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Chapter Text

The morning on the first day of summer signalled the impending arrival of the remaining half-blood children at Banhyeol Hall, located on a remote terrain on the outskirts of Incheon, South Korea. Banhyeol Hall, the half-blood sanctuary built over a graveyard of dead titans following the war between Zeus and Kronos, was home to the only living half-blood children of the Greek Gods following their limited stay in the Southern district of Korea.

There was something in the air following the few years that the Gods lingered in the Eastern Asian border, birthing a round of powerful half-blood sons, that Banhyeol Hall protected during the summer when the demons of the Underworld came out the play.

The singular son of Zeus remained as a permanent resident of Banhyeol Hall, following the death of his mother at the age of 4. Crying, with pants soiled in fear, her dying breath led him across the access point to Banhyeol; a bridge of stone carved like a half-moon crescent over a green riverbank, where tall beams of aged wood sprouted from the tunnel's head and sat, with the traditional structure of an old Joseon Hanok roof.

With pockets drenched in cooling river water, the child of the most powerful of Gods, slipped upon the rocky bank, his divine blood seeping into the water and lighting a path of safety to Banhyeol Hall in the further distance. In his time at the residency, he barely spoke a word or two, and found comfort in the drawings he etched into bits of old paper with coloured crayons.

His uncle, Chiron, remained at his side in the first few years following the tragedy, and was forced to return to the American oceans when the child had turned 10. In his absence, the nymph, Cyllene, lingered at the Eastern border to keep the child company in his time at the Banhyeol, until the call of the Gods led other half-bloods to the premises every summer.

Choi Seung-cheol, singular son of Zeus upon Earth, seemed to have been 'getting on a bit', according to his older brother, Apollo, who had stopped by recently to acquire a rare flower in his bet against Dionysus. At 21 years of age, Seung-cheol could have agreed that he was most definitely growing too old for the likes of the so-called mythical world he was born into.

And at night, when he was far from his own conscious mind, he dreamt of reality which offered the love he once craved. With a deep exhale, he lowered the frame of the picture of his four-year-old self coddled in his mother's arms, placing it upon the empty bedside table of his dorm room.

The sound of his nephews arriving at Banhyeol Hall almost made his ears ring; the overly bright sons of Apollo gracing his summer morning with a little more brightness than he had initially hoped for. He almost fell onto his mattress when the both of them burst through the door of the Zeus dorm, their arms simultaneously thrown over him in a rough tackling motion.

He almost fell forward, and just about managed to keep his feet steady, his biceps flexing beneath the fabric of his half-sleeve grey shirt as he lifted each of them with a singular hand, pulling them in front of him until they fell back onto his mattress. He exhaled shortly after, fixing the messy grey strands of his hair, and narrowing his deep brown gaze towards his nephews when crossing the frame of his lean, muscular arms across his chest.

'Have the others arrived?'

'You know- you don't have to act miserable all the time.' Seok-min responded with a deep exhale of defeat, leaning forward to sit up on the edge of his uncle's mattress.

Lee Seok-min was the fraternal twin to Lee Ji-hoon; the pair of them born to the same God of light. At the age of 7, Seok-min had caused a solar eclipse whilst trying to defend his twin from bullies at school, and by 12, Ji-hoon had become a child prodigy, able to manipulate the human brain by the strum of an instrument.

And every year, when summer rolled around, they returned to Banhyeol Hall to remain with their favourite uncle until the new school semester came around once again. Ji-hoon glanced aside at his twin brother for a moment before lifting himself up to blink at his uncle's partially unamused expression.

'I'm not miserable-'

'Just a little-' Seok-min grovelled beneath the tone of his breath, clearing the frame of his throat momentarily to avoid the rough glare of his uncle.

'To answer your question... no- we're the first to arrive.' Ji-hoon muttered rather quickly, trying to cover the words of his twin to avoid getting scolded within the first five minutes of returning to Banhyeol Hall for the summer.

'Mmh-' Seung-cheol mumbled, fixing the softer strands of his grey hair as he turned sharp on the heel of his combat boots to step outside of the Zeus dorm at the top floor of the Hanok.

His nephews followed reluctantly in his step, down the corridor of the traditional Joseon Hanok house, and towards the Apollo dorm at the opposite end of the hall. They pulled their luggage into their shared room as Seung-cheol continued down the creaky polished wooden stairs to the front doors.

He stepped aside, rather quick in his movements to open all the windows and doors, letting the morning light stream into the wooden panels of the huge Korean Hanok. Seung-cheol ducked his head beneath the lower wooden beam at the front door and stepped out onto the patio to overlook the camp grounds at Banhyeol.

The fields were lush and green beneath the summer sun, hills rolling into the distance where the woods began, huge shoots of evergreens lining the camp grounds and surrounding the large stone firepit, where offerings to the Gods were made during dinner.

To the further right were lines of grape fields, held together by the son of Dionysus, with vegetation growing across the field length and down towards the side of the Hanok, fruits and starchy vegetables grown across the main lawn of their campsite. The remainder of the fields were a little plain, a small outdoor house used to build weapons and keep storage, with lines of woven archery targets located directly before the forest clearing.

The open reach of the forest had thick lines of rope attached from tree to tree, the thick brown trunks holding tightly bound ropes in the air at the start of their assault course used for Demi-God training. To the left and around the backside of the Hanok, stood the half-moon archway; the entrypoint to Banhyeol Hall at the rocky bank of a green river that flowed across a separate path and through the woods.

'Miss me?'

Seung-cheol was almost caught off guard and nearly jolted at the sound of another, a large arm slung around his shoulders, as the elder grovelled beneath the frame of his throat and exhaled rather quietly to calm the tensions forming in his muscles;

'I see your speed has increased.'

'I spent the winter running on water.' Min-gyu exhaled in amusement, a wide smile tugging on the edges of his lips to expose the pearly white rows of his teeth.

Kim Min-gyu, despite his larger frame, was one of the youngest half-blood children at Banhyeol Hall, at 18 years of age. As the singular known son of Hermes, he had inherited supernatural speed from his father's Godly talents, giving him the ability to travel through different realms at unknown speeds.

It was all fun and games for Min-gyu, until his speed had led him to the Underworld at the age of 6, forcing him to spend an entire afternoon with his great-uncle Hades, until Hermes retrieved him from the pit of the damned, and returned him to Earth.

He sped around his uncle, kicking up dust from the gravel path beneath their feet, as Seung-cheol crossed the frame of his arms over his chest and fell silent, blinking at him with a ragged tone of defeat. When he finished teasing his favourite relative, Min-gyu picked up his yellow duffel and threw it over his muscular shoulder when speeding up the stairs and into the Hermes dorm, next door to Apollo.

Seung-cheol stepped around the side of the Hanok and hesitated momentarily when noticing the son of Athena seated on the swing-chair that Chan had built last summer for them to enjoy. He narrowed his gaze and approached him, keeping a little distance between them for his own peace of mind;

'When did you arrive?'

'Half an hour ago-' The latter responded with a short exhale.

Jeon Won-woo was the singular son of Athena at Banhyeol Hall, his eyes glued to the newspaper held between his fingers, using his right hand to scribble away at the back of the crossword puzzle. He nudged the frame of his black spectacles over his eyes and continued to work, the solemn expression upon his face, making him the best kind of company to have at camp.

In the moment Seung-cheol considered taking a seat on the swing beside his other nephew, the sound of another voice almost startled his usual calm demeanor;

'Did the others get here before us?'

Won-woo didn't bother glancing up from his crossword puzzle to pay notice to the others, Seung-cheol tilting his head over the frame of his shoulder, noticing the sons of Poseidon and Nike standing shoulder to shoulder on the wooden balcony of the Hanok.

'Hansol... Seung-kwan.' Seung-cheol grovelled, addressing both individuals, before his eyes drifted back towards his younger cousin as he fished something out of his backpack.

