Chapter Text
The Hermes Cabin had completely frozen over, which made Scott nervous, to say the least. He was sixteen, still unclaimed (Is that allowed?), and had recently been doing things like this. He’d somehow magically freeze a small patch, and then the next day it would have grown instead of melted. He’d also noticed that his hair had turned an icy blue-teal colour, different from its regular blond. Now the whole cabin was surrounded by snow and its dull brown paint was covered in ice, all because of him. That was it. He needed to talk to Gem.
That night, Scott walked down to the Hecate Cabin. Around his neck was a gold necklace with a red gem in the middle. A month ago, Scott, Gem, another camper called Katherine and a dryad named Shrub had managed to encase a lemure (a Roman, restless, evil spirit) in the crystal to stop it from terrorising the rest of camp. What only Scott and that small group knew was that the demon was his brother, Xornoth.
Scott found the daughter of Hecate reading outside her cabin, her long ginger hair in a neat plait. She was wearing a purple cardigan over her orange camp T-shirt, as well as a green skirt.
“Gem!” He called.
She looked up from her book. “Hi, Scott!”
“Hi! Uh…” Scott fidgeted nervously. “Remember when you came over and there were some patches of snow and ice around the outside of the cabin?”
“Yeah.” Gem nodded. “It was pretty cold.”
“It’s gotten worse.”
“Worse?”
“Yes. I need your help.”
Gem contemplated this for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“The ice spikes have gotten bigger, the roof has frozen over,” He took a breath, which seemed to do nothing to calm himself. “There’s snow everywhere there wasn’t snow before… It’s a lot. I don’t know how to control this magic. Can you help?”
Gem thought about this. “Yeah, but how about you show me? A demonstration?”
They walked down to the nearby river, a choice Scott wasn’t happy about.
“Gem, I don’t want to freeze it.”
“I’m sure it’ll be okay. It won’t cause any damage to freeze over a small part of the river. Go on, you can do it.”
Scott raised his hands over the clear river and let the cold magical energy pour through him and out of his hands. Suddenly, a thin, blue sheet of ice spread onto the river. Gem gasped.
“It doesn’t melt.” Scott said.
Gem steadied herself. “Scott, that looks like simple ice magic, nothing crazy powerful that can’t be controlled. It's gonna be fine.”
“It’s not. I promise you this is gonna be worse in the morning.”
“It’ll be fine.” Gem said, in a way that was not at all reassuring. “Come on, go to bed. We’ll check on it in the morning.”
A little frustrated by Gem’s insistence, Scott sighed. “Fine.”
-
The next morning, the two of them walked back down to the river.
“Come on, come on, look. It’ll be fine, I’m sure!” Gem repeated, sounding like she was partially trying to convince herself as well. “It’s just simple ice magic. It’s just…”
She stopped. The sheet of ice on the river had thickened, and had spread across more of the river, threatening to cover even more. Snow covered the edges of the ice, although it had seemingly come from nowhere.
“I told you.” Scott said. “This isn’t just simple ice magic, Gem.”
Gem was still staring at the ice in shock. “And this always happens?”
Scott nodded. “Every time.” He stared at the ice, and was surprised it hadn’t spread further. “This is tame.”
Eyes wide, Gem looked at the ice and then back at Scott. “This is tame? Oh Gods, maybe you do need my help.” She quickly regained her composure. “I mean, I’m not licensed, but I can try, and we can learn how to control it.”
“Okay. I know it’s not the type of magic you normally use. You’re the best person I could think of, though.”
Gem looked determined. “I’m not familiar, I’ll be honest, but we can work on it!” She smiled. “Maybe you could learn how to thaw stuff!”
Scott took a breath. “I’ve tried. It’s just never happened before. I tried clearing the snow up and all that and it only comes back worse.” His jaw tightened. “I don’t even intentionally try to freeze it and it happens, so I can’t intentionally try to unfreeze it!”
Gem tilted her head curiously. “Have you ever intentionally tried to freeze stuff?”
Scott shook his head. “What happened down at the river was the first time. I don’t want to hurt people.”
“But what if you could do it in a controlled environment, like the Hecate Cabin?”
“Are you sure that counts as a controlled environment?”
“It can! We can practice there.”
