afd;skj, I saw the ending coming (not because it was too obvious but basically because, you know, I'm a huge classic myth geek so ritual sacrifices are basically par for the course in my mind) but it still totally broke my heart, UGH. POOR ELOISE. POOR KATINA. I think you are a wonderful teacher but seriously if you ever DO want to quit your day job I feel like you would have a genuinely promising career as a writer? I don't say this to disparage any of the other writers on LJ, but there are a lot of people who know how to put words together but no idea how to write a proper story (myself included!) but you are really great at doing both, and that's definitely not something I say to just anybody.