'I brought something back for you.' Hansol replied, his cocoa brown hair a little lighter this summer as it hung down over his forehead. His skin was still as pale as the previous summer, his figure lean, and his eyes like the colour of cinnamon as he yanked a blue conch shell out of his bag and handed it over to his cousin.

'Here- I got it from Elysium when I snuck up last week to spite my father.' He mumbled rather non-chalantly with a shrug of his shoulders; 'Apparently it gives you the power to hear the dead.'

'Why would I want to hear dead people?' Seung-cheol almost grovelled, turning it over in his hands as Hansol exhaled, rubbing the back of his head in slight confusion.

'No idea.' He responded, equally as confused; 'I dreamt about giving it to you.'

'Right...' Seung-cheol mumbled, keeping a hold of the conch shell between his fingers and refusing to think about the strange situation any longer. It seemed as though things at Banhyeol Hall were about to be as drab as they normally were; apart from the fact that he now had company until autumn arrived.

The remaining half-blood's had arrived by the time the evening had set the sky alight with fiery hues of orange and purple swirls. Seung-cheol sat at the stone pit, arms crossed over his chest as he watched the flames of the hearth flicker and spit, as Min-gyu and Seok-min hoisted a line of river fish across the top to roast them over the open fire.

'Did Cyllene come to visit?'

Seung-cheol's eyes turned to face the latter seated beside him, watching as he stretched out his fingers and grew a lily flower from the palm of his hand. Joshua Jisoo Hong was the son of Demeter, and first cousin to Seung-cheol, his divine ability able to have influence over all living nature upon Earth.

'She came in the winter.' Seung-cheol responded, watching the lily flower sprout between Joshua's fingers, as he outstretched his arm towards the latter and encouraged him to take it;

'Go on- it's meant for you.'

'A flower?'

'I think the name is more important than the flower.' Joshua responded with a gentle murmur, detaching the stem growing from his palm and handing it over to Seung-cheol. He held the white bud between his fingers, staring at the growing petals, before placing it aside on the wooden log he sat upon.

'How pretty~' Jeong-han beamed like a child, raising the bloomed lily flower between his fingers. He held it up, cupping it in both of his palms when seating himself beside Seung-cheol at the fiery stone pit.

Yoon Jeong-han was the second oldest resident at Banhyeol Hall, and the only son of Aphrodite, with platinum blonde long hair matching his soft features, and deep doe-brown eyes. He sat, dressed from head to toe in baby pink and white, pressing his knees together and placing the white lily flower onto his thighs.

'You want cheese in your kimbap?' Seung-kwan questioned, his words directed towards Jeong-han, Seung-cheol, and Joshua sitting together on the left end of the firepit.

'Cheese on mine!' Soon-young yelled from the opposite end of the firepit. He shot up from his place and galloped over the flames like an overenthusiastic pegasus, the blades on his belt rattling as he hopped towards the kimbap station to the further end of the pit.

Kwon Soon-young, as small and partially UN-intimidating as he may have been, was the son of Ares, and possibly the last person anyone would want to stand against in an area fight, or a therapy session in anger-management. He hovered over Seung-kwan at the stand and peered over his shoulders, trying to sneak a piece of grilled steak into his mouth.

'Stop it-!' Seung-kwan huffed, slapping Soon-young's hands away violently. Son of Greek God, Nike, Boo Seung-kwan had light blonde hair, slightly longer and seated over the front of his forehead, inching desperately towards the round almond-shape of his acorn-brown eyes. His face was slightly round, and soft like the rest of his features as he puffed, the corners of his lips twitching with agitation.

To the further right of the firepit, and opposite to Seung-cheol, the son of Dionysus sat with one leg crossed over the other, a sketchpad resting over his thigh as he scribbled away with long, languid strokes of his burgundy-coloured crayon. The flames from the pit illuminated the page, guiding each stroke of his crayon, as he raised his spare hand, brushing the deep wine-red curtains of his hair aside to move the curled strands out of his eyes.

Xu Ming-hao continued to scribble away, until the corner of his eye was drawn to the sight of the son of Hephaestus hiding behind the backside of the log he currently sat upon. In his attempt to ignore it, he found his fingers twitching awkwardly against the base of his crayon, before his mood was interrupted and he dropped the item onto his page, tilting his head over the frame of his shoulder to glance down at the youngest resident at Banhyeol Hall.

'Not going to sit near the fire?' Ming-hao questioned, his eyes flickering aside to face the latter, as he cowered a little more behind the log and shook his head, refusing to even glance momentarily towards the blazing inferno.

'No- I'm okay.' He almost winced, clutching his knees against the frame of his chest and curling up into a tight ball. Lee Chan, despite being the son of Hephaestus, was almost completely terrified of fire. From a young age, his power to manipulate flames had led him into a series of accidents, including hurting his younger brother and being kicked out by his mother, until Min-gyu met him in the basement of an abandoned hospital and gave him sanctuary.

'I don't like the fire either.' Another latter responded, shuffling over from his seat to sit on the grass beside Chan, trying to calm his mood in any way he possibly could.

Wen Jun-hui, the son of the Goddess Iris, had become rather proficient in honing his abilities at creating portals and sending messages through the light of a rainbow like his mother. He smiled rather brightly, his lavender-purple hair a little short and brushed to either side of his face. He bent his knees to sit up beside Chan, opening his left hand, and using his ability to grow a shimmering rainbow within his palm.

Chan sat up a little better, his brows shifting upwards as his eyes widened in sheer delight, almost shimmering in adoration at the sight of the rainbow forming in Jun's hand. Ming-hao tilted the frame of his head backwards, his eyes falling upon the sight of the rainbow and watching as Jun-hui coddled the youngest resident at camp.

The evening seemed to beat along ceaselessly into the night. Most of the half-blood children had retired to the porch-side of the Hanok after dinner, Seung-cheol rising from his seat as his eyes lingered momentarily upon the flickering flames burning out beneath the dark skies. In the moment he rose and walked past the stone pit towards the Hanok, he froze in his footing, the sound of the flames spitting violently.

He turned rather abruptly, his head snapping upwards as the flame flickered and spat violently, forming thick swirls of blistering heat. Seung-cheol turned to face the stone pit fully, his fingers cracking as he formed tight fists of agitation; Hades and his demons of the Underworld weren't welcome here.

'Uncle!' Seung-cheol's voice boomed through the cool night air, the head of the fiery demon turning to face him, it's blazing mouth tugging into a smug grin;

'Nephew- how have you been?'

Hades chortled, the thick sound of his voice echoing off every surface surrounding them, as the remaining residents at Banhyeol Hall rose to their feet with defensive statures. Hades hadn't made his appearance known in this area since the last war between Titans and Gods, and his presence, according to Cyllene, was most unwelcome.

'You and your demons are not welcome here-' Seung-cheol grovelled, not a single ounce of amusement written across his solemn expression. The agitation of his uncle's presence seemed to burn into every nerve within his body, the line of his eyes narrowed rather violently in suspicion of his sudden, unwarranted visit.

'You ought to be nicer to your uncle- conch stealer.' Hades snarled, his nostrils flaring as the flames spat and flickered violently with anger.

'I didn't steal-' Seung-cheol hesitated momentarily, his dark eyes flickering back and forth as his mind searched violently for the answer.

The conch?

'Hansol-'

He turned abruptly, facing the opposite direction where the remainder of the half-blood residents stood on edge, glancing between themselves with mild confusion. Seung-cheol's eyes snapped towards an empty spot, noticing Hansol missing from the line-up.

By the time he had turned his head, Hansol's dark figure stood by the corner of the Hanok, his left hand holding a large oak torch lit alight as he smirked darkly, dropping the torch and allowing the flames to rapidly engulf the wooden structure of the Hanok.

Seung-cheol's eyes widened, Min-gyu almost throwing himself in anger towards Hansol, until his body snapped, his limbs twitching and cracking. Hansol's figure shifted, forming into a fury, as the half-blood's fell completely silent in horror. The fury shrieked into the air and flew up past the fiery blaze of the Hanok, reaching for the sky and disappearing into the darkness.

