Yixing reached out his arms, straining for the woman who was getting further and further away. He cried out several times, he struggled, but firm hands kept him safe. The woman felt relief wash over her knowing that the boy would be safe, that she had protected him with her last breath. A smile ghosted over her face as she watched Yixing ascend into the sky on the back of Pegasus.

A satyr named Liko held the crying boy wishing things did not have to be the way they were. He wished he could save Ai, but knew it was too late for her. Besides, Ai would never forgive him for risking Yixing’s life to try and save hers. Surely the gods would keep her soul in Paradise for her great service.

The air was cold, contrasting the heat of fire and sticky blood. Black clouds steadily rose from the ground blocking the gruesome scene from Yixing’s eyes. He kept thinking to himself that he needed to wake up because it was all just a dream. He was dreaming that same horrible dream again, except that it wouldn’t end. His cries went silent and his heart sank in a way he didn’t understand. Yixing’s dream had come true. Did he make it happen by dreaming of it? The thought sunk him into guilt and he wished the strange man had never come from the sky. He wished he were still with Ai, even though he knew he’d be hurt.

“Come now, little one. You shouldn’t wish for death; now is not your time. Some day you will help save us all. We need you,” Liko said in a voice stronger than he felt. The boy would experience more sorrow than he could ever imagine. The Fates were never kind. Yet he knew Yixing’s spirit would never break. The boy was strong; he would have to be.

~*~

Minseok couldn’t sleep. The sun rose beautifully over the horizon. More beautiful than it should have been. He almost expected to hear Luhan’s laugh and signature singsong “Good morning!” at any moment. They always watched the sunrise together. There was no particular reason for it, but it was their thing. There was something so peaceful about the sunrise, something so magical about being with the one you love, before the world around you had begun to stir awake. It was like time had stopped and you were just there in a perfect moment.

Minseok could almost feel the soft, chaste kiss Luhan gave him every morning or the silly way he would whisper “I missed you while I was sleeping, but dream-you is pretty y too”. It always made Minseok smile because it was just so cheesy and lame and just so Luhan. If he closed his eyes and concentrated, Minseok could almost believe this was just another morning. But it wasn’t. He couldn’t help but remember Luhan’s words, “I’ll never leave you. Never”. It felt wrong not being with Luhan and knowing that he wouldn’t pop up at some point.

Love is stronger

The words echoed and faded so Minseok wasn’t sure whether or not he had imagined them, or if another voice had spoken to him.

“Love is stronger.”

Minseok jumped at the voice and turned around to see Yixing awake and sitting up. “What did you say?” Minseok asked in a hushed whisper.

Yixing turned to face Minseok. His eyes seemed to see beyond Minseok. “Love is stronger,” he repeated, “Fate and love are intertwined. Two lovers forever shall bind and be connected throughout all of time. Just follow the red line and your love you shall find.”

Minseok’s heart skipped a beat and turned to look behind him. As soon as he did turn around and saw only more trees, he felt stupid. Minseok wasn’t even sure what he was expecting to see. Luhan standing there saying “I found you!”? A red line guiding him? He shook his head and swallowed that bitter lump in his throat. Nothing was ever that easy. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that Yixing’s words did make sense to him and that Luhan was meant to be with him during his journey. Journey? Minseok shook his head again. It wasn’t as though they were on some kind of quest. They were escaping.

Suddenly, Yixing grabbed Minseok’s arm with a grip of steel. Minseok gasped and turned to meet Yixing in eyes that were not his own. Fear and confusion filled Minseok as he gazed into the pure white orbs. They seemed to be glowing with golden light and just when Minseok thought he was going to pass out from shock, Yixing opened his mouth and spoke. But it wasn’t Yixing’s voice. It was the voice of a woman, aged with wisdom yet light with youth and beauty.

“Follow your heart. You cannot achieve this using your head, son of Athena. Trust in love; it will guide you. Minseok Kim, your mission is the pinnacle of our salvation!” The voice struck through Minseok’s very core. As soon as the last word faded, Yixing’s grip loosened and he slumped forward before catching himself again.

“Yixing!” Minseok gasped again in worry, “What happened? Are you okay?”

Minseok’s outburst stirred Chen awake, who sat up. “What’s going on?” he asked groggily.

Yixing held up a hand while he gathered himself. That sort of…possession had only ever happened twice before, and it was never easy on Yixing. It felt as though his soul was fighting to stay in his body while the godly presence all but consumed him. They never lasted long because Yixing figured that any longer than that and his soul really would be obliterated from his body. Not that he had a say in any of it. “I’m okay,” he said.

“What…what was that, Yixing?” Minseok asked.

