anyone’s help."

"Such a burden to carry alone," Cheiron commented. "Did she mention what causes the dizzy spells?"

"No," Hercules answered him. "Can you help her?"

"I don’t know, Hercules," Cheiron told him honestly. "But I can try."

Denaea awakened a little while later. She had a headache and couldn’t focus her eyes very well.

"How are you feeling?" she heard Cheiron asking her. "That’s quite a nasty bump you have."

"I’ve been better," she told him in a sleepy voice. "How did I…"

"Your friends found you and brought you back," Cheiron explained. "They care about you, Denaea. And they’re worried about you too. Why don’t you tell me about your sickness?"

"Why? Hercules already spilled everything to you," she said angrily.

"No, he didn’t," Cheiron informed her. "At least he didn’t until he brought you back here. When I confronted you earlier, Hercules hadn’t told me anything other than that I should talk to you because he promised you he wouldn’t say anything and he didn’t want to betray that trust."

"So I yelled at him for nothing," Denaea said regretfully. "But what about him yelling at me?"

"I don’t know everything behind that," Cheiron admitted. "All I know is that when you stormed out of here, they were very concerned and immediately started looking for you."

"What for? So they could yell at me some more?" she asked getting very cynical.

"No," Cheiron stopped her. "So they could apologize to you. They feel really bad for the way they treated you and for not believing you about Ares."

"They told you that?" When Cheiron nodded, she continued, "I guess they aren’t the only ones who need to apologize then."

The centaur smiled at his patient and changed the subject. "Now that that’s settled, tell me about your dizzy spells."

Denaea half-frowned at her teacher and began explaining everything about her condition to him.

"Hmm," he muttered. "How long ago did this start?"

"About year and a half ago," she answered.

"At that time was there anything that you did or that you started eating that was different than before?"

"Not really," she thought back. "I mean, my dad started planting some flowers around the house so the air wouldn’t always smell like the manure he used in the fields but we’ve had flowers around the house before."

"Were they the same kind as what you father planted?"

Denaea thought about it for a moment. The flowers they had before were roses and the flowers her dad had started planting were daffodils. "Well…no," she told him. "Mom always had roses around the house. Dad planted daffodils."

"We have daffodils around the academy," Cheiron said. "And I know Kora plants them around the inn." He stood and pondered this a moment then looked at Denaea and said, "I’d like to do an experiment if it’s alright with you." When Denaea nodded, Cheiron turned to leave and told her, "I’ll be back in a few minutes."

As the centaur was walking out, Hercules and his friends were coming in. "How is she?" he asked.

"She’ll be alright physically," Cheiron said, "but you could do a lot to help her mentally."

The four just nodded and continued into the room.

Denaea looked over toward them and slowly sat up as her left side was still sore from her broken rib. "Hi," she softly greeted them.

"Hey," Hercules said nervously.

"I’m sorry," Denaea said at the same time Lilith said, "We’re sorry." Smiling, Lilith begged, "Please let us go first." Denaea quietly agreed so Lilith continued, "We are really sorry for not believing you about Ares."

"Yeah," Jason agreed, "it was my fault for not sticking around to hear the rest of the conversation then telling Hercules you were going to kill him."

"We’re all at fault, Jason," Hercules told him. He looked into Denaea’s eyes and said, "You were telling the truth and I didn’t trust you. I’m really sorry. Can you forgive me?" He gestured to the others. "Forgive us?"

"I’m sorry too," Denaea apologized to him. "I should have trusted that you wouldn’t give away my secret. When Cheiron came to me and asked me what was going on, I just automatically assumed you’d told him." She looked away regretfully. "I guess I should have known that if you figured it out by watching me, he would too." She shyly looked back up at him. "Forgive me?"

The foursome smiled at each other and carefully gathered around Denaea in a group hug. "So does this mean we’re all friends again?" Iolaus asked. The rest of them laughed.

All of the sudden, Denaea began to shake her head. She put her hand over her eyes and started to sway. "Uh," she started breathing hard and turned very pale, "Hercules…I’m going…to fall off…the table." She started to fall forward but Hercules and Jason caught her before she hit the floor. As they helped her to her feet, she threw up.

"What happened?" Cheiron’s voice shot from the doorway. He was holding some daffodils from around the academy.

"What are those for?" Iolaus wanted to know.

"They were for a little experiment I was going to conduct," his teacher said mysteriously. "Lilith, here." Cheiron handed her the flowers. "Take these out of here and get rid of all the daffodils around the academy. Find some of the cadets to help you."

Lilith immediately ran out of the room with the flowers.

He turned to Iolaus next. "Get her a glass of water."

"What experiment?" Jason asked when Cheiron’s attention was turned back toward Denaea.

Cheiron approached her as the guys eased Denaea back onto the table. "It was to see what was causing Denaea’s illness," he told him. "I wasn’t even in the room yet and she started to feel sick." He looked at Denaea for confirmation. "Is that what happened?"

"You saw part of it," Denaea nodded to him, her head still swimming a bit. "My head started spinning and my eyes went dark. I also felt like I couldn’t breathe."

"And now?"

"I feel a little better."

"Would someone care to explain this to the rest of us who don’t know what’s going on?" Iolaus asked holding the water out to Denaea.

Denaea smiled and tried to laugh but it hurt too much. "Iolaus," she said taking the water from him, "I would be happy to explain it all to you as soon as I know the rest of it." She looked at Cheiron. "And the rest of it would be…"

"That you have a severe allergy to daffodils," Cheiron said, plain and simple.

"That’s it?" Denaea asked not believing she’d heard him right.

"That’s it," he repeated.

"You mean, that the daffodils were causing her to get dizzy and sick?" Hercules wanted verification.

"Yes," Cheiron said again. "You may want to go to Kora and ask her to get rid of her’s as well."

"No problem," Jason said. "We’ll go right away." He motioned to Iolaus. "C’mon, let’s go." And they left.

"I feel bad that the flowers have to go," Denaea commented.

"You’d feel worse if they stayed," Hercules shot back at her, sort of chuckling in the process.

Denaea just gave him a half-grin and shook her head.

"Rest here awhile, Denaea," Cheiron said. "I want to examine those ribs one more time before I release you back to the dorm."

After Cheiron left, Hercules turned toward her smiling. "You’re going to be OK."

"Yeah," Denaea said returning his smile. "It’s a relief to know that I won’t be feeling sick all the time. And when I do, all we have to do is locate the daffodils that are causing it and get rid of them." She noticed Hercules still staring at her and she realized how she looked. "I must look a fright."

Hercules just continued his gaze and picked up her hands. "You look beautiful to me," he said sincerely. Changing the subject, he continued, "And the next time something happens and you don’t know what’s going on, don’t hide it. Talk to me about it. Trust me to help you. Trust any of us to help you. We care about you."

"I know," she said, "and I will. Hiding the truth just isn’t worth it in the end."

Hercules leaned over and hugged her. Kissing her cheek he said, "Rest now. I’ll be back to check on you a little later."

Denaea soon fell asleep with happy visions dancing across her dreams.

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