Hestia

Chapter one.

Danae and the other 49 passengers on the boat were stirred by a voice speaking through a crackling speaker, a voice she knew well. Levi the commander of the councilmen. His face flickered onto the screen at the front of the cargo hold, he was smiling. Danae felt her blood boil at the sight of his face, he had chosen this.

, he was still smiling, and Danae couldn't help her eyes rolling at his words, this wasn't a history that would be recorded unless it succeeded. "You have all been chosen. Chosen for something incredible." A boy from the front corner of the ship spat at the screen, while others started banging their restraints. Danae was surprised at their reactions, she had not spent much time around the lower sectors since she was a child being raised there, but clearly, they disliked the council. Levi's smiling face only fuelled their fear, their anger and their pain.

"Can you feel that?" A voice asked from somewhere on the ship. Murmurs erupted around them and Danae struggled to distinguish words.

"Its water!" someone yelled his voice louder than the rest.

"I can feel it, too!"

"It's freezing."

The panic died down eventually, the people stopped fighting realising that it was only causing more pain, a girl in the corner was praying, Danae could hear her, and she wanted to scream. To scream that there was no God to save them, that no God would have been cruel enough to even let this happen, but she kept her lips tightly closed. If God was what this girl needed to stay alive, then she would allow her, her small pleasures. If it was a week ago or maybe even a day ago, Danae would be calling for someone too, not a God but Kane. Now she still thinks about him, though her thoughts are no longer tinted with pink and gold they are blue and black, and she doesn't want him to save her she wants him to drown for her.

Careful not to make too much noise Danae slowly stands out of her chair, she presses her back against wall of the boat to try and slide along in the shadows. The cold from the wall seeps through her thin shirt and she wonders why the council never thought to give them warmer clothes, they don't know what the weather will be like on the island, it's certainly cold on the water. Then she realises, that they didn't think it was worth the risk to send clothes they themselves would need in the winter, and the boiling of her blood stops the chill as she steps out onto the top of the boat. The sun is so bright she needs to use her hands to block it, she turns to look around and all she sees is white and blue, the ocean is never ending.

She spins around at the sound of footsteps behind her, Ethan. she is not surprised though she is disappointed. Ethan the commander's son, how cruel, she wonders how a man could send his only son; perhaps he was confident they would succeed, perhaps he just didn't care.

"Danae." He says with a smile when he reaches her. She smiles back but it's a hollow smile, she doesn't want to mad at him, but his father put her hands in chains, told the man she loved to say goodbye and sent her off to die. It is hard to look at his face, so like his fathers and be happy to see him.

"There's a leak." She says in response, the water needs to be stopped, she can dwell on her emotions later.

"In the hull. But probably more, this ship hasn't been used in over a century."

"My father would have had it checked." He says without hesitation, his faith in his father surprises her she thought that he would at least hold some resentment after all he like her was sent here to die.

"Clearly not. There is a leak downstairs."

Danae span around at the sound of footsteps walking along the wooden towards them from behind.