Chapter Text
Chapter one
Seoul International Airport
Chris squeezed the small blond man in his arms once again. A small huff of air hit the side of his throat and he chuckled. Pouting, of course Felix was pouting.
“This is exactly what leaving me behind looks like, just so you know.” Felix mumbled as he squeezed one final time before stepping back.
Chris laughed gently and ruffled the younger man’s hair. “It’s not really leaving you behind if I’m coming back. I can’t miss this opportunity, Lix, you know that. Joint projects like this don’t come along everyday. It’s only a year, mate, then I’ll be home.”
Felix huffed out a dramatic sigh as a strong arm wrapped around his waist pulling him securely against a firm chest.
“Don’t worry about him. He’ll calm down as soon as you tell us you’ve landed.” Changbin cracked a grin as Felix grumbled but settled deeper against his boyfriend's chest.
Chris smiled gratefully at Changbin.
Bin had been his gym buddy for a few years while they were in university. Chris had introduced him to Felix about a year ago and the two hit it off swimmingly.
It took a load off his mind to know that Binnie would be there with Felix. Even though Felix wasn’t a kid anymore, he was like a little brother to Chris. Naturally that came with worry.
“You take good care of him, yea?” Chris knew he didn’t have to ask but he asked all the same. “Take care of each other.” His eyes found Felix’s which were watery but he nodded all the same.
“Go on before you miss your flight. Opportunities like this don’t come around everyday.” Felix teased as he pushed Chris closer to the gate. “Go and make a grand discovery in academia.”
Chris smiled warmly as he nodded and stepped into the line of those waiting to go through the last steps before boarding. He waved once more to his friends before rounding the corner and racing off to his terminal.
Greece. He was heading to Greece. The department of ancient history that he was working with at the National Museum of Korea had chosen him to meet with a team in Greece and do preliminary research on an artifact that was recently discovered and to search the sight for similar findings.
Why the National Museum in Korea instead of Greece? Well because their researchers found what appeared to be a name written in Hangul. However the script was so old that the characters were hard to make out. Hence they called in a researcher from the suspected country of origin.
Chris was lucky that his intense studies in Korean, Australian, and Mediterranean histories had led his supervisors to believe that he was best suited for the preliminary investigation. The findings from his investigation would determine whether or not an actual team should be interviewed and proposed.
“One year.” He whispered to himself as he settled into his window seat. Greece for one year. On sight access to the current dig. Free time to explore other sights and historically significant places.
Personally he couldn’t wait to visit the temples. Places of worship fascinated him to no end. Places people for centuries upon centuries gathered to honor their deities.
He had admired church growing up. The music especially. The way people would pour out their hearts in song.
Chris wondered what all of those temples throughout the world had looked like at their peak. Did worshipers gather and sing heartfelt melodies? Were they always silent in absolute reverence?
Don’t get him wrong, he knew the legends and he knew the histories. Roman had worshiped in many fascinating ways and even though they had shared gods with the Grecians, he didn’t think they worshiped the same ways.
Even the Athenians and Spartans worshipped vastly differently and they were technically in the same country.
Somewhere in the sky his excitement finally burned him to exhaustion and he fell asleep dreaming about temples before time had taken hold of them.
A temple of dark stone and towering columns stood forefront in his mind. Two imposing statues guarded the entrance. One male and one female. Large basins held burning oil that danced brilliantly over the black marble setting fire to the white veins.
Some part of him wondered if hell looked like that. Dark and fiery.
But this was too beautiful to be hell. The flames softened the marble that it glowed upon. The veins spread the light, fighting off the heaviest parts of the shadows. Warm. There was a comforting warmth here.
Chan took a step forward but the sudden lurk of the plane landing pulled him from the dream. Groggy and slightly confused by the modern lighting turning on in the cabin, he gathered his things to catch his next flight.
The Underworld - Persephone’s garden
Seungmin smirked into the viewing pool one last time before the image faded. He laid back on the edge and crossed his long arms behind his head pretending to sleep.
After a short time he heard the whispers of approached. Footsteps so light they were nothing more than a breeze that graced the heads of the blades of grass they touched. The grass might have been thankful if not for the kiss of frost left behind every step. Though he figured the small snowdrops that bloomed in the wake of the frost were gift enough for the flora.
“What are you doing in my mother’s garden? Didn’t you get banished by my father for making Tisiphone believe she was in love with a tree for three days?” The voice that entered Seungmin’s ears danced on the edge of being bored and slightly amused.
“I lifted the spell and she forgave me.” Seungmin defended not opening his eyes.
