Who: Helios and Poseidon narrative (open to Rhode and Eos) What: Helios' statue falls, Helios disappears. When: 226 BC, Greece Where: The Island of Rhodes Warning: None
Poseidon wouldn't allow his daughter paradise with a man he despised. A Titan. Perhaps this disgust with Titan's was deeply rooted with his father's lust for power, the same lust that had flowed in Poseidon's veins. Titan's were no longer the gods of rule, they were old, outdated. The Olympians ruled the roost now, eventually breaking the Titan power as they took over. Helios' cult may be prancing around with the Rhodians on this island he shared with Poseidon's daughter, but it was about to end. Tonight.
The Sun God was in the favor of others, but he had long since been out of Poseidon's. Helios' first offense was his quarrel over Corinth. The city was split and he was given the higher ground, angering Poseidon. Just as it had been with Athena, Poseidon had lost out on another city that he deemed his own. Helios' last offense was taking Rhode as his wife. It uprooted that deep anger inside of the Sea King causing him to find the right means to destroy what following Helios had left.
As Helios stepped out from his small palace, hoisted up the highest tier of the mountain, he slapped his harness around his chest, fitting his golden helmet over his head. His four horse chariot waited below the mountain, his vehicle to carry the sun across the sky. Eos waited for him. They rode together, they had since he could remember, when his father Hyperion gave him his titles.
He approached his horses who were wildly skittish. Then he felt it. Trembling under his gold sandals. The earth was shattering, cracking from beneath the surface. The Rhodians below screamed in terror as a sharp tremor rocked the ground, splitting the earth under their feet in wide gaping streams. Some were devoured by Poseidon's quake, others ran for safety to the highest point, calling out for their patron god to save them. There gleaming at the harbor stood his glorious statue, built by the very people who now ran for their safety. The waves churned in a sick way, calm and yet deadly as they thrashed against the statue's ground. It stood 107 feet tall, by far the most impressive statue to date. The cast bronze plates were not however sturdy once the statue cracked just at the ankle, leaving nothing to hold it up.
Helios watched with saddened eyes as the world he'd created with Rhode was starting to crumble. When the colossal statue broke, a few scattered pieces across the land, the rest crashed down into the wanton waves. His heart felt light, his spirit lifting with it, because down with that statue went the hope that his believers had for him. They cursed him now, casting their heavy words down into the ocean with him. It was then that Helios felt faint, not able to move on his own accord. He headed towards the ocean where it called for him, taking him down with his statue.
The sun would not rise that morning.
Rhode loved the night. She loved them because it meant she got to have Helios all to herself, and they could do whatever they pleased. That didn't mean she didn't enjoy watching as his chariot raced across the sky, but she preferred having him physically nearby.
She'd just finished him bidding him farewell when she felt the earth itself tremble under her feet. The ground literally split open as she watched. And she knew it wasn't for nothing that they called her father Earthshaker.
"By all the gods, I'll kill him myself!" she shouted, running down the mountain. She saw the cracks begin to spread up the statue, and she knew that her world would be forever altered. And when it finally fell into the sea, her last hope shattered, as she watched Helios vanish before her very eyes.
Anger, sorrow, rage, pain, and grief all warred for dominance in her mind, but she seized the rage and fanned its flames. She would make her father pay for this if it was the very last thing she did.