'Get to the boats!' Seung-cheol yelled, raising his hand towards the half-moon bridge, where a line of small wooden boats sat on the rocky shore, Seung-kwan shoving the half-blood's towards the boats to get them out of the fiery Hanok.

When Banhyeol Hall erupted into rough flames, and Hades dissipated into nothing, Seung-cheol's eyes widened, the reflection of the orange blaze dancing over his eyeballs, as the children of the Gods fled into nearby boats beneath the half-moon bridge.

'Mother-'

He called, rushing towards the burning structure with little regard for his life, the final remnant of his mother surrounded by flames in his room. Seok-min turned aside and reached out for him in desperation, pulled away by Min-gyu and towards the boats for a narrow escape.

With shaky hands, Chan fled from the boat, past Min-gyu, and into the fiery building to save his uncle. The first few boats were shipped off beneath the bridge and through the barrier held open by Jun-hui; hues of the rainbow lighting the empty archway as he struggled to keep the portal open any longer.

Min-gyu's eyes flickered with worry and fear at the flaming building, Chan's heart racing violently beneath his chest, as if afraid it would burst from his rib at the sight of the fire. He stalked forward, to the top of the building where the Zeus dorm was built and found Seung-cheol grasping the remaining memory of his mother between his hands, clutching it to his chest, despite the burns forged into his arms.

'Chan-' Seung-cheol rasped in partial agitation, wondering why he had the nerve to follow him through the blaze of the fire eating away at the Hanok.

'Hyung!' Chan threw himself towards Seung-cheol, a heavy wooden beam set alight by the fire falling from the roof and towards the elder. He pushed him out of the way, their bodies tumbling to the burning hot ground as they narrowly missed being scorched to death.

Flames engulfed the front door of the Zeus dorm as Seung-cheol grunted, entirely sure that his rib had split open from breaking Chan's fall. He grasped the latter's arm and pulled the both of them up onto their feet with his supernatural strength, scanning the perimeter in a desperate attempt to find an exit.

With the burning blaze narrowing in on them, Seung-cheol pulled Chan towards the door, seeing the fear shrink his pupils significantly. He smashed the window with a rough nudge of his elbow, hissing softly at the stinging burn cascading down his arm. He pulled Chan out onto his balcony by the scruff of his neck and narrowed his eyes towards the river bank, where Min-gyu stood in anticipation beneath the half-moon bridge.

'Min-gyu!' Seung-cheol yelled, holding Chan by the collar of his shirt when throwing him off the balcony. The latter shrieked in fear, yelling as he fell violently from a height, Min-gyu using his speed to catch up with Chan's falling figure, catching him from breaking every bone in his body before speeding him onto another boat to ship it through the portal.

With little time to spare, Seung-cheol made a risky decision. She stepped back and ran off the edge of his balcony, the Hanok exploding behind him as his body flung forward, smacking violently onto the Earth beneath him. He grunted, every bone in his body aching with pain as Min-gyu's eyes widened, pulling him up as best as he could and dragging his body to the final boat, grabbing Jun-hui's hand as they sailed through the remaining portal in the half-moon bridge, leaving Banhyeol Hall behind in ruin. 

Chapter Text

By the time the last boat had shipped itself through the remaining hole in Jun-hui's portal, the surviving members of Banhyeol Hall waited anxiously on the opposite end. A link between Jun-hui's portal and Min-gyu's travel ability, had led the fleeing half-blood residents on the turf of the nearest Demi-God camp based on their prior location.

When the final boat rocked through the wavy portal length, Seok-min and Ji-hoon stepped forward to pull the edge of the boat onto the shore from the lake on the further left of the new Demi-God campsite. They grunted, hauling it onto the grassy shore just beneath the hillside as Min-gyu scrambled, lifting Seung-Cheol's body out of the wooden wreck and onto the shore's edge.

In the days that followed, Seung-cheol burned with fever, his wounds cleaned and tended to at the nursing bay on the ground floor of the old English manor. Jun-hui's portal had led them onto the English channel; the nearest camp for half-blood residents, following the disaster that had befallen Banhyeol Hall.

Half-blood Hill, was home to an all-female residency of Demi-God's, with half of them reluctantly allowing the boys to remain in the meantime, until a new camp was established, and the cause of Banhyeol's destruction was known. The prior-residents of Banhyeol had been set up with fresh sheets and pillows in each dormitory labelled to their appointed Godly parent, the sons of Apollo remaining at their uncle's side, using their father's healing ability to restore what was left of Seung-cheol's being.

'Will he be alright?'

Ji-hoon's eyes flickered away from his uncle, the golden glow from his fingertips fading into a dim light as he removed the weight of his hands from Seung-cheol's broken ribs, his gaze following the dim room and towards the girl hovering patiently in the doorway. She had picked flowers from the wildlife growing in the forest clearing, not entirely sure of what had compelled her to do so for a stranger she barely knew.

She stepped forth, placing the bright-purple lavender shoots into a half-empty cup of water on the old, splintered bedside table as Ji-hoon exhaled, raising to his feet and pushing his creaky stool aside;

'He might be a Demi-God, but that doesn't mean he'll heal just as quickly. With the severity of his wounds, a week should be enough time for recovery.'

'I brought... flowers-' She hesitated for a moment in her speech, 'Not sure why, but... I thought it'd be better than waking up to somewhere as drab as this.'

Her eyes flickered aside to meet Ji-hoon's gaze, and that's when his gaze fell upon the shuffle of her feet. The sign of her Godly parent was clear from the pale wings fluttering on either side of her shoe heels, tucking and flapping about against the cherry-red fabric of the Converse-like trainers. Her skin was pale, like those wings, her hair as wild as the fire that burnt down Banhyeol Hall, and eyes green like the forest they once trained in.

Everything about her seemed uneasily calm, as if she knew what was going to happen, or had an inkling into the foresight of things. She looked at them, not as if they were strangers, but lost children seeking a home; her expression settling with a constant shifting movement, as if uneasy about their sudden, unwarranted arrival.

'I didn't think Zeus had any more half-blood's on Earth.' She muttered, rumours of Seung-cheol's heritage swirling around the camp since the arrival of the Banhyeol Hall residents.

'He was the first at camp-' Ji-hoon began, fixing the sleeves of his baby blue jumper as he spoke; 'He's been there since he was 4. He doesn't talk about it, but we all know how lonely it could have been.'

'I can't imagine Hades would have done all of this.' She mumbles, 'I spoke to him last week, and he was- well... he's drab as usual. Can't say I blame him, when he's stuck in the Underworld.'

She rambled, pausing for a moment at the realisation that she was talking too quickly. She paused, her cheeks burning a soft pink shade in partial embarrassment, before she cleared the frame of her throat at Ji-hoon's blank stare;

'Sorry... I ramble– like my dad.' She mumbled, pursing the frame of her lips together a little more, 'I'm Lily, by the way- daughter of Hermes. Although- I suppose that's a bit obvious.'

She beamed happily at the thought of her Godly father, raising her foot to point her index finger down at the wings flapping on the sides of her red Converse trainers. Ji-hoon blinked at the sight of her trainers, and felt his gaze glance back up at her expression; she was truly a character, something that reminded him strangely of his twin- as if they were both high on an immense sugar rush.

'Not bothering him, are you?'

Lily almost huffed like a child at the sound of another, turning to face the latter when puffing the frame of her reddened cheeks out in response to his words; 'No...'

She frowned, her lips flipped in a downwards motion, as Chiron stood; his entire frame engulfing the size of the doorway. His large shoulders were clothed in a patterned dress shirt and a thick woollen grey jumper with no sleeves and a pointed neckline. His hooves were freshly cleaned, the lower half of his horse body groomed well and glinting like fresh snow beneath the sunlight, his hair a little wild and untameable like the state of his beard, and the glimmering intent of his electric-blue eyes gazing down at her.