Yixing studied the son of Athena before answering, “What do you think it was?”

Minseok opened his mouth to say that he didn’t know, but he closed it. He did know. Or at least, he thought he knew, but he was pretty sure he was right. Yixing continued to study him as Minseok prepared what to say. “I think…Aphrodite…. That was Aphrodite. She spoke through you.” Even as unbelievable as it sounded, as soon as he said her name, Minseok knew it had been her. And that the voice he'd been hearing all his life had been Aphrodite all along, which was a little disappointing he had to admit.

“Wait, what?” Chen asked completely confused.

Yixing took in a breath. “I don’t know why or how, but I’ve always been able to see things, hear things. Like somehow I got connected to a godly radio wave. It's fuzzy a lot but sometimes I get bits and pieces of things I shouldn’t know,” Yixing rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m not really sure how to explain it. That’s really the best way I can put it in words, but its like I’m a direct link between,” he gestured his hand upwards, “that and the world down here. And every now and then the gods can communicate directly through me like I’m some kind of…medium or something.”

Chen gaped with a crazy look on his face. “Dude! That’s, like, so crazy,” he said, “And…and Aphrodite, the Aphrodite, just communicated through you?”

Yixing nodded looking at the ground. “Something like this, so direct and from such a high ranking goddess, has never happened before. Not this intense. And it was to you.” He looked up right at Minseok.

Both Yixing and Chen stared at Minseok expectantly as if he were supposed to have the answer to why Aphrodite decided to communicate with him. He gave a small shrug. “I…I’m not sure…” but even as the words left his mouth, he knew they weren’t true. Minseok shook his head. “No, I do know. I mean not completely. Not in a way that I can explain well, but I know.”

“Well? Why? And why Aphrodite? I mean she’s not even your mom,” Chen said as he waved a stick to for emphasis.

Minseok snatched the stick right before it could hit him in the face. “Yeah, I’m aware Aphrodite is not my mother. But it was her—”

“Why?” Chen interrupted and then shrank back when Minseok glared at him.

“If I can finish,” Minseok gave another glare at Chen, “I was saying that I just know, I feel, that it's her. And I think it has to do with Luhan and me, being together, being…in…love…” Minseok trailed off trying to will away the blush that was creeping forward. When Minseok saw the skeptic look on Chen’s face he rushed to continue explaining. “I mean also because of what Yixing said earlier and what Aphrodite told me! Yixing repeat that love poem thing you said earlier.”

Chen whipped his head around to look at Yixing expectantly. Even though Yixing was prone to forgetting things, he never forgot those whatever they were, prophecies? He still wasn’t sure what to call them. “Fate and love are intertwined. Two lovers forever shall bind and be connected throughout all of time. Just follow the red line and your love you shall find,” he repeated again.

“And then Aphrodite told me that I have to follow my heart, that I couldn’t rely on using my head for this. She said that love will guide me and that my mission was important to “our salvation”, but I’m not too sure what that means,” Minseok said.

Minseok half expected Chen to crack a joke, but instead, he looked as though he were deep in thought. “Actually, now that I think about it,” Chen reached deep into his jean pocket and pulled out a long gold chain with what looked like a circle locket hanging on it, “My dad gave me this last night. He was drinking a lot and I remember this time because he apologized to me. Although I wasn’t sure why, I thought maybe just in general, and then he gave me this. Told me to keep it on me and I thought he mumbled “good luck”, but I couldn’t really hear. I didn’t think about it then, but, well, he wasn’t here this morning. I couldn’t find him and then all this weird stuff happens,” Chen paused for a moment, “maybe, maybe he knew something would happen,” he whispered.

“You mean that he knew something bad would happen to the camp, yet he just stayed quiet and then left us here?” Minseok asked. Dionysius wasn’t the kindest god, but still that seemed cruel.

Chen shrugged again, keeping a straight face. He learned a long time ago how to hide the hurt. Besides, no one ever got anywhere wallowing in sorrow. “I don’t know, but this,” he held up the necklace, “this has got to be something helpful, right?”

Minseok cupped the semi-circular locket. The locket was heavy and filled the center of his palm. Not too big, not too small. The locket clicked open.

Chen sat forward. “Whoa, I spent almost an hour trying to open that thing, but it wouldn’t budge. I just figured it only looked like it would open, but you just clicked it right open. How’d you do that?”

Minseok shrugged and looked at Yixing, who didn’t have an answer either. “I didn’t do anything though…it just clicked open.”

