Percy Jackson
All jokes aside, Quebec was a pretty sweet city. Less claustrophobic in comparison to New York and less crowded. The train had been delayed en route due to an incident with a Rhino-sized hellhound, likely expecting to find a conveniently sized snack in the form of a young undiscovered demigod. The hell-hound had very much misjudged.
Jason took a while to find the hotel in question. Shortly before lunchtime, they finally walked up to the grand building into an equally grand entrance hall decorated with granite and marble. They were a great sight to be held for sure, Percy and Jason dressed in Greek and Roman armor, respectively. The hunt fell in a double line behind them, bows or swords in hands. No one, not the two security guards, more the guests, and receptionists, spared them a single glance as they advanced on the elevator and entered.
"We will be expected," Thalia warned as they ascended up the building to the tune of Fools Garden's Lemon Tree.
"I assume so," Jason agreed with his sister and shoulder-bumped her.
Percy said nothing, only pulling Riptide from his pocket in its pen form and fingering the weapon, his ADHD anticipating the fight.
When the doors finally slid open to the chime of a bell, cold winter air flooded into the room. It looked as if a winter bomb had exploded to Percy, plastering everything in an inch-thick sheet of ice.
Persian carpets lay spread out on top of the ice hockey field-like floor offering safe traverse and when Percy's sneakers touched them he felt frost cracking under his soul. His breath escaped him in thick clouds.
"This brings back bad memories," Thalia murdered while Adrianna sniggered.
Finally, they stepped in. Percy noticed it first, some mist swirling in a barely noticeable yet peculiar manner.
"Two o'clock," Percy muttered.
"What...oh I see it," Thalia whispered.
"Lord Boreas, we have arrived to execute the will of Zeus," Percy announced loudly.
"Could you sound any more cliche?" Thalia hissed and Percy bumped her with his shoulder.
Suddenly the large double doors opened and admitted them into a frozen throneroom decorated with the icy statues of warriors. Like in the entrance hall, the lighting was pail and cold.
On the throne, Percy spotted an older stocky fellow with purple wings and a long frozen beard. He also wore an impressive suit that was so white it might as well have been made of snow.
"Ah, Olympus's newest celebrity finds his way to us," Boreas announced, his voice booming in the vacant room. The door slammed shut behind them and Boreas looked up at them coldly. "And by Lord Zeus's command no less. So what brings you to us?"
"You are aware of your daughter shifting allegiance during the war, right?" Percy decided, getting straight to the point.
"Are you going to claim her hand?" Boreas asked as if the idea amused him.
"I am here for her, but not to marry her. The council has charged me to take her into custody and bring her back to the council." Percy had no wish to go into the details.
Boreas sighed, looking somewhat disappointed. "Pity, the reputation of your might and character proceeds you Perseus. I should have known though that Hera would not allow me to discipline my daughter on my own. A strong husband might have helped her attitude. The fates know I've tried."
Percy took the compliment with a curt nod while some of the girls present cringed at the quite sexist notion that any woman, even Khione, merrily needed a firm-handed man to teach them their place.
"Lord Boreas, would you summon your daughter so we may conclude this unpleasant business," Thalia asked, clearly trying to sound polite and not to shiver too visibly.
"Ah, the hunt. She wanted to join your ranks when she was younger...silly notions."
The members of the hunt present exchanged uncomfortable glances.
Finally, the God of the north wind seemed to square up his shoulders. "As you are aware, my children attempted a coup d'etat. For the time being, my sons, Zethes and Calaïs have already been repurposed," he announced, pointing towards two ice statues, a skinny and a giant of an ice statue. "My daughter is contemplating her decisions in the basement," he announced.
Boreas rose from his throne and sighed. "Too much of her mother in her, I suppose. Perhaps I should have been more involved in her upbringing."
Percy didn't comment. Something made him suspect that Jason's assessment of Boreas hadn't been very accurate. To Percy, he seemed a worse parent than most gods he had met were. Many could only be charged with apathy. This dude was a dick. "I will discuss the matter with Orythia," the gods mused to himself. "Don't think she knows her daughter is in the dungeon..must have slipped my mind."
Instead, he clapped his hands, and the frozen forms of Zethes and Calaïs began to move.
"Lead our guests downstairs. They may take your sister with them. Make sure they do not poke around. I will see you off in the lobby," Boreas announced.
Percy exchanged a glance with Thalia and Jason, who only shrugged. As one might assume, considering their escort, they had not expected this quest to go quite so smoothly.
The two ice figures led them back to the elevator. A new button had appeared in the elevator a foot below the button for the basement.
The skinny of the two statues pressed it. With a hard lurch, the elevator suddenly rushed into movement, hurdling down the shaft into the deep.
The air had been cool in the throne room, but the lights faded, and the temperature quickly dropped too far below freezing. The girls wore their silver camp jackets, so they were fine. However, considering that Percy was shivering, he guessed that Jason felt it a lot more than he did.
"I have to say, being a popsicle definitely improves Zethes," Jason finally announced and brushed some frost from his hair.