Worried, Scott sighed. “I’m just scared I’ll hurt more people, Gem.”
“You won’t hurt anybody! I won’t let you. You won’t, I promise.”
The Hecate Cabin was made up of four modules, each with its own entrance, and was made out of stones, which each had something engraved on them. Gem had said it was “magical writing”, but Scott couldn’t read it anyway.
Gem led Scott into what looked like a normal living room. Everyone was out having breakfast, so they were alone. She snapped her fingers. Suddenly, the sofas and every other piece of furniture folded away, leaving a big open space in the middle of the room.
“See?” Gem said, smiling. “A controlled environment.”
Oh, that’s what she meant.
“So, how are we going to do this?” Scott asked. “Are you going to get, like, a glass of water?”
Gem snapped her fingers again, and a small, shallow pool of water appeared in the middle of the room.
Despite his worry, Scott almost smiled. The Hecate Cabin was awesome.
“Now, see if you can freeze it intentionally.” Gem said.
“Well, I’ll be able to do that, it’s the unfreezing part, Gem.”
“We can practice that after. Come on, try it.”
Scott raised his hands over the pool and once again let the cold energy flow through him and out of his hands. When the water froze over, he struggled to stop it, and by the time he did, the pool was frozen solid.
“That’s… extra frozen.” Scott muttered.
“You did it!” Gem grinned. “You have ice powers! Now, can you thaw it?”
Scott concentrated, trying with all his might to take back the cold energy from the ice. Nothing happened.
“Focus.” Gem said.
“I’m focusing, Gem.” Scott said, through gritted teeth.
“Focus more!”
“Gem, I don’t know what you want from me!” He said, angrily. He lowered his hands. “I can’t do it.”
“Think about it.” Gem said. She didn’t seem to realise that not only was what she was saying was incredibly unhelpful, but it was only annoying Scott even more.
“I can’t!”
“Scott, try harder!”
“GEM, ENOUGH!” Scott snapped. Faster than he could control, a burst of cold energy shot out from his hands. Snow covered the cabin, and spikes of ice shot from the floor, some of them even poking out of the roof.
And in the corner was Gem, shivering. A streak of her ginger hair had turned white.
“Gem…” Scott began.
“Scott, it’s okay. It’s okay.” Gem said in an attempt to be reassuring.
“It’s not! Your hair!” He felt his breathing begin to speed up.
Slowly, Gem walked towards Scott, and he took a step back.
“Oh… I’m sure I can fix it.” She said, weakly.
It was then that Scott caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror in the corner of the room. His hair now had patches of frost in them. In fact, he seemed to have frost all over his body. His eyes had gone from a dark blue to a bright blue. But the most noticeable new feature was a pair of wings on his back, which seemed to be made of ice.
He wasn’t okay either.
“Gem, I told you I would hurt people! I always hurt people!” Scott yelled.
“No! It’s fine! I’m…” her voice trailed off as she looked at something above him.
Scott looked up and gasped. Above him was a glowing symbol.
A conch shell.
Gem deciphered it before he could. “Boreas…” she muttered.
Scott felt himself breathe even faster. “I need to go! I need to get far away!”
“Scott!-”
“Gem, I need to go!”
He practically bolted out the door and put his new wings to the test, flying over the rest of camp.
He ruined everything! Why did he think it would be okay to put Gem in danger? He needed to go where he couldn’t hurt anyone else.
He wasn’t fit to be a son of Boreas.
Of course, there was still one thing he needed to do before he left.
Careful that no one would notice, Scott landed outside the Hermes Cabin, freezing the path underneath him.
He took off his necklace. If it got damaged, it could set Xornoth free, and that would put everyone in even more danger. Scott decided that it would be best to hide it in the cabin. Before anyone knew he was there, he slipped the crystal under the wooden nightstand by his bed.
Finally, Scott took a moment to say goodbye. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever come back. Camp Half-Blood had been one of the best experiences of his life, but he wasn’t a worthy demigod. He wasn’t a worthy hero.
The last thing he left behind was a note. Scott took a while to decide what to write, but it came to him.
I’m sorry I failed you all.
- Scott
To the sky, he whispered, “And I’m sorry I failed you, Boreas.”
With that, he exited the cabin and flew into the cloudy sky, hoping he was never seen again.