Edited: 7/11/2015

His blue eyes darted over the horizon as the white fox stepped closer to him. He was leaning casually on the ice wall behind him, not at all bothered by the cold weather and snow in Quebec.

»An Arctic fox? How fitting. Cold as the snow and sly like a fox,« he said with a mischievous smirk. As the words left his mouth, the snow seemed to start circling the animal until the man could not see it anymore. The snow calmed down after a few seconds and there was a beautiful woman standing in front of him.

»Hello, Khione.«

»It's been a while, Hermes.«

The man, Hermes, smiled at Khione and pushed himself off the wall. The Olympian took a few steps closer to the stunning pale goddess until there was only a foot of cold air between them. Her face was like stone, no emotions showing, her hair was black like the night and her eyes, staring back at his… Oh, dear Zeus, her coffee brown eyes, too warm for her cold personality were what took his breath away everytime we looked at them. They were, too, just like her face, void of anything, but he thought he caught a hint of fondness in them. Fondness of what? Memories... Long lost memories, memories of her old life, from her old family, from that night when they-… No, he probably saw nothing but a small amount of irritation as always.

»Everything alright on Olympus?« she asks him coldly, while he still stares in her eyes. »Of course, why do you ask?« A smile, she finally gave him a hint of a smile, but it was gone as soon as it showed.

»Because you came. And you never come, unless it is of urgency.« She turned her face away now. Nobody ever comes. Not after Sa-

»Oh.« The god took a step back to increase the distance between them just for a bit, because he knew what she meant with that. Because he also remembers. His playful mood was gone. He turns around, mumbling something about a letter from the council, and searches for the said letter in his mail back. His curly black hair fell into his eyes but he didn't bother to push them away. When he found what he was looking for, he straightened his posture and turned back to the waiting Khione with a small apologetic smile. »You probably know everything about the Titan war with Kronos last summer, right.. Well, I know I'm a bit late, but here is the letter with the whole 'We're sorry for mistreating the minor gods' and 'if you need a cabin at camp, contact Chiron or a satyr in charge…'and so on.«

The snow goddess took two small and graceful steps closer to the messenger god. She took the letter from his hands and frowned at the cursive writing on it. Khione, daughter of Boreas, the snow goddess. While she was reading, Hermes quickly found the letters for her father and two brothers and gave them to her. »You know, for a god of speed, among other things, you seem to be rather slow in thinking. You could just zap them here, you didn't have to actually come.« While talking, Khione made the the pieces of paper crumble, leaving only traces of snow behind. But she didn't look at him, not once.

He sent her an another smile, because he seemed to smile a lot around her. Most of all, he wanted to see hersmile. »Well, yeah, I could just do that. But maybe I wanted to see you again. It has been so long since I saw you. It's been a while since anyone from Olympus saw you. You could come back sometimes.« By now she has completely discarded her indifferent look, now she seemed only a bit tired and was looking at him a with a sceptical frown. »You know, after…« Hermes trailed off…

At that, Khione gave him a cold look again, as if she hadn't been (even if only just a bit) relaxed a minute ago. She looked straight into his eyes, as she could see right into his immortal soul. »After Sais.« she finished what he couldn't. The usually mischievous god now looked as if somebody slapped him across his face and she just might, it would still be better than bringing Sais up.Or with other words, Khione's second godly child, the first being an offspring of her and Poseidon. Sais,the result of a very drunk night after a big celebration on Olympus, of a very passionate night between Khione and himself. Sais,his daughter. But the Fates must have hated her, because the second she was born, a powerful young goddess, Sais died. Khione screamed that night. She killed a whole mortal town in her blind rage, in her blind sadness. And the Olympians almost cast her out for that, but they didn't. She was simply sent away, back to her father. No one visited her after that, because 'the Fates hated her' and 'she brought bad luck' and they were scared of her. Khione hated Olympus for that. But Hermes missed her and felt guilty, because nobody knew who was Sais' father, only that he was powerful. So many years ago… And, oh, those memories hurt Hermes so bad, but there was nothing he could do.

He was brought back to reality when he felt the cold wind blow in his face and he turned away, planning on leaving silently, leaving footprints in the soft snow. But right before he flashed away, he stopped himself and turned back to the beautiful pale snow goddess, with her beautiful full red lips he once kissed passionately.

No matter how hurt and how angry was he because of his daughter's death, it was nothing compared to Khione. »You know Gaea is rising, don't you?«

She smiled an sad and apologetic smile, looking him in his eyes, coffee brown meeting sky blue and he knew the answer. And he know she shouldn't really know that, because only the 12 Olympians and the uprising enemies knew that and she knows that too. He might not understand how she would go to that extreme to get revenge, but he at least knows why.

»Goodbye, Hermes.«

With that she faded into the snow and he flashed out. The next time they saw each other was on a bloody battlefield.