"I concur," Thalia muttered, and a few huntresses snorted in agreement.
Their guides stood perfectly motionless and showed no sign of having registered their comment.
"I hope she struggles. We are going to rough her up...we can rough her up, right?" Melissa asked, bouncing on the front of her feet in anticipation.
"Sure," Thalia replied offhandedly. "Give the bitch a haircut."
Then she looked over at Percy. "We can do that, right?"
"I understand she is somewhat incapacitated, but if she becomes a threat, you are welcome to overpower her," Percy offered generously.
"So no haircutting?" Thalia asked.
"Nooooo..." Percy trailed off.
"Then Harry Potter glasses and scar...I brought a permanent marker, not sure if it will hold on a goddess though," Juliette announced and pulled out said marker. "Hope the fucking ink doesn't freeze."
"Language, Juliette," Amberly warned calmly. "And I don't think you will get to draw another one. Besides, didn't last time go and enough "
"Phoebe shouldn't have gotten that drunk," Juliette argued and threateningly uncapped the marker.
"No Harry Potter scar," Thalia announced firmly and looked over at Percy, clearly slightly embarrassed. "Sorry," she mouthed.
Percy shrugged.
"You know, back in my day, we would have sold her off on some pleasure house in Piraeus," Ariadne announced firmly.
"You would have sold a goddess of on a slave market?" Thalia asked doubtfully and Percy got the suspicion that this wasn't the first "old-timer" story she had been subjected to. "This isn't exactly some nymphomaniac nymph that you caught hooking up against the side of Artemis's temple on the Acropolis..."
"You know what I mean," Ariadne put the criticism off.
"What did you do with the guy?" Percy asked curiously.
Ariadne grinned at him sweetly.
"Jackalope?" Percy asked.
"Artemis, Zoe, and I caught them while getting shitfaced on the city's offerings. By the goddess, that girl could drink." At this, Jason snorted, earning a bunch of nasty looks from everyone but Percy and Thalia.
Truth be told, hearing thirteen-year-old girls talking about getting shitfaced...it took getting used to.
"Gloating is fine, right?" Penelope asked.
"Gloating is fine," Percy conceded.
"Then we shall gloat without mercy."
So they stood in dim twilight and watched as the frost rapidly formed on the elevator's granite walls. After what felt close to a lifetime, the elevator finally came to a screeching halt. Once again, the door opened to the chime of that bell into a dark cavelike tunnel lit by touches burning a dark and cold blue. The floor was a smooth conscious sheet of ice. The wall was flanked by countless further statues, all souls that had fallen out of Boreas favor.
Zethes and Calais led them down the tunnel. They passed Iron cell doors as they proceeded down the hall, taking care not to slip on the frozen floor.
"I told you that you should have packed a pullover," Thalia hissed at Jason, who clearly was neither enjoying the cold, nor his sister claiming the right of the holder sister to chastise him. Finally, they stopped inside one of the doors, and Calais pulled forth a key and unlocked the door.
Percy's breath caught, not only due to the wave of even colder air that rolled over them. The goddess was as beautiful as she had been described to him.
She wore a pail white chiton, and her skin was as pale as freshly fallen snow. Her long raven hair fanned out around her head like some peculiar crown and her lips were quite full.
Khione was lying on her back on top of what looked like a marble block or altar. Her wrists and ankles were chained to the block by fairly glowing celestial bronze chains, her arms rested at her sides. Her wrists were cuffed with more celestial bronze chains, binding the goddess's wrists to the altar.
In just about any other setting, it would have been a sensual position, and in another context, her slender yet surprisingly curvy body might have given the setting an erotic touch. It went without saying that there wasn't.
Her body was already half-covered by ice. Jagged crystals grew up to her right like long daggers as the ice seemed to slowly expand until it would one day soon permanently form a very cold sarcophagus, already covering much of her hair. To finish off the quite concerning vibes Percy was getting, Khione glowed with cold pail light.
The cell was equally impressive. A reasonably sized cave, held up by heavy square pillars. Frozen blue fires roared in large bronze braziers, lighting the room with a cold ambiance. Jagged crystals of ice hugging the bases of the pillars glowed in a cold radiant blue, adding their light to the dimly lit chamber.
Everything in the cell, save the altar, was covered in a layer of frost and ice as if someone had blown an icing bomb.
The goddess was positioned sideways to the door, so as the door opened with a nail-curling screech, the goddess slowly turned her head and looked up at them. Percy didn't know how he could tell in the poor lighting, but somehow, he knew that her eyes were a hard coffee brown.
The goddess looked them over slowly. "Why have you come?"
Well, I hope you do enjoy yourself. This has been fun to write. Looking forward to writing the next part. Anyway, I command that you join our boy Ronin and me on discord. Here is the invite code. 9kT6Qbn Feel free to ping me any time. Unless I am sleeping, I usually respond quite quickly. I have just commissioned some new fanart with Khione. The second version of Piper is up. Kindly do leave a Review.
I command
With regards,
Henry James Locker over and out.