Ataraxia [BTS au | Heroes of Olympus]

32

Namjoon

He was with Yoongi and Jin at the deck. Yoongi had finished repairing the damages from the ourae as he asked Yoongi about the approximate distance they yet had to cover to reach Epirus. But suddenly something stopped him in the middle of sentence.
That smell in the air, the thick smell of ... the smell of impending snow.
Every muscle in his body tensed. "Yoongi, sound the alarm."
Yoongi immediately dropped his screwdriver and punched the alarm button panicked but still confused . He frowned when nothing happened.

"Uh, it's disconnected," Yoongi remembered. "Let me just-"

"We don't have time! Fires – we need vials of Greek fire. Taehyung, call him. We need warm, southerly winds."

"Wait, what?" Jin stared at him in confusion. "Namjoon, what's wrong?"

"It's her!" He snatched up his dagger. "We have to –"

Before he could finish, the boat listed to port. The temperature dropped so fast that the sails crackled with ice. The bronze shields along the rails popped like over-pressurized soda cans. Jin drew his sword, but it was too late. A wave of ice particles swept over him, coating him likea glazed doughnut and freezing him in place. Under a layer of ice, his eyes were wide with amazement.
"Yoongi! Flames! Now!" He yelled.

Yoongi's right hand blazed, but the wind swirled around him and doused the fire. Yoongi yelped as a funnel cloud of sleet lifted him off his feet.
"Hey!" Yoongi yelled. "Hey! Let me go!"

He ran towards him, but a voice in the storm said, "Oh, yes, son of fire. I will let you go permanently."
Yoongi was through out off the deck, like he'd been launched from a catapult. He disappeared beneath the ship.
"No!" He raised his knife, but there was nothing to attack. He looked desperately at the stairwell, hoping to see her friends charging to the rescue, but a block of ice had sealed the hatch. The whole lower deck might have been frozen solid.

He needed a better weapon to fight with. He wondered whether he could make it to the ballista.
Then his enemies appeared, and he realized that no weapon would be enough. Standing amidships was a girl in a flowing dress of white silk, her mane of black hair pinned back with a circlet of diamonds. Her eyes were the colour of coffee, but without the warmth.

Behind her stood her brothers – two young men with purple-feathered wings, stark white hair and jagged swords of Celestial bronze.

"So good to see you again, mon chèri," said Khione, the goddess of snow. "It's time we had a very cold reunion."

He and Jin had met Khione and her two brothers Zethes and Calius about 3 years ago on one of their quests. And the meeting had not gone very well if he had to say. They had ran into her in Quebec and she had wanted to add them to her collection of ice statues, which they had politely refused. With the help of Apollo they had managed to get away from her and a few days back he had had a dream. Of Khione using her charm-speak on someone for Gaia's aid. He had guessed she must have joined forces with Gaia, since she was pretty bummed the last time he saw her because she was not well known as other gods.

Jin too then had a dream where he saw Khione helping Gaia to rise Porphyrion. He had tried not to worry about that a lot.

"I knew you would miss me." Zethes spoke Québécois French, which he translated with his knowledge.

"What are you doing?" He demanded. "Let my friends go."

Zethes ran a finger delicately over Jin's frozen figure. "Ah, Namjoon ... so long I have waited to see you again. We cannot let your friends go. In fact we must take them to Quebec, where they shall be laughed at eternally. I am so sorry, but these are our orders."