Hērmês tuned back into the screens after watching as Apollō led Alina to Wyoming in a bid to reconnect her with Octavius and also help her chase Lukáо̄n down.

The three questers and their satyr protector made their way to Aiolos' palace.

Hērmês turned to the smaller screens which showed Aiolos Nightly! and Olympian Weather.

Gleeson moved away over to Zéphuros' pasture as the god of the west wind was also the messenger of spring. Apóllōn and Huákinthos both huffed, turning their nose up at the sight. The two of them had never forgiven him for his slight (and it was truly a wonder that Venus still allowed the wind god around her son. She was not fond of those that attempted to come between khaos-mates).

Jason, Leo, and Drew walked down the road to the steps of the palace. They passed through the front doors into a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read Olympian Weather Channel, and some that just read OW!

"Hello!" An aetai with cheerfully twinkling brown eyes approached them, her dark hair blowing softly behind her, and her white gown billowed around her like that one picture of Marilyn Monroe (Venus' daughter that she still grieved for). She had a white tablet computer in her hand. "Are you from Lord Ζεύς?" she asked. "We've been expecting you."

"Are you a ghost?" Jason asked. Drew palmed her face.

The smile turned into a pout. "I'm an aura, sir. A wind nymph, as you might expect, working for the lord of the winds. My name is Mellie. We don't have ghosts."

Drew smiled, gracefully. "Of course, you don't. Pardon him. You know how men are in the face of true beauty. And you are beautiful. You remind me of my Mother, Aphrodite. You could honestly be one of my siblings."

"Oh, she's really good," Aglaïa murmured, sitting beside her husband.

"Thank you," Aphrodítē and Apóllōn preened.

Mellie blushed. "Oh ... well, then. So you are from Ζεύς?"

"Er," Jason said, "I'm the son of Zeus, yeah."

Hērmês huffed in amusement. Loopholes gotta love them.

"Excellent! Please, right this way." She led them through some security doors into another lobby, consulting her tablet as she floated. She didn't look where she was going, but apparently it didn't matter as she drifted straight through a marble column with no problem. "We're out of prime time now, so that's good," she mused. "I can fit you in right before his 11:12 spot."

"Um, okay," Jason said.

The smaller screen showed Aiolos' face saying something, but because his makeup terrified all of the gods that dealt with beauty and charm, it was out of immediate view and muted.

It didn't take long for them to reach the central section of Aiolos' fortress though it came after Mellie somewhat flirted with Jason and Veritas had to be held back then she almost walked them into a pit. Mellie led them toward the middle of the chamber, where a loose sphere of flat-panel video screens floated around a kind of control center. A man hovered inside, checking monitors and reading paper airplane messages.

The man paid them no attention as Mellie brought them forward. She pushed a forty-two-inch Sony out of their way and led them into the control area.

Leo whistled. "I got to get a room like this."

Aphrodítē scowled, "It's almost as bad as Árēs' training room."

"Oh, I do not think anything was worse than Hḗphaistos' forge," Aglaïa told her.

Huákinthos snorted softly. "You have not seen the true depths of Apóllōn's garden. Archery field, drums, pianos, guitars, easels everywhere and so much paint mixed together than he was creating new colors, alongside the greenhouse to store medical herbs and powders for other paints and for poisons alongside their antidotes. And that is just the front lawn."

Neither of their lovers said anything in their defense, but Hērmês thought it was a bit hypocritical of Aphrodítē. He had gotten lost—him, the god of travelling! —inside that mall that she called a temple.

And until they had to transverse Diónysos' temple where you had to play hopscotch to avoid steps that either inflicted you with madness or made you inebriated or Phanes' forbid, both then he felt like they had no reason to complain to how good that they had it.

The floating screens showed all sorts of television programs. Thankfully, they were not running the one that they were currently watching, but hm, Hērmês peered closer. There was a new episode of the Real Housewives of Poseiria and he missed it? And oh, there was Apollō's daughter in New Roma once again winning a singing competition for the seventh year in a row. Aside from Octavius and the rest of the late Verus family, she—Krisa—was the pride and joy of her Father in New Roma. Her name was an ancient name for Delphi and her singing had actually healing properties. She regularly spent her time with the children of the Mneiae which actually resemble her Father and the Nine Daughters of Monēta.