'Your father awaits you on the archery field, little one.' Chiron muttered, his head gently ushering Lily out of the door and towards the left, where Hermes was currently occupied by staring holes into his son, Min-gyu.

'I think I'd remember if I had a son.' Hermes raised a thick dirty blonde brow of his own, raising his left hand to rub the back of his slightly messy, dishevelled wavy hair.

Hermes was slightly shorter than his so-called 'first born' at 5 feet, 10 inches, his oldest half-blood child looming over him with a partially menacing expression. His dishevelled locks were the colour of somewhat between a cinnamon-brown tone, and dirty blonde, his eyes narrowed, but green like Lily's. He wore a bright silver oval helm over the frame of his head with carved wings on either side, a white greek robe dawned over his body and leather strapped brown saddles with flapping white wings on either side.

On his belt, he held a magical compass to his left, guiding him to the north of every realm he could set passage within, and a horn to the right, that he used to carry the souls of the dead to the Underworld. On his left bicep, was an upper arm cuff, made from pure Olympian gold with the carving of his sigil; the Caduceus- a long staff surmounted with wings and the bodies of two snakes entwined around it.

'Father?'

Lily hesitated in her approach, noticing one of the boys from Banhyeol Hall standing directly opposite to her Godly father. Hermes' head turned aside at the sound of his child, the narrowing shape of his eyes finally widening with delight and adoration;

'Lily flower~'

He almost cooed the words, as if she were a child and outstretched the frame of his arms to catch her, if she was to come running to him. She stepped forward and latched herself to him, her arms wrapped around the frame of his waist as she turned her head and buried it directly into his tunic, smelling the scent of freshly mown grass and parchment on his clothes.

Hermes placed his left hand over the dip in her back, and the left in her hair, feeling how soft it was and how much it once reminded her of her mother. Hermes allowed Lily to cling to him for however long she intended, his eyes staring up at the 6 foot frame of his 'supposed' son, trying to recognise who his mother could have been.

'Ru-mi?'

Hermes almost froze when he uttered the name, Min-gyu's eyes widening a little in recognition. He nodded his head quickly as Lily pried away from her father, his arm moving to slump itself around her shoulders, holding her to his side as he addressed Min-gyu with furrowed brows of confusion;

'I never knew she was with child.' He responded quietly, his eyes almost filled with dread;

'I came for her soul barely a year after I met her. I paid her fee to Charon and delivered her to Elysium.'

Lily's eyes flickered back and forth between her father and Min-gyu, their facial expressions oddly similar in certain aspects. Lily may have had Hermes' eyes, but Min-gyu had the structure of his face and his expressions, apart from his deep brown eyes that she assumed he obtained from his late mother.

As unfortunate as it may have been, the fate of most half-bloods delivered cruel fates to most mortal parents, leaving them parentless following Zeus' will to reduce interactions between Demi-God's and their mortal offspring.

Hermes was the exception in such a case. As the messenger of the Gods, and the deliverer of souls, his journeys often found themselves with pit-stops in between to visit his favourite child. And in Min-gyu's case, he had not been claimed at all, and had only assumed his role as a son of Hermes following the sudden bursts of speed he had as his divine ability.

'I'm sorry-' Hermes replied quietly, his voice softening with shame as he removed the weight of his arm from Lily's shoulders and reluctantly took a step towards his son. He placed a hand upon Min-gyu's shoulder and pulled him down a few inches to his own height, yanking him forward into a tight hug.

Min-gyu froze, his body stiffening at the sudden contact; eyes widening a little in a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Hermes' biceps flexed softly when tightening the grip on his eldest son, refusing to come to terms that he had lived this long without his father's presence in his life.

When he eventually pulled away after a quiet moment, Hermes' eyes drew to above the head of his son, his sigil glimmering beneath the sunlight, as Min-gyu's head fell back, staring at the sign of his claim. He was almost overwhelmed by emotion, and Lily could see it in the way his eyes trickled with tears before he squeezed them shut and forced the emotion away from sight.

'The Hermes cabin is as much yours, as it is hers-' Hermes replied, gesturing his right hand and arm towards Lily as she blinked at her newly claimed older brother. Hermes withdrew his hand from Min-gyu's right shoulder and unclipped the compass from the side of his belt, placing it into his hand as a parting gift;

'I may not have been around for a while- and this gift is in a way, no means of buying your affection. I have travelled for many a millenia, and this compass has done me well. In every realm, this compass will lead to your exit, and in dire cases, will point to me if you'll ever make use of it.' He paused for a moment to consider his words,

'It's yours now. Treat it well.'

Min-gyu's eyes lingered down upon the sight of the rustic bronze compass encased in a thick squarish wooden frame. His fingers curled around it, as if afraid that if he let go, everything he had just discovered would fade away like a dream.

He didn't speak, as if the words couldn't form on his tongue, or as if there was nothing he could say that was good enough to reply with. His breath was a little shaky as Hermes remained silent with anticipation, wondering if he would say a singular word to remove some of the ache in his immortal heart.

'There you are-' Another huffed, almost entirely out of breath from running around the camp like a headless chicken in search of Lily, her eyes wandering over to Hermes as a small grin tugged on the corners of her lips;

'Oh, hi uncle.' She grinned, raising her left hand to wave at him as Hermes simpered softly in delight and tilted the frame of his head aside to notice his niece.

'Hello, little owl.' Hermes withdrew himself from his quiet son and glanced upon the daughter of Athena, raising his arms to cross them languidly over his chest; 'Discovered anything intelligent yet?'

'Still working on it.' She replied in partial amusement, fixing the frame of her deep brown spectacles over her eyes.

Abigail Williams was the second known oldest Demi-God child of Athena, following Won-woo's sudden arrival at Half-blood Hill. She was slightly shorter than Lily, with caramel-blonde short hair cut above her shoulders and partially wavy in areas, like the fringe that fell over her forehead. Her eyes were round, doe-like, and a stormy-grey in colour, her skin pale, with thicker lips, and a thinner figure dressed in a dusky-blue knitted jumper, and a pair of deep-blue straight cut jeans.

'Wait-' Abi paused for a moment and furrowed the line of her brows together in confusion; 'Not that I mind it- but why are you here, uncle?'

'Oh- right.' Hermes replied, rubbing the back of his head at the remembrance of his own arrival; 'I came to deliver a message- naturally...'

He mumbled, trying to compose his nerves, as if there was something grave going on amidst the clouds in Olympus.

'The Gods are in uproar against Hades for his destruction of Banhyeol Hall, and the potential kidnapping of a son of Poseidon. I was sent on my way to return to the ruins and inspect the location for evidence in his trial.' He paused for a moment and reframed his words;

'But there's just something about this that... doesn't seem to add up.'

'You think he was framed?' Abi questioned, raising her brows softly in disbelief, as her mind raced with ideas of who could potentially despise Hades enough to make him stand trial for a crime he did not commit.

'I don't think you're wrong.' Lily replied in response to her father, 'I'm not exactly his best friend, but I spoke to him a few days ago, and he was- normal. Well, as normal as glum would be- but I can't imagine why he would do something like this all of a sudden?'

'I have a feeling we aren't seeing the bigger picture.' Chiron replied, approaching from behind Abigail to join their quiet conversation. He drew his arms over the frame of his chest and narrowed his eyes in suspicion as Hermes replied with a curt nod.

'I'll return to Banhyeol to see what I can find. The trial will take place during the next moon, if I am able to retrieve evidence.'

'And if you don't?' Lily questioned, her nerves almost on edge at the idea of Hades being sent to Tartarus;

'I have an odd feeling it might turn up, anyway.' Hermes muttered, his voice a little low and his expression grave, as if sensing another player in this little game between the Gods.

In the moment that silence befell them, Hermes turned on the heel of his sandal, his eyes lingering between his children before parting from them and speeding off in a flurry of dust and wind. He had found himself halfway through Europe by the time Lily let out her next exhale, her eyes flickering aside to face her friend;

'Did you need me?' She questioned, trying to change the subject in hopes of avoiding her mind from hyper-focusing on a potential quest.