They all peered over Minseok’s palm to see what lay inside. It appeared to be a compass, or at least, part of a compass.It was shaped like a thick crescent moon with the left side curved in. It was almost as if it had a missing part, yet the compass seemed to be a complete one. The needle looked intricately shaped with three intertwining gold pieces that came together to make the needlepoint. It was sitting on what appeared to be a cut of white marble etched with rose gold. The difference was that instead of having an N, S, W, and E, it only had one marking at the top that looked like a dove with its wings outstretched and beak pointing up. Inscribed in the middle in Ancient Greek were the words “Follow Your Heart”.

“That’s convenient,” Chen said impressed, “Wow, who knew Aphrodite would favor a child of Athena.”

Minseok thought for a minute. It couldn’t be that Aphrodite favored him. It had to be about Luhan somehow, but why wouldn’t she just speak to him instead?

“Luhan never listens to her, probably because of his siblings. You know how they can be,” Yixing said and that was purely his own deduction. He was quite the observer at times.

Minseok let out a light laugh. “Yeah, that’s definitely true.”

“Soooo,” Chen tapped the glass of the compass, “you think that’ll really work?”

Looking down at the compass, Minseok felt hope. He did believe it would work. It would bring him to Luhan. For now, that was all he needed to know. Together they would figure the rest out. “Yes, I do. I really do,” he said with so much confidence Chen felt dumb for even questioning it.

The needle was pointing towards what Minseok assumed would be northeast if the dove was north. Not wanting to waste another second he sent a prayer of thanks to Aphrodite and set off, making sure to keep the needle aligned with the dove’s beak.

~*~

As soon as Kai stumbled to the ground he shot back up again and, in his anger, snatched Kyungsoo by the arm but stopped himself before he could impose any harm. Even so Kai still found himself back on the ground with the air temporarily knocked out of him. He took in a gasp of breath and propped himself on his knees. His first thought was that Kyungsoo’s Shadows had attacked him in defense, but when he looked up, Azarai’s large form and angry eyes stood blocking him from Kyungsoo.

Kai had never seen, only heard of, the rage of Ares that was rumored to reside in all of his children. Despite being the son of Poseidon, that rage, Ares’s rage, flickering in Azarai’s eyes sent chills down his spine. Kai knew when he was in the wrong so he just sat back against the wall. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, Kyungsoo,” he said.

It took a moment but eventually Azarai decided he could trust Kai and moved back. Kyungsoo didn’t look shocked or hurt, but rather confused.

“My…my Shadows…Where are my Shadows?” Kyungsoo asked as he stared down at his body.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Azarai said, “unless…”

“Unless this really isn’t reality right now,” Kyungsoo whispered horrified that Kai was right in his outburst.

“No,” Azarai said, “We aren’t still unconscious, but we aren’t completely back in reality yet. This has to be cursed with some kind of magic.”

Kai stood up, finally shaking himself out of desolation. “We’re stuck in a loop. That’s why the hallway isn’t ending, but it’s more like an illusion. Kind of like the Mist that covers the minds of regular humans. There has to be a break somewhere, a crack of some sort. We just have to find it.”

Azarai studied Kai again. It was amazing the way his personality seemed to switch almost instantly. He’d definitely need to keep an eye on him. “Yeah, that actually makes sense. This is like a Mist for both humans and demigods. That’s how it traps people here.”

Kyungsoo nodded. He was still a bit shaken at Kai’s outburst, but he needed to focus on how to get them out. Kyungsoo had never experienced what it was like to see with the Mist. Knowing something was strange and out of place, but not being able to figure it out. It was frustrating. If the Mist tricked the eyes then the logical conclusion was to close his eyes. Kyungsoo concentrated on instinct and he could feel the walls on either side of him. He could feel the dead and the trapped souls beyond the walls. He cleared his mind of worry and just focused on what was around him.

Kyungsoo could almost see an outline of every soul and dead body in the building. Many of the rooms were stacked with bodies and Kyungsoo grimaced, but there was a gap further up and to his right. He walked up to it, turned, and walked straight through the wall, just barely catching himself before he tumbled down a rickety staircase. He turned around and the loop was gone, just a dark, dank hallway, but so were the others. Kyungsoo wasn’t sure if he should enter the hallway again or not, but before he could decide Kai suddenly appeared stumbling into him with Sehun draped over his back.

They clambered about halfway down the stairs before they regained balance, just in time to see Azarai toppling after them. Luckily, Azarai quickly braced himself between the walls flanking the staircase by outstretching and locking his arms. They all breathed a collective sigh of relief before carefully descending the rest of the stairs. Once they were safely down Kyungsoo spoke first.

“Sorry for just leaving like that, I didn’t know—” he started

But Kai interrupted him. “No, it's completely fine! We were able to tell where to exit after you disappeared through the wall.”