At the far end of the sphere was a silky blue backdrop like a cinema screen, with cameras and studio lights floating around it. The man in the center was talking into an earpiece phone. He had a remote control in each hand and was pointing them at various screens, seemingly at random.

Aphrodítē screamed, paling just a bit. Árēs and Hḗphaistos immediately turned to their wives, fanning their faces while covering the sight of Aiolos.

A bit overkill. Aphrodítē always preached that beauty was in the eye of the beholder but well... Aiolos was wearing a business suit that looked like the sky—blue mostly but dappled with clouds that changed and darkened and moved across the fabric. He looked like he was in his sixties, with a shock of white hair, but he had a ton of stage makeup on, and his face had that smoothness that melted plastic had. His eyes darted back and forth from screen to screen, like he was trying to absorb everything at once. He muttered things into his phone, probably speaking with the ordinal wind gods, and his mouth kept twitching.

Drew looked as if she was about to faint, a green tinge to her skin. "That face as a crime against humanity," she murmured, fanning herself before she started to actually cry. "Did... did we do something wrong? Are the gods punishing us?"

Oh, great. She really was as dramatic as her Mother and patron. Hērmês was sure that if Jason wasn't holding her, she would have fainted.

Mellie floated toward him. "Ah, sir, Mr. Aiolos, these demigods—"

"Hold it!" He held up a hand to silence her, then pointed at one of the screens. "Watch!"

It was one of those storm-chaser programs, where insane thrill-seekers drive after tornados. A Jeep plowed straight into a funnel cloud and got tossed into the sky.

Aiolos shrieked with delight. "The Disaster Channel. People do that on purpose!" He turned toward Jason with a mad grin. "Isn't that amazing? Let's watch it again."

"Um, sir," Mellie said, "this is Jason, son of—"

"Yes, yes, I remember," Aeolus said. "You're back. How did it go?"

Jason hesitated. "Sorry? I think you've mistaken me—"

"No, no, Jason Grace, aren't you? It was—what—last year? You were on your way to fight a sea monster, I believe."

Right. He suplexed it during the Second Titanomakhía before conjuring a thunderstorm inside its body, tearing it apart, and allowed it to rain calamari. New Roma had enough to make calamari fritti for weeks and even now they still had some frozen and stored away. Not that he came out completely well from that experience either, passing out immediately afterwards and electrocuting the water around him, but it had still been impressive.

"I—I don't remember."

Aiolos laughed. "Must not have been a very good sea monster! No, I remember every hero who's ever come to me for aid. Odyseús—gods, he docked at my island for a month! At least you only stayed a few days. Now, watch this video. These ducks get sucked straight into—"

"Sir," Mellie interrupted. "Two minutes to air."

"Air!" Aiolos exclaimed. "I love air. How do I look? Makeup!"

Eukleia, the daughter of Hḗphaistos and Aglaïa, fell back and fainted as a small tornado of brushes, blotters, and cotton balls descended on Aiolos. They blurred across his face in a cloud of flesh-tone smoke until his coloration was even more gruesome than before. Wind swirled through his hair and left it sticking up like a frosted Christmas tree.

"Mr. Aeolus." Jason slipped off the golden backpack. "We brought you these rogue storm spirits."

"Did you!" Aiolos looked at the bag like it was a gift from a fan—something he really didn't want. "Well, how nice."

Leo nudged him, and Jason offered the bag. "Boreas sent us to capture them for you. We hope you'll accept them and stop—you know—ordering demigods to be killed."

Father sat forward, with a brow raised.

Aiolos laughed, and looked incredulously at Mellie. "Demigods be killed—did I order that?"

Mellie checked her computer tablet. "Yes, sir, fifteenth of September. 'Storm spirits released by the death of Typháōn, demigods to be held responsible,' etc... yes, a general order for them all to be killed."