'Oh- right... it's the son of Zeus.' Abi replied, outstretching her right hand to point her index finger towards the nursing bay at the manor house located within the focal point of Half-blood Hill.

'What about him?'

'He's awake-'

Chapter Text

Lily stood in the furthest corner of the room when the child of Zeus awoke from his concussed state, the rushing footsteps of the residents at Banhyeol Hall surrounding him in their dozen. She managed to catch a glimpse of his face between Ming-hao and Chan's shoulders, his dark eyes a little low and narrowed, and a mix between the shade of Zeus' storms, and Poseidon's oceans.

His gaze snapped aside, meeting with her eyes directly between the small shoulder gap, forcing Lily to fall uneasy and glance away until her eyes fell upon the ground. She gulped back in the frame of her throat, until Jeong-han stepped forward, outstretching both arms with Joshua's flower seated within his hands;

'Here- I saved your lily flower from camp.' He muttered, Lily's eyes flickering aside to exchange glances with Abi, Seung-cheol staring at the flower for a silent moment as Jeong-han placed it down upon the bedside table to his left.

'Have you found Hansol?' He asked, his voice deeper and a little more monotone compared to the others that the girls at Half-blood Hill had gotten to know in the few days they had remained.

The boys exchanged nervous glances of defeat and confusion between themselves, simultaneously shaking their heads as Won-woo spoke up, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest;

'He's officially missing. We can only assume he was kidnapped before our arrival at camp- but since no one had contacted him in the following weeks, we can't say how long he's been missing.'

Seung-cheol lowered his gaze to the cup in his hand, staring at the swirling herbal tea that Joshua had made for him in order to provide ailment for his broken ribs. The room had fallen into complete silence following Won-woo's words, Seung-cheol's grip tightening around the clay rim of his cup as Lily's eyes flickered outside, noticing dark clouds looming over Half-blood Hill as thunder rumbled violently above them.

'Cheol-' Chiron grovelled, Seung-cheol's hand suddenly loosening around his cup, his anger diminishing at a single word as Lily watched the clouds retreat and dissipate within the sky. It was then, that she had come to the realisation, that Seung-cheol's temper controlled their weather forecast for the day.

'Little one-'

Lily's head almost jerked painfully at the gravelly voice shooting directly through her ears. Her eyes twitched simultaneously, goosebumps prickling over her upper arms at the sound of a familiar voice;

'Not now...' She almost winced beneath the tone of her breath, trying to ignore the sound as he rumbled again in her ears, whispering and mumbling to her, driving her mind positively insane;

'I said not now!'

Lily didn't realise she had yelled the words, until her eyes flickered up and she noticed all the boys from Banhyeol Hall staring at her, including Chiron and Abigail to her right. The embarrassment of it all forced her cheeks to burn like the colour of tomatoes before fleeing out of the front door, past Won-woo and across the archery field.

She didn't stop running until she fell over a fallen branch in the woods and landed face first into the dirt, her eyes rolling back until only the whites were visible, her limbs falling limp upon the ground.

'You haven't come to my realm in a while.' The voice boomed, Lily's eyes flickering about in defeat, finding herself in the Underworld once again.

The Underworld was as drab as most would expect for it to be, with billowing dark clouds swirling overhead, and long dead trunks of old trees looming angrily with jagged rough branches mimicking the sight of claws. The ground was rough with dirt, desolate with destruction and eternal suffering, as the souls of the dead gnawed at the barriers and wailed like phantoms, seeking relief from endless torment.

'That's because I try to stay out- of it, great-uncle.' She replied with a slight tone of frustration, the agitation twitching between her brows as Hades turned to face her directly.

He drew his arms behind his back, his hair a little longer and deep black in colour. His eyes were narrowed, dark like the shade of ashes, with the contrast of his pale skin making him look almost sickly. He wore black robes over his body, as if he was constantly mourning, with black strapped sandals, and a large silver band over his left ring finger.

'I know what you might think of me- but I can assure you, I did not attack Banhyeol Hall.'

'The Gods don't seem to agree.' Lily replied, almost completely sure that Hades had no part in the devastation that befell the prior camp for half-bloods.

'Those Gods-' He grovelled, the anger almost evident in his tone; 'Are the same people who forced me to rule over the damned for a millenia- bound to this torturous realm for an eternity of suffering.'

'Hermes and I believe you.' Lily whispered, 'Grandfather sent him to the ruins of the campsite to find evidence in your trial, and I have a feeling- that although you had little to do with it, there may be evidence to sway their conviction.'

'Do you really think I would take out the time to try and kill some half-bloods, only to deal with 13 trials after their deaths?' Hades groaned, the mere thought of having to sit more trials, driving him insane with agitation.

'One of them is missing- only 12 arrived on our shore. Hansol- I think? That's all I know- they don't speak much, they're quite reserved.'

'Hansol?'

'You wouldn't happen to know if he was in your realm before he disappeared, great-uncle?' Lily questioned, her brows raised in gentle anticipation towards him, desperately wanting to know what had led to his sudden disappearance.

Hades grovelled beneath the tone of his breath, and eventually let out a gentle exhale of defeat, rubbing his large hand over his face; 'Only for you, little one. I'll find out what I can.'

'Thank you-' Lily had turned rather abruptly, wanting to leave the Underworld as soon as possible, until the voice of her great uncle forced her to falter in her steps;

'The souls-' He called out towards her, knowing she was paying attention to his fleeting words; 'The more you ignore them- the worse it'll get.'

In a moment's notice, Lily returned to Earth, her soul snapping life back into her limp body in the woods, as her irises fell back down from behind her eyes and into place. She blinked a few times over, squinting her eyes to reduce the state of her blurry vision, grunting softly as she hauled herself up out of the dirt.

Within the minutes that Lily's soul was trapped in the Underworld with her great uncle Hades, the boys from Banhyeol Hall had returned to their daily activities and dorm rooms, leaving Seung-cheol alone with his herbal tea and Chiron to his left.

'It was Hades- I'm sure of it.' Seung-cheol mumbled, holding the clay cup to his lips and forcefully swallowing down the remainder of his tea, his ribs aching and burning as the healing within his body continued with rough force.

'All trials, even ones set in Olympus allow the accused to remain innocent until proven otherwise.' Chiron replied, believing his nephew, but also aware that something wasn't quite right.

'Do you think he took Hansol?' Seung-cheol questioned, placing the cup aside on the bedside table, his eyes lingering momentarily over the lily flower.

'No-' Chiron replied, shaking the frame of his head slowly when raising his hand to stroke the bottom of his ragged beard; 'Hades may be strange in many ways, but he has no use of half-bloods.'

Chiron was called away shortly after, following an Iris message from Olympus, leaving Seung-cheol to grovel alone in an old, drab room, his only company being a single white lily and a handful of lavender flowers in his water cup. He reclined in his bed, clamping his left hand over his ribs as they burned when he lay down, hissing softly until he found relief when lying over the creaky mattress.

He lay for a moment or two, leaning his arm aside to reach for his bag on the floor beside his bed. He unlatched the buckles and threw the leather flap over, withdrawing the blue conch shell from the bag when dropping it aside on the ground again with a gentle clatter. Seung-cheol hesitated for a moment, his thumbs tracing the edges of the shell when raising it and pressing the opening to his right ear.

The room fell silent, and for a moment, Seung-cheol had assumed that the fury which had delivered the shell to him had picked up a faulty replica. He almost lowered it, until a voice echoed through the hole in the conch, his ears listening to the conversation held between Lily and Hades in the Underworld. When the voices faded, he lowered the shell from his ear and turned it over in his hands, his mind racing at the prospect of the conversation he had overheard.

'Why are you covered in dirt?' Abigail questioned, her brows knitted together tightly as she sat in the Athena dorm room, fixing the drawstring of her bow; a gift she had received from her mother for her birthday.