“She is an Erinyes. You should be more respectful. They have lived millenia before you and I were even a thought in the cosmos.”
Slightly irritated.
Seungmin smirked.
That was something more than boredom.
He sat up quickly and looked into the cold stone eyes of his friend. Hyunjin had eyes as cold and black as the dead of winter, but just like his mother he transformed. In fall his eyes changed to a warm reddish brown reflecting the changing leaves. Then a deep rich brown, the type of brown held deep in the soon to be sleeping Earth. Then black as held the sorrow of winter his grandmother had tried to curse his heart with.
“It’s a little fun, Hyunjin. You don’t ever have enough of that.” Seungmin painted wide sad eyes as he looked mournfully at his friend. “Come see the mortal realm with me. It’s a new era there.”
“Yes, I’ve seen. Souls enter now having fallen to the simplest of illnesses. Devices killing them left and right. Large one that mutilate them-”
“Vehicles.” Seungmin interrupted and then explained. “Like horse drawn carts but more powerful and varying in sizes.”
“Hmm.” Hyunjin hummed uncaringly. “They ramble about last reels and episodes, they shake from things they consumed in mass quantities. It is a new era where the fool is mighty. There are no heroes. There are no healers or helpers. And we,” he gestured between the two of them, “we are all but forgotten. Relegated to myths and half forgotten legends.”
“And fanfiction.” Seungmin chirped happily. “Well maybe not so much you but,” he let out a long low whistle, “your parents have a lot of fanfiction. If it wasn’t about Aunt Persephone I would have definitely read them but I do love myself too much to hurt myself like that.”
Hyunjin blinked long and slow at his friend, his cousin. Seungmin was one of the few who came down to visit him. Although as the youngest son of Aphrodite, he was quite the mischievous type. Clearly his older brother had influenced him in the wrong ways.
“Oh, you probably don’t know what fanfiction is. It’s fan written stories about…well anything really.” Seungmin smiled as his fingers began to lightly dance over the edge of the viewing pool.
Hyunjin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “So just the same as every fairytale, every retelling of our history by every scribe that’s ever had a quill and too much imagination?”
Seungmin shrugged before standing up. “I guess. Think about going with me to the mortal realm. I know you miss it.”
“I do not.” Hyunjin said with a quick cold finality that froze the grass around him. He sighed and relaxed his shoulders. The ground responded as small snowdrops bloomed all around his feet. “There is nothing for me there, I do not wish to ever go back.”
This time the sorrow on Seungmin’s face was real. It was real because the pain in Hyunjin was real. Seungmin walked over and laid his hands on both of Hyunjin’s broad shoulders.
Neither of them said anything. Seungmin knew that Hyunjin’s time with the Erinyes had scarred his heart, allowing it to freeze over.
He had been summoned for vengeance over and over again for eons. He did not get to guide the dead, to hold the blessed ones in his embrace and bring them over peacefully.
No, Hyunjin was beautiful, bitter cold vengeance that drove the offender mad until they took their lives to be rid of him. Then he dragged their screaming spirits to the pit where he bound them in chains for eternity.
The Erinyens had gone to Hades and Persephone and begged as no divine Furie had ever done before. They begged for Hyunjin to be released for his duty to them, to serve elsewhere.
Hyunjin was to them as Orpheus was to the Nymphs and Muses above. He was precious and they would not watch him break further.
They were granted their request.
The scrolls for summoning Hyunjin were destroyed and he was allowed peace in the underworld.
“Leave before someone finds you and you actually get punished.” Hyunjin smiled softly as he squeezed the wrists of the hands on his shoulders.
“I will be back soon. You would be bored to actual death without me.”
Both laughed briefly before Seungmin vanished to the exit of the Underworld. The Underworld had many strange things about it, one was that all other gods and goddesses, any deity not born or blessed by Hades and Persephone had to use the doors.
Hyunjin lingered by the viewing pool for a moment. His gaze scanned the surface trying to see what Seungmin had seen. What Seungmin had decided was worth risking his safety to see. However all that looked back at him was the deep night sky that currently covered his father’s kingdom.
He huffed out a laugh. Whatever it was had nothing to do with him. Seungmin was always playing his games, whoever he was hiding from while meddling would never think to look for him in the Underworld. Plain and simple.
“Jinnie!” His mother’s voice called through the garden, lightening the heavy weight that bore on his soul. His mother was spring, she eased the harshness of his wintering heart. Even if only temporary, it was enough.
“Coming.” He called back carefully as he made his way back to the temple which hid their home.