"Oh, pish," Aiolos said. "I was just grumpy. Rescind that order, Mellie, and um, who's on guard duty—Teriyaki?—Teri, take these storm spirits down to cell block Fourteen E, will you?"

A harpy swooped out of nowhere, snatched the golden bag, and spiraled into the abyss.

Aiolos grinned at Jason. "Now, sorry about that kill-on-sight business. But gods, I really was mad, wasn't I?" His face suddenly darkened, and his suit did the same, the lapels flashing with lightning. "You know ... I remember now. Almost seemed like a voice was telling me to give that order. A little cold tingle on the back of my neck."

Hērmês raised a brow, turning his gaze to look at Apóllōn, remembering the reactions of Khiónē. It seemed to be a stretch, but they were nothing but flexible. He sighed as Aiolos perked up to give a news cast, but his family were pulling out stacks of orders for the mortals that had somehow displeased them.

Aiolos gave her a considering look before he drawled, "I suppose, child of Ouranía."

A voice blared from floating speakers: "And now, weather every twelve minutes! Here's your forecaster for Olympian Weather—the OW! channel —Aiolos!"

Lights blazed on Aiolos and Drew, who was now standing in front of the blue screen. His smile was unnaturally white, and he looked like he'd had so much caffeine his face was about to explode. Drew smiled charmingly and Aphrodítē carefully pushed Árēs out of the way, bringing up a camcorder. "Her first televised performance," the goddess sniffled.

"Hello, Olympus! Aiolos, master of the winds here, with weather every twelve! Today we have a special guest. Tanaka Aeri, daughter of her Lady Aphrodítē Ouranía. She'll be doing our forecast for the twelve!"

Drew gave the camera another smile though everyone that knew her personally saw that flash of rage in her eyes as she read the script in front of them. "We'll have a low-pressure system moving over Florida today, so expect milder temperatures since Demeter wishes to spare the citrus farmers!" Aiolos gestured at the screen that looked to be an image of The United States. In another twelve minutes, they'd be moving on to another country. Poseidón grumbled from his screen, sending his own orders in.

"Along the eastern seaboard—just a moment." Drew tapped her hand against the headset before smiling prettily once more. "Apologies, everyone. It seems that Lord Poseidon is displeased with Miami today. That Florida freeze will return in the early morning, lasting for twelve days and twelve nights. We can possibly get some icy winds to go alongside it. That should teach the mortals to respect the earth and put more focus on climate change."

They all blinked; sharing looks with each other. That was... that was really new. Interesting. In all the centuries of hosting Olympian Weather, they had never had someone compromise on their orders. Even Aiolos looked shocked while she focused back on the script. "Over in the Midwest, I'm not sure what St. Louis did to offend Father Zeus, but you can expect winter storms! Lord Boreas himself is being called down to punish the area with ice. Maybe we can send Lord Boreas to Miami while his daughter, Khione, focuses the wrath of the gods on Missouri, hm? Bad news, Missouri!"

Did she—did she just smoothly connect three different orders in one? Even giving Khiónē a chance to shine instead of leaving her to regulate the countries that were situated far from the equator.

"Oh, wait. It seems that Lord Hephaistos feels sorry for central Missouri. The temperature will steadily rise and fall in more moderate temperatures and sunny skies. Two brushes with one handle. Lady Khione and Lady Oaxos could work around each other. Theoi tou Iatrikoi led by Lord Apollo should be on standby. The constant temperature change shall increase this year's flu season victims."

She kept going like that-forecasting each area of the country and changing the prediction two or three times as she got messages over her earpiece. The throne room was in shambles tripping over themselves to give orders just to see what she would do. Soon enough, half of it was cleared out to attend to the tasks that were cropping up from the seamless way that she did everything. Even some daughter of Poseidón, Kymopoleia, had gotten something to do and how did Drew know her when most of them had forgotten the exiled princess?

Aiolos looked increasingly shocked the more that she found solutions and compromises for each order. And Drew just smiled charmingly, joking around with every order and suggestion she was given. Though Hērmês was not fond of the way that Aiolos stared at her like a blind man being granted sight for the first time.

"And that's the weather," Aiolos concluded after a while. He cleared his throat before smiling once more at the camera. "See you in twelve minutes, because I'm sure it'll change!"