'No reason- there's just... I need to find something.' She rambled, yanking open drawers and rummaging through them with shaky hands.

'Alright, alright- you're not going to get anywhere if you search for something like that, you plonker.' She exhaled, dropping her bow aside on her duvet and getting up from her bed to help Lily.

'What are you looking for?'

'Hades' helm.'

'What on Earth do you plan on doing with that?' Abi questioned, her brows shooting up a little more in disbelief as Lily glanced away and continued to search the dorm room;

'You- you went back to the Underworld, didn't you?'

'I can't always help it, Abi- it just... happens.' Lily puffed, resting her knees on the creaky wooden floorboards, and letting out a rough exhale, pressing the frame of her forehead to Abi's bedside table.

'And Hades?'

'He didn't do it. I know he didn't- there's just... there's something that we can't see. Someone else is doing this, I'm sure of it.' She replied, the desperation evident within her eyes as Abigail exhaled, a part of her knowing it wasn't logical for Hades to seek destruction like this out of the blue.

She crouched down in front of Lily and focused her eyes on the face of her best friend when steeling her breath and pressing her small hands over her kneecaps;

'If you think it's quest worthy... I'll go with you.' She muttered, willing to take the leap, and trusting Lily on her gut instincts which weren't often wrong.

'I thought... if we could find the helm- we could sneak into Banhyeol Hall undetected. Find some kind of object and use your psychic abilities to see if you can siphon anything out of it.'

'You think it'll work?'

'I don't know- but it's the only plan we've got.' Lily replied, Abigail pursing the frame of her lips together tightly before giving her best friend a curt nod and rising to her feet.

She stepped aside and crouched beside her bed, prying up the edge of the floorboards with a rusty old screwdriver, dropping it aside with a soft clatter when removing a dusty old box from beneath the floorboards. Lily sat opposite to her, her knees pressed onto the wooden floor when waiting anxiously for Abi to remove the top of the shoebox, revealing Hades' helm concealed within.

During their quest last summer, the lost helm of Hades had been found in the labyrinth by Abigail and her psychic abilities. Following the completion of their task, Chiron had entrusted the divine object to Abigail, encouraging her to keep it hidden from the prying eyes of humans and monsters alike. Using the helm went against every code that Chiron had once taught them, but dire situations called for dire action.

Abigail and Lily had planned to sneak to the small pantheon of the Gods at the top of Half-blood Hill after dinner, and when it was dark enough for them to slip by, unnoticed. Abigail had gotten her dinner early and sat at her usual table, a small journal and pen in her opposite hand to scribble out a decent battle plan for their night mission.

Meanwhile, Lily had arrived late to dinner, and stood in the line of half-bloods, glancing across the buffet menu and placing whatever she fancied onto her plate, Seung-cheol's eyes burning holes into her back;

'Do you go to the Underworld often?'

Lily almost froze at the sound of another, her hand hesitating around the spoon before trying to calm her nerves and placing another spoonful of mac and cheese onto her plate.

'I don't know what you're talking about.' She replied calmly, continuing down the line to add herb roasted potatoes to her dinner plate. Seung-cheol stood to her left in the queue, Lily's head tilted to the right as she continued down the line, her back facing him to avoid confrontation and refusing to entertain his rather truthful accusations.

'Min-gyu might have gotten speed, but you drew the short end of the straw, didn't you- soul sender-?'

'Stop it-!' Lily exclaimed, thwacking her hand against his chest in a rather violent attempt to get him to fall silent.

Gazes lingered once again towards them, and Seung-cheol watched as her pupils shrunk in fear, trembling and quaking at the sight of too many eyes. She withdrew her shaky hand from his chest and apologised to him quietly beneath her breath, her feet stumbling as she dropped her plate aside on the table and stepped away, distancing herself from the other half-bloods.

Lily was usually a very joyful person, but her new-found ability had begun to twist her mind. Suppressing the voices of the dead as a soul sender had turned her bitter, as if the souls had corrupted her mind and darkened the essence of her once bright being. She despised it, and for a short while, despised her father for the abilities she had been given.

It took Hades to sway her mind, after her first visit to the Underworld had her soul trapped in the fields of asphodel for over a week; her human body in a coma at camp where Abi looked over her in the days that followed.

Lily had jogged all the way to the top of Half-blood Hill, her breath panting violently when staring up at the columns of the pantheon. She hesitated, staring at the doors as her fingers twitched softly from the feel of something crawling over her hand.

She raised her fingers, staring at the bright glowing blue spider crawling over her knuckles, the creature glaring directly at her when dissipating into threads towards the pantheon; the fates were calling.

Lily stepped into the pantheon, the wooden doors slamming shut behind her entrance as her gaze flickered up, the silence echoing in her ears when noticing the tall columns and the cool drift wafting through. The threads of the living glimmered like golden thread beneath the small amount of sunlight that peeked through the holes in the old building, each thread starting at one side and draping across to the other.

'You called?'

Lily asked, her voice falling silent, as if the fates were playing a game with her. The agitation seemed to flicker between her eyebrows, the corner of her lip twitching in frustration as she stalked towards the door, not wanting to waste her time any longer with fruitless conversation.

'Patience- little flower.'

'You don't get to call me that.' Lily replied, her gaze narrowed a little more when turning on the heel of her trainers to face the first fate.

'There is a great plot at play, if you'd care to listen.' The second fate responded, her gaze narrowed as her wrinkled lip sneered with partial frustration.

'I'm aware-' Lily muttered, her gaze flickering back and forth between them; 'If you could tell me exactly who was leading it, it would be greatly appreciated.'

'There are some things in this world that are concealed- even to us.' The third fate replied, the younger female floating up beside her two other companions.

'So this great unknown person has managed to fool the fates who control the future? How ironic-'

'Do not name us as fools- daughter of the messenger.' The second fate boomed, the frustration clear in her tone of voice as Lily narrowed the line of her sight and focused her gaze upon them.

'If you aren't going to offer me any sound advice, I have work to get back to.' She muttered, turning sharply on the heel of her trainers to leave. She placed her hand upon the old rusty handle of the door and froze when the first fate spoke to her once again;

'Find the key- soul sender... and you shall discover the son of the ocean, and the orchestrator in this plot amongst the Gods.'

'The key...?'

Lily repeated in a whisper, the line of her brows furrowed together tightly as her brain searched violently for an answer in her mind. She had heard of a key before, loosely, when her soul had been lost in the fields of asphodel. For a moment, she had even heard the word from Hades' lips when hidden behind a column to eavesdrop on his conversation.

It took a moment longer for her to realise what the fates were talking about, her eyes lighting up like a light bulb at the realisation of the plot at bay. She threw open the door and attempted to dash out of the room, desperately in search of Chiron to tell him that she had figured out the perpetrator of the disaster that befell Banhyeol Hall.

She charged forward and yelped violently, a large gloved hand clasped over her mouth, the poison on the glove forcing her eyes to roll back and her body to fall limp. She saw the approaching storm in the far east before her lids fell shut and her body was dragged away into the forest to forever hold her peace.

Chapter Text

In the half hour that followed midnight, a daughter of Athena waited at the doors of the pantheon, as Nyx, Goddess of the night, watched with intrigue through the bright sliver of the crescent moon in the clear skies. 

She checked the leather strap watch on her wrist and tapped at the glass screen of it, as the handles sometimes liked to fluctuate against time, Hades’ helm held tightly between the fingers of her opposite hand. Abigail's head glanced upwards, her eyes flickering back and forth across the empty fields, as if waiting for Lily to come running, cheeks red and out of breath from partially forgetting the strategy of their plan.

But Lily never came.

And with every agonising tick of her watch, Abigail's mind wandered to the endless possibilities of her absence. Her assumptions weren't entirely unreasonable, since Abi hadn’t seen Lily from the moment of her violent outburst at dinner, and it only seemed to dawn upon her that no-one else had mentioned any sight of her following her escape to the top of Half-blood Hill. 

