I read your recent fic and first of all I wanna say that I love your writing! They keep me entertained and you're so talented. Anyway, I couldn't help but feel a little excited on seeing Cassandra. I think you made a reference to her in your Hestia's hearth as well (as two faced reptile, I guess?) So I'm really curious to know what's your take on Apollo/Cassandra. You always have unique thoughts and I'd love to hear anything other than how tumblr has interpreted their relationship.
Thank you very much!! This ask has been languishing a while because Cassandra was VERY elusive for me to write about. But I want to thank you for the kind words!
I kinda want to rewrite the Hestia’s Hearth fic … I still like the concept but I feel like I wrote it too early, before I did all the research on other characters. But I already contradicted it with the Marsyas fic too so.. maybe I’ll rewrite it or maybe we can all pretend Apollo changed the timeline by seeing the further or something 😅
(Also, @clasassist , this prompt is for you too! ❤️ i hope you like it!)
There are those who fault Apollo: a cad like his father, only interested in the pleasures of sex, petty and vengeful when he doesn’t get his way.
There are those who fault Cassandra: another manipulative, lying woman who thinks she’s too good for base desires and for what she deserved.
For the two individuals involved - Lord Apollo of Olympus and Princess Cassandra of Troy - it never really mattered. It was a detail, nothing more. The thing that mattered was that first vision.
In reality, the scene in Cassandra’s bedroom was like this: a sorrowful Apollo, being impossibly honorable and kind to a weeping, doomed princess of Troy.
He very purposefully gave her the ability to prophesy first. He came to her in her room and even then, the nervous but eager Cassandra thought he seemed solemn.
He took her hand and kissed it. Then he placed his long slender fingers and tilted her chin up, offering her a small smile - a smile he didn’t quite feel, she guesses later.
Then he kissed the edge of her eyebrow, the hard edge of her cheekbone, the soft space of her temple…
…. the he whispers into her ear.
The words bring something to life inside her, and she receives her first vision.
Flames. Flames everywhere. Horses screaming and running; women screaming and trying to hide. Children wailing. Bodies of men and boys, young and old, soldiers or otherwise, littering the streets.
History often forgets her twin brother Helenus, who had the same powers of prophecy from the same source.
The same deal was offered to Helenus, who fulfilled his end of the deal with no major complaints, as far as Cassandra knows.
Because Helenus is a man, not a woman. He saw the fall and he also saw himself surviving it in a far-off land.
Cassandra is a woman. Even if her vision of the Fall is incomplete, she knows what the fall of a city means for its women. For its princesses, it’s queen.
She doesn’t see all the details in this moment, and later she will be grateful. She doesn’t see Paris’ bride, Achilles’ chariot.
She doesn’t Ajax and the statue, or Agamemnon’s ship, and later she will be bitterly grateful not to know the details. But she knows what happens to women in a city that falls.
Apollo puts his hand to her back.
“I-I cannot,” she gasps, tears welling up. She feels as though she will scream or vomit.
“I understand,” he says softly. “It is a cruel thing you face.”
“W-why did you show me,” she begins to sob.
“I wanted you to know,” he sighs heavily. “So you could choose to cope however you saw fit.”
“How can anyone cope with such a terrible fate!” She cries.
His hand slowly presses into her back, drawing comforting circles. “It’s hard,” he says. “I shut down my reactions as much as possible, mostly.”
This admission from Lord Apollo - that he also sees that which cannot be prevented - is enough to at least pull her back to the present.
Cassandra sniffles. “You’ve known. Since first you knew me.”
“It was fated.” Apollo doesn’t sound like the charming younger god now. He sounds old and sad. “I loved you greatly, when you began serving me. I would stop it if I could. I would save you and your family if I could. All I can do… is give you this warning.”
She doesn’t know what to say. Thank him? For warning her of her horrific, unavoidable future? Spit on him for subjecting her to this?
She stares dully at the bed before her.
Apollo speaks. “I will not dictate to you what to do. But you should know that if you do not fulfill our arrangement, the prophetic ability will also be affected. Most likely, your prophecies will fall on deaf ears.”
The question of whether she can go through with it is beyond doubt. Not when she’s just seen the savage, gleeful faces of the Achaean soldiers.
For the moment - and she will come to regret this - she chooses to take the gentle hand off her shoulder, though she does still hold it.
“It means the world to me that you will be my strength in this, Lord Apollo,” she says, still shivering from the shock.
He kisses the backs of her knuckles. “We are united in our sorrow, beloved priestess.”
Even knowing it is hopeless, Cassandra is unable to stop trying to warn her family of their horrific doom.
They meet their fates anyway, as does she.
Her one comfort is seeing that Lord Apollo, who knows even better than her that the city is doomed, continues to fight as fiercely in its defense as though it stood a chance.
No seer is able to tell what may have been. Only what will be, and even that is an imperfect picture.
So she’ll never know if things would have been different if she’d allowed Apollo to sleep with her that night. Perhaps she would have known love, before the Achaeans destroyed any concept of it.
But in this one thing, she is satisfied. She has no doubts that she has known Apollo’s love regardless of anything else.
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