The lights shut off; the video monitors went back to random coverage but the rest of them were only staring in shock.

"Aphrodítē," Father said after a moment. The goddess hummed, focused on her camcorder as she replayed her daughter's segment. "Tell Aiolos that he's fired and tell your daughter that she's hired."

Aphrodítē coughed, eyes snapping to him. The God of gods was staring at the screens where the demigoddess had taken over one to use as a mirror, fluffing her hair and checking her own makeup.

Their attention was drawn back to the screen when Aiolos started whining. "I'm always helping! Well, sometimes I'm destroying, but mostly I'm helping, and sometimes I'm asked to do both at the same time! Why, Aineías, the first of your kind—"

"My kind?" Jason asked. "You mean, demigods?"

"Ha!" Enȳṓ barked. "It's been so many that it's hard to remember who the first demigod was!"

"Oh, please!" Aiolos said. "I mean your line of demigods. You know, Aineíās, son of Venus—the only surviving hero of Troy. When the Greeks burned down his city, he escaped to Italy, where he founded the kingdom that would eventually become Rome, blah, blah, blah. That's what I meant."

Father sighed, rubbing his hand against his face. "No one remembers their oaths anymore."

Hērmês found that a bit hypocritical as he was the one to first break his oath to not siring anymore children even if Thalia did need to be born to center herself as the last piece of Luke's dark fate.

"I don't get it," Jason admitted.

Aiolos rolled his eyes. "The point being, I was thrown in the middle of that conflict, too! Iūnō calls up: 'Oh, Aiolos, destroy Aineíās's ships for me. I don't like him.' Then Neptūnus says, 'No, you don't! That's my territory. Calm the winds.' Then Iūnō is like, 'No, wreck his ships, or I'll tell Iūpiter you're uncooperative!' Do you think it's easy juggling requests like that?"

"No," Jason said. "I guess not."

"And don't get me started on Amelia Earhart! I'm still getting angry calls from Olympos about knocking her out of the sky!"

The angry mumbling from those callers started up again and Hērmês avoided looking at any of them. It was none of their business on when exactly he led her to the Underworld.

"We just want information," Drew said in her most calming voice. "We hear you know everything."

Aiolos straightened his lapels and looked slightly mollified. "Well ... that's true, of course. For instance, I know that this business here"—he waggled his fingers at the three of them—"this harebrained scheme of Iūnō's to bring you all together is likely to end in bloodshed. As for you, Drew Tanaka, I know your khaos-mate." He held out his hand, and a scrap of paper fluttered into his grasp. It was a photo of Ethan and Drew on it; that date the two of them had for her birthday the same winter break that his Leaneíras had been kidnapped.

Drew took the photo. Her hands were shaking, and she choked back a sob. "How did you—?"

"All things lost in the wind eventually come to me. The photo blew away when the Earthborn captured him," Aiolos said.

Hērmês felt something ache within him. To see the girl that his brother and sister were so fond of, the girl that his Leaneíras dearly adored, the girl he watched grow... it was such a sad thing to see. She was doing well to fight back her tears, but nevertheless, one see the heartache on her face.

Aiolos laughter brought him out of his thoughts. "Really? Just the key to your success! Now, where were we? Ah, yes, you wanted information. Are you sure about that? Sometimes information can be dangerous." He smiled at Jason like he was issuing a challenge. Behind him, Mellie shook her head in warning.

"Yeah," Jason said. "We need to find the lair of Enceladus."

Aiolos' smile melted. "The giant? Why would you want to go there? He's horrible! He doesn't even watch my program!"

Drew gasped, horrified. Aiolos gave her a sad nod, not even realizing that she was playing him. She held up the photo. "Aeolus, he has my blessing. The one person that's for me. My miracle. My gift. My heart. My soul." With every word, the tears streamed down her face faster. "I agápi apotelíte apó mia psihí pu katikí se dío sómata. We need to rescue him and find out where Hera is being held captive."

"Now, that's impossible," Aiolos said. "Even I can't see that, and believe me, I've tried. There's a veil of magic over Hḗrē's location—very strong, impossible to locate."

