Words: 1272
Genre: Fantasy / Mythology / Greek Mythology
Summary: A man discovers his fate at the hands of the Snow Goddess, Khione.
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The old man in the attic awoke suddenly. The fire beside him had long gone out and night was encroaching upon his peaceful refuge in the abandoned house. Warmth had long left the four walls and fled to greener pastures leaving behind a shadow of what the building used to be: a home. Who's home? He didn't know, but it was someone's. Pictures still lined the walls, and a few chairs had been left behind, although nature was starting to reclaim them already. Nature reclaimed everything in the end. And he had been running for so long, maybe he should lay down and just wait. She would find him.
One did not scorn a goddess and live to tell the tale for long.
Oh, no, in youth he had bragged. Bragged about breaking an ice queen's heart, melting it down into the liquid diamonds that made wishes come true. Then about stealing away her treasures and leaving. Leaving for somewhere with warmth. What warmth could be found in the embrace of Ice herself? Kindness was never called "cold", but yet her touch was always cool. She was cold, but her smile glittered like ice in the sun. Even as a young man, he understood how ice could steal away a man's sight, blind him for life.
But now he was old, and he had lived his life, and yet she still found it in her ability to torture him still. Did he love her? Perhaps the way one loves a blizzard--far away and safe from its icy fingers. No one willingly went into the Snow's domain out of love and stayed. They must always leave. For mortals are made of fire, and fire cannot abide cold. One will kill the other. Isn't that the way of the world, it seems? If it is not love, it is destruction. Or perhaps love is destruction after all. For wasn't it said that Icarus so loved the sun that he defied the danger and flew too close to the light? Yet, he fell to his death, as his father forewarned. Could it be that to love one must die? To give oneself over to another being so completely that death was inevitable and imminent? Was that the curse of loving an elemental being as cold as the snow that piled up around his shelter--his sanctuary?
To love her, he must either leave her or die for her.
"What a depressing thought, my love." Her voice was soft as newly fallen snow, and as sweet as the melody of tinkling ice. "To love you must leave or die. I did not think you were so melancholy."
"You found me," he replied, voice gruff with age and usage.
"I told you. You cannot hide from me. Not even in these hills. Did you honestly think you could outwit a Goddess?"
"Why don't you show yourself Khione and spare my eyes from squinting in the darkness?"
A laugh absent of mirth rang through the small attic and a swirl of snow invaded the space from the window. It gathered in such intensity that the man thought to close the window, to shut the cold out, but he restrained the urge as best he could. He knew better.
The snow churned close together and then fell softly away leaving behind the form of a woman sitting upon the window's sill. Long black hair cascaded down her back, flecked with snowflakes that did not melt when they met her, and her dark, coffee colored eyes were intent upon him. She was beautiful, and she was how he remembered her from all those years ago. Back when he was a foolish youth and foolishly in love. A pale hand--pale as the snow around her--reached for him, and she laughed when he refused it.
"Come now, darling," she purred, but there was no warmth in her voice. "Come now, I mean you no harm. I simply wish to take you home."
"You took my home, Snow Witch."
"Witch!" Khione laughed again and shook her head, snow falling as she did. "I am no witch! I am the Goddess of Snow, a Woman of Winter, and you call me witch. I did to you what you did to me, mortal. You took my home, so I took your's. Fair is fair, right?" When he didn't respond right away, her eyes iced over and pale lips pursed, "Right?"
"I am a Goddess. I kill who I wish when they defy me. Do you think Zeus or Poseidon or even Hera's hands are clean? Hera's slaughtered children because she was jealous of who Zeus took to bed! If you failed to pay tribute to an Olympian, your family was in danger of becoming cursed. And you look upon me as if I am a monster. I created the snow, yes, but I did not kill your family. You did that."
The man recoiled as if she had physically struck him a blow and for a moment, all he could do was stare. "... I did nothing."
"Why were they on that road that night, love? Have you forgotten the yelled curses that slipped the lips of your wife? Of the crying of your daughter and sons? Why were they on that road when my blizzard came?"
"I.... I...." His voice faltered and he slumped back into his makeshift bed. "It was not my fault."
"You drove them out. With your apathy, your drinking, and your failure to communicate. I was there. I was watching. I did not take your family from you, sweet one, you drove them away from you and you lack the standing to take the blame! And so you blame me. If you had talked to her, thrown down the bottle and said you were sorry--she would have stayed. She loved you, as I love you, and I would not have touched them." Khione stood up, white dress swirling around her as she moved. "I am cruel and I am cold, but what do you expect from the snow? What do you expect of ice? I am spiteful and vengeful and some have called me dark, but I had no intention of stealing your happiness away.
"You are a liar! You whispered into her ear and made her leave, made her hate me!"
"Accept the blame and I shall leave you in your misery."
For a moment, an expression of sadness crossed the Goddess's face, but it was soon replaced with an icy mask and resolve. "Very well."
In two steps, she crossed the floor and knelt down before him. Where he once saw light in her eyes, he saw nothing but ice. He knew better than to try to speak to her. She had made up her mind, and there was no changing icy resolve once it took hold. A hand reached out to cup his face, but she said nothing.
Perhaps she should have. Perhaps she should have warned the old man that his entire being was to turn to ice in a matter of seconds, but she had given him his chance to right his wrongs. Pride and cowardice were his downfalls, she was simply there to see them carried out.
Standing, the Goddess of Snow and Ice watched the man, frozen now forever, for a few more moments before she moved towards the window.
"Goodbye, may Hades treat you kinder than you have treated those in your life."
And with a blistering winter wind, she was gone.