Anxiety began to bubble within her at the mere thought. The kind of anxiety that Abigail had wished would subdue her with a fight or flight response, rather than achy limbs and a palpitating heart. Her fingers latched tighter around the helm as she turned, hoping to find a clue to Lily's potential disappearance within the pantheon, where she was last seen.

When Abigail turned to reach for the handle, her nerves prickled, the hairs on the back of her neck erecting and forcing a cold sweat to break out along the skin over her spine. She couldn't possibly begin to explain the emotion she was feeling, but the crude sensation was enough to discourage her from continuing any further.

She drew back, the heel of her brown leather boots pushing forcefully into the warm, crumpled Earth beneath her feet. She sort of staggered, and almost tripped in her advancements, breaking into a steady jog and then into a frightful run, as if the shadows watched her flee from the scene of an unreported crime. 

She had reached her room in a matter of minutes, slammed the door to the Athena dorm, and panted frantically in an attempt to catch her weary breath. Her hand clutched the metal of the helm grasped tightly between her fingers, pressing the metallic frame up to her chest in fear that it could get stolen from her very grasp.

Abigail could not entirely understand what had gotten into her. The situation in itself was strange enough to think, let alone repeat to another individual. In fact, she drew the plank from the floor, slid the helm beneath the cracked fold, and lay in the warmer clasps of her duvet in an attempt to calm her racing nerves. 

Breath drew in ragged gasps, and even the hold of her lungs could not cease the relentless, violent thump of her heart echoing between the flesh of her ears. A sheer ocean of dread washed over her, like a single touch from that handle had cursed her entirely and turned her bones to rigid bricks. 

In her sleep, Abigail suffered from feverish dreams. In her mind, fog swirled and slithered about her ankles. When she reached to touch the fumes, her nails glittered with peeling burgundy polish. She froze, her fingers dipping beneath the fog to touch the trace of her scarlet red sneakers. 

The wings on the sides of the fabric flapped violently, as if choked by the presence of the fog, and betwixt the haze of her dream, Abigail’s brows furrowed in violent confusion as to why she was wearing Lily’s sneakers. It didn’t seem to dawn upon her that they fit perfectly, or that the tone of her skin was a little more tan than she usually witnessed. 

Or that her hair was ginger, and her eyes were like that of the forest lining Half-Blood Hill. Or that, in every capacity, she had become Lily, herself. She trudged forward, but there was nothing. In the darkness, there was nothing. On the floor, nothing. In the sky, absolutely nothing.

Something rattled with each step, clanging violently with heavy thuds upon the hot dirt beneath her feet. The air, although shallow, was terribly muggy, thick and congested harsh enough to discourage a human breath. At the final step, a yell exhumed from her clenched lungs, beads of sweat dribbling down from the sides of her forehead and moistening the flesh of her lips, the salty liquid bitterly blown aside by her weary breath.

At the sharp cry of frustration, her body lurched forward, face eating into the hot dirt and almost searing into her skin before her hands frantically slapped away the substance. Abigail lowered her fingers to the ground and winced at the heat bitterly attacking her flesh, thick molten silver chains rattling violently against the swell of her wrists and ankles.

Her fingers clawed backwards, fingernails almost ripping into her jeans as she clasped the silver brace tightened to her left ankle. Her eyes blurred over violently as a cry echoed from her lips, the flesh of her fingers trembling over the chained hold. 

She was stuck in a pit. A pit of dirt, and darkness, and nothing. Chained like an animal to an endless pit hovering somewhere between life and death, itself. Little water existed here, and she could feel it from the thirst on her tongue. And it was for a moment, for a glimmer of a second where her tears spilled beneath a dark puddle collated beneath her knees, that the reflection staring back at her was not that of her own. 

Abigail woke with a jolt, and beside her, to the end of her bed, sat Luna, a twin daughter of Hecate who should have been sound asleep in a dorm room of her own.

To the end of her bed, Luna's eyes had grown milky in shade. With no time to tend to the cold sweat broken across her back, Abigail shuffled her duvet aside slowly and stalked closer upon the frame of her knees, over her plush mattress. Abigail had spent a long enough summer with the twins, to know that when prophetic visions came to them, to never cut the thread of their subconscious. 

Luna's eyes, although milky in colour, and her mind lost in a realm entirely foreign to Abigail, had her hands upon the wooden chest towards the end of Abi's bed. At the place of a final card, she flipped them onto their back and with a gasp-induced shudder, fell out from her daze and into reality. 

For a moment she sat entirely still, to the point Abigail had assumed she had fallen asleep whilst seated. It wasn't until she turned her head abruptly, that Abi jolted backwards in surprise, Luna's eyes widening as her cheeks reddened with embarrassment. 

‘I-I'm so sorry... I don't... I don't remember coming here-’

Her eyes frantically chased the shadows of the room towards the door, and with haste, had almost fled from the scene, until Abigail's fingers grasped her own with desperation.

‘What did you see, Luna?’

It was the kind of desperation that tip-toed carefully on the borderline of obsession. Abigail's grey eyes had grown wild, like the nature of her dream had haunted her far worse than the feeling she received from the touch of a handle. 

Luna's wide eyes had softened back to their usual doe-like nature. The slightly tanned complexion of her skin seemed to glimmer like faded copper beneath the moonlight. Her young, chestnut eyes seemed old and weary, as if troubled by the extent of her pained visions, and her hair, although dark in nature, seemed frail against the flesh of her scalp. 

The red pearl of her country had been stitched across a thin strip of white against the yukata she wore to bed, the sleeves draped over her arms and widening in length towards her wrists like a dramatised flare. 

‘Nothing.’ She replied wearily, almost concerned from the look of raw dread trickled across Abigail's face. 

‘There was just... nothing. Just darkness, humidity, and... nothing.’ 

Abigail's eyes flashed upwards and towards the two tarot cards laying solitary over the wooden chest at the foot of her bed. 

‘The cards-’

‘What car-’ 

Luna froze mid-sentence, the furrow between her brows softening out of existence, as her eyes befell the familiar deep purple and golden exterior of the tarot cards; a gift from her mother on her 14th birthday when she had first obtained her power. 

Luna forced her breath to gulp back violently within the frame of her throat, drew a shaky exhale and reached, with trembling fingers, for the first of the two cards ominously placed before them.

The tips of her fingers turned over the card, and stared directly into the eyes of ‘The Emperor’. With its meaning lost to them, Luna reached and turned over the second, a cold sweat breaking out across her nape as ‘The Hanged Man’ lay before them.

‘Okay...’ Abi whispered with a gentle breath of narrowing patience,

‘What do they mean?’

‘When you slept, did you dream?’ Luna's head suddenly snapped backwards to face her friend, her expression so serious, it seemed to make Abigail sick to her stomach.

‘I wouldn't call it a... dream.’ She replied with hesitation, ‘It was more of a nightmare. But, that's the thing- I don't think it was me.’

‘Where's Lily?’ Luna replied, her eyes drifting back and forth between the looming shadows of Abigail's dorm room. 

‘Why do you say that?’ Abigail's heart stuttered at the words. That feeling of dread she felt from the handle of the door was enough to scare even Lily away from its doom, so she assumed. 

‘I don't know...’ Luna whispered, ‘I just... thought...’

Abigail didn't have another moment to catch her breath, until her foot fell upon the cold carved wood of her dorm. She launched off her right foot, and felt it ache as she scrambled and almost fell in her exit. 

The frantic feeling didn't end with the door. Nor in the corridor or across the landing and the creaking stairs as she approached Lily's dorm. By the Gods, she hoped Lily was safe in bed beside her newly claimed brother, and lay as odd as she normally would, perhaps with one arm draped over the edge of the bed and the other trapped beneath the cavity of her breathing chest.

But the silence beat harder into the atmosphere, and Abigail's heart thumped with such a profound sense of anxiety, she thought it would surely burst beneath her rib. At the creak of a door lay an empty bed beside a sleeping brother, and with a horrified expression passed forth between both girls, the son of Hermes turned over in his slumber and rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes. 