"She's at a place called the Wolf House," Jason said.

"Hold on!" Aiolos put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. Hērmês rolled his eyes. "I'm getting something! Yes, she's at a place called the Wolf House! Sadly, I don't know where that is."

"Enceladus does," Drew persisted, and there was that rage in her eyes. Almost maniac in nature. Almost if she had to carve the location out of Aiolos' body, then she would. "If you help us find him, we could get the location of the goddess and save her. She'd be really grateful, and we can throw in some good words about you. I mean, seriously, think on it, mi'lord, Queen Hera speaking in your favor which can also prompt your Father, Lord Poseidon, to vouch for you."

"Why am I in it," Poseidón grumbled.

"And who knows, if you lend us a hand, Lord Hephaestus and Lord Apollo and Mother may even agree for once. Lord Zeus might promote you."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Father snorted.

Aiolos' eyebrows crept up. "A promotion—and all you want from me is the giant's location?"

"Well, if you could get us there, too," Jason amended, "that would be great."

Mellie clapped her hands in excitement. "Oh, he could do that! He often sends helpful winds—"

"Mellie, quiet!" Aiolos snapped. "I have half a mind to fire you for letting these people in under false pretenses."

Her face paled. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

"It wasn't her fault," Jason said. "But about that help ..."

Father pressed a hidden button upon his throne. "I will allow this assistance though I suppose it would be better to save her until after the weekend, you know we have that party planned—"

"A PARTY," Aphrodítē screeched. "NEED I REMIND YOU THAT THE SOLSTICE WILL BE STARTING AT DAWN!"

The rest of the meeting descended into khaos as they started yelling, Apóllōn was switching between limericks and haikus, each more threatening than the last with eyes bleeding gold.

"QUIET," Hestia thundered, the flames of the hearth searing, reaching high to the wide bronze sky and searing the old man's body.

The sound cut off abruptly.

The eldest daughter of Krónos huffed, smoothing out her peplos before returning to stoke the flames.

"Well," Artemis drawled. "You heard her."

"And Aeolus here was just about to help us," Jason was saying.

"Yes," the wind lord muttered. "It seems so. You'll find Enkélados on Mount Diablo."

"Devil Mountain?" Leo asked. "That doesn't sound good."

"That's, um, oh!" Drew said. "It's just east of San Francisco Bay."

"The Bay Area again?" The coach shook his head. "Not good. Not good at all."

"Now ..." Aiolos began to smile. "As to getting you there—"

Suddenly his face went slack. He bent over and tapped his earpiece as if it were malfunctioning. When he straightened again, his eyes were wild. Despite the makeup, he looked like an old man—an old, very frightened man. "She hasn't spoke to me for centuries. I can't—yes, yes I understand."

The flames within the ever-burning, divine hearth-fire spluttered.

Aiolos swallowed, regarding Jason as if he had suddenly turned into a giant cockroach. Looks of wariness and fear were shared around the room. "I'm sorry, son of Iūpiter. New orders. You all have to die."

Mellie squeaked. "But—but, sir! Ζεύς said to help them. Aphrodítē, Apóllōn, Hḗphaistos—"

"Mellie!" Aiolos snapped. "Your job is already on the line. Besides, there are some orders that transcend even the wishes of the gods, especially when it comes to the forces of nature."

"Whose orders?" Jason said. "Zeus will fire you if you don't help us!"

"I doubt it." Aiolos flicked his wrist, and far below them, a cell door opened in the pit. The venti were spiraling upwards, ready to be unleashed upon the mortals. "Even Ζεύς understands the order of things," Aiolos said which was true. Father could not prevent the way of destiny and it was foretold once again, that the giant would have to be defeated to secure the reign of the Olympians. "And if she is waking—by all the gods—she cannot be denied. Good-bye, heroes. I'm terribly sorry, but I'll have to make this quick. I'm back on the air in four minutes."