“Yeah,” Azarai agreed, “how’d you figure it out?”

Kyungsoo looked a bit sheepish. “Uhh, actually I kind of was able to sense all the trapped souls and dead bodies in the rooms, and since the rooms were side by side, I figured the only gap would have to be the exit.”

“Oh, that’s, uh, I mean it worked,” Kai shrugged and gave Kyungsoo a smile. “Now let’s get out of here.”

The end of the staircase was just a square of cement on all sides save for a metal door directly in front of them. Kyungsoo pushed open the door with more force than necessary, not expecting it to be so light, and just about threw himself outside. He coughed awkwardly and just held the door open for Kai and Azarai.     

~*~

Luhan had to admit it; the brochure was right. While the outside looked well worn with age (keeping true to its original time period) the Café de la Café was absolutely exquisite on the inside. When the brochure depicting a quaint and classy local café was into his hands by a passerby a mere 15 minutes ago, Luhan was skeptical at best. He didn’t think such a nice café could exist so close to the misshapen run-down part of the city he was wandering. Yet the Café de la Café proved him wrong. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, the air smelled of fresh pastries and brewing coffee, the décor reminded him of that one French café he saw in a magazine a while back.

In fact, the Café de la Café could have passed as a complete replica of that beautiful French café he and Minseok had often dreamed about some time ago. Strange, but intriguing. Luhan simply shrugged it off and walked up to the counter where a stylish barista was just finishing up a latte.

“Oh you’ve finally arrived, Mr. Lu,” the barista said with a big smile. She placed the latte on a tray with a muffin and gestured for Luhan to follow as she came from around the counter. “If you would just follow me, she’s waiting upstairs.”

Luhan paused for a moment trying to remember if he had made plans with anyone, then decided that that was impossible on account that he just escaped a camp infiltrated with demons. Confused, yet intrigued, Luhan followed the barista up the stairs into a smaller, more private room, and then on to a balcony that must have been on the backside of the building. There wasn’t much of a view, mostly just building, but only if you didn’t count the stunning Greek goddess gracefully lounging at the single circular table in the middle of the balcony.

The barista set down the latte and muffin on the table and gestured for Luhan to seat himself before leaving. At that point things were beginning to click together, the random brochure, the weirdly similar café, how nice it all looked. Aphrodite smiled as Luhan cautiously slid into the chair, skewing the attached cushion. The goddess waited as her son struggled a bit to readjust the cushion.

“You always were an odd little thing, my dear,” Aphrodite sighed when Luhan had finally gotten himself situated.

Luhan propped his elbows on the table and interlaced his fingers. “Mother.”

Aphrodite narrowed her eyes. “Don’t use that tone of voice when referring to me. You know I could blast away your existence in a heartbeat.”

But as usual, the threat made no effect on Luhan. He was used to them. He was always managing to do something to piss Aphrodite off. Luhan just reached for her muffin, breaking off a chunk of the top part and shoving it into his mouth.

“So, Mommy dearest, to what do I owe the honor?” Luhan said as he wiped rogue crumbs from the corners of his mouth.

Aphrodite shook her head. Sitting in front of her was a man in the most passionate love of that decade and yet no one would have ever guessed it. “Here, my darling,” she said as she plopped down a gold chain necklace on the table.

Luhan picked up the gift, examining it. Hanging from the chain was an asymmetrical golden compass with the right side smaller as though to make room for some missing piece. When he clicked it open he saw an intertwined needle atop of a circle of white marble with rose gold inscriptions of a dove at the top, and in the center, the words “Follow Your Heart” in Ancient Greek. Luhan nodded, clicked it shut, and said, “Okay?”

Aphrodite sighed again, secretly wondering if somehow Athena had switched their children and had stolen Minseok away from her. But alas, somehow, it was all too obvious that Luhan was hers. “My dearest child, this is to help guide you,” she said.

Luhan nodded and looked down at the compass. “Okay, but guide me where?”

“Where do you think, Han? A local farmer’s market? A hot sale at the mall? The doors to Olympus?” Aphrodite shook her head and stood up, “I’ve done my deed and now I’m leaving. You can figure it out if you just would think about it.” And with that, she was gone.

Luhan frowned and grabbed the leftover muffin and latte. “Geez Mom, no need for the ‘tude…” And as soon as the words left his mouth a flash of light struck and he found himself sitting on a falling apart balcony on the second floor of an abandoned building. Even the muffin and latte were zapped out of existence. 

Yeah so I've been kinda on an unofficial hiatus, but I think I'm getting back into the groove of thing!

So I hope you enjoy this incredibly overdue chapter! :)