‘Is it... morning- already?’

He seemed to groan profusely at the light from the door shining over him, and ruffled his hair with a single hand before turning back over to feed his subconscious with fleeting dreams. 

‘Lily- when did you last see Lily?’ Luna asked, Abi unable to get the words to fall out from between her trembling lips. 

Min-gyu groaned again, and for their own benefit, Luna grasped a hold of his upper arm and shook him hard enough to encourage him to wake. He grunted and turned over to sit up, rubbing the sleep deprivation from his eyes as he exhaled tersely and shook the frame of his head;

‘I don't know- I... I guess I saw her sneak out last night. I don't remember the time- it was just dark... after everyone went to bed, I think?’ He rubbed his head, the words slipping out as an awkward drawl as Luna stepped over to inspect Lily's bed.

She threw back the duvet, checked beneath the wooden frame and beneath the pillows, but nothing. It wasn't until Min-gyu's furrowed brows lingered from Luna to Abigail, that he noticed the sheer dread etched upon her face.

‘Why?’ He asked suddenly, cutting the forming tension in half; ‘Is something wrong?’

‘It's 5am and she didn't come back.’ Luna muttered, Min-gyu almost springing to his feet in an instant. 

He had opened his mouth at the drastic gesture his feet had made, but had been rendered completely silent, and joined Abigail amongst the dreaded tension. To have found family and lost it within a single night was more than Min-gyu was willing to bear.

At Luna's advance, Min-gyu stumbled out from his dorm room and out into the hallway to catch his breath. 

‘Nothing was... taken?’

It was the only words Abigail's throat could manage to squeeze out as Luna shook her head with a whimper of defeat;

‘As far as we know... she just... walked out of here.’

Abigail turned and made it out into the hallway as her stomach lurched and her throat gagged at the sickness welling in the pit of her tummy. The heat from her dream seemed to cling to her abhorrently, causing her skin to break out in a feverish sweat. 

It was as if she'd been thrown into the pit of the Underworld itself, to suffer an eternity of chained misery to whatever beast had imprisoned her. Abigail lowered the frame of her hand and pressed it against the bottom edge of her tummy, trying to stop herself from gagging at the nausea building violently within her nerves. 

She had only just felt the nausea sweep over her and out of her system before she steeled her nerves and trudged forward in her fluffy owl slippers, back to her dorm room to retrieve the helm.

‘The cards, Abi-’

Luna had raced out after her and panted softly, realising that Abigail was going to attempt a search for their missing friend despite the prior warning given.

‘What about them? They're just cards-’ Abi mumbled, almost refusing to turn around until Luna spoke once again, her voice hauntingly worried:

‘They're not- you see... I wish they were. I really do- but they're not. My mother imbued them with the same magic bequeathed to me. You see, it's not a joke-’ Luna pleaded, her heart racing over a million miles an hour.

‘Fine-’ Abigail exhaled, her breath taunt between the narrowing clasp of her lungs; ‘What do they mean?’

Abigail couldn't tell if she believed entirely in the power of Luna's tarot cards. Or if they held any sense, or that the interpretations were weighed accurately. In fact, she had no Earthly idea of what to believe, and the thought of basing her assumptions on a pair of thickly welded paper seemed unfathomable.

‘I drew the hanged man and death. By itself, it does not bode well, but together- and with the chance it rooted from the pit of your dream, well... that's more tricky, isn't it?’ 

‘I don't understand...’ Abigail's voice was almost frantic, and it wasn't until her shoulder was squeezed, that she was positively snapped out of that weary trance. 

She jolted aside at the unwarranted touch, until a familiar face came into view. 

‘We'll help-’ 

Seok-min, and his fraternal twin, Ji-hoon stood beside one another in the dimly lit hallway. With hesitance, he slowly let his fingers slip away from her shoulder and fall back to his side, his fingers curling into a gentle fist beside the blue checkered print of his pyjamas. 

Behind them, Min-gyu stood, his hair ruffled in many directions, but a sleepy look of determination slathered across his face. It took Abigail less than a minute to come to the realisation that Min-gyu had been the one to tell them, and had trusted them enough to join their unplanned quest to find out the truth of Lily's disappearance. 

In the moment it had taken for the sons of Apollo to arrive, a tempered heat rushed with violence to the child of a Goddess. Instead of that milky white her eyes had often turned, Luna's gaze had bubbled over to a dark black.

The kind of black that concealed all, and held nothing between it. The kind of black that was hollow and humid, and pitted beneath the Earth's crust. 

‘Help if you must, but heed my warning, ignorant children of the Gods. If the hanged man must be sacrificed, a tyrant Emperor of old shall rise in fruition.’ 

At the wheeze of a breath, Luna almost fell upon the weary buckle of her knees, Min-gyu's speed useful in grabbing a hold of her waist before she tumbled to the ground. 

Seok-min's eyes had swelled to the size of quail eggs in disbelief at the voice of Hecate projecting from the hollow canvas of her own daughter. It was entirely unnatural, and for a short while, he assumed she may have been possessed by another being, entirely. 

Min-gyu brought her to his bed, his fingers gently brushing away the hair from the side of her cheek, as he placed her beneath the plush warmth of his duvet. He brought his hand to the side of her head, feeling the warmth of her skin as he stroked his thumb over her cheekbone and slowly removed it once again from her skin.

He watched her for a quiet moment, wondering about the torment her brain had suffered from the sheer brunt of her power, and finally got up from his knees to step outside, carefully closing the door behind him.

In the hallway, Min-gyu stood facing four others. Seok-min, Ji-hoon and Abigail had also turned at the stiffening of Min-gyu’s body from the sight of the fourth latter, as all eyes fell upon the added individual. 

‘Cheol-’ Ji-hoon breathed out softly, his breath fading away like fumes into the night air. It was Seok-min that was the first to notice the conch clasped tightly between his fingers, as if he was squeezing it roughly without the realisation of his actions.

‘Why’d you bring the... conch?’ Seok-min mumbled, not wanting to stir up anything additional, but wildly curious about what exactly had led Seung-cheol into the hallway in the dead of night.

‘Where’s the Hermes girl?’

‘Lily?’ Abi replied, the frame of her brows furrowed together tightly in confusion at his odd choice of words.

‘Tell her to stop going down to the Underworld- she’s blocking my signal.’ He grovelled, turning the conch over between his clammy hands and turning around again swiftly to leave.

Abigail had almost lunged herself forward at him to ask what he had meant, but before the thought had crossed her mind, Min-gyu’s large hand had clasped itself against the shoulder of Zeus’ agitated son.

‘What signal?’

Seung-cheol, with violently furrowed brows, turned to face his nephew and drew the conch up, as if to show it off to him;

‘The conch-’ He mumbled, lowering it back down when Min-gyu tried to take it away from him.

‘All I can hear is Lily in the Underworld. Tell her to stop visiting my uncle.’ He grovelled, a slight tinge of agitation clear in his tone of breath.

‘She isn’t visiting- anyone. She’s missing-’ Abigail's tone of voice almost matched Cheol’s, Seok-min’s brows flashing up a little further in surprise at her sudden change in attitude.

Abigail had become wildly frustrated with Seung-cheol’s attitude. They had taken them into their camp and nursed him back to health out of their own good will, and to have his attitude ruin an already anxiety-induced evening was more than she could handle. 

Her knuckles burned white as her fingers tightened into a fist, drawing it back and launching her arm forward until it smacked him directly against his left cheekbone. Cheol stumbled and almost hit the wall as the others fell completely silent, staring with wide eyes at a furious Abigail, her fists trembling roughly at her sides.

She turned sharply on the heel of her boot, and on her exit, Seok-min’s eyes watched the corner of her neck twitch, the soft breath echoing from the conch falling between her ears and muddling the thoughts of her mind. 

A heartbeat later, just as the latch of the front door clicked behind her, a low hum rippled through the walls, followed by a voice; not hers, whispering a name beyond the bottomless pit.