Jason summoned his sword. Gleeson pulled out his club. Drew nocked three explosive arrows. Mellie yelled, "No!" She dived at their feet just as the storm spirits hit with hurricane force, blasting the floor to pieces, shredding the carpet samples and marble and linoleum into what should've been lethal projectiles, had Mellie's robes not spread out like a shield and absorbed the brunt of the impact. The five of them fell into the pit, and Aiolos screamed above them, "Mellie, you are so fired!"

"Quick," Mellie yelled. "Son of Ζεύς, do you have any power over the air?"

"A little!"

"Then help me, or you're all dead!" Mellie grabbed his hand. The storm spirits were following them down, closing rapidly, bringing with them a cloud of deadly shrapnel.

Jason grabbed Drew's hand. "Group hug!" Gleeson, Leo, and Drew tried to huddle together, hanging on to Jason and Mellie as they fell.

"This is NOT GOOD!" Leo yelled.

"Bring it on, gas bags!" Gleeson yelled up at the storm spirits. "I'll pulverize you!"

"He's magnificent," Mellie sighed.

"Concentrate?" Jason prompted.

"Right!" she said.

Mellie's robes billowed around her. Jason and the others clung to her desperately, and they began to slow down, but the storm spirits were screaming into the tunnel behind them.

"Can't—hold—long," Mellie warned. "Stay together! When the winds hit—"

"You're doing great, Mellie," Gleeson said. "My own mama was an aura, you know. She couldn't have done better herself."

"Iris-message me?" Mellie pleaded.

Gleeson winked.

"Please let me or my siblings plan your date later?" Drew begged before she screamed. "Look!"

Behind them, the tunnel was turning dark. The gods sat at the edges of their thrones.

"Can't hold them," Mellie warned. "But I'll try to shield you, do you one more favor."

"Thanks, Mellie," Jason said. "I hope you get a new job."

She smiled, and then dissolved, wrapping them in a warm gentle breeze. Then the real winds hit, shooting them into the sky so fast, they all blacked out.

Aphrodítē rushed to Hērmês, hauling him to his feet. "You will lead me to her dreams or so help me..."

Hērmês put his hands up.

Please. He wasn't stupid.

WORD COUNT: 4377

WORDS TO KNOW:

1) Homer called them (auras) aetai so ima call them aetai.

2) Mneiae - its another name for the Moûsai, i cant remember where I found this exactly but I do have it notated. But its obviously in relation to the fact their Mother is Mnemosyne. I'm utilizing it as their Latin designation.

3) Monēta - the roman goddess of memory. Her greek equivalent would be Mnemosyne

THINGS TO KNOW:

1A) So, Ancient Greece does have an apocalypse. Not just the whole lifting of the veil thing, but more so in that "Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men also when they come to have grey hair on the temples at their birth."

1B) And then Aidos and Nemesis [shame of wrongdoing and indignation against the wrongdoer], with their sweet forms wrapped in white robes, will go from the wide-pathed earth and forsake mankind to join the company of the deathless gods: and bitter sorrows will be left for mortal men, and there will be no help against evil.

1C) It's kind of like the Antichrist spreading his power all over the world and humans abandon the light of the gods, committing sins upon sins and then Zeus finally wipes them all out.

1D) "But, notwithstanding, even these shall have some good mingled with their evils" and the gods are known to reward those.

1E) But let me stop because I'm not about to get into debates about religion because i have my beliefs and you have yours but I do find that interesting.

1F) (Also, I truly believe that we are still in the Iron Age. Like I'm not talking ages of humanity but more so spirituality.)

TRANSLATIONS:

1) I agápi apotelíte apó mia psihí pu katikí se dío sómata. - "Love consists of one soul that is living within two bodies."

1A) This phrase belongs to Aristotle, one of the most famous ancient Greek philosophers.

1B) Greek: Η αγάπη αποτελείται από μία ψυχή που κατοικεί σε δύο σώματα.

COMMENTS FROM THE AUTHOR:

1) tiktok has this effect which tells you what your omega-verse rank is and i pressed it for shits and giggles. It didn't even spin. I put my face in the camera and it went: okay, you look-girl dont waste my time. you are an omega!

1A) Like wow, I am a victim of discrimination no matter what while believing in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes/genders no matter what huh.